Reviewing Linda Kimball:
Trotsky's Theory of Permanent Revolution In America
George Orwell wrote a lovely little essay called "Politics and the English Language." As a leftist his experience in really bad political writing logically came from that part of the political spectrum. One example was the leftwing writer who could generate reams of copy, all on target for a sort of bastard-leftism by writers more skilled in leaden jargon that often made no sense than in skilled composition. They'd generate a sort of "the jackbooted fascist octopus has sung its swan song to the tocsin's clarion beat."
For those who begrudge the leftwing having all the fun with this, there's Linda Kimball. It can be a hoot watching her spin words together. Her sentences may parse; she has the requisite Old Right's sense of concepts used by the Old Left. This said, they usually miss reality by a goodly margin, even when judged purely against their own internal standards. continue reading about Linda Kimball's claims about Trotskyism and Permanent Revolution.'
From "Economic Marxism" to "Cultural Marxism" Introduction
From Never-neverland to Oz, how Bill Lind and the Republican Right connect one imaginary phenomenon to another non-existent phenomenon through a series of imaginary similarities
The Manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the far right Christian terrorist who murdered close to 100 people in Oslo, repeatedly featured his opposition to "political correctness" and "Cultural Marxism" as key motivations in his terrorist crimes. If people are willing to kill for these notions -- and Breivik has a considerable team cheering him -- we should have a greater understanding of them.
Like the term "liberal" reflecting an imaginary cohesive and fundamentally homogeneous group of people, the other terms of Breivik's are also inventions.
Today's rightwing mythos of "Political Correctness" and "Cultural Marxism" has a variety of ideological parents. But Bill Lind is perhaps the writer most responsible for the popularization of the philosophy that played such a great role in the Oslo massacre. continue reading about Bill Lind on 'Political Correctness' and 'Cultural Marxism.'
Politically Correct: Salazar Discovers "Abounding" PC
When did "gentlemen’s club" replace strip joint? Strippers are now "exotic dancers." "Noncitizen defendants" is the inoffensive way of saying criminal illegal aliens. When someone’s tax credit exceeds the amount he pays in federal income taxes, the money received is now called a "tax refund" instead of welfare. Panhandlers are no longer called "bums." You shouldn't call anyone a "black sheep" but rather an outcast. Gifted children are now "advanced learners." Can you believe this crap? (Am I allowed to say that?) continue reading about Leona Salazar's views on 'abounding Political Correctness' .
Politically Correct: Philip Atkinson Discovers the "Odious"
To attempt to point out the odious nature of Political Correctness is to restate the crucial importance of plain speaking, freedom of choice and freedom of speech; these are the community's safe-guards against the imposition of tyranny, indeed their absence is tyranny (see "On Liberty", Chapter II, by J.S. Mill).
Philip Atkinson
The Odious Nature Of Political Correctness: Political Correctness
In the battle over abortion it seems especially strange that Atkinson would use the phrase "freedom of choice" since the anti-PC forces so overlap with the anti-abortion activists determined to criminalize choice in that area. For Atkinson to use the phrase in this area seems to be the opposite of "free speaking" he otherwise claims to support. continue reading about Philip Atkinson's views on 'Political Correctness' (Part 2).
Politically Correct: If Everybody Hates PC ....
The folks over at the christophersworldletters blog raised an interesting point on March 11, 2011.
"Mostly everyone I've ever met in my life," they wrote, "has been against political correctness. It's really rare that you talk to someone who stands up and says 'I love being politically correct'!"
The reason one finds few -- if any -- people saying how they love political correctness is because the whole idea of some existing force pushing PC is a myth created by the rightwing. The supposed tendency is always described in a deliberately hostile fashion, no matter how neutral or honest the writer claims to be, so that nobody could possibly support it.
Of course it isn't particularly difficult to do that.
You can write "Few people today know that the recent wave of Satanic Feminist baby-eating witchcraft is rooted in the Republican Party."
Should you do that you'll find a lot of people say they're against the new Republican Satanic Feminist baby-eating witchcraft" but you'll not find anybody who stands up as says they really like it.
Politically Correct: Where Is Philip Atkinson's "Political Tyranny"
Philip Atkinson, another theorist in the PC Myth, wrote "Political Correctness (PC) is the communal tyranny that erupted in the 1980s. It was a spontaneous declaration that particular ideas, expressions and behaviour, which were then legal, should be forbidden by law, and people who transgressed should be punished. (see Newspeak) It started with a few voices but grew in popularity until it became unwritten and written law within the community. With those who were publicly declared as being not politically correct becoming the object of persecution by the mob, if not prosecution by the state."
Atkinson's theory, history, jurisprudence, sociology, and psychology is no more accurate than that of Lind and Kimball. continue reading about Philip Atkinson's views on 'Political Correctness'.
Politically Correct: Bill Lind introduces Georg Lukacs
One can't imagine Milton's Paradise Lost without Lucifer. And if you're going to invent a demonic political phenomenon you need a demonic leader.
Bill Lind, one of the far right's most outspoken inventors of PC, makes Georg Lukacs that new Lucifer. Lukacs was, Lind claims, considered "the most brilliant Marxist theorist since Marx himself."[1]
Almost certainly Marxists, as a group, would claim that the honor belonged to Marx's long-term friend, professional associate, co-author, and editor Frederick Engles. Others, excluding Engles from consideration as somebody more with than after Marx, would select different people. Those in the tradition of the old German Social Democracy might pick August Bebel or Karl Kautsky. Those more oriented to the Russian tradition -- including in this case the past U.S. Cold War theorists -- could select Lenin or Trotsky. And those of a more creative demeanor might choose Rosa Luxemburg or Daniel DeLeon. continue reading about Bill Lind's tale of Georg Lukacs.
Politically Correct: Linda Kimball and Kiddie Sex on the Brain
Linda Kimball, like Lind, is also one of the far right's top fiction writers. Google reports that her "Cultural Marxism" essay has, under a variety of titles, been republished some thousand times.
Like Lind she makes "cultural Marxism" a major bubaboo in the contemporary U.S.A. She also manages to describe ostensible connections in a Lukacsian conspiracy involving the ever-popular rightwing tales of sexual perversion and pedophilia. continue reading about Linda Kimball's introduction of kiddy sex.
Pending: Politically Correct: Bill Lind on the abandonment of "economic Marxism"
One wonders, given the entire Republican advertising industry of "invent the facts as you go along," if anybody has so clearly turned reality on its head as Bill Lind.
It isn't a matter of agreeing with Lukacs's analysis; it is a simple matter of agreeing on what he actually did -- right or wrong -- write. Lind and others make Lukacs the central theorist in the new "cultural" Marxism developed to replace their earlier theories about the central role of the working class in "Economic Marxism." in preparation
