Conservatives Are Asking You To Disbelieve Your Own Eyes
The political right's movement toward authoritarianism is exemplified by its refusal to embrace facts that don't conform to their alternative reality.
The January 6 Capitol riot—depicted increasingly on the right as a peaceful tourist visit, an FBI plot or an Antifa agitation effort—is the latest incarnation of comedian Richard Pryor's story (as he channeled Chico Marx) about what he said after his wife caught him in bed with another woman. "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?"
We all saw what happened on the TV news and in livestreaming videos from participants and bystanders. We can read the transcript of the former president's stem-winding speech to his supporters before many of them marched on the Capitol, where he whipped up the crowd by touting absurd conspiracy theories about a stolen election.
The numbskulls who stormed the Capitol, some of whom are facing modest prison sentences for their role in the clownish putsch, didn't show up by happenstance. "All of them—all of them were telling us, 'Trump sent us,'" according to recent testimony at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing by a U.S. Capitol police officer who fought back the insurgents.
Not every participant in the day's sordid events engaged in violence or vandalism, of course, and whatever punishments the courts mete out should fit the particular crime. But this was no tourist visit gone awry. Not every person who joined in left-wing attacks in Portland committed crimes, either, but I don't suppose Trump supporters would cut those folks slack.
The Trumpsters' silliest argument is that Antifa, the fascistic "anti-fascists" who turned portions of U.S. cities into rubble, were behind the Capitol event. Conservatives touted that narrative immediately after January 6. Apparently, that loose-knit movement runs so meticulously that it recruited thousands of volunteers who acted exactly like Trump supporters.
Why believe your own eyes? Sure, a few lefties might have infiltrated the pro-Trump mob. That doesn't make it an Antifa riot. The Portland scene wasn't a right-wing event because a few right-wing infiltrators may have joined in the action. I've attended many protests and guarantee that they attract all sorts of nut jobs. It's not hard for anyone to gain admission.
Despite GOP efforts to rewrite history, my eyes confirm the conclusion drawn by conservative writer David Frum: "The January 6 attack was incited by the head of the American government, the man who had sworn to protect and defend that government. It was the thing most feared by the authors of the U.S. Constitution: a betrayal of the highest office by the holder of that office."
Here's the problem. It portends dangers for the future if so many conservatives refuse to cop to the obvious truths of that day. If we can't all agree on basic, obvious facts about an event that unfolded before our eyes, then we're headed toward a well-trod path of internecine struggles where we just pick a side and fight to the bitter end.
In such situations, there's no room for common ground. For instance, Trump supporters have suddenly expressed concern about jail conditions and police shootings. A January 6 detainee "corroborates accounts from other detainees, including reports of abuse by prison guards, inedible food, and zero access to the outdoors, religious services, or physical activity," according to American Greatness.
As someone who has championed criminal-justice reform, I gladly welcome converts to the cause—except that it's hard to believe that the conservative law-and-order crowd really cares about this issue in any substantive way. It's more likely that they're concerned about it simply because people they sympathize with are suffering the indignities.
My problem isn't with Trump and Republican policies per se, although I'm dismayed by the conservative movement's populist rejection of free markets, free trade, budget restraint and limited government. Nevertheless, the former president's judicial picks, tax policies and regulatory rollbacks resonate with me far more than Democratic priorities.
My problem is with the political right's movement toward, well, authoritarianism, exemplified by its refusal to embrace facts that don't conform to their alternative reality—and their unwavering support for a man rather than a set of ideas. It's ironic that the man they've chosen to follow seems to embody moral characteristics they've long railed against, but go figure.
Even GOP leaders who know better and occasionally speak out against Trump's disinformation—House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.)—always end up toeing the party line. They dare not defy Trump or his base voters.
Before you pen that letter to the editor decrying my use of the A-word, consider the following. Prominent Trump supporters have actively been toying with the idea of an American Caesar. Others have been oddly sympathetic toward foreign strongmen.
Fox News TV host Tucker Carlson recently broadcast from Hungary, where he met with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which reminded me of leftists who swooned over Fidel Castro. But don't believe what you see. Just believe what you choose.
This column was first published in The Orange County Register.
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The numbskulls who stormed the Capitol, some of whom are
facing modest prison sentencesstill in jail for their role in the clownish putsch, didn’t show up by happenstance.This is an evil article from a libertarian perspective.
Not just because it’s dishonest, and attacks those who have been the real victims of a new wave of establishment authoritarianism. Not just because it uses the invective of actual authoritarians and warmongers (i.e. Frum) against their largely innocent adversaries. Not just because it ignores some of the most authoritarian trends in the history of the republic, currently occurring.
But because it’s a demagogic and its intent is exactly that which it pretends to oppose. This article itself is a movement toward authoritarianism, exemplified by its presentation of falsehoods and political invective as fact, in order to slur its adversaries.
My issue with Greenhut is that he conflates objective facts and conclusions. That is weak; I expect better from him.
I don’t expect better from any of these clowns anymore.
Typical blah-blah-both-sides-blah-blah-blah narrative from Reason. They’re running out of arguments to justify beating the dead horse, however.
Hard to run out of arguments when you can just makeup bullshit like this.
Well said.
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“My problem is with the political right’s movement toward, well, authoritarianism, exemplified by its refusal to embrace facts that don’t conform to their alternative reality—and their unwavering support for a man rather than a set of ideas. ”
Wait, I thought “authoritarianism” was exemplified by ordering people around, and demanding they obey, or else.
“au·thor·i·tar·i·an
/əˌTHôrəˈterēən/
adjective
favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government, at the expense of personal freedom.”
The conservatives seem to have a clever strategy of moving towards authoritarianism in a very sneaky manner, through limited government and the support of personal liberty.
Likewise, a significant percentage of the left are fighting fascism by imposing traditionally fascist policies.
No matter how many times people describe 1/6 as an attempt to overthrow the government through violence, it is hard to take very seriously. What I saw was mostly a crowd control problem. It was the sort of violence one sees at football matches, when security is poorly planned.
Obviously, there were some nuts and hooligans. Windows were broken, and some people were trampled.
Many writers continue to insist that is was an “armed insurrection”, although apparently they did not bring any guns.
They did not try to occupy the building or destroy the artwork.
Some people are still repeating the claim that officer Sicknick was savagely beaten to death by the mob, which is completely false.
On the plus side, the security footage from the capital might be available to the defense lawyers as early as 2022. The prosecution concedes that the footage contains exculpatory evidence, including “images of officers hugging or fist bumping rioters, posing for photos with rioters, and moving bike racks…”
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This is not a libertarian perspective.
This is a fascist perspective.
+1.
Reason, please add the ability to up vote comments.
I don’t want to down vote anyone, but up voting those I agree with would save unnecessary comments (clutter).
Just have the totals displayed though, don’t modify comment visibility based upon votes – fuck that noise.
Well said, Reason has lost its vision and effectively sold out.
Do you remember when Drudge was a conservative site?
I wonder how this happens?
Money
Neither did the morons following Oswald Mosley, William Dudley Pelley, William Jennings Bryan, Herbert Hoover or Adolf Hitler. They had prohibiting, regulating, taxing and bullying to do and were gittin’ ‘er done for Jesus. America voters dodged the bullet in November 1932… German voters made 1933 their last election year for a long, long time. Jan 6 was a superstitious Parteitag, pure and simple.
The last thirty years haven’t happened yet in Hank’s world. It’s still 1992 and the biggest threat to libertarianism is that the Moral Majority are mad about swears in rap lyrics.
And he loves baby murder!
No, January 6th was America’s Reichstag Fire. Those in power are using it to jail political opponents and gather ever more unchecked power unto themselves.
^^^THIS
Ding ding ding ding ding!
No, January 6th was America’s Reichstag Fire. Those in power are using it to jail political opponents and gather ever more unchecked power unto themselves.
Do you understand what actually happened with the Reichstag Fire?
Yes.
What city do you live in?
I thought it was pretty clear that he did.
Obviously what happened January 6th wasn’t perfectly identical to the Reichstag fire; History doesn’t repeat, it rhymes. But the analogy is clear enough: They look a minor protest that caused practically no damage, and inflated it into a threat to the very survival of the government justifying crazy actions and demonizing the opposition.
Like the others that are making this analogy, you have a flawed understanding of it and of Jan. 6.
We will probably never know for sure whether the Reichstag Fire in Feb. 1933 was set by a single individual, set up by German communists, or by the Nazis themselves as a false flag operation. But in the end, the Nazis most definitely used it as an excuse to seize more power as it occurred just a month after Hitler had been named Chancellor. The Nazis had won some support through elections, but were still well short of a majority of the country supporting them directly. But they would have full control of the government with Nazi Party members or sympathizers in all important positions before the winter of 1933.
How did that happen? The Nazi Party operated on a principle not of electing its own internal leaders, but by the leader at the top directing those underneath him, who then directed those underneath them. It was the ultimate top-down system of control, with Hitler and his cult of personality at the pinnacle. Elections were an afterthought to put a veneer of legitimacy to their rule.
The “minor protest” that you so dismiss was violent, despite your downplaying of it. And the Congress of the United States was certainly in danger, as we have images of members of Congress barricading themselves before finally being evacuated from their chambers. Chants of “Hang Mike Pence” and those ‘tourists’ tauntingly calling for Nancy Pelosi to come out weren’t the messages of people exercising constitutional rights to petition their government for a redress of grievances. I’m glad that we’ll never know exactly what would have happened if they had actually gotten hold of any congresspeople or their staff.
All of that had the stated purpose of preventing Congress from doing its constitutionally mandated role of reading the Electoral College votes and acknowledging Joe Biden’s victory. The “Stop the Steal” cry was founded on lies that “rhyme” with those about the communists that the Nazis spread to justify their takeover.
The “Reichstag moment” wasn’t anything that Democrats have done in response to the events of Jan. 6. It was that those events and the actions of Trump and people in his administration to resist the peaceful transfer of power after his loss through lies and conspiracy theory that were the “Reichstag moment” that continues to threaten the security of our Republic. Just as Gen. Milley had warned.
“The “minor protest” that you so dismiss was violent, despite your downplaying of it.”
Thus the government conceding that officers had been fist bumping the participants, and posing for pictures with them. Quite typical of violent riots.
Okay, to get this straight . . .
That a few Capitol officers may have ‘fist bumped’ people there or otherwise acted sympathetic to them, that cancels all of the other evidence of violence and intent to disrupt the functioning of Congress. That some officers felt that being greatly outnumbered and inadequately equipped to repel a large crowd meant that they shouldn’t try and use force to stop people from entering that weren’t an obvious violent threat means that those people weren’t actually trespassing.
Right.
Seriously, what kind of moron there at this “minor protest” actually believed that it would be legal to go into the building and disrupt the functioning of Congress? At best, they might have expected to be arrested in an act of civil disobedience if they didn’t do anything violent. But there were a lot of people that acted violently and destructively. Windows were broken that people used to enter the building. Many violently pushed past officers to get in, and Ashlii Babbitt died trying to get through an interior glass doorway that had been busted open.
And I shouldn’t have to say any of this to convince you. It isn’t like there aren’t hours of video of what happened that day available all over the place. If you don’t want to know about any of that, or deny its existence, then I would be wasting my time with you.
yea okay, what a weak comparison. Voter Fraud, Non existent, or so low there’s hardly any of it happening, lies about elections being stolen and etc.
The interesting thing about fraud, in general, is that you can’t know if there was fraud or not. If fraud occurred and it was detected, you can prove it. If fraud occurred and it was NOT detected, you can’t show there was fraud. Of course it would help to increase confidence in the results if practices and audits of the of the type Democrats generally oppose are done. So, to claim any fraud was “non-existent” is to claim something that can never be known. To do so is the mark of a liar.
+1
The US got FDR, a fascist and enemy of liberty. It was only because the US political system constrained him that we didn’t end up with a dictatorship.
And you really need to get over the misconception that fascists are somehow promoters of Christianity.
They were thrown in solitary confinement and kept without being charged for misdemeanors.
This will be a show trial and disappear into the memory hole quickly like the absurd impeachment theater.
A show trial with DC jurors, which is not good for the defendants in this case.
If you find out why the government is protecting Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers you will know why the clowns showed up.
I lost the author at “absurd conspiracy theories about a stolen election”
I am a rational person and open to being proved wrong.
Many Americans have questions about irregularities surrounding the counting of the votes.
Democrats would have gained a lot of trust from millions of people if they had agreed to audits of some of the most worrying voting sites.
The fact that they fought actual audits is a huge red flag.
I am worried that if the midterm elections are marred by the same irregularities, and there is no audit, that will lead to civil war
Judges in at least 8 states threw out the trumpian regime’s claim of fraud when trumpo’s underlings could not produce evidence. Case closed.
This is really pathetic.
Fuck this gaslighting commie loving rag
Something sinister has been happening at Reason.
It started with them getting a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and it was downhill from there.
I still have hope and appreciation of Reason magazine, but they really have to cut out these uncritical suck-ups to the received wisdom narrative of the establishment.
It is not funny anymore, and is blaringly obvious that something is going on in the background which we plebs are not privy to.
Sure, that’s why one of the most senior people in Reason’s staff, Nick Gillespie, often said he wanted Trump to win over Biden last year, and got in zero trouble for saying so.
Just ignore him being moved from top editor to Reason.tv about a decade ago.
Nothing to see here, right. Mike?
“Mostly peaceful” Captiol protestors.
Non-violent rioters.
Non-nonsensical right-wing wrong-nut hyperpartisan extremists!
This is mind reading at its worst, but typical for an outlet that refused to cover last years riots.
“last years riots”
There you go proving the author’s point.
Stop gaslighting. There were no BLM or Antifa “riots.” There were only mostly peaceful protests with occasional property damage caused by right-wing infiltrators. (Probably Proud Boys.)
Funny, both of you seem to be proving the headline. Nancy Rommellmann covered the Portland riots for Reason in some excellent pieces.
They also covered for the riots in a number of articles. Find one that mentions the 20+ dead. I can pull a half dozen articles here claiming the jan 6th riots killed 6 people.
Most definitely they have some bad takes on 1-6. Was just pointing out that Reason did cover the riots and I’ll add that those dispatches were some of the best journalism Reason has done. I’d love to see more of that kind of work, instead of the hot take articles pumped out everyday.
Yes the correspondent they had from washington- she was really good. Not afraid at all to point out how the rioters were trying to shape the message even though she clearly did sympathize with the protests.
I mean the hysteria by the editors here over “unmarked vans and uniforms” despite pictures of officers uniforms and the vans used to arrest away from mobs was pervasive here. Those procedures actually reduce violence overall.
But even those dispatches were primarily supportive they were just close enough and honest enough that they couldn’t hide all the ugliness. The fact they could draw a distinction between the daytime protests, nighttime riots and the people comfortable with the twilight was good journalism but damning for anyone claiming the protesters weren’t also rioters.
Jesse you have to remember the only 2 causes of death are wuflu and not progressives
And oddly trump is responsible for both causes.
We won’t survive as a free country if democrats are allowed to exist. They have to be removed. If elections and the courts continue to fail, more will be required.
Ultimately, progressive lives are less valuable than America’s freedom.
Yeah, and she’s a contributor, not a regular author. And her coverage consistently contradicted what the full time staff here were saying.
Yeah, Reason have been covering all recent riots as they happen. I’m not sure where the idea that they don’t come from.
Rommelmann’s piece was good, as was a later piece on the political situation in Minneapolis during the Chauvin trial.
Regarding some of Reason’s earlier dispatches that portrayed the riots as mostly peaceful: While I can’t speak for Portland, as a Minneapolis resident who went to school in the neighborhood that was burned, I find that hard to swallow.
Seriously, if Frum and Greenhut are sincerely concerned about public officials using incitement to intimidate political opponents, they should take a closer look at what happened in the Twin Cities:
– Several members of the Minneapolis council (including the son of the state AG) continued supporting the rioters after innocent bystanders were hurt and a public housing project was burned to the ground. They were joined by the governor in making the baseless claim that right-wing extremists had caused most of the damage.
– When rioters blocked highway 35W and viciously beat a truck driver after misinterpreting his engine braking, the DA charged the driver with a number of overlapping petty traffic offenses while failing to charge any of the rioters. The context made it even more damning, since the state had already granted a protest permit to march on the highway, and was only asking the rioters to wait for the highway patrol to close the road to traffic.
But that approved terrorism, unlike voicing concerns about irrational covid measures
Yep. Or maybe the older political hacks are just trying to re-play the 1970s, thinking that they can always get what they want by disrupting things.
Rommel Mann what an obvious name for a fascist. I don’t believe anything she writes. I will stick to what I am told to believe by the more enlightened writers at Reason.
It’s projection of the most obvious, deluded sort.
The sheer fucking balls to, after the events of the last 18 months, write this:
Is absolutely breathtaking.
The writers for this rag project harder than IMAX.
Bingo. The perpetrators of violence in the riots were all FBI agents provocateurs and everybody knows it. Besides, the whole circus of a so-called commission investigating Jan 6 is being done to cover up (1) the full year-plus of preplanned BLM/Antifa burning and looting, and (2) the unjustified arrest and torture of anyone on the Right who was anywhere near the Capitol on Jan 6.
Unarmed protests do not constitute “insurrection.”
Not every person who joined in left-wing attacks in Portland committed crimes, either, but I don’t suppose Trump supporters would cut those folks slack.
Shit like this flabbergasts me, equating weeks of protestors giving cover to rioters to ONE DAY when the other side gave cover to rioters. Conservatives were fucking shocked that their people got out of hand on January sixth and they went home. There was no riot on January seventh because conservatives, by and large, do not want to associate with lawlessness. Meanwhile, people on the left absolutely are fine with associating with lawlessness and providing cover for rioters and looters.
It’s gaslighting on an epic scale.
One day, in which a group of MAGA protestors attempted to violently overturn the results of a presidential election.
Even if you assume the whole crowd was culpable for what happened, this not a serious attempt to overthrow the elections or seize control of the government. Stop the gaslighting.
Look at that the violators are being charged with-unlawful entry, restricting access to a public building. A few examples of resisting arrest. There was nobody beating an officer over the head with a fire extinguisher. All we want is a bit of honesty, just a couple doses of it.
You’ll never get honestly from Mike Liarson.
Now, we judge whether a crime was committed by the competence of the criminals? You are purposely ignoring lots of evidence, including numerous videos, of violent attacks on police.
“There was nobody beating an officer over the head with a fire extinguisher.”
You haven’t gotten this fact right. The inquiry concluded that Officer Sicknick did not die as a result of being hit by a fire extinguisher. The reason why there was talk of a fire extinguisher in the first place is because — there are videos of officers being hit in the head with fire extinguishers.
The videos are not hard to find. Here’s the first one that comes up if you google it:
https://youtu.be/mPQuJrLTB-M
I did see one video of a fire extinguisher being thrown.
Is there any other?
I believe we can go back in the comments section and find Mike talking about the invisible fire extinguisher.
Doesn’t really matter. I refuted A Thinking Mind’s false assertion.
You supporting a false narrative caws into question you posting in good faith.
It doesn’t matter that I lied before.
— Dee
That’s it??!
He just softball lobbed it in their general direction.
I was expecting a big windup or a giant extinguisher lifted over the head and tossed or something. Something deadly, you know, like all the bricks and molotov cocktails team (D) threw when you attacked the White House and burned down a church a few months earlier.
You’re just a moronic prog propagandist.
There were protestors in 2016 too fucking idiot. And no election was nearly overturned. Youre hysterics are just like when you claimed for weeks fire extinguishers were used to kill cops.
Bitch, you haven’t seen what you’re begging for.
Eat a bullet.
Tell us about the Legos.
How would they actually overturn anything? Do you think that Nancy Pelosi’s Speaker’s gavel is like Mjolnir? That it’s enchanted with runes that say “Whosoever hold this gavel, if they be worthy, shall possess the power of Pelosi”?
You’re a pathetic joke when you repeat that shot over and over. Fucking moron.
That explains the timing to shut down the debate of an emergency audit proposed by Sen. Cruz. They thought breaking a few windows and rioting would change the vote count? How do you overturn the results of an election? Explain the idea attacking the capitol would change the vote tallies. I can prove beyond a doubt all that accomplishes is arrests and indictments.
4 tears of trump russia and the non fear of the US security state going after an elected president…
How that can’t be written with a straight face baffles me. What a load of shite.
Look at this poster, it’s absolutely amazing.
These are apparently Greenhut’s people
https://twitter.com/DrewHLive/status/1426585832610164738?t=yX-Z1dL1UrRb-GKGfFGjig&s=19
Eyes on LA
LA ANTIFA has announced a counter demonstration against the anti vax mandate protest today at LA City Hall
If you are planning to attend today and bring your kids, watch your 6, literally [possibly the most absurd poster ever made]
Antifa is COUNTER protesting people protesting government requiring internal passports, calling them the fascists…
Antifa’s poster is titled(?): NO SAFE SPACE FOR FASCISTS
Again: they are saying the people protesting against government mandating internal passports are fascists
They should be called ‘fa’.
Antefa. “Before the fascism”.
No weapons brought to the insurrection. Only casualty was when that chicken shit cop murdered that woman . What’s got into this magazine
What’s got into this magazine
Globalist money.
Pretty much. These articles are brown-envelope jobs.
Excellent analysis.
#1/6WasWorseThan9/11
As someone who has championed criminal-justice reform, I gladly welcome converts to the cause—except that it’s hard to believe that the conservative law-and-order crowd really cares about this issue in any substantive way. It’s more likely that they’re concerned about it simply because people they sympathize with are suffering the indignities.
Not at all. I’m glad people in deep blue cities are suffering from crime waves. They’re getting exactly what they asked for, and if they aren’t happy with it, it’s because they’re too stupid to understand how they got there.
Yes we all know you wish death and destruction on people who disagree with your politics. But that’s not the point. The point was that some conservatives are coming around to criminal-justice reform only because their QAnon buddies who stormed the Capital are unhappy with how they’re being treated in prison. Not because of principles or anything silly like that.
Yes we all know you wish death and destruction on people who disagree with your politics. But that’s not the point.
Huh, what happened to “democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard”?
People usually get what they want, and if they aren’t happy with the results, it’s because they weren’t careful about what they asked for to begin with. If my enemies are suffering as the result of their own choices, then yes, I will fully and unashamedly take pleasure in that.
The point was that some conservatives are coming around to criminal-justice reform only because their QAnon buddies who stormed the Capital are unhappy with how they’re being treated in prison. Not because of principles or anything silly like that.
It doesn’t have anything to do with “criminal justice reform.” It has to do with the blatant double-standard between the BLM riots and the January 6th tourist visit. Since we know the former were working behind the scenes with local politicians and news organizations on teleconferences, as Time Magazine bragged about earlier this year, it stands to reason that these people are just fine with riots and destruction as long as it’s their side doing it if they think it will hurt people who disagree with THEIR politics.
So yes, I’m just fine with their lack of future-time orientation biting them in the ass. Maybe you should whinge a little less about me pointing that out.
It has to do with the blatant double-standard between the BLM riots and the January 6th tourist visit.
Did you bother to read anything more than the headline? The article is, in my opinion, spot on. Not everyone on Jan 6 was a rioter, but not every protestor over the summer was a rioter either. Your eagerness to say nobody on Jan 6 did anything wrong while damning every protestor as a rioter is just as stupid and ignorant as the double-standard you’re complaining about.
Not a single thing you wrote here refutes what I said.
Are you proud to be no different than the people you hate?
Occupying the moral high ground doesn’t win wars.
Conservatives used to do both.
And times change.
Principles don’t. And that was part of the point of the article. That conservatives have rejected all of their principles and are just as amoral as those they used to claim a moral high ground over. That’s why people with principles and morals reject both teams. They’re equally disgusting in that regard.
Youre not one to talk about principles dumbass. You have zero.
Didn’t you just tell everyone you were here to troll, yesterday? And now you’re talking about moral high ground?
Principles don’t.
The fuck you talking about? Principles change all the time, and typically in response to the realities at hand.
And that was part of the point of the article. That conservatives have rejected all of their principles and are just as amoral as those they used to claim a moral high ground over.
If the other side is fucking them over, holding to “principles” doesn’t do anything other than cleave to a losing strategy.
That’s why people with principles and morals reject both teams. They’re equally disgusting in that regard.
Bullshit. People with “principles and morals” are simply trying to keep their head down in the hopes that they won’t actually have to show the real courage of their convictions.
Maybe try not to run that stupid “not all _________!” apologia, it makes you sound like a simp.
You’re calling the events of Jan 6 “tourism” and I’m the simp? Dude…
Just exercising the same double standard my enemies are.
Well it makes you look like an idiot.
Not every protest over the summer turned violent, and not every protestor was a rioter. If you think that statement makes me look like a simp then I guess facts are for simpletons.
And if you’re one of those conservatives who reject facts, like the title of the article describes, then you’re completely hopeless.
You are lying.
You’re retarded.
He’s definitely lying. And poorly too.
Well it makes you look like an idiot.
Exercising a survival mechanism is a mark of intelligence and reason, not stupidity. To not do so is suicidal. No one is obligated to martyr themselves over so-called “principles.”
Not every protest over the summer turned violent, and not every protestor was a rioter.
Enough were that the description is accurate.
If you think that statement makes me look like a simp then I guess facts are for simpletons.
Acting as an apologist for a violent movement that destroyed people’s lives, businesses, and property, and turned deep blue cities into high-crime havens resembling the bad old days of the 1970s, definitely makes you a simpleton.
And if you’re one of those conservatives who reject facts, like the title of the article describes, then you’re completely hopeless.
Rejecting the premise of the article isn’t a rejection of facts.
Acting as an apologist….
Fuck you. It sucks that the rioters can’t be identified and prosecuted. But that’s the way it is.
The idiots who stormed the Capital were surrounded by cameras which meant they could be identified and prosecuted. And that’s what happened.
I’ve never once justified the summer riots. Not once. I simply reject your blanket claims that there were no peaceful protests, that every protest was a riot, and that everyone who showed up was a criminal.
Unlike you and your buddies who totally excuse everything that happened on Jan 6, and go so far as to call them tourists.
You want an apologist, try looking in the mirror.
Fuck you. It sucks that the rioters can’t be identified and prosecuted. But that’s the way it is.
Fuck you right back. Parroting the White Mike line about “mostly peaceful protestors” earns you that title.
The idiots who stormed the Capital were surrounded by cameras which meant they could be identified and prosecuted. And that’s what happened.
Uh, most of the BLM riots were livestreamed, you moron.
I’ve never once justified the summer riots. Not once. I simply reject your blanket claims that there were no peaceful protests, that every protest was a riot, and that everyone who showed up was a criminal.
Woof, talk about a strawman.
Unlike you and your buddies who totally excuse everything that happened on Jan 6, and go so far as to call them tourists.
Like you said the other day, I’m looking to provoke a reaction.
By the way, you dumbfuck, plenty of Antifa and BM rioters were arrested for rioting last year–only to be released right back in to the street when the DAs declined to press charges.
The mere fact that you are either unaware or avoiding this fact undercuts your entire fucking argument.
Parroting the White Mike line about “mostly peaceful protestors” earns you that title.
Talk about men of straw.
Woof, talk about a strawman.
Then why do you get angry and attack anyone who insinuates otherwise?
Talk about men of straw.
Your words: Your eagerness to say nobody on Jan 6 did anything wrong while damning every protestor as a rioter is just as stupid and ignorant as the double-standard you’re complaining about.
My words: It has to do with the blatant double-standard between the BLM riots and the January 6th tourist visit.
So are you arguing that riots didn’t happen during BLM protests? Because this would be a rather rich take considering the article’s headline.
Then why do you get angry and attack anyone who insinuates otherwise?
Why do you have to erect strawmen to make an argument?
It’s beyond hilarious that you can’t even remember what you wrote three hours earlier in the same fucking thread.
Sarc admitted he’s only here to troll yesterday, Red.
That’s odd. I have never, ever used the phrase, “mostly peaceful protestors”. Not in reference to summer protestors, Portland protestors, or D.C. protestors.
Stop lying.
Lying is almost all white Mike does.
And he won’t stop until someone stops him.
Of course you would think that. Notba ringing ndorsement
Yet you oddly don’t give a shit about cops shooting an unarmed protestor in a case 1/10th of the blm riots. Despite you being an ACAB moron in every other cop thread.
You also oddly seem okay with 2 months in prison for “parading” and the forcing of public statements by defendants during sentencing to basically give fealty to biden as president. This after 4 years of The Resistance. Likewise 5 months in solitary as many of those arrested have spent is okay to you? Youre a fucking statist.
If you went out for the 4rd through 10th days of blm protests turned riots, you’re a rioters. Sarcasmic is too stupid to understand this.
He’s really not smart enough to recognize patterns of behavior.
This article is gaslighting you. What’s the difference between January 6 and everything that happened in 2020? January 7. What happens when lawless people infiltrate a mob of conservatives? They pack up and go home. There’s no continuous crowd cover of “mostly peaceful” protestors.
Weeks and months of the other side rioting is not the same as one day when a riot happened. There’s also no narrative being spun about how January 6 was “mostly peaceful,” and people on the right are fucking exhausted by the obvious gaslighting.
“There’s also no narrative being spun about how January 6 was ‘mostly peaceful,’”
Many, many times right here in the commentariat right-wing commenters have claimed the January 6th rioters were only staying behind the “velvet ropes” and “taking selfies”. Those exact words, over and over again.
It was a sit-in, like many others that occurred mostly in the 1960s and early 1970s. A demonstration with trespassing.
And lots of documented violence.
Oh, like what?
Come on you lying psychopath. Name one act of violence that was worse than any other non-violent protest last year.
Aside from shooting and killing an unarmed woman in cold blood, of course.
This from the same shithead who claimed all of last year that no BLM protest was violent.
Wait, so youre claiming that didn’t happen? Ill point you to multiple doj cases where they charged someone with parading and taking selfies you dishonest shit.
That’s because that’s what they were doing
There’s also no narrative being spun about how January 6 was “mostly peaceful,” and people on the right are fucking exhausted by the obvious gaslighting.
You’re kidding right? I see that narrative being spun all the time. Heck, people on these comments say they were mere tourists. The only thing that happened was some cop shot a woman for no reason. That’s it. Nothing else happened.
Not just Jan. 7, but the rest of the day on Jan. 6. There wasn’t widespread mayhem or rampant looting or “fiery, but mostly peaceful” protests. Things went bad, and everyone went home.
Nobody has ever said that every BLM protester is a rioter. I’d settle for the media acknowledging that some of them are.
Instead we’re told about ‘mostly peaceful protests’ where fires ‘break out’, apparently by spontaneous combustion.
How many BLM/antifa rioters are facing charges comparable to the Jan. 6 defendants?
Reminder… a jan 6th rioter was given 2 months on federal jail and a felony despite the prosecution admitting he committed no vandalism nor violence.
tResSpassinG in the most public building in America, of course, should be a capital crime. Right White Mike?
White Mike has already committed capital crimes.
Nemesis will catch him.
“Be the change that you wish to see in others…”
Neither side approves of the police shooting unarmed protestors. But only one said is saying to ignore one such shooting entirely.
If you are talking about Ashli Babbitt, it’s not being ignored. It was clearly justified as part of the officer’s duty of preventing harm to the Vice President, Congress members, their staff and guests.
How does shooting an unarmed protester from behind constitute justification?
Here. Let me make that sentence honest.
How does shooting an unarmed protester from behind a barricade while she led a mob trying to climb through a broken door constitute justification?
When an angry mob is breaking doors and climbing through them, and you’re tasked with stopping them, what are you supposed to do? Offer them cookies?
But she was just a tourist who got lost looking for the velvet ropes!
Figures a comment about cookies would get a response from you, you fat sack of pus.
Hey Jeff, is Rand Paul a swamp creature?
Hey jeff, watch the video and point out how the officer was threatened and what she did that deserved a bullet.
When you’re executed as a traitor, THAT will be legally justified. Babbit’s murder by you democrats was not.
So what you’re saying is that the Antifa rioters in Portland should have been shot for trying to burn down the federal courthouse?
No. They should have been allowed to sanitize the entire city.
By that argument from sarc the cops can shooting them for being illegally in a public street.
No. That does not justify a shooting. Not by any police handbook dumbass. The officers have to be in fear of their safety or the safety of others. Trespass is not a capital offense you statist shit.
She was obviously unarmed and surrounded by armed cops asshole. The idea that she could possibly harm anyone is ludicrous. I’m sorry but I’m gonna believe my own lying eyes.
“When an angry mob is breaking doors”
Oh? what doors did they break. There was a window, and some camera and audio equipment got damaged, and one of those lantern things outside got knocked over, but no doors are mentioned in the damages.
You really are nothing but a fascist troll, huh.
And yet there were armed agents of the state on her side of the fucking door who didn’t deem her enough of a threat to shoot.
Vice president and congress had already been evacuated dumbass.
But AOC still felt threatened from her bunker.
Well the riots were obviously “sexualized” and Republicans were lining up to gang rape AOC Kavanaugh style.
Mike Laursen will cease to exist when it meets justice.
sarcasmic
July.16.2021 at 3:11 pm
Flag Comment Mute User
I was going to add something about people who might be splattered by the mess, but nobody cares about your alone ass. Shit. Nobody will know you’re missed until they shut the power off and things start to smell.
The point was that some conservatives are coming around to criminal-justice reform only because their QAnon buddies who stormed the Capital are unhappy with how they’re being treated in prison.
Yeah. Much better to come around to criminal justice reform because someone assaulted and robbed a convenience store clerk and then got shot by the responding officer or because someone showed up to threaten the ex-girlfriend who had a restraining order against him and got shot going for his knife.
Much more principled.
And there’s Sarc, in to white knight for the left. As usual.
Democrats decided justice reform was important after President Trump signed the First Step Act into law which was the first real justice reform bill in decades that started reducing the damage done by Democrat policies. President Trump and the America First platform support giving opportunity to the underserved in high crime areas to reduce crime while the left support letting criminals out onto the streets and defunding police to reduce crime.
You’re right. We need to suspend elections altogether since it’s obvious, the voters don’t know any better and chose “death and destruction”. We need to do what’s necessary regardless of what voters choose. It’s for they own good, of course.
He might check which President actually passed criminal justice reform.
And which one sponsored the 1994 crime bill, while we’re at it.
Criminal justice reform /= de facto decriminalization of theft, dishonestly characterizing many malum in se crimes as “nonviolent”, and letting violent repeat offenders out to continue offending. Even though that is exactly what writers like Greenhut and Shackford have been shilling for, the last few years.
To Hell with you, sir. I hope the monster you’ve been feeding eats you.
But do you think that’s the purpose of their advocacy? Or only an unintended but foreseen byproduct, a breaking of eggs to make an omelet?
The purpose of their advocacy is to bring chaos to criminal justice, and the crime rate in general. Demonize existing local and state law enforcement, while simultaneously—through appointing/electing actual DSA member judges, the aforementioned decriminalization and removal of bail, and dropping the ban hammer on any cop who uses force against a minority member—making crime so bad that the populace will ask .Fed to do anything at all to stop it. Which, cue Patriot Act, the Federal Government will be only too delighted to do.
None of this is accidental or unintentional.
Cops have made a ton of their own beds in this, don’t get me wrong. The War on Some Drugs is Evil, and has been used to keep the lower classes incapacitated since its inception. Plus, American LE has been ridiculously willing to use deadly force against any perceived potential threat to an officer’s safety, no matter how objectively ridiculous the threat may be.
What Greenhut, et al, are shilling for is still worse. We had to learn all of these lessons in the 70s, and it looks like we’re going to have to relearn them again.
Right. So they are cartoon villains.
Cartoons are on the tee-vee, not in real life.
Keep being wrong and running cover for literal totalitarians as it’s happening, collectivistjeff.
At least he finally recruited someone from here in sarcasmic.
You’re a literal cartoon villain, Jeff. Why can’t they be?
You’re a cartoon moron.
Correct
Amen
Cop to the “obvious” truths?
By that do you mean the only observations and perspectives left, when all counter arguments are banned, censored, erased and deplatformed from social media, free speech?
Not private media aka mainstream media where the propaganda flows 24/7.
Social media, for people to socialize. People with inalienable rights.
Truth hurts.
Which is why the Left wants it labeled “misinformation” and banned from discussion.
The truth is TDS turned you into Jeff.
In every thread here about police abuse you rage. Capitol Police shoot an unarmed veteran? Not a fucking peep. Biden does something bad? Hurry and blame Republicans!
Thats your life now. You don’t understand truth. You live a lie. You claim to be sanctimonious and not a troll. Lol.
Exactly how does this indicate a “move toward authoritarianism”? The Trumpsters can be plausibly accused of a lot of stuff, but I’m not sure the “authoritarian” charge is accurate. Maybe you should look up the definition of “authoritarianism” before you throw the term around so loosely. I would say that the folks who are citing “science” as an un-debateable and unchallengeable authority fit that role better.
Did you RTFA?
Greenhut should probably read up a littler further on Roman history to see how someone like Caesar can come to power in the first place. And it’s interesting that he cites Caesar, considering Augustus is really the one who consolidated political power within a single entity.
August follows July for a reason.
I’d put Trump on the level of Tiberius or Gaius Gracchi if I were looking a similar Roman politician during the transition from Republic to Empire. But I don’t think that is a very good comparison either.
But then again that was Moldbug’s (Yarvin) choice of figures not Greenhuts.
In his [Yarvin] view, roughly every 75 years, a “Caesar” seizes dictatorial powers and institutes “substantive regime changes.”
“I’d put Trump on the level of Tiberius or Gaius Gracchi ”
Yes. A thousand times yes. I said this a couple years ago. I said that, like the brothers Gracchi, the establishment would mobilize to destroy him, his family, and anything that he represented. And I was right.
I also said that the real Caesar was working his way up through the military when the Gracchi learned to use the mob to their advantage, but were crushed by opposition, and so he learned that if he was going to go for power, it wouldn’t be through the system- but by destroying the system. Time will tell if a similar proto-Caesar is working his way up the ranks of the State Department, or Navy right now.
“Time will tell if a similar proto-Caesar is working his way up the ranks of the State Department, or Navy right now.”
My money, it’ll eventually be some caudillo who in his military career, tapped out at O-4 or O-5. If Flyover Land ever gets the whip hand again, watch out.
A lot of blood before that happens. China is about as internally fragile as we are, AIUI, and while the Soviet Union managed to implode without getting too frisky with its neighbors, I doubt the only children who are running things in China will demur with equal grace. If there ends up being an armed, shooting confrontation with the PRC, as they try to exploit any catastrophic social disintegration within the US, I see things getting very pear-shaped, very fast.
It won’t be on purpose. It never is. The Black Hand never thought that whacking some Austrian political figure would lead to Russia jumping in to save their shit from a bunch of pissed Hungarians, and everybody then calling their buddies for help, but it happened.
Remember that Caesar’s crowning achievement before coming back to Rome was defeating the Gauls. That said, his celebrity status as a military leader was rooted in Rome’s celebration of military might. The US may not be as enamored with a military leader, unless it is someone like a Wesley Clark.
The alternative is someone like Kamala Harris- except smarter- who leads a metaphorical war to conquer some other evil.
It wasn’t a surprise the Russian Empire mobilized to aid Serbia against the invasion from Vienna. Petrograd saw itself as the protectorate of all Eastern Orthodox peoples. As they had done a half century earlier at Plevna for and with the Bulgarians and Romanians. Of course increasing their influence in the Balkans and lessening that of another strong European power likely factored in.
The sad part about that day in Sarajevo was that the one man that wanted to prevent Austro-Hungary from entering into a continental conflict and had the power to prevent it had just been assassinated. Franz Ferdinand had also supported a pan Slavic state within the empire to mimic Hungary’s semi-autonomy.
Biden would be Claudius. An old coot installed by the Praetorian guard.
Love how these clods are always calling Trump an authoritarian. Everytime he was checked by some Hawaiian or other convenient judge he complied. If he was a dictator there’d be a whole lot of people jailed or dead, like with the Clintons.
Yep, Biden just claimed he has the power to make laws himself, saying “This is probably unconstitutional, but YOLO! By the time this works its way to the Supreme Court there will be hundreds of thousands of people dependent on me to keep them in their homes, and Chief Justice John “Penaltax” Roberts won’t want to be the bad guy who kicks them out.”
No, Claudius wasn’t a horrible emperor.
Biden is much more like Tiberius, including his taste for children.
There is nothing to it whatsoever. Total bullshit.
’cause Damned-and-Sick-in-the-Head says, so, right? Appeal to The Uber-Authority? Is that the BEST you have to offer?
Hey Damiksec, damiskec, and damikesc, and ALL of your other socks…
How is your totalitarian scheme to FORCE people to buy Reason magazines coming along?
Free speech (freedom from “Cancel Culture”) comes from Facebook, Twitter, Tik-Tok, and Google, right? THAT is why we need to pass laws to prohibit these DANGEROUS companies (which, ugh!, the BASTARDS, put profits above people!)!!! We must pass new laws to retract “Section 230” and FORCE the evil corporations to provide us all (EXCEPT for my political enemies, of course!) with a “UBIFS”, a Universal Basic Income of Free Speech!
So leftist “false flag” commenters will inundate Reason-dot-com with shitloads of PROTECTED racist comments, and then pissed-off readers and advertisers and buyers (of Reason magazine) will all BOYCOTT Reason! And right-wing idiots like Damikesc will then FORCE people to support Reason, so as to nullify the attempts at boycotts! THAT is your ultimate authoritarian “fix” here!!!
“Now, to “protect” Reason from this meddling here, are we going to REQUIRE readers and advertisers to support Reason, to protect Reason from boycotts?”
Yup. Basically. Sounds rough. (Quote damikesc)
(Etc.)
See https://reason.com/2020/06/24/the-new-censors/#comment-8316852
You’re a troll, aren’t you.
Not a troll… I merely warn readers when there are ideological idiots here, where it is a TOTAL waste of their (other readers’) time to engage with them! You can argue them into a corner, and get them to say THE most utterly absurd things! And then their overweening, egotistical pride is SOOOO utterly YUUUUGE, that they will NEVER take back the stupid things that they say! (If they ever took back their stupid, I would quit reminding readers about it. But they never do).
Yes.
Yes! Yes, R Mac & THE Cheesiest & Sleaziest of the Mac & Cheeses ARE rolling & trolling their cheese wheels as we speak! By Cheeses, Mother MammaryBahnFuhrer, & Government Almighty, The Unholy Trinity (3 and 1 at the same time), ARE, yea verily, TROLLS!
Weird that KARen and squirrel both started calling me Mac and cheese at the same time.
And by weird I mean they’re both sarc socks, and he admits he’s a troll.
Your team wants vaccination passports for interstate travel and indoor activities
Yeah, the authoritarians’ president and proto-Caesar left pandemic policy up to the individual states.
I’m not on a team you idiot.
Then why do you spend all your time playing for them?
Rejecting your team’s nonsense doesn’t equal playing for the other.
You claimed for 4 years that anyone who attacked the left was a trump cultist. By your own standards youre a biden cultist.
Likewise you still can’t bring yourself to criticize Biden no matter his actions without deflecting to the GOP or trump.
Yes, you are on a team dipshit. Your actions say so.
You continue to lie to yourself.
Which “prominent Trump supporters”? A few Qanon conspiracy nuts?
The Russians probably.
“Prominent Trump supporters have actively been toying with the idea of an American Caesar. Others have been oddly sympathetic toward foreign strongmen”
From the fucking link:
“How extreme? So extreme that in late May, Anton (who?)set aside nearly two hours on his Claremont Institute podcast (“The Stakes”) for an erudite, wide-ranging discussion with self-described monarchist Curtis Yarvin (literally, who?) about why the United States needs an “American Caesar” to seize control of the federal government, and precisely how such a would-be dictator could accomplish the task.”
So a fucking YouTuber of debateable political provenance say’s America should get a king, and DNC shill Greenhut, and idiot-boy sarcasmic say “conservatives are authoritarian”.
THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS LITERALLY INSTRUCTING SOCIAL MEDIA TO CENSOR PEOPLE!
THEY ARE PUSHING VIRUS PASSPORTS THAT RESTRICT FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT!
THE CAPITOL WAS RINGED WITH FUCKING TROOPS AND RAZOR WIRE!
AFTER FOUR YEARS OF SCREAMING ABOUT ELECTION FRAUD THEY HAVE MADE DISCUSSING ELECTION FRAUD UNACCEPTABLE PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND HAVE PROPOSED MAKING IT ILLEGAL! (actual elected Democrats, not just some fucking Youtubers)
THEY SHOT PROTESTERS FOR DOING EXACTLY WHAT THEIR OWN PET PROTESTERS HAD ALREADY DONE TWICE (with more destruction) IN THE PRIOR YEAR, AND IMPRISONED THEM INDEFINITELY WITHOUT CHARGES!
This gaslighting you creepy fucks are attempting here is beyond disgusting.
A big FUCK YOU, FASCIST to Greenhut, you mendacious demagoging swine; and fuck you sarcasmic, you credulous, dishonest drunk.
Well said.
“We found one guy who is a self-described monarchist and he stands for the entirety of the political right.”
Yup. And this fucker wonders why the right refuses to accept predominant media narratives. Because they’ve been lied to so much and so blatantly over the past 5 years that they’re going to assume you’re a liar every time you speak up.
Why do you insist on proving them right?
“Did you RTFA?”
He mentions that off quote from some 2 bit podcaster. But that is one line out of an entire article that tries to make the case that “refusing to accept facts that conflict with their reality exemplifies their authoritarianism”.
Do you really deny that such a statement is terrible? How in the hell is it an example of authoritarianism to dismiss inconvenient facts? If it is an example, then every single one of us- from anarchist to monarchist exemplifies authoritarianism all through their lives.
I’ll agree that there is a lot of truther-esque qannon nonsense around the Jan6 riot, but to spend an entire article trying to say that the nonsense proves that these conspiracy theorists are really Authoritarians is such a poor foundation that that one “American Caesar” quote is a thin veneer that can’t begin to cover the cracks.
Notice all the responses from sarc of people he’s previously muted, yet no response to this?
It’s because he’s a troll.
Thats made up and idiotic. You are idiotic. No one buys this bullshit
Plus, Trump never once defied a court order, or the Constitution. Unlike Obama and Biden.
Biden is ruling as a dictator now, today, issuing illegal eviction moratoriums in defiance of law and the courts.
After control is retaken, the democrats have to be dealt with. This shit needs to end.
And who is “control” to be retaken by? This would typically be Republicans, but we know Republicans will do nothing about anything. They’ll just sit back fat and happy they have the majority, until they no longer do and the cycle continues.
Yeah, there are some pretty ridiculous Trump supporters. But I see pretty much zero chance of a Trumpian autocracy emerging. If that’s all there is backing up the claim of authoritarianism, then I’m going to keep being more worried about what the Democrats are up to right now.
But I see pretty much zero chance of a Trumpian autocracy emerging.
He’s sure pushing for one, and a good half of the people in these here comments would approve.
Why are you playing for totalitarian leftists if you aren’t on the team?
Provide for me just one quote where I advocate for leftists. One fucking sentence. And no, rejecting your nonsense doesn’t equal advocating for something else. It just means I reject your nonsense.
“He’s sure pushing for one, and a good half of the people in these here comments would approve.”
https://reason.com/2021/08/13/conservatives-are-asking-you-to-disbelieve-your-own-eyes/#comment-9045736
Youre pushing every leftist narrative about trump that is out there you retarded drunk. Do you not see youre just the useful drunk idiot of the left?
You also literally ignore every authoritarian action by biden instead deflecting to the gop or trump. Go look at every criticism article here on Biden.
I can’t say I’ve been paying attention to what Trump says lately, but my general sense is more that he’s possibly getting ready to run again or trying to set himself up as a kingmaker in the Republican party. I suppose maybe a lot of it comes down to whether you think that their objections to the election are sincere belief that there were problems or more of a cynical ploy to whip up continuing support.
I suppose maybe a lot of it comes down to whether you think that their objections to the election are sincere belief that there were problems or more of a cynical ploy to whip up continuing support.
It was the latter.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-rnc-raised-hundreds-millions-pushing-baseless-election/story?id=75633798
Pro-Trump forces have amassed bulging post-election campaign accounts by exploiting baseless claims of widespread voter fraud to solicit money for former President Donald Trump’s “Election Defense Fund” — but despite the stated purpose, Trump’s team has spent a relatively small amount actually fighting the election results.
In fact, more than $100 million has instead gone toward various fundraising expenses and advertising efforts aimed at raising even more money, records show.
[…]
But of the more than $280 million raised since after the election, the Trump campaign and the RNC — which were the main forces behind Trump’s post-election legal challenges — reported spending only about $13 million on legal expenses, filings show.
I suspect it’s some of each.
You’re far too generous to a fat totalitarian liar
You have to admire the audacity it takes to support making it virtually impossible to determine if votes were cast legally and fairly and then turn around and yell “you can’t prove there was any fraud so shut the fuck up!”
You just contradicted sarc.
It’s the turnaround accusation tactic: smear your sociopolitical opponents with the labels that best apply to your in-group. Thus the current trend for left-leaning media and ‘thinkers’ to broad-brush conservatives with ‘cultish and authoritarian.’ It is only effective in getting support from those within Greenhut’s bubble and echo chamber, and the rabid anti-Trump types. Folks who can think independent of amygdala-based reaction will likely be amused. Or disgusted. He managed to cast aspersions, get a lot of ‘but Trump’ -ing in, and self-aggrandize, so, bully for journalism.
Systemic DARVO
Authoritarianism in the political science context refers to voters who believe children should mind and respect their parents. That’s it.
Let me get some popcorn and enjoy the shitstorm that is about to unfold here.
The shitstorm will center on FACTS instead of emoting about tribal allegiances, no doubt… In my wildest dreams!
I have repeatedly posted the below link, which is VASTLY more FACTUAL than (only very slightly) an editorial. No one ever refutes the facts contained here… All they presetn is name-calling, and glib denials, without facts. I am STILL waiting for ANYONE to refute the FACTS as below!
https://www.salon.com/2021/04/11/trumps-big-lie-and-hitlers-is-this-how-americas-slide-into-totalitarianism-begins/
Trump’s Big Lie and Hitler’s: Is this how America’s slide into totalitarianism begins?
Oh but I know… Anything that disagrees with the JesseBahnFuhrer and MammaryBahnFuhrer echo chamber is “Marxist”, right? No matter HOW factual it might be!
I think you’re a Fascist shillbot, Sqrlsy. Not a Marxist one.
After all, you’ve been peddling corporatism, not collectivism.
“SQRLSY One
September.30.2020 at 12:53 pm
Yes! This FURTHER proves that Hitler was NOT a racist!
Since even Hitler wasn’t a racist, we can pretty firmly conclude that racism isn’t a “thing” at all!
“SQRLSY One
November.1.2020 at 8:51 am
Here, this is a pretty good match! Every asshole is a good, right, and TRUE, benevolent asshole!
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/hitler
“My spirit will rise from the grave and the world will see I was right.”
― Adolf Hitler
MammaryBahnFuhrer can’t refute the FACTS, as usual… What a surprise!
Lusts-after-your-web-sites Marxist “Christian Theological Expert” MammaryBahnFuhrer thinks that one of the Ten Commandments read as follows:
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. Unless thy neighbor art a corporatist in Thine Righteous Eyes, in which case, Thou shalt steal ALL of their stuff & shit, howsoever Thy Power-Hungry Right-Wing Wrong-Nut Marxist Heart may desire.
What “facts”. Everything that you said was a lie.
You know it’s a lie. I know it’s a lie. Everyone else here knows it’s a lie.
SQRLSY One
November.9.2020 at 4:26 pm
Bimsday, 39 Bemberbember 2020 at 6:66 PM
I love to LIE my ass off, and suck Satan’s dick! Because I hate humanity! The Evil One is the Father of Lies, just as Der TrumpfenFuhrer is the Stable Genius! So, as the apple falls not far from the tree, I INSIST on telling obvious lies, all day, every day! Butt… Surprise, surprise! Other Evil Ones Junior will fall for my lies… Because they want to!
Refute the FACTS, Floppy Old Mammary! I DARE you to!
https://www.salon.com/2021/04/11/trumps-big-lie-and-hitlers-is-this-how-americas-slide-into-totalitarianism-begins/
Trump’s Big Lie and Hitler’s: Is this how America’s slide into totalitarianism begins?
Quoting Salon is quoting the Daily Stormer but for establishment progs. Why not show me a link about how bad Jews are in Der Stürmer, too.
Wow! Floppy Old Mammary can NOT refute the well-established FACTS in the link! Color me SHOCKED!
You instinctively hold fast to the lies that you WANT to believe, to mark your tribal allegiances! And to pre-justify “my tribe’s violence GOOD, and YOUR tribe’s violence BAD!”
If, by some miracle, you ever develop an open mind, open enough to study what I just described, see…
https://www.salon.com/2021/08/08/a-terrifying-new-theory-fake-news-and-conspiracy-theories-as-an-evolutionary-strategy/
A terrifying new theory: Fake news and conspiracy theories as an evolutionary strategy
Social scientist Michael Bang Petersen on why people believe outrageous lies — as a tool in violent group conflict
Another take on the same thing…
https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/566982-terrifying-new-study-says-our-conspiracy-theory-epidemic
In other news today, many NON-libertarians CONSTANTLY try to capture libertarians (individual-freedom-lovers) in order to torture them, sacrifice them, and drink their blood, and the blood of their children! Man the barricades!
Your articles:
“Yeah, were totally doing blatantly authoritarian stuff, but if you complain about it we will call you a conspiracy theorist”
Your ideology: “Other people who are more factually driven than I am, AND who are more benevolent than I am? They make me LOOK bad! So I must take them down a peg or three or twenty!”
It is instinctually driven, in the troglodytes especially. Pre-programmed. See http://www.churchofsqrls.com/Do_Gooders_Bad/ …
“Do Gooder Derogation” and “Relax! Just Because I am Right and You are Wrong, Doesn’t Mean that I Want to Steal ‘Your’ Woman”
Haha. The “benevolent” squirrel. A Saturday morning cartoon character who tries to share his nuts.
Creepy.
He admits to eating shit too.
My Jiffy Pop is already there. It’s-a-gonna-be a good one.
“My problem is with the political right’s movement toward, well, authoritarianism, exemplified by its refusal to embrace facts that don’t conform to their alternative reality—and their unwavering support for a man rather than a set of ideas.”
Well, he should love the Left then. They refuse to even hear facts that don’t confirm to their alternative reality, but they are definitely committed to a set of ideas and not to one particular leader. At least it’s an ethos.
And if confirmation bias is a clear example of Authoritarian tendencies, I wonder what he thinks about people like Krugman who actively pine for China-like authority to tackle problems like Climate Change- and not on some obscure youtube podcast, but on the pages of the New York Times.
This is such a sloppy article. When your flowery sentences boil down to “Refusing to accept my preferred facts makes you an Authoritarian”, you need to sit down the writer, and their editor, and whoever wrote the headline/lede and say “Let’s get back to basics people, because this is High School English 101 claptrap”.
LOL , how cute you think the editing here is better than the writing; either factually, stylistically, or ideologically
I didn’t say the editing is better. I said that they needed to sit the editor down, along side Greenhut. Because the fact that an article constructed in this manner (“confirmation bias is evidence of authoritarianism”) made it past the editor without him/her saying, “Is this really what you are trying to argue” is as big of an indictment as the writing itself.
When everyone at Reason is an editor, nobody is. In fact, that is half of Reason’s problem (the other half is Charles Koch).
^
Reason’s purpose now is the exact same as collectivistjeff’s and white mike’s: to cover for the totalitarian left and attack any threat to their seizure of global governance
Except, if the gaslighting in this example you’re giving becomes the SOP of the publication, it seems more likely that if anyone above the writers and editors is sitting them down, it’s to encourage this nonsense.
I wonder what he thinks about people like Krugman who actively pine for China-like authority to tackle problems like Climate Change
Even in this the GOP isn’t as purely authoritarian. The GOP, if it pines for authoritarianism, does so as a solution to the problem of domestic socialism and, even then, it’s not eradication. There are no Republicans trying to break up the ADL or SPLC the way progressives consistently hound the NRA and have gun owners booted off of YouTube. They, as much as they do, seek power to counter greater power. A not-insignificant number of pro-China cheerleaders like Krugman will openly admit that China’s climate policy is far worse than ours. Meaning they really seek the authority just to have the authority. Even if they buy the climate premise, the scope is still global and the effective term is relative perpetuity.
It wasn’t an article. It was an opinion piece.
Yikes
If you’d like to read an article on the subject which isn’t blanket regime propaganda that even Goebbels would think is laying it on too thick:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-do-some-people-support-tyranny-while-others-defy-it
Enough with this cunt fucking bullshit. Democratic politicians encouraged violence and looting last year during the what, dozens? hundreds? of riots. Armed groups literally took over sections of cities for days, weeks, or months on end. The capitol riot was another riot. It was not a good thing. But those rioters weren’t caught and released. They were either killed or jailed, and most are still in jail. Nobody is buying this fucking insurrection bullshit except the willfully blind at this point.
The current vice president funded their bails so they could commit more arson and vandalism.
Thank you, well said!
Everyone is quibbling over this total farce. The media talks like the world ended on January 6, no media coverage whatsoever of the still ongoing disaster in Minneapolis. Most of the City is burned out or vacant except the squatters and gang members shooting and carjacking. The cops could care less, homeowners are screwed, schools are in shambles, and the left is still yammering on about a few people at the Inauguration. No media coverage in sight.
How did January 6 in any way conflate to the Media’s genuinely Orwellian double speak, cancel culture and blatant planned censorship of anyone that doesn’t agree with the left wing agenda.
Steven Greenhunt is only useful in that he must be good at doing as he is told, and he must have learned the best defense is a good offense. There is no way he stupid enough to believe a word of what he wrote, it makes no sense.
Shame on Reason for publishing this garbage, definitely won’t send that next check.
Greenhut is vile, evil scum.
Let’s hope he’s soon made an example of.
The gaslighters and fifty-centers here are going to deliberately try and misinterpret your last statement, Nardz.
Read the zerohedge article I linked.
It is what it is now. Leftists and their shills won’t stop, won’t let us live and let live.
Every step along the path of totalitarianism they take without facing consequences only gets them more power and brings them closer to doing worse.
“Conservative writer David Frum”
Like other Bush neocons he simply switched to the party that became more authoritarian over time, the democrat socialists. They don’t care which party as long as they keep their power and privilege. They still believe they could have won with Jeb! because Romney and McCain were such successful campaigners (not). They just wanted to keep the grift going.
That reason publishes this nonsense simply demonstrates once again how far gone an ostensibly libertarian publication has moved to the left.
Sorry, time for us to part ways. Hope that koch money is enough to keep you warm. Hope you don’t find yourself cancelled by your ISP when the dems turn their attention to you. Hope championing the trillion dollar quasi governmental tech companies works out. We all know it won’t.
Greenhut seems to confuse party affiliation with sociopolitical leaning. Frum is a GOP member, but if one parses his writings, there is very little conservative about him. And then there’s Frum’s workplace, that bastion of conservative thought and journalism. Reaching doesn’t begin to cover how weak this appeal to authority attempt is.
“Conservative writer David Frum.”
How to tell that further reading of the author’s work will be a waste of time.
Hey now, sarcasmic the one true libertarian thought the article was great.
This columnist, Steve Greenhut, is engaging in Trumpish hyperbole for clicks and career enhancement. He’s not contributing to reasoned examination of anything at all. He’s part of the problem.
He used to be quite good, one of the few voices of, well, reason, in California media. It’s like he has some kind of derangement syndrome now.
Starts with ‘T,’ perhaps. Though, it may be more generalized.
Isn’t it amazing how many have succumbed, and how consistent the signs are?
Maybe he’s just trying to get laid.
There’s a list, expanding, of writers at Reason that one should avoid, as they are posting click-bait horseshit that has nothing to do with civil liberties or rights. An additional column, Op/Eds, just after Newsletters, would be a good spot to lump in all the shit articles that are based on opinion, presumption, and speculation.
I believe you’re describing the Jacob Sullum school of journalistic practices there.
Rommelmann and Stossel are the only bylines here I devote eyeball time to, anymore.
Soave has his issues but he’s usually worth a read.
Go see the current doozy- “DeSantis should be criticized for not mandating vaccines.”
Yeeeesh.
Yeah, he’s weird. He’ll mix in some of those with actual principled stances about government overreach, censorship, and civil rights.
He said on Twitter that Alex Berenson deserved to be deplatformed.
Unfortunately, when discussing Reason writers, it’s important to keep separate libertarians from a philosophical standpoint, and libertarians from a policy standpoint.
Because I don’t know if a single one of them fits philosophically. It’s why they consistently cheer corporate censorship, because it doesn’t fit the definition of a 1A violation. They don’t seem to care about the basis of it, and why it’s so important in the first place.
He was usually worth the read. He’s at about 50/50 now and falling.
Rommelman is excellent. Stossel is good. Britches can carry his own. Skenazy is pretty alright. Time will tell for the new fish. If Soave doesn’t get scared of what the progressives will think, he can write a story with civil liberties at the center, even. Pleather is 75% gone, sadly, since he used to be into civil rights, not trying for cheap shots at the Trump supporters. All in my opinion, of course.
“All of them—all of them were telling us, ‘Trump sent us,'”
people will say a lot of things when being told what tosay by those telling them they will be punished if they don’t. those are the authoritarins charging them that are the ones you should be afraid of not protesters that literally took a tour of the capital. BTW yes there are those, a few, who did become excitable and riot and they shall be charged with their crimes, crimes that do not rise to the level of authoritarinism or terrorism
I love the myopathy of it. If I was their attorney (and most of the defense attorneys involved have no love of Trump), I would completely have advised them to blame Trump. That would have been my immediate go-to defense for my client.
They are being forced to make pro biden statements during sentencing.
The DOJ is both keeping exculpatory evidence from the defense, and forcing them to make public statements that would make the leaders of Maoist struggle sessions proud as a condition of plea deals.
But that’s not the authoritarianism that concerns Reason. It’s gone from laughable to enraging to me, TBH.
Small point:
David Frum:
“The January 6 attack was incited by the head of the American government, the man who had sworn to protect and defend that government. It was the thing most feared by the authors of the U.S. Constitution: a betrayal of the highest office by the holder of that office.”
The Presidential Oath:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
yeah, Frum’s mask slipped a bit.
I was about to post this. It’s pretty telling that an alleged conservative would think that the president swears fealty to the government instead of the principles it was founded on (constitution). It’s just as telling that Greenhut thought that was some kind of dunk on Trump when it just showed us that he sees nothing wrong with Frum’s statist misunderstanding of the oath of office.
The absolute absurdity of Greenhut screeching about right wing authoritarianism when the left is hyper dominant in gov, entertainment, academia, news media etc etc; and busy cracking down on individual liberty at every turn….has been well pointed out by others here, so I’ll consider it understood.
Eat a fresh bag of raw dicks. Sorry, but I refuse to play by the same rules that milquetoast conservatives and libertarians have been playing by for decades while liberal brownshirts bend us over a table at the direction of their progressive masters.
Greenhut would’ve fit right in Nazi Germany, talking about the Jewish threat and justifying the destruction of their businesses, confiscation of their property, mass imprisonment, and covering up mass murder.
Genocide isn’t a switch you flip, where everything goes from fine one day to a population supporting mass murder then next.
It’s a gradual process with steps along the way, built up with time.
Greenhut is here helping lay foundation to advance those steps.
Or equally in Israel, that apartheid state that owes its stolen existence to US military aid.
GFY
This
Take that up with the British, not the US.
The British aren’t saying
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST F2011-168
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request dated 23 May 2011 in which you asked for the following information:
“I would like to request the exact amount of aid given to Israel annually by the British government since 1948. Further, I would like a break-down of this specific budget each year e.g. NGOs, government funding, military aid, foreign direct investment.”
DFID holds some information relating to aid given between 1964 and 1998-99, when UK development assistance to Israel ceased. These figures are set out in Annex 1 attached.
The figures represent UK spending on Official Development Assistance (ODA), which includes spending by other UK government departments as well as by DFID. Under internationally agreed rules, direct supply or financing of military equipment or services are not eligible to be classed as ODA and would not be included in these figures.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me, quoting reference F2011-168.
If you are unhappy with the service we have provided and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision, please write to Openness Unit at the address shown above or email xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx within 2 months of the date of this letter.
If you do make a complaint and are not content with the outcome, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted DFID’s complaints procedure. You can contact the Information Commissioner at the following address:
The Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely
Christine Mackintosh
Openness Unit
F2011-168 Annex 1
UK Aid to Israel
You do know about the British Mandate, right?
Iirc the UN recognized Israel a state a year after they “gained” independence from Great Britain.
I mean seriously, are you really stupid enough to think that nothing happened there before 1948?
Is it the circumcision you got that makes you hate Jews so much?
“that apartheid state that owes its stolen existence to US military aid.”
Misek, that is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. Israel eventually gained the support of the US, but at its start- when it was truly a question of whether or not the country would survive the week- any US aid was actually going to its enemies.
How stupid are you?
“ Israel cumulatively received $243.9 billion in inflation-adjusted US foreign assistance between 1946 and 2019, making it largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II.”
Cite provided
http://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-military-aid-does-the-us-give-to-israel/
That doesn’t contradict what he claimed.
Here’s more detailed numbers from Jews.
When money is given to the aggressor in a war to steal Palestine and establish apartheid EVERY dollar to that aggressor is military aid.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/total-u-s-foreign-aid-to-israel-1949-present
The problem is US foreign aid in general. I recall seeing that America had given more in foreign aid to Israel’s Muslim neighbors than to the Jewish state itself.
If Jews hadn’t stolen Palestine with the essential help from the allies after WW2, there would be no Middle East conflict, no US wars of aggression in the Middle East and no subsequent resistance that allies call terrorism.
Israelis are the real terrorists.
If Jews hadn’t stolen Palestine with the essential help from the allies after WW2, there would be no Middle East conflict
That’s retarded. The primary tension in the ME right now is between Iran on the one side and Israel and the Gulf Council countries on the other. Israel is likely preventing all-out war between Iran and the Gulf Arab states, because Iran actually fears Israel.
Miko Peled is an Israeli, an author, a public speaker and the son of a famous Israeli general.
He is also opposed to Israeli apartheid of Palestinians.
In the following video he puts into perspective what you won’t see in our western propaganda.
Between 38:00 and 45:00 in the video he describes Israeli terrorism.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TOaxAckFCuQ
there would be no Middle East conflict, no US wars of aggression in the Middle East and no subsequent resistance that allies call terrorism.
The Turks, the Irgun, Lawrence of Arabia, and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem would all like a word with you.
So the Iraq-Iran war was because of Israel? And Iraq invaded Kuwait because of Israel?
Somebodies never heard about the Sunnis and the Shia.
R Mac & THE Cheesiest & Sleaziest of the Mac & Cheeses eats my Shiites AND my Sunnis! And LIKES them! (Preferably with Cheez-Whiz on the side, with EXTRA HEAPING PILES of smart pills from the bottom of the rabbit hutch).
Sunni or later folks should try to understand this shiite.
Here’s squirrel both defending the anti-Semite, and bringing up his favorite topic: eating shit.
THE Cheesiest & Sleaziest of the Mac & Cheeses eats its Shiites Sunni side down! (Seeing the Sunni side isn’t anywhere near “downer” enough).
If there’s one thing Dumbfuck HihnSQRLSo loves posting about, it’s munching his shit.
You’re really showcasing what proud Nazi trash you are
Like the Arabs didn’t get billions of dollars in equipment and aid from Russia, but I guess that’s OK as long as it furthers extermination of the Jews.
Yup. Ironically this article is a tool for the process… or maybe not so ironic, because I’m pretty sure Greenhut knows what he’s doing here.
That’s pretty rich coming from a guy who routinely advocates for violence against anyone who disagrees with his politics.
Nardz has never done that. He’ll ask you to kill yourself, but has never threatened it.
You, on the other hand do that constantly with your KillAllRednecks sockpuppet.
It’s amazing how much you simp for totalitarian collectivism while decrying any and all advocacy of self defense as mere “disagreement with politics”.
Maybe, if you don’t have the intelligence, integrity, or balls to see what’s happening, where it’s trending, and the only options to survive or avoid it, just shut the fuck up when you aren’t being addreesed.
Since you’ve decided to jump in unsolicited, we have to assume you’ve picked a side (totalitarian leftism) and are eager to participate.
Now, unlike the totalitarians you’re running interference for, we’re happy to let you go on about your life without taking sides or participating. But if that’s your desire, you need to just shut the fuck up and not involve yourself.
More thinly veiled threats of violence. Not surprised.
I’m starting to wonder if you’re even serious, or if you’re a parody.
Because you come off more and more like a caricature every day.
In case anyone is wondering what sarcasmic is trying to accomplish here:
sarcasmic
August.12.2021 at 4:45 pm
I so don’t care anymore. I only show up to watch the clowns duke it out, while tossing in this or that provocation. Bread and circuses. This is a circus.
https://reason.com/2021/08/12/cdc-took-mistaken-data-on-delta-variant-transmissibility-from-a-new-york-times-infographic/#comment-9044167
It’s called trolling.
He’s also just like the kid in Red Dawn who gets all butthurt because he’s a little bitch, so runs away to rat out the insurgents to the commies.
So losing the election is equivalent to being militarily occupied by a foreign power? You’re fucking nuts.
“Everything’s OK, nothing to see here!” says sarcastic, desperately trying to discredit the people who have been warning you about what is now occurring for the past 18 months.
Vaccine passports? You’re crazy
Forced vaccination? You’re crazy
Property confiscation? You’re crazy
More from him as a hypocrite.
sarcasmic
July.16.2021 at 3:11 pm
Flag Comment Mute User
I was going to add something about people who might be splattered by the mess, but nobody cares about your alone ass. Shit. Nobody will know you’re missed until they shut the power off and things start to smell.
sarcasmic
July.10.2021 at 8:25 pm
Flag Comment Mute User
I wish he’s talk his shit to someone’s face. He wouldn’t be commenting for a while because he’d be in the hospital.
You’re a little punk. I imagine you cower like a little bitch in any real confrontation.
The political right’s movement toward authoritarianism is exemplified by its refusal to embrace facts that don’t conform to their alternative reality.
Thank god the left is in charge so that we get Democracy like sham elections, internal passports, political prisoners held without trial, soldiers occupying cities, perpetual states of emergency, massive transfers of wealth from citizens to party cronies, massive expansions of state power, state control and censorship of speech, political indoctrination and loyalty tests in the military and bureaucracy, the intermixing of corporations and state, etc. Yep, thank god we don’t have to deal with any authoritarianism.
This is an awesome comment.
++
How to refute the whole garbage article in one paragraph.
Moon rocks Greenhut.
I’d say there’s more than enough rewriting of history and ignoring facts to stick to a narrative for everyone. How about we get back to the basics. God, country, family. Each of us. Each and every one of us. I’ll start. God bless America ????????
Sorry, m’lady. Tbe God you worship does not exist, and the state of the nation and world is proof.
*tips fedora*
God is made up by humans. He doesn’t actually exist.
Look at what the people who were arrested were charged with. It’s trespassing and being in a restricted area, not with rioting and not with sedition. When cars are on fire and business are smashed, its mostly peaceful. When a trash can gets tipped over, it’s the worst assault on democracy since the civil war.
Trash article.
And prosecutors are withholding video evidence of police letting them in. Which kills those charges pretty quickly.
I’m dismayed by the conservative movement’s populist rejection of free markets, free trade, budget restraint and limited government.
Because today’s conservatives prioritize Birtherism, QAnon CT, White Supremacy, and National Wahabi Christianity.
Isn’t QAnon just a bogeyman you fascists use to frighten wine moms into staying on the reservation?
Trump had you wingnuts at “birth certificate”.
You were willfully conned because he hates the same people you do.
“HOW DARE THEY QUESTION OBAMA’S PROVENANCE”
Seriously? That’s you’re gotcha? People thinking Obama lied about where he was born? All the censorship, indefinite imprisonment and corporatism going on, but those people are evil because they think “that the Lightbringer wasn’t born here, but there”.
You’re really shit at the whole freedom to think stuff, huh.
There’s a limited number of narratives and talking points ‘they’ know, this is why they continue to recycle them. And why they are so big on accusing the out-group of the very things of which they are most guilty. ‘Authoritarian cult,’ indeed.
Another dishonest article from Reason. What a shame. After years of LEFTIST Riots from ANTIFA, BLM, or just Democrats a few Conservatives who are angry about BLM, Defund the Police, Critical Race Theroy, Communism/Socialism, Higher Taxes and I could go on break the law. Those other riots were cheered on by the Democrats, resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries and two billion in damages. Seems to me this author did not understand that.
He also has to deflect from his being a child molester
The birth certificate question started with his publicist and was amplified by the Clinton campaign you lying sack of shit.
I wish the QAnonners and wine moms I see in my store would both get a room and get out of my store!
I will never not get a kick out of the fact that leftists know more and claim more about QAnon than any Republican ever has.
QAnon[a] (/ˌkjuː.əˈnɒn/) is a disproven far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a cabal of Satanic,[1] cannibalistic pedophiles operate a global child sex trafficking ring and conspired against former President Donald Trump during his term in office.[2][3][4][5] QAnon has been described as a cult.[6][7]
One shared belief among QAnon members is that Trump was planning a massive sting operation on the cabal, with mass arrests of thousands of cabal members to take place on a day known as the “Storm”.[8][9] QAnon supporters have accused many Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking government officials of being members of the cabal, with little or no evidence.[10] QAnon has also claimed that Trump simulated the conspiracy of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to enlist Robert Mueller to join him in exposing the sex trafficking ring, and preventing a coup d’état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros.[11][12] The QAnon conspiracy theories have been amplified by Russian state-backed troll accounts on social media,[19] as well as Russian state-backed traditional media[13][20] and networks associated with Falun Gong
There. Now you know as much as I do. See how easy that was?
I like how my point went completely over your head.
You forgot the part where the only people who believe in their existence are New York Times subscribers.
Blue check fuckwitterati, as well, ‘natch. Thus the incessant repetition by the trolls and shills.
That sounds like the sort of shit YOU would spout. Not any of us.
Don’t forget the KKK. If not for the left, we’d never know that the Klan even existed.
Because they wouldn’t have?
_Any_ Republican? Because I can show you at least one sitting Congresswoman who knows a _lot_ about QAnon.
There’s never been a more authoritarian government and practices in non-wartime American history, than the junta running the current administration.
There’s never been a more corporatist government in non-wartime American history, than the junta running the current administration.
There’s never been an American establishment and clerisy more invested in censorship and the destruction of personal freedoms than the current one.
But somehow for Greenhut, powerless YouTubers and LARPers are the real problem.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mypillow-guy-mike-lindell-punts-timeline-for-trump-retaking-power-as-august-conspiracy-theories-get-wackier
MyPillow Guy Punts Timeline for Trump Retaking Power as Conspiracy Theories Get Wackier
The Lord Trump didn’t return to us as scheduled, but the Second Coming is now re-scheduled. You can TRUST us THIS time, for sure!
The Lord Trump DID return to us faithful ones, but He did it in an invisible way! Hold strong in your Faith in Him!
The Lord Trump didn’t return to us yet, this is true! It only did NOT happen because YOU were not faithful enough, and didn’t send Him enough donations!
The Lord Trump didn’t return to us yet, but He DID miraculously protect us all from the VERY worst forces of Evil, which is Der BidenFuhrer! Hold fast in your Faith… Lord Trump will come back soon now! Especially if you send more money!
The Lord Trump moves in Mysterious Ways! All will be revealed SOON! Especially if you have Enough Faith to DONATE till it HURTS!
The great part is you’re _so_ easy to ignore!
He was my first one to ignore.
Establishment trolls like Sqrlsy are really desperate to anoint poor Lindell as the hoi polloi’s pope.
Hey MammaryBahnFuhrer… How is Your new org coming along? Are You gaining many new converts and perverts to “Expert Christian Theologians for Identity Theft?” And where do we sign up for your newsletter?
In https://reason.com/2021/03/21/why-we-still-shouldnt-censor-misinformation/#comment-8818090 Mamma fesses to her being an identity-thief and sock!
chemjeff radical individualist
March.21.2021 at 4:27 pm
Uh oh, I think you left your sock on.
Reply
1. SQRLSY 0ne
March.21.2021 at 5:06 pm
Yeah, sigh.
Hey MammaryBahnFuhrer, Expert Christian Theologian! Did Jesus appear to You in a vision, and tell You that ID theft is a GREAT, wonderful thing? Or ARE You Jesus, returned to us, maybe?
No, but Zeus and Lao Tzu told me you like to touch yourself in grocery stores.
“The political right’s movement toward authoritarianism is exemplified by its refusal to embrace facts that don’t conform to their alternative reality.”
What a terrible, gawdawful take from Mr Greenhut.
Authoritarian: “favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government, at the expense of personal freedom.”
Huh. Nothing there about how one chooses to define their world view…instead authoritarianism is all about forcing people to obey the government. Mr Greenhut, please go out on the street and ask any rando what behavior most obviously demonstrates an Authoritarian, and I am pretty damn sure that “unwillingness to accept facts that conflict with their reality” is extremely far down on the list.
First, it isn’t even a good litmus test. I can go out and find Anarchists, Libertarians, Commies, and Religious nuts- climate change deniers and evangelists- every sub group out there has people who dismiss inconvenient facts. Our inability to critically think is quite possibly one of the most basic human behaviors right after breeding and child rearing.
So to say that this basic human failing (a tendency to only accept facts that confirm our bias) some how “exemplifies” authoritarianism is like saying “Democrat’s willingness to appeal to emotions of their supporters exemplifies their Authoritarianism”. It’s nonsense, and Mr Greenhut should really go back to a basic course in literacy if that is really how he sums up his article.
Beyond that, as others point out above, Mr Greenhut himself is engaged in his own brand of reaching for alternative facts. He uses the rantings of a two bit podcaster to suggest that conservatives are broadly on board with an American Caesar. Really?
It is quite simple to look at the interpretation of events on Jan 6 and realize that it was a low point for all of the nation, and especially Trump Supporters, without having to tie it to some scare word like “AUTHORITARIAN!”
You make a good point, but it’s undermined by you accepting the outright false premise Greenhut proposes.
Feel free to do a comparison of confirmation bias and dismissal of inconvenient facts from various sources.
Who’s doing the bullying, the censorship, the revised history on what they’ve predicted? Who’s been correct in their predictions?
But no, let’s just pretend Greenhut isn’t a complete liar knowingly doing evil.
What false premise do I accept?
Nowhere do I accept any premise. I just point out that Confirmation Bias is not evidence of Authoritarianism.
I think the point that the Left is far more authoritarian is true, but this post was specific to how badly written the article is. If you are going to go on a Trumper-bashing spree, at least have some basic logical competence in your writing.
I’m not going to read Greenhut’s regime sponsored agitprop, and you’ve made a valuable point that I’m glad you brought up.
It simply seemed to my reading that you were going along with his premise that the right is broadly delusional, as if the left were not, and dismissive of inconvenient facts. But if I was mistaken in that reading, apologies.
Seems to be an assumption that monarchy or autocracy is inherently authoritarian and democracy somehow can’t be. Which is nonsense. There is nothing contradictory about a libertarian dictator or an authoritarian democratically elected government.
“An authoritarian democratically elected government” can be dismissed at the next elections, as soon as voters get tired of non-functioning authoritarian bullshit. That is… SO LONG AS a Trumptatorshit (enabled by trumpanzees gone apeshit) does NOT replace “the guy or gal with the most votes, wins” with “He who whines and cries, and makes up lies, the best, wins!”
THAT is a VERY central issue of our day! WHY must democracy contain a suicide clause? WHAT is an example of a 1-party state, ever, anywhere, which has provided long-term peace and prosperity?
As a libertarian in California I could care less about Jan 6. “They” keep trying to make me care but I just bring myself to. BLM is still more annoying and caused much more damage.
BLM caused more property destruction by far.
But what you ignore is that they did so in protest of indiscriminate authoritarian violence by the state (police).
The Jan 6 insurrection was to overthrow a democratically elected government and replace it with the same authoritarian state (police).
A violent state is nothing for a libertarian to admire even if his team is welding that power.
And killed more people. quite a few more people.
The Jan 6 insurrection was to overthrow
With what? Their floofy flags and hard dicks?
The 200 protesters that day were completely unarmed. Unlike the 2000 Hillcops who all had police batons and firearms and used them.
200. 400 arrested. 2000 total.
I won’t quibble with the number.
They were violent traitors and insurrectionists.
But you willfully ignore the MOTIVE.
BLM protested state violence against a race of people.
BLM protested state violence against a race of people.
Yep, just one race. That’s why their protests are bullshit.
Motive is beside the point!
So you are saying that the ends justify the means.
BLM didn’t like the government so they were ok terrorizing…not the government, but their fellow citizens. And that is ok…because they were protesting government activities you dislike.
On the other hand, the Jan 6ers were protesting the government (certification) and their riot targeted that government. But because it was a government action that you agree with, their means was not justified.
Noted.
No you are being pretty consistent in support of authoritarian state power as the means to the ends of suppressing the rights of minorities.
This ain’t new.
Lol. Tony – you must support authoritarianism to end it… did I get that right tony?
Not true. I only support the suppression of the rights of white liberals.
There’s the dilemma. If you support BLM, but also support government, you square the circle by protesting government but attacking anyone else (like private businesses and private citizens). The government then supports you in hopes you won’t attack the government. This mostly only works in Democrat-controlled areas.
So it never occurred to you that it’s possible to have a functioning brain that both opposes total anarchy and can criticize bad government policy?
They were violent traitors and insurrectionists.
Okay I’ll play along for a minute.
1. What was the violence and how was it worse than all the other protests in DC last year?
2. If you are protesting an incredibly sketchy, DPRK-level election result, how does that make you a traitor to your country?
3. What did they do that constituted insurrection? Were the Kavanagh protests an insurrection? Was the BLM attack on the White House an insurrection? The shooting up of the congressional baseball game? How many congressmen were siezed by your “insurrectionists”? How were they armed?
They assaulted the US capitol in an attempt to murder the vice president, speaker of the house, and overthrow the presidential election.
There is no equivalency. Not in history.
No they didn’t.
Tony claims, without evidence, that the Jan. 6 protesters plotted to murder the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.
Making up bullshit is Tony’s thing.
He never used the word, “plotted”. You just tried to shift the goal posts.
But you’ll agree that Tony’s assertion that the apparently serendipitous attempt to assassinate VP Pence is bullshit?
They had no plot to assassinate the Vice President, they just assaulted the capital to attempt it?
We’ll go ahead and add “shift the goal posts” to phrases that Dee doesn’t understand.
“in an attempt to murder the vice president, speaker of the house, and overthrow the presidential election”
Oh when did they do that? Before the selfies in the rotunda? After the cops shot an unarmed woman?
What were they going to use to accomplish it. Their Gadsden flags? The big buffalo hat? (those horns looked pointy) A fire extinguisher?
“Sure the 2000 cops had sidearms and billy clubs, but the protesters bodies could stop bullets or something… except for that one whore, lol. Totally a mortal threat to the speaker.”
“They assaulted the US capitol in an attempt to murder the vice president, speaker of the house, and overthrow the presidential election.”
…with no weapons and no actual attempt made to locate, much less harm, them?
The results are pretty great, but the motive is all that matters. Increased violent crime, largely in neighborhoods populated by the people they purported to be supporting. Less emergency services available, and when available, less likely to respond if there was violent crime at scene -same neighborhoods. Who would have guessed that a complete lack of comprehension of second and third tier consequences might be inherent to the emotions over facts crowd? As for violent traitors, it remains to be seen if this definition is carried by a court, but the common use of the phrase by your in-group certainly tends to take from Greenhut’s attempt at tarring conservatives as authoritarian.
They were trespassers and vandals. YOU are a traitor, and a pedophile.
You should be put to death for your crimes.
The BLM riots worked to change laws and government through threat you retarded fuck. They succeeded.
Almost as if they were using fear to force a desired action. If only there were a name for groups who use this tactic.
Multiple cities pay for and provide security for multiple BLM advertisements. And these idiots ignore it.
Yup. It is interesting that every time the government makes massive power grabs- like a $3.5 Trillion spending bill, or new restrictions due to the coof- Nancy Pelosi schedules these hearings. And it is interesting that rather than talk about the spending bill or new covid restrictions, Greenhut has to have this sloppy take. He is just so transparently being taken by the Democrat’s marketing strategy, it’s almost embarrassing.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-do-some-people-support-tyranny-while-others-defy-it
I feel as though I understand this mindset to an extent, but it never fails to shock me the way in which people who scratch and scrape for power over others also seem to love being slaves to the system. I’m not so sure that it is ironic, as authoritarianism does fulfill some of its promises of “security” as long as the people involved are willing to trade away any impulses of liberty. If you do as you’re told at all times and serve the system without fail, then there is a good chance you will be able to hold onto the meager necessities of survival. You will live a life, though probably not a happy one.
For those that go above and beyond and cast aside all personal principle in order to further the goals of the system, they might even enjoy a modicum of wealth beyond their peers. You see, in a despotic society, the people who are most without honor are the people that are most rewarded. They don’t need merit, or accomplishment, or skills, or even brains; all they have to do it sell their souls and do whatever it takes to catch the eye of the oligarchy. They don’t have to be good at anything, all they have to do is be evil, and for some people that’s easy.
In this way the system becomes a comfortable blanket that otherwise useless deviants can be swaddled in. They wrap themselves in it and luxuriate in its warmth. They are not concerned with freedom because freedom feels cold to them. Freedom can be isolating and the existence of choice is terrifying. When all your choices are made for you there is never any doubt or internal stress. All that is required is that you wake up each day and obey.
to understand that mindset, you have to know that leftists are almost always abject losers, bitter, angry, dishonest, lazy and evil. They are incapable of introspection and of admitting their own personal failures. So they become sanctimonious justice warriors and project their rage onto everyone else using the blunt force of govt.
Conversely, I am beginning to wonder at which point the right will support a legit right wing authoritarian. Someone that won’t hesitate to really, totally punish the leftists upending society today.
There aren’t enough bytes on the Internet to discuss more than one topic?
Overt never brought up the internet.
Why do you hate freedom so much?
Oh hey, I figured this is the best thread to do this in today.
For those of you looking for a solid libertarian, well-thought and well-reasoned journalistic antidote to yesterday’s Sullum article on Rand Paul, I strongly recommend you watch this.
Glenn Greenwald on his podcast, System Update. He explains carefully how Rand Paul did NOT make any particular scientific claims that other epidemiologists have not made (although they may be at odds with the CDC and the current orthodoxy) and the dangers of corporate censorship on opposing views.
He also breaks down a hilarious Washington Post article that is essentially a hit piece on Rumble, showing you the setup language they use in describing the site.
Lately I’m finding left-libertarians like Taibbi, Russell Crow and Greenwald the best antidote to the hot garbage Reason has been publishing (real left-libertarians, not like the fascists wearing libertarian skinsuits here).
The right-wing libertarian stuff is too depressive and self-pitying. Like listening to rape victims fantasizing about what they would’ve done if they had fought back.
“Like listening to rape victims fantasizing about what they would’ve done if they had fought back.”
This statement bears repeating, and contemplation.
I think I know what you mean by this, and if I’m correct, that’s an excellent response that’s worthy of praise on possibly more levels than even I can contemplate.
Well done, sir.
Thanks?
I’m not sure what you’ve got in mind, but I wasn’t going for anything much deeper than: emphasizing the sentiment, and consider what it’ll be like if you (all of us) fail to prevent what we’re trending towards.
Taibbi, Russell Crow and Greenwald
I’m sure there are people here who would pigeonhole me as a right-wing conservative, but most of the content I listen to online is generally from the left/liberal side of the equation (with exceptions, I don’t deny), but the older school liberal left… that diminishing few that believe in science, reason, open inquisition– you know, the cats who can trace their ideological DNA to Thomas Paine, Voltaire, Locke… you know, the folks that you’d think would have inspired a magazine called Reason (yeah, I went there).
It seems now that Reason’s dna is more rooted in Hegel, Kant and Rousseau.
For left-libertarian (at this point, really just “libertarian”) I strongly recommend:
spiked-online.com
Brendan O’Neill, Reason Contributor!
“It seems now that Reason’s dna is more rooted in Hegel, Kant and Rousseau.”
More like Marcuse, Adorno, Foucault and Derrida nowadays.
All of those are rooted in Hegel, Kant and Rousseau.
roots in shit
Some of this is partly ideological. Taibbi is basically a class socialist and contrarian who does an imitation of Hunter S. Thompson. Types like him reflexively try to disassociate from what they think the “popular crowd” supports, and there’s no question that the pretenses of the Woketarians are the cultural status quo now. Taibbi clearly has little use for the bourgeoisie neo-Marcusians dominating the Democrats and their press allies these days.
Greenwald has long been a strident opponent of the security state, and so it doesn’t matter to him who’s really in charge. To him, the glowies are the ultimate bad guy, so he’ll instinctively go after anyone who props them up, and defend those who attack and undermine it.
Kudos, with one gentle correction: that’s open inquiry. I didn’t expect open inquisition…
Nobody expects open inquisition.
Pelosi prefers a closed one.
“It seems now that Reason’s dna is more rooted in Hegel, Kant and Rousseau”
Spot on, hence their no enemies to the left stance.
I’ve read a lot of lazy gaslighting over the years, but this article is competing for top spot.
It’s extremely embarrassing the author thought this remotely worth thinking, let alone publishing.
I’m reminded of the guy who published an article here last year who claimed that “race was invented in Virginia in the 1670s.”
Oh dear…please tell me you have a link.
It was a guest contributer from Baltimore “reporting” about one of the BLM protests (one which may have actually been mostly peaceful, I think)
I remember that. Don’t remember who or when.
Re your second sentence, ‘intellectual’ monocultures seem to have that result.
Not every person who joined in left-wing attacks in Portland committed crimes, either, but I don’t suppose Trump supporters would cut those folks slack.
I’m smelling a lot of ‘supposition’ coming off of this opinion piece.
It’s honestly embarrassing at this point.
If you showed up on day one, thinking it was just a protest, sure, you get some slack.
After a certain point in time, if you joined the left wing attacks in Portland, you knew what was happening and you were there for the crime and violence.
So no, anyone who joined the Portland mob after their first violent attack gets any slack.
Oh, I’ll say again, if this was a right wing “attack” on the capitol, shouldn’t someone other than the “attackers” have died? Or do we agree that this attack was so anemic that they couldn’t even pull that off.
Oh, how many occupied buildings were burned to the ground during this one? I’m trying to get a tally of the damage.
shouldn’t someone other than the “attackers” have died?
Or shouldn’t they have taken hostages? Or held a position like the chamber or offices instead of just taking photos and then wandering away?
Taking hostages is now a legit protest tactic. I don’t make the rules.
I’d say realizing there aren’t any rules anymore, as we’ve seen the totalitarians certainly don’t abide by any, is key to whether or not we preserve some level of rights and freedoms or go straight to Nazi/Soviet hellhole
Several Capitol police officers have died. Not good enough?
The one from natural causes and two that committed suicide?
4 have committed suicide
Zero from the attackers. How many cops died from BLM protests? Including suicides and utterly non-affiliated medical conditions?
“The political right’s movement toward authoritarianism is exemplified by its refusal to embrace facts that don’t conform to their alternative reality.”
There isn’t anything about January 6 that shows a movement towards authoritarianism on the right.
If the left has demonstrating anything since Biden took the White House, it’s their movement toward authoritarianism on the left–and their refusal to embrace facts that don’t conform to their alternative reality.
The left lied about the validity of Hunter Biden’s emails.
The left lied about the probable origin of the pandemic.
The left is using the coercive power of government to scrub social media of comments that contradict the NIH and the CDC.
You know who else used an attack on a legislature as a pretext to implement authoritarianism ostensibly in defense of democracy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_Fire_Decree
What’s wrong with authoritarianism? Here’s the wiki definition: Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of a strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting.
That looks like the Republican Party Platform. No wonder Ken says they’re “mere” authoritarians. It’s because they are.
I hAve NO tEam!
-sarcasmic.
He continues to lie to himself.
Remember folks. sarcasmic definitely isn’t just a Democratic party troll. Just ask him and he’ll tell you.
Not,like your precious democrats, right Sarc?
“What’s wrong with authoritarianism?
As expected of you, Tony.
As expected of any American who knows his history. The authoritarians of South Vietnam, Guatemala, Chile, Iran and many others owed their careers to American support.
Do you somehow imagine that I thought the Shah, Van Thieu, Pinochet, etc. were substantially better than the Communists they were fighting? I don’t.
They were probably substantially richer than those who opposed them. All too often that’s a decisive advantage.
What is the threat to national security posed by random civilian Hunter Biden’s emails?
I get being indoctrinated by a poor media diet, but do you not have even the slightest capacity for higher cognitive ability? Do you read what you write and think it makes any goddamn sense?
Not getting the political gotcha win you hoped for is not the same as tyranny you ridiculous goober.
Biden being beholden to Russian kompromat should be a big story.
We have ACTUAL evidence of that possibility…unlike your fevered dreams involving Trump.
And the ChiComs, and the Ukrainians, and potentially any other hostile Intel agency that gets the dirt on Biden’s spawn.
I wonder what Greenhut would have said about the Boston Tea Party at the time. I doubt anything good.
Today is August 13th. The day that Mike Lindell told us that God would return Trump to office. Maybe it’s just my biased blinders, but I just can’t see that happening in the next few hours.
The Evangelical Right have become Millerites waiting on the Hill for the Lord to return. What will they do tomorrow when it doesn’t happen? Will they devolve into Adventists who said the Great Return was just spiritual, that Trump is now their Spiritual Leader, and returning to the White House was just a spiritual metaphor? Or will they pretend that Mike Lindell never existed?
https://www.businessinsider.com/mike-lindell-claims-august-13-trump-reinstatement-2021-7
Streisand effect? I guess I gotta go google Mike Lindell. Maybe I’ll duckduckgo it to get more neutral links.
He’s like the Heart and Soul of the “Trump Really Won” movement. You never heard of him? He funds and organizes the big Trump rallies.
According to the leftist media, sure. Maybe you should stop learning about conservatives from The Atlantic and Wapo shitstain.
By the way. In case you’re curious. Outfits like Voter Integeity Proje t are far more influential for conservatives than Mike Lindell.
She’s not curious.
Adventists didn’t say the “great return” was just spiritual.
They said that when Miller read that the temple would be cleansed 2,300 years after Solomon’s temple was rebuilt, in 1844, he thought the temple was the earth and the earth would be cleansed with fire.
Adventists believe that the temple to be cleansed is an actual physical temple in Heaven, with Jesus as high priest, and that what really began in 1844 was that the investigatory judgement. It’s basically like all the Day of Atonements before, like the temple in Jerusalem itself, was merely a homage to the real thing in heaven–like the Israelites in Egypt putting the blood of a lamb over their doors so that their first born sons would be spared.
Adventists don’t even believe in eternal hell or the immortality of the soul. They’re basically materialists–even physical materialists. Death is total oblivion to them. They’re probably not talking about anything spiritual in anything but a metaphorical context. They might even describe Christians who believe in the immortality of the soul as “spiritualists”, like they’ve been deceived by Satan and his first lie to Eve, “You surely will not die”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_sanctuary
The Adventists record for accuracy is no worse than the left’s and climate alarmists
The Adventists revised their theology to reflect the Great Disappointment.
They stopped calling themselves Millerites because they admitted he got it wrong.
No way the progressives are willing to do that. When the facts don’t support your favorite theories, LEAN IN!
Didn’t Buttplug just post this word for word above?
Are you fifty-centers copypasting from the same talking-points pdf today?
One guy says that Trump will be back in office by August 13, and on that basis you make generalizations about “the evangelical Right”? Do you even know anybody in the evangelical Right? No, not your crazy Uncle Phil who’s been reading shit in the Internet, but someone who regularly attends an evangelical church?
He knows who he hates even if he doesn’t have any good reasons why outside of strawmen.
Bigot. It’s called bigot.
It ain’t just one guy.
Never saw many conservatives expecting it to happen. Do you want to be held responsible for every idiotic utterance by a prog?
Some of his confusion comes for the fact that progs are largely a hive mind. So they aren’t capable of understanding that everyone else are individuals.
It’s simply beyond him.
I guess it’s good to know what the DC happy hour crowd thinks. Yes, there were a handful of people who thought the big guy was telling them to take over the government, but you’d expect a “putsch” to come with at least a few armed paramilitaries taking and holding territory and declaring their own government–you know, like the CHAZ, a literal armed insurrection which got an amazingly kid-gloved treatment from the duly constituted authorities.
I saw the other day that at least one BLM rioter has been sentenced to several years in prison for burning down a building. Good, that’s a start. If anyone broke the law on January 6th I fully agree they should be punished appropriately. But as with all else, appropriate punishment is not weighted by “OMG I hate those fuckers.” My prediction is that the worst thing any of the Jan 6th rioters will be convicted of is theft/vandalism of public property.
What we really ought to be talking about is how the political class’ enthusiastic endorsement of BLM riots, versus their bloodlust for Trump rioters, is going to color at least half the population’s perception of government and politicians for generations to come. Congratulations to them, after 100 years they’ve reanimated Andrew Jackson’s cause. May they have joy of it.
Worth noting: a man burned to death inside that building, but no charges were brought forth regarding his death
The people that criminally trespassed and committed acts of vandalism should be convicted of trespass and vandalism.
Victor Orban may have done illiberal things in office, and perhaps he is not someone worth emulating and praising. It is not clear that he is comparable to Castro or by just dropping his name, what exactly Greenhut objects to Orban about. It just seems to be a “fact” that everyone should agree on without scepticism.
Orban is just the latest strawman for left-liberals to target because he’s not going along with their wonderful globalist project.
I’m not too familiar with him, but what has he done that wrong, aside from have a public fight with George Soros?
Sit down with Tucker Beelzeburb Carlson
And he’s a Soros enemy.
Tends to be a big deal for some reason…
Soros and his pups should all have been assassinated by a clandestine intelligence agency (take your pick, he has no shortage of enemies) years ago. The world would be so much better off without the Soros family in it.
We’re living under a one-party Democrat government that wants to overrule state election laws, threatens to pack the Court, actively reports users to Facebook for deplatforming, and cheered on mobs of rioters all summer . . .
And we’re supposed to be worried about authoritarianism on the right?!
Trump has been out of office since January and he is still living in their heads.
This happened with Ronald Reagan, too. The effects of Reagan Derangement Syndrome were still active long after Reagan died.
P.S. I said they cheered on mobs of rioters, but I should have called them arsonists.
Trump is holding rallies and fundraising, with clear intent to run again in 2024.
He isn’t in office.
Let’s not forget the Mandate of PPACA in which congressional Dems claimed authority over our economic decisions.
From PPACA:
EFFECTS ON THE NATIONAL ECONOMY AND INTERSTATE
COMMERCE.—The effects described in this paragraph are the following:
(A) The requirement regulates activity that is commercial and economic in nature: economic and financial decisions about how and when health care is paid for, and when health insurance is purchased
Judge Gladys Kessler (Mead v. Holder):
For the foregoing reasons, the Court finds that Congress had a rational basis for its conclusion that the aggregate of individual decisions not to purchase health insurance substantially affects the national health insurance market. Consequently, Congress was acting within the bounds of its Commerce Clause power when it enacted § 1501
Justice Ginsberg et al (NFIB):
First, Congress has the power to regulate economic activities “that substantially affect interstate commerce.” Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U. S. 1, 17 (2005). This capacious power extends even to local activities that, viewed in the aggregate, have a substantial impact on interstate commerce. See ibid. See also Wickard, 317 U. S., at 125 (“[E]ven if appellee’s activity be local and though it may not be regarded as commerce, it may still, whatever its nature, be reached by Congress if it exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce.”
(and)
Given these far-reaching effects on interstate commerce, the decision to forgo insurance is hardly inconsequential or equivalent to “doing nothing,” ante, at 20; it is, instead, an economic decision Congress has the authority to address under the Commerce Clause.
The only reason the Democrats haven’t taken total control of the federal government by blowing up the filibuster and packing the Court is because they don’t want to do so.
The right is powerless to do anything, and we’re supposed to fear their authoritarianism?!
The problem with being a one-party Democrat government is that people tend to think it’s all their fault when things go wrong. It’s a good idea to keep powerless Republicans around to blame when things go bad for that reason.
They’re using the Republicans as a fig leaf to hide behind, and we’re supposed to be worried about the authoritarianism of the fig leaf?!
PROPOSITION 13 IS THE SOURCE OF CALIFORNIA’S PROBLEMS!
Are there any particular writings of note from the founders clarifying what they intended by allowing Congress to regulate interstate commerce?
From what I can remember, I thought the point was to resolve disputes between states in the event they had disparate trade laws, tariffs, etc. I know that states issued their own currencies, which is why the Constitution empowers the fed to coin currency.
Logically, Congress is using interstate commerce to control everything because to some degree, all commerce is interstate.
I don’t know the answer to that, but there are plenty talking about the proper response to corrupt, tyrannical government
We need to start figuring out what to DO about it.
conservative writer David Frum
Trollin’, trollin’, trollin’
Keep those dogies trollin’…
Reason treats arch-neocon David Frum as a reliable source, and we’re supposed to believe that they are still even remotely libertarian.
Given your support of the Burn Loot Murder riots and the actual annexation of territory by left-wing marxists ast summer, I have a hard time taking any criticism of “right wing authoritarianism” from you seriously. Sorry Charlie, but if you want to pimp for actual marxists and ignore every last authoritarian abuse if the left then you have nothing of value to offer.
“Not every person who joined in left-wing attacks in Portland committed crimes, either, but I don’t suppose Trump supporters would cut those folks slack.”
Yes, someone desperately needs to do something to protect Portland’s arsonists from accountability.
Too bad no billionaires bailed the arsonists out and no prosecutors refused to prosecute. Instead they were jailed without charges indefinitely and oh wait…
The best headline of 2021 is still that CNN reporter on-site in Kenosha with the “violent but mostly peaceful protest” headline with the entire town engulfed in flames behind him. That’s the poster child of the alternate reality delusion that leftoid marxist scum find themselves in.
It was only uptown and downtown. Rittenhouse did what the feds, nat guard and local cops couldn’t. He let the rioters know that there may be consequences. That was the last night of roots in Kenosha.
Internet trolls do not enforce law in this country.
But you’re working on it. Right, Tony?
Sergeant Tony, imposter internet mall cop
Of what internet trolls do you speak of, commie faggot?
Kyle Rittenhouse is a hero.
Correct
Be like Kyle
Dunno if he’s a hero but he was obviously acting in self defense on video in living color. If I were on the jury he walks.
If a few million of us acted similarly, there isn’t fuck all the left could do about it.
Good article.
Now do the Liberals and Progressives. Who, you know, are actually *breaking the law* openly, right now.
It’s okay, they’re just “fortifying” free speech.
Nah, let’s keep the focus on the violent terrorists who tried to overthrow the country. There’s always gonna be a common street criminal around, and they do not provide you with an excuse to support treason and violence.
So *that’s* how you look past hundreds if not thousands of dead bodies to make sure the dead, unarmed protestor living in your head stays the aggressor!
“on the violent terrorists who tried to overthrow the country”
Oh, when did that happen.
The only violent terrorists in the US right now are some extremist Muslims, plus groups like antifa and BLM.
>>The January 6 Capitol riot
took you five words to fail.
Rightz this was more of a dogpile with vandalism and tresspass than anything. It is an insult to the term to call it an insurrection.
They certainly would have liked to succeed at an insurrection, right? They weren’t there to admire the statuary.
Well they took a lot of photos, and then dispersed for the most part, so yeah, actually.
And went to Olive Garden afterwards
I would like a new Porsche 911 Turbo S. That has about s much to do with their trespassing as anything else.
I know wrongthink is a crime to you, but it isn’t in reality.
“I know wrongthink is a crime to you, but it isn’t in reality.”
Give it time.
Thanks. This may cure a lot of people of the mistake of taking Greenhut seriously or treating anything Greenhut says as genuine.
Just another Lincoln Project type.
Greenhut’s a kiddie fucker?
So he’s a child molester too?
Not surprised
Yup. Is there any question why conservatives refuse to trust the media, even actual footage of events, at this point? Gaslight them long enough and they’ll just decide you’re never saying the truth.
It doesn’t help that you linked to an article that claims right-wingers want a monarch because one guy, calling himself a fucking monarchist, said as much.
Gaslight them long enough and they’ll just decide you’re never saying the truth.
Actually, true to the name, gaslight them long enough and when your mob turns on you they’ll just say “What mob? How do I even know this is a real mob?” We’re already well past the “Are they telling the truth?” scene.
And then all the videos got taken down and became much harder to find.
You are one fucked up pickle brain. Some douche kid was made fun of once on camera and you think that’s the biggest crime of the century. How do you people even feed yourselves?
“Some douche kid was made fun of once on camera”
Seems weird CN would have settled and given him money if this was all that happened. But we know the truth. You don’t care about death threats against kids you don’t like. That’s why you’re scum.
No faggot, that isn’t what happened. But you’re stupid, so I can understand how a drooling moron like you would see it that way.
And killing. I know it’s just a detail, but I find it important.
As Greenhut is not actually cutting any slack, if you are expected to buy the MSM narrative on what happened as the common facts.
Here’s the most ridiculous thing about Steven Greenhut’s article:
Before you pen that letter to the editor decrying my use of the A-word,
Who, but some AARP or AMAC moss-back, uses pens and paper for letters to the editor anymore? Who, indeed, even expresses themselves this way anymore instead of using comments sections, blogs, or videos?? Hell, even the saavier old farts use Facebook!
I’m more upset that he used David Frum as a reliable source in a libertarian magazine.
Well, that too. I’m no Trump-Train-Hopper and this shit from Greenhut is transparently silly.
I wonder when we’re going to get back to the libertarianism in this magazine instead of the TDS over a guy who’s out of office for over a year now.
Want to point out a shitty policy Biden is carrying out that started in the Trump admin – wired.
Wanna keep talking about how the rubes are stupid and icky because TRUMP! – tired.
They’re so obsessed with Trump, they’re likely to get him reelected if they don’t change the subject.
It’s only been 7 months, but the country’s gone to shit so fast it certainly feels longer.
18 months.
Are you selling any copies of your calendar?
If it seems to you like Biden’s been in office for the last 120 yrs., you’re not the only one.
I’m waiting for him to have real cognitive lapse and start babbling about shit that goes in with his handlers behind closed doors. He’s come close a few times already. I’m sure it’s an ongoing concern with his handlers and staff.
“The Trumpsters’ silliest argument is that Antifa, the fascistic “anti-fascists” who turned portions of U.S. cities into rubble, were behind the Capitol event. Conservatives touted that narrative immediately after January 6.”
I love all the “man on the street” reporting of Trump fans used to show how stupid they really are.
Somehow I missed all the mics pushed in the face of the average Antifa/BLM rioter and listening to the NPR news that comes out.
They tried, and usually got beaten for it. Antifa doesn’t like cameras.
They nearly. Ride red Andy Ngo twice now. They even have a bounty out on him.
“If we can’t all agree on basic, obvious facts about an event that unfolded before our eyes, then we’re headed toward a well-trod path of internecine struggles where we just pick a side and fight to the bitter end.”
When you figure out how to have information sources that can be trusted, let me know, because it certainly isn’t the media or the government, and that’s not Trump’s fault.
At some point, you have to stop blaming your credibility problems on the existence of other voices. It’s not Trumps fault no one trusts the media or the government. It’s their own track record of lies, deceit, snd betrayal.
What “the media”? Which “the government”? Is FOX News “the media”? Is the Trump administration “the government”?
We learn how to discern reliable sources in school. The internet, while full of lies, is also jam packed with facts and sources. If you can’t figure fact from fiction, that is definitely your problem.
Yeah, the people complaining that the truth is sparse between the lies are the real problem!
I hope your “What’s a media?” schtick saves you when they come for you. Because I’ll be too busy laughing my ass off.
We learn how to discern reliable sources in school.
So what’s your excuse?
You certainly have no grasp of even basic facts. Nor do you care to.
And Greenhut, you support criminal justice reform so hard you’ve got a hate-boner for the guy who actually got some passed – Trump.
But you’re fellating the guy who spent 50 years in office pushing for ever harsher criminal penalties for . . . well, everything.
Biden has been wrong on pretty much every major issue in the past half-century, be segregation, criminal justice, wars, you name it.
At least he doesn’t tweet mean things about CNN, though. Thank God that horrific ordeal has finally come to an end.
Yet leftists ignore all that and blindly follow him. Ultimately, they are the problem. Garbage like Biden are just a symptom.
Something must be done about the left.
“My problem is with the political right’s movement toward, well, authoritarianism, exemplified by its refusal to embrace facts that don’t conform to their alternative reality—and their unwavering support for a man rather than a set of ideas”
People don’t make choices in vacuums. At some point you need to ask yourself the analog question: why are people so willing to reject the establishment and support a b-list celebrity game show host for president?
You tell me how much IRS money went into the 1971 Nixon Campaign Subsidies law since its passage and I’ll tell you why televidiots vote for aggression and against freedom.
What the fuck does that have to do with… well, anything?
ignore his nonsensical rambling. He is genuinely mentally off
Some people need an alpha-male to follow.
Yet they installed Biden.
Trump Trump Trump
Russia Russia Russia
Trump Trump Trump
Tucker Tucker Tucker
Trump Trump Trump
Covid Covid Covid
Climate Climate Climate
Delta Delta Delta
Climate Climate Climate
Trump Trump Trump
Insurrection Insurrection Insurrection
Conservatives Conservatives Conservatives
What’s wrong Reason, Greenwald and Taibbi mean tweeting?
This version of the Rundown was much easier to read, Thanks.
You are ridiculous I cannot believe that someone who is able to write an article as well written as yours is is so unbelievably blind to what actually occured at the January 6th protest
Yes I do decry your use of the “Authoritarian” word. Because you’re conflating form with content.
I’d love it if an absolute monarch came in and freed us all, ruthlessly by unquestionable decree, with no legal recourse by which we could re-enslave each other. You’d object to that form, but the content isn’t authoritarian. Seems you’d prefer the institution of extermination camps provided all the legal niceties were followed in their operation. Due process all the way to the gas chamber, huh?
What is the substance of what these “authoritarians” want to do to us? I’ve no doubt some of what some of them want to do is bad, but that goes for most people, “authoritarian” or otherwise. I count as authoritarian those whose preferred policies are particularly slanted toward depriving the innocent of freedom, not those who want to break the rules, or change the rules, regardless of the results.
Steve Greenhut is a complete moron. That’s all.
Well, that was some brilliant debating.
No debate to be had. Billy Madison could’ve done a better job than Greenhut.
How would you know? You’re a subnormal ignoramus that just pukes out whatever pablum fed to you by your democrat masters.
I like it. Straightforward, and succinct.
I don’t think that he’s complete. He still needs a couple of finishing touches like saying that the Cuban dissidents are really attempting to enslave the Cuban people or that the interviewed Venezuelan refugees are actually CIA operatives.
It is usually been the case that such gaslighting on the part of people, like Steven Greenhut, is an indication of they’re actually being authoritarian themselves but won’t openly admit it.
Lol I knew from the headline this BS article was going to over like a fart in church. The comments did not disappoint.
That’s the only reason I read this rag.
Do these nationalist lackeys not have their own yards to play in?
The fuck you going to do about it, you globalist cock holster?
Your mom, you home boy.
Half the republican fascists polluting the comments can be waved off with a copy of “Nazi Propaganda Before 1933.” That 1984 Lane & Rupp translation compendium exposes the Positive Christian stitchery that helped Krupp, Thyssen, Merck and Farben glue redneck cranks into a manipulable ball of balloting boche. These States have the Nixon anti-libertarian law to thank for 50 years’ subsidizing both halves of a hateful Kleptocracy devoted entirely to coercion and bullying, each blaming the other while gulping at the loot-filled trough.
Hey Grandpa, today’s prudes, scolds, book burners, censors and establishment men are all waving rainbow flags and visiting Burning Man. Time to update your rhetoric.
Keep thinking that.
So, you made it out of the Mormon temple to come threadshit here. Yay………
Yes, pride parades and Burning Man, dens of prudishness.
All are welcome so long as there’s no wrongspeak. Diversity together!
I agree that some people are too zealous about being polite to minorities. What’s the body count of wokeness, by the way? Is it zero?
I ain’t got time for problems with no body count.
Do congressional baseball games count? What about the church shootings? How about the people burned alive by BLM rioters? The ten shot in Boulder? The 58 people at concert in Las Vegas?
Tony will either not respond or claim it never happened.
Over 100 million
You’d think at least half of them would be more sympathetic to grabbing women by the pussy if they let you.
Oh you still have a shitload of crazy mortal sins to scream about, Tony. Only your gods are different.
Mostly just stupidity.
People who ignore climate change but foment insurrection over the gender of Mr. Potato Head.
People like John Kerry that gallivant around in private jets belching out tons of carbon per year certainly don’t care about climate change. Neither does former President Obama buying an estate on the ocean. It would be like a “Don’t grope your female coworkers” PSA by Cuomo. People that say it is an issue but don’t actually live that way call into question whether they actually believe it.
Speaking of Climate Change, what do you mean by that Tony? Do you think CO2 emissions are harmful to life?
Let me guess, you’re gonna prove that you’re smarter than all the world’s scientists because you know plants breathe CO2.
If only all the world’s scientists had taken the same 5th grade class you did.
Yeah, it’s totally the right that’s threatening authoritarianism right now…
I don’t think it is conservatives who are asking. Most conservatives are applauded by what happened. A few days ago Rep. Dan Crenshaw was heckled for saying Trump lost the election.
Conservatives started losing ground with the Tea Party. They always believed they could control the populists. Well they were wrong and conservatism will take a long time to recover. I hope it does because as a moderate I look to Conservatives and Liberals as wells of ideas that can be molded into useful moderate policy. The Trump populist offer nothing but fear and grievance, not the building blocks needed.
This is so much of it. FOX News employees have been blowing the whistle that there is no one steering the bus since Ailes was ousted. They all keep doing the treason thing because they are terrified of losing viewers to Newsmax or whatever. They created a monster and it has gotten out of their control.
Republican politicians are in the same boat. If they don’t suck up to the Trump cult, they’ll just be replaced by someone who will.
“FOX News employees have been blowing the whistle that there is no one steering the bus since Ailes was ousted”
I see your grasp on the concept of ‘whistleblowing’ is as tenacious as your grasp on energy production, and basic infrastructure.
The Trump populist offer nothing but fear and grievance, not the building blocks needed.
Maybe move away from the fire and wait for it to die down before making plans about which blocks are gonna survive for you to rebuild with. Assuming you survive or otherwise have any say so in the rebuilding.
“Conservatives started losing ground with the Tea Party.”
What, PRECISELY, were conservatives “conserving”, pre-Tea Party.
Kuwait?
The new members that came in with the Tea Party were often undisciplined and unreasonable. How many leaders went down in house for a failure to maintain control of their caucus?
Maybe they shouldn’t have been such a bunch of quisling pussies.
“The new members that came in with the Tea Party were often undisciplined and unreasonable. How many leaders went down in house for a failure to maintain control of their caucus?”
Can you name any that were actual painful losses? I certainly cannot.
Of course, Andrew Cuomo was the Democrat’s pandemic hero, despite the second highest per capita death rate of any state, putting Covid positive people in nursing homes filled with immunocompromised seniors and then covering up the death rate, and sexually assaulting several women, and they still think he should have kept his job if not for the groping.
“they still think he should have kept his job”
Who is “they” here?
You.
There once was a writer Greenhut,
Whose prose spewed forth from his butt,
He gaslighted his foes,
Claiming a false overthrow,
This story mere progressive smut.
*golf clap*
If the protesters showed up because Trump “told” them, how come 75m+ Trump voters didn’t show up?
Nobody told them to show up except some glowies. They were pissed off (understandably so) that everyone punted on election audits. Nobody answered their questions because the system viewed the questions as an affront to itself. Those people reminded the system who it is subservient to. The system never reacts well to those reminders and went on the defensive.
From an accelerationist perspective, vaccine segregation is the next best step in the culture war. What do you think a generation of disillusioned people will do when politically persecuted and exiled from civil society?
“If the protesters showed up because Trump “told” them, how come 75m+ Trump voters didn’t show up?”
Seriously? That’s your argument? For the same reason most people don’t show up to most things: had to work that day, had better things to do, couldn’t afford to travel, didn’t care enough about it.
And yet so many of us still demand that voter fraud be investigated and are unhappy with the lack of response.
It’s almost like you want to use a bunch of loonies to discredit a movement.
There has been plenty of investigation. Multiple audits in Georgia, for example.
No there hasn’t and what little there is, you guys are working overtime to supress.
And White Mike; nobody hires 100 lawyers to hide an election victory. Nobody has the DOJ interfere in a state ordered audit because they won fair and square.
Not the level of investigation requested that would be necessary to uncover the type of fraud alleged. The closer auditors get, the more resistance they run into.
Most of these audits took place after Biden was sworn in and the discourse about audits has been truly deplorable. Nobody looks at these people as concerned American voters. They’re treated as conspiracy theorist subhumans and people publicly wish their ilk would get Covid and die from it.
Audits have become deeply personal for me because I see the same mistakes being made with how we address questions about the Holocaust. Nazism in general is on the rise and it often stems from the fact that when people ask the “wrong” questions about Judaism, they get punished for it severely, immediately assuming the worst intentions of the people asking questions. You might not think there’s any point trying to answer questions because you’re (understandably) sensitive to the subject, but answering the questions with repression does nothing except convince the person who asked the question that there’s a reason why society reacts in such a manner. You kind of prove their point by making yourself beyond critique. That has a real impact on Jews like me because the Nazis aren’t coming for you first.
People like Mike Lindell are the result of the fact that nobody took Trump’s allegations of fraud seriously. This has been pointed out many times during his administration, but people who don’t “get” him often take him seriously when he’s joking and think he’s joking when he’s being serious. Questions should be answered in as transparent a fashion as possible. The importance of belief in election integrity is universally accepted as tantamount, yet only one party wants to permit inquiries into election processes.
I directly blame the lack of inquiry and obstruction by Democrats as the cause of the riots on 1/6. People became unhinged and wanted to be heard. They didn’t come with guns because it wasn’t an insurrection. They were tired of being ignored on this critical question and they reminded every politician who punted that the government should fear the people and not the other way around.
Keep in mind that these supposed Trump loyalists severely damaged his reputation and 2024 Presidential campaign. They put their own desires for election integrity above getting “their guy” into office.
In the timely words of AOC, protest is supposed to make people feel uncomfortable. That’s how you know it was a good protest. You call them out and put them in a situation where they have to confront their flawed reasoning.
The author of this article has the mind of a child.
Are the people who insist on believing that 1/6 was a borderline non-event more self-deluded than the ones who pretend that the government was in some kind of danger of being overthrown by the theft of some furniture?
While there’s been no evidence presented (as far as I’m aware) of FBI involvement in the online chatter/planning, considering that agency’s recent history with incidents of “domestic terrorism” (most recently the “kidnapping attempt” of Gov Whitmer), I can’t say it would surprise me if at some point it were exposed that some portion of the organizers were taking some kind of direction from federal law enforcement in doing so.
There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that point heavily in the direction of FBI involvement, as well as a massive amount of info, tapes, etc., that could potentially prove or disprove the allegation that the government is refusing to release.
A decent run-down is here: https://greenwald.substack.com/p/questions-about-the-fbis-role-in
Are Trumpers not required to have any self-control? Why should their leader be in charge if that’s the case?
You don’t understand. They are victims of oppression. Hillary made mean tweets about them.
People follow her on Twitter?
Remember when absolutely nobody complained about Hillary’s tweets.
I guess the old saws are right, “devils can’t create, they can only imitate”, and “the left can’t meme”.
The biggest danger at the time was Trump having a pretense to declare martial law. He was itching to do it. The January 6th rioters nearly handed that to him.
“He was itching to do it.”
White Mike’s a mind reader and professional prophet. Unlike Bushes 1 & 2, Clinton and Obama, Trump hadn’t done anything vaguely authoritarian… but White Mike just knew.
Two things:
While I’m sure someone in the 300+ non-“I made $3532 last week from internets” posts has noted this:
The “stem-winding speech” that I’ve seen was delivered more than an hour BEFORE the “attempted coup” (or have we elevated their efforts to “near-putsch” now?).
Also, is REASON just reprinting anything they find that they approve of, but which content none of the writers would like to be associated with (because, the whole libertarian, Reason, integrity thing…)??
Oh fer fuck sake…**AFTER** the Capitol had already been breached.
Shit. It’s like making a smooth entrance in a tux, then barfing all over your date.
lolz, great analogy.
But yeah, to your point: you are letting “details” and “analysis” get in the way of the frothy rage whipped up by the The Narrative ™. The enlightened ones at Reason have evolved passed the need for such trifles.
*After
Call them what you wish.
Dumbass. Every one of them.
In the middle of the day. Cameras everywhere they broke into the Capitol building. Causing havoc. The most video security recorded place anywhere.While congress was in session.
I mean they really pissed off the federal government. The most powerful force in the US if not the world. Then bragged about it on Facebook or whatever. How stupid could you be?
Yeah they are going to mostly walk out with misdemeanors and plea bargains. They should.
At least the Antifa BLM thugs were not total idiots. They wore masks, similar clothing, attacked in the dark in small groups in Portland Oregon. They don’t need to answer to the FBI and federal prosecutors. They don’t put up selfies on the internet. You can hardly tell who did what in the videos.
“Jews were dymbasses for openly existing in 1933 Germany”
-echospinner
Hey at least you tards aren’t going after the Jews yet. But you know what they say, first they came for the trans people…
I wonder what will happen when your close allies the neo-Nazis start insisting that their big thing is about the Jews.
“Hey at least you tards aren’t going after the Jews yet”
Tell us again about how NYC Orthodox Jews are killing everyone by going to synagogue. Tell us again how Israel is an abomination that should be wiped from the map.
Yeah they are going to mostly walk out with misdemeanors and plea bargains. They should.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9602127/Inside-Washington-jail-accused-Capitol-rioters-treated-domestic-terrorists.html
Awwww
Almost like it wasn’t a riot… Uncanny.
So that’s a no on Reason covering the Justice Department withholding exculpatory evidence in all the trials from 1/6?
You’re going to believe whatever the fuck you want to believe because you are weak and dumb.
Tony speaks from experience.
Being intellectually mature means all beliefs are provisional, and that’s OK. The goal should be to understand the world as it is, as much as possible, not confirming the beliefs that you think make you comfortable.
Do Trumpers look comfortable? They look miserable to me.
I have no idea. I don’t spend anytime looking at “Trumpers,” whatever that is.
Shouldn’t you be working to understand these “Trumpers” instead of making a blanket statement that they look miserable? But hey, believe whatever you want to believe.
I am working to understand them. In fact, Trumpers have been rather an education on what made the Nazis tick.
It’s a rich area of study. Despite the seeming automatic stupidity of it all, there’s an almost sublime organization to fascism. Orwell understood it. You think you have them pinned down, but since they have no real ideology, they wriggle away. They make it so that you can’t educate them, or they’ll call it “reeducation camps” or some such. They apply anti-fascist rhetoric to regular small-d democrats and cosmopolitans with buttery ease, and that makes it all the harder to identify the actual fascists. As a student of language, I am honestly enthralled by it all.
They even pretend to be allies of the Jews. They’ll pretend up until the moment they’re shoving them in ovens again. Not having any ideology but power is a form of freedom John Locke could never envision.
I wonder if it will only be possible to consign them to the shitpile of history after they have killed so many people they are no longer able to wriggle free of branding.
He’s basically invoking the rhetoric of Goebbels at this point, but somehow Tony isn’t the Nazi.
Like directives from the White House to media organizations to ban user accounts if they engage in wrong speak while sending the FTC after them to remind them what to do?
Branding like requiring patrons to show papers to enter a restaurant? Or even go to work?
Hating the Jews like blocking the Abraham peace accord?
A peace treaty between two countries that were already at peace. Well, at least Trump didn’t inflict too many actual ideas on other countries like he did the US.
Trump regularly intimidated news outlets, not because they were giving platform to violent terrorists, but because they hurt his wittle feelings.
How much does Trump have to ruin the reputation of the country before you stop with this desperate, cringey sunk-cost bullshit? The man has been a joke since the 70s. What the fuck did you expect?
We know they have tons of video of the incident.
We also know a tiny amount of it ever has been released.
Any clue why?
What a convincing argument.
Tony
August.13.2021 at 6:01 pm
Flag Comment Mute User
Being intellectually mature means all beliefs are provisional, and that’s OK
It always amuses me when you leftist trolls contradict yourselves within the hour. Now go back to your boot licking.
Pure propaganda.
Capitol Police Fire Flash Grenades on Peaceful Jan. 6 Protesters including Women (VIDEO)
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/monsters-video-capitol-police-fire-flash-grenades-peaceful-jan-6-protesters-including-women-video/
On Jan. 6 Capitol Police started firing flash grenades and rubber bullets at peaceful protesters with US and MAGA flags.
From the video we released earlier you can see the protesters are NOT on the Capitol steps and were behind barriers.
There were children, veterans and seniors in the crowd.
The protesters were packed tightly together and the Capitol Police started firing on them.
Let’s investigate both sides and not jump to conclusions. There was certainly a riot, no one has denied that. What caused the riot and how it was incited still needs a real investigation. Not Pelosi’s show trial.
To be at the location that they were, they would have already had to cross barriers.
In other circles, this is known as trespassing.
Republicans in Congress refused to participate in an investigation. Guess they are still waiting to get to the bottom of Benghazi.
You mean the investigation where Pelosi hand-picked members for them?
Cannot imagine why they would not participate in a blatant sham.
They actually voted against it. Except for Cheney and a couple others, they actively refused to participate. Yes. Thus Nancy Pelosi “hand picked” it. When everyone cancels on you for dinner, they shouldn’t complain when you order what you want.
You are allowed to have a functioning cortex. You don’t have to do butt work for gross partisan hacks if you don’t want to.
“Except for Cheney and a couple others, they actively refused to participate. Yes. Thus Nancy Pelosi “hand picked” it. When everyone cancels on you for dinner, they shouldn’t complain when you order what you want.”
McCarthy named people. Pelosi refused to seat them. So he told her to go fuck herself. Only two quisling shits, one of whom has a legendary love of killing brown folks and the other is a lame shit from IL, decided to audition for MSNBC by joining.
“No one has denied that.”
Hell, it’s being denied right above here in these very comments:
https://reason.com/2021/08/13/conservatives-are-asking-you-to-disbelieve-your-own-eyes/#comment-9046066
And, wow, did the author of this article really begin the title of this report on Capitol Police with “MONSTERS:”.
It was a bunch of crisis actors except the one who was shot except there should be a coup anyway because the election was stolen.
Authoritarianism isn’t about a will to power, it’s about abject stupidity. The dumbest people follow the biggest sociopathic grifter because they need to be told what to do.
Despite conservative dick thumping about being the strongest most virile manly men, the essential quality of the authoritarian is that they are weak followers. There is only one guy who leads. All the rest, from Tucker to Miller to the most illiterate QAnon basement jockey, their basic need is to follow and be weak and stupid.
Democracy requires thoughtfulness, much like intellectual coherence, and why waste calories on thought when Daddy will simply hurt the right people for you?
After careful study of the mind of the follow there on these boards, I am forced to conclude that the big problem with this world is stupidity.
The Jan 6 events were appalling crimes, but have absolutely nothing to do with authoritarian government.
Authoritarian government is when the government restricts our freedoms.
The Jan 6 events were appalling crimes
Trespassing in the most public place in America? Selfies in the rotunda?
But you’re right about the definition of authoritarianism.
Not every person who joined in left-wing attacks in Portland committed crimes, either, but I don’t suppose Trump supporters would cut those folks slack.
If they didn’t commit crimes? Of course I’d cut them slack. If they didn’t commit violent crimes, I’d cut them some slack there too. If they committed violent crimes, like a great number of those in Portland did, then I’d charge them with violent crimes; no slack given. Now do the same to the January 6 defendants.
Why must random unconnected street criminals enter this conversation at all? You learn in kindergarten that two wrongs don’t make a right, and as a matter of fact the January 6th events were unparalleled in US history. The first non-peaceful transfer of presidential power in history. A permanent stain on the country’s reputation. We’re going to be just another lame shithole forevermore, thanks to Trump.
Also, my car was broken into 3 years ago. So no biggie.
“First non peaceful transfer” provided one ignores the mass riots on inauguration day 2017.
I would characterize those as protests, a fine American tradition, and nobody committed violence in an attempt to overturn the electoral college count.
Who are you trying to convince? Yourself?
“I would characterize those as protests, a fine American tradition, and nobody committed violence in an attempt to overturn the electoral college count.”
Just trying to stop a swearing in.
Of COURSE you support it. Because you’re a hack.
“Who are you trying to convince? Yourself?”
Only one was peaceful.
I don’t know what I enjoyed more: this article, or all the right-wing bootlickers in this comment section that are 100% proving the article correct, mostly without realizing it. It’s really beautiful
Yea, it’s totes the people who aren’t sucking establishment and state dick that are the bootlickers.
Your life has no value.
Shhh, the adults are talking. Why don’t you watch a cartoon in the other room?
You realize people can read and compare posts, judging what those posts indicate about the intelligence level of the writer, no?
That doesn’t work in your favor.
Honey, we’ve told you before. No backtalk. It’s rude. Now go to your room.
This is just sad.
No fiscal conservative attended the Jan 6 rally. They are all fiscal liberals, the worst kind of liberal
The sick sad thing about this is that the traitors aren’t remotely interested in having the right kind of government. Except for the vague itch to exterminate sorts of people they’ve been taught are their enemy, they have no ideas. The only thing going on is the fear of being wrong. The fear of the humiliation of it all. The brain is a machine for rationalization. It wants to make you feel right before it wants to make you be right. Humans will go to any end to preserve this feeling, even genocide. This is the sunk cost fallacy as politics.
Of course, you could have simply taken one look at the orange combover and decided that this probably wasn’t going to end well. Which “successful businessman” needs to play a “successful businessman” on a reality show? You tell me why that would be a thing.
Tony’s totes liberal, even if he sounds exactly like “Tailgunner” McCarthy. Just ask him.
McCarthy actually was correct in a lot of his criticisms and attempted to do investigations out of the public light but Dems refused.
Just to provide him a bit of defense here.
Jesus Christ you’re parroting Ann Coulter now.
Get your brain out of that cesspool. Ann Coulter doesn’t believe the shit she says. She’s just there to move books.
Libertarians shouldn’t defend ideological witch hunts by the government. Why are you so bad at this?
“Libertarians shouldn’t defend ideological witch hunts by the government.”
YOU ARE DOING THAT. Are you oblivious?
And there is a Congressional Record you’re free to review if you wish to dispute.
Vaccine passports, restrictions, and coercion are being pushed mainly from the left. The left was far worse than the right on lockdowns and masks. But the right is the authoritarian threat because of some crackpots on Jan. 6?
You still have to take your shoes off and be scanned naked to get on an airplane because of the supposed public safety threat that followed 9/11.
To understand why hygiene measures are being advocated, you must appreciate that the world is in a pandemic.
Flu pandemic. Common cold pandemic. Covid isn’t going away. If you are high risk, take the appropriate precautions.
Like the vaccine?
Yes, like the vaccine. Because we have the vaccine, further public health measures are not justified. Whether you get sick or not is entirely under your control now.
Is it really under your control if you let Facebook convince you that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus?
Unvaccinated people spread the virus. I have a right not to live in a world with perpetual plagues we can’t eradicate because some people are retarded.
You want absolute freedom from consequence with no personal responsibility. You are not a person with a political worldview, you are just a psychopathic asshole.
“Is it really under your control if you let Facebook convince you that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus?”
This is the first I’m seeing this mentioned here. Do you have a cite for who said it?
Of course you don’t. You just made it up because you’re a lefty garbage troll.
“In light of the burning need of the people and the country, we need to enable the president to take all necessary measures.”
So, we should’ve outlawed gay sex to deal with the AIDS “pandemic”? I mean, that was the lion’s share of the cases from day one.
This is article #1023434 in the Reason series of articles promoting the absurd idea that the right is just as opposed to individual liberty as the left.
Why is the right more in favor of individual liberty? Because they say so?
Are words really all you people need? Hollow lies? The right can’t handle losing an election. It can’t even handle a gender-neutral Potato Head.
Brian Stelter identifies as male I believe.
The Right has sought to ban Potato Heads?
I mean, the Left is spending considerable effort trying to ban books that hurt their feelings and all.
Name one.
“Irreversible Damage” by Abigail Shirer is the most recent one.
Not banned. Just criticized. You do understand the difference between criticism and banning, yes?
This article is gaslighting at its finest. Talk about “who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes,” just look a Biden and the progressives. To accuse conservatives of being authoritarian is laughable – especially on the day that Biden is floating closing interstate travel to the unvaccinated. It is the progressives who openly call for social media companies to cancel and ban people who disagree with the administration. It is progressives who are pushing for vaccine mandates and mask requirements although there is nothing in the Constitution to authorize it and masks have been shown NOT to work. It is the progressives who have constantly lied about the pandemic to hold on to power and keep people in a state of fear. It is Biden who admitted he did not have the constitutional authority for the eviction moratorium and then did it anyway. It is the progressives who compiled lists of Trump administration employees so they could actively keep them from getting jobs. This right out of the Nazi Party playbook. Either the author is a fool or he thinks we are.
You are absolutely correct. No one has been more authoritarian than this current administration and they threaten to become even more so.
Of course this is what every liberal has dreamed of: enough power to force their lunatic ideas down everyone else’s throat.
A photo of his staff indicates the same style of smug, Ivy league Marxism that is so predominant in universities. Filled with utter contempt for the rest of us and totally arrogant.
“It is Biden who admitted he did not have the constitutional authority for the eviction moratorium and then did it anyway.”
You do know that the CDC eviction ban started with an executive order from Donald Trump, don’t you? And don’t think Trump has no idea it had Constitutional problems; many people pointed it out, and he didn’t care one wit.
The CDC was out of control under Trump as well.
Furthermore, unconstitutionality at the time was a guess by “people”. Now, SCOTUS has ruled, which rather changes things, not to mention that the economy is coming back and we have vaccines.
So Biden took an unconstitutional action by Trump, that the SCOTUS ruled was not constitutional…AND DOUBLED DOWN?
That is BETTER?
What a bunch of Trump-humping douche-bags in this comment section. I’ve never seen a bigger display of head-in-the-sand what-about-ism in my life.
These people can’t contemplate for an instant that they were smitten and taken in by the Orange Huckster from New York. Their minds immediately have to talk about the progressives. It hurts to be scammed.
Your boy delivered the country to Biden. Nice job.
Nice sockpuppet Buttplug, but we all know it’s you.
Hope you and Reason enjoy Biden. A senile, corrupt, incompetent, mean spirited jerk is who you wanted as your Fuhrer, and it’s what you got.
We have to deal with Biden because you betas (with the help of Hillary) put your dear orange leader in to office. Loser couldn’t even beat senile old Joe.
Oh, I wish you Americans that you will have to deal with much, much worse than Biden: you people really deserve everything that’s coming to you.
Is Greenhut confused? Does he really mean Liberalism? The same Liberalism that wants to shove woke down everybody’s throat? The same liberalism that believes in every sort of fantastical idea such as men getting pregnant? The same liberalism that wants to create a Soviet style government with massive FEMA camps for the unvaxxed? Or the same Liberalism that now supports unipower government in order to inflict their crazed lunatic ideas on the rest of us? The same Liberalism that now is scapegoating those who do not wish to be poisoned by an experimental treatment that is dangerous and toxic?
The same liberalism that supports ANTIFA and Black Lives matter as they loot, burn and murder their way across America?
The same asinine Liberalism that believes in 54 different genders? The same ignorant liberalism that wants to force feed that rubbish down children’s throats?
Oh, those conservative/liberals.
No not that liberalism, dummy. Step away from the Hannity.
Do the world a favor Greenhut and don’t breed. You and the whole lot of Cosmotarians at (t)Reason have done nothing but suck off the Authoritarian establishment cock for going on 5 years now. This article was nothing short of pure projection.
“This article was nothing short of pure projection.”
Conservatives, if they are willing to play for keeps should make it a reality. We are constantly reminded how the opposition is progressive, socialist, communist etc. In a word, they are totalitarians. In the fight of these behemoths, authoritarianism has sometimes triumphed. It won’t triumph in this case as evidenced by the comments here. Conservatives here are defeatist down to their cores. Get ready for your socialist future, comrades.
Or, simpler plan, stop hanging out at a website you don’t like. Do yourself a favor, and find a better place to spend your life’s precious minutes.
“SHUT UP OR FUCK OFF! DON’T COMPLAIN ABOUT REASON! IT’S VERBOTEN!!!” – t. White Mike
There’s a simple solution to this dispute: release the over 14,000 hours of video footage recorded inside the Capitol on Jan. 6 and let the public decide for themselves. Instead of just showing 15 minutes of footage cherry-picked to reinforce the prevailing narrative.
14000 thousand hours should, if cherry picked properly, provide proof that Antifa was behind the whole shebang after all.
That makes no sense. The violence in those 15 minutes wouldn’t stop existing.
What violence? The cop yelling cause he’s feeling squeezed, or when you guys shot Ashley Babbit?
Dee admits she’s afraid of more information. She would have preferred we just stick with the fire extinguisher narrative though.
She does not always cawoperate with an honest discussion.
Those damn CAWCLLS.
That pursuit of national purity may well work in a small, rather culturally isolated nation like Hungary, with a history of us against the world fights with all manner of opponents, but it won’t work in diverse America, a country which has never known the experience of purity, or even a feeling of common cause.
Isn’t the urban-rural divide here interesting? Cities are diverse, yet the people aren’t constantly on edge about their culture disappearing there.
Only in 100% white country places are there stirrings of the confederacy. Places where the only threat to whiteness is the abject lack of education for white people.
Maybe it’s a mistake to expand broadband there.
The place you’re squealing about, doesn’t actually exist, bigot. If you ever left your concrete ghetto you’d know that.
Tony,
The most bigoted people I have ever met come from large cosmo areas…I first encountered this at a private research university in the early 80’s..most of the kids were from NYC area (NY , LI and so on) and man the Catholics hated the Protestants, the Jews hated the Italians and on and on. I grew up in a small town in Central NY and honestly we had pretty much every ethnic group from Europe and everyone got along fine…the first time I heard the word “JAP” was in college by one NYC kid to another..
So your claim is that, in the early 80s, cities were full of bigots and rural areas were racially harmonious?
Lefty authoritarian bigot makes up more bullshit about people he’s never met, and places he’s never been.
Maybe the hip urban diverse people are too busy worrying about being murdered or robbed.
Cities have become interchangeable across the globe. Playgrounds for the wealthy and their servants. Shopping malls consisting of global corporate brands. Transportation hubs for global jet setters. Slums for refugees, illegals, criminals, and the mentally ill. Large hubs for sex, drugs, and prostitution. Cities don’t have a culture that could disappear or that needs protecting.
What do you have against sex?
You can say all major cities are the same, but that’s retarded since they are actually all rather unique.
What’s the same is every small town in America thanks entirely to the “let’s just ignore monopolistic behavior by large retail corporations” philosophy of your political party.
Now the Walton family owns more wealth than half the country, and all poor rural people got in return was drug addiction and ignorance.
“Isn’t the urban-rural divide here interesting? Cities are diverse, yet the people aren’t constantly on edge about their culture disappearing there.”
Yet rural folks have no desire to demand cities do anything while cities demand rural folks do what they want.
Funny, huh?
Pretty sure the Trump terrorists were not interested in leaving the city parts of the US alone after they tried to take over the government.
There was precisely zero desire or an attempt to do so.
Now why can’t city folks leave the rural folks alone? You busybodies demand we do what you want.
Because they are disease-ridden parasites who want to destroy the world via sheer stupidity.
Shut up faggot. You live in butt fuck Oklahoma. Like you’re cosmopolitan or something.
I haven’t spent more than 10 minutes outside my car anyplace that wasn’t a city of at least a million people in, like, 20 years. What’s the fucking point?
Most of the Reason staff were originally left-liberal so it’s no surprise that many of them are reverting when faced with pressure from progressives.
Here we see Cancel Culture, mask mandates, forced COVID shutdowns, a tax crazed left demanding the confiscation of wealth along with demands for gun controls and COVID passports, and what does Reason see as the problem? Authoritarianism in a few hopeless idiots who favor high tariffs and border walls!
Yep….they all really want a gig at Salon, Slate, New Yorker, Atlantic or their dream gig…NYT or Wapo..they all live in NYC or DC pretty much..and that says it all.. Matt is not a libertarian as far as I can tell and Nick’s been doing his “hey were different” stick on CSPAN for 40 years now…they are kind of a joke these days but until we have another Libertarian place to go and blog our views..we come here
“Most of the Reason staff were originally left-liberal…”
Cite?
Did you READ the last two “Who you voting for?” articles?
David Frum is not a conservative or libertarian.he is that typical neocon jewish canadian who has no issue with big govt, keynsian economics, the fed, deficits, and identify politics…his whole gig is the American Empire which translates into Rural American kids should die for Investment Banks, Internationalists and a greater Israel owning the west bank..come on man..the guy is anything but a conservative…
Conservatism isn’t becoming authortarian…its becoming a slower form of progressivm. Look at Paul Ryan..he is what the conservative movement became..a joke.
There was time when the GOP stood for limited govt, no deficits, no wars and govt not trying to influence social outcomes via discriminatory laws..oh to think how the country would be if we had a conservative once in a while…how many federal agencies/programs did the GOP shut down when they controlled congress and the white house? yep..none.
Umm, this is an embarrassingly bad article. People went to DC. They protested mostly peacefully. Some did some unpeaceful things that should be punished – trespassing, etc. Punish those with fines, etc.,that would be reasonable. Held in prison for 6-7 months is not reasonable and should be halted now. Do not support the use of punishment for partisan politics.
Now wait just a cotton picking minute. Lemme see if I have this straight. The election was stolen and it’s the ‘trespassers’ who should be punished?
Some people may believe both of those statements to be true; where exactly do you see a contradiction between those two positions?
It’s a question of priorities. What is the bigger crime? Trespassing?
Why do we need to prioritize? Trespassers should be tried and sentenced quickly and elections should be forensically examined.
Hasn’t it been already established by objective observers that communists stole the election? But it’s the ‘trespassers’ what need punishing.
Do you have a point that you want to make? Because you’re just rambling incoherently.
“Because you’re just rambling incoherently.”
What? That’s bad now?
If you kill somebody who assaulted your child, you should still be punished, even if what you did is justifiable.
This article is a really great double feature with the now corrected story about Rand Paul getting banned from YouTube.
Then I guess my eyes lied to me reading about prostitution being legal in Hungary. Oh well!
Are you effing kidding us Greenhut? Take a good hard look at yourself, at your politics, and at your gaslighting.
People like you have made a mockery of libertarianism.
Reason will never get over Trump, I get it. I didn’t see how deep it went until now with an all out assault on Trump supporters. It’s never about Trump policies. It’s always about the side show and fringe topics. I guess CNN needs some company at the bottom.
Trump is holding rallies and fundraising. He appears to be preparing to run for President again. Why shouldn’t he be a continued topic of discussion, then?
Because totalitarian rapists like white Mike are making moves to cement their power and take everything private citizens have.
No more discussion with your ilk.
Same reason Biden was barely mentioned by the writers here last year.
Because he does not have any power. Biden clearly does.
A shit article from a shit writer full of bullshit. Yeah the right are the authoritarians. Gthoh.
Again and again, the comments are more informative and libertarian than the article. Reason has some explaining to do. Why publish such trash? Who’s editing this garbage? Trump specifically said to remain peaceful in your protest. There were tens of thousands who came to DC at Trumps behest to voice their displeasure at obvious election fraud without violence in mind. The nuts who engaged in violence should be punished, but none have been charged with treason or insurrection as there was no proveable conspiracy afoot. It’s nonsense to conflate such a charge.
And this is evidently what happens when people who value freedom and rights remain peaceful.
There’s a lesson there.
“Trump specifically said to remain peaceful in your protest.”
Pop quiz: When did Trump say that? Before, during, or hours after the rioters breach of the Capitol building?
Mike Laursen has a death wish.
Trump even KNEW they were breaching during his speech?
Can you provide evidence of this?
Also, hard to call it “breaching” when Capitol police were letting them in.
“The January 6 attack was incited by the head of the American government, the man who had sworn to protect and defend that government.” — Well, isn’t that just a LOAD OF NAZI B.S.
Is that like searing an oath to HITLER, The Nazi-Regime or any “Government”??? Yes; Author please expand this blatantly generic statement because it is a FLAT-OUT LIE.
NO; They didn’t swear allegiance to the Government….
They swear an oath to the U.S. Constitution…
And breaking that sworn oath, “was the thing most feared by the authors of the U.S. Constitution: a betrayal of the highest office by the holder of that office.”
Which is EXACTLY what is happening at the highest offices AND the majority of congress RIGHT-NOW violating what “was the thing most feared by the authors of the U.S. Constitution”…
And the left has openly admitted it; just like they openly admit to supporting and over-throwing the U.S. Constitution for National Socialism (def; Nazism). I guess it’s okay for the Top-Man to say he doesn’t have the Constitutional Power to do something but does it anyways; Oh no, that’s not authoritarian at all!?!??? /s
Having ‘authoritarian’ enacted and illegal voting changes last minute by executive action…. Oh no, that’s not authoritarian at all!?!???? /s Having ‘authoritarian’ congressmen demand the Presidents removal from popular media….. Oh no, that’s not authoritarian at all?!???? /s
Watching a legitimate election drop a land-slide win only to see it poked-n-prodded by invisible ballots drawn-out in length till a perfect counter-win forms and suggesting a fraudulent election that should be investigated fully — Ya; that’s authoritarian… /s
Speaking of “alternative reality” — Greenhut takes the cake in that department.
If anyone wished to declare those who are conservative in their views as racist and violent, then you need to see this; a list of violent attacks by those on the left against anyone who either supported Trump or disagreed with the policies of the left. The list is very long and quite frightening.
Don’t forget the brave ANTIFA leftists who attacked Tucker Carlson’s home while he was at work. You know what work is, something those on the left never get involved with.
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU00/20190409/109266/HHRG-116-JU00-20190409-SD008.pdf
“The list is very long and quite frightening.”
I heard they actually use milkshakes in some of those attacks.
Milkshakes with rocks in them. Andy Ngo wasn’t knocked down by strawberry frosty.
Tell us about it.
PSA: if you do this in the US, the DOJ may charge you with domestic terrorism, as the DHS has defined such behavior
https://twitter.com/FearDept/status/1426565235012374529?t=C4azLadqcLsLM_ljAuZsUg&s=19
The French protested against Vaccine Passports again today. They should follow Canada’s example and bend over. [Link]
I’m just gonna leave this here
https://twitter.com/DrewHLive/status/1426585832610164738?t=cHzBhf_WBzUvBttVuV-xoA&s=19
Eyes on LA
LA ANTIFA has announced a counter demonstration against the anti vax mandate protest today at LA City Hall
If you are planning to attend today and bring your kids, watch your 6, literally [pic]
Where is the outrage over the blatant unConstitutional actions of Joe Biden and his cronies at the CDC?
Biden ADMITTED that the extended CDC eviction moratoriom was unConstitutional BUT HE DID IT ANYWAY, using the lame Liberal excuse that it was the “right thing to do”.
THe “President” of the United States openly admits to violating the Constitution that he was sworn to uphold and there is nary a peep from Democrats, the Liberal press or their cowed mass of dutiful bleating sheeple, the same group that clamored for Trump’s impeachment at the stupidest things they could find or make up.
Why the hypocrisy? Why aren’t there any calls for Biden to be impeached? And why is the author of this hit piece not interested either?
As long as you’re concerned about the movement towards totalitarianism, you might take a look at what the Democrats are doing also: Censorship in collusion with Big Tech; aiding and abetting anti-police violence in major Democratic cities; a voting bill that will federalize elections and reduce states’ constitutional rights; a president who blatantly violates the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings; and, through CRT and cancel culture, the intimidation and social persecution of all opposition. Seems like you’re the one refusing to face facts.
Author is right that Trump and his followers are reality-denying idiots but the problem isn’t the authoritarianism. I wish we had had a competent right-wing autocrat in charge instead of the feckless Trump; then we might have crushed Covid at the outset instead of letting it kill over half a million and continue to spread and mutate among the know-nothing crowd. Covid would have been an excellent opportunity to completely seal the southern border as well.
In the 1920’s Germany was the scene of a tri-partite struggle between international socialists (Communists), national socialists (Nazis) and “democratic” socialists (Social Democrats). There was street fighting where the police stood by and watched. There were violent attacks on bookstores and the well known book burnings. There were wild conspiracy theories, government provocateurs and enemies on which they all agreed – the Jews and capitalism.
History isn’t repeating itself here, but to paraphrase Mark Twain, it sure rhymes. The new enemy is “whiteness” defined as the freedom to do things of which the left disapproves including, of course, free minds and free markets (odd, that a website with this as its motto fails to defend it).
We see white people apologizing for existing, small businesses robbed and torched while the police stand by watching, government and social media websites openly colluding to eliminate dissident voices. Billionaires give millions of dollars to people who call for their extinction.
But the real problem is the new authoritarian right, which is banned from Twitter and Facebook, has its members held without bail for months and has the backing of no serious money.
“In the 1920’s Germany was the scene of a tri-partite struggle between international socialists (Communists), national socialists (Nazis) and “democratic” socialists (Social Democrats). ”
You forgot about German rightists. Like Hitler.
Like “crony capitalism”? A term coined by lefty-propaganda that makes zero sense what-so-ever. Like “dry wet”. Business cannot bribe a government favor in capitalism because the government has no power-of-policy for the bribe. Terming Hilter a limited government ‘rightist’ is exactly the same contradiction of words.
Hitler demanding National Socialism over Communism doesn’t make him a limited(i.e. conservative) government ‘rightist’. It made him a Socialist. The same political theory of the USA’S left.
Luckily the USA isn’t so far gone it carries a notable communist party / socialist party divide (left-right). Instead it carries a Individual Liberty / Socialist party divide (right-left).
And anyone has too look back and ask how Hitler came to power in Germany? It was a battle between Communism / Socialism. There was no-option for a winner.
Put another way if Republican hadn’t of won the Civil War between Andrew Jackson and FDR leadership the USA would have it’s own Full-Blown Hitler. (battles of lefty-ideology)
Realizing just how close to Hitler the left came is an eye opener.
FDR’s “Enemy Alien” naturalized USA Citizen labor camps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans
“Terming Hilter a limited government ‘rightist’ is exactly the same contradiction of words”
Under Hitler, power resided in the Fuehrer. Power didn’t reside in either the government or the party. They all took their orders from the leader who was a man of the right. It’s a system called the Fuehrer Principle. The notion that American leftists today look to some similar figure to lead the nation is laughable.
“And anyone has too look back and ask how Hitler came to power in Germany? ”
Hitler owed his elevation to the machinations of Papen and Hindenburg. Neither men were leftists, socialists, communists or whatnot. They were both aristocrats and monarchists.
And power resided with Stalin, and Castro, and Mao, and Ho Chi Minh and every other socialist dictator the left reveres privately while ‘no true scotsmanning’ publicly.
And leftists never TRY for dictatorships, they’re just too stupid to understand that their entire philosophy is designed to create it.
Are you still trying to convince me that Hitler was a leftist? Or Marxist? Or have you moved on to riding some other of your laughable hobby horses?
“Limited government” isn’t actually a thing. There’s a reason Republicans never shrink government. It’s all just a bunch of empty rhetoric, something you should know full well considering your open support of tyrannical government. And Republican voters aren’t the least bit interested in limited government. They voted the last guy in because he promised to build a giant wall to keep out the Mexicans. That’s not limited government. You get that right?
But perhaps I’m an idiot for missing the unstated part: “Limited government for white heterosexual males with money. Everyone else can literally be anally raped by government for all I care. If you’re a woman, in fact, you must submit to government orifice inspectors. For Jesus.”
How do you go on believing bullshit for so long that exists ENTIRELY as some bullshit a politician told you, which is patently a lie you can see with your eyes?
Figures you’d use self-defense as an example of ‘tyranny’.
“But perhaps I’m an idiot” — Yep; you pegged it head-on.
You have a dyslexic view of politics :)…
But that’s okay; You have the U.S. Constitution to clear up your dyslexia.
“But perhaps I’m an idiot for missing the unstated part: “Limited government for white heterosexual males with money.”
Hey look, the lefty troll is making up bullshit again.
Greenhut argues future danger exists because so many people refuse to embrace facts that don’t conform to their alternative reality.
Greenhut agrees, the January 6 attack was incited by the head of the American government
Didn’t Greenhut hear Trump’s words to protest “peacefully”? How is that incitement? Why is no one being charged for incitement? Today, some guy charged at the 1/6 “riot” says he’s not a Trump supporter, but he was there. Why one standard where politicians are bailing out rioters, but here there’re being prosecuted like terrorists, but no terror charges.
Why won’t Greenhut embrace the fact Trump didn’t incite a riot?
Hillary didn’t personally murder the people at Benghazi either but we got 20 congressional investigations.
Let’s do our 21 investigations and see how Trump smells at the end of it?
Deal; And the murder count of the Jan. 6th protest was?
“The numbskulls who stormed the Capitol, some of whom are facing modest prison sentences”
Some of whom are being detained without bail.
To quote a 1989 article in a prominent libertarian magazine: “The Bail Reform Act of 1984 also hinders a successful defense by making it easier to hold suspects in jail prior to trial. This practice prevents accused persons from freely talking with their attorneys, locating friendly witnesses, and otherwise assembling the necessary information to prove their case.”
https://reason.com/1989/03/01/trends-191/
And that was even before Reason began pushing for the abolition of cash bail altogether.
But I’ll say this much for Reason: Their site has an awesome search function!
Nice find.
The first criminals ever to held without bail I’m sure.
It is so very delightful to see the TDS on display. Having one man live on in your head, rent free, is so much fun to watch.
I’ve been reading this joker’s columns for over 10 years. What a colossal waste of time.
The political LEFT”S movement toward authoritarianism
mask mandates
illegal lock downs
Open south border, tight controls on Cuba
Unconstitutional attempt to federalize elections
Unconstitutional attempt to make DC a state
Corrupt DOJ, weaponized DOJ
Corrupt FBI, weaponized DOJ
Secretive Presidential administration
Purging the military
Political retribution.
Socialist/Woke agenda
Anyone with a brain in their head would be worried about the liberals/Democrats who are in power right now. Yet Reason just continues with Trump hate. Reason, what a joke.
I forgot the Democrats plans to pack both the lower and Supreme courts.
Reason’s Writers Are Asking You To Disbelieve Your Own Eyesb>
Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?
I agree with Mr. Greenhut 99% of the time. This would be the other 1%, in spades. “Modest prison sentences”??? The one I’m aware of is EIGHT MONTHS. All for strolling through open doors and snapping a few pix. A $100 fine would be much more appropriate.
Mr. Greenhut should take a serious laxative before he writes his next column.
Ever since Reason moved their offices to LA it turned into leftist dribble and I no longer frequent this site. I challenge the author to name a single Republican policy under the Trump admin that resembles authoritarianism or even a consolidation of power into the nation-state at all. He wont, and he can’t because Trump was a deregulator and pushed national power to the states at nearly every opportunity. Trump lowered taxes and reduced foreign entanglements. Meanwhile the left asks us to disbelieve our own eyes as dozens are murdered, private property looted and cities burn under the flag of Marxist BLM/Antifa….but it’s a “mostly peaceful protest.” Riiiigght.
“My problem is with the political right’s movement toward, well, authoritarianism”
You really need to be a little more concerned with the political left’s rush to authoritarianism, which has been much more on display. They have the support or acquiescence of the major media, government agencies and bureaucracies, and the educational institutions, in addition the Democratic Party.
The major media, minus FOX News, you mean. Yes?
They’re right about everything. Them against the world.
Just a heads up if you consider yourself a libertarian, or just a free-thinking person with a functional brain, and you find yourself agreeing with David Frum – that should be a big clue that you’ve got something wrong and need to completely reassess your thought process.
In our current dystopian nightmare it is not Conservative Authoritarians we need to spend all our time worrying about. At the moment there is an overwhelming number of Woke Authoritarians who pose more of a threat.
Neither are good, but Steven Greenhut is deluding himself in to believing that Conservative Authoritarians have any power at the moment. The Woke Authoritarians currently have the power and the country is quickly descending into a dystopian nightmare that it may prove to be difficult to extricate ourselves from.
Steven Greenhut writes like a twelve-year-old.
If what Greenhut writes is true, how does he explain the light sentences handed out so far?
We all saw what happened on the TV news and in livestreaming videos from participants and bystanders.
So, we all saw the cops invite the protesters in?
We saw that the protesters were much less violent and destruction than the Democrat ones who invaded the Senate Hart building to try to stop the Kavanaugh nomination, let alone the murderous and destructive BLM “mostly peaceful” riots?
We all saw that the only person shot that day was a peaceful, unarmed, protester shot by an out of control cop.
IOW, we all saw that it wasn’t anything like an “insurrection”, and that everyone calling it such was and is a laying sack of sh!t?
Yes, we did.
I don’t know, however, what kind of images your drug addled brain things it “saw”. Because reality looks nothing like your screed
The left gets a free pass to riot, loot and cause mayhem any time it wishes, and it’s chalked up to protest. I’m tired of the double standard. I’m not going to express one word of criticism over the Capitol protest until the thousands of leftist riotors and looters are rounded up and punished for last year’s “mostly peaceful” protests. Until the thousands of owners of private property owners receive justice for their looted shops will I not care a bit about Senators and Representatives getting a taste of disorder.
Look, there’s only one solution – partition the country. It’s that, Civil War or (following the Afghan example) surrender.
So you won’t criticize the attempt to overthrow the US constitution to install a fascist dictator, and you want to round up all the leftists.
I’ll give it to you, you have a consistent worldview.
This is a dishonest articles, filled with misleading half-truths and logical fallacies. As soon as the writer said “absurd conspiracy theories about a stolen election,” I knew we were finished with reasoned argument and civil discussion. Where is the *reason* in REASON.COM?
It is not absurd to believe the election was stolen. There is abundant evidence for anyone who is not willfully blind. Who would ignore that evidence, except a fatally-biased Trump-hater?
Why don’t you link to this evidence?
After reading this article, I have to ask: when did Reason turn into a voice for the left?
It didn’t. You just like to view the world as consisting of your side and the left. Nothing in between, no nuance, no other perspectives.
After all, there are 10 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary numbers, and those that don’t.
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It’s wilful ignorance, and they are straight up evil totalitarians.
They can’t be reasoned with, because they’re committed psychotics.
They won’t stop until they are stopped forcefully, and they will come for everything.
They aren’t ignorant of it.
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