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| The Communist Manifesto |
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| Mein Kampf |
The New York Times just reported that Jared Loughner hated (well, probably still hates) George W. Bush, and that some of his favorite books were: the Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf, Animal Farm, and Farenheit 451. Much to the dismay of the news outlets, Sheriff Dupnik, Barak Obama, and some Palin haters, it would appear that Loughner was more of a product of radical leftists, than of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the Tea Party. Click here to read the full story.
I have a hard time with your conclusion: "it would appear that Loughner was more of a product of radical leftists". Didn't you just write another post essentially saying he's responsible for his own actions? (An assertion I agree with.)
ReplyDeleteIf you're NOT saying that, then you still don't have a lot of evidence to pin this on radical leftists. Sure, the communist manifesto is certainly radical leftist, but Animal Farm? Farenheit 451? It seems like you're only focusing on the books that support your conclusion.
Why does the fact that he hates Bush (a Republican) carry more weight in your mind than the fact he shot Giffords (a Democrat)?
The truth is: all evidence points to this guy being crazy. To say "it would appear that Loughner was more of a product of radical leftists" is every bit as unfounded as those arguments blaming Palin and Limbaugh.
You make a good point; Loughner certainly was responsible for his own actions. But who would you say he was more influenced by: Rush Limbaugh et. al or Karl Marx?
ReplyDeleteQuite honestly, I don't think there's evidence to suggest either. Despite Glenn Beck's revisionist interpretations, Communism (the manifesto) and Nazism (Mein Kampf) are very fundamentally opposed to one another, so it's hard to draw many conclusions about which Loughner believed more. And if you say "they're both big-government, totalitarian regimes" then how does that jive with his overall anti-government, quasi-anarchist rants on his videos? (And his biggest political rants were about grammar, language, dreaming, and mind control--which don't appear in any party platform.)
ReplyDeleteThere just isn't ANY evidence to clearly show his political philosophy, and trying to pin this on either side seems pretty unfounded.
That's exactly my point. He's never been influenced by talk radio, as far as we know, and he has been influenced by Karl Marx, but his own politics are a jumbled mess.
ReplyDeleteAh. Well, if you're defining "has previously read" as "influenced", then sure, I can agree with that. My point is just that, while he claims the Communist Manifesto is one of his favorite books, the other books listed as favorites directly contradict the philosophies of the Communist Manifesto. So while, yes, he may have been influenced by the manifesto, we can no more conclusively say "he's a radical Marxist" than we can say "he's a radical proponent of free speech" (Fahrenheit 451) or "he's a hater of the Soviet communism" (Animal Farm).
ReplyDeleteSo, again, if you want to say "according to the very tiny evidence we have, it would appear that he was more influenced by Karl Marx than Rush Limbaugh" then yes, that's technically true. But it means nothing, because "influenced" and "read" doesn't mean "believed", and because you're trying to find deep meaning in a handful of words he listed in a bio on his MySpace page.
In other words, I still don't see your point.
I don't know anyone that hasn't been influenced by something that he or she read, whether positive or negative. If the kid said he liked the Communist Manifesto, he was positively influenced by it.
ReplyDeleteThe point is that the media blamed, and still does, blame right wing activists, rhetoric, and Sarah Palin, which is all fallacious. There is no evidence that he liked them, listened to them, or was positively influenced by them.
I'm not sure that Orwell is a bastion of "right wing" thought either...
As another example of people in the media blaming the "right" as opposed to anything else, like the mental issues the kid had, or his reading materials, see this article: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2011/01/27/danny-glover-blames-conservatives-for-tucson-tragedy/
ReplyDelete