The anti-Obama cult

[alp227]

Gary Kamiya, Salon.com

On Wednesday morning, I opened the New York Times to read that president Hu Jin-Tao had denounced the West for launching a culture war against China. “We must clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of westernizing and dividing China, and ideological and cultural fields are the focal areas of their long-term infiltration,” Hu pronounced in “Seeking Truth,” a Communist Party magazine. “We should deeply understand the seriousness and complexity of the ideological struggle, always sound the alarms and remain vigilant, and take forceful measures to be on guard and respond.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Was it really possible that such wooden slogans were still being used by the leaders of the country with the most dynamic economy on earth? “We should deeply understand”? “Always sound the alarms”? Those antique phrases sounded like they’d been torn from a poster that had been pasted up during the Cultural Revolution and somehow never taken down. It seemed that not that much had changed since soon-to-be-Chairman Mao was writing tomes rejoicing in titles like “To Be Attacked by the Enemy Is Not a Bad Thing but a Good Thing” and urging the members of the party to cut off the head of imperialist snakes. A belief system as nutty as Maoism took a long time to get out of a nation’s system. I pitied the poor 1.3 billion Chinese, living in a country so insecure, so adolescent, so in thrall to authoritarian nationalism, that its politicians felt impelled to keep the cult alive. Thank God I’m an American, I told myself. We have plenty of cults, but at least they don’t get involved with our national politics.

Then I watched Michele Bachmann’s withdrawal speech.

Bachmann’s speech was a religious testimony, informing us that on the evening of March 21, 2010, she had a divine revelation. OK, she didn’t use the word “divine,” but that was basically the idea. You see, her holy revelation started with the Founding Fathers. And for Bachmann, Washington and Jefferson, if not literally angels, are flying around in their neighborhood.

full: http://www.salon.com/2012/01/08/the_anti_obama_cult/singleton/

[freshwest]

1. That's nothing on what the Paulies/Infowar crowd has said. I could post the links to the videos, but

It's just too much. Slick, total pyschological manipulation. That's one genre. What we saw from Bachmann is the kinder, gentler version of this. Really. It's just the icing on the wingnut cake.

The anti-Obama cult went into full gear when Obama was nominated with the release of the film Obsession sent to millions of homes, unasked for in 2008. The funding has never been explained. It probably accounts for low-information voters being so fearful.

'The DVD was released to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks with a large targeted distribution just before the 2008 United States presidential election which was seen by many as an attempt to influence the election. The timing of the release and the unrevealed funding for the distribution, estimated to have cost around $50 million, has stimulated controversy and speculation.[52]'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsession:_Radical_Islam%27s_War_Against_the_West#Production

Since then Infowars took up the case without stressing Islam but never giving up the 'birther' claims. A person unfamiliar with propaganda techniques would have a hard time resisting the underlying theme, that Obama is the Manchuria candidate, and will kill billions to bring about the 'New World Order.' In some circles, Obama is regarded as the literal anti-Christ come to destroy the human race. We need to face what we're up against here. when we have to deal with them.

Some young people, especially those growing up in red state areas, accept this stuff as gospel, having nothing to contrast it with, in this very conservative right wing media environment that's gone on for a generation. Talk to these folks and they've heard Obama only spoken of in a tone of voice reserved for dog feces on your shoe. It's been unwarranted and it's been racial as well.

But I think race is not the biggest part. The biggest part is what Obama really stands for to those who voted for him, someone to wrest control from the uber capitalists. The 1% know what Obama has tried to do, could do, and most likely will do to fetter them. So they've pulled out all the stops to get voters to stop him.

[patrice]

2. Great post!!!

One thing that so profoundly frightens them is the fact that he actually IS a Centrist, i.e. an entity that integrates BOTH Right AND Left, who HAS fulfilled his responsibilities admirably toward them, the Right, against whom the policy-deficit now owed the rest of the demographic spectrum looks very! stark! indeed!

[freshwest]

3. I tend to think since Obama does not reflect the polarity within those on the right and the left,

It causes them to become 'barking mad.'

He is apparently by nature a peacemaker, for which I have seen articles suggesting he has a pyschological defect to be as he is, compromising with others. The rightwing claimed he has a broken spirit from being bullied, is effeminate, or bisexual, all of sorts of labels.

Because they cannot comprehend a person who is whole and at peace with himself, since they are not. More likely, they are lying to themselves about their own strength of will and courage. We've got a sort of school yard bully complex in this country politically, where the man who talks like a big tough guy, but hides tail when the trouble really hits like Reagan, Bush Jr, Rush, Cheney, Mittens, etc. all of the chickenhawk line.

His willingness to compromise while pushing ahead, not being belligerent as if that is sign of strength, are all used against him. Both sides see him as weak and ineffective for not putting on a show for them. He's called arrogant by those who have a problem with their own egos.

I've never seen it, and I am one that is keen to pick up on such things. I know real strength when I see it, and this man has it. And that probably frightens those who hate him the most.

Thanks for the nice reply. Sometimes I think I spend too much time on these comments.

[patrice]

4. He's not limited to either-this-or-that thinking. More of a gestaltist, I think.

I spent a lot of time teaching freaky bright young adults and there are several in our family. I'm pretty sure he ranks right up there; that's NOT to say that situations will break in a way that empowers him, just more that he will be able to make use of whatever he knows about a situation. This is something else that makes vulnerable types feel so defensive around him.

I don't know if you can call it putting too much time in when you're trying to articulate something that's kind of complex and relatively original. I appreciate your effort!

[reACTIONary]

7. Freaky Bright Young Adults = The University of Chicago (nt)

[patrice]

8. Truth be known, I think there's a wider distribution of high IQ than lots of people assume. IQ is

perhaps not the best label; intelligence is way way more multi-dimensional and, hence, idiosyncratic than we usually allow for when we refer to it.

But the difference between potential and actual IS significant. The difference between could and did, in terms of the systems we are referring to when we use the word "intelligent" *IS* fundamental. Hence, education is absolutely crucial to how intelligence develops and may be even more so because of what some people call "critical periods".

In short, I think "we" are developing some kinds of intelligence and not others. The adaptive value of what is lost could be a very bad thing.

[reACTIONary]

12. You are right. And one of those dimensions is...

...FREAKY! I'd say its a national resource.

[patrice]

5. Re "barking": You're right. People HATE it when you disturb how they think. nt

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. !

Wow, freshwest, that's some damn good reading, there.

[msongs]

6. the chinese government = drama queens, they always talk like that lol nt

[northoftheborder]

9. Interesting post and thread

[Martin Eden]

10. Are Rethug poliicians really TRUE BELIEVERS in the cult of hate they have nurtured against Obama?

No doubt the teabagging masses truly believe all that crap, but I think all that crap is mostly cynical exploitation by politicians whose only true beliefs are their own political careers and the interests of the corporations that make their careers possible.

[babylonsister]

13. I agree about the 'cynical exploitation', but when/where does it end? When do they publicly

come to their senses, or are they now down that road of no return due to greed? That's a depressing thought.

[Martin Eden]

15. It's not a question of "coming to their senses"

What they're doing is a calculated strategy for acquiring political power, and it must be remembered it's not the politicians themselves but their corporate masters who ultimately who call shots.

There is no shortage of greed and hubris among the true elites of wealth & power, and no shortage of narcissisitic egomaniacs whose end goal is to be Congressman/Senator/President.

[Scootaloo]

11. It's not just for Republicans, though

You've got the fauxgressives, too. or if you prefer, the But-heads. "I'm a liberal but..."