“Communist” Russia and the Health Care Debate

A socialist revolution is brewing in America, and it's coming from that communist country Sarah Palin can see from her shores.

Clearly, much misinformation has been spread about the proposed health care reform.  Obama’s plan is in critical condition, crushed and twisted as it is by so much talk about death panels, nationalized health care horror stories, red revolutions and, by natural extension, Russia.

It is hilarious to me that many of the disgruntled right wing citizens at town hall meetings call on Russia to heighten the pitch of their feverish and delusional worries.

For starters, Bill O’Reilly says the health care debate is about socialism, not health care. This sets the stage for all kinds of interesting things to happen.

A Pennsylvania woman was invited on the Fox show “Happening Now,” after saying to Sen. Arlen Specter at a town hall meeting, “I don’t want this country turning into Russia.” Later, on the show, she appears to be reading from a teleprompter and narrates a little bit about herself, saying that she used to be indifferent to politics, but then she started reading about the “Constitution” and the “founders of this country.” And then she concluded that the country was ripping itself apart and health care was going to turn us into Russia.

Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and others also attempted to prove that Obama’s health care plan was leading us swiftly towards the path of communism. Their evidence came straight from the mouth of the beast, or I guess that’s what they hoped we’d think. PRAVDA On-line published an editorial saying that America was turning Marxist. Dobbs, Beck, Limbaugh and others asked hypothetically: who knows Communism better than the former mouthpiece of the Party? If the Russians recognize Marxism in Obama’s policies, it must be there! They’ve lived through it!

The part that sucks was, PRAVDA On-line is not the same thing as Pravda, the communist newspaper which existed 1912-1991. Furthermore, the editorial itself has a number of spelling errors and is surrounded by ads for “Russia’s Most Desirable Single Women,” and an article declaring “Pregnant Baby Girl Born in Saudi Arabia.” Read that headline again. Amazing.

In other words, it’s a classy and reliable news source and should be trusted for its American policy analysis.

It’s not that I am surprised by the slippery slope arguments saying expanded government role in health care = socialism. I expect as much.

But its the conflation between Russia and the Soviet Union that really gets my goat. When these people say Russia, they mean Soviet Union. Hell, if they meant, “I don’t want our health care system to be like the health care system of the Russian Federation,” I would agree with them. It’s not a very good system.

How long will it take for Cold War scare-mongering to die? Apparently, a long fucking time. I feel so bad for Russia. It has just about the worst reputation of any country in the paranoid sector of American cultural imagination.

Fortunately, one crazy out there at least knew the proper name for Communist Russia. “This is the Soviet Union, this is Maoist China,” he said to Senator Specter. Well, not exactly. But we’ll take it one step at a time.

–anna

It’s hard out here for a man…

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece for my campus paper about a ridiculous new survey- the 50 manliest cities in America. Yup, you read that right. You see, not content with shoving sexist bullshit down the throats of men around this country, we’ve taken to classifying cities based on how manly they are. And how exactly does one come up with such a ranking? Observe the categories-

Sports

Manly lifestyle (whatever that means)

Concentration of manly retail stores

Manly Magazine Subscriptions

Salty Snack Sales (um…..)

Anything strike you as particularly odd as you read this? Maybe the fact that last time I checked, women also watch sports, visit Home Depot and eat salty snacks? It’s things like these that reinforce how sexism isn’t just a women’s issue. Indeed, it never has been but yet, feminism hasn’t really done much to address artificial constructions of masculinity. In my column, I wrote-

While a number of gender studies classes focus on the effect that sexism has on women, little time is devoted to studying its effects on men. This despite the fact that men are victims of a culture that infantilizes them and reduces them to one of two caricatures: the beer guzzling and intellectually deficient Homer Simpson or the slacker with grade-school humor, as depicted in every (awful) Seth Rogen film.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this subject lately thanks to the popularity of this new reference in pop culture- bromance, or as Urban Dictionary puts it, “the complicated love and affection shared by two straight males.” There are several problematic things about this term. For one, it attempts to contextualize and rationalize a close relationship between two straight men, as if there is something wrong with maintaining such a bond. Of course, it also reveals a deeper issue- the fear that any relationship between two men will be construed as homosexual in nature. By slapping on a cutesy label like bromance, we are effectively silencing such fears. It seems then that straight men sharing close relationships with other straight men chips away at what we traditionally perceive of as masculinity- stoicism and a lack of emotions. This makes us deeply uncomfortable so we take to gender policing. And, in case you were wondering, the manliest city in America is Nashville. 

-Indira

Fuck Bill O’Reilly

Seriously, the dude’s a petty and vicious man but his latest drama is just crossing the line. Here’s the story. A few days ago, ThinkProgress (my favorite site, fyi) blogger Amanda Terkel wrote about O’Reilly speaking at a fundraiser for the Alexa Foundation, an organization that benefits rape survivors and raises support for such issues. As Terkel wrote, O’Reilly’s presence at the event was problematic given his endorsement of victim-blaming, most notably on his radio show when he made some vile comments about Jennifer Moore, an 18-year old woman who was raped and murdered. Here’s the beacon of social consciousness on Moore’s tragic death-

Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning.

But, of course, the helpless men! Enraged that his comments had been picked up by various media outlets, he did what any sensible person would do- Send your producer to stalk Terkel for 2 hours, all while harassing her and demanding an apology for “causing pain and suffering to rape victims and their families.” Are you kidding me, O’Reilly? Just so we’re on the same page, you sexually harassed a coworker and pretty much had to settle after it was revealed that your victim recorded many of your explicit conversations. So yeah, as a vic myself, I can safely state that the absolute last person I want to see an event about sexual violence, rape or abuse is a misogynistic asshat like you.

See, when I write/talk about the evil ways of the far- right wing machine, I’m not exaggerating. These people are vicious and their bullying ways have just gotten worse with Obama’s win. Much of it is their way of lashing out, particularly due to the realization that their ideology is deeply unpopular and marginalized around the country. Others like Limbaugh and O’Reilly are just evil people who can only be bothered with demonizing those unlike them. These people deserve no more publicity but I simply can’t help it.

-Indira

Hating on Ayn Rand

I’m too exhausted to post anything substantial today and I’d really like to do a recap of Jessica Valenti’s lecture, atleast for Anna’s sake, but I’m going to wait until I’ve caught up on some sleep. I do have a new column up on the IDS website in which I mock the latest fad among the ever-crazed and delusional libertarians/Randites- “going galt,” a reference to one of the worst books ever written, Atlas Shrugged. An explanation below [and no, this is NOT made up]-

Some conservatives and libertarians are threatening to curtail economic production in homage to the book. The loose movement, termed “going galt,” is a reference to an uprising led by John Galt, the novel’s antagonist, where the “productive” class of society goes on strike to protest governmental actions. Miraculously, this strike bleeds the government dry, capitalism is saved and the world is whole again!

If indeed people are planning on “going galt” to escape Obama’s taxes for the rich, I say good for them. People who actually like Ayn Rand and glean life lessons from her works are probably brain-dead anyway, so it isn’t like they’re contributing much to society.

God, I hate these people. Read the rest of the piece here.

-Indira

The future of the Republican Party…

…is a 13-year old kid named Jonathan Krohn. Krohn, author of “Define Conservatism,” was in the news recently due to his short appearance at the just-concluded Conservative Political Action Conference.

Krohn’s ideological hero, is wait for it…Bill Bennett, who as you may recall had some serious issues with gambling while he was acting as the moral police for the rest of this country.

So, considering that the Republican party usually acts like a petulant bunch of 13 year olds, it is very fitting that they would look upto a 13 year old! And the sad part here is that Republicans thirty years his senior sound exactly like Krohn. What does that tell you?

h/t: crooks and liars

-Indira

One big gay family

My column this week is all about the hateful legacy of James Dobson, founder of the equally pernicious Focus on the Family, a far-right Christian organization. Dobson stepped down as the Chairman of the group recently and it remains to be seen what the future of the group will be.

Anway, in the column, I briefly mentioned a children’s educational video featuring the lovable SpongeBob Squarepants that Dobson protested due to its promotion of “homosexuality” and “tolerance,” since we all know that the two are truly heinous character traits. Incidentally, the video was created by the We Are Family Foundation in order to promote multiculturalism and tolerance after the 9/11 attacks, not that this matters to whackos like Dobson.

Well, I was able to dig up the video from 2005 and it is posted here for your viewing pleasure. I must warn you though that watching this may result in catching teh gay. A gold star for those who can actually spot SpongeBob.

-Indira