Re: Mandela--Are the conservatives living in that much of a bizzaro world?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Do they seriously live under rocks?

I won't bother linking to it since it's been linked in several other threads, but over on Free Republic, on the thread reporting his death, 95% of the posts are rejoicing that he's dead, calling him a "terrorist" and just other plain old pure and utter classlessness on their part.

And then you have Dick Cheney, who to this day has never regretted voting against the Anti-Apartheid act and claiming that Mandela was, in his words, a "terrorist"?

How is that almost the entire world saw Mandela as a hero and inspirational figure, except apparently for the most rabid American conservatives, who see him as a terrorist? I'm seriously at a loss for words here.

I'm initially hesitant to just say it's plain old racism and that they hate the notion of black people fighting for equal rights. It seems overly reductive to me. But at this point, what else could it be? As harsh as it sounds, that might be the only possible explanation.

They're just horrible, horrible, horrible little people.

[LisaLynne]

1. I've posted before about how I've come to the conclusion that ...

the basis for so much of what they do is racism and misogyny. I know what you mean about it seeming reductive and maybe not all that useful, because ... like why are they that racist? But I think it's really the only explanation. It just infuses their every thought and blinds them to reality.

[canuckledragger]

22. It's pure projection on the repubs' part.

They NEVER take personal responsibility for their own actions and failures, but insist that there HAS to be someone else to blame when they screw up their own lives.

That way they never have to change themselves if they can rationalize blaming someone else.

[Dwayne Hicks]

2. Its disgusting.

And those comments should be forward to MSNBC CNN and yes even fox as well as every single liberal media outlet you can think of! Expose these racist hillbillies for what they exactly are. Pure trash.

[Laelth]

3. They've defined themselves as opposing anything and everything Democrats like.

That includes Mandela, and it is a sign of their irrelevance. If they can't acknowledge that we're right about Mandela, they are hopelessly locked in a failed ideology. The world is passing them by, and they're ticked off about it. Sux to be them.

-Laelth

[GeorgeGist]

4. I think it begins with self-loathing ...

And spreads outward.

[Cha]

47. Good obsersvation.

[DetlefK]

5. If only Mandela had firebombed an abortion-clinic.

That would have turned him instantly from "terrorist" into "freedom-fighter".

[kydo]

6. Yep, they are living in a completely different reality.

It struck me last, while watching Rachel's show, how people that make up the majority of the right wing really want what South Africa had during Apartheid. Only whites voted. Blacks had to have permission slips to be any where. If the right wing of the Republican party ever gets in power they will turn our country into Apartheid South Africa.

[Skidmore]

8. Apartheid only ended within the past 20 years.

Mandela was only removed from terrorist lists in the US in 2008. Slavery here ended less than 150 years ago and we are still fighting the Civil War by proxy. Mankind has a lot of work to do.

[kydo]

21. Exactly. The struggle continues. nt

[NewJeffCT]

39. They have people trying to rewrite history

Didn't one RW nutjob defend Japanese internment, while another defended McCarthyism in recent years?

Part of the reason for all these RW think tanks is to publish these works so there will be a RW position on them. Then, 50-100 years from now when Jack or Jill College Student goes to research history, they'll have these RW works out there as opposing positions. Just the amount of work will lend it at least some credence in the annals of history without a lot of due diligence on the part of the researchers.

[Skidmore]

7. Republicans let go of the past very slowly.

As recently as the 1980s, this nation had labeled Nelson Mandela and the ANC as a terrorists. Reagan and Thatcher denounced Mandela and the ANC as terrorists . Israel was among the nations who joined in support of the apartheid government of South Africa. Because the Soviet Union supported the movement to end apartheid, the conservatives of this nation viewed the movement as a Communist threat. It took worldwide protests, including ones in this nation, to force the end of apartheid and to get the man released from prison. Many lost their lives in this endeavor. It does not surprise me that this attitude is so fiercely engrained in the right wing psyche, given that the extremists on the right tend to be racist in their outlook. It is such a righteous anger because those godless Commies are rolled up in their fear of other as well.

[Enthusiast]

23. You are exactly correct......nt

[tavernier]

9. Cheney recently changed his tune

and said that Mandela had "mellowed" after all those years of captivity and was now a great man, or some such gibberish, trying to spin his earlier stand.

The "mellowed" comment is more demeaning than his earlier "terrorist" accusations; it hints that Cheney and his fellow racists were right all along, Mandela being the one to eventually change and see the light.

Truly disgusting.

[deutsey]

10. Give them about 5 years

and they'll be saying Mandela was really a conservative and would've been a Republican if he was from America.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

11. I love how the conservatives who wax poetic every MLK day.....

....would be the same people who would tear him to pieces and call him every name in the book if he were still alive.

Hypocrites, indeed.

[deutsey]

12. Yep, once a popular progressive leader is safely dead

they try to co-op him or her to their side.

They even tried to say not long ago that John Lennon was secretly a Reaganite before he was killed or some such nonsense...someone who was a target of the Nixon junta for representing everything they hated would embrace Bonzo the Reactionary. Makes sense.

[Enthusiast]

25. When they express admiration for MLK they are faking it.

And that is the truth.

[JHB]

13. What else could it be? Admitting they were fundamentally wrong...

...and that's one thing these sorts of people are incapable of.

Mandela was arrested in 1962, at the height of the Cold War, when segregation and Jim Crow still ruled the US South. He helped form and lead a militant group "Spear of the Nation" which carried out acts of sabotage, and drew ideas from the writings of Che Guevara and Mao.

That made him a terrorist in the eyes of the law. Left unspoken is what the law was back then. Most of the same people calling Mandela a terrorist for what was done back then are very quick to launch into militant talk over trivial or imagined measures. Mandela was pretty much doing what they say they would do if forced into similar circumstances (and Mandela appears to have been more concerned about minimizing 'collateral damage' than any of these jokers are).

In the end, the anti-Apartheid movement was successful, and lo and behold South Africa is not under a commie jackboot.

In the end, these guys were wrong, shown to be wrong, and they'll roast in hell before they admit that.
(Look for the next generation of them to embrace Mandela they way they do with MLK now.)

[Tommy_Carcetti]

15. And yet they'll laud Paul Revere and the early revolutionaries of this country.

Cognitive dissonance is cognativey.

[JHB]

27. Not to mention a certain incident of property destruction in Boston harbor

[Tom Ripley]

34. And the "freedom founders" of our "special friend in the Mideast"

[malaise]

14. Look if they could they would introduce apartheid in America right now

It's good that they are telling why we should run them all from office.

[shenmue]

16. Yeah, it's Opposite Day every day there.

[avebury]

17. They fear that what happened in South Africa

could happen here. Apartheid in SA impacted the blacks. Apartheid in the US impacts all those who are not a 1%er, tea party hack or republican extremist.

[Martin Eden]

18. It's part of the package

For many Americans today, being a "conservative" consists of subscribing to the ideology spoon fed to them inside the rightwing bubble. That's how so many folks can consider themselves morally superior Christians while rejecting so much of what Jesus actually taught. As long as they are faithful to the ideology they don't have to make the effort to apply independent critical thought.

Hymn-singing hypocrites believe they are going to heaven as long as they attend church, pay the preacher, and don't question the dogma.

[The_Commonist]

19. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. And vice-versa.

George Washington was a terrorist.
I suppose Jesus was too. (that whole throwing the money changers out of the temple thing)

Of course, "horrible, horrible, horrible little people" ALWAYS end up on the wrong side of things. Their behavior does not surprise me.

[Enthusiast]

20. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch.

"They're just horrible, horrible, horrible little people."

[underpants]

24. Don't be hesitant - it IS plain old racism n/t

[Tommy_Carcetti]

44. After seeing numerous posts on there *defending* apartheid, I'm inclined to agree.

I mean, seriously. Who in their right mind defends apartheid?

[underpants]

45. The same people who really think that the Confederacy was the good old days n/t

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

26. Conervatives are the questionable ones.

As for Cheney and his ilk, he is a terroist and a war criminal.

[meanit]

28. The Freepers liked Apartheid. They like to see people oppressed

and screwed over. They always seem to be behind any system that does that.

[rdking647]

29. check out ted cruz's or scott walkers facebook page

same shit. i send it ti rachael maddow,ed schultz and others. it should be spread far and wide showing just how fucked up the right is.

even the new york stock exchange had a minute of silence in memory of who the loonies are calling a commie.

[hootinholler]

30. I thought they'd be freaking out that Federal Flags are at half mast until Monday

In honor of Mr Mandella. This is rare and remarkable.

[StarlightGold]

40. Oh, they are...

I was listening to a conservative station this morning, and, sure enough, people calling in were "disgusted" that we would dare to desecrate our flag by honoring that "foreigner".
All of that hatred and venom only eats away at them and their well-being.

[Johonny]

31. Reagan labeled Mandela a terrorist and then had the CIA train Bin Laden

and that's why we should put his face on Mount Rushmore

[Cha]

48. That's why they named a fucking airport after him among whatever else.

[spanone]

32. america, where you're free to be as fucking stupid and hateful as you wish.

[1StrongBlackMan]

33. A Slate article on Mandela's death ...

popped up on my mobile device and I saw some of the exact same freeper comments in the Slate comments.

You're correct ... it's "plain old racism."

[OldRedneck]

35. You asked and answered your own questions.

You ask:

1. Do they live in a bizarro world?

2. Do they live under rocks.

And you answered your own questions quite well. Yes, they do on both counts.

[pistegypsy]

36. Try telling them . . .

that Jesus was Rome's Osama Bin Laden . . .

[Major Nikon]

37. Shitbag Santorum compared Mandela's fight against injustice to Republicans' fight against ACA

It's almost as if these dickheads relish in being on the wrong side of history

[Cha]

49. THey Relish being as stupid as humanly possible.

[Starry Messenger]

38. You think that's bad, you should read Boer anti-Mandela blogs.

Some of these people are literal Nazis. That's who the right-wing supports in this country.

The right-wing hates anything that fucks with monopoly capitalism and white privilege, and Mandela and his coalition took a big swing at both. South Africa is a good object lesson on how far a country run by corporations will take the racism. Never forget.

[trof]

41. Take a look at the comments in my home state, Alabama:

The comments on J.D. Crowe's cartoon tribute to Mandela are beyond vicious.
And I'm not at all surprised.
Feel free to weigh in, but you have to create an account.

http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/12/nelson_mandela_will_rest_in_pe.html#incart_river

[upi402]

43. The neocons there call him a terorist

George Washington would be called a terrorist today.

[upi402]

42. Oh! Oh! Oh! I know I know I know!!!

"How is that almost the entire world saw Mandela as a hero and inspirational figure, except apparently for the most rabid American conservatives, who see him as a terrorist? "

Answer; Their media propaganda organ.

[BainsBane]

46. They are racist assholes

They are pissed off Mandela helped undo apartheid.

[KamaAina]

50. Some righties in Europe are Mandela h8rs too

mainly in the UK and the Netherlands, which had heavy investments in the apartheid regime.

[applegrove]

51. The whole GOP political strategy is based on the base hating african americans. What

The whole GOP political strategy is based on the base hating african americans. What would happen if the base heard stories of one of the greatest leaders in the world who 1) chose love over hate 2) is black? It might grow the hearts of the base. Thus the stirring of the terrorist and communist memes. This is about the cornerstone memories the base has. And how the right wants to control what becomes the pinnacle in their bases' minds. The base might be moved by Mandela's humanity. Mandela's death is one of those events that make it into people's episodic memories (where were you when Mandela died?), which then become part of a person's personal narrative. This is about controlling the minds/hearts/narrative of the base. Teaching hate of Mandela is about politics in the USA and the 2014 elections. The base is a cult.

[MisterP]

52. by 1987 the Latin American righties were calling Reagan a Commie plant

remember that literally everyone is a Commie to them--media, children, women, schools, governments, armies