Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2021 11:43 pm
He's fallen into the pit of his own delusion.
Philosophy Now Forum
For the discussion of all things philosophical.
https://canzookia.com/
The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Page 17 of 35
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2021 11:45 pm
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ZwuXH6vuHE
On the West Lawn of the Capitol Wednesday, a man in a pom-pom beanie clamored for blood. “Execute the traitors!” he shouted into a megaphone. “I wanna see executions!”
The man got the deaths he wanted, if not the executions. Four rioters died as a result of Wednesday’s insurrection at the Capitol. The mob beat a police officer with a fire extinguisher, law-enforcement sources told The New York Times; the officer later died. Some of them had bigger plans too: Before the protest, pro-Trump radicals had posted online about their intentions to kill Vice President Mike Pence. They brought zip ties and wore Kevlar vests. Rioters erected a wooden gallows next to the Capitol Reflecting Pool, and police discovered two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill.
The violence could have been even worse. Some of the rioters clearly wanted it to be. And Wednesday’s attack may have had another, more insidious effect: to embolden extremists. Already, Trump-supporting zealots online are promising to return to Washington around Inauguration Day.
“President Trump has ignited fire within people,” a protester named Maria told me on Wednesday afternoon, before either of us knew that rioters had broken into the Capitol. “Some of these guys … they’re ready to go to war or die for their country today. This is not going away anytime soon.”
As the rioters breached the Capitol walls, Representative Susan Wild of Pennsylvania was in the House gallery, watching her colleagues debating on the floor below. She watched as the Capitol Police evacuated Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Suddenly, officers announced that rioters had entered the Capitol Rotunda, and ordered Wild and her colleagues to put on the gas masks below their chairs. Wild dropped to the floor. She and several other members of Congress crawled on their hands and knees from one side of the gallery to an open exit on the other. She FaceTimed her two adult children to reassure them. After she hung up, the panic set in—the sensation of being trapped, cornered like a caged animal. This, Wild told me, was probably the moment captured in the now widely circulated photo of her being comforted by Representative Jason Crow of Colorado, a former Army Ranger. “I had an image of an overwhelming number of armed people invading the Capitol coming in to shoot us up,” she said. “I remember thinking, Wow, this is what it’s come to.”
The rioters didn’t shoot any lawmakers, but Wild was close to real danger. A screaming mob had forced its way into the Capitol on the west side, and more people were climbing through the broken windows of the east entrance. A group led by a man in a QAnon T-shirt chased a police officer up to the second floor, chanting and demanding to speak with senators. Some wore tactical gear—helmets, armor, and black masks covering their entire face. It was easy to miss them with all the coverage of the costumes and poop-smearing and poses struck in Statuary Hall, but they were there, these military-styled men, carrying blunt instruments and fistfuls of zip ties, better known as flex cuffs, capable of restraining hostages. At least one was an Air Force combat veteran, The New Yorker reported. They seemed to act with purpose and knew their way around the Capitol. One carried a semiautomatic weapon and 11 Molotov cocktails. Later, police officers found the two pipe bombs. The devices were outside the buildings housing the Democratic and Republican National Committees, just blocks from the Capitol. Federal agents discovered a truck full of rifles, shotguns, and bomb-making supplies parked outside the RNC headquarters.
“We are lucky, more than anything else, there wasn’t a large death toll,” Peter Simi, an expert on extremist groups at Chapman University, told me. “It could have been far, far worse.”
Rioters could have set off these bombs, used the flex cuffs to take lawmakers hostage, or set up a kind of kangaroo court for the politicians they consider to be traitors to the MAGA cause, Simi said. “The idea of taking folks who have committed treason prisoner, those are ideas that are widely circulating in [far-right] circles,” he said. “All the Democratic lawmakers and any of the Republicans that have criticized Trump or not fully supported Trump would be eligible.” A Reuters photographer on the scene said he heard at least three different rioters say they wanted to find and hang Pence, who supported certifying the results of the election.
A rioter wearing tactical gear carries zip ties in the Senate chamber
A few of the rioters at the Capitol wore tactical gear and carried zip ties capable of restraining hostages. (Win McNamee / Getty)
Some of the rioters were well-known extremists or members of radical groups. Members of the Proud Boys, a group of self-described “Western chauvinists” who have participated in violent street rallies over the past year, attended the riot this week. Other attendees included a white-nationalist social-media personality known as Baked Alaska; at least one neo-Nazi group; and a QAnon adherent named Jake Angeli, who was dressed in an animal pelt and horns, the Daily Beast reports. The man who put his feet up on a desk in Pelosi’s office was Richard Barnett, who’d previously called himself a white nationalist and written on Facebook that he was prepared to die violently. Some of the far-right insurrectionists live-streamed the Capitol invasion on a fringe gaming website.
On sites such as TheDonald.Win and Parler, Trump supporters had been plotting the attack for weeks, promising violence if Congress didn’t overturn the results of the presidential election. They discussed the weapons they would bring and brainstormed which lawmakers they would hang first. “I’m thinking it will be literal war on that day,” one commenter posted on TheDonald’s forum last month, according to the Daily Beast. “Where we’ll storm offices and physically remove and even kill all the D.C. traitors and reclaim the country.”
But despite all the chatter about storming the Capitol and the general call for violence, most of the insurrectionists did not appear to have a clear blueprint for action—and the ones who seemed to have a plan were driven off by police reinforcements. Rioters killed a police officer, but they failed to follow through on their threats toward political leaders. Part of the reason for this, Simi said, is that most of the people who entered the Capitol were not armed, and many were likely unprepared for how simple their task would be. “I think what happened was [rioters] had no idea it would be that easy to breach the perimeter, so they weren’t prepared for the potential easy opportunity to do a lot of damage,” Simi said.
Law enforcement is preparing for future violence. This week, the Army announced that it will deploy 6,000 National Guard troops for Joe Biden’s inauguration. But far-right extremists are not deterred—far from it. They are already reportedly plotting more rallies, including a return to Washington, D.C., before or on the inauguration, this time with more guns. For many Trump rally-goers, the events at the Capitol on Wednesday may be the “spark” that radicalizes them, Simi told me—or further radicalizes others. Among neo-Nazis on the Telegram app, “there’s been a real hailing of the predominantly MAGA crowd” that stormed the Capitol, he said. “They’re saying, ‘The lemmings are starting to see the light. Our ranks are growing.’”
The halls of the Capitol were quiet on Thursday morning. The only evidence of the previous afternoon’s forced entry could be found on the second floor: the broken glass and boarded-up windows; the bloody bust of President Zachary Taylor; and the lonely can of Axe body spray likely tossed or dropped by a Trump devotee. The building’s silence carried with it a sense of relief, like the end of a horror movie, when viewers can finally exhale. But it could just as easily mark the beginning of something worse.
On the West Lawn of the Capitol Wednesday, a man in a pom-pom beanie clamored for blood. “Execute the traitors!” he shouted into a megaphone. “I wanna see executions!”
The man got the deaths he wanted, if not the executions. Four rioters died as a result of Wednesday’s insurrection at the Capitol. The mob beat a police officer with a fire extinguisher, law-enforcement sources told The New York Times; the officer later died. Some of them had bigger plans too: Before the protest, pro-Trump radicals had posted online about their intentions to kill Vice President Mike Pence. They brought zip ties and wore Kevlar vests. Rioters erected a wooden gallows next to the Capitol Reflecting Pool, and police discovered two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill.
The violence could have been even worse. Some of the rioters clearly wanted it to be. And Wednesday’s attack may have had another, more insidious effect: to embolden extremists. Already, Trump-supporting zealots online are promising to return to Washington around Inauguration Day.
“President Trump has ignited fire within people,” a protester named Maria told me on Wednesday afternoon, before either of us knew that rioters had broken into the Capitol. “Some of these guys … they’re ready to go to war or die for their country today. This is not going away anytime soon.”
As the rioters breached the Capitol walls, Representative Susan Wild of Pennsylvania was in the House gallery, watching her colleagues debating on the floor below. She watched as the Capitol Police evacuated Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Suddenly, officers announced that rioters had entered the Capitol Rotunda, and ordered Wild and her colleagues to put on the gas masks below their chairs. Wild dropped to the floor. She and several other members of Congress crawled on their hands and knees from one side of the gallery to an open exit on the other. She FaceTimed her two adult children to reassure them. After she hung up, the panic set in—the sensation of being trapped, cornered like a caged animal. This, Wild told me, was probably the moment captured in the now widely circulated photo of her being comforted by Representative Jason Crow of Colorado, a former Army Ranger. “I had an image of an overwhelming number of armed people invading the Capitol coming in to shoot us up,” she said. “I remember thinking, Wow, this is what it’s come to.”
The rioters didn’t shoot any lawmakers, but Wild was close to real danger. A screaming mob had forced its way into the Capitol on the west side, and more people were climbing through the broken windows of the east entrance. A group led by a man in a QAnon T-shirt chased a police officer up to the second floor, chanting and demanding to speak with senators. Some wore tactical gear—helmets, armor, and black masks covering their entire face. It was easy to miss them with all the coverage of the costumes and poop-smearing and poses struck in Statuary Hall, but they were there, these military-styled men, carrying blunt instruments and fistfuls of zip ties, better known as flex cuffs, capable of restraining hostages. At least one was an Air Force combat veteran, The New Yorker reported. They seemed to act with purpose and knew their way around the Capitol. One carried a semiautomatic weapon and 11 Molotov cocktails. Later, police officers found the two pipe bombs. The devices were outside the buildings housing the Democratic and Republican National Committees, just blocks from the Capitol. Federal agents discovered a truck full of rifles, shotguns, and bomb-making supplies parked outside the RNC headquarters.
“We are lucky, more than anything else, there wasn’t a large death toll,” Peter Simi, an expert on extremist groups at Chapman University, told me. “It could have been far, far worse.”
Rioters could have set off these bombs, used the flex cuffs to take lawmakers hostage, or set up a kind of kangaroo court for the politicians they consider to be traitors to the MAGA cause, Simi said. “The idea of taking folks who have committed treason prisoner, those are ideas that are widely circulating in [far-right] circles,” he said. “All the Democratic lawmakers and any of the Republicans that have criticized Trump or not fully supported Trump would be eligible.” A Reuters photographer on the scene said he heard at least three different rioters say they wanted to find and hang Pence, who supported certifying the results of the election.
A rioter wearing tactical gear carries zip ties in the Senate chamber
A few of the rioters at the Capitol wore tactical gear and carried zip ties capable of restraining hostages. (Win McNamee / Getty)
Some of the rioters were well-known extremists or members of radical groups. Members of the Proud Boys, a group of self-described “Western chauvinists” who have participated in violent street rallies over the past year, attended the riot this week. Other attendees included a white-nationalist social-media personality known as Baked Alaska; at least one neo-Nazi group; and a QAnon adherent named Jake Angeli, who was dressed in an animal pelt and horns, the Daily Beast reports. The man who put his feet up on a desk in Pelosi’s office was Richard Barnett, who’d previously called himself a white nationalist and written on Facebook that he was prepared to die violently. Some of the far-right insurrectionists live-streamed the Capitol invasion on a fringe gaming website.
On sites such as TheDonald.Win and Parler, Trump supporters had been plotting the attack for weeks, promising violence if Congress didn’t overturn the results of the presidential election. They discussed the weapons they would bring and brainstormed which lawmakers they would hang first. “I’m thinking it will be literal war on that day,” one commenter posted on TheDonald’s forum last month, according to the Daily Beast. “Where we’ll storm offices and physically remove and even kill all the D.C. traitors and reclaim the country.”
But despite all the chatter about storming the Capitol and the general call for violence, most of the insurrectionists did not appear to have a clear blueprint for action—and the ones who seemed to have a plan were driven off by police reinforcements. Rioters killed a police officer, but they failed to follow through on their threats toward political leaders. Part of the reason for this, Simi said, is that most of the people who entered the Capitol were not armed, and many were likely unprepared for how simple their task would be. “I think what happened was [rioters] had no idea it would be that easy to breach the perimeter, so they weren’t prepared for the potential easy opportunity to do a lot of damage,” Simi said.
Law enforcement is preparing for future violence. This week, the Army announced that it will deploy 6,000 National Guard troops for Joe Biden’s inauguration. But far-right extremists are not deterred—far from it. They are already reportedly plotting more rallies, including a return to Washington, D.C., before or on the inauguration, this time with more guns. For many Trump rally-goers, the events at the Capitol on Wednesday may be the “spark” that radicalizes them, Simi told me—or further radicalizes others. Among neo-Nazis on the Telegram app, “there’s been a real hailing of the predominantly MAGA crowd” that stormed the Capitol, he said. “They’re saying, ‘The lemmings are starting to see the light. Our ranks are growing.’”
The halls of the Capitol were quiet on Thursday morning. The only evidence of the previous afternoon’s forced entry could be found on the second floor: the broken glass and boarded-up windows; the bloody bust of President Zachary Taylor; and the lonely can of Axe body spray likely tossed or dropped by a Trump devotee. The building’s silence carried with it a sense of relief, like the end of a horror movie, when viewers can finally exhale. But it could just as easily mark the beginning of something worse.
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:06 am
We love you are you are very special.
"Special" is synonymous with retarded. Such is the case for Trumptards.
The mob beat a police officer with a fire extinguisher, law-enforcement sources told The New York Times; the officer later died. Some of them had bigger plans too: Before the protest, pro-Trump radicals had posted online about their intentions to kill Vice President Mike Pence. They brought zip ties and wore Kevlar vests. Rioters erected a wooden gallows next to the Capitol Reflecting Pool, and police discovered two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill.
These are the actions of KNOWN white supremacists.
"Special" is synonymous with retarded. Such is the case for Trumptards.
The mob beat a police officer with a fire extinguisher, law-enforcement sources told The New York Times; the officer later died. Some of them had bigger plans too: Before the protest, pro-Trump radicals had posted online about their intentions to kill Vice President Mike Pence. They brought zip ties and wore Kevlar vests. Rioters erected a wooden gallows next to the Capitol Reflecting Pool, and police discovered two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill.
These are the actions of KNOWN white supremacists.
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:50 am
Sculptor wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:06 am We love you are you are very special.
"Special" is synonymous with retarded. Such is the case for Trumptards.
The mob beat a police officer with a fire extinguisher, law-enforcement sources told The New York Times; the officer later died. Some of them had bigger plans too: Before the protest, pro-Trump radicals had posted online about their intentions to kill Vice President Mike Pence. They brought zip ties and wore Kevlar vests. Rioters erected a wooden gallows next to the Capitol Reflecting Pool, and police discovered two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill.
These are the actions of KNOWN white supremacists.
But how can it be that the President praises a mob of criminals? I am an old lady just struggling to understand.
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:06 am
Because he is a narcissist; a bad loser; a man with a casual regard for reality; arrogant; a baby-man.Belinda wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:50 amSculptor wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:06 am We love you are you are very special.
"Special" is synonymous with retarded. Such is the case for Trumptards.
The mob beat a police officer with a fire extinguisher, law-enforcement sources told The New York Times; the officer later died. Some of them had bigger plans too: Before the protest, pro-Trump radicals had posted online about their intentions to kill Vice President Mike Pence. They brought zip ties and wore Kevlar vests. Rioters erected a wooden gallows next to the Capitol Reflecting Pool, and police discovered two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill.
These are the actions of KNOWN white supremacists.
But how can it be that the President praises a mob of criminals? I am an old lady just struggling to understand.
How can people not see that?
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 2:46 am
I'm pretty sure you are quoting the wrong person for most of that.RCSaunders wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 3:21 pmNot sure what you mean by an alternative. I have no interest in changing anything. I have exactly the same view as H.L. Mencken:vegetariantaxidermy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:57 amI doubt if the rioters are screaming that. What is your alternative to 'politicians'' and 'politics'?RCSaunders wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:29 am
True enough, but presidents don't have a monopoly on idiocy. Politics is a mental disease, and government is much like an insane asylum, but the one's that are funniest are those who take them all seriously.
"Oh my God, Twitter has banned Trump's account, how is he going to communicate with his people?" they cry, wringing their hands in grief and terror. Or, "Trump is inciting riots," the rioters scream. Great fun!
As he wrote to Upton Sinclair:I believe in only one thing: freedon; but I do not believe in freedom enough to want to force it upon anyone.
No one is going to save the world, or humanity from itself. No political system or social program will ever make individuals free or happy, and I have no interest in anyone's program or plans to do so. The only alternative is to live one's own life as well as possible to make one's self free.So long as there are men in the world, 99 percent of them will be idiots, and so long as 99 percent of them are idiots they will thirst for religion (or ideologies, leaders and authorities), and so long as they thirst for such things [they will never be free]. I see no way out. If you blow up one specific faith, they will embrace another. [Altered by me.]
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:11 am
Geez... your ignorant rationalizations seem to have no limits.
I agree with what commonsense said -- this adoration is cult-like. So much "love" for a pathological liar, who changes his mind and words from moment to moment like a lunatic, obviously a life-long con-man dependent on the swamp he pretends to oppose, while crowds mindlessly scream and drool for more as if they've lost all sense. You seem impressed by it.
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:11 am
yes Rump should be arret yesterday for sedition.Scott Mayers wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 8:53 pm I am hoping that the conservatives here try to discourage the extremes on your side.
Hopefully things will de-escallate but does anyone here NOT think that Trump is acting criminal? Trump should be immediately removed for sedition.
per "conservatives" most are like henry - brainstem cult 45 bots, so probably affirm sediition.
i expect nothing form them they showed their colors 4 yrs ago.
the few conservatvies i like, Rick wilson, Steve Smit, Frank Lutz - cut tied with rump years ago and startd the lincoln project, to affirm my consutution and the Rule of Law ove the rule of the mob.
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:20 am
oh wow - so now i know your true color, not a conservcative but a brains stem bot like henry - thanks for showing me your true nature.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 11:24 pm So let's see...
The Democrats have been stoking the fires of hooliganism for months now, calling people who show up n black costumes, occupy buildings, throw bricks, burn and loot, who shoot people on the streets and burn churches "peaceful protesters." Two night ago, Portland rioters attacked the Justice Centre. A night ago, thugs turned up at a representative's house to pound on his door and terrify his wife an one year old child, excusing it as an exercise of free speech and the right to protest.
Now protesters crash the capitol building, and the Dems are all in a flutter?
Sorry...no sympathy. This is the bed you made. Have a nice nap.
you affirm sediition.
lovely. and a brainstem cult 45 er too boot - even lovelier.
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:21 am
if only you were born 80 yrs early in that gernamic land - you would have fit riech in.gaffo wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:20 amoh wow - so now i know your true color, not a conservcative but a brains stem bot like henry - thanks for showing me your true nature.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 11:24 pm So let's see...
The Democrats have been stoking the fires of hooliganism for months now, calling people who show up n black costumes, occupy buildings, throw bricks, burn and loot, who shoot people on the streets and burn churches "peaceful protesters." Two night ago, Portland rioters attacked the Justice Centre. A night ago, thugs turned up at a representative's house to pound on his door and terrify his wife an one year old child, excusing it as an exercise of free speech and the right to protest.
Now protesters crash the capitol building, and the Dems are all in a flutter?
Sorry...no sympathy. This is the bed you made. Have a nice nap.
you affirm sediition.
lovely. and a brainstem cult 45 er too boot - even lovelier.
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:30 am
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:32 am
your defense of the rule of law in the name of a man - rump - who hates the rule of alw - and subverts it for his self gain - only show you do not value the rule of law either.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 5:28 amI'm not saying it made sense. I'm not saying it will achieve anything. I'm saying the Democrats are the last people in the world with any justification to throw up their hands in horror and scream, "What has happened to the rule of law?" They burned the rule of law to the ground, and now they are surprised that mayhem has broken out? They have no right to put one toe on the high ground, let alone a foot.
Heh.You could surf to Hawaii on the waves of hypocrisy emanating from the Dems today.
you are just another thug - a mbster that hate the rule of alw.
so fuck you Sir, only glad you are not an American, we have anough Ameriklans here allready - Herny and company.
give Hilter my regards asshat.
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:39 am
60 court cases - only 1 in rumsps favor.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 5:20 pmWell, here's the thing: when you destroy the mechanisms of transparency in order to get a win,henry quirk wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 3:28 pm ...and, in the end, the results were still certified in the houseplant's favor
snipped bullshit since the above was all need to show Emmanual is a brasintem cult45 koolaider - Jim Jones calling you bubba.
kids, don;t bother with bots, they sold thier brains out fo Dear Leader years ago.
.
time to take my own advice.
nothing more pathetic than a willfull braisnbot cultist - one that sells his own brian for dear leader to remove it.
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 4:09 am
The first quote you'll find in any list of Mencken quotes. I'm sorry I do not have the source, but suspect it was probably The American Mercury, of which he was the editor,vegetariantaxidermy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 2:46 amI'm pretty sure you are quoting the wrong person for most of that.RCSaunders wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 3:21 pmNot sure what you mean by an alternative. I have no interest in changing anything. I have exactly the same view as H.L. Mencken:vegetariantaxidermy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:57 am
I doubt if the rioters are screaming that. What is your alternative to 'politicians'' and 'politics'?
As he wrote to Upton Sinclair:I believe in only one thing: freedon; but I do not believe in freedom enough to want to force it upon anyone.
No one is going to save the world, or humanity from itself. No political system or social program will ever make individuals free or happy, and I have no interest in anyone's program or plans to do so. The only alternative is to live one's own life as well as possible to make one's self free.So long as there are men in the world, 99 percent of them will be idiots, and so long as 99 percent of them are idiots they will thirst for religion (or ideologies, leaders and authorities), and so long as they thirst for such things [they will never be free]. I see no way out. If you blow up one specific faith, they will embrace another. [Altered by me.]
The second quote, which I took some liberties with is exactly this:
I altered the quote to include Mencken's view on human credulity in all matters rather than include many other quotes, like:So long as there are men in the world, 99 percent of them will be idiots, and so long as 99 percent of them are idiots they will thirst for religion, and so long as they thirst for religion, it will remain a weapon over them. I see no way out. If you blow up one specific faith, they will embrace another. — from a Letter to Upton Sinclair from <i>The New Mencken Letters [1977]</i> page 76.
The costliest of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind. — A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
The curse of man, and cause of nearly all of his woes, is his stupendous capacity for believing the incredible. — A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949), quoted from James A Haught, editor, 2000 Years of Disbelief
No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.
— quoted by Gore Vidal in the the Foreword to The Impossible H L Mencken
The average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. The mental activity of such people is only a mouthing of cliches. What they mistake for thought is simply a repetition of what they have heard. My guess is that well over 80 percent of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought. — H L Mencken, Minority Report
The fact is that the average man’s love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies. — Baltimore Evening Sun (12 February 1923)
Out of curiosity, why did you think I was quoting the wrong person?"I have little belief in human progress. The human race is incurably idiotic. It will never be happy." — Letters of H.L. Mencken (1961)]
Re: The Capitol building is breached by the Retrumplicans NOW!
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 5:00 am
I'm not American. I have no obligation either to Biden or Trump. So insulting Trump is irrelevant: even were he a very bad human being, that would not make Biden and the Dems good. So far as I can see, it's a choice between a pragmatist and a corrupt Socialist. I know how to deal with the former. The latter is much more dangerous to human welfare and economies.gaffo wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:32 am...the name of a man - rump...Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 5:28 amI'm not saying it made sense. I'm not saying it will achieve anything. I'm saying the Democrats are the last people in the world with any justification to throw up their hands in horror and scream, "What has happened to the rule of law?" They burned the rule of law to the ground, and now they are surprised that mayhem has broken out? They have no right to put one toe on the high ground, let alone a foot.
Heh.