The demon is a mob, and the mob is demonic. It is the nihilistic mob of the French Revolution; it is the revolutionaries who seized control of Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century; it is the Maoist gangs looting villages and impaling babies in China; it is the Ku Klux Klan terrorizing Republicans and blacks in the South; it is the 1992 Los Angeles riot that left fifty dead and did $1 billion of damage after the first Rodney King verdict; it is the masked hoodlums smashing up Seattle when bankers came to town; it is the 500,000 illegal aliens marching under a foreign flag in Los Angeles; it is throngs of Islamic fanatics attending the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's funeral, tearing his body out of its coffin; it is left-wing protesters destroying property and attacking delegates at the Republican National Conventions.
Everything else changes, but mobs are always the same. A mob is an irrational, childlike, often violent organism that derives its energy from the group. Intoxicated by messianic goals, the promise of instant gratification, and adrenaline-pumping exhortations, mobs create mayhem, chaos, and destruction, leaving a smoldering heap of wreckage for their leaders to climb to power.
The Democratic Party is the party of the mob, irrespective of what the mob represents. Democrats activate mobs, depend on mobs, coddle mobs, publicize and celebrate mobs-- they are the mob. Indeed, the very idea of a "community organizer" is to stir up a mob for some political purpose. "As so frequently happens when a crowd goes wild," historian Erik Durschmied says, "there is always one who shouts louder and thereby appoints himself as their leader." Those are the people we call "elected Democrats."
The Democrats' playbook doesn't involve heads on pikes-- as yet --but uses a more insidious means to incite the mob. The twisting of truth, stirring of passion, demonizing of opponents, and relying on propagandistic images in lieu of ideas-- these are the earmarks of a mob leader.
Ann Coulter, Demonic (2011), pg. 4
you don't believe this without reservation do you Eric? This is some sort of performance art right?
ReplyDeleteThis sort of sweeping, derogatory generalizations...What about the tea party? Isn't that a mob? The Christian coalition of the 80's-90's? Should we forget the evil of the McCarthy "Red Scare" mod?
Listening to Ann Coulter for political analysis and philosophy is akin to asking ... ... (I wanted to make a simile but there actually isn't anyone as extreme and one-sided in their hatred as Ann Coulter)
Reading Ann one gets the impression Democrats, liberals, progressives, community organizer are "demonic" forces for evil in the world. How do you square that with actually knowing me and Marian and Skylar, and Rayne, and fully half of the people you meet every day.
Do you think we hold secret meetings twisting our fake mustaches.
"Oooh, what can we destroy this year?"
"I know! Let's make all the CEO's wear clown noses and giant shoes."
Tea Party gatherings are devoid of the violence you see at other mob gatherings...
ReplyDeleteAnd no I don't believe any of of the caricature's you describe. But I'll tell you what I do believe: the typical leftist mob is unruly, uncouth, uncivil, and unaware. Most liberals, leftists, what-have-you's resort to demonizing people with whom they disagree. It happens on the right as well, but it always happens within a liberal crowd, or mob.
I square it, as you say, by realizing that individuals can be civil. Even within a mob there are some who don't follow the mob-mentality. I don't believe you or Marian (or Skylar, for that matter) would behave in a manner as described by Miss Coulter (and detailed by Coulter in portions of her book I have not posted).
Her book, whether you care to believe it or not, accurately depicts the typical leftist/liberal mob. I realize Coulter is a lightning rod for liberals and leftists. But that doesn't mean she's wrong.
I personally, wouldn't have characterized the liberal mob as "demonic"-- I would have been more politic --but my description wouldn't have been particularly flattering either.
Now. Having read the book, what she describes within is completely accurate; the events she describes actually occurred, in the manner she describes, and these same kind of events continues to occur today.
It saddens me that you are liberal. But that doesn't change the fact that I like you. Doesn't mean I can't have a meaningful friendship with you. But it does mean we won't see eye to eye on this. And neither you or I, if we are indeed friends, should have to hide what we believe in front of each other.