The 10 Worst Quotes From The Democratic Underground For 2003

I'll admit they're scum and rightfully so, but anything that lands as even more humiliation on W's grotesque shrivelled face is that much the better.

It's sad, really, that as despicable as they are, Saddam's family seems to be the lesser of two evils when you compare them to the wretched little b*stard* occupying the White House and destroying America in the process..." -- thermodynamic

8) "I'm assuming (Michael Kelly's) family won't be reading this, but frankly, I'm gratified to learn that he paid the ultimate price for his sins of warmongering. This guy was scum. My first thoughts on seeing the thread were that I hoped it was that scum Post warmongering writer. My second thought was that it was a late April Fool's joke. But no false sadness from me, only happiness that someone as mean and vicious as Mike Kelly got what was coming. As for all the posts about "coming by his views honestly" and "not speaking ill of the dead", congratulations on taking the high road guys, but *ssholes like Kelly have to die sometime, and I prefer it is as a direct result of their sins. But what do I know, I'm happy that Reagan has Alzheimers and that * has access to pretzels. I wish death on my enemies, and these guys are enemies." -- jackswift on the death of Michael Kelly in Iraq (Excerpt)

6) "...We know the recall's about getting a Repub Gov. in office in order to make California easier to steal, or make the 2004 Election at least close ENOUGH to steal our precious Electoral votes. We know it has nothing to do with Gray Davis being crummy, really.

...I think Rove's got something particularly nasty up his sleeve this time that will change Arnold's fortunes dramatically. I mean, he's about to subject himself and Maria to more salient stories about what he calls "getting my helmet polished." This could be humiliating to him, even before he loses. But what if he "knew" the fix was in?

ROVE/BUSH/CHENEY ARE GOING TO INSTIGATE SOME MIHOP (made it happen on purpose) TERROR ATTACK, BIO ATTACK IN THE US, MAYBE CALIFORNIA, WHEREBY CALIFORNIANS WILL BE CLAMORING FOR A "STRONG" GOVERNOR TO PROTECT US! THEY CAN FINISH THE JOB ENRON STARTED, AND GET A REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR TO HAND THEM THE STATE IN 2004." -- CaptainMidnight (excerpt) 3) "When the 2nd plane hit the WTC I remember thinking......OMG, he's got his war now. Then, the next day or the day after that, when the roar of "war with Iraq and Afganistan" really got going I couldn't help but think "well Bush II get's to finish Daddy's work now". As for when the plane hit the Pentagon and the other plane went down in that field in Penn I screamed at the TV, "Get the WH, for God's sake you missed the WH." I invented some cuss words on that one. There were times before 9/11 as well as in the days to follow that the boy king mentioned Saddam "tried to kill my Dad" and couldn't help but scream at the TV each time, "Well, give him a medal for effort anyway." -- LiberalLibra

2) "What we MUST realize in order to win - Americans are stupid and uninformed. This is very important because in order to win we must understand the way the average American thinks. I'm afraid WE have nothing in common with them.

I came to the two following conclusions when I saw the large number of people who voted for Bush back in 2000.

#1 - I would dare to assume that most of us here are in the upper 1%-20% of the population intelligence-wise. We must come to the realization that the majority of the population is in the lower 80% to 99% percent of the bell-curve. WE are not the norm. The Republicans understand that the average American is not very bright. They cater and pander to the masses. The Democratic Party tries to appeal to the population about "issues" that these people just don't understand.

I've heard it said that the reason that Clinton's sex scandal resonated so strongly among "the people" was because it was a scandal that the average American understood. The average person can't understand a financial scandal.

In addition, people of average or lower intelligence tend to not be as logical or reasoned as those of higher intelligence - they deal with emotion. Therefore they are more likely to get riled up about someone burning a flag rather than a illogical tax cut.

#2 - The majority of people do not read the newspaper OR listen to the news, CNN, etc. Therefore -they get their news from the Tonight Show, Letterman, Oprah and Saturday Night Live. Or, they get their news from talking to their co-workers at the water cooler.

Also, for the few people who DO listen to the news - who do they hear it from? Fox News and Bill O'Reilly are the most popular. Most newspapers and media outlets are owned by Republicans.

THIS is what we are fighting against people. In order to win we will need to start pandering to the masses." -- Janekat

1) "I realize that not every GI Joe was 100peeercent behind Prseeedent Booosh going into this war; but I do know that that is what an overwhelming number of them and their famlies screamed in the face of protesters who were trying to protect these kids. Well, there is more than one way to be "dead" for your country. They are not only not accompishing squat in Iraq, they are doing crap nothing for the safety, defense of the US of A over there directly. But "indirectly" they are doing a lot.

The only way to get rid of this slime bag WASP-Mafia, oil barron ridden cartel of a government, this assault on Americans and anything one could laughingly call "a democracy", relies heavily on what a sh*t hole Iraq turns into. They need to die so that we can be free. Soldiers usually did that directly--i.e., fight those invading and harming a country. This time they need to die in defense of a lie from a lying adminstration to show these ignorant, dumb Americans that Bush is incompetent. They need to die so that Americans get rid of this deadly scum. It is obscene, Barbie Bush, how other sons (of much nobler blood) have to die to save us from your Rosemary's Baby spawn and his ungodly cohorts." -- Starpass

I haven't. While some on FR go "over the top", the ones on DU go over the top, up the street, up a lamppost, jump to a rooftop, through a window of a high rise, up to the very top, and then build a ladder to the moon.

The ones on FR aren't choking with profanities, death threats (except to Islamist terrorists trying to kill our troops, only exception I can think of).

That's because our moderators DELETE those posts. I've seen them go up, only to be removed fairly quickly. Heck, *I've* received an email warning from a moderator on something I thought was extremely mild... and this was when emotions were running extremely high after 9/11.

I agree that we try and keep it more civil here at FR, but anyone who *honestly* thinks that ALL Freepers never make ANY ludicrous, baseless, or highly offensive comments is deluding themselves.

I'll just give another example...

How indignant were we Freepers over the left's attack on Katherine Harris' appearance? Pretty indignant, I'd say. (Yes, she's a beautiful woman, especually to the conservative aesthetic. Would a granola-eating hippy ever make themselves up like her? Probably not.)

BUT...

How many posts have you PERSONALLY seen where a Freeper attacks the physical appearance of Hillary, Albright, or - more recently - Howard Dean's wife!?!?

"Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of their senses."
Euripides

The voices represented in this article are those of Plato's
cave dwellers. Chained by their own perception of intellectual supremacy to a screen involving a cast of shadows.

As former cave dwellers such as David Horowitz have found
Plato's words of Socrates remain true to this day.

Plato – Republic
BOOK VII: THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE (On Shadows and Realities in Education)
SOCRATES - GLAUCON

§1. AND now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

§2. I see.

§3. And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

§4. You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

§5. Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

§6. True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

§7. And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

§8. Yes, he said.

§9. And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?

§10. Very true.

§11. And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

§12. No question, he replied.

§13. To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

§14. That is certain.

§15. And now look again, and see what will naturally follow it' the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?

§16. Far truer.

§17. And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?

§18. True, he now

§19. And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he 's forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.

§20. Not all in a moment, he said.

§21. He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?

§22. Certainly.

§23. Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.

§24. Certainly.

§25. He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?

§26. Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.

§27. And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?

§28. Certainly, he would.

§29. And if they were in the habit of conferring honours among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honours and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,

§30. Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?

§31. Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.

§32. Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?

§33. To be sure, he said.

§34. And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.

It is no mere coincidence that the site is named the Democratic Underground

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