Tag Archives: authoritarianism

Could Rick Santorum Really Win the Republican Nomination for President?

William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, and a contributing editor to the New Republic, thinks so: [A] group of movement conservatives has called an emergency meeting for next weekend in an attempt to find a “consensus” candidate. … Continue reading

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The Ummah Curtain: Tunisia’s “Moderate Islamist Party Ennahda” is Coming to Power

So long, secularism in Tunisia. Concerning the Tunisian elections, AP reports today that secularism appears to be in retreat there: [A] once-banned Islamist party is leading in many constituencies in the country that unleashed uprisings across the Arab world. But, AP … Continue reading

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Father Knows Best: Charles Sanders Peirce on Using Authority to Fix Belief

In 1877 the great scientist and logician, Charles Sanders Peirce, wrote a mercifully short, but not simplistic, essay for Popular Science Monthly titled, “The Fixation of Belief.” It’s a stunner. I stumbled across it in a 1964 anthology of philosophy essays, … Continue reading

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What is the Penalty for Apostasy Under Islamic Law (Sharia)?

Richard Dawkins wrangles, after a good deal of effort, a direct answer from a talk show participating imam: Good work, Richard Dawkins!

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Total Message Control Solution #1: Just Handcuff Any Journalist Who Asks Questions That You Don’t Want to Answer

Total message control (that is, the Palin model) was on disturbing display on Sunday in Alaska. This from Glenn Greenwald: [P]rivate “guards” working for GOP Senate nominee Joe Miller forcibly detained and handcuffed a journalist as he tried to ask the candidate questions … Continue reading

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Carl Paladino: Living a Gay Lifestyle is “not a valid or successful option”

Lovely how Carl Paladino tries to have it both ways: he’s all for “live and let live,” but children must not be “brainwashed” into thinking that the gay lifestyle is a “valid or successful option.” And who or what makes … Continue reading

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GOP Racism

What else do you call this?: Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell has declared April to be Confederate History Month in Virginia. He will thus issue a proclamation honoring soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War. . . . … Continue reading

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Conservative Brick Throwers and Tim Pawlenty: Did Tim Pawlenty Call on Republicans to Smash Federal Government Building Windows?

“Conservative” paired with “brick thrower” would appear to be an oxymoron. But not among contemporary American conservatives. And at CPAC recently, Tim Pawlenty seems to have called on conservatives to engage in acts of violence against the federal government’s buildings that eerily anticipated … Continue reading

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“Epistemic closure”: Julian Sanchez on American Conservative Insularity

At his blog today, Julian Sanchez uses the phrase “epistemic closure” to describe contemporary American “conservatism” (which I would call, in fact, a neo-authoritarian cultural movement): One of the more striking features of the contemporary conservative movement is the extent to … Continue reading

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Target Democrats

When is a metaphor not a metaphor?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            . The double entendre accompanied by (im)plausible deniability. Republicans have been escalating this sick game for over a year.

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Rush Limbaugh and a Disturbing New Authoritarian Phenomenon: The Brick Throwing “Patriot”

Talk about pushing the Overton Window to the right. Yesterday Rush Limbaugh (who calls himself a “Christian”) equated Barack Obama with Hitler and put up this rather uncharitable battle cry against Democrats: We need to defeat these bastards. We need to wipe … Continue reading

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Would the Ante-Nicene Fathers call contemporary American Protestants Christians (followers of Jesus)?

Early Orthodox (or proto-Orthodox) Christians writing after the apostolic period but before western Christendom’s adoption of the Nicene Creed (325 CE) are sometimes called the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and there is a fascinating (and rather thick) book I’m reading that catalogues quotes from … Continue reading

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Karl Rove violates the sanctity of marriage—by getting a divorce!

For quite a while Karl Rove has been saying that gays violate the sanctity of marriage by seeking to get married. But Karl Rove himself has recently taken advantage of lenient no-fault divorce laws in Texas to leave his own … Continue reading

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A great quote on fundamentalism from Lionel Tiger and Michael McGuire’s new book, “God’s Brain” (2010)

On page 8: People are killed for what is in their heads and for the amulets worn around their necks. A mighty university press, Yale, refuses to publish images of a religious figure—the book is precisely about them [images of … Continue reading

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The Muslim sisters of Rosa Parks: they won’t go to the back of the mosque

Muslim American women are starting to engage in acts of feminist civil disobedience against mosque gender segregation. This is what an assertion of subjectivity, humanity, dignity, equality, and conscience looks like: Here’s Asra Nomani on the recent act of civil disobedience … Continue reading

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Ron Paul wins the straw poll at CPAC 2010—and Fox News starts up its repetitive meme machine to dampen the result

Mixed reaction, mixed reaction, mixed reaction. Gasps and boos, gasps and boos, gasps and boos. Non-scientific poll, non-scientific poll, non-scientific poll. Fox spins. You decide:

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Hostile and Gay Baiting Ryan Sorba: The Future of the Republican Party?

This is what an authoritarian looks like, and he may represent the future of the Republican Party: Sarah Palin’s VP pick for 2012? More on this California crank here. The anti-humanist turn in conservative politics is breathtaking. What is happening to … Continue reading

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Why I Worry about the Tea Party Authoritarians

I would like to see a moderate conservative party with sane politicians that balance Democratic excesses. But since Barack Obama’s election Republicans have been getting rewarded for running to the political margins of the far right. My fear is that … Continue reading

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Bearing Witness to the American Torture Regime: As Republicans Continue to Support Torture, the Torture Revelations Continue

Andrew Sullivan today directs our attention to this torture report in Harper’s here, and says of the torture deaths of three Gitmo detainees: This deserves to be the biggest story on the torture issue since Abu Ghraib – because it threatens … Continue reading

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Why I Oppose the American Tea Party Movement

I cannot offer anything but resistance to so reactionary and ridiculous a movement. I know that there are some people in a thrall to its libertarian elements, and if that was all that was going on with the Tea Party … Continue reading

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