Friends, in the last four years, one thing has become clear: the Left, venting its anti-Trumpian rage, has become steadily more radical and intolerant of dissent. It's been veering leftward in an ideological sense for much longer than that, which is, I would suggest, a factor of the bubble in which most liberals live. When all your friends are Marxists, and the media you consume and the popular culture you partake in, all reinforce your diseased worldview, it becomes inconceivable that any decent, intelligent person could think otherwise. Be that as it may, there are reasons to question whether America as a whole is prepared to entrust sanctimonious extremists with political power. The reaction to political correctness has frequently been negative, and now that "socialism" is at the leading edge of leftist politics, the American people may finally be ready to throw up their hands and say, "No more!" What we're seeing, in truth, is the Corbynization of the American Left, and how well did that work out for Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party in Britain? Let's hope that's the model that the Democrats are determined to follow in 2020. If so, as this poll indicates, Bernie and his "bros" may go down to an historic defeat!
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/3-in-4-dems-would-support-a-socialist-for-president-poll
Considering that American Colleges and Universities began to be infiltrated by Marxists right after the Russian Revolution (1917)and Civil War, and that this brain washing found its way into the lower levels of the American educational system thereafter, it should probably come as no real surprise that millions of Americans now support the likes of "Comrade Commissar" Bernie Sanders. What did you expect? Maybe we should be "celebrating" the 100th Anniversary of this successful subversive effort this year, 1920-2020.
ReplyDeleteBernie is a byproduct of the ideologic bacterium produced by the Communist Manifesto of 1848. That same disease was then introduced in The United States of America by the flood of left wing radicalized immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe in the late 19th Century. Then those who remained in Europe after that initiated a wave of failed Communist revolutions after World War One, notably in Germany and Hungary/
ReplyDeleteContinuing with the evolution of how we ended up with the likes of Bernie Sanders, let me introduce John Reed who is one of three Americans buried in the Kremlin. Reed College in Portland, Oregon is (as I recall) named after him, and you can look him up, and then you will see that he was married to Louise Bryant, who after Reed died, was eventually married to William C. Bullitt, Jr. who was our first Ambassador to The Soviet Union after our first Socialist President FDR recognized that Marxist paradise. Beginning to get the picture? (Dr. Waddy is already conversant with all of this). More later, if you don't mind please.
ReplyDeleteHello. Anyone there?
ReplyDeleteApologies, Anonymous. Playing catch up on the posts. I am a full time college student, mom, wife and also local museum docent (and whatever else one can throw in that hat). smiles
DeleteMy mistake. Reed College in Portland, Oregon was not named in honor of John Reed the Communist, but apparently some early Oregon pioneer, who had probably read Marx's Communist Manifesto in 1848, and then emigrated to Oregon thereafter. Ha!
ReplyDeleteSo after FDR and his "Bolshevik" State Department recognize a Soviet Union run by Stalin, the Left-Wing propagandists get kicked out of the Frankfurt Institute in Germany in the 1930s along with a bunch of lefty film celebrities. So where do the film stars go? You guess it, Hollywood. This is another big influx of talented and artistic left wing trash who enters the bloodstream of American life to infect it, along with a lot of homegrown left wing intellectuals in the universities, people like
Charles and Mary Beard, and later Will and Ariel Durant.
Because of our cooperation with The Soviet Union during World War 2, millions of people in Eastern Europe are enslaved for 50 years. Add to that, Left Wingers who had already infiltrated our Atomic Bomb project and sold the formula to the Soviet Union. And the beat goes on and on to the present day.
And out of this cultural and political sewer pops Bernie Sander, who is a true believer, a person who really believes that Socialism/Communism is the wave of the future, and that he and others will impose it on The United States of America, by force if necessary.
Right (no pun intended) all of these dregs and degenerates running for President on the Demovik ticket are pretending to be outraged by Bernie's radicalism, which is only a smokescreen to hide what they would also like to impose on our country, which is TOTAL GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES. Wonder where the reeducation camps will be? Maybe, North Dakota? It is pretty desolate up that way and very cold in The Winter.
Apologies in advance for any typos.
A powerful analysis, Anonymous! I suspect you and Jack will form a mutual admiration society before long. And why not? There is much to admire in your analyses and your knowledge of history.
ReplyDeleteI concur with virtually everything you've said here -- except the knock on Reed College, against which I bear no particular grudge. Then again, it's a college, so it's probably full of pinkos and Reds! I take it back, then. Down with Reed College! Ha ha.
In all seriousness, I believe the vast majority of society's current problems can be laid at the feet of Karl Marx. His doctrine, the essence of which is the denigration of the strong and the exaltation of the weak, is in many ways the antithesis of civilization. The CliffsNotes version of Marxism is, and always will be: destroy whatever and whoever is successful, and put society's rejects in charge. Add to that a fundamental misreading of human nature, and you have all the ingredients for an intellectual disease that can (and has) destroyed great nations and brilliant cultures. And the progress of the disease in America in the last century, and especially the last few decades, has been depressingly quick and pervasive. Many of you know my view that an essentially intellectual/cultural toxin can only be counteracted by wresting back control over academia and the commanding heights of our popular culture...but since conservatives are virtually unheard of in those two arenas, the task will be immensely difficult.
Indeed, Dr. Waddy. Karl Marx, I have to say is willingly being taught in the college/higher ed setting. He and others were topics in my Hum 2 class.
DeleteI'll try to catch up later, off to my museum job. smiles
Dr. Waddy and Anonymous: This is substantial dialogue; I am glad of an opportunity to engage in it. Dr. Waddy, you have introduced an intriguing, timely and heuristic analogy - Sanders and Corbyn.
ReplyDeleteOne factor strikes me immediately; the leading Rabbi in the UK bade UK Jews vote against Corbyn in a manner so certain as to affirm a conviction on his part that Corbyn had displayed antiSemitism as obvious as to present an existential threat. That couldn't have helped Corbyn; the UK is not majority Marxist.
If we were to ask Israelis who they would prefer in our election they would surely say Trump. Trump has affirmed his friendship for Israel, an ESSENTIALLY Jewish state.
What about Bernie? It is reasonable to strongly suspect him of Marxist conviction. Marx was a Jew who urged the extermination of Jews and was heeded by Stalin (well,"Uncle Joe" would have sent them to Central Asia, where they would have been so happy, yes?) The journal Commentary has run many articles discoursing upon the phenomenom both of widespread American Jewish disaffection for Judaism and hostility to Israel. Also very evident is an intensifying and increasingly open and unrepentant manifestation among American leftists of antiSemitism and of course virulent Israel hatred. This is much to be seen in the American academy.
Again, there is very good reason to fear that Bernie is a doctrinaire Marxist who is hiding his true intentions (as Saul Alinsky bade his ilk) in order to actually ascend to the Presidency, as did Obama ( yes, who was far less serious than Bernie about anything but personal comfort). Instead of lauding Castro's efforts to advance literacy he had cited the Nazis' having made Germany's streets free of Weimar tolerated street trash thugs, he would immediately have been labeled a Nazi. What if he had celebrated Mussolini's having "made the trains run on time". A Fascist, a Fascist! His affinity for Marxist mass murderers raises very creditable concerns about his being a Marxist (and a very practical one, you must admit). And given Marxism's historical antiSemitism, it exposes Bernie to the same condemnation which was leveled on Corbyn.
Dr. Waddy , Linda and Anonymous: I also see an analogy in Corbyn's thought that the UK electorate might actually buy his swill. That was definitively disproven on the sceptered isle.
ReplyDeleteWill the real America rise to put down Bernie? Oh I think so, though the possibility of the alternative is harrowing. Should he by some stretch be elected, his misreign would probably empower another post Dinkins style Guiliani, I agree. And perhaps decisive social unrest in reaction to his assuredly Cuomoesque presumption of enablement to force his beliefs on those he had electorally defeated, would no doubt commence. The real America is not like the numerically buried unfortunate common sense faction in NY State. It need not be defeated by such as the tumor on the Hudson's disdainful domination. The real America has POWER, which when fully aroused, can triumph
Dr. Waddy, Linda and Anonymous:I would suggest that in addition to the creditable causes you have presented , Anonymous, the Depression was also a very significant factor in the esconsement of leftist landmines in academia waiting to for an opportunity surely presented them by my Boomers. It had been convinced, or at least reinforced ,a Marxist belief that, capitalism was doomed. I encountered several of those types in college in 1965.
ReplyDeleteFDR: I've been to his childhood mansion and have been in Harvard settings. I think he was an aristocrat embued with noblesse oblige who had NOTHING in his experience which could have prepared him for the sociopathy of the Soviets. He was incapable of picturing it and actually thought he was dealing with human beings. Churchill, a first hand killer himself, at least perceived the fundamental nature of the ghoulish Stalin. Stalin once drove him to visible outrage with some blithe murderous post war proposal at a conference.
Reed College is to my understanding an unrepenting swamp of leftist bigotry.
I am cavilling here but: consider the definition Eric Hoffer, who coined the term "true believer" in his book of that name, proposed. It included the requirement that the "true believer" had sought for personal reasons to find any belief in which he or she could invest consummate devotion. But Bernie's convictions have survived unscathed from 1962 for crying out loud! They are indicative of far more determination than indiscriminate personal satisfaction. His is fanacticism and history confirms its threat to all we value.
Linda, by no means am I opposed to the study of Karl Marx. In fact, it might be beneficial if more youngsters knew about Marx, BUT it all depends on how such things are taught, and whether Marx's airy philsophizing is put into proper historical context. Marx was massively mistaken in many of his claims about the 19th century economy and society, but more importantly the practical application of his ideas in the 20th century led to, well, you know... If your profs are leaving out the bad parts, then they are doing a grave disservice to their students.
ReplyDeleteJack, you point us in the direction of a very intriguing possibility: that Bernie Sanders, DESPITE his Jewish roots, might be open to charges of anti-Semitism in the same way that Corbyn and his allies have been. Now THAT would be interesting! Salient to the outcome of the 2020 election too, for all kinds of reasons. Bernie does take a position on Israel and the Palestinians that is, uh, outside the mainstream. If one were to look into his PAST statements on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one would find even more egregious departures from conventional wisdom. This could indeed be a serious point of vulnerability. We know that pro-Israel Dems are already running negative ads against Bernie. Could charges of anti-Semitism be far behind?
Why has academia bowed so completely to leftism/Marxism? That's a great question to which I don't have any truly compelling answers. Oh, we can figure out why colleges and universities might LEAN left, but surely, in a country more or less evenly divided, it makes little sense that conservatives, Christians, and patriots would be virtually absent in the professoriate. I find it genuinely perplexing.
Dr. Waddy: I very much doubt that in today's American academy Marxism is widely presented as an historically spent phenomenom. Certainly therein no one presents Naziism as anything other than that (except of course their absurd toxin sounded against the pitiable neo Nazi rump). No, it is certain and perusal of myriad course catalogs would prove this I'm sure, that Marxism is shamefully ADVOCATED, either explicitly or in effect, including, unacceptably, in so many of our 'public" universities.
ReplyDeleteWhy? The boomers and their stupidity and ingratitude and its heritage are the cause.. They found a castle in academia and they are devoted to defending it because if it is breached, they are disempowered and discouraged. Boomers cannot endure such an emotional setback.
Dr. Waddy: I must add my conviction that Marxism and Naziism occupy equally thoroughly condemned places in the incalculably tragic history of 20th century totalitarianism. And present day advocates, even by creditable insinuation, are equally to be shunned.
ReplyDeleteSince I commented about Bernie's anti Israel tendencies I have read more about his condemnation of Benjamin Netanyahu as a "racist" (coming from a presumptuous leftist a completely discredited accusation) and Bernie's contemptuous refusal to appear before supporters of Israel. And proIsrael Dems even are running ads against him. Gee, might be something there. I understand Bernie's past statements and associations are now undergoing close scrutiny. My, my, what we may learn thereby!
Also, I meant to write "tocsin" not toxin.
ReplyDeleteJack, I'm positive that the spirit of Marxism is alive and well in academe, but whether it is ACKNOWLEDGED as Marxism is another question -- as is whether the majority of professors are even aware of the debt they owe to ole Karl. Linda, maybe you could provide some insights here?
ReplyDeleteNetanyahu a racist? Duh. Apparently everyone's a racist these days. Do you draw breath? Racism! It's only a matter of time before Bernie castigates HIMSELF for racism... Who knows, maybe he looks in his bathroom mirror every night and gives himself a good tongue-lashing.
P.S. I note with approval that the Left finally came for one of its foremost champions: Chris Matthews! Truly, no one is safe.
ReplyDeleteThings in America seem to be "all or nothing", and that is why Bernie is gaining momentum.
ReplyDeleteHealthcare? Yes, it's a national problem. What is the right doing about it? Nothing. Zero.
Student loans? Nothing--except charging higher interest.
And on and on.
There's a solution to these problems, but Trump hasn't addressed them. NO ONE has. The problems just get bigger with every passing year.
Hence, Bernie is here to stay.
And yes, I voted for Trump and consider myself a moderate.
But I will vote for change if the Republicans don't start to address the issues.
Dr. Waddy-- in all seriousness:
ReplyDeleteThe SUNY system is funded by the state, tuition free to most, now; unionized with benefits most cannot afford outside "the system";
Educators cannot be removed. They get pensions sponsored by tax payer.
And making the system "free" is destroying the private university system.
What I just described is a socialist system. There is simply no denying this.
You yourself, though calling yourself conservative, are employed by an entity that certainly walks and talks like a socialist entity.
Anonymous -- you're quite right about SUNY and socialism, although it's less taxpayer-financed than it was in the past. Nowadays we only receive, I believe, about 20% of our funding from the state...but naturally the state likes to make 90% of our meaningful decisions for us. That's what you get for accepting state aid, though, or anything "free". There's always strings attached.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that there are many problems out there, although I think you are a little unfair in accusing Republicans of ignoring them. Trump and the GOP have many proposals for dealing with high health care costs, for example. Some have been implemented under Trump (relaxing Obamacare rules to create lower-cost plans, etc). Others would never make it through the House.
My main response to your criticism, though, is this: our Founders created a federalist system. The states were supposed to tackle many of these problems, not the federal government. When we look to DC for answers to all our problems, what we get is, not solutions, but creeping tyranny. Unfortunately, the GOP is almost as guilty of this sin as the Democrats.