Quote of the Day...The Editorial Board, The NY Times....6-13-2018

[sofa king]

30. Oh, that's where Leo Strauss and the neocons come in.

The christofascist hyper individualism only applies to the tiny number of individuals who control the secrets of history, and share a total lack of concern for the suffering of mere mortals. A central tenet of Straussian theory is that ancient history is deliberately presented incorrectly so that the peons will always take the wrong lesson away from the story. But a careful student can find a very, very sociopathic alternative truth behind most of it.

The hyperconservative message itself is wonderfully Straussian, isn't it? Pull yourself up to success with the help of God, in lock step with a like-minded group of others and then retire into untouchable wealth. It worked perfectly for Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz, who probably siphoned unknown trillions of undocumented defense money through the World Bank and into their own pockets. Do any of them actually live in the US anymore?

The punchline is that the theory actually worked, but the lesson was for them alone! All the suckers who bought the same line and made it all possible for the neocons have suffered the same fate as everyone else. Their chances of success are even lower than when they started, thanks to continuing to ruthlessly apply the stupid lessons even after they were fleeced. What we define as "authoritarianism" is what actual authoritarians define as "individualism," so they're being good Nazis and trying like hell to grow the fleece back on the sheep.

The next recipients of outrageous good christofascist fortune are all about forcing labor below a living wage, so that people are desperate enough to do professional labor at ten bucks an hour. Then they don't have to run complex market collapses and property grabs; the peons just hand over the wealth they create directly to their masters. Then they'll piss on us and tell us its trickle-down at work.