Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Mailbag

    
 Readers often write in with questions and I do my best to answer them. This is from Ed Perchess:

     Neil, how is it ok for you the Left to say and do all you can against the so called Right but when the Right goes after the Left it is Wrong? It’s called Hypocrisy, which Liberal Regressive Socialists are full of, besides themselves!! Shame on you, ask for a refund from wherever you were brainwashed at. You are nothing but court jesters to entertain your elite.

     I did my best to answer honestly:

     Gosh Ed, none of this is complicated. Let me explain again: Donald Trump is a fascist, doing all he can to pull down America's democratic ideals. He opposes free elections, obviously. He opposes free media. He opposes freedom of religion, in forcing arcane sexual mores on women. Which makes you, forgive me for pointing it out, the dupe of a fascist, either consciously or unconsciously undermining American values in your own small way. Patriotic Democrats can do all we can to oppose you because we love America, in its pure, small "d" democratic form. You do all you can to prop up your sad and ridiculous demagogue because those taken in by shams eventually become invested in the fraud they have fallen for and can't face the truth.
     I hope that clears things up for you.

    Neil

13 comments:

  1. 🤣Thank you for speaking for us. After the rudy revs came out yesterday/ 2 million per pardon, plus the sex stuff...? Truly no bottom for them.

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  2. is it really that simple Neil ? here are some other views similar to yours:
    https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21521958/what-is-fascism-signs-donald-trump

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    1. It doesn’t matter what label is applied to this mentally unhealthy, bigoted person. The guy simply does bad things for everyone (including his myopic base) and bad things to the planet. Neil should ask Ed to send him a list of all the good things Trump has done for people and things. Ed won’t because Ed can’t.

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    2. I would disagree that "It doesn't matter what label is applied...".

      Words are important, and George Orwell, I believe, stated that one of the reasons we have so many different words is that we need to express the subtlety and nuance of life, like that old aphorism that "eskimos" have 12 words for snow. Similarly, we need to describe Drumpf and his cronies accurately, so as not to debase the meaning of a particular word, or obscure the actual hatred they hold and the damage they wish to do to America. Otherwise, why not simply descend to a blind obescance of Godwin's Law whenever we need to describe a horrible person or political stance?

      And Franco, your link to that article is welcome, and does a good job of looking at the various facets of what Trump and "Trumpism" is (though attributing facets to a one-dimensional buffoon like Durwood Drumpf perhaps stretches the imagination a bit).

      Even Ed's OP has a grain of truth in it. There's plenty of orthodoxy on the so-called "left" side that rears its ugly head quite often, from the hippies who divided the world up into "righteous" and "non-righteous" camps, to the current trend amongst the cognoscenti and academians to consider some streams of thought "off limits", as if we've plumbed certain knowledge to it's ultimate depth and shall not say any more lest we "offend" somebody.

      Lest you all think this is some sort of "falsely equivalent" post, I assure you I see a significant difference between the righteous (if sometimes strident) rhetoric on the progressive side, which I believe seeks to transcend the current to improve the future; and the nostalgic bloviation of the "regressive", "conservative" elements of our culture. Only one "side", if you will, seeks to understand the world as it will be. The other wishes to remain mired to old ways for no reason other than they're scared of the new ones, or profiting handsomely by keeping the status quo.

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    3. Franco, I assume your saying "here are some other views similar to yours" is a typo, since the views are contrary to Neil's. The first thing I'd note is that the article you posted is dated October 23, 2020. Uh, a lot of stuff has happened since then. I doubt that any of the "experts" referenced would have believed that in *May of 2023* the Biggest Loser would have never conceded the election, nor that he'd still be claiming that he won. Nor do I believe that their opinions would not have been affected by what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. Though it seems we're headed there, I don't want to see anything closer to a fascist action than what took place that day, which was prompted by, and is still appreciated by Trump. The experts had not yet witnessed the fruit borne by his telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by." If Pence or Nancy Pelosi had actually been hung that day, perhaps you'd have a different opinion, yourself.

      The one guy quoted in the article you referred to says "Hitler’s place in history is not based on his remarks, nor for any temporary detention cages." I'd point out that it's also not based on what he did in 1932 or 33. Just because Trump hasn't been able to establish his autocracy (yet) doesn't mean he wouldn't like to.

      I'm gonna back Neil on this one. I see no big problem with labeling Trump a fascist. What seems to make it somewhat less clear than it might be is that, despite what a pompous blowhard and seasoned carnival barker he is, he's a lazy, incompetent, not very creative, all hat / no cattle fascist. He wants to become an autocrat yet still somehow maintain plausible deniability while rallying his troops, like the kind of mob boss he resembles. So far, it hasn't quite worked. But he's gotten a lot further than he would have in a country with better-informed, less gullible, less celebrity-obsessed citizens.

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  3. Perfect response to a clueless guy who worships a demented lunatic would be dictator!

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  4. I'm confused about the refund. Are you entitled to a refund from a brainwashing facilty if you were in fact brainwashed? More importantly, is brainwashing reversible?

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  5. Kudos for that perfect response...I'm just old enough to remember when "Tailgunner Joe" McCarthy (who spent WWII in the 82nd Chairborne) accused people like my parents and grandparents (all FDR-Truman-Stevenson Democrats) of being "brainwashed pinkos" and "Communist dupes." Way to throw it right back in their fascist faces, Mr. S.

    No Democratic apologies are necessary when calling out these autocrats, or for calling it like you see it. Those who have chosen to stand against freedom and democracy are what they are...fascists...and fascist dupes...and that's all that they are. I'll say it loud...I'm pinko and proud. Third generation, too.

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    1. From reading one of your previous comments from way back I thought maybe we were the same age. But maybe not. I was only 3 when McCarthy started accusing everyone of being communists. I was 7 during the Army hearings. Of course what 7 year old was interested in that kind of thing Needless to say I know about that period.

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    2. We're the same age. It's hard to get my head around turning 76 in August, but it's a fact. McCarthy started his crusade in 1950, when we were both three.The hearings were in May of 1954. Don't remember them, but I clearly recall the day (11/4/52) that my mother took me into a dingy basement polling place, where she pulled the lever, literally, for Adlai Stevenson. She was bummed when Ike won.

      My parents were left-of-center Democrats...my grandparents were a lot pinker...Socialists...and my father's mother fled Russia at 15 because she was a Bolshevik with a price on her head. The Bernadine Dohrn of 1905.

      I listened to kiddie records from the Children's Record Guild, which was on the Attorney General's subversive list. A song about "The Zoo Train" was sung by an obscure blacklisted folkie. Years later, I heard him again. Pete Seeger.

      When I was four or five, my mother told me not to answer any knocks on our apartment door, because I might open it to "a man with a gun." Did she mean right-wing Jew-hating thugs? FBI agents? I never asked, and she never told. The answer is now forever lost. My guess is Door #2.

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  6. Thank you for responding in such a calm and clear fashion. It is truly sad after all these years and everything that has come about we are still explaining why he is evil. This is something we will never be done with. Very sad future if he is allowed to continue.

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  7. Makes you wonder that this guy thinks of women if he likes a guy who attacks them. Good for you for keeping your cool. I'd have called him a dumb ass.

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