Seriously, I am wondering how on earth the politically correct of this blessed nation manage to keep a straight face and their heads from exploding; ritually demanding sympathy for the so-called victims of the 1950s black-list of various Hollywoodians of distinctly Communist sympathies, while in this present century demanding that those who are not vociferously laudatory with regard to same-sex marriage be cast into the outer darkness. Not that I can specifically put a finger and a link to a person or body doing exactly that – but it is noted for the record that same kind of so-called liberal, generous and tolerant thinker who routinely condemn the antics of Joe McCarthy with regard to Communist infiltration half a century and more ago, is in these degraded days prepared to drag those who decline to enthusiastically support same-sex marriage to the stake, the courts, or the unemployment line. The irony abounds … and is likely to achieve such a density as to drop it all the way to the core of the earth and out the other side.
So – in this last week, the “Gaystapo” managed to get the CEO of Mozilla/Firefox resign, on the grounds of having contributed to a political cause defining the establishment of marriage as consisting of a man and a woman; husband and wife, one each, for the propagation and nurturing of the next generation. In the eyes of the militantly tolerant, this is enough to qualify one for a nomination as the Worst Person in the World, and deserving of being cast out of the human race, if not out of polite company. This is kind of like throwing Pablo Picasso out of the art department because he was such a toad with women. Which Picasso was, arguably; he was also one of the great artists of the 20th century, or at least most everyone claims now that he was. Being a total cad with the ladies was not against the law, although at the rate things are going these days, it very well soon may be. So it doesn’t matter a lick to the militantly tolerant that Brendan Eich, the founder of the company, and the inventor of Javascript, exercised his personal beliefs with his own pocketbook and categorically refused to do penance for it. It’s clear – or it should be to the dimmest of bulbs by now: express the wrong opinions with regard to gay marriage, global warming, and fiscal responsibility on the part of the government … and the militantly tolerant are on your case.
How much longer this can go on is anyone’s guess – but I am definitely loosing patience with the hysterical demonization of opinions counter to the current politically-correct ones. I am also pretty certain that a lot of other people who have been paying attention are loosing patience, also – just look at what happened with Chick-fil-A, and then Duck Dynasty, over the expression of personal sentiments with regard to marriage. Chick-fil-A must have had the best week ever, they were boycotted so thoroughly, and the Robertsons pretty well won their slugging match over having Phil Robertson continue on the show. I seriously don’t envy anyone employed this week at Mozilla. I dumped Firefox as the alternate browser on my computer and so did my daughter on hers. A small thing, admittedly, like a pinprick to an elephant, but I am fairly certain the pin-pricks accumulate.
You can read comments at the Mozilla site here, and add your own if you feel so inclined.
Oh, I already commented. I hope they are having the Worst Monday Evah!
“This is kind of like throwing Pablo Picasso out of the art department because he was such a toad with women. ”
Picasso painted a nude of Sarah Murphy with her long string of pearls she always wore. He wanted to have an affair with her. When she turned him down, he painted his own image out of one of his paintings called The Pipes of Pan. X-rays have shown another male figure painted over which was a self portrait of Picasso. One of the male figures was Sarah’s husband, Gerald.
The Commies won. This is how they run things. Ends justify the means. Lies must be told in order to get a good outcome. Inflation is 1%, unemployment is 6%. If p0eople believe, then the world is a better place.
People must have Faith. Faith in the Party and its leaders; not in some dead guy who said marriage was for men and women but not for 2 of the same sex.
Be careful. Big Sister is watching.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall mock them
fighton the beaches, we shall mock themfighton the landing grounds, we shall mock themfightin the fields and in the streets, we shall mock themfightin the hills; we shall never surrender.Winston Churchill
breitbart ca
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/04/07/Welcome-to-Breitbart-California
Yet, Sgt Mom, how does one go about not exercising patience? How does one contend with, eg, the SCOTUS arm of the gaystapo?
On the other hand, it has happened before and will again. Romans 1:18-27 remains true.
SGT. Mom, cognitive dissonance is not a problem, any more than it has been for any totalitarians in history. And totalitarianism cannot be denied, because the evidence is vouchsafed before us on a daily basis; that the Democrat Party and all its supporters are totalitarians. If not directly [and most are] then because they support the totalitarians faithfully regardless of what they do and will not waver from it.
Mind you, this does not mean that the Republicans are not. The Institutional Republicans are as desirous of power over everybody as the Democrats, but they do not want the responsibility of governing. There are bloody few in elected or appointed positions in government who are not loyal to the “Bipartisan Governing Party” over country, Constitution, and the American people.
Roy above cites Romans 1:18-27. Your Humble Servant is not a Christian of any flavor. But the Cold Civil War is getting hotter. And I have discovered a certain partiality for Psalms 144:1. Because tolerance and patience with being attacked is a tactic that has failed, and require assuming a level of civic trust that is not justified by facts. Today, they purge people for having different political opinions. Next will be religious opinions [and some argue we are there already]. Soon, being sent to Coventry will not suffice for the Zampoliti, and violence will be employed against us. They assume that it will be one-sided. They assume a lot of things that just are not so.
Subotai Bahadur
I’m half-way through “Blacklisted by History: Senator McCarthy’s Untold Story.”
http://www.amazon.com/Blacklisted-History-Senator-McCarthy-Americas-ebook/dp/B000W94GOU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1396978277&sr=1-1&keywords=blacklisted+by+history
The Left keeps using the same old playbook over and over. McCarthy’s complaint about Commies in the State Department was rapidly converted into a controversy by his enemies of whether he said “57” or “205” in his initial speech to a women’s club.
What an eye-opener about the long history of Leftist lies.
I made a lengthy post, surprise, surprise, about this general topic over at Samizdata in a thread about North Korea, if anyone is interested.
In summary, the solution to our present crisis is to be found in the renewal within ourselves of those values and ideas from which the concept of individual liberty grew.
They won. By 2008, when Commandante Zero was first elected, anyone who didn’t know what the Left was like and would do in power hasn’t been paying attention or was in favor of the Leftist program.
All this happens because the American people want it, will it, vote for it.
The old America has passed; the America of the Bill of Rights and of Thomas Paine:
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, but in professing to believe what one does not believe. It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.
Sgt. Mom, I have to take issue with the headline of your post. I’m not a historian or especially versed in the history of McCarthy’s time. I do know that, since elementary school and on through undergraduate work that McCarthyism was portrayed as a bad and evil thing. The poor folks that were investigated were portrayed as victims of the ogre of intolerance. Never mind that these people, who could not name their political affiliations openly, were in positions that allowed them to be powerful propagandists. Never mind that they may have been in powerful governmental positions. (If you cannot name what you are without fear of general condemnation then you are of weak character or you deserve the condemnation). Now, that a certain number of years have passed and, at least some, maturity sets in I begin to suspect that “McCarthyism” may have delayed the current loser culture of collectivism and political correctness by twenty or so years. So, I think you unjustly malign Joe McCarthy when applying his name to the current crop American of self-centered politically correct Stalinists.
Hi, Tyouth – my parents were of the age to observe McCarthy in his full flush. They and everyone around them at the time knew exactly what he was – a headline-hunting hack politician, and not too careful with how he spoke to the Press. Yes, he may have been correct in the larger details with regard to commie-symps … but in his reason and methods, he did considerable harm to the anti-Communist cause.
I can draw a comparison between McCarthy and the Westboro Baptist Church, I think. In being Ferociously anti-communist (either for real or as an attention-getting device) he may have had a valid point, way back in the beginning, which was lost in the awfulness and sheer bloody ineptitude of how he went about making it. The Westboro freaks might have had a real point, once upon a time – but their way of making it (if it ever was for real and not just a way of hunting headlines and cause for lawsuits among those who were provoked into retaliation) demolished any sympathy for their argument. YMMV.
I watched the Army McCarthy hearings on TV and remember them well. He was a drunk ad a charlatan but he had a lot of facts on his side. His efforts came to nothing, partly because of the leftist press. There are still millions who believe Alger Hiss was innocent.
That was me, and I didn’t notice that Chrome hasn’t saved my ID. I am reading “Bully Pulpit” by Doris Kearns Goodwin and am a bit distressed by her obvious Socialist POV in this book about TR Roosevelt. I am plunging ahead but may lose momentum if she gets any deeper into leftist crap. Her other books have been pretty good but this is getting to be a chore.
“Yes, he may have been correct in the larger details with regard to commie-symps … but in his reason and methods, he did considerable harm to the anti-Communist cause.”
I don’t know Sgt. Mom. I mean, did he have bad breath, was he fat, loud and obnoxious, did he stay drunk all the time….did he shout and perform for an audience like a faith healer in order to get press? Were these sorts of things what you refer to and are they of any import when compared to the teaching moment he created? Can you be more specific about the rebuke that you (and the old folks) have for his “reason and methods”? – There may be more to the narrative than I know, but in retrospect, he seems far more a positive force than not.
BTW, my honey, a staunch conservative, doesn’t like Rush Limbaugh because she finds him bombastic and obnoxious. I raise my eyebrow and think “What does that matter?”. Could that be an analogous situation?
He just did not come off as a genuinely-concerned politician, Tyouth. He came off more as a self-serving blowhard riding the anti-communist pony as a headline-grabbing gimmick for his own ends. If he had been a calm, serious and consistent voice, his points might have been taken seriously by a lot more people.
I am somewhat ambivalent about the charge of “McCarthyism.” Yes, Senator McCarthy was a drunk and at times a blowhard. I am not going to speak to the behavior of Senator McCarthy per se, as I haven’t yet read Stanton Evans’s book, though I have been aware the book’s existence for some time. One of the many books I need to read. So little time and so many books. Oh well.
The charge of “McCarthyism” has been bandied about for over a half century. What I am going to address is the charge of “McCarthyism” as the left uses it. According to the left, it is “McCarthyism” when left, even if the person so charged actually is or has been a Communist.
Pete Seeger and Dalton Trumbo are two creative types whom many have considered to be victims of “McCarthyism.” In the examples of Pete Seeger and Dalton Trumbo, the charge of “McCarthyism” tends to be that they unjustly lost their livelihoods for being called Communists. Dalton Trumbo and Pete Seeger, along with The Weavers, were blacklisted. While both Trumbo and Seeger used the Fifth Amendment under oath to deny having been members of the Communist Party, both at one time were members of the Communist Party at one time.
It could be considered unfair for people to have lost their livelihoods for being members of the Communist Party- especially since they did not so admit under oath. However, in the cases of Pete Seeger and Dalton Trumbo, a more serious charge can be brought forth- that of advocating for a foreign power. In effect- being unregistered agents.
In 1941 Pete Seeger was a member of The Almanac Singers, which released a record in 1941. Several of the songs had an anti-war, against-the-draft flavor. After the Soviet Union was invaded, he withdrew the album from circulation, and later recorded some songs in favor of the war effort. While it is true that prior to Pearl Harbor Day the draft was not overwhelmingly popular- its renewal in 1941 passed only by a vote or two- and there were also a lot of people who were neither fellow travelers nor Communists who at one time were against the US getting involved in World War II, Pete Seeger had a unique perspective. In his own words [footnote #31 from Wiki- and yes I checked it out.]:
By his own admission a half century later, Pete Seeger used his livelihood of singer-songwriter to advocate for the CPUSA. As the CPUSA was a puppet of the Soviet Union, by implication Pete Seeger was advocating in favor of a foreign power, the Soviet Union.
In the case of Dalton Trumbo, before the Nazi invasion of the USSR on June 22,19414, he wrote two books, Johnny Got His Gun and The Remarkable Andrew, which in different ways advocated pacifism and the US staying out of World War II- a position which Stalin supported until the Nazi invasion. Johnny Got His Gun is a book about a soldier in World War I who lost his limbs and eyesight. In conclusion:
The Remarkable Andrew-there is a Wiki link to a Time review- by contrast takes a geopolitical perspective for the US staying out of World War II. Any reason for the US to stay out of WW2- until Fearless Leader decides otherwise- is fine.
After Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Untion, Trumbo showed the insincerity of his pacifist views by withdrawing Johnny Got His Gun from circulation, and by also reporting to the FBI pacifists who wrote him about the book.
As both Trumbo and Seeger used their respective livelihoods to advocate for the Soviet Union, I have no problem with their suffering negative consequences to earning their livelihoods for having done so. As far as I can tell, neither Trumbo nor Seeger were actually members of the CPUSA when they were advocating anti-war anti-draft positions. My complaint has to do with their masked advocacy for the Soviet Union, not for their CPUSA membership per se.
The point Sgt. Mom has made is that- in contrast to me- those on the left are unequivocally against any way, shape, or form of “McCarthyism,” and it is thus hypocritical of them to apply “McCarthyism” to those who are against gay marriage. Like Alinsky says, make your opponents live up to their own standards.
The behavior of Hollywood types, and other writers and artists, when the Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed and then when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union is what, in poker is called a Tell .
There are a number of examples in the books I have read about Hollywood and its flirtation with communism. Edward Dmytryk is an example. When the communists turned on a dime after the invasion, Dmytryk was called on the carpet by Lawson the Hollywood enforcer of the CPUSA. He was forced to renounce several of his works and repent.
In his book Film in the Battle of Ideas, Lawson asserted that “the rulers of the United States take the film very seriously as an instrument of propaganda” and that the influence of Hollywood movies is utilized to “poison the minds of U.S. working-class people” and that inaccurately describes the reality of U.S. working-class life.
In fact, it was the CPUSA that judged movies as a powerful medium to reach the citizens. They acted accordingly.