Used to post some on a poker board that at the time had quite a few active anarcho-capitalists on them. Of course when you presented them with the why not go start your own society of non society somewhere (or leave the US to someplace with less of a state) they didn’t have a lot to say on that.
SAD!
This hand wringing is funny. Elected conservatives have failed to deliver on any significant campaign promises for a very long time. They haven’t:
reduced the size and scope of the federal government,
Decreased regulations,
Decreased cronyism and corruption,
fixed deficit spending,
secured the border,
Rolled back the “patriot” act and surveillance
Healthcare reform
Tax reform
Entitlement reform
Stopped the endless war with no goals since 9/11
They got more “conservative” things done with Clinton than with Bush (welfare reform, contract with America). If you are repeatedly innefective and break all of your campaign promises over and over, a demagogue will come along and whip your ass. The Republicans and got outplayed by a tupee wearing megalomaniac reality tv star.
The Democrat voters are frustrated at their party’s lack of results as well (hence Bernie). The entire political establishment is failing to get results for voters.
It’s into this frustration gap that these hate groups step. They prey on the vulnerable and weak minded losers. Tell them that their problems in life are someone else’s fault (pick your villain).
They are revolutionary dolts as well. We aren’t in short supply.
SAD!
I come from Northern Ireland where a running gun battle was held for 20 years between bigots and communists (who used oppression as a pretext (legitimate actual opporession) for their violence)
I am acutely aware of how legitimate concerns can be used by revolutionaries to poison the well. I can’t stand either, for the record.
As a NI catholic conservative, my choice is the Ace Ventura spear choice.
(From the article):
“Republicans need to acknowledge an uncomfortable truth: Their party supported and still supports Trump, who feeds the monster of white resentment and who focuses their anger, fear and frustration on minorities.”
Wow…
Here’s a piece by the Nation (lib magazine) explaining the left-wing/anarchist roots of Antifa. You are correct that normally people who want a robust public sector and safety net cannot also want Anarchy. But antifa is a weird blend.
https://www.thenation.com/article/anti-fascist-activists-are-fighting-the-alt-right-in-the-streets/
From one of the Antifa groups here. They really love Marxist ideology. Some of their platform sounds like Dem platform issues, and the rest sounds communist (no property rights, “class guilt,” no free speech.) They’re just planning the anarchy part until they can tear everything down, eliminate class, and form a new worker’s utopia. I swear, there’s nothing new.
That is depressingly true.
EDIT:
To expand, the same arguments have been held in the western world since Gracchus. How much does the state do? How much do we accept non-citizens.
Since the 20’s it has been ‘how much do we embrace socialism’ or ‘how much do embrace nationalism or ethno nationalism?’
We haven’t shaken this monster. Nor do I think we will. The beast mutates, it does not die.
Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Edit: We all have enemies inside the walls.
It’s not normally people can’t it’s by definition you can’t. How can someone want a robust public sector and safety net while also desiring no government?
Unless you are talking about loonies like the tea party picture keep governments hands off my Medicare who have no idea how definitions work
Or a guy ordering a chicken and steak and saying make it vegetarian!
SAD!
Ah, Cicero, the Paul Ryan of late Republican Rome.
His increasingly despairing letters to Atticus are very worth the read for history buffs, especially considering modern political parallels.
Apt. And I hope the hard R’s realise how apt that comparison is. He is the canary in the conservative coal mine.
100% agree. And unfortunately for the nation as a whole and the Dems in particular, they (the Dems) picked that moment to nominate an almost uniquely unappealing candidate, thereby providing the demagogue with just the right set of circumstances to allow him to eke out a win.
Further excellent analysis.
So Trump holds a press conference, so no teleprompter, and…
“I think there’s blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it,” Trump said.
“You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent," he added. "No one wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now: You had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent.”
I heard the ACLU helped the white supremacists get their permit. WTF?
Let them pay for their own lawyers ACLU.
The quote in context:
"Such tactics have elicited substantial support from the mainstream left. When the masked antifa activist was filmed assaulting Spencer on Inauguration Day, another piece in The Nation described his punch as an act of “kinetic beauty.” Slate ran an approving article about a humorous piano ballad that glorified the assault. Twitter was inundated with viral versions of the video set to different songs, prompting the former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau to tweet, “I don’t care how many different songs you set Richard Spencer being punched to, I’ll laugh at every one.”
While the author (Peter Beinart, a writer I like and respect) may consider the supporting material evidence of “substantial support from the mainstream left,” I think he’s way out over his skis with regard to that claim.
Yeah, I was a subscriber back in the day, (Shocking, I know.)
Listen, if you want to argue that the election of Trump and the concomitant ascendancy of the alt-right has resulted in the radicalization of a number of at-risk individuals, you’ll get no argument from me. And maybe antifa enthusiasts were liberals at one time. But by the time they embrace antifa-ism, they ain’t liberals no more. Consider–from the article:
“Liberals cling to institutions: They begged to no avail for faithless electors, they see “evisceration” in a friendly late-night talk-show debate, they put faith in investigations and justice with regards to Russian interference and business conflicts of interest. They grasp at hypotheticals about who could have won, were things not as they in fact are. For political subjects so tied to the mythos of Reason, it is liberals who now seem deranged. Meanwhile, it is the radical left—so often tarred as irrational—who are calling upon both US and European histories of anti-fascist action to offer practical and serious responses in this political moment.”
And this:
“The alt-right might not seek us in the streets, and might trounce us in trolling, but disruption, confrontation, doxxing and altercation remain tactics anyone taking seriously a refusal to normalize Trump-era fascism should consider. Liberals who reject such a strategy in defense of the right to free of speech and assembly engage in an historical NIMBYism, in which only in the past, or in other countries, has militancy against white supremacy been a legitimate resistance.”
The points:
As an aside, re that supposed antifa flyer depicted upthread. From the article:
“As organizers from anti-fascist research and news site Antifa NYC told The Nation: “Antifa combines radical left-wing and anarchist politics, revulsion at racists, sexists, homophobes, anti-Semites, and Islamophobes,” [emphasis mine]
In your rush to score rhetorical points (if not simply troll), you have put yourself in a really awkward position. Per your link, the first plank of this Antifa platform is:
We stand against white supremacy.
The second is:
We believe in true liberty for all people.
The third is:
We stand for organized defense of our communities.
The fourth is:
We are working class and poor people.
So, can I assume from your comment that there is no room on the GOP platform for any of these planks? Because that’s what you’re implying. Either that, or your assertion that the Antifa platform is a ‘mix of Dem and Communist issues’ was in fact just an attempted smear.
At least Cicero had walls.
Ba Dum Tsssss…
Hate to ruin a joke, but walls around the city of Rome were built centuries after Cicero’s time.
What protected Rome were centuries-old laws and institutions - a commander leading a consular Roman army had to stay out of city limits until he relinquished his command, thus when he was given a triumphant procession he was (again) a private citizen.
Of course everything collapsed when ruthless men thinking out of the box (Sulla and later Caesar) realized that Roman city limits were imaginary lines and simply led their troops into the city.
Oh course, the Roman Senate and the ruling political elite were shocked and horrified, believing that ancient laws were sufficient to protect them from usurpers. Well, they were wrong.
@loppar touche. His quote mentioned traitors inside the walls… So I took liberty.
Continuing the Roman hijack. Have you read any good books on Cincinnatus? He was idolized by our founding fathers. He’s the only person I know of who was given supreme executive power without abusing it and giving it back. I read Marcus Aurelius a while ago and it was really interesting to learn about stoicism from a sitting emperor.
Oh man, this is typical bolshevik stuff. And I mean that in a historical context as 1917 bolsheviks in Russia
Also, when someone self identifies as “working class and poor people” you should be aware that they’re anything but.
Also, elaborating on point two from the link provided, I’ll just quote their innocuous statement in full:
Private property rights are not the basis of liberty. This false idea has put us in the position we are in. Liberty is based in the rights of all people to not be oppressed, exploited, attacked, or marginalized based off their race, gender, sexual orientation, religious practices, country of origin, or physical or mental abilities. The concept of liberty also affects our relationship to each other and to bosses and others who would exploit us of our labor. Our liberty is deeply rooted in the ability to not be coerced into making poverty wages while someone else amasses wealth on our backs and labor. Our communities, and not parasitic rich people, are entitled to all the wealth that we as workers produce.
And when you put this nice sounding words in practice, you get 700k dead just off the bat: