Mark Steyn, Dennis Miller mock NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s China obsession

The Daily Caller ^ | August 8, 2012 | Jeff Poor

[Rufus2007]

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has a well-documented fascination with China’s authoritarian means the nation uses to run its economy and govern its people. But Friedman’s appreciation for benevolent authoritarianism is dangerous, National Review columnist Mark Steyn said Wednesday.

On Dennis Miller’s radio program, Steyn gave his best effort to explain the logic behind Freidman’s theory on governance, which is predicated on a distrust on the citizenry to elect the right people.

“I think it’s not so odd because Friedman succumbs nakedly to the totalitarian temptation,” Steyn said. “In other words, every so often he writes these columns and he’s supposedly the most influential in-house thinker at the New York Times saying, ‘China — sometimes if you have benevolent authoritarianism, you can do the things that need to be done,’ which as he sees it is banning the plastic bag.

...more (w/audio)...

[Rufus2007]

This is really simple - for liberalism to succeed you are usually reliant upon an emotional approval and not a logical one.

[Gay State Conservative]

I’ve been to China,recently...several times.I’ve seen two of the most prosperous cities in the country (Guangzhou and Shenzhen) and even the people *there* live like dogs.

[Sirius Lee]

Friedman is a NWO cheerleader. He's one of the main mouthpieces calling for a global government run much like China's model, but with the banksters as the politburo at the top level and with islam as the official street level form of social control.

[Pontiac]

But Friedman’s appreciation for benevolent authoritarianism is dangerous,

Benevolent authoritarianism is a myth; it doesn’t exist.

Benevolent authoritarianism is like a pink elephant; you can imagine one, you can even paint an elephant pink but under the paint is a plain old grey elephant just like every other elephant. You can even look at an ordinary elephant an in your mind see a pink elephant but the truth is that it is still an ordinary gray elephant.

This is how Friedman and the other socialist statist look at China, Cuba and the other socialist/communist countries that they praise in their columns for their education and healthcare systems. They see what they want to see. They see the equality and standardized government services with their childish wish fulfillment eyes that see the pink paint that is the words of totalitarian propaganda covering the elephants grey skin which is the reality of totalitarian tyranny, torture, gulags and political murders.

The paint has been on the elephant a long time it is time for the children of the Left to see the patches of grey reality wearing through pink paint of wishful thinking.

[Moonman62]

I’ve been to China,recently...several times.I’ve seen two of the most prosperous cities in the country (Guangzhou and Shenzhen) and even the people *there* live like dogs.

If China didn't have capitalist countries to give them work, they would be doing much worse.

BTW, has anyone noticed the similarity between Obama's "Forward" slogan and Mao's "Great Leap Forward" which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people?

[SeminoleCounty]

Scary is that there are a lot of GOP who agree with Friedman....in fact anyone still supporting our current “Free Trade” policies with Communist China pretty much is marching goose-step with Friedman.

Communist China authoritarianism lasts only as long as they can keep the “economic success” charade going...or until our US leaders grab a pair and jack up the tariffs on Communist Chinese products

[beenaround]

What would your alternative be to free trade as it stands today?