Huh?
So, if I understand this correctly, Ahmadinejad is a right-winger because he supports right-wing ideas like wealth redistribution and class-resentment?
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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June 16th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I suspect Yglesias figures Ahmadinejad for a ‘right winger’ because a) Ahmadinejad’s a bad man; b) he’s ostensibly religious, being the front for a theocratic government; c) the Iranian government seems to be fascistic, and fasciscm = right-wing, as long you ignore histery; d) the Iranian government is “culturally conservative” because conservative means backwards, not traditional, and e) when he uses a word, it means what he chooses it to mean–neither more nor less.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Don’t forget Gun Control! Ahmadinejad hates guns, unless they’re used by his police/military to shoot his citizens!
June 16th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Oh, awesome. I misspelled ‘history’. That shurly makez me luk smrt. (I also used a comma in a place I meant to use a semi-colon, but whatever.)
But, yeah. Left-wing, good, right-wing, bad. Everywhere and necessarily, as long as you’re deeply committed to the idea of Progress as inexorable and ever-beneficent. A familiarity with history and human nature might make one suspicious of such ideas, though.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
One of the Left’s oldest tactics has been to change the meaning of words to hide their agendas, and thus, alter the perception of reality. Commonly examples of this Newspeak are:
Regressive=Progressive
Socialist=Liberal
Oligarchy=Democracy
By mudding the waters as much as possible, they can misdirect people’s attention away from their true intentions. The way they control debates and silence their opposition is by denouncing their accusers of being the opposite of what they actually are. For example:
Believes in the Constitution=Racist/Klansman
Believes in Equal Rights=Sexist
Believes in personal responsibility=Fascist
Believes in a strong defense=Nazi
Believes in Traditional Western values=Homophobic
The problem with this strategy is that when you use it too often, it loses it’s sting, and they have a tendency to use it the wrong way. For example, calling a dyed in the wool Leftist like Ahmadinejad a “Right Winger” essentially acknowledges how left wing he really is. The Leftist hates not only that which is Right, but that which is “other”.
The Left doesn’t call it like they see it, they call it like they don’t see it. This is the closest thing to the truth you can expect from a Socialist is the same lie repeated over and over and over. The opposite of good is evil, and the opposite of truth is the news.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Iran supports wealth redistribution? I thought it was more take from everyone and then give a miserly amount of price-controlled essentials (gas, food) under rationed conditions to keep the resentment under control. You know, the “totalitarian” method of redistribution, used since Lenin and Stalin and Mao.
Look to the Khmer Rouge to see an example where the resentment was not kept under control, and an invasion by the Cambodian’s historical enemy was looked upon as a liberation.
Iran has a problem if the resentment is so near the surface that the other candidate, who was selected by the mullahs just like their current elected leader-in-name-only, is so strongly desired by the populace that protests occur.
June 16th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Why do they fear Palin so much… While I think she would be a fine candidate, I doubt she will win the nomination. Yet they seem so afraid of her, that they will crucify here at the drop of a dime.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
By the economists, Fascism is the branch of socialism where the State controls the means of production and distribution – and gets to tax the private citizens who own said means. So the Fearless Fosdick in charge is gettin’ it coming and going. And which is the way the economists say our economy is going.
And yes, if the regressives were not as scared of Sarah Palin as Lil’ Willie in the tiger cage, you would never hear a word about her.
June 16th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
They fear (and hate) Palin because she is a woman who doesn’t follow their Progressive Victim-Index and thinks (and succeeds) outside their identity-politics box. As an example of Free Will she must be made an example-of.
June 16th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Yup. If the left hates you, or you are generally perceived as evil, you’re a right winger. Thus, Hitler, the National Socialist, was “Right Wing”.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
The logic is straightforward:
1. I do not like the right wing..
2. I do not like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
3. Therefore, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is right wing.
June 17th, 2009 at 8:28 am
“Right Wing” is rapidly replacing “Neocon” (which replaced “reactionary” which replaced “fascist”) as the favorite vague pejorative of hippies.
June 17th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I don’t think you can describe a theocrat who hates gay people and the secular as a left wing…but then again, I think there’s no “there” there, the guy isn’t on any “wing” at all. He’s an authoritarian. As I’ve pointed out many times, the relevant distinction any more isn’t left vs. right, it’s libertarian vs. authoritarian.
June 17th, 2009 at 8:59 am
My favorite vague pejorative is “Hippie”. 😀
June 17th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Yeah, but telling MA to get a haircut probably won’t get under his skin :).
June 18th, 2009 at 12:57 am
It’s because we have decades of college grads educated in University Poli-sci classes by leftist liberals.
The likes of who describe in their textbooks written by University of Connecticut professors, that libertarians & capitalists as pessimists where as liberals are optimists.
These same liberal instructors have taught generations that to the left is socialism and communism. And to the right is capitalism and fascism.
The big examples being Communist Russia on the Left and Nazi Germany on thr Right.
But a quick look at fascists shows that they are traditionally socialists. The Nazi’s were national socialists. Fascism has little to do with the right.
The extreme right in fact leads toward one of three possibilities: monarchy, multinational corporation states, or libertarianism.