Who knew? Including "libertarian" in the title seems to have thrown sand in the eyes of every crypto-libertarian here! Judging by the flood of prim and unhelpful 'never met them' / 'who you callin' libertarian?' responses, it seems I should have said "racist neo-confederate nut-jobs" or "second-amendment psychos"...but then, I wouldn't have put that in quotes - because if you ask the average denizen of FoxNation, Breitbart's Big Dickhead, RedState or the Freep, they'll CALL THEMSELVES libertarians...on this planet, at least.
So far, almost every comment has missed the point, probably 'cause I don't know how to embed the youtube clips. Mea culpa. My diary, my fault. Below, I have added transcripts from the posted links, and if THAT doesn't help, I'll s p e l l i t o u t....
Thanks for reading, and - on with the show!
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It may be just my imagination, but I imagine that nearly everyone who's ever attempted to actually talk to a member of this 'group' has noticed some behavioral similarities:
- the swagger is unmistakeable cowboy-movie braggadocio;
- the pugnacious 'stupid liberals' tone that says "lay down those lawbooks, pilgrim and getcherself a handgun";
- the contempt for anyone not screamed at by GOD every Sunday;
- the complete failure to comprehend the meaning of 'principle';
- the inability to grasp the racist nature of their racist behaviors and speech;
- the utter devotion to a warped, damaged and tottering system that simply hasn't fallen on THEM yet;
- the conflation of themselves with the wealthiest members of the world community, because PRINCIPLE!
Yes, a TON of this is straight outta Hollywood: visceral, violent, potently symbolic, full of celebration and righteous vengeance...but it's not all Hollywood (which may seem surprising in a minute). Another ton of it is straight out of Reconstruction, when the forebears of these people, almost exclusively - yet almost invisibly - WHITE suffered horribly in service to their lords and masters, blind to their own enslavement to the wealth and power of others.
That make for an explosive mix: the original 'southern strategy' of divide and conquer has kept the folks from making common cause with their multi-hued compatriots against those who used black and white against each other quite profitable.
The really peculiar thing about it is how DURABLE that attachment has become, to upper-class wealth on the one hand, and a correspondingly virulent antipathy to those they foolishly believe are their zero-sum competitors.
Thus we have a deliberately crafted, literally home-grown subservient bully class, the same as in Germany from which Röhm stocked his thug army, the SA (the "folk heroes" behind Kristallnacht, if you don't know). But my purpose is not to alarm you, or to encourage hopelessness; my point is to hopefully show their weak link, and the source of their ultimate failure - because we can use that. We can use it to peel them away from their terrified yet greedy devotion to wealth and power.
The CARROT
MATRIX: You're a funny guy, Sully - I like you. That's why I'm going to kill you last.
The STICK
MATRIX: Remember, Sully, when I promised to kill you last?
SULLY: That's right, Matrix! You did!
MATRIX: I lied.
Having, as I said, raised up our own domestic thug army, and the supportive infrastructure for sucking all the money and power out of the populace for our home-grown masters of the universe (Koch Bros, P. Thiel, The Dick Armey, The Amway Gang to name only a VERY few, we see an interesting phenomenon: poor and struggling people hating on people just like them, supporting the divine right of the wealthy to own what (and who) they want.
Why do these folks fight so viciously against their own and the nation's best interests? The same reason ANY thug serves any powerful master: they hope by their support to stay fed, stay employed, stay alive. They hope that sucking up to power will make them rich, will keep them safe - will keep them from becoming expendable.
However, in the immortal words of Rocket J Squirrel, "that trick NEVER works!"
MATRIX: Remember, Sully, when I promised to kill you last?
SULLY: That's right, Matrix! You did!
MATRIX: I lied.