A vast, deep collection of bile...

[elfs]

John McCain, last night, in a show of human decency, told his followers that Barack Obama is "a decent man, a family man," and that they have "no reason to fear him as president." I thought that was an excellent tack to take, although many on the left are speculating that there are reasons other than decency for it: maybe the anger and hatred he'd unleashed was a losing tack, maybe he's considering his legacy. For whatever reason, McCain has been doing the right thing.

He did, however, get booed for it when he said it. And I was curious to see how this turn of events has gone down with the fringe right. The results are telling. First, the freepers:

• "McCain SHUT UP! You are Pissing in your Cheerios!"
• "Obama is NOT HONORABLE We SHOULD be scared with him!"
• "His campaign and refusal to TELL THE TRUTH is PROOF that he is unwilling to do what is necessary to win."
• "It is a shame he has to ruin [Sarah Palin's] career too."
• "What a dolt."
• "Three weeks before the election McCain dismisses the most basic beliefs of patriotic conservatives and endorses Barak Hussein Obama."
• "He's a jack ass. This guy couldn't be a bigger idiot. "
• "Mccain makes me sick. Everytime I am fired up he throw some cold water."
• "I'm starting to hate him."
• "My respect can never be earned by criminal Muslim terrorists."
• "Can you respect your voters Mr. McCain?"
• "WE'RE NOT TURNING THE WHITE HOUSE KEYS OVER TO BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA!"
• "Thanks John, for being a spineless, limp-wristed, RINO imbecile. And please keep that bitch you hired off the air too."

The Clownhall commenters:

• "Yes we are SCARED and NO this is NOT someone we want to have in the White House!"
• "Bully for the crowd!!!! John needs to figure this one out!!!!"
• "Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. is NOT a decent man. He can never be president."
• "McCain we're ready to fight, where the hell are you?"
• "Nothing wrong with McCain/Palin being inline with KKK mentality because they are white like most of us."
• "We just want McCain to embrace and magnify our anger."
• "The United States is the most important country in the world, and cannot afford an Obama presidency."

The Little Green Footballs:

• "I feel it is a sad day for all veterans. I thought we finally had found a fighter."
• "there's nothing about obama that doesn't scare me, wtf?"
• "I think I am going to go cling to my FN-FAL."
• "I'm voting for Palin."
• "Let's hope Sarah pulls him to the back of the plane over the weekend and smacks some sense into him."
• "This is what happens when we let the country club "compassionate" conservatives control the republican party."
• "Palin/SomeOldGuy '08"
• "he should not have said that."
• "BHO SCARES THE SHIT OUTTA' ME. He's a freakin' commie who plans on fucking up this nation"
• "I don't care what McCain says. . . Maybe I don't "have to" be scared of Obama as President, but I am anyway."
• "The tree of liberty..."

Comments

Re: Still...

[mikstera.livejournal.com]

My preferred political system is actually Libertarian Socialism, aka Anarchism. But, such a system is, I believe, unworkable without the aforementioned low population density and/or post-Scarcity economy.

It seems we're all arguing over where to set the thresholds for level of regulation or the ratio of State vs. private control of "the means of production." That said, I don't think it is at all productive to call our current thresholds "theft" or "violence." We all want "optarchism"... we just disagree as to what constitutes "optimal", and the criteria to be used for determining that optimal point. By any reasonable (IMO) use of those terms, what we have in the United States is neither "socialism" nor "fascism".

Re: Still...

[ideaphile.livejournal.com]

I would have to say that it's both.

Certainly any socialist from the 1930s would be well pleased to hear that over 40% of the US economy is routed through the government, and simultaneously angered by the degree to which business interests influence the decisions of the government.

If I may ask-- why do you prefer a system that can't be realized in any existing human society?

. png

Re: Still...

[mikstera.livejournal.com]

"I would have to say that it's both.

Yeah, I get that. IMO, you're misusing those terms... but the last thing I'm interested in doing is engaging in a protracted argument over semantics. Let's just agree to disagree on this.

"If I may ask-- why do you prefer a system that can't be realized in any existing human society?"

I'm a fan of political / economic systems based on post-Scarcity economies. It doesn't bother me that such systems are currently unrealizable; I see this as a direction we should move towards, rather than a goal we can easily reach today.

Frankly, what I see today in terms of economic / political systems is a thin veneer of civilization over the basest of primate instincts. I think we can do better. I think we should work towards the sort of world seen in Iain M. Banks' "Culture", or Elf's "Pendor"... a world where no sentient being need fear starvation, or homelessness, or a lack of medical care or education, or even death.