[Peace-discuss] What the Right thinks

Wed Dec 28 23:18:27 CST 2011

> She represents (& even influences) the views of some of or fellow citizens, so it's worthwhile to know what those views are, in order to know how to answer them. 
Even if she represents or influences the views of some, those are not the people whose minds are going to be changed by rational discussion, debate, or arguments.  Many of them are not only unintellectual but anti-intellectual. To attempt to answer her or their arguments is a fool’s errand, a waste of energy and resources, and typical intellectual and/or academic approach which only goes to support the opponent’s views of the those who get into “so-called” rational arguments with them as indicating how out of touch they are with ordinary unintellectual populations and how much of an egghead position your position is.  Hell, it may even alienate the uneducated and non-intellectual persons in your own groups of supporters, who may not understand a thing you are offering up as a counter-argument.
It might be best to completely ignore people like her and not even attempt to answer her or press who might quote her and continue to focus exclusively on present one’s own arguments, viewpoints, or policy proposals in a non-intellectual and non-academic (and even non-rational polemical) way that even the uneducated non-intellectual population will understand and get motivated by.  You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.  If you intend to do battle, you either fight dirty, find a new manner of fighting that the opponent is unprepared to deal with, or by-pass the immediate fight or battlefield and attack on an entirely new and different front or battlefield of your choosing.  The question always is if you plan to do battle with them to destroy your opponent or merely wish to play chess with them and win the engagement at hand with an eye to future engagements like a sports contest.

From: Carl G. Estabrook 
Sent: December 28, 2011 10:37 PM
To: David Johnson 
Cc: Peace-discuss List 
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] What the Right thinks

She represents (& even influences) the views of some of or fellow citizens, so it's worthwhile to know what those views are, in order to know how to answer them. 

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers."

An example is the charge that Obama is a socialist. To those of us who really are socialists, in a tradition more than two centuries old, that's not worth a reply. But when Americans today make that charge, they're saying Obama heads a government that runs an economy for the benefit of a few. (Where could they get the idea that that's what socialism is?) And of course they're right. So it won't do simply to say (correctly), "No, Obama isn't a socialist."

Even though (to quote that contemporary cultural artefact, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) "with all due respect, and remember I'm saying it with all due respect, that idea ain't worth a velvet painting of a whale and a dolphin getting it on..."

On Dec 28, 2011, at 9:36 PM, David Johnson wrote:

  With all due respect Carl,

  Who gives a shit what this elitist nazi nutcase Ann Coulter thinks or says ?

  David Johnson

  ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
  To: "Peace-discuss List" <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
  Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 9:15 PM
  Subject: [Peace-discuss] What the Right thinks

  It's interesting to see that Coulter thinks the two most important
  issues are (1) immigration and (2) Obamacare. But both are supported
  by the currently regnant ideology of the right, neoliberalism:

  [1] Neolberals support immigration, legal and illegal. "First, there
  isn’t a single US corporation that doesn’t have an HR office committed
  to respecting the differences between cultures, to making sure that
  your culture is respected whether or not your standard of living is.
  And, second, multiculturalism and diversity more generally are even
  more effective as a legitimizing tool, because they suggest that the
  ultimate goal of social justice in a neoliberal economy is not that
  there should be less difference between the rich and the poor—indeed
  the rule in neoliberal economies is that the difference between the
  rich and the poor gets wider rather than shrinks—but that no culture
  should be treated invidiously and that it’s basically OK if economic
  differences widen as long as the increasingly successful elites come
  to look like the increasingly unsuccessful non-elites. So the model of
  social justice is not that the rich don’t make as much and the poor
  make more, the model of social justice is that the rich make whatever
  they make, but an appropriate percentage of them are minorities or
  women..."

  [2] Neoliberals also support Obamacare because it staves off tax-
  supported single payer while funneling money to the insurance companies.

  But Coulter opposes both, apparently for fear that they will lead to
  higher taxes to support further social services (that Obamacare e.g.
  will slip over into single-payer rather than guard against it).

  "Only One Candidate Is Right On The Two Most Important Issues"
  by Ann Coulter 12/28/2011

  http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48423

  _______________________________________________
  Peace-discuss mailing list
  Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
  http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Peace-discuss mailing list
Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20111228/64c41b15/attachment.html>