Does Jared Loughner, the Arizona Shooter, Have Asperger's?

If you are asking this question, you are a very unintelligent individual. What on Earth does it possibly matter? It's as relevant to the shooting as whether he had blue or brown eyes. I've received five e-mails already with people bugging me about this. Apparently, there is some Mommy of an autistic who is desperate for attention and who is screeching "Asperger's caused it" on several websites. See an example here.

It is true that people with Asperger's can become violent. It is also true that people who don't have Asperger's can become violent. I know that we are in the midst of "let's-blame-autism-on-everything-that-is-wring-with-the-world" wave, but there should be a limit. Asperger's doesn't cause people to shoot into crowds. Contrary to what you have heard, it isn't a disease, an epidmic, or the end of the world. It's a way of being that does not cause unrelieved misery for those who live it. And, once again, it doesn't make people shoot into crowds. I've lived with Asperger's for 34 years and am still to commit a violent act against anything other than the copy machine. Trying to "predict" that one will become a mass murderer on the basis of Asperger's makes about as much sense as basing your prediction on a person's height, weight, or hair color.

I understand that thinking is a difficult chore for many people and nobody wants to make the effort. But dismissing the shooting by attaching to it a label of "Asperger's", "learning disorder," "schizophrenia," or "Mommy issues" is a very stupid thing to do.

Conservative Rage: Jared Loughner and the Arizona Shooting

Things haven't been going well in Arizona for a while. "Has Arizona gone insane?" everybody asked on hearing yet another newsflash from the state that seemed hell-bent on proving its kookiness credentials. Today, we have received further proof that when people are exposed to an unstemmed barrage of Tea Party's hysterical rhetoric and when those hate-filled diatribes come in touch with people's intimate terror of encroaching modernity, an explosion isn't far behind.

A crazed shooter named Jared Loughner killed six people at a Safeway supermarket near Tucson, Arizona on Saturday:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police are investigating a shooting near Tucson, Ariz., that critically injured US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and left an aide, a 9-year-old child, a federal judge, and at least two others dead, law-enforcement officials say. The attack, which injured at least a dozen other people, involved an automatic weapon, according to the Associated Press. Little is known about the suspect, who is in police custody. Among those killed was US District Judge John Roll. He joined the federal court in 1991, and for part of his tenure, he had served as chief judge. Although some early accounts had the congresswoman among the fatally wounded, the Associated Press reports that doctors at the hospital where she was taken say that they are "optimistic". . . This past November, Representative Giffords won reelection in a tight race against Republican Jesse Kelly, an Iraq war veteran and favorite of the tea party. . . Following Giffords's vote in favor of Obama's health-care reform package, the lawmaker's Tucson office was vandalized. The attack was widely seen as part of a broader backlash by more-radical elements of the tea party against lawmakers who back the health-care overhaul.

The 22-year-old shooter left a collection of YouTube videos and comments on social networking websites that consist of an insane mish-mash of Tea Party verbiage. To give an example:

The majority of citizens in the United States of America have never read the United States of America's Constitution. You don't have to accept the federalist laws. Nonetheless, read the United States of America's Constitution to apprehend all of the current treasonous laws. You're literate, listener? If property owners and government officials are no longer in ownership of their land and laws from a revolution then the revolutionary's from the revolution are in control of the land and the laws. The property owners and government officials are no longer in ownership of their land and laws from a revolution. Thus, the revolutionary's from the revolution are in control of the land and the laws. In conclusion, reading the second United States Constitution, I can't trust the government because of the ratifications: The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar.

You can find the rest of Loughner's rantings here. Loughner is scheduled to appear in federal court tomorrow at 2 pm.

There are many people out there who feel confused, lonely and lost in a world where modernity is destroying old certitudes, identities and ways of being. Modernity is liberating in the sense that we are a lot less tied to collective identities ascribed to us at birth. Gender identities, normative sexualities, class origins, religious backgrounds still exist, of course. Nevertheless, they are nowehere as binding as they used to be before the advent of modernity. It isn't easy to challenge the identitarian status quo, but it still can be done. For many people, though, this liberating potential of modernity isn't worth the steep price they have to pay for it: individuality.

There is no burden bigger than that of a personal responsibility, personal choice, individuality. A society that strictly prescribes its collective identities offers people a great degree of freedom from the irksome necessity to make their own decisions. At birth, you a handed a set of norms that you are supposed to observe as a representative of your gender, social class, religious denomination, etc. You accumulate enough of these collective allegiances and you can guarantee that pretty much every aspect of your life will be defined for you. Then all you need to do is follow the check-list of expected behaviors. No painful dilemmas, no fears of making the wrong choice. And most pleasantly - no need to think.

Modernity is terrifying because it erodes the stability of collective identities. Remember, nothing gets people to die for it as disinterestedly and enthusiastically as collective identity. You threaten people's right to live their lives unthinkingly, without the hypnotic dictates of collective identities on how to organize their existence, and they will erupt in violence. If you were told that the Tea Party is about the economy, the taxes, the deficit, the immigrants, the politics, or anything like that, you've been deceived. Tea Partiers are people who are terrified of and confused by modernity. The world is changing, and they don't understand it any more. Internet, new technologies, globalization, world economy - everything is getting too complex for them. That's why they get together on their rallies and scream senseless slogans. That's why they adore their Sarah Palins who offer them simple slogans that seem to offer pithy explanations of incomprehensible realities.

Of course, the sound bites that their leaders offer them ("the best way to deal with a multi-billion deficit is making a budget," "immigrants get free healthcare in the US," "gays bad, abortion bad, taxes bad, guns good," "get the government out of my Medicaid and into that woman's uterus") only offer a momentary relief from the anxieties of modernity. When the burden of dealing with an incomprehensible world gets unbearable, these misfits of contemporary existence erupt in violence. They ram airplanes into the Twin Towers, blow up a truck in Oklahoma City, and start shooting into the crowd in Arizona.

In the XXth century, two world wars were fought** because the entrance into modernity was more painful for some people than for others. What happened in Arizona yesterday should remind us all about how violent people get when dragged into the modern way of being against their will. Of course, modernity will win in the end. The nature of time, which cannot be stopped in its tracks and frozen in immobility, is proof of that. In the meanwhile, though, modernity's discontents will wreak a lot of damage on everything and everybody they come in touch with.

* I would like to ask people to abstain from "how dare you analyze, this is a tragedy" type of comments. I analyze and opine. This is what I do, so live with it. If you want some helpless OMG clucking and thou-shalt-not-judge hand-wringing, there are tons of bloggers out there who do just that. Also, I'm in a vile mood today (the reasons for which will be explained tomorrow), so it's better not to get into anything with me today.

** Yes, as usual, this is my opinion, which I can substantiate with a lot of thinking, reading, and accumulation of information.

Tea Party as a Rebellion Against Parental Authority

A while ago I discussed how the cult of immaturity in our culture has led us straight into a global economic crisis. As I observe the mind-numbing childishness of Tea Partiers who have graced this blog with their presence since my yesterday's post, I realize that their entire anti-governmental stance is a result of that very immaturity. All these people have received an e-mail from Amazon notfying them that Amazon is going to dump them from the Associates Program. Not a single one of those who came here to discuss the issue suggested addressing any questions, complaints or concerns to Amazon. The first and only target of their anger is the government.

Actually, it is always the government. Aside from being very silly, the "get the government out of my Social Security" attitude betrays a very childish worldview. The big, all-powerful parent who is imagined as much stronger than he is in reality (and don't we all remember believing our Dad was a superman when we were little?) is supposed to be responsible for absolutely everything. At the same time, every child goes through the period of resentment against everything the parents do. For a teenager, a parent literally can do nothing right. This all-powerful figure that rules supreme over your life when you are a teenager is seen as deeply flawed and unreasonably mean. "I hate you!" screams a teenager at her parents and sams the door behind her. "I hate the government!" screams a Tea Partier who hasn't been able to evolve past the teenage mentality.

Questioning the actions of Amazon would entail positioning oneself as an adult who is entitled to question the actions of equals (in this case, other private citizens who work for / own Amazon and make the company's decisions.) That, however, would require a degree of maturity many people simply do not possess. Being an adult is onerous. It entails shouldering responsibilities and accepting that no parental figure will come to the rescue or accept the blame for one's own screw-ups. As soon as there is a slightest sign of trouble, a Tea Partier starts to whine, "Bad, horrible government! Mwaaa! Where is my Mommy? Mommy bad, she left me all alone! Mwa mwa mwaaaa." Who needs to grow up when you can always blame the all-powerful government for everything that goes wrong?

Tea Party Christmas Book by David Hedrick

My reader Canukistani, who is a fount of priceless information, sent me the following video about a soon-to-be-released book by a Tea Partier on how Obama stole Christmas:



At first, I thought that this was some kind of a spoof because such a book cannot possibly exist. But then I discovered that yes, it can:

A tea party candidate who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Washington is hoping to teach kids the true meaning of Christmas with his new anti-Obama book, 'The Liberal Clause.' David Hedrick is well-known for his tirades against the liberal agenda, and once went so far as to sa Nancy Pelosi should be checking her sleeve for Nazi insignia. His new book tells the tale of a socialist Santa named Barry "The Liberal Claus" Obama. Liberal Claus is accompanied by his helper, "Elf Peloosi." According to Hedrick's site, there are other characters like "Mr. Snore" aka Al Gore, Hugo Chavez, Stalin and a hippie. In the book, Liberal Claus forces the elves to unionize, bails out the sled industry with town money and ensures that all children are given the same amount of toys, no matter how naughty or nice they've been.

I think this book will be an absolute best-seller because I, for one, cannot wait to read it in its entirety.

What the Tea Party Is All About

The perfect way to summarize what the Tea Party is about:

A large group of white people are terrified of the future, wish to live in a mythical past that never was, and don’t want any people of the wrong color to have “their” money.

Read more here.

Noam Chomsky Justifies the Tea Partiers

I'm disappointed by Noam Chomsky. Listen to how he justifies the poor, "exploited" tea partiers:



Surely, Chomsky can't be so blind as to miss that the only "real grievances" of the tea partiers arise from their racism and misogyny. But then again, communists and fascists always felt a very strong attraction to each other, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised at his affected blindness.

Bill Maher and the Tea Partiers

The amazing Bill Maher makes fun of the tea baggers. This speech doesn't have to be seen as comedic. I think it would make a great election speech:



More from the super hilarious Bill Maher:

More on the Tea Party Hypocrisy

People don’t want to think. And the deeper they get into trouble, the less they want to think. But by some sort of instinct, they feel that they ought to and it makes them feel guilty. So they’ll bless and follow anyone who gives them a justification for not thinking. Anyone who makes a virtue—a highly intellectual virtue—out of what they know to be their sin, their weakness and their guilt.

                                                                                                                  - Ayn Rand.

The most recent scandal surrounding the increasingly bizarre Sarah Palin is a perfect showcase for yet another instance of egregious hypocrisy on the part of the new breed of Libertarians she represents. This weirdo comes to the California STATE University and charges $100,000 for one of her anti-government spending speeches. I mean, we all know that she is completely brainless but this is too much even for her.

I want to offer yet another quote from Ayn Rand that describes the utterly incompetent Palin perfectly:

What we are now asked to worship, what had once been dressed as God or king, is the naked, twisted, mindless figure of the human Incompetent. This is the new ideal, the goal to aim at, the purpose to live for, and all men are to be rewarded according to how close they approach it. This is the age of the common man, they tell us—a title which any man may claim to the extent of such distinction as he has managed not to achieve. He will rise to a rank of nobility by means of the effort he has failed to make, he will be honored for such virtue as he has not displayed, and he will be paid for the goods which he did not produce. But we—we, who must atone for the guilt of ability—we will work to support him as he orders, with his pleasure as our only reward. Since we have the most to contribute, we will have the least to say. Since we have the better capacity to think, we will not be permitted a thought of our own. Since we have the judgment to act, we will not be permitted an action of our choice. We will work under directives and controls, issued by those who are incapable of working. They will dispose of our energy, because they have none to offer, and of our product, because they can’t produce.

Palin, who is so incompetent that she couldn't even complete her term as governor, now mooches off of the talented students of Cal State, believing that her pleasure should be their only reward. Then, she accuses the students of revealing the truth. What would the founder of Objectivism say about this? Here goes:

A lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked. And if one gains the immediate purpose of the lie—the price one pays is the destruction of that which the gain was intended to serve. The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on.

 Any more questions on whether the Tea Party has anything to do with Libertarianism (except being its exact opposite)?

What Is Fascism? Evangelical Fascism in the US, Cont'd

This is part II of my post on the rise of American fascism.

11. "Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked." In 1936, Millan Astray, one of the fascist leaders of the Nationalist movement in Spain, interrupted a speech given at the University of Salamanca by one of Spain's greatest writers and philosophers Miguel de Unamuno. "Death to the Intelligence! Long live death!" screamed Astray. "You can win by brute force, but you can never convince," replied the elderly philosopher. This perennial fascist cry of death to the intelligence is echoed today by endless scorn that Tea Party fundamentalists heap on intellectuals, college professors, writers, artists, and everybody who has some of that thing they hate the most in the world - intelligence. This is why they idolize the illiterate Bush Jr. and Sarah Palin. This is why they hate people like Gore, Hillary Clinton, and Obama.

12. "Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations." Well, this is more of the same, really. Fascist regimes are characterized by a willing suspension of all civil liberties in the name of appeasing some undefined but intolerable fear that drives the citizens of a fascist state.

13. "Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders." We all remember, I hope, how in the last days of his presidency George W. Bush forced the Congress to adopt a bill offering no-strings-attached bailouts to Wall Street companies. Today, Tea Partiers somehow try to blame the bailouts on Obama, who was demonstrably not in the Oval Office at that time.

14. "Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections." All of these things happened under the Bush administration. Threats against Obama have been coming in a steady stream from the Tea Party movement. We all remember how they showed up with rifles at their scary meetings.

If you are interested in learning more about American fascism, I strongly recommend a book titled American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges. He is a brilliant journalist, and this important book is packed with information and analysis of the rise of fascism among the representatives of the religious right in this country.

People tend to dismiss the tea partiers as a bunch of silly, misguided freaks who have no coherent political agenda simply because they do not have the mental capacity to understand the words "coherent" and "agenda." In my opinion, dismissing them out of hand is a mistake. Their agenda is fear and their policy is hatred.

Remember that the intellectuals dismissed Hitler's hysterical beer hall screechings until they were forced to recognize how many people found his ravings attractive. Today, we laugh at the unintelligent ramblings of Sarah Palin and her best buddy Rand Paul. I am afraid that when we finally wake up and realize the fascist nature of the Evangelical Tea Partiers, it might be too late. Yes, they are laughable, but this is precisely what makes them so dangerous. While we are laughing, they keep attracting more disenfranchised, scared, angry and resentful people to their side. People who have no idea that what they actually support under the name of Tea Parties is fascism, pure and simple.

What Is Fascism? Evangelical Fascism in the US

Some of my readers are still not convinced that the Tea Party represents one of the instances of the rise of American fascism. So here are the characteristics of fascism and the demonstrations of how they appear within this movement. The American branch of fascism shares a lot of characteristics with the Catholic fascism in Franco's Spain. It is deeply and fanatically religious in nature.

In my analysis, I will rely on the list of characteristics of fascism compiled by Dr. Lawrence Britt, just so that nobody can accuse me of defining fascism in some completely personal way.

1. "Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays." Obviously, the Tea Partiers are very nationalistic. The second they dislike somebody (such as, for example, President Obama), they start referring to them as un-American. Their constant flag waving is notorious. Remember how much song and dance Evangelicals created over whether Obama would wear an American flag in his lapel? That's part of this fanatical nationalism, without which fascism does not exist.

2. "Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc." Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Is that not the logic that led us right into the Patriot Act, Guantanamo, torture, Abu Ghraib, etc.?

3. "Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc." Have you noticed how often the Tea Partiers screech "Obama is a communist/socialist/Marxist/terrorist/Muslim!" Have you noticed how much they abhor immigrants or everybody "foreign-born"? If not, just read my recent posts on the subject.

4. "Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized." This was true under Hitler and Franco (Franco was a career soldier, and so was Millan Astray), and it is very true in the US today. Fascist regimes need to be involved in constant imperialist endeavors. For this reason, they need a lot of bodies to fight these endless wars. Consequently, military service is praised to the skies, and no criticism of soldiers or the army is allowed.

5. "Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution." What else is it if not the very agenda of Concerned Women for America and Sarah Palin, among others? Remember that these are the very people who pledged their support to the so-called Libertarian Rand Paul.

6. "Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common." We have all seen an incredible amount of censorship flourish under the Evangelical President Bush. Silencing dissent is a staple of a fascist regime.

7. "Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses." Tea Partiers and all other fundamentalists in this country are driven by fear. It consumes them to an extent where all rational thought is suspended and only raw terror of something undefined but vaguely threatening remains. As a result of this fear, they allow their authoritarian governments to push the Patriot Act down their throats and make fun of them through all those silly orange and red alerts.

8. "Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions." The Tea Party fundamentalists are plenty religious when it comes to abortions and homosexuality - two things that Jesus NEVER addressed specifically. They forget all about how Christian they are supposed to be, though, the second when somebody tries to provide the indigent with an acceptable standard of living - something that Jesus, incidentally, never tired of addressing.

9. "Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite." We have seen that in Franco's Spain and we are seeing it again behind every thing that Evangelicals do. Healthcare for the poor is for them a bad thing, while a huge tax break for Goldman Sachs evokes no protest from them.

10. "Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed." So let's see, how do the Tea Partiers and Republican fundamentalists feel about the unions? Seeing as they have done everything in their power to destroy the labor movement in this country, we can draw the conclusion that for these people the unions are the devil.

(To be continued...)

Tea Party Is Racist

And some people still have the gall to argue that the Tea Party isn't racist through and through:

Anger and indignation were served up in giant helpings outside the Bi-Lo Center on Saturday as several thousand Tea Party activists cheered speakers who attacked President Barack Obama as a lying, taxing, foreign-born, anti-American socialist. Waving signs and flags with slogans including, "It's the Constitution, stupid" and "Vote them all out," people gathered around a stage where keynote speaker Tom Tancredo, former Colorado congressman and 2008 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said Americans have reached the point where "we're going to have to pray that we can hold on to this country."
As for Obama, Tancredo said, "If his wife says Kenya is his homeland, why don't we just send him back?"

 If this isn't fascism, people, then what is? This is not a rhetorical question. Seriously, how can anybody be blind enough not to see this exactly for what it is? Just observe the logic: the lying Bush (who got this country into a bloody and meaningless war) is good and acceptable. And Obama (who lied about something they can never specify) is bad because he is - oooh, scary - "foreign-born." These people are beyond disgusting.

It's funny that they claim to be the followers of Ayn Rand, who - surprise, surprise! - was "foreign-born" and spoke with a thick Russian accent her entire life.

What a bunch of sad, pathetic, stupid, and angry idiots.

Tea Partiers

God knows how much I didn't want to write about these freakazoids. I kept hoping that it would soon become apparent to everybody just how ridiculous these clowns are and we won't have to speak of them, think about them, and notice their miserable existence any more. However, this isn't happening. You open any newspaper, magazine, or a political website, and there they are, in all their uneducated, unreasonable glory.

Tea baggers say they are against "big government." I would definitely be willing to respect this position (even though it is contrary to mine), if only they were really against it. The problem is they aren't. We never saw them protesting a single action of the most pro-unchecked-government-control administration this country has ever seen: the Bush Jr. administration.

People who truly oppose the expansion of governmental power and its intrusion into citizens' lives should have been horrified by the Patriot Act. But did you hear any protests coming out of these freaks? No, they just ate up the erosion of their civil rights and said "Thank you, sir."

Another glaring contradiction in the tea-baggers' position is their anger at Obama's Wall Street bailouts. Where the hell were they when Bush created the first humongous bailout and pushed it through Congress through threats and bribery? This happened only 1,5 years ago and, what, they have forgotten it already? If you are against the bailouts (a position I happen to share), take it up with the Republicans who started this whole insanity.

Of course, as we have been learning this entire time, their opposition to the "welfare state" does not prevent most of the tea partiers from receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits.

All of this demonstrates that these people have absolutely no problem with the Big Government or the governmental intrusion into their lives. In fact, more often than not, they welcome these things.
The only thing that motivates these stupid tea baggers is racism. Just think about it. They applaud these policies when they come from a white dude in cowboy boots but protest these very same policies carried out on a much smaller scale when they come from a black guy? What is it if not racism? So how can anybody take these freaks seriously? Their peanut-sized brains are incapable of generating a single logical and reasonable idea. They feel so overcome by their insane rage and hatred that their tiny brains stop functioning entirely. All these people deserve is contempt and ridicule.

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