Right after I put up the post below, I saw this come up on my dashboard in Blogger.
Good. Lord.
What's sad about this faux intellectualism and truly awful understanding of political theory and history is how perfectly it fits Boaz Point #1.
1. Panic Mongering. This goes one step beyond simple fear mongering. With panic mongering, there is never a break from the fear. The idea is to terrify and terrorize the audience during every waking moment. From Muslims to swine flu to recession to homosexuals to immigrants to the rapture itself, the belief over at Fox (and the right wing blogsphere, for that matter) seems to be that if your fight-or-flight reflexes aren't activated, you aren't alive. This of course raises the question: why terrorize your own audience? Because it is the fastest way to bypasses the rational brain. In other words, when people are afraid, they don't think rationally. And when they can't think rationally, they'll believe anything.
And if they'll believe anything, they will certainly plunk down their money to buy books with "Get Ready For Armageddon" in the subtitles (hence the main reason why these things keep coming out:)). I used to have, at least, some respect for Kevin. No longer. He's completely given himself over to what amounts to a Doomsday Cult. Ironically, the science of climate change doesn't phase him (it's a liberal plot) illustrating just how completely back-asswards minds like his truly are.
Further, I'm still wondering how Kevin and his regular commenters (some of whom post here) would have made it through the truly tough times in our nation's history...the times of rugged individualism of which they so often lament and pine for...I mean, there weren't antibiotics back then. There's no way a group of such hysterical old ladies would have lasted...crying the end of the world every other day. They would've spontaneously combusted in a fit of anger, hate and fear.
I'd really like to know when the end is coming. What's the time frame? He's been saying it for over 9 years now, according to his writings. I'd like a ball park so when the date that is the furthest away comes and goes, they will perhaps see that they were mistaken. Likely, this will not be the case as they can always point to something bad that happened as evidence of the coming end.
When the only tool in your tool kit is the Apocalypse.....
16 comments:
Get Ready For Armageddon
I haven't looked into the book, but judging from the cover I seriously doubt it is a practical guide to surviving such. Besides, as a Christian you know what Armageddon means and it shouldn't scare you.
And one man's panic mongering is another's raising awareness.
And one man's panic mongering is another's raising awareness.
And comments like this are why I don't understand your outrage at me when I, at times, include in the category of right wingnuts, juris. His entire post is simply wrong, not to mention, NUTS! It's very sad and frustrating. Honestly, someone needs to call him on it. I certainly can't.
Sorry, I guess that was just too tongue in cheek for you to catch.
After all, which blog was it that characterized the Ryan budget as Hunger Games? Shall I start trolling the leftwing looking for things to hold out as representative of your thought - and demand that you defend or disown it?
Oh look, a link from Markadelphia! Hi Mark!
I'm crushed, simply crushed to discover that you no longer respect me. I'll probably not sleep tonight.
Obviously you never perused my archives, since essentially nothing I said in PART IV was any different from what I said in PART III.
I'd really like to know when the end is coming, too, and what form Gozer will take, now that the giant Slor is off the table.
Thanks for the link, though. I'm sure I'll get at least a dozen hits from here.
Sorry, I guess that was just too tongue in cheek for you to catch.
As I have said previously, I'm slow on the uptake at times, juris. I apologize and now think this comment is quite funny.
Obviously you never perused my archives, since essentially nothing I said in PART IV was any different from what I said in PART III.
I did read Part III a while back but I was hopeful that you moved away from that because there were long stretches when you seemed to be heading out of that realm (thankfully). I guess we are now back to it.
what form Gozer will take, now that the giant Slor is off the table.
I guess I'm hopeful that your joking here means that you don't take this end of America stuff too seriously.
Something I didn't mention in the post but may more in the future is how many of your (and others on the right) stated wishes have actually come true. First, we have seen relaxed gun laws and improved gun rights over the past decade and, in particular, since President Obama took office. Likely this trend will continue or, at the very least, remain status quo. The gun control folks simply have no leg to stand on as violence continues to drop every year.
This brings me to my next point: improvements in technology, which I think is a main reason for this decline. Virtually every home has a smart phone or access to a computer. This simple fact powers the future (a cliche, I know, but it is nonetheless true). As an engineer, I think you can see that this means the possibilities are endless.
Third, communism is in its death throes if not gone all together. When Fidal Castro says that "the Cuban model isn't working anymore" and allows private property to be bought and sold, you can see the world is changing. The world is now a global marketplace that is based on liberal economic theory and is getting more and more that way every day as trade becomes more open. Those countries that do not embrace this will be left out in the cold (see: North Korea).
Essentially, the world is being transformed by the power of capitalism and free markets so why can't you take yes for an answer? Instead of succumbing to paranoia and gross distortions about the left in this country, celebrate these changes and recognize that the Democrats...that I...support them as well.
No doubt there will be bumps along the way but that's what is to be expected as we shift from a unipolar world to a multipolar world which, I suspect, is at least part of your reasons for being worried. But you see, that's the price we pay when folks like the BRICS adopt free markets...they become our competitors and can possibly beat us. Of course, this many not happen in terms of energy, for example, where many believe (both within and without the energy sector) that we could be become a world leader.
So why the constant need for an enemy? And especially one that doesn't really exist anymore? To put it simply, you are manufacturing a problem where one does not exist. As with the creation of Barack X, it seems that you can't be happy unless you have an adversary and are accusing folks like me of being naive. That's a pretty awful way to live, dude.
So why the constant need for an enemy?
Now that is a funny question coming from someone with such a deep seated "us vs. them" view of the world.
This is funny coming after the OMG Climate Doomsday Is Nigh post further down the page. Little Marky and Nicki are catastrophists of the first order, they just fear a different form of Gozer. But if we repent of our sins and just vote Demoncrat all will be well.
Nikto and I have explained this many times. Bronze this one and don't forget it.
It's not Doomsday and it's not the end of the earth. It is a serious problem for livability, human being wise, not to mention an international security issue.
I'm not as concerned as I used to be, though. As with many other issues in history, eventually, it works out to the favor of the best solution.
It's not Doomsday and it's not the end of the earth. It is a serious problem for livability, human being wise, not to mention an international security issue.
Which can very aptly also describe the fall of a civilization as well.
So if your description of climate change is not to referred to as doomsday catastrophe, then Kevin's description of - let's quote - "living in the declining era of a great civilization" is also not to be referred to as doomsday catastrophe mongering.
Bronze that.
Yup.
I still have a pretty positive outlook and am convinced that we will make it through whatever happens. So that's one big difference between Kevin and me...among many others:)
What absolutely perplexes me is how you guys are afraid of something that's entirely fictitious and completely blase about something that is likely very real.
What absolutely perplexes me
is how those motes in your eyes don't bother you more, while this beam in mine is no trouble at all.
entirely fictitious
Yet has happened to every single civilization in history. Every one. You think it can't happen for some unspecified reason. I bet some guy named Marcus Delphius scoffed at the idea of Rome's demise sometime around the year 400.
Marcus Delphius being the Latinized form of his native Lower Elbonion name Marxi Daffi. He claimed to be Greek and gained employment as a tutor to the children of the wealthy upper classes, where he did an excellent job (if he did say so himself, and he did -- frequently) for their positions of future authority in the bureaucracy of the Imperium of the Eternal City. They were all, of course, shocked to their cores when Alaric the Goth sacked the city a few years later. They were still shocked by later, much more violent sacks, especially when the rapes began. Eventually they all reincarnated to sing the praises of later "everlasting" kingdoms and empires. Now these locusts of time have descended upon a republic again. Maybe things will be different this time.
GD, so, the British Empire no longer exists? Well, I suppose that's true in an "Empire" sense but they are still around.
My issue here is that just because someone's ideology has been shown to be at fault doesn't mean that our country is falling apart. It may seem that way (this being how things change and all) for folks who pine for the old days but that's golden age thinking and we all know where that leads.
Maybe things will be different this time.
They already are. But that's the problem for you, isn't it?
the British Empire no longer exists?
No, it most certainly does not, and you don't need to "suppose" about that.
Sheesh.
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