Deciphering Right-Wing Code: What Conservatives Are Really Saying When They Seem to Spew Nonsense

[robert l. bentham]

The thing to remember is this: Even though right-wing narratives are often factually wrong, they are absolutely never content-free. Stories like this are always about something. And the weirder and more factually challenged they sound to liberal ears, the more important it probably is for us to know what that something is. Too often, our obsession with the gobsmacking wrongness of these statements deafens us to clues to the right's current motives and intentions that are frequently lurking in these strange declarations.​

I'm a native-born speaker of right-wing code. And what I heard in Santorum's ramble was, frankly, hair-raising. To my ears, it was a very loud and clear tip-off that conservatives are gearing up an all-out frontal assault on funding for America's public universities....​

antorum's brief comment, incoherent as it seemed, communicated a great deal to his audience by artfully triggering a vast universe of essential right-wing memes. Consider what got communicated here.
The University of California may have 11 campuses, but in the right-wing mind, "UC" is code for just one of them -- UC Berkeley, the first and still-flagship campus, which holds a mythic position as Ground Zero for all of Dirty Hippiedom in the conservative imagination. If Satan is alive on earth, there is no doubt that his zip code is 94720. Everything conservatives loathe about the Evil 1960s is epitomized by the very word, "Berkeley."
Oblique as this already is, invoking UC and Berkeley also calls forth the ghost of Ronald Reagan -- always a good thing in conservative stories. Let it never be forgotten that Our Hero made his political bones by standing up to those Dirty Hippie brats while he was governor of California. He punished them by abolishing UC's free tuition -- which is still remembered by the faithful as the first historic salvo in the long war to defund all public services.
Furthermore: picking on UC was telling in another way. When conservatives seriously gather themselves to go after somebody, they always attack frontally, at their intended victim's point of greatest strength. (See also: swiftboating.) The University of California system has long been regarded as the best public university system in America, and Berkeley as the best single public university in the country. Santorum's story's focus on this particular system -- the biggest, baddest exemplar of its type -- is no random accident. It draws a bead on the strongest target on the field. This is almost always a clear sign that conservatives are lining up their artillery -- in this case, for an open assault on America's public colleges and universities.
http://www.alternet.org/visions/154...ying_When_They_Seem_to_Spew_Nonsense_/?page=1

 

[Dammy]

It's only factual wrong if you are listening to a Progressive lying about Conservatives which is the SOP for Progressives. But I do understand why the Progressives have to demonize Conservatives since Progressives want to draw attention away from the upcoming financial and currency cataclysm that they are pushing towards: http://usdebtclock.org/cbo-omb-gop-budget-estimates.html

 

[cecilia]

.............which is still remembered by the faithful as the first historic salvo in the long war to defund all public services.

lol, ok, funny and sad at the same time.

but when sucktorum says people with an eduction are "snobs" we all know what that means. Am I surprised. Nope.

all one has to do (especially if one DOES have an education) is recall over 150 years ago in certain parts of America when it was against the law to teach a slave to read. Because when people get educated they can Think for themselves and insist on being treated with respect. They get to make choices in their lives.

but if you want people to be controlled you fill them with bullshit and make it hard or impossible to find out the truth. This may be difficult on one level in the age of the internet (and the freedom here is also under threat). On the other hand just being bombarded with data isn't "an education". The reason we have schools is because teachers are the gateway to learning how to reason.

It's SO important for people to have an education. It's important for them personally, it's important to be informed voting citizens, it's important for the future. And the wackos know that this is something they have to prevent.

 

[the_leander]

It's only factual wrong if you are listening to a Progressive lying about Conservatives which is the SOP for Progressives. But I do understand why the Progressives have to demonize Conservatives since Progressives want to draw attention away from the upcoming financial and currency cataclysm that they are pushing towards: http://usdebtclock.org/cbo-omb-gop-budget-estimates.html

You know your wet dream about slashing public spending? Well happened over here and guess what: Our economy is in even worse straits than yours is and looking to completely tank within a year. Clearly, neither cutting the money or just throwing it around doesn't work on its own. Perhaps as many people suggested a while back a public works project would have been the best bet...

As for lying, nah, there is no need to lie about conservatives. They do enough of that for everyone.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

It's only factual wrong if you are listening to a Progressive lying about Conservatives which is the SOP for Progressives. But I do understand why the Progressives have to demonize Conservatives since Progressives want to draw attention away from the upcoming financial and currency cataclysm that they are pushing towards: http://usdebtclock.org/cbo-omb-gop-budget-estimates.html

Woo. Now THAT was content free! Time to lift your eager head out of the slop bucket of rotted ideas the pseudo-conservatives have been feeding you and check out the copious buffet of reality.

 

[the_leander]

Fluffy, you're talking to the guy who believes exfuse is a legitimate business and not a pyramid scam. Reality and this guy are barely acquainted.

 

[cecilia]

the copious buffet of reality

I have to remember THAT one.