Outlaw Libertarians vs Social Contract Libertaritans.

Work with me here, kids. Please. Still working on the first cuppa joe. Anyway . . .

I was reading some article about that evil anti worker man, Scott Walker, and my mind got to wandering. (Again not enough coffee in the sys yet.) And I was thinking as evil as he is, problem really is with the allegedly independent/swing voters who put that nerdy mess in office. Thought hit me that they might be worse creatures than wing nuts. At least wing nuts are consistent in their ideology. They are more perfect in the sense they are perfectly wrong, the wing nuts.

Then I got to thinking about the other people I sometimes think of as worse than wing nuts. That would be the right wing libertarians. I start of saying it that way as there a a political axis/grid out there that fixes people on the traditional left/right spectrum, but as well on the authoritarian/libertarian spectrum. Slight digression -- page where I saw that argued that the authoritarian/libertarian spectrum is more important to what is some one's real core political philosophy. I'll just say I think that's an interesting theory.

Back on track. My next thought was a nugget that bubbled up from the back of the brain, relating to my redneck studies of late. If Thomas Sowell is correct, that the great American Redneck is a direct descendant of Scots Irish outlanders and outlaws, maybe that explains the more . . . for lack of a better word . . . insane brand of libertarianism that pollutes the American Right Wing. After that, the division as I have in the title came to mind. The insane brand of libertarianism seems to be more outlaw, more anti social, as it ignores in many cases the core rule of civilized society. That any person's liberty (or rights, other wise stated) stops at the next person's nose.

Granted, that is not a strict recitation of social contract theory, but it's a core idea of it. That's what I believe in. My liberalism, and my understanding of theory of Liberty is firmly rooted in that idea. But for these Outlaws, naw. It's all about them. Like a bunch of outlaw English/British highwaymen who claim to own the road or forest, and consider anything in it, or moving through it as theirs or theirs for the taking.

Ya. That's it. I think my theory of Right Wing Wing Nut group dysfunction is falling into place rather nicely.

Has Bill Maher Been Reading My Theory About Thomas Sowell's Theory of the Menace of Rednecks to America's Well Being?

(Toldja I planned on using that as a cudgel against the wing nuts, metaphorically speaking, of course.)

Nope. I don't think Mr. Maher reads this blog. After all, I'm on the ass end of the Internet. This is The Frontier. It's like that place in the movie "Apocalypse Now," when the assassin shows up at the last American position, and asks the scared soldier where he could find officer in charge, and the soldier says I thought you were (some shit like that.) And there's the following scene where Brother Man Rocket Man says he don't need no flare, and homes in on the VC on the other end of the firing line who's taunting the troops by saying things like, Joe. Joe. GI Joe. Fuck You, Joe. And Brother Man Rocket Man takes his ass out with one shot of his grenade launcher. That scene really had an impact of me. But I digress.

Actually, wrong analogy. That's way too much action, for this joint. It might be better to say there should be a sign here, like those old maps saying,"Beyond Here Thar Be Monsters!"

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Mr. Maher isn't tracking this site. But in this clip he goes off on one of the most lame and racist (for lack of a better word) wing nut fads; birtherism. Shit. Even Sean Hannity is now pimping that ho. But I do agree with fellow Joisey Boy Maher. This is racism. And like he says to David Brooks, it's not the lack of overt racism that is notable. It's the staggering amount of covert racism that's prevalent in the wing nut party, that we are noting, and birtherism is a function of that. So we say. Anyway, link to the vid.


Only Race Could Explain Birthers.

Notable in this clip is David Brooks. I confess he drives me crazy on his worst days, but he's clearly not a wing nut. As far as alleged moderates go, he's sorta what one should sound like, I'd say. He's often wrong, but rarely is he crazy wrong.

Moving on, and as the text from the Mediate (don't want to call them journalists or columnists. Editor is better . . .) editor mentions, Tina Brown was like a Delphic Priestess. She really laid it out with her contemporary politics is like Lady Gaga, observation. I'd say the clip is worth watching just for that. And yes, it's the end of the tape, and there's good stuff happening before you get there.

But yet again (time to book end, kids.) Even if there was no mention of Thomas Sowell's Theory of the Menace of Rednecks to America, it's there. It's implied in the racism of the birthers, and the rise of stark raving lunacy in the political sphere. Lady Gaga Indeed. I love the observation for it's visual potency. But I would instead reactivate one of my own favorite images, that I have been using for years. And it's basically a mash up of two ideas. I call the strange theatre that has been going on with the wing nuts an Insane Clown Posse Clown Car routine.

Of course the Insane Clown part comes from the musical act. And the Clown Car is the classic gag where a seemingly impossibly numerous number of clowns come out of a tiny car. Ya. That what the right wing looks like, these days. But the clowns are insane.

I Get to Slam Wing Nuts With a Theory From One of Their "Darlings?" Excellent!

I get to say, when ever some wing nut or tea bagger plays the blame game, specifically the what's wrong with America game, that,"Ya know what? I agree with Thomas Sowell."

And they should ask what he said. And I get to reply,"Blame the rednecks."

How I got to this nugget, today, stems from my reading about some stupid appearance Mrs. Palin made on FNC last night. And I got to thinking about Jeff Foxworthy's definition for redneck; lacking in any sophistication. And I got to thinking that if that's America's most famous self-described redneck's definition of the term, then Mrs. Palin is the poster child.

And I did some net jumping, and finally stumbled on first a discussion about Sowell's redneck theory, and then, his own article: Redneck culture to blame for lack of intellectual development.

Turns out (and I knew it but forgot, as I never read it) that is the subject of an essay in, and the title of a book he wrote a couple, few years ago: "Black Rednecks and White Liberals."

Honestly, his core theory is nothing new. I've been saying it for years -- trash is trash, and poor is poor, and people on the bottom of society (all of them not necessarily trash, I must say plainly) do, as a practical matter, have more in common with each other than they have historically admitted, no matter their color. * (For the sake of the point, forget about institutionalized slavery and legally mandated inequality. That's a different point.)

I would bet that de Tocqueville figured that one out, nearly 200 years ago!

Anyway, the following, from the wiki art. about the book:

Black Rednecks and White Liberals

The title essay is based on Sowell's thesis about the origins of the "black ghetto" culture.

Sowell argues that the black ghetto culture, which is claimed to be "authentic black culture", is historically neither authentic nor black in origin. Instead, Sowell argues that the black ghetto culture is in fact a relic of a highly dysfunctional white southern redneck culture which existed during the antebellum South. This culture came, in turn, from the "Cracker culture" of the North Britons and Scots-Irish who migrated from the generally lawless border regions of Britain.

Sowell gives a number of examples that he regards as supporting the lineage, e.g.,

an aversion to work, proneness to violence, neglect of education, sexual promiscuity, improvidence, drunkenness, lack of entrepreneurship,… and a style of religious oratory marked by strident rhetoric, unbridled emotions, and flamboyant imagery.[1]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Instead of making my own observations, here, I will go for the joke, instead. Yes. I finally got around to watching that movie Eminem did a few years back, 8 Mile. Now I know why he comes across as so 'authentic.' But there is no explaining that Vanilla Ice guy!

I'll leave it there, for now.

(*Side bar here. Back when I was still wasting time fighting with wing nuts on a message board, the enigma there, a black bisexual conservative redneck used to give me shit for my inauthentic ghetto trash talk. I told her I took that as a compliment. She and some of the other wing nuts there also criticized me for my believed to be authentic "Elitism." Like wise, I took that for a compliment, whether intended or not.)

Researching My Theory of Anti Elitism. I Shoulda Just Googled Redneck.

Yes, at one point last night, I was watching some Jeff Foxworthy vids on Youtube. Don't ask me how or why I got there. I was, eventually, in the mood for comedy, as my posting of a Kat Williams vid and a link to the "Natlie Portman Rap" last night shows. So I got there some how, at least.

Anyway, in one of the vids I watched, he explains his understanding of the word "redneck," as a complete lack of sophistication. Now that does not necessarily equate to my Theory of Wing Nut Anti Elitism, squarely. But it lives, at least, in the next zip code. I take that bit about lack of sophistication as a parallel idea, at least, to what I said about desperate 19th Century embittered Protestant homesteaders, desperately scratching out their hardscrabble lives, out there on the prairie or the high plains. Or what ever strange patch of land they were scratching on, far away from urbanity and it's sophisticated temptations.

I don't think I indexed the routine. But there were two aspects of it, beyond the tie in to my theory of anti elitism, that stood out. Firstly, it was a gig shot before an audience in Montreal. Alors! I thought it was very brave of him to do his redneck humor in front of les Québécois et Québécoises. Secondly, he killed. I guess redneck humor is exportable.

David Frum Sings a Song, In Praise of Elitism, and Against Tea Baggers . . .

Now that's a Republican I can respect. Well, at least a little.

I wasn't going out of my way to find something from or about him. Actually, I was following up on my "Theory of Wing Nut Anti Elitism," and ran a quick google to see if I could find evidence of my working thesis out there. And the link to this recent article popped up.

I do admit, that as far as right wingers go, I think he's sorta ok. He's no wing nut, that's for sure. It's nice to know there are still a few sane people on the other side of the fence. And I totally agree with what he is quoted as saying, in the article:

"In a “sane” country, anyone more conservative than him would be institutionalized."

Gotta love the candor, and good analytical skills.

Since I am talking about him, I will say that as far as right wing blogs go, his is one of the most rational-seeming, to me. I can read articles and essays there, and usually my strongest reaction is merely,"I disagree." It's pretty much a bat shit crazy-free zone. Unless one of the bat shit crazies is the topic of interest, naturally.

Anyway, since I am here, and since I breached the topic, I might as well toss off the summary of my "Theory of Wing Nut Anti Elitism," flesh it out a little maybe, but reserve the right to get back to it on a later date. The more I think about it, the more I think there could be a book in it, if I could concentrate and dedicate the time to the task. Anyway, here goes.

Thanks to my urban, East Coast history, growing up Catholic, attending an elite university, and being interested in the intersection of culture, sociology, history and politics, I have had some thoughts about what I now call wing nut anti elitism bubbling in my head for years. And most recently, thanks to that PBS special on God In America, I believe I have a greater appreciation of the effect Protestant bigotry (specifically, Anti Catholic, Anti Urban, Anti Old World European bigotry,) had, if not still has, on American Culture. And now I am now pretty much convinced to a great extent, that what I call wing nut anti elitism is mostly just a product of lingering, Protestant bigotry (specifically, Anti Catholic, Anti Urban, Anti Old World European bigotry.)

Now back in the days when I was consuming European History books (or novels set in old Europa) the way other kids my age were consuming comic books, I was building on the slim knowledge of Protestantism in Europe, and all those religious wars, found in my grade school text books. And I learned the minimum about Protestantism's role in the formation of Early American society from those text books. But honestly? As a topic by itself I found most anything having to do with Protestantism, specifically American Protestantism, to be square, dull, and rather boring.

Hell. Even when I was in college, in my last semester, I took a gut (for a senior) class in Euro History -- Renaissance through Congress of Vienna. One of the assigned texts was a slim bio of Martin Luther. But once I found out the Professor predictably gave the same final for the course, and the essay would be a choice between the one on Luther, and the one on the Jacobins, I left the Luther bio on the shelf, unopened. The Jacobins. The Tennis Court Oath. Dr. Guillotine's Invention. Now that was some exciting stuff. So even when I had a chance to get to know more about one of the chief founders of Protestantism, I passed.

But when I watched the PBS documentary, recently, it sharpened the issues for me. Firstly Protestantism is, and as a function of it reason for existing, Anti Catholic. Has to be. You have this thousand plus year old religious institution essentially (meaning to a great part) ruling Europe. Protestantism not only rejected liturgical if not theological views held by the Catholic Elite (the priesthood,) but as well, cultural views and values. Remember that Henry the VIII not only looted the monasteries, he let the malicious fucktards destroy the rood screens, and smash the statues (Remember the Taliban blowing up the Buddhas? Shit. They could have stolen that idea directly out of the history of Protestant Malice.)

Anyway, with out belaboring the Euro history part, by the time you get to colonization of America, you have people coming here who were not merely allegedly escaping "religious persecution." But you had people who were rejecting all of it. They were rejecting "Catholic Mysticism," and along with that, the arts and culture that they, as an institution, had patronized, if not funded, for centuries. They rejected the idea of urbanism, and set out for the frontier, to carve their lives out of the soil. And they, in many cases, were embittered, to start. And they were distrustful of anyone not close enough to people like them, to start. And the isolation of the lifestyle was not really good for the mind. It allowed for all sorts of weird solipsistic thinking (even if you had scattered family units, not just individuals. Think of it as scattered mini cults, peopled by desperate semi literates, desperate for some meaning in their otherwise drab, little, hardscrabble lives.) And being freed of the binds of urbanism and community, in lots of cases, they were (as made plain in the documentary) basically ripe for the picking, once the first wave of revivalism swept the land.

And that would have been in the early 19th Century. After the Nation was founded, actually. In any case, The "churches" that popped up in the 19th Century served the dual purpose of providing a sense of community, and a sense of meaning, for them who needed some external validation of that sort.

I'm going to jump to the chase. Even if the roots of American Protestantism (and conservatism) might be said to be based in a desire for simplification of the relationship to God, and of one's general lifestyle, it ended up, to a great extent, in many but not all cases, more of a cult of small, if not simple mindedness. But that is not the whole of it. (And that is the judgmental part, I will admit.) But as I said above, the real roots of Protestantism is one of rejectionism. As a movement, its reason for coming into being was to reject the Old World way of doing things. Perhaps not ironically, ask one of these wing nuts why they waste their time getting all upset about "Them Elites," they will likely spew some borderline psychotic babble about how "Them Elites" run them down, and talk down to them, and treat them like inferiors and simpletons. But hey. I say not ironically because wing nuts love to embrace the idea of a cult of victim hood.

Let's not forget the fact that it was their spiritual if not biological ancestors who turned their backs on the Old Word and its ultra sophisticated ways. It did not work the other way around. The Protestants themselves chose to go off and wander around the wilderness. They were not cast out. They voted with their feet (metaphorically and sometimes literally.)

Ok. I went long, but I swear, I could knock out a dozen chapters on this, if I put my mind and fingers to it. So I will leave off here, but before I head for the exit, I will toss off the part I totally avoided, and that would be how my "Theory of Wing Nut Anti Elitism," blurs into my "Theory of Tea Bagger Racism." Hey. Not only are those different looking people crossing the border brown skinned, but they are Catholics! Yes! The largest denomination in America, these days, is Catholicism.

They outnumber Southern Baptists by at least three to one. And the more of them who cross the border, the more Catholics there will be, and the so called Christian Conservatives will be less numerous and powerful. Let's face the facts. Old Time Protestantism might not be as bad off as the Shakers ended up (extinct.) But their numbers are dwindling, by comparison. Just reporting the facts.