Provincial idiocy

[fpb]

MEMO: To all American conservatives.

If you want to get anywhere with anyone, you have to get the hell out of your own ignorance comfort zone. To wit, you have to stop talking as though everything that can be called socialism must, by that alone, be the same thing as the perversions of Lenin and Mao. Every European democracy has experienced decades of Socialist (Social Democrat or Labour, if you prefer) rule, and while I have nothing but contempt for such people as Zapatero of Spain or the Norwegian Labour Party, only the most moronic of ignorami could possibly equate them with the murderous rabble that tore Russia apart long ago and feasted upon Cambodia's blood. That sort of talk, which is universal in American conservative circles, makes it simpy impossible for Americans to understand Europe; even those among us who voted for Berlusconi, Merkel, Sarkozy or Aznar would laugh in the face of any American who insisted - as you people happily insist to each other, taking irresponsible pleasure in reinforcing each other's ignorance and prejudice - that even Zapatero is anything comparable to a tyrant. Worse still if, God help you, you take the suggestions I have seriously seen them waved about the blogosphere, that tyrants such as Salazar or Pinochet are better than democratically elected socialists - even if incompetent. If you insist on this sort of talk, I can promise you that you will remain nothing but bogeymen and hate figures to all Europeans, including conservatives, and most if not all citizens of democratic countries from India to Japan and from Argentina to Canada. America is the only democracy in the world in which it is assumed that a socialist cannot be a democrat. This is an instance, not of democracy, but of provinciality and groupthink. And I do not have to have any sympathy for socialists to say so: all I need is a little common sense.

Comments

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

My main exposure to American Conservatives is through Fox News. (The recent addition of Glenn Beck to their lineup makes it less and less credible for then to claim to be 'fair and balanced', although they don't seem to use that term so much anymore.)

The logic I seem to see from Hannity and Beck is something along these lines, Obama wants socialised medicine(any measure they don't like can be substituted here). Socialists or communists want socialised medicine. Some socialists and communists have oppressed their people and removed freedoms therefore Obama will oppress his people and remove freedoms.

Whether this is a real or a willful misunderstanding of Obama's policies and the meaning of socialism is open to question. I believe that both Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity understand fully the point you are making but choose to ignore it for propaganda purposes.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I don't know about Beck, but Hannity is a fool in several ways and has actually insulted and bullied a priest who disagreed with him, to the great disgust of considerable numbers of conservatives and Catholics. You have to remember that Fox is a Murdoch operation, and that means that it is tainted at the source. The man spotted a market gap for conservative-oriented news and programming, but being the hopeless vulgarian that he is, he could only see fit to fill it by the grossest material possible. His conservatism is as crass as everything else in his world, and it is no coincidence that this same broadcaster has become notorious for some of the most pornographic programs imaginable and for appalling fare such as FAMILY GUY.