Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The American Left's Silly Victim Complex
adbusters.org ^ | Matt Taibbi

Posted on 06/15/2007 12:01:08 PM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp

The biggest problem with modern American liberalism may be the word itself. There’s just something about the word, liberal, something about the way it sounds – it just hits the ear wrong. If it were an animal it would be something squirming and hairless, something that burrows maybe, with no eyes and too many legs. No child would bring home a wounded liberal and ask to keep it as a pet. More likely he would step on it, or maybe tie it to a bottle-rocket and shoot it over the railroad tracks.

The word has a chilling effect even on the people who basically agree with most of what it stands for. I myself cringe, involuntarily as it were, every time someone calls me a liberal in public. And I’m not the only one. When I called around for this article about the problems of American liberalism to various colleagues who inhabit the same world that I do – iconoclastic columnists and journalists who’ve had bylines in places like The Nation – they almost universally recoiled in horror from the topic, not wanting to be explicitly linked in public with the idea of the American left.

(Excerpt) Read more at adbusters.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: elitist; left; liberals; moonbat; progressives
A worthy read about the Left. Brief graphic-language alert.

It...howls endlessly about anything that sounds like a free-speech controversy, shrieking about the notorious bugbears of the post-9/11 “police state” (the Patriot Act, Total Information Awareness, CARNIVORE, etc.)

I found that part laughable.

1 posted on 06/15/2007 12:01:08 PM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp

Do what NPR has begun to do, substitute the word “progressive” for liberal.


2 posted on 06/15/2007 12:04:46 PM PDT by kjo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp

Liberals whining about being liberals? I always knew they were self-hating.


3 posted on 06/15/2007 12:05:13 PM PDT by Filo (Darwin was right!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp

The biggest problem with “liberals” these days is that they are anything but LIBERAL.

The word’s root is LIBERTY, and there can be nothing more diametrically opposite to liberty than the forceful yoking of one person’s productivity to another person’s “need” - it’s slavery, not liberty.


4 posted on 06/15/2007 12:08:57 PM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp
"No matter what [the American left] claims for a self-image, in reality it’s the saddest collection of cowering, ineffectual ninnies ever assembled under one banner on God’s green earth. And its ugly little secret is that it really doesn’t mind being in the position it’s in – politically irrelevant and permanently relegated to the sidelines, tucked into its cozy little cottage industry of polysyllabic, ivory tower criticism. When you get right down to it, the American left is basically just a noisy Upper West side cocktail party for the college-graduate class."

He says the American left is a bunch of ineffectual little ninnies like it's a bad thing. Just imagine how screwed up things would be if they actually did something!

5 posted on 06/15/2007 12:18:47 PM PDT by econjack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp

The main problem is that in calling themselves “liberal” they are laying claim to a philosophical tradition that isn’t theirs. They are a coalition of leftists, populists, statists and utopian reactionaries, but liberals they are not.


6 posted on 06/15/2007 12:20:20 PM PDT by marron
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp
read about the Left. Brief graphic-language alert

Always. Goes without saying.

7 posted on 06/15/2007 12:23:41 PM PDT by showme_the_Glory (ILLEGAL: prohibited by law. ALIEN: Owing political allegiance to another country or government)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp

My biggest gripe with Liberals is that they think they can spend my money better than I can. If they want to take from the productive members of society and give it to a bunch of parasites, then they should volunteer to give their money to them...not mine. I have this weird belief system that says you should work for what you get.


8 posted on 06/15/2007 12:25:10 PM PDT by econjack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp
I liked the article and agreed with much of what he said.

It’s a good thing that progressives are to stupid to understand how the country views their antics and rants based on most of the responses.

9 posted on 06/15/2007 1:25:52 PM PDT by usurper (Spelling or grammatical errors in this post can be attributed to the LA City School System)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: usurper

Who are you quoting?


10 posted on 06/15/2007 1:50:49 PM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp (We're living in the Dark Ages.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp
"No child would bring home a wounded liberal and ask to keep it as a pet. More likely he would step on it, or maybe tie it to a bottle-rocket and shoot it over the railroad tracks."

This is why liberals are working so hard to ban bottle-rockets.

11 posted on 06/15/2007 1:53:35 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp

Sorry, I start most of my posts using that formatting. Just a creature of habit I guess.


12 posted on 06/15/2007 3:04:53 PM PDT by usurper (Spelling or grammatical errors in this post can be attributed to the LA City School System)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp
So . . . he's saying if the elite Lefties throw us bumpkins enough money we'll stop interfering with their sexual and environmental causes?

That does explain the behavior of certain groups.

13 posted on 06/15/2007 3:43:09 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Vayehi kekhalloto ledabber 'et kol-hadevarim ha'elleh, vatibbaqa` ha'adamah 'asher tachteyhem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marron; MrB

Call them what they are: Marxists.


14 posted on 06/15/2007 3:45:49 PM PDT by darkangel82 (Socialism is NOT an American value.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: kjo
Do what NPR has begun to do, substitute the word “progressive” for liberal.

It's a long read, but at the end, that's what he does.

The comments are pretty funny. The liberals didn't appreciate being called whimps.

15 posted on 06/16/2007 4:02:30 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson