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"Deal With It, Pink Boy"
Posted by Stephen Green · 22 November 2002
I just read Alterman for the first time this week. Why did I bother? I find all of this CIA post Cold War self-congratulation most tiresome. I don’t think there’s any evidence they actually did much to “win” the Cold War but they sure as hell did a great deal of damage to American democracy. The point about the CIA is debatable. By why scare quotes around "win?" Is victory in the Cold War still up for grabs? Is a secret Politburo cabal pulling Putin's strings, sending weapons gratis to North Korea, and oppressing Poland? Is the Soviet Third Shock Army still poised to roll to the Rhine? Are Russian "advisors" setting up shop in Managua, spreading revolution across Central America? Eric -- we knocked their dicks in the mud. As PJ O'Rourke put it, we are the last socio-economic system left standing. The Cold War didn't end, we won it. No scare quotes needed. Comments
Stephen, No, no, no, Stephen!! First, there were NO winners, because, well, everybody was just plain exhausted and American capitalism and Soviet Communism killed off millions and millions and so everyone is sorided. Second, the only winners were the Germans and the Japanese, because the two superpowers were exhausted. Third, the world lost, because there is now unfettered American power w/ nothing to restrain it, and therefore America is running amuck. Fourth, the world lost, because the vision of the brighter future where all share w/ all was vanquished beneath a smarmy, cheap McWorld and "elbow capitalism". Fifth, there was never REALLY a war to be won, only a misunderstood Soviet Union which, if we hadn't done things like bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki and establish NATO and undertake the Marshall Plan (and excluded the Soviets in the process), never would have had to be fought at all. Sixth, the only real threat was our homegrown anti-Communist elements, made up of McCarthy-ite wackos, who raped America's liberties and left us w/ the capitalist-run media that obscures and denies the real programs that American progressives have offered to the voting populace for the last fifty years, at least since Henry Wallace. Don't you see how we lost?? Posted by: Dean at November 22, 2002 12:20 PMOops, Dean -- I forgot. How silly of me. Thanks for reading, Aharon! Every time I think I've finally given up on Alterman, I think, "Maybe he's cheery today." And I always leave enraged and disappointed. Posted by: Stephen Green at November 22, 2002 12:24 PMI believe that Alterman put scare quotes around "win" because, in his heart, he believes the United States would have been better off under the Soviet system. Posted by: Thom at November 22, 2002 04:09 PMThe more I read nitwits like Alterman, the more they sound like Oswald. Yeah, that Oswald. The one who despised America, tried the Soviet Union and found it imperfect (how many leftists still believe that communism is workable, it just hasn't been done correctly yet?), and would've moved to Cuba if they'd let him in. Alterman's a fool...the seven countries this week that are rubbing on NATO's leg says it all...they aren't looking east anymore. Posted by: Joe Baby/Moronwatch at November 22, 2002 04:10 PMDean- Chill, Craig, he's joking. Posted by: Helper at November 22, 2002 07:02 PMIn email to my friend Billy Beck and the editorial board of the No Treason weblog, I said, "The Soviets are dead, but communism was never healthier". Billy cites a counter-claim, one we both agree is foolish. The essay Reds is me making my case if not Billy's: Is the youth minister a Communist? The PTA president? Emphatically, no--so much the worse. The theorists who lead the feminists and the environmentalists and the vegans know what they are doing--which is helpful, since their theory leads them to take stands so absurd that normal people are repelled. But when the Scout leader regurgitates the Marxist horseshit he was force-fed without even knowing it was Marxist horseshit, without even realizing he was being force-fed, without ever once thinking about what his words might mean--that man is the most effective recruiting agent the Communists ever had. This has broader implications than Communism, as I'll be discussing on presenceofmind.net in the coming weeks. Posted by: Greg Swann at November 24, 2002 02:22 PM Pink boy....heh! Posted by: Drake at November 25, 2002 12:54 PMThat sounds an awful lot like triumphalism to me. Ted will be so disappointed -- there goes your chance at getting a billion dollar donation from him. Posted by: Kevin Murphy at November 27, 2002 11:16 AM |
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