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roachboy · 08-09-2010, 04:35 AM

my claim is that there is an underlying ideological commonality that links the tea party together. that commonality is reactive. it deploys as xenophobia in some contexts racism in others, paranoia in most. it leans on a very basic feature of conservative political language of the past 20 years or so which is the opposition between the "real american" and the Other.

and this is not a matter of "a few crazies"---its a function of the central statements that hold contemporary conservatism together. the "we" is always under assault, be it from a state that wants to redistribute wealth to the evil muslims who want to build mosques so they have a community center and space for worship. your statements, dogzilla, are consistently embedded in **exactly** this language---your Problem with taxes your Problem with "illegals"... look up poujadisme. it could be a photograph.

so i can understand why you'd want to minimize what i'm saying and chock it up to a bunch of "crazies"---but you can't do it unless you want to characterize yourself among the crazies or want to say that the tea party is some mystical social movement every statement about which is wrong, that it involves an immediate connection between the Movement and the People. but that's also a, um, problematic
idea in the history of the far right. think popular theories of the relation between the state and the volk in 30s germany. do some research. i can help if you like.

what i've learned from threads like this is that far right people have a much bigger problem with being told their ideological position is neo-fascist than they have with the reasons one might say that about them.

go figure. neo-fascism is ok so long as you don't say what it is.

08-09-2010, 04:35 AM	#133 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	my claim is that there is an underlying ideological commonality that links the tea party together. that commonality is reactive. it deploys as xenophobia in some contexts racism in others, paranoia in most. it leans on a very basic feature of conservative political language of the past 20 years or so which is the opposition between the "real american" and the Other. and this is not a matter of "a few crazies"---its a function of the central statements that hold contemporary conservatism together. the "we" is always under assault, be it from a state that wants to redistribute wealth to the evil muslims who want to build mosques so they have a community center and space for worship. your statements, dogzilla, are consistently embedded in exactly this language---your Problem with taxes your Problem with "illegals"... look up poujadisme. it could be a photograph. so i can understand why you'd want to minimize what i'm saying and chock it up to a bunch of "crazies"---but you can't do it unless you want to characterize yourself among the crazies or want to say that the tea party is some mystical social movement every statement about which is wrong, that it involves an immediate connection between the Movement and the People. but that's also a, um, problematic idea in the history of the far right. think popular theories of the relation between the state and the volk in 30s germany. do some research. i can help if you like. what i've learned from threads like this is that far right people have a much bigger problem with being told their ideological position is neo-fascist than they have with the reasons one might say that about them. go figure. neo-fascism is ok so long as you don't say what it is. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 08-09-2010 at 04:57 AM..