Remember Dennis Prager?

[fpb]

The guy who did not think any language except English had words for "earn" and "make money"?
Well, his latest article shows again that he is writing only for the most ignorant and provincial American conservatives - the kind of person whom a decent writer of any persuasion would want, not to flatter, but to educate. Just read the first couple of sentences: http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=34775. And then reflect that his thesis is that "socialism" destroys intellectual vitality. What a fine piece of evidence, eh? Thank God that I for one know enough American conservatives not to be wholly convinced that conservatism destroys intellectual vitality, curiosity, and any ability to think constructively.

Comments

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

A stunning article. From the opening sentence you know that this is going be another of those anti-european rants that the American Right seem to specialise in at the moment. Normally complaining bitterly that europe is rabidly anti-american.

So he can't name any great europeans at the moment? Could that, I wonder, be because of his insular, self-absorbed ignorance? Or is it really that europe no longer produces thinkers and artists of the calibre of those found in America.

From the outside looking in, it appears that Conservative thought in the US has been hi-jacked by negative forces, rather than having a set of policies of what they want to do. They are defined by attack-dogs like Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, rather than anyone who proposes positive policies. Or is it that so long as Coulter and the rest shout so loudly, the true Conservative thinkers are being drowned out?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

B, I think. But it is partly their own fault. Real human beings like Paul Greenberg and Suzanne Fields rarely take it upon themselves to censure even the most appalling statements by their conservative cohorts, probably because they feel so surrounded by a liberal media hegemony that they worry about breaking up the conservative minority further. Charles Johnson of Little Green Footbals, though I disagree with him on a number of things, is a shining example of moral courage and independence, never afraid to denounce his fellow conservatives when they are going off the rails, but he also risks becoming a bit too disruptive for its own sake - so where is the right spot?

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

They need to start shushing some people though. They're rapidly loosing support and it's largely because of people like this. Actually the conservatives in the Texas Senate just ousted a lot of the old guard on the realization that if they don't stop standing with people like Dennis Prager, they will become a dying party.

I think part of what you are seeing though, is that that news doesn't focus on that. Because conservatives offering reasoned debate and differing yet reasonable solutions and points of view are nowhere near as fun as putting on frothing at the mouth lunatics -_-

Granted you are pulling a lot of stuff offline, so maybe sane conservatives really are the minority right now *head desk*

[fpb.livejournal.com]

What I do know is that the diehard faction of the Texas GOP has made an international fool of themselves - and alas, of the entire state - by insisting on a creationist as chairman of the state education board, until he was forced out. What I think of this sort of thing I already said, but I think I should post at some length about what I think the Republicans should do to survive as a reasonable claimant for government.

[fellmama.livejournal.com]

Not to mention, even if sane conservatives try to say sane things in public, they're immediately shouted down by the crazies. I'm not a Republican, but I feel very sorry for Michael Steele--every time he tries to take a position on something, Limbaugh et al. force him to retract it. If I were in his shoes, I'd take to drink.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Actually, I did not like his wobbling on abortion. That is the issue where I am hard-line. But it shows that at present, nobody is very clear about what being conservative is about.

[fellmama.livejournal.com]

I'm on the other side of that debate, but I have as little patience for the wobbling as you do. Steele seems like a man trying to serve not two but two hundred masters. In fact, he reminds me rather (if I may lower the level of discourse) of the Simpsons' episode where Kang and Kodos run for president:
Kang: Abortions for all.
[crowd boos]
Very well, no abortions for anyone.
[crowd boos]
Hmm... Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others.
[crowd cheers]

But then, that's pretty much any American politician . . .

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

Most of what I see of american Conservatives comes from Fox news, who also seem to promote the crazies. While that may appeal to their core audience, it may also be counter productive in attracting the floating voter to the Republican party....

So even the Conservatives' own media are promoting the wilder side of their politics.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

As I keep saying - Fox are Murdoch, and Murdoch is The Sun, and The Sun is poison. The man is a born and bred vulgarian who corrupts everything he touches. I wonder that anyone is surprised at the vulgarization of conservative politics in his TV; don't they know that it broadcasts more near-porn and violence porn than any other US broadcaster? And that, mind you, is a field of intense competition.

[dustthouart.livejournal.com]

賺錢 - earn
營生 - make a living
白痴 - idiot!

There have been a few answers along those lines already...

[fpb.livejournal.com]

http://fpb.livejournal.com/386851.html
http://community.livejournal.com/linguaphiles/4457003.html

[rfachir.livejournal.com]

Maybe he's his own Sockpuppet, like Miss Scribe's Crazy Christian Racist Homophobe Army? He might just write this to generate his own conspiracy, which will in turn galvenize the Liberals to action! March on, Comrades! Fight the Right!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I thought that was Rush Limbaugh - as was shown when the current President used him as a boogaboo.

[fishlivejournal.livejournal.com]

His willingness to accept the importance of previous generations of important Europeans indicates that it isn't just provincialism though. It's generally easier to recognise the greats of previous generations, as the 'flashes in the pan' have been forgotten; I think he's just mistaking that extra clarity for 'the terrible state of the world today'. So no worse than anyone else who insists that this era is the worst there has ever been.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I think you underrate his Philistinism. The point is that great Europeans were people he was introduced to in school as a child. He is being a conservative of the worst kind - good is what I knew as a boy, bad is what is happening now. He does not bother to learn about world-changing inventors such as Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the WorldWideWeb), great businessmen such as Sergio Marchionne (the head of Fiat who is currently buying up all the bankrupt bits of American car makers and building an empire of his own), prominent political figures such as Bernard Kouchner (founder of Doctors Without Frontiers and current Foreign Minister of France), or the trio who resurrected classical music as a popular creative medium - Englishman John Taverner, Pole Henryk Gorecki, and Estonian Arvo Paert. These are all people outside of his enclosed frame of reference, people of great, often world-changing importance, contemporaries, great Europeans - whom I have picked almost at random, and whom any self-respecting newspaper reader would have read of. What Prager is really saying to his readers is: I know that your intellectual growth stopped somewhere near your fourteenth year, and I sympathize, because so did mine, and I am proud of it.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Stanislaw Lem springs to my mind, as does Richard Dawkins (whatever one thinks of his comments on religion, his biology exposition is first rate). Some people might think a couple of Popes were of some significance, unless that's "politics". John Maynard Smith. I don't watch many European movies, but Red/Blue/White, Run Lola Run, and Trainspotting all got some acclaim. The majority of my music is Celtic or English -- oh, I guess that's "popular entertainment", maybe Lem is as well. Except he calls out literature and music. Gunter Grass? Durrenmatt? Konrad Lorenz, Freeman Dyson (though he moved to the US). Andy Clark (cognitive science).

The son of Phyllis Schafly thinks humor didn't exist before Christianity. This might be 'interesting' as well.

Have you followed the Republican calls to relabel the Democrats as the "Democratic Socialist Party"?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

That would not be so bad, except that they mean it as an insulting/threatening name.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

As for Andrew Schalfly, God made him so that opponents could have a few laughs: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/33644_Logical_Fallacy_of_the_Day-_No_True_Scotsman