Beck explains communists and Anita Duncan

[spursncowboys]

2oPDhyN_OvE

She said Mao is one of her favorite politcal philosopher in June of this year

[angrydude]

that's like saying Stalin is your favorite political philosopher, if he philosophized ever that is. did he? I dunno.

[ChumpDumper]

Who?

[iggypop123]

what does tim duncan's family have to with this?

[Laker Lanny]

Sorry but w/o the Vicks Beck just isn't as funny anymore.

[SouthernFried]

It's almost a waste to post something like this here.

Not that it isn't relevant...it is. But, leftists simple don't care if their leaders are leftists.

[Winehole23]

Who is Anita Duncan and why should I care?

[DarrinS]

It's Anita Dunn, btw.


But, is it really a surprise that a far-left American liberal idolizes the likes of Mao, Castro, Marx, Chavez, Che Guevara, etc. etc.?

[jman3000]

I liked reading "Discourses" and "The Prince". Does that mean I think that a leader should be able to do whatever he wants, no matter how evil, as long as the interests of the nation are in his heart?

I liked "Leviathan" too. Again, does that mean that I think I can justify slavery?

Sounds like more tangntial candy that gets thrown out and all the robots run to eat it up.

[Winehole23]

Who's Anita Dunn?

[jman3000]

For what it's worth, Mao was interesting, but not in the "man this shit is good and I love it" sense. It was interesting in that what was really going on in the country was so contrasted in terms of what Mao was writing/speaking about.

[Wild Cobra]

Who's Anita Dunn?
I don't know, but that's the name wiki tried to substitute when I check for an entry on Anita Duncan.

[jman3000]

Who's Anita Dunn?

You're probably asking to highlight the fact that she's a relative noboby, but just in case:

She's the WH communications director. Probably an even higher position than Vice President or maybe even the Presidency itself.

Just another in a loooong line of boogey men.

[doobs]

I liked reading "Discourses" and "The Prince". Does that mean I think that a leader should be able to do whatever he wants, no matter how evil, as long as the interests of the nation are in his heart?

I liked "Leviathan" too. Again, does that mean that I think I can justify slavery?

Sounds like more tangntial candy that gets thrown out and all the robots run to eat it up.

Yes, but she was asked who he favorite political philosopher was. Like you, I am interested in ideas I disagree with, but I would never answer that question by citing someone who espouses those ideas.

If I were asked that question, I would think of the political philosopher who has influenced me the most. It would be someone I agree with on almost every issue. It definitely wouldn't be Mao. (Or Mother Theresa, for that matter.)

[jman3000]

My favorite is Thomas Hobbes. I only liked about half of what he had to say. Especially his "find shit out for yourself" view. We have people like SnC who hear/see something and they automatically take it for face value and orgasm at their new found enlightenment.

[Shastafarian]

Yes, but she was asked who he favorite political philosopher was.She was? It looked like a speech to me.

Like you, I am interested in ideas I disagree with, but I would never answer that question by citing someone who espouses those ideas.Did you even watch the edited clip?


If I were asked that question, I would think of the political philosopher who has influenced me the most. It would be someone I agree with on almost every issue. It definitely wouldn't be Mao. (Or Mother Theresa, for that matter.)
She wasn't asked anything. She was giving a speech.

[clambake]

she shoulda said "i'll find out what i read and get right back to'ya". wink

[Winehole23]

I liked reading "Discourses" and "The Prince". Does that mean I think that a leader should be able to do whatever he wants, no matter how evil, as long as the interests of the nation are in his heart?

I liked "Leviathan" too. Again, does that mean that I think I can justify slavery?You make a good point. Just because you happen to like what a person wrote doesn't mean you endorse their politics or what they did in life. Looking at it the other way around, just because someone did bad things or was a corrupt person doesn't mean that whatever they wrote is undeserving of attention. I never read Mao, so I can't speak to the merits of what he wrote, but just because Anita Dunn admires something Mao wrote doesn't make her a Maoist.

For example: I think Carl Schmitt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Schmitt) is one of the most interesting political philosophers of the 20th century. Does that mean I endorse his private morality, his public choices or the Nazi Party?

I think not.

[doobs]

My favorite is Thomas Hobbes. I only liked about half of what he had to say. Especially his "find shit out for yourself" view. We have people like SnC who hear/see something and they automatically take it for face value and orgasm at their new found enlightenment.

If you only agree with half of what he had to say . . . do you think he influenced you the most? You may have enjoyed reading him the most, and I totally get that. But when someone asks you that kind of question, I think they're asking you to help them place you politically.

And people take a broad view of what a political philosopher is. It's not just Hobbes or Locke or Kant or Plato. If forced to choose among those dusty old guys, I might choose Locke. But if asked that question, I would surely search for someone who's ideas have actually influenced me.

But no matter what, you have to admit choosing Mao is a real headscratcher. Forget the fact that he was a brutal dictator. What ideas can be attributed to him, aside from his imaginative ways of imposing communism on an immense country mired in poverty?

EDIT: she may not have been asked, but it doesn't make a difference; she said her two favorite political philosophers were Mao and Mother Theresa, and that's strange

DOUBLE EDIT: this story is stupid, and I don't really care, it's just another Beck story to gin up anti-Obama anger

[jman3000]

None of them really "influenced" me. In fact, Hobbes was almost "anti-influential" to me because of the ideas he had regarding the issue of influence itself. It's almost like he didn't want to influence the reader and instead wanted them to understand how important it is to kind of influence yourself.

Choosing Mao and MT is interesting. I've read none of MT so I don't know what she espoused, but I'd think Dunn chose the two philosophers who contrasted each other the most.

Kinda like me saying my two favorite movies are RoboCop and Shawshank Redemption.

[Winehole23]

Intirim WH Director of Communications.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/14/AR2009101403850.html

[spursncowboys]

My favorite is Thomas Hobbes. I only liked about half of what he had to say. Especially his "find shit out for yourself" view. We have people like SnC who hear/see something and they automatically take it for face value and orgasm at their new found enlightenment.:cheer

[ChumpDumper]

SnC just send in to get his Glenn Beck Thought Police badge in the mail.

[spursncowboys]

You cheerleaders are changing her words. She said her two favorite philosophers are Mao and Mother Teresa. This is very different from saying a view from a philosopher you agree with. The guy murdered from 30 to 75 MILLION. MILLION!! Most of you are cheerleaders and I expect little except your usual one line nonsense or attacking my credebility. SOme of you, Wine and Lnngr, seem to atleast have a some what open mind. If not open mind, you have a larger, than most on this forum, ability to accept truthful facts. Go to Fox News and watch the whole segment to be sure she wasn't taken out of context.
What role is the WH communication czar? Is she doing it?

[ChumpDumper]

Is she killing millions of people?

What does her favorite philosopher have to do with her job at all?

[balli]

This thread and its creator should have been aborted a long time ago.

[LnGrrrR]

On the meta-thread of favorite philosophers, I'd probably have to say mine is Sartre, mainly because he penned one of my favorite lines, "Existence precedes essence." I think if I had to pick a few basic truths, this would be one of them, as would Descartes "I think, therefore I am".

[jman3000]

On the meta-thread of favorite philosophers, I'd probably have to say mine is Sartre, mainly because he penned one of my favorite lines, "Existence precedes essence." I think if I had to pick a few basic truths, this would be one of them, as would Descartes "I think, therefore I am".

I raise your pithy quotes with a paragraph I highlighted from Leviathan:

"The use and end of reason, is not the finding of the sum, and truth of one, or a few consequences, remote from the first definitions, and settled significations of names; but to begin at these; and proceed from one consequence to another."

I love his takes on knee jerk reaction and uninformed arguments.

[101A]

I raise your pithy quotes with a paragraph I highlighted from Leviathan:

"The use and end of reason, is not the finding of the sum, and truth of one, or a few consequences, remote from the first definitions, and settled significations of names; but to begin at these; and proceed from one consequence to another."

I love his takes on knee jerk reaction and uninformed arguments.


I never read him, but I hate him.

[iggypop123]

i like post modernism. haven't really read that many authors just one Foucault. read the history of sexuality and discipline and punish. dont have much time to read philosophy. its too time consuming, and i usually read history monographs

[spursncowboys]

"Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses" St. Thomas Aquinas