So, a couple of nights ago I was at the awards ceremony for the Bellingham Business Journal Business of the Year (it’s an honor just to be nominated) and there was wine and asparagus, so I was moderately entertained. But there was one thing that bugged me.
Now, this is Bellingham, right, so the business people at such a ceremony will range from lefty hippie types of businesses like natural foods co-ops and free trade coffee roasters, all the way to ruthless (and seemingly inevitably Republican) property development companies. The people from these companies no doubt sit there secretly bristling at each other on the topic of wetlands or presidents or whatnot.
But such an event is supposed to be about the things they have in common. It’s supposed to be the place where everybody can go “Yay! Money and good ideas and progress all coming into Bellingham!”
A year ago, I would have thought it was inappropriate if somebody mentioned GW Bush in a disparaging manner, or engaged in a little candidate boosterism, or whatever they might have done. It just wasn’t the correct forum to give a little “Go Obama!” speech. I mean, I might have agreed with the sentiment, but I still would have cringed mightily at the social faux pas.
So this year I thought it was very inappropriate to have one of the presenters make some bizarre crack about how “capitalism itself is under threat as never before!”
Because then I had to sit there the rest of the evening puzzling out just exactly what he could have meant by that, but whatever it was, it sounded paranoid and right wing. I mean, I suppose it’s possible that if the economy doesn’t turn around there could be an armed communist revolution or something, but it seems a little early to be making those kinds of predictions.
Now, after reading this Salon article, I think he probably just watches CNBC. Because apparently if you watch CNBC, Obama has teams of thugs lined up everywhere waiting to seize the means of production the moment he gives the signal.
You have been warned. I guess.
Here, in case you didn’t yet see Jon Stewart interview Jim Cramer of CNBC.
Were you the one that linked me to that article about Chuck Norris and his statement about Republican militia cells waiting to take back the country?
Very possibly. I did twittify it. It seems like it might be related to some Glenn Beck thing called “We surround them!” which involved — I think — lots of Republican types going to the same place at the same time to watch Beck give a little program on Fox News, and supposedly it was a big success in Utah, according to examiner.com and worldnetdaily.
Glenn Beck is a weirdo.
The phrase “we’re not Europe” pops up occasionally in emails to me from from a conservative family member. I was puzzled about that, until I noticed that the ranting clips from Fox and CNBC on The Daily Show seem to use “Europe” as a synonym for “Socialist Pinko Commie!”.
It would, indeed, be terrible to be more like a European country. Health care, good food,… ;^)
Heh. Yeah, it seems like they can only really get away with that sort of thing by assuming their audience has never been there and doesn’t know anybody from there.
But these people generally 1. Don’t know the difference between socialism and communism, 2. Don’t know the difference between communism and totalitarianism/empire building, 3. Don’t realize it’s 2009 and the USSR has been kaput for twenty years.