While some “individual” (is that better?) was accusing me of baiting earlier today, some real baiting has been going on in the name of the so-called “War on Christmas.” Seems that Townhall.com has its own Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. Read on below the fold:
The Heritage Foundation’s New Judenrat, by Cernig includes the following clip from Burt Prelutsky:
… the dirty little secret in America is that anti-Semitism is no longer a problem in society; it’s been replaced by a rampant anti-Christianity. For example, the hatred spewed towards George W. Bush has far less to do with his policies than it does with his religion.
…It is the ACLU, which is overwhelmingly Jewish in terms of membership and funding, that is leading the attack against Christianity in America. It is they who have conned far too many people into believing that the phrase “separation of church and state” actually exists somewhere in the Constitution.
You may have noticed, though, that the ACLU is highly selective when it comes to religious intolerance. The same group of self-righteous shysters who, at the drop of a “Merry Christmas” will slap you with an injunction, will fight for the right of an American Indian to ingest peyote and a devout Islamic woman to be veiled on her driver’s license.
I happen to despise bullies and bigots. I hate them when they represent the majority, but no less when, like Jews in America, they represent an infinitesimal minority.
I am getting the idea that too many Jews won’t be happy until they pull off their own version of the Spanish Inquisition, forcing Christians to either deny their faith and convert to agnosticism or suffer the consequences.
I would definitely suggest checking out the rest of Cernig’s blog entry, and explore some of the links he provides. I’m among those who’ve argued for a while that fascism is no longer “creeping.” It’s driving a Hummer at 100 mph straight at whatever’s left of the Constitution.
Go ahead and rip folks like me a new one for being to “controversial” or go and educate yourselves about a phenomenon that promises to be a gargantuan challenge to all of us who frequent the frogpond. Choice is yours. Just sayin’.
Idiot Wingnuts are biting the hand that feeds them.
AIPAC is the 4th most powerful lobbying organization in the US.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050704fa_fact
The blatant bigotry and paranoia of wingnuts prevents us from having a much needed long overdue debate in this country.
At what point do America’s and Israel’s aims diverge?
Is it appropriate that a group lobbying for Israel’s sustained primacy in the ME (economic and military) has such undue influence over US politicians on both sides of the aisle?
More for those who are interested:
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/November_2005/0511019.html
I think there are two separate issues here:
America’s Israel policy is one thing (and yes, there is the very big problem that any critique of the Israel policy is easily couched as being “anti-Semitic”)
But there is also the very real issue that we are now de facto living in a fascist state. The evidence of that is everywhere, not least of all in the behaviors of the general populace (across the board, i.e. in all communities, not just the wingnuts).
My theory is that, on some level, everyone knows this. No one knows what to do about it.
One of the most “banal” expressions of the problem is evident in the “cover your own ass syndrome”: for fear of reprisal, no one is willing to stick his/her neck out for anyone else, not even on small issues. “Don’t inconvenience me, man”–“don’t put me at risk–if I associate with you, ‘they’ might think I’m like you and then I, too, will be at risk ….”
The American people are acting just like the Germans did under the Nazi regime. Duck and cover. Every man for himself.
Fascist thought, fascist language and fascist behaviors, as I have said repeatedly in this forum, cannot be “contained” at the top (alternately, amongst the “true believers”, i.e. the wingnuts).
They “trickle down” and all around, insidiously infecting the populace (as reflected in language, thought, and everyday behaviors). James is merely pointing to very overt evidence of fascism here (and the text above could have been taken directly from original archival documents written by Nazi propagandists: verbatim.)
But the less overt indicators are there, too. Everywhere. It is truly, truly …truly what? Depressing? Devastating? Disastrous? Disheartening?
I don’t know what. Bad. And worse, I don’t know either what to do about it–except try to make people “face the facts”. But we also do know that the self-preservation instinct of the average citizen does tend to take recourse to denial….move along, nothing to see here folks.
We’re far deeper in shit than most people realize or are willing to admit.
I’ve also recommended periodically David Neiwert’s blog Orcinus as a very useful resource for tracking not only the overt, but also more subtle forms of fascism that exist in the US. I consider his essay The Rise of Pseudo Fascism to be a must-read, and would invite my fellow frogponders to, well, read and ponder its message.
I went out and looked at the blog and skimmed over the essay on Pseudo-Fascism. Coupla thoughts
First, it cannot be repeated enough that there are varying degrees of fascism. There is the overt fascism of say Hitler/Stürmer/Schwarze Korps/Rosenberg, but then there is the not so overt stuff in the guise of pseudoscholarship mostly (can’t think of a good example off the top of my head), and yet another degree in which “ordinary” citizens speak and subconsciously, completely inadvertently repeat the same lines of thought and linguistic structures that have been serreptitiously “planted” in their minds and in their language–it is no secret that it is this latter “degree” of fascism which concerns me most, precisely because it is “hidden” and therefore able to spread unchecked and undetected. The reason I claim that we are now in full-blown fascist mode is that I am seeing an alarming increase in precisely this last “degree” of fascism–and I’m seeing it ON THE LEFT, not on the right.
I consider the overt bigotry of the right less dangerous because it is so obvious and intentional. It’s the subtle, inadvertent expressions of fascist thought, language and behavior that scares me.
I also think it’s a mistake to overlook the way “economic terror” functions in this fascist society to achieve many of the same ends that were achieved through the threat of physical terror in the Euro-fascist movements. Physical terror was the “club” that prevented revolt and dissent in the Euro-fascist movements; in the Anglo-American fascist world, “fiscal terror” is the club.
I livein an area with a high rate of homelessness. I am constantly struck by the parallels between their struggle for existence and the struggles for existence within the concentration camps. It is eerily similar.
The threat of losing your job in a society that has no “social safety net” is a powerful tool for guaranteeing “conformity,” for squelching dissent and for isolating those who do dare to dissent. It seems no matter what your income level, unless you have a huge store of capital/assets, ANYONE is always at risk of losing everything they have and ending up homeless, i.e. forced to live under conditions very similar to those in the concentration camps.
The scenes we saw coming out of NOLA after the FEMA disaster–well, they were as close to “concentration camp” conditions as any I’ve seen anywhere in the “western” world since the end of WWII.
Everyone knows: if you don’t watch your step, if you aren’t careful what you say, you COULD lose your job, lose your house, lose your car, lose everything, and, if that were to happen, you’d be in the same boat as the poor people in NOLA. If disaster were to strike, you’d be on your own.
Seems to me a very powerful way of using “fiscal terror” to keep people from resisting…..
Like stark, I consider this a separate issue, although one that does need to be addressed openly and honestly.
There is a very real segment of Israeli-Diaspora politics that thinks the growth of anti-semitism in the U.S. is just fine, to the point of supporting domestic U.S. anti-semites in exchange for their support for Israel.
At best it is short sighted utilitarianism, at worst (and I think the more likely reason) is because anti-Semitism in the U.S. might increase the numbers of AMerican Jews making alliyah to Israel. This is the fantasy “nuke” of Israelis in their population war with the non-Jewish populations under Israeli governance. The goal I think, being a repeat of the massive russian immigration which bought another decade or so of a Jewish majority.