Objectively Pro-Fascist
Ben Shapiro’s latest piece is a real doozy:
Last Sunday, former Vice President Al Gore spoke before the Jiddah Economic Forum. He told the mostly Saudi audience that the United States had committed “terrible atrocities” against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
What a fucking bastard. What so-called “abuses” is that crack-head Gore even talking about? I mean…
…oh, OK, so there’s that… but that still doesn’t excuse Gore saying that…
Uhm… hm.
OK, so we kinda tortured and killed some people. And sure, the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo were the direct result of White House policy-making. And yeah, our very own vice-president openly lobbied against an amendment sponsored by a fellow Republican that would have banned the CIA from torturing prisoners.
But that’s not important! The important thing here is Al Gore lied about being the inspiration behind Love Story.
He stated that Arabs had been “indiscriminately rounded up” and detained in “unforgivable conditions.” He criticized America’s new immigration policy, which more carefully scrutinizes Saudi visas, explaining, “The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake.” Finally, he concluded, “There have been terrible abuses, and it’s wrong. … I want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country.”
These are outrageous statements.
I agree, Ben. Torture is as American as a bloody, electrocuted apple pie.
Let us consider, however, the probable consequences of Gore’s mea culpa on behalf of the “majority” of his countrymen. No doubt his words will fuel the massive tide of propaganda spewing forth from Muslim dictatorships around the globe. No doubt his words will be used to bolster the credibility of horrific disinformation like the Turkish-made, Gary-Busey-and-Billy Zane-starring monstrosity “Valley of the Wolves: Iraq,” which accuses American troops of war atrocities and depicts a Jewish-American doctor (Busey) slicing organs out of Arab victims and shipping the body parts off to New York, London and Israel. No doubt Gore’s speech will precipitate additional violence against Americans in Iraq and around the globe.
Hey, Ben? I’ve got a question.
Instead of attacking Al Gore for criticizing the administration’s policy on torture, shouldn’t you be angry at the people who actually authorized the policy? I mean, it’d be impossible for Gore to go abroad and trash America’s human rights record if we didn’t actually torture people. Just a suggestion.
And Gore is not alone. Much of the language of the “loyal opposition” has been anything but loyal. In September 2002, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) called President Bush a liar on Saddam Hussein’s turf, then added that Hussein’s regime was worthy of American trust.
Saddam was undoubtably an evil sack of shit, but he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, and he wasn’t a threat.
On “Face the Nation” back in December, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) stated that American troops were “going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the — of, of, of historical customs, religious customs …”
It wasn’t very artfully worded, but Kerry’s statement is generally accurate, and shouldn’t be construed as a criticism of our soldiers.
Kerry’s point was that we’d have more success with these raids if we had Iraqi police and soldiers doing them, if for no other reason than they speak the same language as the people whose houses they’re entering. Wingnuts, is this really all that difficult to understand?
Think about it: your house gets raided by bunch of soldiers who are carrying big guns and who don’t speak your language. Of course that’d be terrifying for the women and children living in your house. And that’s not a dig at the soldiers, by the way- they’re just trying to root out insurgents and search for weapons caches under some extremely shitty circumstances. But the reality is, no matter how hard they try, such tactics are highly unlikely to win over Iraqi hearts and minds.
Howard Dean, the head of the DNC, averred in December that the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong.”
I’ll admit that it’s not something I want a DNC chairman saying, even if it’s 100% correct (a DNC chair should only be about happy talk and raisin’ money, peeps. Dean hasn’t exactly inspired me in this regard).
But is this statement an example of aiding and abetting America’s enemies? Sadly, no! It’s simply a strong opinion, something that we’re guaranteed the right to have by the First Amendment.
At some point, opposition must be considered disloyal. At some point, the American people must say “enough.” At some point, Republicans in Congress must stop delicately tiptoeing with regard to sedition and must pass legislation to prosecute such sedition.
A recent Gallup poll shows that 55% of Americans think the Iraq war was a mistake. Do you seriously want to execute 150 million+ people for treason, Benny? (Wait, don’t answer that question.)
Freedom of speech!” the American Civil Liberties Union will protest.
Yeah, what a bunch of big vaginas the ACLU are, whining about Constitutional rights all the time.
Before we buy into the slogan, we must remember our history. President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and allowed governmental officials to arrest Rep. Clement Vallandigham after Vallandigham called the Civil War “cruel” and “wicked,” shut down hundreds of opposition newspapers, and had members of the Maryland legislature placed in prison to prevent Maryland’s secession. The Union won the Civil War.
Jefferson Davis also suspended habeas corpus. The Confederacy lost the Civil War.
Conflating correlation with causality is fun!
Under the Espionage Act of 1917, opponents of World War I were routinely prosecuted, and the Supreme Court routinely upheld their convictions. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes rightly wrote, “When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.” The Allies won World War I.
First of all, the Espionage Act, and later the Sedition Act, were two of the worst examples of wartime excess in American history.
Second of all, both of them were mostly repealed in 1921, three years after the war. Dick Cheney has said that the war on terror “may never end… at least not in our lifetimes.” By endorsing the Espionage Act as a model of wartime legislation, you’re basically arguing that the government should have unlimited powers for an indefinite period of time. There’s a word for arguments like that, and it sure as hell ain’t “conservative.” Indeed, I’d say it’s something else all together.
During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment of hundreds of thousands of Japanese-Americans, as well as allowing the prosecution and/or deportation of those who opposed the war. The Allies won World War II.
And as everyone knows (well, almost everyone…), the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was such a gross violation of civil liberties that no less a right-winger than Ronald Reagan formally apologized for it and offered reparations.
Incidentally, I’m fascinated by Ben’s view that the key to winning wars lies in violating your citizens’ basic liberties. By this logic, Hitler should have totally kicked our ass in World War II.
During the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court repeatedly upheld the free speech rights of war opponents, whether those opponents distributed leaflets depicting the rape of the Statue of Liberty or wore jackets emblazoned with the slogan “F— the Draft.” America lost the Vietnam War.
So THAT’S why we lost ‘Nam! It wasn’t because we were waging an unwinnable ground war in Asia without an exit strategy. No, it was because we didn’t beat the shit out of enough hippies! It all makes perfect sense to me now!
This is not to argue that every measure taken by the government to prosecute opponents of American wars is just or right or Constitutional.
Just the ones that take away their rights to free speech and fair trials.
Some restrictions, however, are just and right and Constitutional — and necessary. No war can be won when members of a disloyal opposition are given free reign to undermine it.
Sounds like a plan to me. Ben Shapiro, you put the “ass” in “fASScist!”
Is this asshat really worth your time and/or talent?
Is this asshat really worth your time and/or talent?
What, you’d prefer I spend my time mocking more influential voices like Kaye Grogan and Pastor Swank?
There’s just something so particularly bottle-babyish about him that makes me almost feel sorry for him.
There’s just something so particularly bottle-babyish about him that makes me almost feel sorry for him.
He’s going to Harvard Law School. In all likelihood, he will be very rich and powerful in a few years. Is that enough?
Plus this is pretty much THE response from folks on the right, not just VBen’s, so it’s good to address it.
Good point tig.
Shapiro does write with the irrefutable hubris of a law student. I remember those days, though not fondly.
wow, I guess at a certain age the hormones built up through lack of sex really start to affect the intelligence.
Nevermind that the North won the Civil War because it had 90% (or more) of the country’s industrial capacity, and the battles were mainly fought on enemy territory…
And as for WWII, Punko pointed us to Werther’s peice on VDH, where he notes that in a war characterized by mechanized columns and swarms of airplanes, the allies had control of 98% of the world’s petroleum.
But no, according to VBen, it was Presidents acting like tyrants who won those for us. No wonder he’s in law and not history.
he should how to win a war old school style! Enlist and single handedly bring justice and peace to Iraq with his mad kung fu and postitve thinkging stylez!
So Al Gore apoligizing for America’s abuses will make the Muslims angry? What?
I think this column should be forwarded to VBen’s professors with a stern note suggesting that if they can’t teach logical argument any better than that, they should look for other employment.
Jeebus. Is he unteachable, or are they just not trying?
Hysterical –
No, he’s trying to say that because someone in America disagrees with the prez, this will _embolden_ the Muslim terrorists. I think.
You know, it strikes me that, if we were really winning over there, Ben wouldn’t be so touchy.
“By this logic, Hitler should have totally kicked our ass in World War II.”
HAHAHAHAAHAHAH! Best counterpoint EVER!
It’s so endearing when psychotic little jews born of Hollywood’s elite run around pretending to be Hitler.
Maybe we should all chip in and buy Ben a transvestite hooker… it may help clear the backlog of testosterone that has accumulated in the deep orifices of that pineapple head of his.
Oh, and maybe we could buy him a monicle and a pith helmet to go along with his Toys R Us battery powered humvee.
Howard Dean, the head of the DNC, averred in December that the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong.”
I’ll admit that it’s not something I want a DNC chairman saying, even if it’s 100% correct.
I totally disagree with this. I think it’s something all democrat politicians should be saying, repeatedly and forcefully, until the troops are pulled.
Shouldn’t L’il Ben be in some camo pull-up pants and over fighting his dear leader’s fight against Terr’r ? Since he is a college grad, maybe he could go to OCS and get a commission. I’m sure the kids in an Army or Marine squad would love following a guy like this down an alley in Tikrit….
Ben Shapiro wrote:
Howard Dean, the head of the DNC, averred in December that the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong.”
To which Random Guy replied:
I’ll admit that it’s not something I want a DNC chairman saying, even if it’s 100% correct.
Yeah, maybe you’re right. Dean should probably just let uber-conservative William F. Buckley make his point for him, as he so eloquently did today in The National Review:
http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.p?ref=/buckley/buckley.asp
While I agree with your repudiation of Chickenhawkiro’s fasscist proposal, this comment demeans your argument.
“Yeah, what a bunch of big vaginas the ACLU are, whining about Constitutional rights all the time.”
If the intent was to sarcastically call them “wimps”, why not just say “wimps”? Having a vagina doesn’t make one a wimp; wimps come in all genders. Some of those kids sent on Bu$h’s ignoble mission have vaginas, and I’d put money on them over Chickenhawkiro any day.
If you want to see how Germany fell to Hitler in the 1930’s, just look at ol’ Benny boy and what we see happening here in the good ol’ US of A. Couple this with shrubby’s “New Programs” and we see the parallels to the founding of Nazi Germany. Unless the people can rise up and stop it, vilkommen to Amerika, The Fourth Reich.
Graduating from Harvard Law school is no guarentee of success. He’ll own money and will need to work hard.
Por Ben’s a twiter. He will always write and say silly statements to draw attention to himself. I don’t see him working hard – he’s as lazy and phoney as his arguments.
the guy is 22. What the fuck does he know about real life?
Does anyone think that Gore would have said what he said without getting Condi Rice’s prior approval? He’s a former vice-president, for heaven’s sake — he will make speeches in the United States, but he doesn’t spout off in international forums. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bush administration hadn’t asked him to do this — Gore is virtually the only American still credible enough in the Muslim world to issue such an apology and be listened to — it provides cover for governments in the region to continue to support American policies.
“what a bunch of vaginas the ACLU are…” hm… given how scared of both vaginas and the ACLU Ben Shapiro is (and given that you’d not use the word “vaginas” in a derogatory manner), I’ll take that as a compliment.
I love the “only if we all really believed really really hard in the cause, the soldiers would believe it harder and fight better and win and if anyone disagrees that’ll make the soldiers sad and they won’t fight as hard while my lame 22 year old healthy ass is in Harvard Law School” argument. Bravo, Ben!
Proof positive that, just because some random kid scores higher in tests than others, no rational reason exists to advance said kid beyond his/her years. Whatever dimwit teacher that decided it was a good idea to advance this little creep should now look at the monster they created.
I never agreed with this “advanced placement” horseshit. It’s more about favoritism than it is about true capability.
Whats’ even more appalling is that someone thought it was a good idea to hire this cockroach neo-con. I bet the kid has never even spoken with an ethnic person in his life — not by his choice, at least.
I think young Mr Shapiro’s passionate embrace of the “war on terror” could be put to much better use by enlisting…hmm?
They grow up so fast.
THIS MAN IS OF JEWISH DISSENT?
I have 2 words for him.
Adolf Hitler
Then ask him how the Jews faired when no one was allowed to question government policies.
This Shapiro is a “Yellow Elephant” isn’t he?
Yet, he speaks of punishment for those opposed to bushist/neo-con wars of choice.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had a name for those like our little Ben….”Dill Tomatovitch.”
Ben, dear Ben.
Even with Tom DeLay and other nearly sentient Republicans harshly criticizing Bill Clinton during the war in Kosovo….Milosevich lost. We won.
How DID you get into Harvard Law? Was it a good bikini video like that Legally Blonde chick?
Diane, it’s descent, but I think your version works just as well.
I say let’s pass this revision of the sedition act. That way, when the Dems get back in power, we will more easily be rid of asshats like Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity, and YOU Ben.
Waste of space, the lot of them.
Thank you, Very Blue Lady.
I think a little free-market incentive might be necessary to get Ben to put his ass where his mouth is and enlist for a tour of duty in Iraq.
What does everyone say about a “Sadly, No!” pledge drive? We’ll offer Ben a big sign-up bonus incentive?
And the beauty of it is— you can pledge all you want, because you’ll never have to pay a single cent!
So let me kick things off by pledging— a thousand bucks!
Ben is goddamn right! Seditious speech should be banned! And to strengthen such a ban, anyone who tries to Google or Yahoo search for “Al Gore”, “Dean”, “quagmire”, or even “loofah” should be tracked down as well.
Does anyone remember how WWII really ended? I think it might have had something to do with WMDs. Anyone??
who is Ben Shapiro? who cares who Ben Shapiro is?
I cannot believe that someone with so slender a grasp on logic and argumentation is in Harvard Law School. Is there an affirmative action program there for the mildly retarded?
Pictures of Guantanamo/Abu Ghuraib are entirely nonsequitors in this argument. Gore’s talk of “terrible atrocities” against post 9/11 Arabs spoke of _domestic_ incidents like visa enforcement.
Harvard Law School isn’t what it is cracked up to be.
Law school does little to develop anyone’s intellectual life. It is about memorizing laws and then spitting those laws back out at the law examiners.
Law school doesn’t keep fascists from getting a law degree or license. Not every law school grad is going to be Earl Warren or Abe Fortas or Ruth Ginsberg.
Any idiot can get into Harvard if they know the right person, or are related to the right person. And sadly, this kid is probably more typical than what we are comfortable with. Remember the laws and cases he sites were written and supported by lawyers he likes and are as mediocre as he is.
But, Wait… I thought “Freedom was on the March” and we were trying to “help the Iraqi people” get a *democracy* over there so we don’t have to have one over here – er, or something like that!
Just a reminder about Lincoln suspending habeas corpus: This was legal. The Constition says habeas corpus can be suspended in case of invasion or insurrection. But not in case of foreign wars.
Very Blue Lady : If the phrase ” what a bunch of ‘pricks’ the ACLU are ” had been used instead , would you have rushed to the defense of men ? Women kick ass every day, there’s no need to go all PC anymore. Lighten up .
Little Ben Shapiro is wasting his time in law school- he should know that his heroes Rush and Hannity didn’t need a degree to be the world-class right-wing hacks that they are. Ben doesn’t need one either- his level of hackery is quite high.
Just a reminder about Lincoln suspending habeas corpus: This was legal. The Constition says habeas corpus can be suspended in case of invasion or insurrection.
Lincoln claimed it was legal. In fact, the supreme court ruled against him (after the fact) because although there was an insurrection going on in the Confederate states, Indiana was outside the “theater of war,” and thus there was no justification for suspending habeas corpus against copperheads, since the civilian courts still functioned. (Known as the Ex Parte Milligan ruling)
Very Blue Lady : If the phrase ” what a bunch of ‘pricks’ the ACLU are ” had been used instead , would you have rushed to the defense of men ? Women kick ass every day, there’s no need to go all PC anymore. Lighten up .
So if women kick ass every day, then it doesn’t really make sense to refer to their exclusive body parts as something that indicates the “owners” are weak and cowardly, does it? So, quit 🙂
It’s not a coincidence that woman = pussy = weak coward. Even people who don’t mean literally that women are weak are reinforcing the idea that they are when they use “pussy” to mean “coward.”
I can’t help but think that the idea that it’s okay to say “pussy” to mean “coward” because some people say “dick” to mean “jerk” is like saying it’s okay to say the N-word because some people use “cracker.”
Mike B.: Actually I was quoting the article. I just screwed up and didn’t italicize that particular sentence. What I was saying was in that last paragraph.
It’s not a coincidence that woman = pussy = weak coward. Even people who don’t mean literally that women are weak are reinforcing the idea that they are when they use “pussy” to mean “coward.”
Interesting point, but on the other hand, I use the terms “prick” and “dick” in the perjorative sense quite often, and I’m not insinuating that all men are arseholes when I do it.
Great job at dissecting this proto-Fascist essay and exposing it for what it is.
I always thought that “pussy” meant “‘fraidy cat”. I had no idea that it referred to a vagina.
That’s what I thought too, dAVE.
As for shipping Ben off: does anyone think he’d be useful to the armed forces? I can’t see him demonstrating much in the way of competence in combat-quite the opposite. I’d fear for my life if it depended on this little weasel.
When I surfed over to townhall.com to read the column, Shapiro’s rant was rudely interrupted by an ad reading “DONTPASSGAS.ORG.”
It’s actually an anti-smoking campaign, but it struck me as a rather pithy critique of Shapiro’s work.
Dave and Bill S, I wish it were true that “pussy” means “fraidy-cat.” It would be so cute if, in just this one instance, people chose a colorful, tame, yet still fairly expressive, epithet over a vulgar one. I was just thinking the other day of how impoverished our language is these days because people tend to immediately reach for easy profanities. Like saying someone is “apeshit-crazy” rather than “off his rocker.” I know I sound like a schoolmarm, and believe me, I think there are times when “apeshit-crazy” (or, preferably, “batshit-crazy”–just sounds funnier to me) suits the purpose. But doesn’t the image of someone being so wacko that they fly backwards off their rocking chair also make for a great expression?Again, I’m not saying profanity is always bad. I use it a lot, to be honest. You can’t survive as a liberal these days without it (for letting-off-steam purposes). But there are so many folk expressions that are actually more colorful and satisfying to throw out, I think we should all enlarge our vocabularies. Maybe studying some of the colloquialisms of “disgraced uber-liberal elite MSM icon” (I’m channeling a wingnut here momentarily) Dan Rather would be helpful. OTOH, I love the expression “cobagz” and got a laugh out of the ACLU (of which I’m a card-carrying member) being called a bunch of “vaginas.”
“Howard Dean, the head of the DNC, averred in December that the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong.”
I’ll admit that it’s not something I want a DNC chairman saying, even if it’s 100% correct. ”
I, for one, would much rather have a truth-teller like Dean as DNC chair than a mindless, predictable, glorified press release writer like Mehlmen.
For two, you have played along with the Reich Wing here and aceepted Dean’s comments as embodied in that snippet of a quote – and completely out of context.
When Dean made that comment, he made it very clear that he was referring to “staying the course” and the idea put forth by BushCo that if we “stay the course” we will “win the war”. He was calling for a new strategy.
As a former Marine and ACLU member, I absolute LOVE how many chickenhawks, with no “skin” in the game, can rant and rave about “Support the Troops”, and “Sedition Is Treason”, etc. Did he not read, or did he choose to ignore histories lessons of “Loyal opposition”? The week after Pearl Harbor saw the Republicans in Congress launching investigations into the events of December 7, 1941 – WITH ROOSEVELT’S BLESSINGS!!!
I wonder how much he’ll enjoy being labeled “disloyal opposition” to a program of social reform under a Democratic Presidency and Congress?
Who is that litle snot-nosed twit anyway?
And why is he not in Iraq? Could it be that he has “other priorities” like Dick Cheney and Jonah Goldberg? Or is he just a sniveling coward?
Shapiro doctored the Dean quote, by the way. Here is the actual quote:
“The idea that we’re going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong.”
The omission of that key word, “unfortunately,” makes all the difference.
Otto Man et al, as my husband, a graduate of Harvard Law, told me a long time ago, with a deep and patient sigh, “Oh, honey, there are plenty of idiots at Harvard.”
(or, preferably, “batshit-crazy”–just sounds funnier to me)
Actually, batshiat-crazy is much better.
I just like hearing the word vagina tossed around. Good stuff.