From page 31 of Generating Social Capital, a scholarly look at civil society and institutions:
Repressive governments disturb civic development in two major ways; First, they discourage spontaneous group activity, and second, they discourage trust. Even though totalitarian governments, such as communist regimes, mobilize civil society through party, and other governmental organizations, association is always state controlled, and not always voluntary. Generally, authoritarian, and totalitarian governments seem partially to build on their strength on the foundation of distrust among their citizens. A good example of this can be found in the activities of the German Democratic Republic’s state-secret police which pitted citizens against each other, and provoked tight social control of friends, neighbors, and colleagues, and even within families.
I found that by googling, “pitting citizens against each other”, not sure of what I’d find, but having a hunch, because for the first time in my life, and perhaps in our nation’s history, we have a President who is actively mobilizing certain groups of citizens (SEIU, ACORN, OFA) against certain other groups, and it’s absolutely staggering. He commanded his minions during the campaign to “get in their faces”, and now, even as President, he is still in campaign mode.
Obama sans teleprompter, obviously speaking off the cuff, because what speechwriter would write such words for a President to say?:
Here, the President of the United States is fomenting distrust amongst the citizenry. Some of us, he argues, are not worthy of being listened to. Some of us should just get out the way.
ObamaCare is opposed by a majority of Americans, now, because we know it’s not financially sustainable, it can’t be without draconian cuts in service. We know that Obama means for his plan to lead to a single payer, universal plan, which the vast majority of Americans oppose. So the Obama administration and the Dems fight the opposition deploying classic Alinsky tactics:
RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Call your enemies “tea baggers”, rednecks, for instance).
RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Union thugs love intimidating and busting heads…)
RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Urge fellow citizens to report “fishy” emails and websites to WH ).
RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (What might they do with those email and IP addresses? What will the union thugs do at the next town hall?)
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. ( Rush Limbaugh, “astroturfing teabaggers”).
And the unwritten rule that all good leftists follow: Accuse the enemy of what you yourself do.
Liberal Dems are accusing the rag tag, genuinely grassroots, and passionate conservative dissenters, the vast majority of whom have never protested anything in their lives, people who would much rather be at home with their families, of “astroturfing”. These are people who have been provoked out of their comfort zones because they see their freedom, Democracy, and the American way of life, slipping away, and they refuse to let it go without putting up a fight.
Liberal Democrats are of course, masters of astroturfing, or manufactured, fake grassroots. That’s why at their protests and rallies, you see pre-printed signs (who paid for those), and often paid for, bused in protesters/supporters, whatever the case may be.
That’s why you see Obama, the community organizer in chief sending out the bat signal via his website, Organizing for America. (Are all Presidents from now on going to have their own perpetual campaign websites? I have a problem with a sitting President organizing American citizens to go out and fight with, and get in the faces of other American citizens). There’s nothing “spontaneous” or “grassroots” about taking orders from the most powerful person in the free world.
As many of you know, David Axelrod, Obama’s senior advisor, is credited with inventing AstroTurfing. Which sets the irony meter to its highest level, I think.
A great example of astroturfing as it is typically practiced can be found via Michelle Malkin atLooking at the Left, by ElMarco, who was at the Nancy Pelosi event in Denver, Friday, and took pictures of the the 200 or so ObamaCare dissidents, and the handful of astroturfing supporters, some of whom didn’t speak a word of English and had no idea what their signs said. His photo essay is fantastic, and well worth a look.
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Immature..arrogant…makes me yearn for bush. I cursed bush for 8 years…now I am wondering why.
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Betty, I know. I know.
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Once a community organizer, always a community organizer I guess. Do people realize that tax payers fund these community organizers to essentially get more Democrat voters? That is the definition of insanity…
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As I posted before…this is by design, straight out of the old Soviet Union (confuse, control and dominate) the masses hand book. I think most of us knew before Dear Leader was elected that this shit was comming down the pipe. I dearly miss our old country. It’s gunna get a lot worse folks.
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Ahhh, the coming tyranny of mediocrity! It will be so wonderful when we are all equal! Especially for Dear Leader and his friends, who are, by nature, more equal than others.
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I say it’s ALL a “1/2-vast Wright-wing Conspiracy”©®
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I cannot believe this fraud is the POTUS.
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Did you hear the man. He was talking to YOU. SHUT THE FUCK UP. Listen to the president when he orders you to do something….
Otherwise black men like me aren’t going to be very happy with you. You will see me at your next tea party.
I am a thug
I will shut you up because my president told me to .
So shut up
Or I’ll make you.
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you conservatives have a problem listening to the new sheriff in town.. Well you and I are going to have a little sit down talk.
Man to man or whatever you are.
you won’t be talking with such disrespect when I’m finished .
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Uh huh.
Thanks for proving my point.
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nicedeb: I’m a conservative plant just trying to make these stupid libs look bad. Don’t tell em though ok hehe
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Uh. huh.
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conservatism is a blight upon America. A disease, like cholera , that must be wiped out. Are you with me on this or against me?
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Sam:
‘conservatism is a blight upon America. A disease, like cholera , that must be wiped out. Are you with me on this or against me?’
Isnt that what Hitler said about Jews?
Amazing, the TRUE colors of these murderers comes out EVERYDAY.
Most conservatives are law-abiding believers in Jesus, and some right wing Jews, they dont harm ANYBODY.
Sam, its a sad thing when we have to go around and point this out. The internet is a small place- this will inevitibly go everywhere.
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I am curious about all that the messiah is whispering to his thugs regarding our vocal protest against his health welfare and crap and tax plans. Could this be the opening he is seeking to activate his Civilan Militia? That is one program that has been eerily silent since the passing of Americorps! Would they be used to enforce Martial Law should he impose that because of the amount of anti- Obama plan protests?
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Just curious, what’s the litmus test for crazy anymore now that you’ve accused the president of organizing a massive conspiracy to quiet the dissent of a select few who realize the “truth” about a secret plan to turn our mediocre health care into a eugenic system which includes death panels for handicapped children? Where do you go from there?
This is insane. Listen to yourselves.
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Listen to yourself trying to speak for me, and others like me, beating on those strawmen. Good luck with that.
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Just curious, what’s the litmus test for crazy anymore now that you’ve accused the president of organizing a massive conspiracy to quiet the dissent of a select few who realize the “truth” about a secret plan to turn our mediocre health care into a eugenic system which includes death panels for handicapped children? Where do you go from there?
This is insane. Listen to yourselves.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but or me, we crossed into the Twilight Zone when we were told by the jugeared messiah that we were going to spend ourselves to prosperity. After that, the arrival of the finger-wagging, disingenuous astroturfers on my internet lawn accusing me of being a bad Christian for opposing an ill-conceived, unConsitutional power grab, in the form of being a “HealthCare Reform Bill”, simply became another sign that the inmates had taken over the asylum. From there, it was only a natural progression that elected officials would show their contempt for constituents who are angry that they are being betrayed by determination to pass this monstrosity, and decide that slander was a good defense against the righteous wrath of a people wronged and set upon by union thugs, who will be exempt from the tender mercies of a bill that the elected officals themselves have tried to quietly opt out of, even as they seek to impose it upon us.
Do not seek to lecture me about insanity. I have a front-row seat as it seems to take many of our elected officals in its firm grasp, and squeeze them tightly until everything they issue forth is stained with its shieking taint.
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>>Just curious, what’s the litmus test for crazy anymore now that you’ve accused the president of organizing a massive conspiracy to quiet the dissent of a select few who realize the “truth” about a secret plan to turn our mediocre health care into a eugenic system which includes death panels for handicapped children? Where do you go from there?
You go to the Wall Street Journal.
>>Mr. Obama and Democrats claim they can expand subsidies for tens of millions of Americans, while saving money and improving the quality of care. It can’t possibly be done. The inevitable result of their plan will be some version of a NICE board that will tell millions of Americans that they are too young, or too old, or too sick to be worth paying to care for.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124692973435303415.html
It would certainly help lefty’s debating skills if they understood anything about economics, history, current events, historical precedent, etc.. Of course if they did understand those things they would become conservatives.
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Interesting. Then I suppose the link to Michelle Malkin’s blog must have been in error, considering her track record for supporting intrusive government programs, as well as her detailed history in trying to suppress anti-war protesters by publishing their names and personal information in an effort to mobilize her readers into intimidating them?
Since these things do, after all, run contrary to your obviously deep-felt beliefs.
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Huh. Michelle Malkin linked to a Students Against War press release which bragged about booting military recruiters off campus, and re-posted publicly available contact info for the SAW press machine.
And she wrote a book sympathetic of internment camps during WWII. Never read it but understand it was a well researched, well reasoned tome.
What that has to do with the subject at hand, which is the President of the United States pitting citizens against each other, is anyone’s guess.
I wonder what you would have thought if President Bush had encouraged his supporters to report opponents of his policies to the White House. Be honest.
And why would you pretend to know what my deeply held beliefs are?
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Sam Samualson. Rope. Tree. Finished.
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Jackstraw lecturing lefties on their knowledge of economic and historical precedents? He’s an oaf whose chief intellectual trait seems to be repeatedly and simplistically insulting opponents by saying that they are not intellectually his equal (without any coherent argument, of course!). It would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic. Suggest you all do some reading about health care systems around the world and offer your politicians some solutions to deal with your system’s woeful record and standing, instead of stupidly buying every BS conspiracy theory floating around the net.
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your system’s woeful record and standing
Oh God, here comes the debunked-since-ancient-times “US ranked 37th in health care in the world” claim. When a claim makes no sense, why don’t libs want to dig deeper to find out why?
But no, they happily chirp away with the same old bad information.
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Suggest you all do some reading about health care systems around the world
Um, yeah, we’ve done that, which is why we’re so up in arms.
And yeah, the Republicans in congress have offered common sense proposal after proposal only to have the the Dems reject them.
You see, Malky, we are very aware of what is going on, and we’re not standing for it. We have the best health care system in the world, and the vast majority of us are happy with our health care. While we all see where there could be improvements, tearing it all down for a socialized system is not called for, and that’s why most Americans reject it.
We also don’t like being lied to..
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We also don’t like being lied to…
Or about: http://threesurethingsoflife.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/there-are-lies-and-then-there-are-stupid-lies/
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I’m linking to that, BiW. See my ‘Where are the buses?’ post. I linked to the same Red State post. What’s going on out- Orwellians anything Orwell could ever have dreamed up.
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Malky, you seem to confuse lecturing with punking you. Make no mistake, I am doing the latter as is everyone else here. There’s an old saying that hunters use, I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you. If stupid is the bear, I am clearly faster than you.
>>He’s an oaf whose chief intellectual trait seems to be repeatedly and simplistically insulting opponents by saying that they are not intellectually his equal
I see, I’m an oaf who tosses insults unlike you. Is it possible for you to write a sentence that doesn’t contradict itself? That might demonstrate a little intellectual heft.
>>Suggest you all do some reading about health care systems around the world and offer your politicians some solutions to deal with your system’s woeful record and standing, instead of stupidly buying every BS conspiracy theory floating around the net.
Clearly you are unaware that the vast majority of Americans not only have health care, they like it. Of those who don’t, the majority is made up of people who chose not to buy health insurance, mostly the young and healthy. The remaining are in fact given health care and it is paid by the 57% of Americans who actually pay taxes. It happens to be federal law. A huge number of people are
In other words, you intellectual titan, the only “crisis” the US has with it’s healthcare is the manufactured kind. Just like the manufacutured kind of crisis Obama used to ram through the “stimulus” which has proved to be anything but. It has done nothing to stimulate our economy, as many of us pointed out months ago, and we are now enduring record deficits with no end in sight because of his ludicrous spending.
Perhaps you should take your own advice and spend a little more time learning what is actually going on in America since you seemed bound and determined to tell Americans what to do instead of lecturing us on learning more about other systems. I don’t give a damn what kind of healthcare you have in Australia. Why do you care so much about what we have?
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A saw that Deb. I also had the good congressmen attacking a constitutent for not being a constitutent and “hijacking” the open questions poertion of the meeting and not scheduling a separate meeting which the good congressman refused to schedule with the constituent. I guess SEIU and Acorn’s “Rent a Mob” were booked solid on the possible dates.
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