Saturday, October 29, 2011

DailyKos on Good Intentions

I found this funny:
While Communists are certainly responsible for more deaths and misery than the Nazis could ever dream of, at least their intentions were good, so I'll give them a pass.

The entire article was filled with such observations, making me wonder whether the website was hacked. So, if you cause more death and misery than the Nazis, but have good intentions...it's ok? [I'm now told it was an attempt at sarcasm. If so, it's stupid sarcasm.]

14 comments:

B. A. said...

Everybody has good intentions, and only good intentions, all the time :) It's hardly a criterion for giving some a pass and others a fail.

"From the person who cuts you off on the highway all the way to the Nazis who ran the concentration camps, most people think they are good people and that their actions are motivated by good reasons."

http://falkenblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/flattering-self-portraits.html

ebuurell said...

I think it it is mis-leading to say that "daily kos" made this statement. Also this whole article is probably someone's idea of a joke. Written by someone who has never written on Daily Kos diary section before,.However what I find interesting is how quickly you found this - it is extremely hard to find, my guess is that the author probably gave you a heads up somewhere, so that you can post to your blog and try and embarrass daily kos.

I appreciate your economic and finance blog. But I am sick of the left trying to smear the right, and the right trying to smear the left.

ebuurell said...

I just wanted to follow up on my previous comment. The "article" that falkenblog links to is to the Diary Section of Daily Kos, really nothing mo than a glorified comment section, where anybody can write anything they want.

I am sure Falkenblog would not want to be held liable for any and all comments in the comment section.

The "article" was clearly written by someone on the right trying to embarrass Daily Kos and the OWS movement. The very title of the article is misleading. It is not abut tea baggers, but about OWS.

What I find disconcerting is that Falkenblog linked to this, it is extremely hard to find ( I am certain someone sent him the link), and implies that it carries the imprimatur of Daily Kos, when in fact it is written in the diary section where anyone can write anything. Also when you click on the author you notice that he/she has never posted anything ever before, and his was the first post.

I am tired of the gotcha politics of both sides. Ad sure the videos show some OWS people saying some pretty fucking disgusting things, I am no more likely to paint all OWS with this brush as I am to paint all Tea Baggers as racist because of things said by people at their protests.

I am really upset at Falkenblog or introducing this stupid level of pettiness. Let's stick to finance and economics.

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing ebuurell didn't find it quite as humorous.

ebuurell said...

What is suppose to be funny?
1. The communism is okay because of "good intentions"?
2. The hateful crap spouted by OWS's and Tea baggers alike?
3. Falkenblog mis-leading readers to score a political point?

Eric Falkenstein said...

as I said, I wondered if it was a hack...it's still an incredibly stupid thing to say, even riffing after a long bong session. As the Danish proverb says: what is said while drunk has been thought out beforehand.

Anonymous said...

"it's still an incredibly stupid thing to say, even riffing after a long bong session."


Eric, from what you write, it seems you think the article is serious. It's meant to be sarcasm. It's written by a right wing person from the point of view of a left winger. Look at the links. It's not funny or informative, reading it was a complete waste of time. I dont understan why you linked to it.

Anonymous said...

Eric the right thing to do is to either take down your post, or at least change the title from "Daily Kos on Good Intentions" to something like " anonymous jokester makes idiotic comments in comment section on Daily Kos" which has the benefit over your headline of being accurate and true.

Eric Falkenstein said...

I read it again, and it's not obvious to me they aren't trying to make a serious point while also clearly exaggerating. Sarcasm offers the excuse of 'I was only joking' when trying to also make trenchant criticisms, and while this kind of thing is very popular and often quite funny--the essence of The Daily Show, Colbert Report, or The Onion--it often misfires, or is a weasel way to have one's cake and eat it too. That is, things are usually funny because they are 'kinda true.'

That is, the book 'Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot' was Al Franken's attempt to be sarcastic and mean, and I bet most of his readers think Limbaugh is a big fat idiot--while excusing this crude observation by saying 'it was sarcasm!'

If I made a sarcastic point that offended PC prejudices you can bet it would be taken at face value as proof I was a horrible person. When authors like this try to be funny while expanding on various bizarre leftist allegations, and it falls flat, they want an exemption. Sorry, I just think it's bad sarcasm.

Tel said...

It's only funny if he manages to suck a decent number of the comments into the picture. The commentators on Kos seem kind of hard bitten, and isn't it a wonderful thing to see healthy defensive cynicism spreading amongst the US population?

Patrick R. Sullivan said...

Just for one example, I once heard a famous left wing professor at the U of Washington excuse the depredations of Mao, by saying, 'You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.'

Whatever the intentions of the Kos author, I've heard this type of thing in seriousness before.

Caveat B said...

America has taken the torch from France as the defenders of Maoism.

Anonymous said...

I read it as a parody of the mainstrean news coverage of the Tea party events, plus it's location was published online, so it's not hard to find.

Anonymous said...

Oh the wonderful irony in ebuurell railing against partisan smearing while using the term "Tea Baggers".