Community | November 01, 2010 | 30 comments

THE PHANTOM LEFT : Sanity & what was also lost yesterday !

source: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_phantom_left_20101031/

WhiteNoise
The phantom left took a central role on the mall this weekend in Washington. It had performed admirably for Glenn Beck, who used it in his own rally as a lightning rod to instill anger and fear. And the phantom left proved equally useful for the comics Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who spoke to the crowd wearing red-white-and-blue costumes.

The two comics evoked the phantom left, as the liberal class always does, in defense of moderation, which might better be described as apathy. If the right wing is crazy and if the left wing is crazy, the argument goes, then we moderates will be reasonable. We will be nice. Exxon and Goldman Sachs, along with predatory banks and the arms industry, may be ripping the guts out of the country, our rights—including habeas corpus—may have been revoked, but don’t get mad. Don’t be shrill. Don’t be like the crazies on the left.

The American left is a phantom. It is conjured up by the right wing to tag Barack Obama as a socialist and used by the liberal class to justify its complacency and lethargy. It diverts attention from corporate power. It perpetuates the myth of a democratic system that is influenced by the votes of citizens, political platforms and the work of legislators. It keeps the world neatly divided into a left and a right. The phantom left functions as a convenient scapegoat. The right wing blames it for moral degeneration and fiscal chaos.

The liberal class uses it to call for “moderation.” And while we waste our time talking nonsense, the engines of corporate power—masked, ruthless and unexamined—happily devour the state. The loss of a radical left in American politics has been catastrophic. The left once harbored militant anarchist and communist labor unions, an independent, alternative press, social movements and politicians not tethered to corporate benefactors. But its disappearance, the result of long witch hunts for communists, post-industrialization and the silencing of those who did not sign on for the utopian vision of globalization, means that there is no counterforce to halt our slide into corporate neofeudalism.

This harsh reality, however, is not palatable. So the corporations that control mass communications conjure up the phantom of a left. They blame the phantom for our debacle. And they get us to speak in absurdities. - CHRIS HEDGES http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_phantom_left_20101031/

"How to get people to vote against their interests and to really think against their interests is very clever. It's the cleverest ruling class that I have ever come across in history. It's been 200 years at it. It's superb." - Gore Vidal

"A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police State Dictatorship it's going to get." - Ian Williams Goddard

Just a hint...
Before one exports democracy, one tries to have it at home !
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30 comments // THE PHANTOM LEFT : Sanity & what was also lost yesterday ! // Video

  • WhiteNoise
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  

    • Papantonio: Stewart wants us to be Teletubbies and be Sweet ?

      Lets say that between a Hoody Doody & goody two shoe America & the one depicted by Carlin, Zappa, Vidal, Chomsky or Zinn; I know where my sensibility lies ;)

    • 1 year ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • +1
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image

    • RATIONALIZATION FOR VOTING ANYWAY ;)

      BLACK HUMOR IS THE POLITENESS OF DESPAIR !

      “It’s here that the American dream decided it liked the taste of the vomit it was chocking on. Just rolled over on its back and screamed for more drugs. it didn't die.“ - Warren Ellis

    • 1 year ago
  • Nick19
  • WhiteNoise
  • JanforGore
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • JanforGore:

      Good to see that Monsanto still has you as a rock in their shoe ;)
      I thought this story was most inspiring...
      Percy Schmeiser vs Monsanto: The Story of a Canadian Farmer’s Fight to Defend the Rights of Farmers and the Future of Seeds
      http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/17/percy_schmeiser_vs_monsanto_the_story

      PERCY SCHMEISER: I think that we feel that we have to stand up for the rights of farmers around the world. All my life I’ve been in agriculture and worked for agricultural policies and laws. And we feel that a farmer should never, ever lose the rights to his seeds or plants, because if we do, we’re going to be back to a serf system, we’re going to be back to a feudal system, that our forefathers, our grandfathers, left countries in Europe many years ago to get away from. Now, in less than—or 100 years, we’ve come full circle, where the control is not by kings or lords or barons, but now it’s corporations.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  

    • Haha, whitenoise where have you been man?

      We need you as a counter-balance to the right-wing trolls on the site. They see your posts and run away in fear.

      I agree about the phantom left. A serious left-wing movement hasn't really existed in this country since at least the time Ronald Reagan took office.

      Nowadays the bar for "normal" is shifted so far over into the insane column that even basic civic responsibility and care is considered "socialist."

      When was the last time anyone in this country even had a discussion about our free trade agreements that wasn't an immediate, knee-jerk worship of their "awesome success?"

      It can be frustrating to live in what essentially amounts to a corporate echo chamber.

    • 1 year ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Saladin:

      Always a pleasure to have a chance to get them obscurantist skip a heartbeat or two ;)

      White House,Pentagon, State Department, FBI, CIA, etc. may have differences of style, but all of them have the same and well defined and known objective: the defense of the economic and geopolitical interests of its Global Elite. It is not a matter of a president: fat, skinny, dumb or bright, black or white. It is a matter of a system. The capitalist system in its higher level: Imperialism.

      "And on the most exalted throne in the world sits nothing but a man's arse." – Montaigne

    • 1 year ago
  • WhiteNoise
  • WhiteNoise
  • UtopianSky
    • +1
      UtopianSky  

    • The radical left does exist- but they are small, and the "mainstream" left treats them as the kooks they are.

      The difference is the radical right has taken over the Republican party, and the "mainstream" right are running away screaming in fear, or running as independents.

    • 1 year ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • +2
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image
    • UtopianSky:

      QUESTION IS : WHO & WHAT'S RADICAL ?
      Nader, Kucinich, Chomsky, Zinn ?
      What narrative is radical ?
      The official 9-11 story ?
      Are these citizens radicals for asking questions ? (check their CVs)
      http://patriotsquestion911.com/
      Or are they just 'kooks' as implied by Mindfuck Inc ?
      Is this take on US history an heresy or just alternate ?
      http://mtwsfh.blogspot.com/

      Bottom line...
      Our whole culture is organized around wealthy people who keep poor people poor, uneducated, and powerless.

      Is our collective ignorance coming home to roost ?

      "We are watching a poorly staged rendition of Wag the Dog , interpreted for the morbidly stupid and performed by the criminally insane." - Jules Carlysle

      and/or

      “It’s here that the American dream decided it liked the taste of the vomit it was chocking on. Just rolled over on its back and screamed for more drugs. it didn't die.“ - Warren Ellis

    • 1 year ago
  • UtopianSky
    • +1
      UtopianSky  
    • WhiteNoise:

      Frankly, you are sounding pretty radical right about now.
      It's not so much about what you say, but how you say it.
      Chill out.
      Don't act like a kook while getting your point across,
      because by acting like a kook you will NEVER get your point across.

    • 1 year ago
  • WhiteNoise
  • UtopianSky
    • 0
      UtopianSky  
    • WhiteNoise:

      Let's see if you can be weaned off of being a kook step by step.

      1.) Make a post, and then wait for others to comment.
      Don't fill your own post with your own comments.
      It looks like you are talking to yourself.

      2.) When commenting on other people's posts, limit each comment to no more than one link, and/or one quote. Have most of the words in your comment be your own.
      A comment filled with links just looks like propaganda spam.

      Again- it's not what you say or what issues you believe in, it's how you say it.

      If a crazy guy is running around screaming at people because of litter on the streets instead of being tossed in trash bins, the fact that he's right about littering does not make his behavior any less loony.

      If anything, it will make some people toss litter on the street just to tick him off.

    • 1 year ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image
    • UtopianSky:

      Yes mother, I will act like a good willing cog & behave exactly as you wish ;)

      May I also suggest you open a kinder garden and boss around regurgitating intellectual pablum till you drop !

      ...or get a dictionary & learn the meaning of the words you use !

      kook
      [Usenet; originally and more formally, `net.kook'] Term used to describe a regular poster who continually posts messages with no apparent grounding in reality.

      Challenge ONE fact I've posted please oh dear grand enlighten one... Make my day ;)

    • 1 year ago
  • UtopianSky
    • 0
      UtopianSky  
    • WhiteNoise:

      Well, you are proving yourself to be a kook.

      And I know what words mean, thanks.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kook_%28person%29

      You jump to extremes- there is no rational middle for you.
      I did NOT say be a cog in the machine.
      I just said take it down a notch for pete's sake!

      And as for your question:
      "Challenge ONE fact I've posted please oh dear grand enlighten one... Make my day"

      Here you go- your assertion that I said anything whatsoever ABOUT your facts is in and of itself an incorrect fact.

      This is what I said, repeatedly:

      "Again- it's not what you say or what issues you believe in, it's how you say it."

      If you want to ignore my friendly advice and call me a kindergarten teacher, fine.

      Just realize most people will not click on your list of links or read your stream of quotes or watch your flood of video clips if there is no glimmer of an actual individual human being stating their own thoughts behind them.

    • 1 year ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • UtopianSky:

      Or maybe, just maybe, the US citizen is such an ignoramus, unconscious or brainwashed goody two shoe / nincompoop to notice what is being done in its name ? So a little rethorical water or slap in the face could bring him back from the comatose state he's been enjoying since, oh lets say, after the second world war for size ;) http://killinghope.org/

      "Kid's heads are filled with so many nonfacts that when they get out of school they're totally unprepared to do anything. They can't read, they can't write, they can't think. Talk about child abuse. The school system as a whole qualifies. Go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts... " - Frank Zappa

      ROPE A DOPE : GOP SUPPORT DOWN TO 20 %
      http://current.com/entertainment/comedy/91258251_rope-a-dope-gop-support-down-to...

      And maybe, just maybe, that is exactly how our so-called elite & masters wants us all to be ?

      But don't take my word for it, I'm too aggressive ;)

      George Carlin ~ The American Dream
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q&feature=related

      BTW / Who produces them clips : a human being, the pope or a Rove bot ?
      http://www.youtube.com/user/jfwilliam#g/u

      99% of Mindfuck Inc. behaves in your so-called civil matter with dismal results at best but they get your nod for being user friendly ;)

      I'll pass on being the sensitive one facing a criminal nation that behaved like a fuckin' drunk psycho sailor since day one & kept on going its merry way to the present...

      "We have become a monster in the eyes of the whole world – a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us… No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we’ll kill you." – Hunter S. Thompson

      WANTED : BALLS & DIGNITY
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkdKJYoFvi0

      "To initiate a war of aggression...is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." - Nuremberg tribunal

      Now move along everything mighty fine & civilized ;)

    • 1 year ago
  • pissedoffinarkansas
  • pissedoffinarkansas
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  
    • pissedoffinarkansas:

      Well let's all stay civil now.

      Usky, I'd say you should be more open to different explanations.

      As a history major, let me assure you. The world is a crazy fucking place and most of the people who live through an age don't recognize that until decades later with hindsight.

      I probably sound like a broken record on this issue but, people in the Gilded Age thought their country was just fine, even though it was utterly corrupt to the core.

      Sometimes, when you live in a loony bin, people exclaiming things which seem crazy are probably far saner than status quo thought would lead you to believe.

      To boil this down to something simple, something really -isn't- crazy if it's -true-.

      That being said, your skepticism is a useful tool for rooting out bullshit. It's just that unlike science or other topics, politics and history are all smoke and mirrors. Taking things on face value and demanding high levels of evidence and scrutiny is meaningless because all of the information is so subject to deception, lies, bias or other tainted factors that frequently your intuition is more useful.

      Remember Columbus Day? If you went back to 1950 and tried to call Columbus a genocidal, evil maniac...

      ...people would have called you crazy. A kook, a RADICAL even.

      But it's fucking true, and we shouldn't let peoples' expectations blind us to that.

    • 1 year ago
  • UtopianSky
  • UtopianSky
    • +1
      UtopianSky  
    • Saladin:

      You are not getting my point- It is not WHAT he is saying, it is HOW he says it.

      If Galileo was running around the town square dressed like a great big globe, running in circles around a bonfire screaming "the earth goes round the sun! the earth goes round the sun!" He would be crazy.

      The fact that what he said is true does not change how he is presenting himself.

      If anything, how he is presenting himself hurts his ability to convey any message.

      It is not that what he SAYS seems crazy- it's that he is saying it crazy.

      You should know this- you write well thought out posts in English with proper punctuation. There are paragraphs, periods, commas, all the stuff that's needed to communicate.

      That is all I'm saying.

      His noise might be "white", but it's still "noise".

    • 1 year ago
  • Saladin
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Saladin:

      Thanks for the therapy one & all ;)
      "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." -- Noam Chomsky (1928- ) Institute Professor Emeritus of Linguistics

      I do try to keep some historical perspective that transcend the 6 months span of media induced citizen attention...

      They stole 2 elections… the first by perverting the supreme court…nothing happened…Then 9-11 and a war based on a 1000 lies + the treacherous hoisting of a CIA agent… nothing happened… they proceeded to shred the constitution, kidnapped imprisoned & tortured the world over…nothing…spied on one & all, fired top US attorneys, destroyed evidence… nada… conducted Katrina’s thinly veiled ethic cleansing …zilch…took us to the cleaners… & now, are we back to where we never left ?

      Fear & Greed Corp reigns under the guise of Mindfuck Inc. !

      Get a third job ! Sell a vital organ ! Move in a card box by the river, but stop your whining buba ! Victim of your imagination, you suffer from a severe case of "mental recession"... Ah the bad old days...Now, get over it !

      We must continue to resist, but do so now with the discomforting realization that significant change will probably never occur in our lifetime. This makes resistance harder. It shifts resistance from the tangible and the immediate to the amorphous and the indeterminate. But to give up acts of resistance is spiritual and intellectual death. It is to surrender to the dehumanizing ideology of totalitarian capitalism. Acts of resistance keep alive another narrative, sustain our integrity and empower others, who we may never meet, to stand up and carry the flame we pass to them. No act of resistance is useless, whether it is refusing to pay taxes, fighting for a Tobin tax, working to shift the neoclassical economics paradigm, revoking a corporate charter, holding global internet votes or using Twitter to catalyze a chain reaction of refusal against the neoliberal order. But we will have to resist and then find the faith that resistance is worthwhile, for we will not immediately alter the awful configuration of power. And in this long, long war a community to sustain us, emotionally and materially, will be the key to a life of defiance.

      The indifference to the plight of others and the supreme elevation of the self is what the corporate state seeks to instill in us. It uses fear, as well as hedonism, to thwart human compassion. We will have to continue to battle the mechanisms of the dominant culture, if for no other reason than to preserve through small, even tiny acts, our common humanity. We will have to resist the temptation to fold in on ourselves and to ignore the cruelty outside our door. Hope endures in these often imperceptible acts of defiance. This defiance, this capacity to say no, is what the psychopathic forces in control of our power systems seek to eradicate. As long as we are willing to defy these forces we have a chance, if not for ourselves, then at least for those who follow. As long as we defy these forces we remain alive. And for now this is the only victory possible.

      Resist or Become Serfs
      By Chris Hedges
      http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090406_resist_or_become_serfs/

      CITIZENS 2.0 : PLAYERS NOT CHEERLEADERS !

      STOP JUDGING POLITICIANS ON WHAT THEY SAY BUT ON WHAT THEY DO !

      Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. ~ Oscar Ameringer

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO6LG1naYcc

    • 1 year ago
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