My wife noticed this wingnuttery on the public bulletin board at Spearfish City Hall yesterday:
The plain 8x11.5 photocopy shows a map of the Soviet Union (which, I remind you, we are no longer at Cold War with, because it no longer exists, replaced by the Russian Mafia and anarcho-capitalists) dotted with prison camps. This hyperventilative text follows (all in caps in the original, because caps make it more true):
From 1917 through our current times, the Soviets have operated these "re-education" & forced labor camps. It is estimated that each of these sites have between a few hundred to a few thousand "patients"!
Most do not survive, but occasionally, some escape and get to America. Many testimonies have been made before Congressional committees until the late 1970s when these committees were abolished.
How can millions be enslaved by the few? "Socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialist state"—a quote from V.I. Lenin [wingnut poster, Spearfish City Hall, 2013.03.25]
If I'm generous, I conclude the person who tacked up this poster simply has difficulty with the present perfect tense. But my commitment to truth limits my generosity.
- The odious House Un-American Activities Committee was abolished in 1975, and good riddance. What other committees were abolished to stifle Soviet refugee stories remains a mystery.
- Socialized medicine exists in numerous countries (Canada, Great Britain, France...) with no connection to re-education or forced labor camps. (Those socialized-medicine countries also manage to maintain AAA bond ratings.)
- The socialized medicine quote appears to be a sham. I can't find concrete attribution of that statement to Lenin anywhere.
Your question for morning coffee: where are the left-wing posters that are anywhere near as nutty and deliberately deceptive as the right-wing hysteria that seems to surround us here in South Dakota?
"where are the left-wing posters that are anywhere near as nutty and deliberately deceptive as the right-wing hysteria that seems to surround us here in South Dakota?"
Cory, you are that left-wing poster.
No, no, no. Someone other than Steve needs to answer this question. I'm not talking about those of us who bother to refute right-wing nuttiness. I'm asking for examples of lefties who make entirely new claims. Where is the active, original left-wing delusion and deception? (My contention here, of course, is that we liberals just don't do that kind of thing.)
At least you could have done Steve, when you were in Spearfish, is stop and say hi to Cory
no Cory, there isn't. Not even close. No tin foil hats needed in the lefty crowd.
btw Owen.....that was classic.
They don't exist in any real sense in the Democratic Party Cory. While it's a popular narrative that "both sides do it" and "there are crazies on both sides", it is a lie. Both sides don't do it, at least don't do it with anywhere near equal intensity and while the official Democratic Party ignores the rare occasional crazy in our midst the Republican Party breeds them, cultivates them, nurtures them, encourages them and elects some to high office.
Despite what Bobby Jindal said, they do not want to relinquish their claim to being the party of stupid. And for the stupid. Or stop trying to resurrect the Soviet Union, which disintegrated 25 years ago.
Maybe those were missile sites...
Maybe on a related/unrelated note.....the latest Obama Derangement Syndrome scam postings that have been hitting my F/B page, are the alleged FEMA camps that Obama wants to open. More than likely related to the mysterious Spearfish poster put'er upper...
http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/pages/obama/fema-camps-obama-private-army.htm
yikes.....yikes, and more yikes.....
This dealio has Sam Kephart smeared all over it: he's just another Spearditch Hamster hiding from the drones.
http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/rideanddest/0802_crup_hamsters_motorcycle_club/viewall.html
First I agree with Nick. Well thought out points. Secondly, I see no need to refute Steve's "research" because good research must come from a reputable source. In other news I had no idea the communists created "tin foil hats". I thought it was our unmedicated friends worried about Soviet brain listening devices that fashioned the first of these fool proof devices.
Anyway, I agree that I don't see the liberal version of this poster or Steve's rhetoric anywhere.
Christopher Dorner doesn't count?
Healthy distrust of government is welcome. Blind paranoia (or blind trust for that matter) is unhealthy, and shouldn't be fed.
Speaking of crazies: "Vice" Cheney just thirty miles away from Spearditch at a CrookCo Wyo. event:
http://sundancetimes.com/lincoln-day-dinner-draws-big-names/
I don't think I would describe Cheney as crazy, malevolent maybe but not crazy
It is coming soon, but never mind. April Fool's day is everyday for conservative wingnuts. But, to add to the problem, most of them are like the groundhog's day movie, they keep reliving the 1923 versions.
Cory says, "... the Soviet Union (which, I remind you, we are no longer at Cold War with, because it no longer exists, replaced by the Russian Mafia and anarcho-capitalists) ..."
I say, "Meet the new boss, just like the old boss. The old Communists were in fact nothing more than capitalist gangsters. They were no more Communist-like than most Christians are Christ-like."
Cory Says, "Where is the active, original left-wing delusion and deception? (My contention here, of course, is that we liberals just don't do that kind of thing.)"
I say, "Telling students to stomp on papers with 'Jesus' written on them, and then deluding and deceiving oneself into believing that such a request looks anything other than stupid and offensive to the vast majority of American citizens."
All that said, trying to make a connection between socialized medicine and the Soviet Gulag stretches my imagination well beyond the limit of reason.
But ain't that what blogs are for?
It's really funny how people forget recent history, and don't pay attention to current events. They tend to fall back into stale, unhistorical ideology, and miss what the people who are feeding them misinformation are up to.
It's easy to understand why the Republican Party is interested in fomenting the crazy wing (Sibby) with misinformation. If they are looking overseas for totalitarianism and making faulty connections, then they won't be looking at the real problem.
The current Russian government is autocratic, but still maintains elections. Like the Republican Party in the US, the dominant Russian party seeks to steal elections through election fraud. Putin and GW Bush have at least that much in common.
Republican leadership in Michigan, as one example, has gone much farther than Putin in negating local authority. If these righties really want to attack creeping totalitarianism, they might want to head to Michigan, where the Republican Legislature and Governor overturned a public vote and is instituting a form of marshal law in communities where they are strongly opposed. Putinism is alive in the Republican Party.
The current Russian government doesn't not own the means of production in nearly all industrial sectors. There are a few sectors, such as energy and heavy industrial sectors, where government still has a major role. Thus, the current Russian economy is not patterned on the Soviet model.
Regarding health care, there has been a huge change in the health care system since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Under the Soviet system, health care was provided to all free of charge. After the collapse of the Soviet system, the health care system was turned into a privatized mess, and all health indicators turned vastly negative. There was a huge and immediate decrease in the average lifespan, and massive increases in deaths from HIV/AIDS and infant mortality. During the 2000s the Russian government gradually re-inserted itself into the health care area, creating a blended public-private system. Health indicators have improved, but have not yet attained the level reached under the Soviet health care model.
Tangentially related to whether the left and the right have an equal number of people who see the sky as a color other than blue:
"In my experience, politicized people on the right and left don't behave in precisely equivalent ways. On the right, they're more often like Andrew Breitbart: His professional identity was as politicized as imaginable, he had no problem when innocents were hurt as collateral damage in his ideological crusading, yet he was unfailingly kind in his personal life to his many liberal friends. Whereas on the left, Olbermann types are comparatively rare, but it's more common for individuals to behave as if the political is personal. Did you know April is Don't Have Sex With Republicans Month? Or take this post, in which a writer abandons a childhood hero upon discovering that, in addition to being a renowned neurosurgeon, he is an outspoken conservative."
From this post: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/03/why-everything-is-politicized-even-though-most-americans-hate-it/274359/
Thanks Kal. While I don't agree with Corey on perhaps a majority of issues, I will share a beer, time and conversation as friend. I hesitate to say the same for the likes for Gormley, Pay and Wiken who all can post in very intelligent manners but have proven in this post, the maturity of a 6th grader struggling for puberty can haunt us for life.
Heck Lar, more than once getting in or out of Pierre Regional has been an issue with VP Cheney and Airforce #2 in the way with a pheasant hunt. Or was that a peasant hunt? Don't remember any shots to the face in SD, but I could be wrong.
Les, actually there is a possibility that Cheney was looking for somebody to shoot in the face.
I could have given him a few ideas Joan, ya know with his immunity an all. Although, Im not sure Cheney is just looking to hurt someone. That happens if you get in his way, kind of the amoral, the end justifies the means.
You know, Les, Cheney and the GOP love a good peasant hunt....
Easy on that GOP Corey, I is one. Peasant that is.
.
There are Wy stories that will shiver ur timbers on Cheney and his pals. Lar prob has a few up his sleeve. I'm not brave enough to put in print those I know of.
Jeez, I thought that was at least 7th grade humor.
So, if les is not more wants serious, he should check on the reaction of Republicans given conclusive evidence that Bush Senior used falsehoods and information known to be faulty to justify war with Iraq. Conservative Republicans INCREASED their support for Bush. That suggests conservatives have a real problem with reality. It may also explain why they keep coming back with Voodoo and Zombi economic mythology already shown several times not to work as they predicted.
Conservatives seem to think that if they tell the same story over and over again, that they are right and more of the naive will accept their mythology. This is the case even after they have been given conclusive information that contradicts their mythology.
It is the kind of irrational behavior that makes some of us on the left believe that just perhaps some of the them are getting paid to keep regurgitating stuff they must know is absolutely false or irrelevant.
It seems to me GW would have had the most convoluted stories getting us into Iraq. Kuwait was under attack with GH, though most likely another CIA action. GH told junior not to take out Saddam. Im no fan of either Doug.
.
Voodoo? Brooksley Born was slaughtered under Clintons admin trying to warn of the derivs being played into the markets. Greenspan and Rubin literally neutered the CFTC and Ms Born. We now sit with Geithner and a series of Goldman players holding 1.2 quadrillion in derivs and they(both parties) are being played to throwing that on the taxpayers shoulders. Gramm/Leach authored and signed by your party guaranteed the right of survival of those damnable devices.
.
Now you tell me who is regurgitating stuff they must know is absolutely false or irrelevant.
Quit calling people stupid insane drugged up tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists and you'll be more than welcome here Sib.
"I don't have to do those things because Cory and the rest of you are doing it. I, and my fellow pro-American conservatives, are the ones that are being called insane. Sad that you liberals can dish it out, but you can't take it. Obviously you all want a place where you can reinforce myths that fuel your hate mongering. Welcome to the totalitarian state that America has become."
Ah wait a minute Steve. I happened to disagree with you and you call me a bigot. Who's the one that ca't take it?
And I think you mean your a "Pro-American for a few conservative."
Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them --- Thomas Jefferson
Les, should have been Bush Junior stories justifying Iraq invasion. Sorry about that. One Bush should have been enough.
"Now you tell me who is regurgitating stuff they must know is absolutely false or irrelevant." Not sure who is supporting those policies. One of Tim Johnson's big mistakes was voting for repeal of Glass-Steagall. Liberals haven't been supporting that.
The bailouts following Bush Junior's catastrophic mistakes haven't been crystal pure, but seem to be working in returning economy to something above disaster status. I don't think many liberals look at the economic mess and medicine with rose-colored glasses.
Also, the recovery might be moving along better had not Republicans obstructed everything in trying to keep Obama from getting a second term by promoting tax breaks for the rich as a solution to everything.
So Steve, the far-right is the only ones that are right?
Nobody is taking away rights and its the right thats calling names-like the birthers and the raciest signs at Tea Party rallies. Timmothy McVey. I could go on.
Your ideas are without facts.
And you and the RINOS are the same party. South Dakotans have to start to realize what the Republican party has become
Sibby: any idea to which camp you have been assigned?
No Sibby. It isn't because you are a Republican that your ideas are automatically without facts. It is because you quote discredited sources and ideas that are without any factual basis. You do know that these hucksters/carnival barkers are getting super-rich, taking money from people such as yourself - who don't want to ever question where in the heck they are getting their.....uh hem... ideas.
Steve,
When you describe yourself as "Pro-American" you are implying that everyone who disagrees with you is anti-American. I am certain that Cory and everyone who comments on this blog wants the nation to survive and thrive, but according to you we are all against America or against "real" Americans.
There are several ways to react to charges like anti-Americanism. One is anger, but living angry costs too much in blood pressure medication. The other is to point out the abusrdity of the the charge. That's what most of us do.
(A quick reminder that I used to sign on as LK but changed the screen name because Cory asked.)
There's different levels to both parties Steve. The difference is the liberal democrats work with the more conservative Democrats. We might not agree with each other but we're all Democrats. The far right Republicans call the moderate Republicans RHINOS and claim that they are democrats.
Then whine that the democrats call them names
Mr. Sibby recognizes there are those who control us through mongering and mob rule. That does not by its own self show his insaneness. I think it shows he is an observant young man who cares about the society around him.
Are you saying you get upset when Sib calls your Rhino buddies out and thus call him names Owen?
Kal, would you not agree that pro American shows more of an agenda by action and doesn't necessarily imply the other side anti American as much as possibly a complacent American.
.
I don't worry nearly as much about the US being taken over with the help of my liberal blog friends as I do with the inaction and inadequate knowledge of the masses. You Kal will have full knowledge long before the masses should the internal clock speed up on Sibs predictions if true than the masses who only care about personal comfort.
"Are you saying you get upset when Sib calls your Rhino buddies out and thus call him names Owen?"
Upset? Maybe a little Les. I think they should be able to disagree with each other, even strongly, without resorting to name calling. The convervative and liberal parts of the Democratic Party argue a lot. I have my differences with Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin and even Tim Johnson. I don't believe name calling was ever involved. If I did that then it was wrong.
But I think its Steve who tends to call names, even with RHINOs. And as I said before that's the difference between republicans and democrats.
Les,
I'll try to be a politician and dance around your question a bit.
I agree that apathy/complacency is a huge problem. I also agree that some people might use the term "pro-American" to indicate proactive citizens as opposed to those who are apathetic.
In the case at hand, however, the term is often linked with an attack on RINOs or liberals. In those cases, I wonder what the intent. I also am old enough to remember a lot of issues that had people screaming "America, love it or leave it." That history makes me edgy when I hear the term.
I constantly work and fail to remember that most things that give offense are done out of ignorance not malice, so I probably should be a bit more charitable.
Let's see--I've done an "on the one hand but on the other hand" argument and used a cliche. I've done a full political answer.
Time will tell on who is crazy, bigoted, drug induced or right or wrong Owen. There is plenty I don't agree with in both parties but few can see anything wrong within their own party, just the other party. I give Sib credit for not accepting status quo from either party just to ride the popular band wagon.
.
I repeat, "I feel like I've slept with the slut to redeem myself from the night with whore." Thus went the unforgettable elections of 2012.
I'll throw some money at ur campaign Kal, politician you are.
.
I'm a centrist, but, there are a few issues I will fight with all my resources so I'm sure Sib may support me one day and call me a Rino the next. I really don't care, though in all honesty it may keep me on track on those few issues I'm hard right on.
.
Pro-life. Not pro capital punishment. Can you and I ever walk hand in hand on these important issues without being a winger or a Rino Kal? Sib isn't the only problem amongst us.
Mr. Les is right. As one who is not biggoted or drug addled I also can see where Mr. Sibby is coming from. I may not agree with some of his analyzing but he does analyze and share it with us and for that you must thank him. You may just be insaner than he or I and you don't know it yet.
(Hey, everyone, I've put Sibby on time-out. Let's be cool, and let's be real.)
Grudz, you sound like a liberal relativist who sees validity in every worldview. I am not that liberal, and I am no relativist. Some worldviews are plain crap. Some worldviews do active harm to public discourse and produce no practical good. Posters like the one my wife found at City Hall peddle lies and fantasy and stem from a worldview that warrants exposure, rebuttal, and ridicule, not thanks.