The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

What If Everything The Left Has To Say Is Pure Crap? UPDATE: A Shiny New Word

Posted on | October 30, 2011 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

Pick the issue:

  • Anthropogenic Global WarmingClimate Change
  • Sovereignty
  • Borders
  • Raaaaacism
  • Entitlements

and now

  • Income Inequality

Whatever the Left seems to spew seems R – O – N – N – G – G wrong!
From the American Enterprise blog, building upon Census Bureau data, we find that:

According to three different Census Bureau measures, income inequality in America increased only gradually from the 1960s through the mid-1990s, but since then has remained relatively constant. Therefore, the factual record of income data in the United States certainly doesn’t support the claims that income inequality has “exploded” recently. A more accurate description of income inequality over the last several decades would be to say that it “flat-lined” starting in about 1994.

On the one hand, it it still crucial to kick the tires on what we think, lest we fall into ideological idiocy like the Left.

On the other hand, it is increasingly tiresome when those offering criticism do so in what appears to be consistently bad faith.

Update: I’d like to coin a neologism: hypodrachmaphobia (n) 
The fear that somebody else might be making more money than you, triggering a strong urge to covet, followed next by hate and then a compelling need to get a tax law passed that will help redistribute some of that bad, bad capital your way.

Update II: Linked at The Rio Norte Line, with a fine survey of Michelle Obama campaign hijinks.

Category: Progressivism

Comments

10 Responses to “What If Everything The Left Has To Say Is Pure Crap? UPDATE: A Shiny New Word”

  1. Charles G. Hill
    October 30th, 2011 @ 9:17 pm

    “If it hadn’t-a been for bad faith, they wouldn’t have no faith at all.”

    You could call it Blue State Blues.

  2. smitty
    October 30th, 2011 @ 9:26 pm

    AKA ‘Californication’

  3. DaveO
    October 30th, 2011 @ 9:53 pm

    Why not simplify the terms to “covet?” It’s all about power and someone else’s money to attain and maintain power.

  4. Mike
    October 30th, 2011 @ 10:13 pm

    Unfortunately for those covetous folks who are so hip on redistributing someone else’s wealth, it never seems to make it past government bureaucrats . So they will start screaming for even higher taxes…figure the odds.

  5. Michelle, My Belle… « The Rio Norte Line
    October 31st, 2011 @ 12:15 am

    […] at The Other McCain has this. 55.957870 -3.199357 Share this:FacebookEmailPrintRedditTwitterStumbleUponDiggLinkedInLike […]

  6. Michael Smith
    October 31st, 2011 @ 12:17 am

    I had a similar take using Victor Davis Hanson’s post at NRO about Michelle Obama:

    ‘I have nothing against Michelle Obama on a personal level – nor do I her
    husband – but the Michelle’s of the world justify their arrogance and
    ease their gnawing sense of empty accomplishment by confiscating and
    redistributing the product of someone else’s labor, innovation or
    intellect – not for the benefit of the recipient – but because they are
    angry, frustrated and/or embarrassed that even with their self-anointed
    superiority the creation of that wealth is beyond their ability to
    achieve. They, like the reality show fans, judge their superiority and
    worth based not on their true accomplishments (or lack thereof) but
    based on people they presume to be worth less than themselves.”

    http://therionorteline.com/2011/10/30/michelle-my-belle/

  7. Adjoran
    October 31st, 2011 @ 1:32 am

    Kudos for incorporating the Greek currency, that’s a nice touch on many levels.

    There are plenty of radicals in the OWS movement, with all their Marxist revolutionary nihilism, but even those sincere participants are so hopelessly misguided they don’t even realize the inevitable result of the economic policies they demand would be Greece, only worse.

    I should note that not all the protestors fit in these two categories.  You have the naive followers who are just clueless, and those whose view of a proper response to income inequality is to forgive their student loans – but damn those actual poor people who dare to get in line for THEIR food in the free gourmet food tent.

  8. smitty
    October 31st, 2011 @ 4:21 am

    Old-fashioned coveting, at least in this heart, was always about desire for specific stuff, even if already within reach, simply because someone else has it.
    My shiny new word has more to do with #OWS-style fear of some non-specific 1% that, somewhere, is rolling in a pile of unattainable (to me) loot, which then leads to the traditional coveting after which you lust, or maybe you don’t.

  9. Michael Smith
    October 31st, 2011 @ 4:23 am

    Appreciate the linky love…

  10. dustbury.com » Neo-neologism watch
    October 31st, 2011 @ 6:06 pm

    […] Smitty comes up with a “shiny new word”: hypodrachmaphobia (n.) The fear that somebody else might be making more money than you, triggering a strong urge to covet, followed next by hate and then a compelling need to get a tax law passed that will help redistribute some of that bad, bad capital your way. […]