I was sitting at school a few days ago and some graduate student was breathlessly explaining her theory for why conservatives oppose the stimulus. It turns out that it’s because they don’t realize – and now I’m quoting – that when you build a bridge you don’t just build a bridge but you also make uniforms for workers and provide rubber for tires. Yup. This woman had discovered the multiplier effect while poring over her morning HuffPo and instantly concluded that conservatives just don’t know about it. Never did it enter her mind that there’s a gigantic debate about this. She’d never heard of it before and she’s exquisitely sophisticated – so how much less must conservatives be aware?
Ergo: the Council nominations from the middle of February. Bookworm Room’s post was exactly about the myopic fascination that Obama’s cheerleaders have with the multiplier effect. Even Obama himself won’t bank on it – he’s very careful to stick to his “create or save” phrasing, something The Razor picked up on. Of course we’ll never know the stimulus’s actual effect. The Glittering Eye suggests that we would’ve had a natural recovery some time around 2010. But post the largest transfer of private wealth in the history of the globe – a lengthened recession will be written off as better than some hypothetical alternative that might never have occurred. Lucky break for the administration, huh?
Meanwhile there’s a bit of a populist trend against free speech, part of the battle for the soul of America that Right Truth blogged. Rhymes With Right described MSNBC’s quasi-fascist demand for Republicans to be thrown out of America. The Colossus of Rhodey tracked the expansion of hate speech legislation. The Provocateur untangled ACORN’s freedom-chilling tactics. All of this is so weird: who could’ve predicted that there’s a fascist impulse underneath leftist demagoguery? Except anyone who’s read anything about 20th century history, I mean.
Speaking of which my own post was about the return of open Nazism to the streets of Europe:
Decades of excusing the most vile anti-Semitism as mere anti-Zionism – of accepting fantasies about cabalistic lobbies and fabrications about well-poisoning as part of public discourse – have destroyed all limits on venom and violence. Nothing is off-limits any more. Truth doesn’t matter: people justify their pathological hate with outrageous fabrications. Ethics certainly don’t matter: against the Jewish “modern-day Nazis” – the ones who inhabit Israel and the ones who might support them – anything is justified. This is the stuff of mass pogroms.
Those excuses run the gamut from the anti-Israel 60 Minutes libel that Joshua Pundit wrote about to the pro-terrorist double standards that Cheat Seeking Missiles described and back to the anti-Israel WaPo smear that Soccer Dad took apart. Sure these are examples of cretinous, vulgar apologism. But at least they’re not unsophisticated!
References and previously after the jump…
References:
* Multiplier Madness [TCS Daily]
* The Treason of the Senate [Watcher of Weasels]
* Economic incest [Bookworm Room]
* Spending Bill: $200,000 per Job [The Razor]
* Why What, When, and How Matters in a Stimulus Package [The Glittering Eye]
* Battle for the soul of America [Right Truth]
* MSNBC Host Calls For Gagging, Deporting, GOP Dissenter [Rhymes With Right]
* "Hate speech" definition expanding again [Colossus Of Rhodey]
* ACORN and Alinsky’s Rule #13 [The Provocateur]
* Austrian Jews Too Terrified To List Their Children As Jewish (Plus: Europe Reaches An Anti-Jewish Tipping Point) [MR]
* "60 Minutes" Libels Jews And Israel [Joshua Pundit]
* Fair Treatment Of Prisoners [Cheat Seeking Missiles]
* Voting for war? [Soccer Dad]
Previously:
* Watchers Council Nominations – Has Deja Vu Always Been This Depressing?
* Watchers Council Nominations – Power Grabs Defended By Rank Populism Defended By Incoherent Nonsense
* Watchers Council Nominations – Democrats Rejecting Consistency Because It’s The Hobgoblin Of Little Minds. Or Because They’d Have To Pay Their Taxes And Reject Obama’s Executive Powergrabs. But One Of The Two.
