Posted on 05/01/2002 2:58:27 PM PDT by WaterDragon
"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not allow our enemies to have guns; why should we let them have ideas?" (Josef Stalin)
Human beings seem to spend a lot of time emotionally manipulating each other. It's a skill we begin practicing at an early age and we discover very quickly that it often works. Depending on our mood and situation it might be amusing to discover that we are on the receiving end of someone's manipulations, but at other times it can feel threatening. Sometimes we wonder if our suspicions aren't exaggerated, if we aren't becoming unnecessarily paranoid.
Tammy Bruce, the author of "The New Thought Police", assures us that we are indeed being deliberately manipulated by the political Left. The goal of that manipulation is our silence and submission. She speaks with authority, as a person who once engaged in that manipulation from inside a Leftist organization. Bruce describes herself in the beginning of the book as a liberal lesbian and former member of the Democratic party. In the mid 1990s, she was president of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW and for a time was on the board of the national organization. She left NOW when she discovered that it is dedicated to imposing socialism on America, not improving women's lives....(snip)
According to Bruce, the target populations of the Left's manipulations are two-fold. The first is the civil rights movement...(snip) It is the constituencies of the civil rights movement -- blacks, women and homosexuals -- who are the vital source of the Left's power today. These constituencies must be convinced that the Left is their sole defender and that conservatism is their enemy. The Left must make itself appear to be striving mightily for the progress of these constituencies while at the same time convincing them that they are losing ground, increasingly victimized by conservative Americans, and desperately in need of the continued leadership of the Left.
The second target population of the Left's manipulations -- conservatives and the religious -- are tenacious in their belief and confidence in ideas the Left must defeat -- individualism (as opposed to group identity), personal responsibility (as opposed to group responsibility), freedom of expression (as opposed to silence) and tolerance (as opposed to antagonistic divisiveness). These ideas are the underpinning of the idea of America itself....(snip) To defeat the conservatives of America (whatever their race, sex or sexual orientation), the Left has only to silence them.
Why does the Left's success require silencing Americans? Why does it not welcome opportunities in America to debate with us their own ideas? If the transformation of our culture would improve the lives of Americans why would we not want to hear about it, to better understand how this could be brought about, to hear from them what our culture would be like after such a transformation?
Tammy Bruce tells us that while inside the Left, at the highest levels, she learned that the Left has no ideas, no excitement or discussion about improving the lives of Americans. According to Bruce, the leadership of the Left has only a pre-eminent will-to-power, to rule. It is because the Left has no ideas, no betterment to offer, that it must silence debate. Energetic questioning of their goals, analyzing their goals and activities through the lens of history, ancient and modern, would expose the Left as frauds and our sworn enemies....(snip)
Deceit, distortions of information and manipulation are the Left's tactics of necessity; the goal of these tactics is fostering fear in Americans...fear to speak out....(snip)
It is not merely the "wrongness" (as determined by the Left) of statements and actions by conservatives or the religious that the Left objects to. It is the expression of any expression of any view by conservatives, whatever his political affiliation or cultural status. And the Left has enjoyed success only to the degree that conservatives have not spoken out.....(snip) [please click on link for the rest of the article]
Exactly!
No, I don't agree with Tammy's choices but I doubt she would agree with mine. I reserve the right to disagree with her, but I sure like her anyway.
How dare you speak of our true and rightfull leaders so? No, no debate is necessary. Our exhaulted leaders are right, and we are all in agreement, so there is no need for debate or ugly disent. We must be unified in order to acheive unification you know.
EBUCK
When I read that part about "silencing" us, I thought about the Muslim countries where you can easily lose your head, literally, for daring to disagree with those who have seized power.
NEW FREEPERS SHOULD BE REFERRED TO THIS ARTICLE WITH THEIR HANDLE CONFIRMATION.
THANK YOU PARTIOTS' ROBINSON.
BTTT TTT TTT
We can't be executed for speaking out "yet". Glad I could make you laugh.
EBUCK
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