sure....hows this one?
well, you did ask for one.
Posted on 07/11/2010 8:33:17 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Last Saturday afternoon, my sister and her husband were out in Lemont to attend their niece's fourth birthday party. Burgers and brats were sizzling on the grill, presents were piled on the living room coffee table, and the U.S.-Ghana World Cup game was playing on the flatscreen.
When one of the other guests discovered that my sister and her husband were not rooting for the Americans, but rather were quietly pulling for the underdog Ghana, he became belligerent, calling them a number of names that are unprintable in a family newspaper but also asserting that they were "a couple of filthy communists," "total commies," "godless commies," etc., etc., pursuing them through the party - ignoring their reluctance to engage him and their insistence that it was just a soccer match and thus no big deal who anybody rooted for - until they had no choice but to leave.
Such uncivil and combative behavior is boorish and horrible regardless of the epithets the man happened to be using. But his repeated variation on the theme of "communist" is just one more example of an increasingly obnoxious trend that has been plaguing the so-called "discourse" of the American right.
This trend, of course, is the rampant misuse and frequent misapplication of the terms "communism" and "communist" that keep getting tossed around angrily by name-calling conservatives in relation to any idea that is not marching in absolute lockstep with their own ideology.
"Communism" and "communist" are real and useful terms with precise meanings and histories. But they are almost never properly employed anymore. Instead, what conservatives generally mean when they name-call someone a "communist" is: "I disagree with you, and I resent and oppose your democratic right to hold and express an opinion that is different from mine, antithetical as that is to the entire concept and spirit of democracy."
So, today's column is about words, definitions and really saying what you honestly mean. And, conservatives, I'm not necessarily saying that you shouldn't call anyone a "communist." I'm just here to help you make sure that if you do, you're doing it correctly, and that if what you really mean is, "Anybody with perspectives or values that differ from my own needs to shut up and go away," then you can just say that instead!
For starters, to return to the unfortunate incident in Lemont, is being a fan of a different sports team than someone else really the same as communism? Which is to say, is it identical - per the actual definition of "communism" - to: embracing a social structure in which classes are eradicated and property is commonly controlled? No. It might make you mad or confused to view a sporting event at which not every single spectator feels like chanting "USA!" and "We're No. 1!", but it is not, technically, "communist."
As you have likely noticed, though, the gross misapplication of the terms "communism" and "communist" is not limited to children's birthday parties in the south suburbs. These errors are everywhere in the so-called American political "conversation."
On June 24, for instance, Glenn Beck, who already has established himself as a misuser extraordinaire of the whole notion of communism, dedicated that evening's entire program to attempting to rehabilitate the reputation of red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy and to defining virtually each and every progressive idea or cause as equivalent to "communism."
Because it is sad to see proud Americans such as Glenn Beck and the gentleman at the party want, so badly, to express themselves with great clarity and insight, yet be unable to do so accurately, I propose the following simple, three-question checklist of queries you can use whenever you feel your lips twitch to form the C-word.
Just ask yourself: Is the thing or idea that I am attempting to berate or dismiss out of hand with a single word (as opposed to thoughtful debate):
1. A political theory of total collectivism in an utterly classless and stateless society? If no, don't say "communist"; just say, "Shut up." If yes, go right ahead.
2. An economic system based on the principle "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need"? If no, don't say "communist"; just say, "I am incapable of listening to, let alone respecting or considering, an opinion that is not the same as mine." If yes, go right ahead.
3. A form of socialism that abolishes private ownership? If no, don't say "communist"; just say, "My ignorance makes me defensive and hostile toward people who make different decisions than I do." If yes, go right ahead.
See? Easy. Clip this column. Stick it to your fridge with an American flag magnet. Put it in your wallet next to your National Rifle Association membership card. Whatever. It's a free country.
And free means free to have your own opinion. So don't wear out the words "commie" or "communist," which certainly have their uses but possibly not the ones you think.
While I am making lists, here are a handful of beliefs with which you may disagree, but which, if you do agree with them, do not automatically render you a "communist" - "godless," "filthy," or otherwise:
• A new path to citizenship for immigrants to this country.
• Environmental protections.
• Equal rights for gay, lesbian and transgendered people.
• Equal rights for women.
• The idea that massive, faceless, multibillion-dollar corporations are not, in fact, "human" and should not be treated as such under the law.
• The idea that the government can provide useful services and programs besides just the imperialist spread of war, aka "defense."
• Public transportation and/or bicycles.
• Paying your taxes.
• The separation of church and state.
• Vegetarianism/veganism.
• Universal health care.
I could continue with this list, but these are just the tip of the complicated iceberg of views I have recently expressed, which have subsequently gotten me declared, incorrectly, an adherent of "communism" in various private and public settings. There is a lot to discuss about each of these issues, but there is not a lot to indicate that any of them are especially "red"/"pinko"/"dirty commie."
Would it be preferable to engage in a discourse that really was a discourse? In which nuance and debate were genuinely welcome, and differing opinions and suggestions were not rejected summarily with a single, curt word? Sure it would.
But in the meantime, if you are going to call somebody a reductive and belittling name bec ause they think thoughts that are not identical to yours, then please, have some pride, and at least call the right ones.
KATHLEEN ROONEY IS A FORMER U.S. SENATE AIDE AND WRITER LIVING IN CHICAGO. HER LATEST BOOK OF ESSAYS IS "FOR YOU, FOR YOU I AM TRILLING THESE SONGS."
Ah, so a communist is the same thing as a racist to the liberals...someone they don't agree with.
>> Kathleen Rooney: Such uncivil and combative behavior is boorish and horrible regardless...
LOL - the pen is mightier than the boor.
sure....hows this one?
well, you did ask for one.
Sen. Durbin staffer Kathleen Rooney fired for writing a too-revealing book
Kathleen Rooney (Courtesy of Counterpoint Press)
There’s a reason people get nervous around writers: You never know what might end up in their books.
Kathleen Rooney, a staffer for Sen. Dick Durbin, was fired earlier this month after the release of her latest book, “For You, for You I Am Trilling These Songs.” The autobiographical essays include three chapters about working in a Senate office: insider gossip, staff secrets and a complicated flirtation between the author and her boss, Durbin’s state director in Illinois.
Rooney, 29, has always blended politics and writing. She started as a summer intern in the Democratic senator’s Chicago office in 1999, worked two more summers, then returned full time as a Senate aide in 2007. Along the way, the GW grad published four other books: “Reading With Oprah,” two collections of poetry and a memoir about working as an artist’s model.
David Brudnoy was known as a libertarian, and generally on the conservative side of libertarianism, although he often went off the reservation on one political issue or another.
That was low, dude.
May I disagree a little? I'd say instead that it's the Frankfurt School rolling around in the mud and brawling, trying to reduce everything to ashes in their best "Disco Inferno" style.
Of course, their argument that all the bourgeois organs and institutions need to be destroyed down to the last brick so that tabula rasa Communism can arise unsullied from the foul ashes, is a huge lie, since they had before them even when they generated that pap, the example of the Russian Bolsheviks of 1917, who did no such thing after they stormed the Winter Palace but simply renamed the state ministries in an attempt to get other people THINK DIFFERENTLY about them after they came under Communist control.
So much for "burn that mother down!"
She'll get 'em, too, the first time she takes a bundle of coats back to the spare bedroom.
I love that ‘argument’.
Soccer: biggest teams with the biggest money and the biggest support and stadiums buy the best players and get the biggest amount of TV money and revenue.
Pure capitalism.
American sports like the NFL, NBA, MLB: leagues set up so no one team can have all the best players, draft systems set up to ensure equality and parity.
AND ITS SOCCER THAT SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST?....
They tore down the Chinese wall that had separated medical practices and patient-doctor relationships from the insurance business. They deliberately let the insurance companies into medical practice, knowing they'd screw things up and make a big stink -- just to kill off fee-for-service medicine, which is the only honest, straight-up medical care.
They were and are conspiratorial scum. Which is easy to understand, considering that Hillary was/is an Alinsky whore and Slick's a Benedict Arnold sellout to the Chinese government.
Self-respecting flatworms and cockroaches cross the street when they see those two coming.
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