Your browser may have trouble rendering this page. See supported browsers for more information.

|<<>>|300 of 714 Show listMobile Mode

The Dreaded Left Wing

Published by marco on

Power politics has always been about fear. Prop up a boogeyman, get people good and scared and riled up about it, accuse your opponents of being the boogeyman, get the media on your side, then watch the fireworks.

And never—ever—let up.

Note that the last clause in the last sentence in the first paragraph was not “then sit back and watch the fireworks”, as one more colloquially hears. Sitting back is for those who no longer want to be in power. Those in power must be relentless in finding enemies and people or concepts to fear. No matter how insignificant the real-world impact, whatever they are fighting against is always right on the verge of destroying our way of life…until it suddenly no longer exists.

And then we will have always been at war with Eastasia.[1]

Witness, for example, the Republicans and the right wing in general in America, who have this “victim” mentality down to a…well, you can’t really call it a science because their modus operandi is far too simple to warrant it. But it’s ridiculously effective. No matter how well things go, ot matter how much things go their way, Republicans will always complain that the corrosive Left Wing and the horrific Socialist, Marxist agenda are about to rob us all of what it means to be American and turn us into a weaponless, listless bunch of Saab-driving vegetarians by edict.

This despite not knowing what Socialism is. Or Marxism. Or really even caring that the agenda of their purported enemies is only slightly less extreme or inhumane than their own (something of which they are surely aware). It doesn’t matter that most Democratic elected officials are quite a bit to the right of center and some are to the right of some Republicans. The Republicans build their power base on (1) confining politics to only two diametrically opposed points-of-view and (2) assigning the batshit, indefensible position to their opponents.

The actual views of actual Americans don’t enter into it. Even if they are far to the left of both nearly indistinguishable parties.

Glenn Greenwald is surely aware of this, which is why it’s strange to see him cry out that the Left is not in control of anything with so much vehemence and detail. Sure, he’s probably always got column inches to fill, so perhaps that’s where the somewhat knee-jerk response in Blame the all-powerful left! by Glenn Greenwald (Salon) came from. He should instead have blown off the hyperbolic bluster of the Republicans by simply explaining that they are fear-mongering. Fox News doesn’t really believe that Obama is socialist; though some of their commentators are possibly just the right mix of crazy and stupid to bely that statement, others—like Gretchen Carlson—studied at Oxford and probably know exactly to what degree they are lying when they do so.

Instead of expressing disbelief that commentators could be so confused as to believe the Left in America to be in control of anything, Greenwald should be calling them out for their deliberately misleading propaganda. Because that’s all this is: The purest propaganda. The Health Care bill delivers far less than it should—especially for the cost—and is a huge giveaway to corporate interests, but it sure as hell isn’t Socialist. For Christ’s sake, if you really believe that, look up “socialist” in Wikipedia, then lower your head in shame and do us all a favor and shut your mouth. And, for once, let the grownups do the talking. Once you think you’ve got a grip on what’s going on and feel like you want to constructively contribute, feel free to jump in again.

Greenwald’s post isn’t bad per se but it is a bit shrill, though the frustration is understandable. To have no power and yet be blamed for everything that goes wrong is not a nice place to be. but that’s just how the system works: those that cry and scream the loudest win, regardless of how illegitimate and deceptive their complaints.


[1] The obligatory doom-and-gloom Orwell reference.