Just Curious

princesspupule,

How about drumming up an external threat in order to unite the people in fear?

How about fostering an environment where dissent is equated with disloyalty?

Cycloptichorn

DontTreadOnMe wrote:

look, all i'm saying is this. there's a lot of things being said and done that bear watching.

and no, i don't think bush is hitler.

Yes, they do bear watching. Dare I point out some similarities between Bush's regime and Hitler's? Both invaded other countries to "protect democracy." "Preemptive strikes." Militant nationalism in speeches. Use of torture and concentration camps. "Gott mit uns," and rhetoric of religious revival. Both Bush and Hitler deceived the public, used national security as a reason to remove liberties enjoyed by the people of the state. I'm sure there are more. Those are jsut the ones that jump to the front of my mind as I post at this late hour...

Quote:

Would this somehow make us related?

blatham runs, screaming, from the room

Well I guess i'm a floaty then. I'd sooner call it 'liberal' though really.

But I agree with nearly everything blatham has said, though I haven't heard anything by Tom Waitts.

agrote wrote:

Well I guess i'm a floaty then. I'd sooner call it 'liberal' though really.

Good for you agrote! So many of your fellow travelers want to run from the label. However, I sort of think "Floaty" works better.
Elevated perspective is intrinsic to either term. By way of contrast, we ought to acknowledge, though it pains us up here, that conservatives, metaphorically fixed to the sodden earth with a stake through their brains, almost never have flying dreams once in rehab and off the scotch and cocaine.

agrote wrote:

But I agree with nearly everything blatham has said, though I haven't heard anything by Tom Waitts.

Waits is a gravely voiced neo-beat poet who has an unfortunate affinity for filterless Camels and porkpie hats. His greatest artistic triumph was his portrayal of R.M Renfield in Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula."
Agrote...do tune in. Waits is a lyricist and musician of extraordinary talent and originality. One of the great artists working in American music. Finn's description is not bad, but colored by that particular sadness of one whose wife believes underwear ought to be heavily starched

I am English though, and liberal isn't really a dirty word over here unless it comes after "bleeding-heart." So that's why I don't "run from the label." I can see why American liberals wouldn't want to call themselves liberals anymore because it seems the conservatives have given the word a new meaning. Liberal apparently now means, "stupid hippy retard," so I can see why most of the liberals, who aren't stupid hippy retards, would want to find a new name for themselves. My name is Ben. If Ben suddenly came to mean, "sonofabitch," I think I might start calling myself David. I'll tell you what though, 'conservative' actually means, to me, "stupid old man."