Conservatism Is The New Punk Rock

Posted by khalling 9 years, 9 months ago to Culture
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Kurt Schlichter (Twitter: @KurtSchlichter) was personally recruited to write conservative commentary by Andrew Breitbart. He is a successful Los Angeles trial lawyer, a veteran with a masters in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, and a former

stand-up comic.

Post Hill Press will publish his book “Conservative Insurgency: The Struggle to Take America Back 2013-2041” on July 15, 2014.
SOURCE URL: http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2014/07/27/conservatism-is-the-new-punk-rock-n1868562/page/2


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  • Posted by straightlinelogic 9 years, 9 months ago
    This writer must know different "conservatives" than the ones with which I am acquainted; the ones hell bent on getting the US involved in yet another foreign war in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, somewhere, anywhere, after disastrous forays in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq; who wholeheartedly embrace the national security state and the war on drugs; whose idea of trimming the government is to lower tax rates by a point or two and cut the growth rate of spending, but preserve the entitlement state, and who are prepared to offer "a path to citizenship" to the millions of illegal aliens already in our country and the millions more who will enter in the future. Any resemblance between those conservatives and purportedly revolutionary punk rock music (I never listened to it, so I don't know) is purely in Mr. Schlicter's fervid imagination.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 9 months ago
      are you speaking to what was written in the article or surmising from his background. I didn't read anything in there about the war on drugs, or national security spying, etc. I think many conservatives are beginning to see things differently-anyway many that I know
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      • Posted by straightlinelogic 9 years, 9 months ago
        I'm talking about what are the mainstream "conservative" positions on a variety of issues, as represented by conservative media such as Fox News and the WSJ editorial page, legislation either proposed or passed with the blessing of Republican leaders in Congress, and the recent battle between conservatives and more libertarian oriented candidates. None of this sounds like conservatives wanting to "tear it all down"..."smash it all up." I think mainstream conservative politicians are mostly happy with the status quo, as long as one of their own is running things.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 9 months ago
    Other than the Styx slight, pretty insightful. Yes, libs are no longer the freedom lovers (if they ever really were - methinks they were only anti-establishment). Conservatives have been economic freedom lovers (although many Repubs have increasingly become puppets of the cronyist CofComm's), but have always had issues on the social liberty front - despite being shown to be wrong on many issues.

    I'm not sure that Conservatives are really the punk rockers - but certainly the Tea Partiers can be seen as such, politically speaking.
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  • -1
    Posted by Hiraghm 9 years, 9 months ago
    Being prejudiced, I'd say Conservatism today is Lindsy Stirling vs Liberalism's Joan Baez.

    Joan Baez:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFvkhzkS...

    Lindsey Stirling:
    BAM!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49tpIMDy...

    BAM!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55_bV4OR...

    BAM!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHdkRvEz...

    Did I mention that she's also a motivational speaker? Unlike Baez, who's a demotivational bitcher.

    Conservatism is as dynamic and alive as Lindsey Stirling is in her videos... and Liberalism is as insipid and effete as Joan Baez is in hers.

    ----------
    ef·fete
    adjective \e-ˈfēt, i-\

    : lacking strength, courage, or spirit

    : resembling a woman
    Full Definition of EFFETE
    1
    : no longer fertile
    2
    a : having lost character, vitality, or strength <the effete monarchies … of feudal Europe — G. M. Trevelyan>
    b : marked by weakness or decadence <the effete East>
    c : soft or delicate from or as if from a pampered existence <peddled … trendy tweeds to effete Easterners — William Helmer> <effete tenderfeet>; also : characteristic of an effete person <a wool scarf … a bit effete on an outdoorsman — Nelson Bryant>

    -----
    in·sip·id
    adjective \in-ˈsi-pəd\

    : not interesting or exciting : dull or boring

    : lacking strong flavor
    Full Definition of INSIPID
    1
    : lacking taste or savor : tasteless <insipid food>
    2
    : lacking in qualities that interest, stimulate, or challenge : dull, flat <insipid prose>
    -----
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  • -2
    Posted by Maphesdus 9 years, 9 months ago
    Sorry, but this article is rhetoric without substance.
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    • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 9 months ago
      "this article is rhetoric without substance"
      Yes. It's almost like a parody of the nonsense that keeps libertarianism from succeeding. "Us conservatives want to beat on the brat with a baseball bat" Us just want to beat the other side? It almost sounds like the subject/object pronoun confusion is intentional, as if they're just making fun of the whole thing.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 9 months ago
      Music is a subjective experience maph. The article is about re -setting thinking. The old mindset that conservatives are all country western buffs, for example. Just getting people to think differently.
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      • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 9 months ago
        Depends on how you characterize the Tea Party. Many of them count themselves as conservatives, many others libertarians, and even some as true Liberals (in the classic sense, more than the modern progressive sense). Few traditional Repub's would really fit the bill - not even sure that I'd call them C&W types, more like muzak if you ask me - nothing really firm and distinctive, vaguely like the original but just not very convincing or satisfying.
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      • Posted by Maphesdus 9 years, 9 months ago
        Resetting thinking requires evidence. This article contains none. It's just a series of statements and claims without any logical support or proof to back them up. It's the kind of dogma that will help reaffirm the opinions of people who already feel that way, but it does absolutely nothing to persuade people who don't.
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        • Posted by 9 years, 9 months ago
          You make some good points. But wanting more freedom is a break -out from the dreary same old you must be controlled, people sre bad -I mean they put up parking lots and kill birds and bees you know. We have the right to choose...
          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmckWVPR...
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          • -4
            Posted by Maphesdus 9 years, 9 months ago
            I agree with that completely. However, you seem to be operating on the false premise that those on the political left want more control. This is untrue. In fact, a significant number of leftists, such as Noam Chomsky, self-identify as anarchists, which is the exact opposite of authoritarian control.
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            • Posted by Solver 9 years, 9 months ago
              Fact, the collective on the political left wants more control of the individual. As far as I can see, they can't get enough of it. There is a much greater amount of control (and choices) that are taken away from individuals than are ever given back. History shows this clearly.
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              • Posted by Rozar 9 years, 9 months ago
                I'd agree, but the problem is they disguise it as more freedom for the individual. And the problem lies in what people think freedom means.

                If I'm allowed to generalize, people want the freedom to patronize any business, the freedom to express who they are wherever they are, and the freedom to not have to worry about their health and well being.

                But freedom doesn't mean any of those things. Freedom means the ability do what you want with your life without force or fraud. And your life is defined by your property. The things you have spent your time and energy to create are all apart of your life. The body you inhabit, the vehicle you drive, the house you live in all define your life. Freedom is and always will be your ability to control your life.

                But what's happening is people think there is more freedom in the world, when other people have their freedom restricted. It's always targeted at minorities, because if you give the majority control over the minorities life, suddenly the majority have more control. However, there is less freedom in the world at this point, because the majority are already at the highest level of freedom, they control their lives completely. All they do is reduce the amount of freedom in the world by taking it away from other for a net loss.
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                • Posted by Solver 9 years, 9 months ago
                  Some very good points. Another corrupted use of a word. Like using, freedom to cheat. Freedom to loot Freedom to pillage. Freedom to have a slave. Freedom to avoid reality.
                  A growing number of people want those kinds of "freedoms" and collectively vote for them.
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                • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 9 months ago
                  The left, and NC in particular, want to use anarchy as the catalyst to totalitarianism - where they control. They want this control because they believe that they know best and deserve authoritarian control because they want to do the "best" for the world.

                  They shroud "freedom" in specialized privilege to the few that does not affect the many - directly. But as they gather control their influence over larger portions of the culture will grow. They will insist that religious tenets be eliminated as bigoted against some (this is already occurring). Next they will go after the majority as bigots for not reducing themselves to the same level as the minorities (this too is already occurring). Lastly, they will go after the minorities, who they will say are not living up to their potential and must thus be controlled for their own good.
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                • Posted by edweaver 9 years, 9 months ago
                  Who are you talking about when you say the majority are already at the highest level of freedom?
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                  • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 9 months ago
                    "the majority are already at the highest level of freedom"
                    I think he's saying in mob rule in general. The majority already have freedom. When they oppress unpopular ideas/people, net freedom decreases.
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                    • Posted by Rozar 9 years, 9 months ago
                      Exactly. It can work in any situation, majority rule is just one example. When you restrict another person's freedom, whether because you hand control of their life to a tyrant or to the majority, you never gain freedom by taking it away from others, you only gain control.
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                    • Posted by 9 years, 9 months ago
                      yes. Orientals! gasp! don't say that! we will get a mob together and keep you from a job in a company you created! good plan. dumbshits
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                      • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 9 months ago
                        Huh?
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                        • Posted by 9 years, 9 months ago
                          Oh I recently read an article where the left was bashing libertarians. One of the points was to discredit a Congresswoman for graduating from a penacostal college but also there was a bill in the house to include asians as a protected category for something. Anyway she used the word Oriental. I 'm reading this thinking is oriental a derogatory word now? Apparently it is according to what I was reading. Examples of how mobs attempt to control.
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                • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 9 months ago
                  The "majority" is having their freedoms decreased at an increasing rate, with no real net increase in societal freedom. Requiring 100% of all cake bakers to bake cakes for those whom they would rather not, for a group that truly only represents less then 1% of the population, is a net loss of freedom, with the greatest loss to those in the majority, and little or no increase in freedom to those in the supposed "minority."
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                  • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 9 years, 9 months ago
                    I see that you took two Thumbs Down. (I put you back to Zero,) That is hard to imagine ... or maybe not... I have long opposed the Down vote. And if everything said here about democracy qua mobocracy is true, why do we have voting at all?
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                • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 9 months ago
                  Right. Those are not freedoms, they are enslavements of others to your benefit. But since it benefits you, you are happy to enslave others. And when you have voted in to office politicians only happy to do so in order to retain their power, it seems like freedom.

                  But how is it free for the cake baker to be forced to bake a cake for a couple whom they would freely choose to refuse payment for their service? How is it free for a person in fairly good health to decide that they do not need healthcare insurance yet is forced to purchase the same, merely as a consequence of living - not as a requirement for some other behavior. How is it freedom for less than 50% of the populace to pay any portion of income taxes, and the top 10% pay nearly all of the income taxes, while the bottom 50% pay nothing and many actually receive transfer payments.
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            • Posted by 9 years, 9 months ago
              maph, really-Noam Chomsky? aaarrrrgggghhhh
              been there, done that all over this site. new playbook please.
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              • -1
                Posted by Maphesdus 9 years, 9 months ago
                All over this site? I believe this is the first time I've mentioned him. And what's wrong with Noam Chomsky, anyway?
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                • Posted by 9 years, 9 months ago
                  there is a post on him specifically and he has been discussed in here mostly by progressives, although not always. An anarchist who thinks that language shapes the world rather than describing the world. and he is an anarchist. Both of which Objectivism completely rejects.
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                  • -1
                    Posted by Maphesdus 9 years, 9 months ago
                    Language actually does both. Yes, language describes the world, but it also shapes the way you think, and therefore shapes the way you interpret the world. Your interpretations of the events around you will always be filtered through the lens of your ideology, whatever that may be. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I would say it's unavoidable. We simply cannot help but judge things against the background of our own experience and knowledge. There is no such thing as a truly non-partisan position. Everyone is partisan. The only question is to whom. Once we recognize our own internal cognitive biases, we can begin to change out our ideological lenses and see how the world appears to us when we view things through a different lens, from a different perspective. None of the lenses are perfect, and they all create some level of distortion, but they are the only means by which we can view anything. Therefore, if we want to obtain the highest degree of accuracy possible, we must have multiple lenses in our toolkit, and be willing to change them out with each other to obtain multiple perspectives. Insisting on using just one lens only blinds us to the bigger picture.
                    ____________________________________________________
                    "Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it's a map with constant immediate sensory input."
                    — E. O. Wilson

                    "A FEW YEARS AGO the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved goldfish bowls. The measure’s sponsor explained the measure in part by saying that it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl with curved sides because, gazing out, the fish would have a distorted view of reality. But how do we know we have the true, undistorted picture of reality? Might not we ourselves also be inside some big goldfish bowl and have our vision distorted by an enormous lens? The goldfish’s picture of reality is different from ours, but can we be sure it is less real?"
                    — Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow, "The Grand Design"

                    "In the history of science we have discovered a sequence of better and better theories or models, from Plato to the classical theory of Newton to modern quantum theories. It is natural to ask: Will this sequence eventually reach an end point, an ultimate theory of the universe, that will include all forces and predict every observation we can make, or will we continue forever finding better theories, but never one that cannot be improved upon? We do not yet have a definitive answer to this question...
                    — Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow, "The Grand Design," p.8

                    http://www.philosophylounge.com/perceive...
                    http://content.time.com/time/arts/articl...
                    ____________________________________________________

                    Ayn Rand may have rejected Anarchism on an emotional level, but her ideology is nevertheless build on the same logical foundation as Anarchism — that is, Anarchism and Objectivism are both built on the idea that it is possible for men to unite without coercion under a binding legal order for peaceful cooperation. They both reject coercive social organizations, and repudiate coercion as a social technique. Ayn Rand said some very nasty things about Anarchism, but she never specified how her ideal utopia (Galt's Gulch) was any different from the ideal utopia of an Anarchist. In fact, her descriptions of Galt's Gulch which she provides in Atlas Shrugged cannot be called anything else except the descriptions of an Anarchist society. Ayn Rand may have vehemently repudiated Anarchism, but her own ideology points in the same direction. And ultimately it is direction, not intention, that determines destination.

                    I believe we've had this debate before, haven't we? I've been thinking over why we had so much trouble reaching a consensus the last time we had this debate, and I think I've figured it out. See, the last time we discussed this topic, I believe you were opperating on the premise that the terms "Non-Aggression Principle" and "Non-Initiation Principle" referred to two different concepts, when in fact they are actually two different labels for the same concept. Here's the definition provided by Ludwig von Mises Institute:
                    ____________________________________________________
                    Principle of non-aggression

                    The non-aggression principle (also called the non-aggression axiom, or the anti-coercion or zero aggression principle or non-initiation of force) is an ethical stance which asserts that "aggression" is inherently illegitimate. "Aggression" is defined as the "initiation" of physical force against persons or property, the threat of such, or fraud upon persons or their property. In contrast to pacifism, the non-aggression principle does not preclude violent self-defense. The principle is a deontological (or rule-based) ethical stance.

                    http://wiki.mises.org/wiki/Principle_of_...
                    ____________________________________________________

                    This is why you and I couldn't understand each other last time. We were each operating under different definitions of the same terminology. THAT'S how language shapes the way we perceive the world. So you see, Noam Chomsky's stance on language is really not so far off the truth after all.
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            • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 9 months ago
              "false premise that those on the political left want more control."
              Yes!! Bringing libertarianism into the supposed left/right battle, is a win for rightwing politics and a losing proposition for libertarianism. It's a win for enjoying the empty calories of condemning particular politicians. It's a lose for the cause of liberty.
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              • Posted by 9 years, 9 months ago
                um, if that's where you see it now...yes, the right holds the US under its thumb. the threats on the horizon are the rich will not support your needs. gasp! the words out of your mouth are hurtful and we will back that with force. gsp! which is it?
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                • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 9 months ago
                  I don't understand what any of that means. The left/right thing does threaten the US, but to say it hold US under its thumb would imply intent. The left/right thing came from statism, mass media, the way its easier to create gov't agencies/programs than to dismantle them, people (often me) not paying close attention. It has us under its thumb but not by intent.
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