I wish I could write as well as The Editors, but I can’t. They do raise an interesting question though. Exactly what defines a ‘left-wing whacko’ or a ‘far-left radical’? I suppose everyone has their own definition. I don’t spend much time thinking about it because the most salient fact about American politics is that no-one of an even medium brand of leftness has any power anywhere. But, the most freakishly right-wing whackos are running all over Washington DC and my teevee making every decent person’s skin crawl.
Take Michael Savage for example. Or the fact that there are dozens of graduates of Pat Robertson’s university running around the federal bureaucracy. I never see the press asking Republicans to apologize for their whackos. Look at our President. Look at our Vice-President. They are whackos ya know. It’s not really a matter of dispute at this point. Being monumentally corrupt and bloodthirsty doesn’t make you ‘serious’…it makes you a sociopath.
But, anyway, we might as well ask the question. What the hell defines a left-wing whacko anyway?
I’m probably the wrong person to ask, since I think people that want to ban smoking every damn place are in the lunatic brigade. But then I meet them in person and they seem quite normal despite their totalitarian tendencies.
Anyone still clinging to communism, or who thinks it was just implemented badly? They fit my bill. I just want a government that takes care of the sick, the aged, and the poor, and that minds its own business. If I had my way, we wouldn’t have fought the first Gulf War, we would not have intervened in Kosovo, we wouldn’t have invaded Iraq, and we wouldn’t be intervening in Darfur. Let the Swedes do that. Or the people of Liechtenstein. A coalition of the non-American affluent. But, if we must be the world’s policemen, let’s make Canada take the steering wheel for a few decades. We’ll take their health care system, and they can have our wars of choice. They’re a bit quirky sometimes, but I am more than willing to trust their judgment. We’ve clearly lost the right to trust our own.
I’m not a whacko, really! I have asthma and smoke is unbearable. Had to walk out of my local diner last weekend b/c people there were smoking. I cannot really go to bars anymore either, which means no live music unless I want to pay a ton of money for bad seats and no view. A local town does leaf burning once a month in the fall, so I try not to go to nearest Borders on those days, b/c I’d have to drive through that town.
It’s not the end of the world, but it bugs me that their “right” to smoke could land me in the hospital or with bronchitis. What about my right to breathe?
If people want to smoke in their homes, cars, or lawns, I don’t care. I just want to go have dinner and a drink – and breathe doing it!
Illinois has legislation pending that would outlaw smoking in cars with children. I will admit that that seemed a little brown-shirt to me.
I have asthma and have the same issues you do…I want to go to a concert, eat dnner, have a martini, etc. without
feeling like I need to scrape my lungs out for days afterward.
Our custody agreement prohibits my 2-pack-a-day-plus ex from smoking around my children, so I don’t think that outlawing smoking in a confined area with children is all that “brown shirt” an idea.
Well, I didn’t say that I disagreed with the legislation. But I do understand why some people might object to it. I used to commute to school with my parents, 45 minutes each way. My father was an extremely heavy smoker (home-rolled, no filter, blech!). It was a nightmare. Some nights I never thought I’d make it home.
Agree with your comment here, I used to get asthma in restaurants when they used to allow smoking indoors. I certainly don’t miss those days. I find it pretty obnoxious when people choose to inflict their nasty habit on other people, particularly since so many people have allergies or lung problems that are aggravated by smoking.
I think it’s pretty obvious that if tobacco were only discovered today, it would very quickly be banned. And if the French have now banned it in public places, it can’t be such a loony idea. 😉
at our current domicile prohibits smoking indoors — so the spouse and I always have to be prepared to jump up and close our bedroom window and sliding patio door when the next-door neighbors step outside and open up; I’ve become much more sensitive to cigarette smoke since I’ve been away from it for the last 13+ years. (I try not to think what damage was done to my body in the time I was exposed — so far I seem to have escaped anything major.)
Many folks say, “If you’re going to ban smoking, you should ban junk food as well”…but I’ve never heard of anyone getting sick or dying from second-hand fat…
I would like us to return to what I thought were “American Values”. Things like a basic belief in fairness, in taking care of the home folks first, then lending a hand to those in need overseas. When I see that our government feels that most Americans are obsolete and too expensive to care for in their old age, or on their death beds, I wonder what “our greatest generation” feels about the direction the country has taken since Reagan was elected. Twenty-six years without anyone in the White House with a progressive notion in their head is a real long time for this guy. Guess that makes me a left-wing whacko too, eh?
I agree with your sentiments but the “redeploy our troops” is not what I think of when I think “progressive” (wacko or otherwise). Where are we suppose to redeploy our military war machine that would be acceptable?
Progressive values are not about Stalinism (that’s the straw/boogeyman that is long gone). In fact, I think while an alternative to capitalism is a more than worthy progressive pursuit, I don’t think that “communism” or the play on Trotskyism (most are now neocons) begins to address viable alternatives to the radicalism of free markets dogma pushed by the powers in both institutionalized US parties.
I really believe that the “left”, the vital left or progressive movement has transformed itself and is inclusive of a new direction regarding positive formulation of non-capitalistic economic system such as that proposed for workers (Economic Policy Institute) and eco-economics (David Korten and a bevvy of collaborators).
Wacko leftists are, for the most part, the creation of government leaders and their supporters; Dems and Repubs. Progressives demand change – that change is only wacko when it has no vision of the future and is only “anti”. Most of those ‘anti” movements are temporarily tied to an ephemeral crisis.
Haven’t a clue. I think they are all dead. The part that pisses me off the most is exactly what you point out. Every freakin crazy, right wing heretic are running the media and our government. Meanwhile all the normal people are call left-wing whackos, which makes us all wonder who the hell they are. As far as non-smokers being over the top, I agree. Even though I quit smoking 1 year ago, I think smokers should be entitled to places where non-smokers aren’t allowed to be. This would provide both sides with their entitled rights. Sort of like men and women’s bathrooms.
Believe me, many are still alive.
I am sure many would bludgeon me with the appellation we are discussing in this thread. I wear the label on my sleeve, and I find it comforting that my clothing is always authentic.
I know there are many still alive. I was speaking figuratively. It just feels as if the middle has shifted so far right that the DLC is on the verge of being claimed as a subversive organization.
In SLC, there’s a ban on public drinking so the bars make people pay a buck at the door to join their “private club” for the night. Why not have have Smoking Clubs where people pay a buck and sign a Enter-at-your-own-risk waiver?
By the standards used by those who like to talk about “left-wing whackos”, such creatures would include the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, Abe Lincoln, T Roosevelt, FDR, Jane Addams, JFK, RFK, LBJ, Rosa Parks, ML King, and all the rest who devoted themselves to improving America for everybody, not just a few.
I suppose by my own standards a “left-wing whacko” would be an all-out Stalinist, but I don’t know of any. OTOH, to find the equivalent of the many right-wing whackos infesting our land one might find a good match in bin Laden or the Janjaweed.
What’s interesting about this question is just how hard it is to imagine a left-wing whacko in the present cultural climate. I just don’t think there are many left-wing whackos around. There were plenty in the sixties.
I agree that someone who still believes in communism is whacko. But I would go further: I think Marxism was obviously whacko from the very start, because it is so obviously millenarian. You shouldn’t confuse social science or social theory with religion, but that is what Marxism does.
I see. Then you’re saying about 80% of European working class people between the years 1848 and 1948 were whackos?
You’re suggesting that 80% of them were socialists. Maybe that’s true, and it was a perfectly rational thing to be. It’s still rational. But I don’t think that most of them were Marxists.
We can define socialism as a market-based economy in which the state owns all or most of the corporations, or has a large share in them. That’s a perfectly sensible system, and maybe that’s what we’ll end up with, since the present system is having trouble generating sufficient profits to satisfy investors. But it has little to do with Marx, with his metaphysical labor theory of value.
To folks at a certain blog, a “left-wing whacko” might be someone who actually wants accountability from the folks we put into office, even those with the venerated “D” after their name.
For those who protest the war, they might want to put the anarchists in that category, or those who think violence against property or people is the proper way to stop the violence in Iraq.
Some have put groups like ACORN and ANSWER into that category, for their efforts to get attention paid to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and other issues.
And of course, we have the other extreme where some are viewed as “too centrist”.
It’s all a part of pigeon-holing…
Could you explain what ACORN and AnSWER have to do with each other?
Since I fully believe both left and right extremes in American come out of a social engineering think tank the term left wing whacko has a different connotation in my book.
Left wing whacko as said by Micheal Savage. Well, a deficiency of brain cells is a true characteristic of the KoolAide set. Yes, I admit this much is true, however…….
The left wing still has it’s gatekeepers.
Kos and his bans.
Democraticunderground and their bans.
In the first 100 hours Pelosi and the newly elected Congress see fit to fully endorse a never ending global war on terror by passing what. HR 1, an anti-terror bill. Now until the day I die I will continue to point out the facts on this. It does give a green light to more, further, exponentially expanding surveillance, control, NSA spying, data mining and is a direct 180 degree reverse on the concepts and foundations which once made our nation great. I sill not, ever, ever shut up about this, ever. See, I am so, so pissed I am reduced to incoherence.
“Left wing Whacko”. Yes, Ted, who wants amnesty for immigrants, illegal or not. Ya, well globo-corp loves the downward pressure on wages this concept brings.
Diversity. Another manufactured ideal. With the left “diversity” is really not about allowing people of different ideals, backgrounds and religions to integrate and get along. No, it’s about quotas and forcing people to integrate. In that respect an integrated population would then NEED the authority of government to intervien and “fix” the problem.
In the Illuminati runs the world camp though everything can be answered. The decision has already been made. That decision is America has to go. Therefore what is happening now is simply the Illuminati plan to destroy America.
Profit margin 300 million vs 6 billion. Your choice.
According to Chris Bowers, I am a left-wing wacko (my spelling) because I opposed the supplemental bill. I will say that he later did send me an apology, although I guess I’m still a left-wing wacko since I still find inspiration in Marx, among others. But I guess that just makes me an unserious left-wing wacko.
the structure of capitalist societies better than Marx. Put Marx and Schumpter together sometime and see what you come up with.
This is our legacy.
If this country should be proud of something, it is this. Had we not supported or been involved in almost all the genocides that have occured since then, and had those countries acted forcefully and switfly against the perpetrators, I would bet anything that aberrations like Kosovo or Darfur would not continue to happen.
I do agree with you that other countries should be more involved, (like the European Rapid Responce promissed to do during the Kosovo war). But there are times that I just can’t ignore what other people are enduring.
This makes me think of the way the right still uses things like Reds and pinko to describe us. But, correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t the gop’s color red?? And aren’t we the blue color??? hmmmmmmm.
Damned rednecks still call me a ‘hippie’. People with verbal diarrhea are not my first choice for a battle of wits. I say, if you’ve got it, flaunt it ! Nothing defuses that sort of jibberish like mockery and satire.
I’m nasty. Dad said : “Only worry about the opinion of those whose esteem you value”. I get accused of arrogance a lot because of that – by intolerant ignorant assholes. Mostly I’m quite happy to let the fracas roll along : sniping is good sport and keeps the opposition’s head down in the dirt. Tsk.
Eh? You’ve got a lot of damned nerve calling Canadians quirky given the politics down here… lol jk
I don’t believe communism is workable, for the simple reason that it must inevitably concentrate power in the hands of a few. But I don’t believe capitalism is workable for the same reason. Communism at least had the decency to collapse under its own inefficiencies (or the heavy hand of Ronald Reagan if that’s your brand of Kool-Aid). Capitalism works just well enough to keep going long enough to drive us to extinction through runaway consumption of natural resources.
If that makes me a wacko, so be it, but it seems to me that people who believe anything close to our present standard of living is sustainable even for the tiny fraction of the world’s population that currently enjoys it are the real wackos. The really disappointing thing about even European politics, where there are real leftists, is that the closest anyone gets to seriously examining the dead end our civilization is painted into is advocating electric cars, recycled aluminum cans, and universal health care.
Capitalism and communism are really not very different. Both of them are based on endless industrial production and consumption. The quibbling about the structure of management is not much more than window-dressing. The working class gets screwed in both cases and we all end up drowning in our own waste products.
I just vote for Democrats because they are marginally less likely to sodomize me with flashlights in prison if I get picked up with a bag of pot — and even then, that’s only if Hillary “More Prisons” Clinton doesn’t get elected.
The really disappointing thing about even European politics, where there are real leftists, is that the closest anyone gets to seriously examining the dead end our civilization is painted into is advocating electric cars, recycled aluminum cans, and universal health care.
Yes, both the left and the right seem to be at a loss as to how to get out of our economic predicament. Capitalism worked fairly well from the end of the Second World War—when Western countries had what were called “mixed economies”, which combined free enterprise with strong intervention and regulation by the state—until around 1973, when the period of high growth rates ended. Since then, all countries to a greater or lesser extent have embraced neoliberalism, according to which corporations are pretty much allowed to run free, and the state is seen as having a very small legitimate role to play in the economy. Clearly, this unfettered form of capitalism is no more sustainable than communism was.
Gee, I think electric cars, recycled plastic and aluminum containers, and universal health insurance/coverage are fantastic ideas which have finally become real possibilities.
Implementing the ideas will be the big bitch!! the implementation of these ideas will be the next left/right wrangle. We have to start thinking post-oil, NOW!
Your point about unfettered Capitalism being no more workable than unfettered Communism is spot on.
Wikipedia: “The bogeyman, boogyman, or bogyman, is a legendary ghostlike monster often believed in by children…The term bogeyman can be used metaphorically to denote a person or thing of which someone has an irrational fear. The bogeyman legend may originate from Scotland, where such creatures are sometimes called bogles, boggarts, or bogies.”
What is a left wing whacko?
Originally it was a stereotype/caricature of the late 60’s-early 70’s anti-Vietnam stoner/political activist.
Today, a left-wing whacko is anyone who is not in lock-step agreement with a right wing ideologue talking head on the radio or TeeVee. It is simple as that.
The term “Whacko” is used frequently by everyday Americans as a way of expressing complete disagreement with the actions or the ideas expressed by a political figure/bureaucrat, especially if the ideas are anti-people or seem anti-US in terms of the political views of the person listening. A right winger is inclined to dismiss “netroots/people powered” politics people as “Left wing whackos.” Rush is fond of the term. And, the “Fascist in an Uncle Sam suit” is likely to be called a “Right wing whacko” by folks who can see through his rhetoric and schtick.
At this time the term “whacko” is becoming overused and slipping into triteness, like too often used words generally do. But, the term is very popular with the public though often misused. The degree of pejorative dismissal conveyed by “whacko” is somewhat blunted over by misuse/over-use and thus the value of the word is lost.
Bell rings, class dismissed.
No need to defend “wackos”, the so-called “left wackos” exited that side of the spectrum as Trotskyites and are now “wacko” Neconservatives.
Historically, US of A was founded on strong progressive principles. Those priniciples are rejected in word or deed by the “wackos”.
I am a left wing whacko. I think our country should strive to fulfill the Preamble to our Constitutition and the Bill of Rights. Hell, in today’s FoxSpeak I’m a fucking communist.