Don't Tread on Me flag co-opted by Obamacare

Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 11 months ago to Politics
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This is an outrage that I don't think I can just shrug off. I know feelings are un-Galt-like, but as someone who has made biomedical devices, this one hurts kind of like Francisco shutting down his own mines.
SOURCE URL: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/21/conservatives-will-not-be-pleased-that-obamas-former-campaign-is-now-using-this-symbol-to-sell-obamacare/


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  • Posted by $ DriveTrain 11 years, 11 months ago
    I have to dissent on this one. Yes, it's a disgusting inversion - but this is politics, and to expect hardcore, de facto fascists to "play nice" is to engage in self-delusion. Aside from a throwaway expression of "Oh gee, I don't like this at all," the only net result of us (meaning: non-collectivists,) giving this noxious little graphic further publicity, is that: we're giving it publicity.

    It's something I harp endlessly about on Facebook when I see "Republican" and "conservative" organizations posting, almost daily, graphics about how much they dislike Dolores Umbridge-Clinton.

    Our only proper response to all of this - to the bastardization of the Gadsden flag, to the covert Clinton campaign push that's being passed off as "Stop Hillary in 2016!" (my one conspiracy theory: that "Stop Hillary," in any of its iterations, is actually advance campaigning by...the Clinton machine) ... should be to pull a Howard Roark: Ignore it.

    I likely would never have heard of this "Obamacare Gadsden flag" if not for outraged Tea Party "organizations" plastering it from sea to shining sea in apoplectic outrage. It would've faded into the haze its designer inhabits, and few people - aside from a few hardcore collectivists, who by definition are a push anyway - would even have seen it. Instead we're performing free publicity for that rot. Enough already.

    My advice - and as this is strategy you're welcome to disagree - is to weigh very, very carefully the cost vs. benefit of further publicizing anything that comes from the vestigial collectivist crowd, especially if it smacks of some "shock value" item like this, that's hoping to trick people into sending it viral. So far, whoever came up with this thing seems to be succeeding, because we're spreading it all over the place. Whether it's Dolores Umbridge-Clinton memes on Facebook (even negative publicity remains: publicity,) or noxious flash-in-the-pan digs like this graphic, just resist the urge to pass it along to others. Just let it lay there, stinking like the intellectual roadkill that it is. When in doubt, practice Total Radio Silence.

    What I've started in response to the Facebook "Stop Hillary" memes is simply to post comments beneath them with "West 2016" or "Cruz 2016" or "Paul 2016" graphics attached to them, with no further comment.

    We have to discontinue the practice of publicizing the collectivists' ad materials for them, and begin publicizing our alternatives, in every instance where we have the chance.
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    • Posted by $ 11 years, 11 months ago
      I practice Total Radio Silence on so many things that I feel like roadkill already. At some point, even hardcore Gulch citizens like me crack after so much cyclic fatigue damage. Although I am no Rearden, I do feel a bit like Rearden succumbing to the relentless daily barrage of looters and moochers of insult after insult.
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      • Posted by $ DriveTrain 11 years, 11 months ago
        Sorry jb, I didn't mean it to sound like I was slamming you personally - and yes, the Gulch is well insulated from the rest of the world, fittingly.

        I get frustrated from the opposite direction, particularly on Facebook, where I see the same outfits posting the same kind of negative blurbs about Clinton every single day (which, though negative, still associate her image with the word "President" in people's minds,) and not a peep about the people **we'd** like people to associate with "President 2016," etc.

        I first clued in to the "shock-as-free-advertising" tactic when I started contemplating the later career of Madonna. At first she had some legitimate claim to pop stardom because she had some catchy tunes - but it became evident that as her musical aspirations began to run up against the limitations of her vocal ability, the more outlandish, titillating and self-consciously controversial became her publicity stunts. Most of them were directed at religious types, who could be counted upon, invariably, to take the provocation and amplify it into a major media event, thereby getting her loads of free publicity. You actually have to admire her success at PR strategy in a way.

        Which in turn is why I'm leery of getting sucked into anything "viral" that, intentionally or not, might actually end up promoting the very thing I consider outrageous. I always try to turn it on their head by substituting something that promotes **our** agenda, if possible via inserting it into the very same thread.
        Tactics! Strategy!
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        • Posted by $ 11 years, 11 months ago
          Not a problem. Fortunately I'm the kind to anger a little easily, and then 20 minutes later, I have totally forgotten what I got angry about. In engineering terms, my relief valve isn't constantly going off.

          Your point is well taken. I have seen talking heads say that we should not react at all. How very Vulcan of them. I am more of a Klingon. As Lt. Worf said, "Who cares about feelings? Humans, maybe." And yet ... how many times hvae you seen Klingons react angrily over issues of honor.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 11 years, 11 months ago
    First of all, I agree with you about Don't Tread. I've had a Don't Tread On Me decal on my car for years. I hope it doesn't get universally accepted as a symbol for Obamacare. I must disagree that feelings are un-Galt-like. Rational feelings, based on what you know to be true, false, etc. are good, and if Galt didn't have them, he'd be an automaton, which is the way some moochers look at Rand's characters. They look at them that way because they cannot understand rational thought. I am glad that I learned how to channel my anger into productive energy, otherwise I'd be tempted to seek out the person who came up with this idea and give him or her a history lesson before putting them in a stockade and throwing rotten vegetables at him/her.
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    • Posted by $ 11 years, 11 months ago
      You're right, of course, about the feelings, and about how to deal with them. Anger in this situation is a rational response. For the most part, I have likewise channeled such anger productively, but anger issues have cost me a couple of times. I have to be very careful.
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  • Posted by mminnick 11 years, 11 months ago
    The curled stethoscope is funny. Yes it is a play on the Don't Tread on Me zymology and message, but to most it will be a joke, nothing to take serious. That is unless there is a big commotion made by the Right.
    Just keep calm and it will go the way of most of the stupid ideas put forth to get people to sign up for ObamaCare.
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  • Posted by Notperfect 11 years, 10 months ago
    He knows what works and once a liar always a liar. Socialism is for the people not the socialist. One thing to remember he is still an imp just another piece in the puzzle. His lies have made him more irrelevant in this game he plays. And to think he thinks we are stupid.
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  • Posted by Kath 11 years, 11 months ago
    That they would use this to promote the ACA, a piece of terribly written policy foisted on us by only Democrats, is funny! It also shows how such people view liberty- a 'right' bequeathed to one by the government, stolen from producers. The nature of Obamacare is to tread on as many people as you can, so a few can have medical care of a weak sort.
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  • Posted by mccannon01 11 years, 11 months ago
    Just another example of the statists on the left using a good thing for evil purposes. Kind of like a pedophile using a candy bar to lure innocent victims.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 11 years, 11 months ago
    Important: Someone needs to come up with an add-on sticker (like the Subaru ad that took advantage of the strike banner) that converts this back to its original meaning. Then that sticker can be used to turn the campaign back on its thieving originators and make them laughing-stocks.

    Jan
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