99% of the problem.

[634-5789]

[Bluethroughu]

1. Wow, I never read that before.

Perfectly observed and documented.

[Wounded Bear]

6. I've seen it before. We all need reminders of shit like this from time to time...nt

[Bluethroughu]

7. I'll never forget it.

Yes we do.

[liberalla]

15. My immediate response also. WOW.

Succinct and accurate... and so easy to understand when distilled to this simple statement (quote).
Thank you.

[wnylib]

19. It's the essence of gaslighting, a common tactic of narcissists.

The narcissist gains power by blurring fact and lie until reality itself is blurred.

[DENVERPOPS]

25. Yes

There are a lot of Psy-ops in Republican Politics........much more than the general population understands, or even recognizes....

[LT Barclay]

45. I think it was in L. Fletcher Prouty's book, ostensibly about JFK assassination, but in actuality more on the dirty

tricks crowd hiding in all aspects of the "intelligence" services that he said after WW2 CIA psy-ops have been turned domestically against the American public.

[DENVERPOPS]

54. Thank you

I did not know that fact......

And the U.S. Media, which is almost exclusively owned/operated by Uber Rich Republicans or Republican Corporations, is guilty of using it in more than just slanting a story......A Danish Investigative Reporter showed me subtle examples in Cable news shows, Radio, and esp network news and all print media.....here in the U.S.

Showing a really portrait quality, filtered, air brushed picture of Trump, and a poor picture of Harris, or creating a picture of Obama four shades darker in skin color..... Also making descriptive wording dumbed down to not sound so bad........ie Psycopath vs Sociopath, Liar vs mis-statement, etc etc etc

[Warpy]

49. You mean that's how he keeps it

He gains it by telling morons they're special.

[KS Toronado]

2. Wonder how she survived WWII

Last edited Thu Oct 24, 2024, 10:56 AM - Edit history (1)

Hitler would not have liked her!

[LoveTheDU]

4. *she

Hannah was a female philosopher

[FakeNoose]

5. Hannah Arendt lived her final years in NYC having escaped the Nazis in 1940

She has an interesting life story....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt

[KS Toronado]

9. LOL, should have looked closer at the name, Thanks

Time for a 2nd cup of coffee.

[c-rational]

3. K&R

[jaxexpat]

8. War brings out the worst in people. What else would a war on truth summon?

[soldierant]

34. War brings out the worst in many people,

maybe even most, but it also brings out the best in some. Consider the White Rose Society. And people like MSgt Rodney Edmonds, an American soldier who posthumously received the CMOH and the title of righteous among the nations. (Posthumously not becaise he was killed in the war, but because he never spoke about it to anyone. His son discovered the incident in his journals after he ded.)

[jaxexpat]

38. I'm compelled to think every one of those persons would condemn war in no uncertain terms.

War is an insult to the species. If it is a positive impulse in any way, the succession of peaceful diligence and respect for the generations is then a parody of civilization whose only purpose is it's own extinction. Lunacy and testosterone are creative elements? The suffering folks, eons of victims, look back from their nameless graves wondering if it was all that important, after all. The luminaries you reference would agree and condemn me for my reticence.

[LT Barclay]

46. I often wonder why, in the past when there were only an estimated 100 million people IN THE WORLD

why seemingly sane individuals would drop everything, risk their lives, their families, their crops and livlihoods to march hundreds of miles to pick a fight with their neighbors.
There has to be a better way. It makes me sick that the right wingers have made diplomacy a sign of weakness.

[jaxexpat]

48. It is no coincidence that Republicans dominate the US military. It's just a shame.

[LT Barclay]

55. Sadly it is the culture there. The USCG added a constitutional rights class, but there were 2 major problems with it,

first it was a one time thing.
Second, it focused on the rights of the member, not the public. As a law-enforcement agency, I found this very problematic.

[jfz9580m]

10. Bought The Origins of Totalitarianism after Jan 6

Still have only read about half of it. It was so creepy back then with all the stories in the news about militia networks etc.

[lastlib]

40. Got it in college from a retiring Poli Sci prof...

Read as much of it as I could then. When I started to realize what tR*mp was, I started re-reading it. It's chilling how it nails The Felon. We need to thank our deities for Hannah Arendt.

[jfz9580m]

52. It is really chilling

I put it away because it was frightening yet too horrifying to picture.

[NNadir]

11. An excellent point by the woman who famously described Eichmann as an expression of the "banality of evil."

I recall having some problems with Arendt's writings when I was going through them years back, although I cannot specifically recall what they were, it having been so long ago.

This said, my problems, such as they were, did not detract from my admiration of her work.

This is an excellent quote and evocation for these times, and I thank you for pointing to it.

[Farmer-Rick]

12. Besides Trump and the GOP

Religion attempts to do the same thing. They feed people ridiculous fantasy filled stories.

A talking snake, a burning bush that doesn't burn, a curse on a tree, healing people by touching them, a virgin pregnancy and birth, demons in pigs, bringing people back from the dead, using a few fish and loaves to feed crowds, turning water into wine.....and on and on the lies an impossibilities pile up.

If you believe all that then you can very easily believe a Nazi, threatening people who disagree with him, will make a great democratic leader.

[erronis]

13. And it is best when you can wrap your tyrrany in a flag and coat it with religion.

[LisaM]

23. But those stories were born out of allegory.

People were not expected to believe them and many religious people don't believe them now. It's Creationists and Fundamentalists who do.

[Farmer-Rick]

32. When I was a kid

I wholeheartidly believed every word the nuns taught me in Catholic School.

Several times I thought I would die for accidentally touching the host. I had nightmares of Jesus bleeding, tortured, dying on the cross. It's a horrible story to tell children.

Anyway, I grew up, learned logic and what evidence was. If you don't believe all the mumbo-jumbo, are you really a believer?

[soldierant]

35. Thank you.

Some of the Bible is straight history, but it also contains high poetry, including love poetry, and a whole lot of allegory and parable. It also contains horrible examples, like the "cursing psalms." C. S, Lewis used to say "If you cannot understand a book which was written for adults..." I don;t remember exactly how he finished the sentence, but there are many ways to end it. My personal favorite is "maybe you shouldn't be talking about it."

[lastlib]

41. And they're the dangerous ones. n/t

[Tetrachloride]

14. I recently found out of a currently existing earthquake in fundamental truth in my family.

really annoyed.

[birdographer]

16. How true

One of the key characteristics of the MAGA cult members is not that they are gullible, poorly educated, and incapable of critical thinking, it's that they very simply do not know the difference between right and wrong.

[bucolic_frolic]

17. Hannah Arendt is a great read

She wrote several books, I think I read "On Freedom". Her works are filled with great quotes. Off the top of my head -

"Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule by Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless we have a tyranny without a tyrant.”

https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/bureaucracy-and-violence-2017-10-08

Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College

[Wiz Imp]

20. She truly was brilliant

[TommieMommy]

18. Very interesting and so true

[iluvtennis]

21. Truth! KnR. n/t

[calimary]

22. Wow! That is an AMAZING quote.

Amazing AND infuriating.

[LisaM]

24. AI seems designed to carry out this philosophy.

Small wonder the tech overlords love it.

[jfz9580m]

27. Small Wonder?

You mean this Small Wonder?



Heh..I wonder if anyone other than me even remembers that show..

[lame54]

26. I can no longer distinguish between...

Who is ahead in this race
No clue whatsoever

[dlk]

28. Precisely what is happening in America

Thank you for posting.

[Ping Tung]

29. Hannah called it "the banality of evil".

"The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil" - Hannah Arendt, the Life of the Mind

[Jim__]

30. According to the Hannah Arendt Center for Humanities and Politics this is not an accurate quote.

From a post by Roger Berkowitz:

A quotation attributed to Hannah Arendt has been floating around various social media sites. The apparently altered quotation is:

"This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want." -Hannah Arendt

I’ve received numerous emails in the last month asking for the provenance of this quotation. At first, I looked, since to be honest, the spirit of the quote is very much in line with Arendt’s own thought. But as far as I can tell, Hannah Arendt never said this or wrote this. She did, however, say many similar things. Which begs the question: Why would someone create a fake quotation when so many real ones express a similar viewpoint? And, does such an altered quotation matter?

To answer this question, it is important to first look at the quotations that likely serve as the source for the fake aphorism.

I found this while trying to find the larger context for the quote. Some similar quotatations are given at the site.

[Martin68]

31. That's the only strategy of the MAGA GOP: make the American people doubt the integrity and usefulness

Last edited Fri Oct 25, 2024, 01:03 PM - Edit history (1)

of every single one of the country's institutions. They started by attacking the integrity of the election process, and then began spewing lies about every part of the local, state, and federal government when they did not perfectly align with MAGA goals.

[slightlv]

43. I think they actually started with the Public School System...

downgrade it and demean it to the point no critical thinking skills are taught anymore. Without the ability to think critically about subjects you lose the ability to tell right from wrong, truth from lies. The longer it goes on, the less likely you are to try to think in any way about something.

Start with the kids, and they pass on the ignorance from one generation to the next, aided and abetted by the public schools, which no longer teach the higher functions kids need to become genuine, thinking adults.

[Martin68]

53. True. Since Reagan the GOP has been attacking and undermining public education.

[Beartracks]

36. Corollary: The Republicans being lied to believe this quote describes Democrats.

[MontanaMama]

37. Indeed they do.

I was just on that foul Next Door app and the MAGAts are describing Dems as hateful, vengeance filled people. Boggles the mind.

[Mr.Bill]

42. A lot of the things that MAGATS believe

about us are the same things we believe about them.

[slightlv]

44. It's that oldie that R's are so well known for... Projection! n/t

[Kid Berwyn]

39. A most amazing and profound human being.

Hannah Arendt also wrote:

The goal of wholesale surveillance is not, in the end, to discover crimes, “but to be on hand when the government decides to arrest a certain category of the population.” -- "The Origins of Totalitarianism"

[uponit7771]

47. Right out of Putrid's book

[Blue Owl]

50. K&R

[elleng]

51. ;-(