Comments on: Right wing response to the Rolling stone piece https://habitablezone.com/2014/01/09/right-wing-response-to-the-rolling-stone-piece/ Fri, 03 Apr 2026 18:20:54 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2014/01/09/right-wing-response-to-the-rolling-stone-piece/#comment-29376 ER Fri, 10 Jan 2014 00:26:13 +0000 http://www.habitablezone.com/?p=42223#comment-29376 ...I've often quoted conservatives when their words support my position, or when they can be used to attack my conservative opponent's position. But I make no effort to hide the fact I've quoted a conservative writer for my own ironic purpose. In fact, I make it a point to emphasize it. Its a common rhetorical trick to say, "See, even your guy thinks you're full of it". If I quote Buckley, or Reagan, or Krauthammer, I want conservatives to know I'm quoting one of their own. They will simply dismiss anything I quote from one of my crowd as irrelevant. As for your slippery slope comment, I must admit you're right on. It is so sad, so sad. It's what happens when mere differences of opinion are presented as differences of moral authority or intellectual integrity. Maybe I'm not the one to make the claim, but I would like to think I'm not the kind to do that. …I’ve often quoted conservatives when their words support my position, or when they can be used to attack my conservative opponent’s position.

But I make no effort to hide the fact I’ve quoted a conservative writer for my own ironic purpose. In fact, I make it a point to emphasize it. Its a common rhetorical trick to say, “See, even your guy thinks you’re full of it”.

If I quote Buckley, or Reagan, or Krauthammer, I want conservatives to know I’m quoting one of their own. They will simply dismiss anything I quote from one of my crowd as irrelevant.

As for your slippery slope comment, I must admit you’re right on. It is so sad, so sad. It’s what happens when mere differences of opinion are presented as differences of moral authority or intellectual integrity. Maybe I’m not the one to make the claim, but I would like to think I’m not the kind to do that.

]]> By: FrankC https://habitablezone.com/2014/01/09/right-wing-response-to-the-rolling-stone-piece/#comment-29375 FrankC Thu, 09 Jan 2014 23:33:26 +0000 http://www.habitablezone.com/?p=42223#comment-29375 I read Animal Farm and 1984 when I was in High School and correctly identified him as anti-communist. I only learned later that he was a socialist. It didn't wreck my life. Each side of the political spectrum sees the other as a slippery slope. Each side is probably right but it has become so polarized there is no room to meet in the middle. Not good, it leads to a 'I'm coming for you atmosphere'. I read Animal Farm and 1984 when I was in High School and correctly identified him as anti-communist. I only learned later that he was a socialist. It didn’t wreck my life.

Each side of the political spectrum sees the other as a slippery slope. Each side is probably right but it has become so polarized there is no room to meet in the middle. Not good, it leads to a ‘I’m coming for you atmosphere’.

]]> By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2014/01/09/right-wing-response-to-the-rolling-stone-piece/#comment-29372 ER Thu, 09 Jan 2014 22:21:16 +0000 http://www.habitablezone.com/?p=42223#comment-29372 Orwell was a Socialist, something they invariably leave out when they invoke his memory and steal his quotes. <blockquote>"Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to <strong>democratic socialism</strong>." (emphasis my own) from the Wikipedia entry</blockquote> "Animal Farm" was indeed a satire on Soviet-style "dictatorship of the proletariat", which Orwell loathed, and which he saw as a form of state capitalism and no different from the tyranny he examined in detail in "1984" as well. <em>"The Soviet Union was a mirror image of Capitalism out of control", </em> But the Right quotes him, presumably because they have no other comparably articulate thinkers of their own. But they never discuss any of Orwell's other political thought, because 1) it may not fit in too well with their own 2) it is important to their narrative that any leftist, socialist, social democrat or anyone else even remotely critical of the Right's program must be a member of a monolithic, single-minded, uncompromising Communist front. 3) They refuse to accept or even recognize the concept of "democratic socialism". In other words, they see the political spectrum as totally binary: The good guys (US) vs Them, (anybody who doesn't agree with US 100%). They will accept no middle ground. Funny, this is exactly how Lenin and Stalin worked, too. They were harsher on renegade lefties than they were on Czarists. Orwell was a Socialist, something they invariably leave out when they invoke his memory and steal his quotes.

“Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism.” (emphasis my own)

from the Wikipedia entry

“Animal Farm” was indeed a satire on Soviet-style “dictatorship of the proletariat”, which Orwell loathed, and which he saw as a form of state capitalism and no different from the tyranny he examined in detail in “1984″ as well.

“The Soviet Union was a mirror image of Capitalism out of control”,

But the Right quotes him, presumably because they have no other comparably articulate thinkers of their own. But they never discuss any of Orwell’s other political thought, because

1) it may not fit in too well with their own

2) it is important to their narrative that any leftist, socialist, social democrat or anyone else even remotely critical of the Right’s program must be a member of a monolithic, single-minded, uncompromising Communist front.

3) They refuse to accept or even recognize the concept of “democratic socialism”.

In other words, they see the political spectrum as totally binary: The good guys (US) vs Them, (anybody who doesn’t agree with US 100%). They will accept no middle ground.

Funny, this is exactly how Lenin and Stalin worked, too. They were harsher on renegade lefties than they were on Czarists.

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