Welcome to Pomo Lingo: Alert John McCain

- fibs and lies - gross exaggeration and hyperbole - posturing - fake hatred and hysterics (rage! rage! rage!) - genuine hatred and hysterics (rage! rage! rage!) - disinformation - emotional blackmail - incitement to violence - sentimental whining - false analogy and equivalence - (reversed) sophistry - in your face tactics and ad hominem attacks - para-exegese (deliberate misinterpretation or overexplanation) - massive imprecision - manipulation - proud irrationality - unremitting and deliberate confusion of terms - tactical mixing of facts and opinion - equivocation - inverse morality - false analogy -
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It's about time to revisit the wonderful world of Pomo Lingo! A new awareness campaign is indicated, because the Republican candidates happen to be the latest unsuspecting victims of its vicious intricacies.

Perhaps we should clarify once more that "the Democratic Party has been hijacked by fanatics. It can no longer claim the heritage of Truman, JFK, Barbara Jordan, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Scoop Jackson, Zell Miller. Instead, the party has been overrun by parasites and subversives (...)". That would be, what are loosely termed Postmodernists, an amalgam of Kant/Hegel followers who are all in possession of the same collectivist and subjective mindsets. They liked to refer to reason as "the whore of the Enlightenment". Go figure.

In a recent post we explained that one Pomo way of shutting up an opponent is the racial slur, or any other expression of political correctness: it imposes self-censorship.

A striking example from the campaign trail is the mindboggling chutzpah of Gov. David Paterson, referring to the McCain-Palin ticket as "vampires" and "blood suckers," while a day or so later accusing them of racism. Paterson has devised a delightful Postmodern thing no one has ever heard of: satirizing the profession of community organizing is "racist code"! Who would have thought ...

It's Subjectivism in action: two parties, two standards: he - Paterson - is allowed to violate any standard of polite human interaction, while at the same time building a trumped up case against his opponents. See it if you will, as the redistribution of speech rights.

It's very clever, and it works like positive discrimination: the more victimhood, the more speech rights (in tone, decibels, duration, weight and offensiveness). Paterson is very justified in his action because he - as a Democrat - is speaking in the name of all victimhood.

John McCain - like the gentleman that he is - unawares of the booby traps set by Pomo lingo, has already fallen in line. Very effective, is Pomo lingo.

You could say that in a way, Postmodernists are beyond caring if they're making sense or not, let alone if they're fit for polite society. Of course they aren't consistent, which would call for one set of rules for everyone: their rage is entirely justified and healthy blowing off steam, whereas John McCain is a raging, certifiable geriatric (code word: erratic).

The expediency of Pragmatism says: so what - the end justifies the means - our end is so 'ethical', that unethical tactics are allowed.

Looking and hearing Pomos in action one often thinks of National Socialist ideologue Joseph Goebbels, who said that if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. Think of the myths surrounding the Iraq war! Postmodernists - sharing with the National Socialists the anti-reason roots of Kantian and Hegelian thought, often practice that same sort of audacity (dare I use that word, or would that qualify as 'code for fascists'?).

For all of the above reasons, debates with Pomos are not very well possible. For one thing, since they reject there's any objective truth to arrive at in the first place, there's no one party who is right and another who is in the wrong. Logically speaking, this would include themselves, but then we come to more expediency - 'we don't do unevolved logic.'

But more than anything else - and here the irrational plot thickens to even more frightening proportions - they aren't after truth, AND their gut feeling tells they are right ... anyway, they're after winning, one way of another, pitting sheer Will against reason (!).

So key are: irrationality, subjectivity, will and expediency, end justifies the means mentality, we are right, whatever ...

Another mistake is to expect precision of terms. Definitions are pliable and totally depend on the person's point of view at a given moment in time.

From the campaign trail: the indignation about the fake accusation that Barack Obama is a "terrorist."

Two things are happening here: para-exegesis and fake rage. The para-exegesis is the deliberate misinterpretation of the accusation. No one - except perhaps a hapless pundit giving way to prolonged provocation - has accused Obama of being a terrorist. The real morality behind the problem of hobnobbing with Ayers is the lack of judgment, promoting Sandinista type school councils (LSCs), making the Presidency vulnerable to blackmail, and showing a pattern of associating with the enemies of the land, a trait bordering treasonous behavior.

It takes some getting used to recognizing and rebutting Pomo lingo. If we have the choice, it is best not to 'debate' them at all. They cannot be persuaded of any opinion other than their own and, frustration through lack of objectivity mounting, will only result in shouting matches and ad hominem attacks on their part, and bewildered confusion on the other (which is precisely what was intended).

However since we must, given the nature of democratic process, would suggest finding a way to deal with their utter dishonesty, and formulate a proper answer to their Declaration of Total Culture War - they would.

More examples of Pomo lingo and Pomo 'logic' in notes to this post:

"What follows are more examples of Postmodern 'logic' excerpted from a post by author Victor Davis Hanson. He laments the lack of objectivity and poses the rhetorical question: why are the Democrats, while far viler and meaner, given much more moral ley way than the Republicans (...) >>>

Update:

... this entire thing of 'nasty McC and his mad followers' has all the hallmarks of a classic agitator set-up ... I'll tell ya, the media are either in the tank or exceedingly stupid (and no one would ever believe that) ... American Thinker: "Sabotaging GOP rallies", here in original: WSJ: "The Angry Right-Some disturbing--and embarrassing--behavior by McCain supporters" (...)

- Filed on Articles in "The Pomo White House" and "Postmodern Ravage"