prole

[video:youtube]

Which looks like what?

The fat lady is nowhere in sight...

We cannot allow bad apples to spoil the bunch!

[video:youtube]

Tzatziki.

Yes, the term "chaos" just about covers it...

Yeah, I know what you thought this thread was about. But this is what populism looks like when the "common man" is fighting for himself instead of against himself.

Huffington Post, pfft.

It's crucial that our societies begin to engage in more meaningful cultural exchanges. [video:youtube]

Certainly not the reaction one would expect if the suicide attackers had been Muslim-Americans.

Another day, another suicide attack by an insane rightwing domestic terrorist.

Yes, Ronald Reagan should be a real beacon and an example that even those with special needs can one day be a US President. In fact, given the great promise America's political landscape is currently showing, I don't think there's any reason not to start campaigning now! TRIG THE IMPALER IN 2048!!!!

They froze his head?

The question is, what was he doing away from his post at the TSA security checkpoint?

This isn't a troll. Nice way to marginalize the post though... But seriously, I'd love to hear who among us doesn't have a vested interest in rooting out and keeping close tabs on white supremacists, neo-nazis, and other well-armed racists with established histories of violent and extralegal activity. The SPLC is virtually a service to humanity, if anyone there is getting paid, they probably deserve a raise. Please show where this organization has "marginalized popular discontent", you know, in real life. Showing how the Tea Party "movement" is shot through with organizational links to white supremacists isn't necessarily "lumping them together" it's called "the presentation of data derived from research". Here's the most comprehensive piece that I've seen to date on the topic: Brace yourself, it's from It's from ::the New York Times ::. "Bomb lobbing" and "blackballing" aside, if the organizational links are there, if the narratives are identical in many respects, is that not news? Where do "legitimate grievances" with these people end and paranoid kookdom begin? From what I've seen, it's the former (in an objective sense) couched entirely in terms of the latter. You don't address real grievances (falling middle class, rising inequality, failing institutions, etc.) by appealing to or legitimizing insane rantings ("Soshalizm!"). You work to address the pathology that's creating them. You've nailed it here. The Left has been almost entirely ineffectual in creating narratives, crafting alternatives, or channelling discontent to address any and all of the issues we're dealing with right now. Makes the absudist claims by the Right even more ironic, huh? The great misunderstanding on the Right and Left is that Obama is anything other than an centrist. The left is placed in the position of having to defend him against the idiotic claims of the Right which the mainstream media does virtually nothing to debunk. The Obama Administration has failed at every opportunity to take the offensive, craft effective narratives, and maintain the mobilized and energized citizens that elected him. There is a great deal of dissent from the Left against Obama, but it's tempered by the need to play defense against the insane clown posse that mainstream conservatism has become. Just walking away from existing politics isn't really an option for most liberals when doing so might mean the likes of Sarah Palin in any job with more power than town dog-catcher. I don't follow.

Right now it's a toss-up between the Yankee Doodle Dumbass or the Founding Fuhrer.

Well, I hate to burst the "everything's going to be fine because the GOP's really just about economic exploitation and American Empire, not batshit crazy" bubble, but recent evidence suggests that the Teabaggers are increasingly running for public office, filling unelected and uncontested positions in local and state government and generally putting their money where their mouths are in terms of local organizing. In other words, they are becoming the Party. Michelle Bachmann, anyone? Recent hubbub around the Texas School Board textbook issue should clue anyone into the destruction that a few motivated morons are capable of wreaking. Furthermore, politicians still need to appeal to these organized if incohate constituencies. No, the GOP is not going to abandon economic elites, but they will likely increasingly appeal to fear, xenophobia, militarism, etc. to maintain the electoral numbers they need to get elected. The extent to which these threads conflict with each other will continue to shape the Party, but Republican politicians will find the populist genie hard to put back in the bottle.

The interesting and disturbing thing that this and other recent articles point out are the deep connections that the "fringe" groups have with the more "mainstream" organizing that's been going on for the last year. I put these terms in quotes because it's clear that what were once fringe ideas (conspiracy and red-baiting) are becoming more and more part of the narrative of American conservatism in general. So even if "card carrying membership" in hate groups weren't growing (it is), their ideas are gaining traction and being incorporated into the broader movement as a whole. Your point about these faux-libertarians simply being closet Republicans is well taken. Unfortunately, when the GOP regains power, mobilized dissent of the government transforms itself into a defacto extension and enforcement of State power. It ain't gonna be pretty.