Comments on: Book Review: Republican Gomorrah

By: groin

groin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:18:49 +0000

digby warns us:
By the way, if Olympia Snowe can say in advance that her vote to pass the Baucus bill doesn’t foreshadow how she will vote on the final bill, there is absolutely no reason that every single Democrat can’t say the same thing about cloture: they can all say that their vote to have an up or down vote doesn’t foreshadow how they will vote on the final bill. Obviously, there is no requirement to be “consistent.” Snowe just proved it.

By: Jay Wurlitzer

Jay Wurlitzer — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:23:10 +0000

Hey, that is what progressive philosophy does as well. It too relies on a belief system and often comes to people after they have sinned or abused people in their chase for material means.

Frankly Cliff comes to mind as a person that saw his scumbag life in retrospect and is now trying to do something he perceives as positive with his life.

By: Glenden Brown

Glenden Brown — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:16:35 +0000

Hey Cliff,

I’ve read some Altemeyer’s but not as much as I should.

To my mind, what makes the dynamic so interesting is the way in which someone has a personal crisis or trauma and right wing politics and religion offer them a psychological escape hatch so they can avoid confronting either the behaviors that caused the problem or any personal accountability.

By: Jay Wurlitzer

Jay Wurlitzer — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:16:27 +0000

Nice spin Glen. So you agree that homosexuality is evident arrested development?

What Fromm didn’t really know then is that the male homosexual lifestyle results in attenuated lifespan, at least statistically. He may have changed his opinion that being a gay male has no adverse consequences, but I haven’t read about it.

By: Glenden Brown

Glenden Brown — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:37:34 +0000

Given that he died in 1980 and the art of listening is a collection of speeches he gave in the 60s, that was a pretty progressive view at the time.

By: Cliff Lyon

Cliff Lyon — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:25:28 +0000

Hey Glen, Thank you for writing about this terribly important subject. As you know, we maintain a link to Altemeyer's The Authoritarians on our sidebar. As far as I know, he is the contemporary 'Father' of this subject. Have you read his book?

By: Jay Wurlitzer

Jay Wurlitzer — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:05:04 +0000

Fromm also defines homosexuality as a form of arrested development that he felt had really no adverse consequences but was in fact a denial of ones born nature in The Art of Listening, so take from his thoughts and opinions what you will.