RHETORIC VS REALITY

[philunderwood]

drsanity.blogspot.com/

Dr. Sanity
Shining a psychological spotlight on a few of the insanities of life


Sunday, January 30, 2011

RHETORIC VS REALITY

Obama, the perfect postmodern President is a master at the art of rhetoric--which is at the heart of all progressive postmodern leftist attempts to obtain and consolidate power. With postmodern rhetoric you can "talk" tough, but carry a limp stick. You can say whatever your audience at the moment wants to hear and still be philosophically consistent when you do exactly the opposite. Or you can say the opposite to a different audience (just like these guys) since truth is not the objective; only manipulation and deceit to achieve the desired political effect.

It's a sleight of hand known as using "contradictory discourses" and it is a political strategy where truth is rejected explicitly and consistency is an extremely rare phenomenon. As I said, what matters more than truth (or honesty) is achieving the desired political outcome (i.e., getting others to believe what you want them to believe about what you believe).

It's all very postmodern; very philosophically chic; and very Obama and the left.

What's important to the postmodern demagogue is the language's effectiveness at achieving the desired result. Stephen Hicks wrote in Explaining Postmodernism[pages 175-177]:
To the modernist, the "mask" metaphor is a recognition of the fact that words are not always to be taken literally or as directly stating a fact--that people largely use language elliptically, metaphorically, or to state falsehoods, that language can be textured with layers of meaning, and that it can be used to cover hypocrisies or to rationalize. Accordingly, unmasking means interpreting or investigating to a literal meaning or fact of the matter. The process of unmasking is cognitive, guided by objective standards, with the purpose of coming to an awareness of reality.

For the postmodernist, by contrast, interpretation and investigation never terminate with reality. Language connects only with more language, never with a non-linguistic reality....

For the postmodernist, language cannot be cognitive because it does not connect to reality, whether to an external nature or an underlying self. Language is not about being aware of the world, or about distinguishing the true from the false, or even about argument in the traditional sense of validity, soundness, and probability. Accordingly, postmodernism recasts the nature of rehtoric. Rhetoric is persasion in the absence of cognition....
Hicks goes on to note that:
Language is a tool of social interaction, and one's model of social interaction dictate what kind of tool language is used as....

And so given the conflict models of social relations that dominate postmodern discourse, it makes perfect sense that to most postmodernists language is primarily a weapon.

This explains the harsh nature of much postmodern rhetoric. The regular deployments of ad hominem, the setting up of straw men, the regular attempts to silence opposing voices are all logical consequences of the postmodern epistemology of language. Stanley Fish, as noted in Chapter Four, calls all opponents of racial preferences bigots and lumps them in with the Ku Klux Klan. Andrea Dworking calls all heterosexual males rapists and repeatedly labels "Amerika" a fascist state. With such rhetoric, truth or falsity is not the issue: what matters primarily is the language's effectiveness.

If we now add to the postmodern epistemology of language the far Left politics of the leading postmodernists and their firsthand awareness of the cirses of socialist thought and practice, then the verbal weaponry has to become explosive.{emphasis mine]

Got all that? Now if you'd like to have a perfect example of how a slick leftist/ postmodernist uses language and rhetorical skill to manipulate and produce maximum effectiveness depending on his audience; and the way a modernist (i.e., someone connected to reality, truth, and reason) unmasks them and reconnects them with reality (whether they like it or not), then check out the differences between Obama's SOTU speech and Paul Ryan's response.

You might also note the rise in ad hominem attacks directed at Ryan who is able to clearly and logically (and without all the "winning the future" BS) express the illogic of the Obama's failed approach to the economy. This tactic too, is a direct outcome of postmodern rhetoric. All threats to the effectiveness of their message must be attacked, just as Sarah Palin has been demonized ever since she became a visible and popular figure in the GOP. George Bush, of course, is the perennial fallback guy to blame for anything that goes wrong in the world (Chris Matthews recently blamed him on Hardball for the riots in Egypt--and, I don't think it was to compliment him); and meanwhile, Obama's trusty minions hardly notice the cognitive dissonance required to compare the empty suit with FDR one minute and Ronald Reagan the next.

In postmodern philosophy and rhetoric, the left and its mouthpiece Obama have found the perfect epistemological, ethical and political vessel to reassert their ideology--an ideology that requires the willing suspension of reality by its adherents to "win the future."

- Diagnosed by Dr. Sanity

[twinder]

epistemological? the theory of knowledge, esp the critical study of its validity, methods, and scope

I had to look that one up.

[Ritty77]

The Left's good intentions

[Ritty77]

Here is an excellent article on the real cause of any climate change:

www.salem-news.com/articles/february042011/global-superstorms-ta.php

[Ritty77]

It's no wonder Liberals avoid reality. How else could they tolerate themselves.

[Ritty77]

From Breitbart:

On February 8th members of the American Federation of Government Employees picketed outside the Capitol demanding more taxpayer dollars for their already bloated salary and benefits. We caught up with AFGE President John Gage who told us those who say federal pay should be cut are "mentally retarded".

[philunderwood]

www.qando.net/?cat=34

Think Progress attempts to rewrite political history

March 28th, 2011 | Author: Bruce McQuain

Not that such an attempt should come as a huge surprise to anyone, but TP is attempting a common thing by the left – to paint the suppression of voters as a strictly Republican thing by misusing the word “conservative” and mischaracterizing history.

For instance:

– JIM CROW SOUTH: In the Jim Crow South, historian Leon Litwack writes, “respectable” Southern whites justified their support for measures to disenfranchise African-Americans “as a way to reform and purify the electoral process, to root out fraud and bribery.” In North Carolina for example, conservatives insisted that literacy tests and poll taxes — which disenfranchised tens of thousands of African-Americans — were necessary to prevent “voter fraud.”

Left out is the identification of the “respectable” Southern whites, here provided context by Wikipedia:

Jim Crow laws were a product of the solidly Democratic South. Conservative white Southern Democrats, exploiting racial fear and attacking the corruption (real or perceived) of Reconstruction Republican governments, took over state governments in the South in the 1870s and dominated them for nearly 100 years, chiefly as a result of disenfranchisement of most blacks through statute and constitutions. In 1956, southern resistance to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education resulted in a resolution called the Southern Manifesto. It was read into the Congressional Record and supported by 96 southern congressmen and senators, all but two of them southern Democrats.

The above is inarguable history. Facts. That’s what happened. What the left has tried and failed to do for years is claim that “conservative Democrat” is the same as “Republican”. It is the only way they can whitewash (no pun intended) this period of history. But look at the cite from Wikipedia – what was it that these “conservative white Southern Democrats” displaced? Reconstruction Republican governments. Note the number of Southern Democrats who opposed any and all of the legislation of the Civil Rights era. All but a handful remained Democrats till they day they died. What the rewriters of history on the left want to do and try to convince you they were all really secret Republicans.

But who was it that opposed the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School and caused Republican President Eisenhower to send in federal troops to see it was done? A life long Democrat. Who was the Senator that was against all manner of integration and equality for blacks and was also a mentor to former President Bill Clinton? A life long Democrat. Who was it who participated in the Senate filibuster of civil rights legislation and was a former member of the KKK? A life long Democrat.

Jim Crow was a result of Democratic politics not Republican politics. Republicans were not welcome in the South during that era. The use of the word “conservative” as a means of deception is apparent and transparent. The fact that the South was solidly Democratic during the civil rights era with only 2 Republicans tells the real story. How the Democrats ever managed the slight of hand that has them become the heroes of the civil rights era is a lesson in and of itself of the power of propaganda.

In the case of Think Progress, the entire point of the post is to use misleading and anecdotal evidence in an attempt to claim that “conservatives”, i.e. Republicans, have engaged in the suppression of minority voters for years, when, in fact, it has been the Democrats. And it is to confuse attempts at guarding the integrity of the voting system (such as requiring a photo ID to vote) with such repression.

It’s a hack job and a pretty shoddy one too boot. But then, we’re talking Think Progress here … no surprises encountered.

~McQ

[Ritty77]

This is good. The Left must keep control of the "education" in this country. But it is slipping away and the truth is getting out.

The war on FOX they have recently proclaimed is the same idea, only with the media. But they look like fools; everyone can see that whatever they're saying about FOX is at least as true at MSNBC and a thousand other liberal parrot outlets.

Breitbart, Rush, Beck, Mark Levin, Heritage, etc. have all become the enemy and must be silenced because they expose the truth. A handful of truth-tellers and a wiser-by-the-day American public are exposing all the lies.

[Ritty77]

Mar 28, 2011 16:14:34 GMT -5 philunderwood said:

www.qando.net/?cat=34

Think Progress attempts to rewrite political history

...

~McQ

Great column, Phil. Another example of the need to control the airwaves and schools. Ask your average Joe and they will tell you that it was the Republicans who opposed civil rights when the opposite is true.

Like the 3/5 argument, another lie exposed.

[philunderwood]

www.qando.net/?cat=415

In case you haven’t seen it yet
April 1st, 2011 | Author: Bruce McQuain
Classic (via Hot Air):





If they just could have worked in something about Gitmo and “dumb wars” it would have been complete. Glad to see the unicorn getting a workout though.

~McQ