Comments on: My Mom Is A Torture Loving, Italian/Catholic, Fascist and Fox News Viewer

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:34:31 +0000

I have these problems with my Catholic mother-in-law, more or less. I am a conservative moderate, and she is a straight down the ticket Democrat. The thing is, she’s against gay marriage, couples “living in sin” and is more than ready to judge her own family as well as mine for our perceived questionable morals, but all she can tell me about why she doesn’t like Bush is because he lied (what, she can’t even tell me). I am no fan of Bush, don’t get me wrong, but I expect people to have reasons when they say something like that. She invites herself to my home, and gets offended and huffy when I have a friend over who happens to be gay. I’m confused. Wasn’t I (as the allegedly more conservative one) supposed to be the homophobe, not the other way around? I was also looking at one point at hiring someone to come clean my house, and one of the people I was looking to hire was gay. She told me that if I hired this person, she would not be visiting my home (Oh, darn!).

Ignorant people, regardless of sides, are just infuriating.

By: athensguy

athensguy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:17:15 +0000

Jack O’Brien uses a false dilemma in his post.

As people become less educated, logical fallacies such as Jack’s become more effective. It is possible for someone to become less educated over time, which apparently has happened to many racist torture supporters over the last 10 years (prior to that I didn’t pay much attention).

Of course left wing and right wing are ill defined, probably generally the definition is “I consider myself X wing, therefore all that disagree with me are Y wing”, which is a pretty crappy definition. It is possible to have a socialist dictatorship, but that could not be fascist unless control of the social infrastructure reverted to the dictator or companies controlled by him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_compass

I would put fascism in the top right corner, which, btw is where almost all of the Republicans and Democrats fall, too. The bottom right corner is pretend.

By: PJBurke

PJBurke — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:50:27 +0000

Excellent article, Robert

It certainly is mystifying that so many Catholics embrace torture, given that the Church itself condemns it (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, Sec. 2297-98), and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has a whole web tutorial on the immorality of torture: http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/stoptorture/

But perhaps they’re just not pushing the parish priests to do much on the issue at Sunday Mass.

But I have the same sorts of issues in my Irish Catholic family as you report… and all of the more religiously observant (and pedantically pious) are the Faux sNooze watchers, the torture-lovers and war-mongers, and are the most fact-averse regardless of issue.

Propaganda works… and is working. There seems to be little concern in the Congress that such deliberate manipulation-by-disinformation is being engaged in, so its likely that there won’t be any relief from the constant barrage of lies and distortions any time soon.

To me, it seems more and more obvious that the time to get out is sooner rather than later… before all of the local police departments start thinking that torture ‘works.’

By: Jack O'Brien

Jack O'Brien — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:07:05 +0000

As for the anti-torture statements, what would you do if you had captured an enemy terrorist/ partisan and you had the choice between torturing him or letting his comrades murder innocent civilians are you honestly telling me you wouldn’t torture him? The other day a group of shall we say “foreigners” abducted a 14 year old girl right off the street on Norton street ( i used to live on the adjacent street) and raped her. Now if these people are by some chance caught by the 5 police in the State of New South Wales then they will most likely get less than ten years each. Now is it so inhuman of me to want these people dead? If it were up to me these people forfeited their right to live when they ruined that girl’s life. It seems quite obvious and natural to me that they should be put through the most intense possible pain for the remainder of their short lives. How can anyone argue? Why should they be simply sent to prison where they get fed and housed by the taxpayer? Seems to me this post is just more so-called “leftists” patting each other on the back and pretending like they are the ones who are risking something by speaking out and that they are somehow courageous and progressive for being politically correct. it is actually the so called “right wingers” who are silenced, at least in Australia where I live. If i so much as point out how multiculturalism is the worst custural plague since communism (in that it seems progressive and in regular people’s interest but actually only succeeds in destroying culture and profiting those in power) then I am labelled a racist and fascist. (I’ve since decided that I must be both of these things but so what?) I don’t know how it is in other countries but in Australian cities it is difficult to even “spot an aussie” anymore. We aren’t allowed to sing Christmas carrols in schools (although Mosques keep springing up) and yet as usual the only people who are accused of intolerance are white males. We even have racist laws that give government payments and special employment only to Aboriginal people. So call me a racist, I don’t care because as far as I can see all that means is that I put common sense and my own people’s interest above the political correctness enforced by the “progressive” left.

By: Caelie

Caelie — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:12:04 +0000

Brilliant! SO good to see the experiences & feelings I’ve always had with my own family put into words! I’m forwarding it, but substituting “fascist Dad” & Born-Again Brother” & “Homophobic fascist cousin”!

By: Yellowbird

Yellowbird — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:05:29 +0000

Funny how basic Catholic upbringing ran hand in hand with mafias and with fascism and now with American mafia/fascism. Or should I more clearly state that the reach of the fascist catholic church is purely international?

You see, this insistence on bowing to power and accepting AUTHORITY with all caps indeed, seeds the growing mind of youngsters to accept that they will be sheep and the masters will rule them.

That is the biggest reason religion sucks. It destroys the creativity of the masses.

By: Stephen Pitt

Stephen Pitt — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:42:48 +0000

Simply put, it’s the Republic v Fascism time.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/obama_confronts_the_corporation.html

Problem: The fundi ministries and fascist news surrogates have so dumbed Americans down they are now unable to even know history and what fascism is.

Ladies and gents: This is precisely how Germany did it in the thirties.

Great work TPR and welcome back.

By: Joe Catechissimo

Joe Catechissimo — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:24:51 +0000

Well written article, but completely one-sided. I don’t see how you lefties who thrive on tolerance and racial sensitivity could elect a man who participated in a racist, Farrakhan-loving church. I also have a huge problem with folks who are upset about our having waterboarded less than a dozen terrorists, yet who don’t care that scissors are plunged into 8-month fetuses and their brains are suctioned out. You folks on the Left are as wierd and despicable to us as we are to you.

By: tjc

tjc — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:05:10 +0000

Such are the dangers of propaganda, Unfortunately the same type of propaganda and misinformation that help Germany turn a blind eye to the holocaust is happening again, this time under the guise of a first amendment right to free speech by Fox News Channel and its ilk. Sadly and most alarming Fox News is on course to bring it’s dangerous hypocrisy worldwide, airing in Costa Rica, Peru, We need to bring back the FCC safeguards that once protected American broadcasting: the rollback of the Fairness Doctrine and the other provisions that were virtually eliminated by the Communications Acts of the 90s.

By: Janine Ferguson

Janine Ferguson — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 05:28:28 +0000

Awesome article Rob!!! Very well written. It reminds me of some friends of mine who also have completely differing beliefs systems than their parents do, on lots of subjects. It’s more common than you think. Hope all is well. Keep writing!
Janine