Eliminationism

Eliminationism as defined by David Neiwart is the tendency of groups within politically polarized societies, especially liberal democracies, to dehumanize their opponents and seek not merely to defeat them but completely destroy them. All dissent has to be eliminated, and scapegoats found to blame for that society's ills. I am not an expert on political extremism, or the violence and hateful rhetoric that often accompanies it, but the winds seem to be blowing hot and foul these days. While the US has a long history of political violence and extremism (that really doesn't get talked about much outside of academia and the, ahem, 'professional left') especially directed at non-WASPS, the similarities between contemporary America and Weimar Germany say in 1931 are becoming more clear and ugly.

I hate to fall into this trap because it has been just beaten to death by commentators in the last few years, and I really suspect it was by design, but yes the dittoheads, teabaggers, etc. are behaving like little brownshirts. Fascism is extremely hard to nail down in a definition but eliminationism is definitely a major component, so far it has been rallies, vitriolic rhetoric, and revisionism with few acts of outright politically-motivated violence. But the "you just wait 'til November" threatening and bullying, the attitude that all Americans are behind them, and what all Americans want is a doubling down of the worst excesses of gwb. Now, just as the Social Democratic government of Weimar was unable to fully address effects of the Great Depression, which was exasperated by the aftermath of WWI, Americans are frustrated with Democratic control of government during our Great Recession. There was always going to be the third of Americans who were going to hate the Obama administration, largely the same people who hated Clinton and supported gwb to the bitter end, but the other two thirds of Liberals and independents have soured as well for different reasons. That is not the focus of this story however, I feel it is important to mention a book I read for a class on the Third Reich. Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945 (Social Studies: History of the World) by William Allen focuses on how the true believers of National Socialism in the town of Northeim were a lot like the guy I mention below.

This is a status update and ensuing conversation on facebook, Jon was a guy I knew in the Army but I don't know Carey at all. The question I would like to ask is, is he just another blowhard or would he really kill me and anyone who disagrees with him? Carey's comments are outlined in red. I suppose I should feel a little guilty about "violating" privacy ethics, but guys like this want guys like me not to have any privacy lest we read the Nation in our bathrooms or whatever. And in any case, the Liberal, socialist, fascist, muslim Obama administration probably has copies of all of this already, thanks gwb for those great surveillance ideas!


Jon: I have watched our President's speech over and over, terrible politics still plays a part. Since elections are around the corner, he does not have the guts to give President George W. Bush the credit he deserves for liberating that country. Here's to you W., and here's to the men and women that died for those that couldn't protect themselves.

12 hours ago · Comment ·LikeUnlike

9 people like this..

Carey Obama and his liberals dont have the intestinal fortitude to make the tough decisions and to stand by them.

12 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Carey Here s to you ol' W. I love you brotherrrr

12 hours ago · LikeUnlike. Carey We must eradicate liberal vermin from this earth. they are poison on the tree of liberty. I would love to face off against a liberal in a good ol' revolution.

12 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Carey God Bless America brotherrrrrrrr

12 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Gabriel: Jon, Obama never thought Iraq was a good idea. Here's why he's right. Even *if* we liberated Iraq (and that's a big "if"), was it worth the cost? More than 4400 American servicemen and women dead, tens of thousands wounded, somewhere betwee...n a half million and a million Iraqi civilians dead, and over a trillion dollars spent already. Not to mention the fact that we invaded a sovereign nation because there was an "immanent threat" (and there was none). So I ask you, what if we could "liberate" Iran right now, but it would cost us as much as Iraq has? Would you be for it? Would you applaud Obama if he invaded Iran tomorrow?See More

8 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Carey It is worth fighting for. Obviously you haven't fought in Iraq. You being a coward doesn't mean something isn't worth fighting for. If we all thought like liberals we would be singing the German national anthem.

2 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Carey We should have invaded Iran years ago.

2 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Jon Why don't you ask the 4400 sevicemen and women's families that lost a loved one....I would bet you that the overwhelming majority would say your damn right it was worth it, they died for a cause that they believed in. As for Iran put em on the list their next if they continue their reindeer games. I don't ever wish for war fella but if it comes to our protection, freedoms, or protection of the weak damn right get ur full fucking battle rattle cuz were taking it to ya.

2 hours ago · LikeUnlike · 2 peopleLoading....-Michael I'm down with the battle rattle!
 
Jon When I die, I desire no better winding sheet than the stars and stripes, and no softer pillow than the constitution of my country.

This just one example of hate speech and one does not make a trend. But, it only takes one angry person and a gun to do lots of damage. So, just as so many people freaked after Columbine and every subsequent school shooting, where any sullen-faced teenager dressed in black who listened to Marilyn Manson was a potential mass-murderer, anyone spouting this kind of rhetoric is a potential domestic right-wing terrorist in my mind.

Now, if we simply replace "gays, muslims, illegal immigrants" with "jews" and "Liberals" with "communists, social democrats, and trade unionists" we pretty much have the Nazis, German national anthem indeed. Funny how the same people who told anyone to shut up that opposed the war now cling to freedom of speech, and howled from the hills about muslim terrorism are now threatening to kill a considerable number of their fellow Americans. At this point, agreeing to disagree seems a little like wishful thinking and I'd probably better peel the Obama sticker off of my car.

Meaningless rambling

This is an old post from another blog that I would like to delete but want to save some of the content. Bear with me :) I do not want to edit it too much because I like to remember how my understanding of history and the world evolve over time. I think I was trying to review Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism by Kevin Phillips, which has influenced a lot of my thinking lately.

Now I am (almost) an historian, so I am more comfortable looking back instead of forward. But I also do think a lot about what is in store for the United States in the near future, so looking ahead to what would probably be my golden years I can make a few conjectures.

Yin and Yang, trying not to be too pessimisitic yet holding back from unbridled optimism, there are several possibilities for the US and the world. A short examination of world powers throughout history gives us both Rome, which lasted for centuries and that culture really didn't entirely vanish until the fall of Constantinople in 1453; and Nazi Germany, which only lasted a dozen years, with most empires/great powers falling somewhere in between with varying amounts of impact.

I'm a big fan of Kevin Phillips' work, lately his study has concentrated on historical parallels comparing the US with 16th Century Spain, 18th Century Holland and 19th Century Britain; finding several similarities. Each mastered a means of power, Spain had New World bullion, Holland had wind and wave power and Britain had coal; each employed this power source to rise to the top of its world as the US has with oil. Each society matured with productive middle classes trading, manufacturing and transporting goods all over and flexing military might around the world. Also, each of these lost this productive middle and degenerated into a society stratified into idle rich and impoverished poor, having exported that which made them powerful. Means of production atrophied, leaving the masses without any employment while the elite invested their ancestors capital abroad in search of greater returns.

Leaving aside partisan interpretations, this is exactly what has happened in the US, a vast exhalation of meaningful production and stratification of wealth. The middle class of America teeters on the edge of collapse under mountains of debt and the insecurity of jobs. We no longer really make anything that the world wants and import a huge amount of our daily neccessities. In previous hegemons, however, it was the government and aristocracy that short-sightedly ran things awry and in the US it is a corporate culture that sees only individual, short-term gains for each firm; no one is really looking out for what the country as a whole needs.

I often liken the calcification of American society that accelerated under the Reagan administration and proceeds apace to Emperor Diocletian in late-stage Rome, who introduced draconian reforms to preserve the Empire. Security for freedom, only what the Reaganites did was dismantle the New Deal system of regulating the society as a whole and entrenched the elite, enabling the rot of previous hegemons to become the norm. The US really reached its zenith in the early 1960s and was slowly declining before that, so when Reagan announced "morning in America" it was an attempt akin to Diocletian to preserve a spot for the idle rich.

The obstructionism seen lately is nothing new, in short order. The Hartford Convention in 1815 was the last gasp of the aristocratic Federalists to preserve their place in Jeffersonian America. The Civil War was precipitated by an elite of southern planters who, sensing that they could no longer control the national government to their liking, tried to leave. Yes, it really was more complicated than just slavery and that is a whole different subject but that is for another time. New masters emerged from the ashes of that war, robber barons we usually called them, and they ran the country through giant trusts like Standard Oil until fucking up bigtime and bringing on the Great Depression, another long story for another time. However, the collapse of unregulated capitalism and stratification of the still young country was resurrected by the New Deal, republicans then as now did everything in their power to stop a reassertion of National power through the people's representatives.

Fast forward to the new century, vast tracts of the US are like a devestated peasant society. Or more accurately, like Sub-Roman Britain, the half century after imperial retreat from that island where the natives tried desperately to cling to Roman culture but succumbed to barbarians and their own decay. It is a national catastrophe when plants close, low-paying service jobs replace them if anything and slowly through medical emergencies and other disasters, our towns decay. If you take my hometown, it is interesting to see that there are gleaming new stores everywhere but most houses are falling apart. Not from neglect but debts incurred elsewhere that leave nothing left to counteract entropy. I imagine this is happening all over since in places where population is moving to, like California and the south, home prices were going way up, meaning that young people already saddled with student loans and credit cards have nothing left to improve their situations either.

Dang, praddled on again. Look for part 2 soon, where I might actually get to what I really wanted to talk about.

Illegal aliens and the gestapo in AZ (late posting, never got back to this draft)

My wife and I went to Arizona on our honeymoon and went all over the state, Phoenix, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon along with many points in between, I am at a loss as to where the problem actually is. Obviously undocumented migrant workers in this country from Mexico and Latin America is a big issue, we hear about it practically everyday from the rightwing noise machine. I'm pretty tired of hearing the same tired meme, "they steal jobs, they suck up welfare, they don't pay taxes, they cause crime, they bring horrible diseases in to the US," and of course drugs and terrorists, that old chestnut. No evidence needed, in fact, no amount of counterevidence makes a dent in this frame. So we have the white-supremacists camping out on the border with guns and beers, playing militia. And all solutions point to "kick them out, what part of 'illegal' don't you understand?"

I'm writing this because I'm tired of the non-debate I was having on facebook, as in, I posted this:

"America’s diversity is our strength. Our immigration system is broken, but we can’t undermine fundamental principles that define us as a nation in order to fix it. We have to stay true to who we are—a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants."--President Obama

And got back this:

"And my rebutall would be quite simply: Mr. President, if we are a nation of laws... THEN ENFORCE THE LAWS PLEASE! Enforce the laws or change they if you feel they are wrong, but the fedeal approach of "Yeah, thats a problem... wow, it's getting worse... meh, you wanna get lunch?" Sure isn't working for the border states.


I've got no problem with... See More immigration. It's a big country, we got room for alot of ya, but we'd like to know you're here and paying your fair share! It's like my house. I have no problem with people hanging out, but let me know you're coming over!

You want to debate that the legal immigration process needs reform, frankly that's not even a debate anymore. EVERYONE agrees that system is broken (and has been for decades!) so why has nothing been done?

At a very minimum, even if the law doesn't stand up in court, Arizona has forced the government to deal with a problem it either didn't want to or wasn't capible of dealing with.

Take a listen to that podcast I posted yesterday. Carolla is politically an outspoken centrist/political agnostic, and I agree with him that it breaks down as a common sense deal."
 
At least it wasn't a bunch of racist crap. The system is broken because the employers of these migrants want it broken, the same agribusiness conglomerates responsible for driving them off their land in the first place now employ them here for wages Americans don't find appealing. The reason new laws aren't put in place is the same power struggle that we just saw take a year and a half to (barely) pass a half-assed health insurance reform law. It is a win-win for conservative elites, they get a slave labor force, a surefire way to fire up the base, and wonderful excuses to put repressive police state measures in place such as in AZ.
 
There's no way to persuade the angry working class Americans of anything different. Having recently finished The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right by David Neiwert, I am starting to get a little scared for even the incredibly flawed democracy we have.

If I won the lottery...

I would love to open a (maybe the first?) organic, sustainable, green-power pizzaria. If money was no object I could buy a little hobby farm and grow my own supplies, greenhouse tomatoes and herbs yum. How hard can it be? I worked in a pizzaria for a few weeks, didn't seem all that complicated. You need a big oven, probably larger than this one Fusion 508FC 12" Single Deck Countertop Deluxe Pizza and Snack Oven even though it is kinda cute. But again, money not being a concern it would be about doing one thing I enjoy, cooking, and trying something new, gardening or farming. I can see it now, a few acres of wheat and an old-school windmill to grind it into flour, greenhouses for all the veggies so I can have fresh produce year-round. Maybe I could expand it to raise some dairy cows and pigs, then the supply chain would be practically self-contained :) Then, put up solar panels and windmills, heck I found this one on Amazon pretty cheap Windmax HY1000-5 1,000 Watt Max 24-Volt 5-Blade Residential Wind Generator Kit and even this Sunforce 39126 246-Watt High-Efficiency Polycrystalline Solar Power Kit 

Then what. Hmm, I know I love to make pizza and so far haven't been able to for anyone other than my lovely wife. The place I worked at got almost all of their ingredients from Sysco, a food-service outfit, and it isn't that their stuff was bad, I'd just like to get somewhere between that and Carl Sagan's idea of making food from scratch lol. It would be pretty satisfying I think to make my own dough and sauce. This is the biggest mixer I could find on Amazon and I'd probably need something considerably larger Hamilton Beach CPM700 Commercial Stand Mixer, Silver not that any of this silly idea would be the least bit economical. It would really be more of an ego thing. If I really got serious I would probably need to look into a biogas digester as well, recycle my garbage to fire the oven. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Beck SLAMS Olbermann: 'He Is Such A Joke'

Dish out but can't take it much?

Isn't this the same cult leader who regularly cries whenever someone calls him on his lies?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Obama Disappointment and Its Cost

"Sometimes you have to sacrifice the present to better the future."



Our country requires intensive care treatment at this point after the mess left to our president, but the bailouts and taking ownership without control or accountability is really more of a "sacrifice the future to save the financial interests of the few in the present."



Yes, there has been progress, and I appreciate the student loan reforms too. However, it isn't rational to bend over backwards to try and please people who utterly hate you and, by judging some of their signs and slogans, want to hurt you as well, while ignoring the people who support you and want you to succeed. Yes, Barack Obama is everyone's president and just like a father who sometimes has to drag the kids kicking and screaming to what is right, he needs to make the hard decisions that are going to incur the whining and loud noises from fox et al. For the good of everyone, the benefits to the majority really do outweigh the slight loss of money and privilege to the few. If he can't, then we are going back to he Dark Ages when he is defeated.
About Afghanistan
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We're in a One-and-a-Half Dip Recession

Candidate bush jr. pushed his tax cut as the central theme of his campaign, the number $1.6 trillion over 10 years was used so many times you'd have to be braindead not to remember. His next round in '03 was also large and the republicans did not even hint as to cutting any spending to offset the loss of revenue, remember the rather large "transition cost" attached to SS privatization? So that is at least a trillion. As to 50% of the country not paying any taxes, how does this myth ever get traction? If you're going to make this claim at least qualify it as "Federal income taxes" because even if you have no income at all you still pay all sorts of excise and sales taxes and FICA is deducted from the first dollar of your income. Also, most of the business tax cuts you cite were actually rebates given to well-established multinationals, given even when the company weaseled out of any tax liability. The failure rate of business startups has not improved by these gifts, so how exactly do tax cuts help the rich people who "took the risk to start a business" benefit anyone?
About Financial Crisis
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost