Lileks Ping!
If you'd like to be added or removed, just drop me a line...
Posted on 06/25/2004 7:55:52 AM PDT by Constitution Day
...Finally: yesterday we had fun with Rex Reed, who’s a gassy dolt. Glib Nazi comparisons. Ooh! Naughty. But today we had something different; today Al Gore upped the ante. He coined a new term for the Internet critics of his positions: digital brownshirts. Yes, yes, it’s over the top. But it’s not the sentiment that raises eyebrows, it’s the position of the person who’s saying it. We don’t expect presidential candidates past or present to indulge in Usenet flame-war lingo. We don’t expect serious party elders to call the other side Nazis, and for good reason: it’s obscene. The brownshirts were evil. The brownshirts kicked the Jews in the streets and made the little kids put their hands on their heads as they stumbled off to the trains. The brownshirts were not interested in refuting arguments. They were interested in killing the people who dared argue at all. At some point, I fear, the political discourse of 2004 is going to seem horribly irrelevant and misplaced in the face of some loud new wretched horror; it will seem as oddly disconnected from reality as the Condit / Killer-Shark news reports of August 2001. An indolent luxury. Digital stormtroopers. Tell me again who’s stifling debate? Remind me again who’s questioning people’s patriotism? Find me again the story where Bob Dole called the Dixie Chicks “musical Mukhabarats”? Look. We don't have to agree on the big hard issues, but we can certainly agree that we share common values that set us apart, and that it profits no one to identify the opposition as something outside the American experience. Liberals are not Communists. Republicans are not fascists. We have a nice window of opportunity here where we can come together by choice, instead of being thrown together by events. I say we get a head start on national unity, and turn on anyone who floats the Nazi analogy. Shun 'em. No links, no reviews, no radio interviews, no newspaper pieces, nothing. From now on, the Nazi parallel buys you bupkis. This means that the right doesn't get to parade around the mutterings of high-profile wackjobs as illustrative of the heart of everyone who votes D, and the left doesn't get to do the whole "he's wrong in his overheated critique, BUT" dodge. Enough. ENOUGH! For Christ's sake, enough! If you don't agree, fine, but spare me the emails. Write me when Al Gore gives a big long angry speech about the consequence of Iran having nuclear weapons. Write me when this Al Gore returns. Back then the man knew a brownshirt when he saw one. No more, alas.
Lileks Ping!
If you'd like to be added or removed, just drop me a line...
Liberals are Communists
Heh heh
No, they're Fascists.
(I'm serious: fascism is government control of all business. Which party OWNS that issue?)
Dan
Well, agreed. Can't we just call them Communo-fascists and be done with it? ;0)
So has anybody registered the FR screen-name Digital_Brown_Shirt yet?
Sure! Nobody loves multi-layered neologisms better than I!
Let's call them socio-communi-fascists!
Dan
8^D
I still prefer the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy myself. It has more of a jaunty ring to it than Digital Brown Shirt.
;^)
Commie-Vampires who suck the lifes-blood out of everything good in this country.
My discription of the Dems and their elite NY and Hollywood propagandists.
FMCDH(BITS)
Gore's regretting that whole Internet thing....
http://orsa.blogspot.com/2004/06/al-gores-second-thoughts.html
I do what I can.
Well as one of GW's 'digital brownshirts', I have no problem being labeled as such- provided that 'Beltway Albie' and all the Dems online who are too gutless and cowardly to oppose terrorism in a meaningful way, don't mind being referred to as 'digital brownpants' - if y'all get my meaning
Digital Brownshirt...Good name for a band.
Thanks for the ping.
The man who came so close to being president has simply gone mad...He looks like he has been drinking too much...or is that just the weight gain...or both?
anAL GOREtentive
Fascism
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
here is my problem with lileks point. I have no problem calling a fascist a fascist when what they advocate is fascism. If what someone advocates is actually fascism then they deserve the label..You you own it wear it. Same thing with communists. If a "democrat" goes around espousing the nationalization of your health care system that makes them at least a socialist..If they advocate government control of the economy that makes them communists that last time I checked. It isnt wrong or improper to call a spade a spade. What is improper is refering to people who are not fascists as fasicts...or people who are not racists as racist. Using negative smear tactics to silence opposition is not right or acceptable..but when I see someone wearing a swastika and screaming kill all the jews...I'll be damed if I will call them a legitimate voice in our national debate.
Algore: Robotic Browndrawers.
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