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Culture

Margaret Thatcher Is No Hugo Chavez

You can tell by the responses to their deaths

Ed Krayewski | 4.8.2013 12:48 PM

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You can tell by the reactions on the left. From the Sun:

Ex-Labour firebrand and current Respect MP George Galloway drew huge criticism on Twitter after he tweeted the lyric from a song celebrating Thatcher's passing. [Elvis Costello's Tramp the Dirt Down]

In a further message on the social networking site Mr Galloway - who infamously praised ex-Iraqi dictator and mass murderer Saddam Hussein - said: "May she burn in the hellfires."

Left-winger Derek Hatton - who led a militant strand of Labour councillors in Liverpool - sent out an insenstive tweet over his "regret" that she had been born.

Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone said Thatcher's policies were "fundamentally wrong" and she was responsible for "every real problem" faced in the UK today.

Students at the National Union of Students conference in Sheffield were also reported to have APPLAUDED the announcement that she had died - however this was strongly denied by the union's leaders.

Just last month, Galloway penned a slobbering obituary of Hugo Chavez, part of an outpouring of adoration from the European left and in America too. For his part, President Obama called Margaret Thatcher "one of the great champions of freedom and liberty" and a "true friend" of America. She was 87 and left power nearly a quarter century ago. Chavez was re-elected while critically ill, suspended his inauguration and then died. Now the defense ministry is working to secure his successor's election later this month.

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Ed Krayewski is a former associate editor at Reason.

CultureWorldMargaret ThatcherHugo Chavez
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  1. The Late P Brooks   12 years ago

    These people hold the moral high ground.

    You guys are just jealous.

  2. LTC(ret) John   12 years ago

    If by your enemies you are known, I'd say Thatcher gets the last laugh.

  3. sloopyinca   12 years ago

    My only regret is that Roger Ebert died without giving his opinion on Margaret Thatcher and vice versa. That might have caused the threads to implode and cause a singularity.

    1. Counterfly   12 years ago

      Well at least we can hear what Bill Maher thinks about what Thatcher thought of Roger Ebert.

    2. BakedPenguin   12 years ago

      Oh yeah? HAH!

  4. Warty   12 years ago

    But what did Bill Maher say about her? I need to know.

    1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

      What the fuck is a "Bill Maher"?

      1. JW   12 years ago

        Isn't that when you stuff a hooker's vagina full of blow, fuck her and then snort the results?

        1. derpules   12 years ago

          only if the blow comes the second drawer of the nightstand on the left side of the bed, otherwise it's called a Charlie Sheen

          1. JW   12 years ago

            No, no, for a Charlie Sheen, you have to lock the hooker in the bathroom.

            1. derpules   12 years ago

              shit, I always forget that part.

      2. John Galt   12 years ago

        You don't want to know.

  5. sloopyinca   12 years ago

    Note to self: change Facebook status from "Big Pimpin' with lots of money" to "Dirt poor".

    1. OldMexican   12 years ago

      One of those WTF?!?!?!? moments that really make my day.

      Thank you, sloopy!

  6. HazelMeade   12 years ago

    Why are leftists so full of hate?
    They keep talking about how their philosophy is based on love, but usually, when you talk to one, they are just angry and hateful.
    Not to mention the militancy and the advocacy of violence. How can a bunch of people who hate their enemies so much claim to be advocating a philosophy of love?

    1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

      It's not a left thing. It's a TEAM thing. The right does it too.

      1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

        The right is bad, but I'd say the left has mastered it. Just take a look at the political machines in cities like Chicago, New York and the many fiefdoms of LA County. Now, find me the equivalent of those in GOP-land.

        1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

          The right is full of "love your neighbor as you'd love yourself"-types who revel in fucking people over when it suits their purposes. It doesn't really matter what a collectivist's claimed motivations are, their end goal is always power over you and everyone else.

          1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

            When was the last time a Team Red political machine destroyed someone the way they did with Obama's Senate run, by having divorce records mysteriously unsealed. Or the constant revolving door of jailed Team Blue pols in Detroit, Chicago or New Orleans? Almost all of those were cannibalized by their own party so the "right people" could be put in place.

            But the stark difference is with the pundits and commentators. Occasionally you'll hear a SoCon saying a dead person will likely go to Hell, but that's because they're not a Christian. Rarely do you hear hate-filled commentary wishing excruciating pain and/or death to one's political enemies from the Right. From the Left, it's commonplace.

            1. John   12 years ago

              When is the last time the Right did something like leak Linda Tripp's DUI conviction? Tripp was just an average person caught in a scandal. So much for her privacy rights.

              1. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

                They tricked Dan Rather into pushing fake documents from Bush's national guard service.

                1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

                  WTF?

              2. Zeb   12 years ago

                I thought convictions were public information.

                1. John   12 years ago

                  They are Zeb. Except that they found out about the conviction because the Pentagon leaked her security clearance application. The conviction itself had been expunged and thus could not have been found via a normal records check.

                  The leaking of the application was a direct violation of the privacy act. But oddly no one was ever charged.

        2. Heroic Mulatto   12 years ago

          Now, find me the equivalent of those in GOP-land.

          Umm....the post-Southern Strategy South?

          1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

            You mean the Dixiecrats, right?

            1. Heroic Mulatto   12 years ago

              I'm thinking after them. More like the 1990s neo-Southern Strategy, especially where they dug in near VA/SC with the military and arms contractors.

              1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

                That had more to do with self-preservation than party. Lots of Team Blue elected officials in the Tidewater region playing the same tune as their GOP counterparts. South Carolina has been so gerrymandered that each party has safe seats. Their statewide races tend to be pretty lopsided, but that's a reflection of their bible-thumping population, not the parties.

                1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

                  And South Carolina has Lindsey Graham. If there were ever a more wishy-washy, moderate, compromising douchenozzle of a politician from the right, I don't know where to find him (or her).*

                  *Except on war, of course. Although that's become pretty bipartisan since Obama's Ascension.

                2. Heroic Mulatto   12 years ago

                  Their statewide races tend to be pretty lopsided, but that's a reflection of their bible-thumping population, not the parties.

                  But a political machine requires the population. Tammany Hall wouldn't have worked without the European immigrants supporting the Democrats in exchange for populist handouts.

                  I guess you're right though, that the GOP's machines are not as sophisticated as the Democrats'

        3. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

          Alaska has a kind of GOP machine (though it actually was against the GOP candidate in the last senate run, of course).

          1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

            So, except for the fact that they have a Democrat Senator (1/3 of their federal seats), they have a political machine? And what pols have been steamrolled by that machine with underhanded and/or illegal activities to ensure the machine candidate wins?

            Apples and oranges.

            1. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

              Joe Miller got squashed pretty bad.

              1. Ray   12 years ago

                Lisa Murkowski was the machine candidate, and was reelected in part with 95% of the vote with 95% turnout in majority-illiterate Alaskan native districts (remember, she was a write-in candidate).

      2. John   12 years ago

        Really? Show me an example of a figure on the Left dying that elicited this kind of hate? And I don't mean some crack pot dictator. I mean an elected leftist figure from the west. I can't think of a single time. Did the Right act like this when George McGovern died last year? Not that I remember.

        No. This is not a team thing. This is a Left thing. And the left is fucking nasty. They always have been.

        1. Warty   12 years ago

          Bill Clinton was pretty reviled in the 90s. We'll see how much the right pisses on his grave when he finally dies, but I can't imagine it being as much as this.

          Shit, even I didn't celebrate this much when Art Modell, that fucking scumbag conman, finally died.

          1. John   12 years ago

            It will be nothing like this. At most it will be some uncomfortable reminders of blowjobs past.

          2. John   12 years ago

            The right hated Carter. And he will be meeting his end soon. I can't imagine anyone saying something as stupid as what Red Ken is saying here.

            1. Irish   12 years ago

              Europeans have always been a bit more vicious in their politics than Americans, particularly left-wing Europeans. When Reagan died, I don't recall anyone saying things as wildly offensive as some of the things left-wing Brits are saying.

              If Bush were to die today, he would definitely get this sort of thing because that's how much the left hates him. But if Bush lives another 20-25 years, I think it's likely that the furor will have died down and even he won't get this kind of thing.

              I think it's a European vs. American thing, rather than a right vs. left thing.

              1. John   12 years ago

                But our left is saying just things just as bad.

              2. sloopyinca   12 years ago

                European vs American!

                1. Brandon   12 years ago

                  This link seems familiar.

              3. Mr. Soul   12 years ago

                I notice this every two years in the Ryder Cup. /sarcasm

            2. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

              The right hasn't hated carter for 30 years. He's pitied more than anything else, and his charity work has won him some street cred.

              Plus he DID deregulate airlines and trucking and appoint Volcker to the Fed.

              1. John   12 years ago

                They still hate him rightfully for his love of the Saudis and his hatred of Israel.

              2. robc   12 years ago

                And homebrewing. He may be history's greatest monster but he deserves praise for that.

            3. Kaptious Kristen   12 years ago

              I have always wanted to ask Jimmy Carter, in regards to Habitat for Humanity: "Why do you need a homebuilding charity? Shouldn't the government be handling that?"

              1. Brandybuck   12 years ago

                He's just trying to shame the government into handling it.

        2. sarcasmic   12 years ago

          Leftists cannot separate people from ideas.

          If you agree with them then you are a good person, and if you disagree then you are a bad person. The more eloquent and logical the disagreement, the worse of a person you are.

          1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

            ^^THIS^^

        3. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

          There haven't been any die-hard leftist presidents in recent history. Carter and Clinton were moderates and were reviled by the left while in office.

          1. Brandon   12 years ago

            Is Obama not recent history?

            1. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

              Heh, forgot about him. I wish you hadn't reminded me.

        4. Aresen   12 years ago

          McGovern actually became much more sympathetic to business after leaving politics, due to running his own small business.

          Actually having to cope with the bureaucracy is rather eye-opening.

        5. Xenocles   12 years ago

          I personally pissed on Ted Kennedy's grave the day after he died - figuratively, of course. But he was a through-and-through scumbag.

      3. Bill Dalasio   12 years ago

        Examples? Sorry, the "a pox on both their houses" works quite often. But, conservatives tend to be a little more sensitive to death than to dance on their opponents' graves. It probably comes from a fear of divine retribution.

        1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

          I'm not invoking a pox on both their houses. The point was that this behavior is not exclusive to the left. Both left and right hate one another because, for the most part, members of each are primarily TEAM players. If you're on another TEAM, they hate you. The left spews vitriol about Thather, and the right imagines Chavez burning in hell.

          1. John   12 years ago

            The left spews vitriol about Thather, and the right imagines Chavez burning in hell.

            So is Thatcher just as worthy of scorn as Chavez? Both sides imagine Hitler burning in hell. But that isn't a problem. So the issue is who are they heaping scorn on.

            There is a big difference in being glad to see the death of a horrible authoritarian who destroyed democracy and impoverished his people than doing so on a democratically elected British PM. So yes, the Left is worse. Or do you actually agree with them and think Thatcher is worse than Chavez?

            1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

              Given the two, I'll take Thatcher any day.

              Having lived in heavily conservative places and heavily liberal places, I don't see a difference in the animosity towards me from either side. Both TEAMS love to ostracize anyone different from them.

    2. sloopyinca   12 years ago

      It's because they hate hate. They have nothing but love in their hearts, but when they see a hater like Thatcher, their visceral response is to hate them so much and use such spiteful and vitriolic language about them that the original hate is cancelled out by their super-hate and love is brought about once more.

      At least that's one working theory I'm going with. Another is that they're little, fearful and mean-spirited people that are terrified they might be wrong about something and they would rather drive out opposition than confront it intelligently.

      1. John   12 years ago

        Another is that they're little, fearful and mean-spirited people that are terrified they might be wrong about something and they would rather drive out opposition than confront it intelligently.

        That and they totally get their sense of personal worth from politics. Most leftist literally have nothing else. Being a liberal is a very easy way to give your self a sense of superiority. So for a lot of them admitting they are wrong is admitting they are bad people. The personal is political is one of the most evil traps ever set for men.

    3. Episiarch   12 years ago

      Projection, Hazel. It is the core of TEAM BLUE.

    4. SaltySeaCaptain(LAOL)   12 years ago

      You're obviously not enlightened and open minded.

      /progtard

    5. sarcasmic   12 years ago

      Tolerance means not tolerating intolerance.

      The more hatred you shower upon intolerant people, the more loving and caring you are.

      1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

        Why don't you just steal my post verbatim next time, you fucking jerk!

        1. sarcasmic   12 years ago

          Just because I can express my ideas in a succinct manner doesn't mean you have to have a hissy fit.

          1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

            It's a fair cop.

    6. Hyperion   12 years ago

      They keep talking about how their philosophy is based on love, but usually, when you talk to one, they are just angry and hateful.

      It's just because you aren't accepting their love like you should, by fully embracing their ideology. So, it's your fault that they're hateful.

      1. Night Watchman   12 years ago

        "It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world...."

  7. derpules   12 years ago

    Not another MT article. Can we please go back to bitching about taxes and the war on drugs?

    1. Ted S.   12 years ago

      I'd rather talk about food trucks. Especially if they're selling deep-dish pizza.

  8. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

    They say this cat Thatch is a bad mother--
    SHUT YOUR MOUTH!
    I'm talkin' 'bout Thatch.
    THEN WE CAN DIG IT!

  9. The Late P Brooks   12 years ago

    When you have a record of unalloyed successes like Ken Livingstone, you may say anything you wish about anyone you choose.

  10. Irish   12 years ago

    Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone said Thatcher's policies were "fundamentally wrong" and she was responsible for "every real problem" faced in the UK today.

    Margaret Thatcher is the reason they're going into a triple dip recession as a result of far left economic polices?

    I didn't know Margaret Thatcher was at fault for a massive influx of militant Islamist immigrants who are basically trying to wage jihad in the British court systems.

    I didn't know it was Margaret Thatcher's fault that today Britain has 1.5 times as many CCTV cameras as China.

    It's nice to know that everything is Thatcher's fault.

    1. sarcasmic   12 years ago

      Why not? All of America's problems can be traced back to Ronald Ray Gun.

      1. derpules   12 years ago

        Don't forget BOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHH

        1. sarcasmic   12 years ago

          All Bush did was continue in the failed policies of the 80s. Everything Bush did can be traced back to Ray Gun.

          1. derpules   12 years ago

            Everything Reagan did was Bush's fault.

    2. John   12 years ago

      Those are not real problems and to the extent they are it is because people like Thatcher foiled the plans of good and right thinking people like Red Ken.

      Yeah they really believe this shit.

    3. Heroic Mulatto   12 years ago

      I didn't know Margaret Thatcher was at fault for a massive influx of militant Islamist immigrants who are basically trying to wage jihad in the British court systems.

      Except for an accident of birth, Red Ken is one of those militant crypto-Islamists.

    4. SaltySeaCaptain(LAOL)   12 years ago

      Exactly. She tried to stop Britain from entering the EU, and was one of the most prominent Euro Skeptics.

    5. Raven Nation   12 years ago

      It's kind of like the "Bush did it" phrase.

      Something I find fascinating about all this is how it goes against a key leftist teaching: one of the strengths of the new social history that began to emerge in the 1960s was a rejection of the "great man" theory of history. For the most part, I find that rejection to be pretty solid. However, when it comes to contemporary politics, the left particularly jumps back on the "Great (bad) Man" theory i.e. it's all Thatcher's fault, it's all Reagan's fault, it's all Bush's fault (I was just listening to a Cato roundtable from 2011 where Matt Yglesias declared that the entire national debt issue - which he said wasn't actually a big deal - could all be laid at W's feet).

      1. Irish   12 years ago

        I love when liberals blame W for the debt. The real spike in spending came after the Democrats took over the House in 2006.

        It's the fault of House Democrats more than anyone else.

        1. JW   12 years ago

          I'm happy to give Dubya his share of the credit for the spending.

          He signed the bills, after all.

          1. Irish   12 years ago

            Yes, but they want to throw all the blame on Bush when they controlled the part of government that actually controls the spending.

            Sort of like how they want to throw all the blame on Bush for the Patriot Act, even though virtually every Democrat voted for it.

            1. Loki   12 years ago

              Sort of like how they want to throw all the blame on Bush for the Patriot Act, even though virtually every Democrat voted for it.

              And Obama signed an extension into law not once, but twice. And at least one those extensions was while the D's controlled both houses of congress. Not to mention the NDAA of 2011. But Obam's soooo much better on civil liberties than BOOOSHITLER. Pfft, what a bunch of shit weasels.

            2. JW   12 years ago

              Partisanism sucks. News at 11. That and presidents get credit or blame no matter what, because it happened under his watch, not that they necessarily had anything to do with it.

              I get it, though, you end up defending someone you would never defend, except for the callous lack of regard for reality from lefties.

              I went through the same motions with Reagan and the deficit. He doubled tax receipts with the lower tax rates and a recovering economy, but the Democratically controlled Congress tripled spending. Still, at the end of the day, he signed the spending bills.

      2. John   12 years ago

        It is because the memories of the genocides that resulted in outright collective guilt are still too fresh. The Left has always been and will always be about finding and enemy and hating it and blaming all of its own failures on. Because we are only a generation removed from the Holocaust and Stalinism and Pol Pot, they really can't come right out and blame entire classes and races of people anymore. So instead they blame individual bogeymen like Bush or Reagan or Thatcher.

        But give them time. In ten years or so they will be back to blaming and trying to murder entire races and classes of people. They just can't help themselves.

        1. Hyperion   12 years ago

          Strange thing about that, is that Bush is a progressive. He's one of them, and they hate him only because he wore the team red cap.

          1. John   12 years ago

            The first people Stalin shot were the other communists. Yeah, other than possibly Korea, the US has never waged a more strictly Wilsonian war than the one in Iraq. It is really funny when you think about it.

            It is really as much culture as anything. Bush wasn't one of them and was a religious cowboy from Texas. So he had to be hated.

        2. sarcasmic   12 years ago

          I wonder how long before they start killing people for their ideas.

          As we all know, free markets and deregulation are at the root of every problem this nation faces.

          If we really want to solve this nation's problems, why don't we start with those intolerant people who support liberty and property rights?

          1. John   12 years ago

            I would say a year or two after they manage to disarm this country. The don't do it right now because they know the red necks and bible thumpers they want to kill so badly are armed.

            1. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

              They're a long, long way from disarming the country.

              1. generic Brand   12 years ago

                That's why he said one or two years after disarming the country, which hopefully never happens. But they are definitely working towards that end.

    6. Hyperion   12 years ago

      Look, anytime the left fails with a policy, which is always, it's only because someone on the right is getting in their way and preventing them from going far enough.

      When all the obstructionist right wingers are finally banished, utopia will spread around the world like a wild fire of pure bliss and harmony.

    7. MJGreen   12 years ago

      You assume the second and third points are problems.

  11. JW   12 years ago

    Is it OK if I don't give a shit if someone says something bad about a dead politician, other than "a good start"?

    1. Heroic Mulatto   12 years ago

      I'd agree with you except that she was one of the few successful people int eh fight against Keynesianism.

      For that alone, I'm gonna pour some of my 40 out for my dead homie, Maggie.

      1. JW   12 years ago

        I hear ya, I have a small soft spot for her, but more for "enemy of my enemy" than anything. She had a bit of a fascist streak in her.

        1. Mickey Rat   12 years ago

          You are using "fascist" incorrectly.

      2. MJGreen   12 years ago

        To go along with Jesse Walker's post, I respect the symbol, but am pretty ambivalent about the person. And she has long been out of power, so what does it matter that she's now dead?

    2. A Serious Man   12 years ago

      Considering how deeply ingrained brain dead socialism is in the UK and Europe in general she should be hailed as a hero for accomplishing what she did.

      Just look at how quickly they embraced Labour after her policies sparked an economic revival and how that's turned out for them.

      1. Irish   12 years ago

        That's my favorite part about Thatcher. They were in awful shape in the 1970s. By any objective measure, things got much better over the course of Thatcher's leadership.

        They went back to Labour. Their economy is now completely moribund.

        This is one of those things I like to call 'a hint.'

        1. John   12 years ago

          As Heinlein says, that is just "bad luck".

          1. BakedPenguin   12 years ago

            It's amazing how many droughts communist countries have.

        2. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

          Tony Blair was pretty moderate actually. Not even comparable to the 70s Labowr folks.

          1. John   12 years ago

            Sure, if you ignore that whole EU thing.

          2. A Serious Man   12 years ago

            70s Labour were straight-up Lenninists, so of course Blair had to do some moderating but the policies they pursued were still left-wing combined with a giant dose of police statism.

        3. Rhywun   12 years ago

          Their economy is now completely moribund.

          Mission accomplished.

    3. Ted S.   12 years ago

      The reaction over Thatcher's death also says something about the effect of 20 years of propaganda from the British equivalent of the Beltway Class -- the state-sanctioned media, and the metropolitan elites in entertainment and academia, among others.

  12. Loki   12 years ago

    I wish I could say I was surprised by the left's reaction, but I'm not. I'm just glad that someone like her existed if nothing else because it causes these brain dead prog-tard assholes to show their true colors.

  13. SaltySeaCaptain(LAOL)   12 years ago

    I wasnt even alive but even I miss the 80s. The left was finally on the run, and people (particularly college students)actually embraced capitalism. Sure beats the dumbasses we have now.

    1. John   12 years ago

      People were actually embarrassed for a few years to be communists.

      1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

        And then that cocksucker Oliver Stone had to go and make Wall Street.

      2. Heroic Mulatto   12 years ago

        And Marc Singer was on TV every night on "V".

        This is the most important part.

        "They're lizards under their skin."

        1. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

          He played a leftist photog who aided and abetted with Salvadorian leftist guerillas. That's a neg in my book.

      3. SaltySeaCaptain(LAOL)   12 years ago

        Yeah, though now they are totally out front and open about being pinko commies. I was essentially the only student in my 40+ HS classes that would attack the ridiculous of "communism is good is the right people are in charge" or "communism is good in theory, so I'll compromise with Socialism".

        Total fucking shit. Skulls of mush my generation is, and I really do apologize in advance. The occutards were just the first wave of communist sympathizers.

        1. John   12 years ago

          I am really glad I was alive and old enough to witness 1989. It was fucking glorious. All of those people rising up and winning their freedom. And the entire rotten fucking ideology being shown for what it was. Don't kid yourself, the leftists in this country were devastated over it.

          1. sarcasmic   12 years ago

            Look. The only reason it didn't work was because the wrong people were in charge. Now that we are in charge, we'll get it right. After all, we are the people we've been waiting for.

          2. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

            The thing I remember most was shock from my pinko friends that the USSR was so weak and decrepit. They thought it was going to be all hugs and kittens and rainbows on the other side of that wall.

            1. sarcasmic   12 years ago

              The thing I remember most was shock from my pinko friends that the USSR was so weak and decrepit.

              I remember that too. But they quickly figured out that the problem was that the government had not been powerful enough, because rich people did exist in the USSR. That wasn't supposed to happen. But rich people did indeed exist, and they directed the government. If only the government had had more power, it could have wrested that power away from the rich and put it back into the hands of the people where it belongs.

              They will complain of the same thing here. Only it's the corporations that control the government, and the government needs more power so it can wrest control from the corporations that control it, and bring it back to the people.

              Remember that the government is us, and that we are the government. So the more power you give to the government, the more power you give to yourself.

              1. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

                Can you point to an actual example of a mainstream liberal in 1989 expressing anger at the collapse of the Iron Curtain / surprise at how awful the conditions in the USSR were? We had been giving them food aid for years and jokes about Russians standing in line for hours to get vodka and toilet paper were all over entertainment long before then.

                1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

                  Hey, I was 19 in 1989. What I remember was my similarly-aged friends being surprised. I have no recollection of what mainstream liberals thought about it.

                  1. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

                    I was several years younger yet remember the media narrative. Why were you such an uninformed lad.

                2. sarcasmic   12 years ago

                  Here comes Tulpa to move the goalposts from anecdotal to mainstream media!

          3. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

            I don't remember it that way at all. There were very few true Soviet sympathizers left in the American non-academic left by that point. The "Stalin screwed up socialism" argument was already prevalent on the left.

          4. sloopyinca   12 years ago

            I was at Snowshoe, WV when the wall came down. I was fucked up out of my mind on booze and possibly other things I'll nether confirm or deny here. We fucking partied our asses off with some girls from Sweden that were finishing up a vacation. They weren't beauties, IIRC, but they were ready to party.

            Jesus. I don't know how I survived that week. About 6 of us rode the biggest innertube from the top of Cupp run to the bottom in little to no clothing and had to walk part of the way back up before being picked up by a dude in a snow cat setting up blowers.

            1. JW   12 years ago

              ironically enough, I was in college taking a course on Soviet political systems for my poli-sci minor when the Wall came down. My prof said that she almost drove off the road when they announced it on the radio that morning.

              It was a cool class. She, the prof, even brought in an East German official for Q&A. I almost got the class to tar and feather him.

        2. Hyperion   12 years ago

          Leftist seemingly have no sense of irony at all.

          Their entire philosophy is based on the assumption that people cannot be responsible for themselves or trusted to behave in responsible ways when interacting with others, they must be strictly controlled and have every minute detail of their life managed by the state. The state, who is ran by ... people.

          We're still looking for the right people, lol.

          1. sarcasmic   12 years ago

            The claims of these organizers of humanity raise another question which I have often asked them and which, so far as I know, they have never answered: If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind? The organizers maintain that society, when left undirected, rushes headlong to its inevitable destruction because the instincts of the people are so perverse. The legislators claim to stop this suicidal course and to give it a saner direction. Apparently, then, the legislators and the organizers have received from Heaven an intelligence and virtue that place them beyond and above mankind; if so, let them show their titles to this superiority.

            They would be the shepherds over us, their sheep. Certainly such an arrangement presupposes that they are naturally superior to the rest of us. And certainly we are fully justified in demanding from the legislators and organizers proof of this natural superiority.

            Bastiat

    2. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

      that was more the 90s. In the 1980s youth were as leftist as ever, with their pink mohawks, electric guitars, and cabbage patch kids.

      1. John   12 years ago

        The yutes have always been retarded leftists. I am talking about serious people not fuckhead college intellectuals.

    3. radar   12 years ago

      It really astonishes me how incredibly far-left campuses have veered since I left college 14 years ago. Sure, most of the profs were lefties, but I don't remember this suffocating lockstep leftism among the students. I went to a fairly typical State U. and the political breakdown was probably roughly equivalent to the population at large, maybe a shade more Dem. There's always a crazy fringe of commie types, but they are now the norm rather than a much-mocked minority.

      I mean, even on a silly/superficial level, could you ever imagine a movie like PCU getting released nowadays??

      1. A Serious Man   12 years ago

        My university's student council is composed of hard-core left-wingers that are using their funding for social justice causes and to promote left-wing speakers on campus.

      2. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

        I can't imagine PCU getting released in the 1970s or 1980s either.

        the 1990s were really a unique decade. There was a huge number of libertarians on college campuses.

      3. Irish   12 years ago

        For the record, Romney actually won young white people.

        He beat Obama by 7% among young whites, which no one is really talking about. That tells me that there have to be a good number of conservatives and libertarians on college campuses.

        I'd argue the reason it doesn't seem this way is because of the spiral of silence.

        There are so many loud, obnoxious left wingers on campuses, not to mention the fact that so many professors are virulently left wing, that people to the right don't speak up. I think the bigger issue isn't how hardcore leftist all the college kids are, I think it's that free speech has been totally deadened on college campuses and students who aren't lockstep leftists are scared to express their views.

        1. Tulpa (LAOL-PA)   12 years ago

          Being in the midst of that myself I think it has more to do with leftists tending to take politics personally more than the rest of us. I endured lord knows how many discussions in the lounge and at faculty meetings about what a retard Bush was and how the Republicans were killing the economy with their 39 senate votes, etc, etc, in complete silence and politeness; but then when it came out that I was against Obamacare I was made a pariah.

        2. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

          Also, younger guys tend to go along with whatever BS poetry reading or Pep Rally they have to in order to get into some girl's pants. If that means gravely nodding while listening to some blowhard talk about Marx, so bit it.

        3. Loki   12 years ago

          Add in the fact that many of the leftist professors grading system seems to the based on how lefty a students political views are with full blown commie = A down to EVUL RIGHT WINGER = F, and many of the leftwing students think nothing of inflicting violence on those they disagree with, and it's easy to understand.

          1. Hyperion   12 years ago

            Most of those Marxist profs are old relics now, teetering on the edge of death at any moment now.

            What we will have left when all of them have died off, is leftist feminism, the new totalitarianism.

            1. Hyperion   12 years ago

              But there are these folks, if that offers even a tiny ray of hope, I don't know.

              Students for Liberty

              I think the lefts main reaction to them is to call them a bunch of non-inclusive racist white boys.

              1. Irish   12 years ago

                If you've seen any of their gatherings, that's really untrue. Students for Liberty tends to be majority white, but it's probably 40% women. Plus, even though they're majority white, there are a lot of non-white people in the organization. I'd say that it's probably 70-30 white vs. non-white, which is actually pretty close to overall American demographics.

                Not that this will stop leftists from claiming racism, though.

                1. Hyperion   12 years ago

                  I'd say that it's probably 70-30 white vs. non-white, which is actually pretty close to overall American demographics

                  Racism! The government must step in. Ban the now!

                  1. Hyperion   12 years ago

                    them

                  2. Hyperion   12 years ago

                    They also could use someone to teach them CSS.

                2. A Serious Man   12 years ago

                  I'm a member of Young American's for Liberty and from what I've seen the demographics tend to match the location of the chapter.

                  My university is very diverse so we have Asians, Muslims, Hispanics, and whites.

                  1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

                    My university is very diverse so we have Asians, Muslims, Hispanics, and whites.

                    Aren't you at UCI?

                    I'm pretty sure you only have Asians.

                    1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

                      "What do we want?"

                      Riberty

                  2. Hyperion   12 years ago

                    Interesting. So what is the typical behavior of the statists on campus when they find out about one of your members?

            2. Irish   12 years ago

              That's not really true. Feminism is marxism. So is racial identity politics.

              What's happened is that there's been a marxist fracturing along identity lines. They've taken the only Marxist terminology of false consciousness and such, and simply applied it to race and gender politics rather than class differences.

              Modern feminist theory is nothing but Marxism in a pantsuit.

          2. radar   12 years ago

            That's true. I was fortunate to avoid this for the most part, but I did have at least one polisci professor that was straight out of that caricature.

            There is an appalling lack of skepticism among the under-30 crowd. They're happy to eat up whatever Marxist horseshit professors shovel out like it is chocolate ice cream. What's worse is the veneer of intellectual sophistication this gives such nitwits.

        4. Calidissident   12 years ago

          The numbers for the general young population isn't necessarily the same as for those going to universities. And since that's a national average, it's going to be affected by places such as the South where Romney won the young white vote by a wide margin. But in a lot of states he didn't win it.

    4. Paul.   12 years ago

      The left was finally on the run, and people (particularly college students)actually embraced capitalism.

      Mmmyeah, not really.

  14. Kaptious Kristen   12 years ago

    Looks like we have "Celebrity Death #3"

    1. John   12 years ago

      What a shame. Annette was a babe.

      1. Hyperion   12 years ago

        True, much hotter than most of the anorexic celebs that we see today. Of course, some here will say she was fat because she had some T&A.

        1. John   12 years ago

          MS is such a shitty disease.

    2. Gadianton   12 years ago

      I'm confused! is this the fault Thatcher or Bush?

      1. Gadianton   12 years ago

        fault of*

  15. Irish   12 years ago

    Thatcher's fault.

  16. Libertymike   12 years ago

    It would appear that many here are forgetting a basic, fundamental fact: Maggie Thatcher was a statist, through and through.

    1. A Serious Man   12 years ago

      You know who else was a statist?

      1. Hyperion   12 years ago

        Kublai Kahn?

        1. Ted S.   12 years ago

          In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a statist pleasure-dome decree;

    2. sarcasmic   12 years ago

      A statist who supports economic liberty is better than the alternative.

      1. Libertymike   12 years ago

        But that's the rub-she did not support economic liberty.

        1. sarcasmic   12 years ago

          Compared to the alternative she did.

  17. PS   12 years ago

    Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone said Thatcher's policies were "fundamentally wrong" and she was responsible for "every real problem" faced in the UK today.

    As I told my Czech wife, imagine how much worse life under communism would have been if you'd had Maggie Thatcher running things.

  18. XM   12 years ago

    I feel energized by the fact that people who think Hugo Chavez was a champion of the poor and Margaret Thatcher was a British Thug will soon become a majority in this country.

  19. lap83   12 years ago

    she didn't wine and dine enough movie stars

  20. WomSom   12 years ago

    That dude seems to know whats going on man. Wow.

    http://www.SurfPrivately.tk

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