Saturday, August 11, 2012

Paul Ryan, Ayn Rand, and the Right-wing Gun Nut John Galts at The Blaze

I am glad that Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan as his running mate. Ryan brings few advantages to the table among Independents; and given his draconian budget plans, and penchant for a Soylent Green future where the government and the social safety net are eviscerated, Ryan could prove to be much dead weight. Vice Presidential nominees are usually a non-factor in Presidential electoral outcomes. I do hope that Ryan joins Palin and Eagleton as an exception to the rule.

Paul Ryan is an devotee of Ayn Rand and her extreme version of libertarianism. In this world, the government should be all but destroyed, and "negative freedom" is the only type of liberty to be pursued. Thanks to populist Right-wing bloviators such as Glenn Beck, and think tanks funded by the Koch Brothers and others, Rand's bad sci-fi dystopian writings have been transformed into policy briefs and legislative guidelines for the Tea Party GOP.

I marvel at the political hydra and mismatched set of alliances that the contemporary Republican Party has become. The Tea Party GOP is a conglomeration of Christian Dominionists and Nationalists, reactionary white racists, neo-Secessionists, and plutocratic corporatists. The mouth breathers in the Tea Party are dupes who are driven by opines about patriotism and the alien Other in "their" White House. These same folks are driven by a crudely selfish, exclusionary, and Calvinist-like understanding of faith where "the elect" are shown god's love and divinity by how much money and worldly goods they are "rewarded with" by their godhead. The banksters laugh--as they always do--at how they can so easily play and manipulate the peons into working against their own immediate and long-term class interests. And of course, the real party leaders such as Rush Limbaugh get paid the big bucks, for they are the Archons who defend the ideological "purity" of the Tea Party GOP and gin up witch hunts against those deemed inauthentic and weak.

Watching Romney and Ryan manage this menagerie will be a fascinating exercise in the weeks to come.

As a follower of Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan is part of a movement on the Right, that despite contemporary Conservatism's penchant for anti-intellectualism and conspiranoid thinking, which is in fact reaching for some "big ideas" through an embrace of libertarianism as a guiding political worldview and value system.

When these "big ideas" filter down to the mouth-breathing lumpen on the New Right, they will (of course) lose some of their rigor. Complex ideas are almost by necessity flattened for ready consumption by the masses. Ayn Rand's vision for a "just" society is no different.

The Right-wing rag sheet The Blaze has a gun porn feature where they show off the newest toys for their readers. As a ghetto nerd, I have a long-standing interest in military science, technology, and things that go boom. In a few weeks, I am also going to (finally) be a gun owner. However, in the aftermath of Aurora and the Sikh temple massacre, there needs to be a serious conversation about the the human costs of this country's gun culture, and changes in the law to limit gun ownership, the types weapons that can be purchased, and the required training necessary to own them.

Given my sentiments, The Blaze's feature on a "special operations" ready semi-automatic "assault style" rifle leaves me feeling a bit dirty. When I was 12, I would have ejaculated all sorts of G.I. Joe/Red Dawn love juice onto the Paratus 16. As an adult, I am much less enthusiastic about such metaphorical onanism.

The comments sections on political websites are a great example of digital democracy (run amok) as they provide a valuable insight into our collective political subconscious. While I agree with the need to prepare for The Big Collapse (and a society that will/can descend into chaos), most of the comments on The Blaze's feature about the Paratus 16 are typical Conservative sewer water and verbal vomit about "liberty," militias, the Constitution, the evils of Barack Obama, and the framers' love of "gun rights."

However, one comment was such a wonderful distillation of the mean-spirited violence and selfishness which is currently being channeled by Ayn Randian libertarianism, and advocated for by the Republican Party, that I wanted to share it with you:
DRPHIL69

I CAN GET ONE… BUT YOU CAN’T. I love people like you – are the KING? Are you the DICTATOR? DOES IT PISS YOU OFF THAT I CAN BUY ONE OF THESE?? THAT I CAN BUY AK-47s AND AR-15s? DOES IT MAKE YOU ANGRY THAT I HAVE THE DISPOSABLE INCOME TO BLOW $6K ON ONE OF THESE WITHOUT THINKING TWICE?

No, you will be one of many begging on the streets after the fall…

I will have one of these to protect myself from people like YOU – the ones who think they are ENTITLED TO MY FOOD, MY WATER, MY SHELTER.

So, go get in line for govt cheese. Don’t venture out to farm country thinking you will get a free meal, you will only get FREE LEAD.

I WILL NOT COMPLY.

I AM JOHN GALT.
DRPHIL69 is not the crazy uncle in the basement who rants and raves online, talks back to the radio, and does no harm. He is the id of the Tea Party GOP. During the 1980s, this type of rhetoric would have been reserved for the Militia Movement and the late night black helicopter talk radio crowd. With the ascent of the Ayn Randians in the Republican Party, DRPHIL69's passion for guns, channeling of class entitlement, and disdain for the social compact represents the beating heart of the New Right. The political violence captured here is the endgame, what is the logical result of Ronald Reagan's suggestion that government is the problem and never the solution. 

DRPHIL69 is John Galt. Romney and Ryan are John Galt too. Let that fact settle in for a moment. Are you and the American people ready for what John Galt does when he is elected President of the United States? What are you willing to do in order to stop them?

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a bit perplexed by this decision. All of a sudden I'm fired up about re-electing Obama. The only way I could be more fired up would have been if he'd chosen Sarah Palin. What were they thinking?

Hilariously, one of the first commentaries I saw this morning was a conservative pointing at Ryan's voting record and saying he's not Libertarian enough, having made several major votes towards expanding government.

OTB said...

@nicoleandmaggie:

Do you have more info on Ryan's votes toward expanding government? That sounds like the opposite of the writer's assertion that Ryan believes "the government should be all but destroyed." Both can't be correct.

Spanish prof said...

There was a profile about him in The New Yorker a few issues ago. It basically said he sucked it up and voted Party line during the Bush era. That includes a lot of bills that could be considered an expansion of government from a libertarian perspective.

CNu said...

Are you and the American people ready for what John Galt does when he is elected President of the United States?

Yes.

What are you willing to do in order to stop them?

Nothing.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger. ... When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you

Plane Ideas said...

CNu

Stop it you know when the 'reset authorities' come to your door and demand that you surrender all of your worldly possessions and takes your son to a camp you will not offer them coffee...

Of course I do know you will until that day comes perform your role as a carrier and conduit the Black apologist that you are... Lol lol lol

nomad said...

So we all think the Fall is near? Yet we still willing to go long with the program. As far as I'm concerned John Galt has already been elected. Helping him get reelected is a nice diversion, but it don't stop the slide down the slippery slope of oblivion. There may indeed be no way to stop it at this point, but at least let us take our heads out of the sand. This endgame would be better played if we look around and examine the means by which we are being destroyed and indict the people behind it. The collapse is engineered. They've wired us up for the controlled demolition. Do we just sit back and wait till they push the button? What can we do? Start with "j'accuse".

CNu said...

The "fall" is not at hand.

What will happen first is simple austerity, consistent with what's happening across the rest of the developed world.

Perfectly plausible, perfectly rational, and entirely consistent with both the state of the world economy and the will of the people who are prepared to endure austerity.

The Thrashers of the world will die like flies and never be missed. Lots of hierarchical, food-powered, make-work peasants will die because of austerity. Same as it ever was.

The hearty and the smarty will reprise the knowledge, skill, ability and self-discipline that their grand parents displayed to make it through the worst parts of the Great Depression.

The profligate who know nothing, do nothing, and have become utterly dependent on largesse (safety nets) will be introduced to third world/Dickensian living conditions and many many more of them than already do so will simply succumb to early mortality.

Those foolish enough to publicly take up torches and pitchforks to resist or oppose this collapse (contraction) will simply be crushed by well fed, well organized, heavily armed paramilitary authorities.

Dress rehearsals of this scenario have been played over and over and over again all across the world. The only difference here and now is that this specific form of livestock management is being brought home to the roost.

nomad said...

Relax, folks. The Fall is not near. However I do think I've found John Galt.

CNu said...

Dr. Henry Belsidus...,

A. Ominous said...

It NEVER does what it says on The Box (ambiguity intentional):

Not Quite That Simple, Kids

plus

CONTEXT

Plane Ideas said...

CNu's lunacy amuses me and saddens me as well...

nomad said...

"you will be one of many begging on the streets after the fall…

I will have one of these to protect myself from people like YOU – the ones who think they are ENTITLED TO MY FOOD, MY WATER, MY SHELTER.

So, go get in line for govt cheese. Don’t venture out to farm country thinking you will get a free meal, you will only get FREE LEAD."

Hmmmm....This sounds very familiar. Now where have I heard such sentiments before? Let me think...

Bruto Alto said...

@CNu
Let me get this right, your saying if it came down to it you would live like the black people during the Great Depression. Shoe shine, doormen,treated like second class?

Yet when I first got on this blog you were ready to KILL any thug that crossed you or your family.

You would kill the black guy and bow to the white guy? I have lost all respect.

@Colorblind
Didn't you use a picture of Hitler as a child when you post?

CNu said...

Bruto Alto, in deference to your youth and lack of generalized knowledge of the past, and knowledge of your elders ways and means, I will withhold my natural urge to call you a fucking imbecile and simply keep stepping.

My grandparents knew how to hunt, fish, garden, sew, cook, can, plumb, wire, and do just anything else you can imagine having to pay someone else to do. I was most fortunate in having learned from them how to do all these things too.

I have in my turn taught my children how to do these things so that they will be self-sufficient off-grid and on an exceedingly tight budget.

In addition, I've taught them each to kill like a professional.

Your loss of respect for me doesn't mean a dayyum thing to me, because you lack the knowledge, skill and ability to even be useful to yourself, much less to of any use to me.

just.another.emotional.gum-whooping.you-know-who....,

(read a book and find out who Henry Belsidus was - or at the very least - use google dumbass)

Plane Ideas said...

Bruto

I have history with CNu I have often dominated him in here he gets real agitated when you go at him hard couple of options:
Ignore him
Dominate him
Feed his ego and lead him add where you want to go

Razor said...

CNu, while I agree that people who find themselves in another Great Depression (many people of color have spent years in a depression when the rest of the US was in a recession) should be self-sufficient, I get the idea that your family either have been privileged with the grace of God and have risen early from poverty and somehow believe that you all have accomplished your sucess on your own or you may be harboring some lower-level self-hatred issues like Clarence Thomas suffers from in the extreme.

Unfortunately, that kind of attitude sounds eerily similar to the one possessed by the house slaves (ironically usually a blood relative to master but still a slave) who were exposed to more than the field slave, and therefore felt that they were somehow above them. All of that changes when for some reason of misfortune when you actually need other people as a real community provides. You are closer than you realize to becoming what in your heart I believe that you really despise... cold, lacking in real empathy and detachment to those who accept your other-than-pure-Anglo-Saxon-ness.

Anonymous said...

Blacks cannot stand white independence. They're utterly culturally incapable of it so it makes them very jealous and whenever the evil right wingers display it, you get posts like this one. Fox and the grapes mentality.

Does it upset you that the majority of whites don't give a fuck what you THINK about what your place in society SHOULD be?

CNu said...

I get the idea that your family either have been privileged with the grace of God and have risen early from poverty and somehow believe that you all have accomplished your sucess on your own or you may be harboring some lower-level self-hatred issues like Clarence Thomas suffers from in the extreme.

rotflmbao...,whew!!!!

try something a little more along the lines of Walter Mosley's Mouse...,

CNu said...

I have often dominated him in here he gets real agitated when you go at him hard

lol@fleece johnson jr. making sweaty basement talk...,

Bruto Alto said...

@CNu
Wow, name calling really? Basic skills of men from the stone age aren't impressive. Because when the time comes (Endgame stuff) those "attacking mobs of black thugs" will keep you locked in your bunker eating can goods.

I don't have the need to show who's penis is bigger. I come to WARN because Black Male teachers are like Unicorns where I'm from. Hearing what each of you think is rewarding.

Yet I do call out silly stuff and your cardboard persona is too over the top silly. Simply as Jay-Z would say "I don't believe you, you need more people."

PS I did the google thing and learned something today...thanks

CNu said...

Let me get this right, your saying if it came down to it you would live like the black people during the Great Depression. Shoe shine, doormen,treated like second class?

pure.fucking.imbecile.talk...,

Because when the time comes (Endgame stuff) those "attacking mobs of black thugs" will keep you locked in your bunker eating can goods.

more of a bug-out bag type - hunting, foraging, and moving - but that's of little consequence in the pending austerity.

Yet I do call out silly stuff and your cardboard persona is too over the top silly. Simply as Jay-Z would say "I don't believe you, you need more people."

lol, you have nothing whatsoever that I want or need - and - you're the one with your hand stuck out for instruction.

Mebbe black sage street guru Thrasher's sweaty plantation basement club is welcoming new disciples?

nomad said...

I get that preppersitions want to survive by any means necessary. They and the roaches will be the only things living, I mean, breathing. Hebben hep 'em when they run out of ammunition, game and water and start eyeing each other for dinner. Paging Mr. Donner! Only the ruthless survive. I get that. What I don't get is the glee the preppersitions seem to feel in the anticipation of the death and suffering of their neighbors. Stop drooling.

CNu said...

FEE-FIE-FOE-FUM - Butchering the Human Carcass for Human Consumption

Plane Ideas said...

Bruto

See what I mean observe how he loses his center when one goes at him hard...

Plane Ideas said...

Bruto

Stick around because this is the best Black site on the web... BTW despite CNu's phony bravado he is quite a talented person and as I have posted many times even hate speech had value

There is a measure of utility in the jaded anger posturing of CNu learn what you can from this fractured soul ...lol lol lol

Plane Ideas said...

Nomad,

It is sad observing such depth of depravity being enjoyed by a Black man ... He truly is insecure and clearly has low self esteem issues

Bruto Alto said...

@CNu
Wow, again wow take a breath, I may not have anything you need but I still would offer you my last. I do understand what it means to be "hunter gathers" and if that's your thing fine. I'm questioning the silly name calling, the superiority to others instead of using any of your gifts to improve. Lastly I'm calling out the crazied hate of self image. Being black doesn't suck. I want to understand the hate and I think fear of black people.

CNu said...

Bruto Alto,

Why derail a sincere request with so much dishonest posing?

If you're insufficiently secure - through the protective psychic baffle of aliased commenting - to engage me without ego-protective antics - how in the world do you suppose you would ever convince me to share my knowledge, skill, and ability with you in person?

Guilt?

Shame?

REALLY?!?!?!

note to self: jiggaboos cain't HAVE nothing and cain't DO nothing - cause they're emotional cripples and cowards....,

Kelly Cowan said...

Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand have divorced, he will, however, be keeping her as a mistress!
http://youtu.be/-T_39o-cXVg

Anonymous said...

Okay so the blacks in the southeast count. Why they are tax payers and landowners and when I say land I mean 1600’s type of land. What happened? The white men who fathered children with black women had two groups of children with those women the types who were white enough to pass and went north and the ones who weren’t. They got daddy’s land as the payoff for the entire struggle. Those who stayed black became the black middle class. Those few who were fathered by black men and white indentured servant women got to claim their race as white as children generally followed the race of the mother but lost the class. They passed for white and became the poor white trash of the South you see today and those who passed for white in the north like Obama’s mama’s type. So back to the land owning educated ones in the South of today. Cities like Richmond, Danville, Raleigh, Columbia South Carolina, Mitchellville Maryland, and the suburbs outside of Atlanta and D.C. can boast this demographic. Why are they so key? Why are Biden and the Republicans making stump speeches in Virginia etc. and the southeast because they are the swing vote? What folks fail to say and often don’t want to talk about is that Bush didn’t steal the vote in his first election from Al Gore he stole the black vote. He stole 10% of it and these folks are that ten percent. Ten percent is all any republican needs to sweep the southeast where the majority of these folks live. Why they are often land owners and pay big taxes on that land. When Republicans start talking taxes and lowering or eliminating them the ears of the black elite of the southeast perk up. But the morality of these folks is good. They want to see blacks educated they want good health care, they believe in good public school education and in college but they vote conservatively on social issues like gay marriage. Remember the marriage amendment in North Carolina. It was the married black women elite of the state who swung the vote in favor of a ban on gay marriage. The same exact reality happened in Virginia years before when they voted in their ban on gay marriage. So again when republicans start talking God and sex ears perk up. Next issue these same folks are usually the victims of the crime of the thugs of the north who have moved into these southeastern cities. When middle class blacks get scared, when thugs start raping and abducting children like the Chynia Davis case in Fayetteville North Carolina this elite group of blacks are swooned by Republicans who offer to take care of public safety. So what is the answer? For now and for this election sake keep the thugs of New York out of the cities like Lynchburg, Richmond, Raleigh North Carolina and Maryland. LEAVE THE BLACK MIDDLE CLASS ALONE AND WATCH THE CRIME THING OR WATCH THE ELITE BLACK VOTE BE STOLEN AGAIN AND MITT AND RYAN WIN.

StewartIII said...

NewsBusters| Daily Kos Week in Review: The Devil Inside
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-johnson/2012/08/17/daily-kos-week-review-devil-inside