A Conservative Cult?

Mark of New Jersey

Mark is a Founding Editor of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, the predecessor of Ordinary Times.

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6 Responses

  1. Ryan says:

    I think the part where he discusses the cult of personality is also wrong in a different way. He compares the situation on the left to the situation on the right, indicating that one cannot question Obama without being excised from the movement. But of course that’s not even slightly true. I don’t think anyone seriously doubts the place of people like Russ Feingold or Glenn Greenwald in the liberal diaspora, despite the fact that they often find themselves standing in opposition to Obama.

    I think he is generally right about the way the left tends to gloss over some of its more insane elements, but I think he and I may not always agree about what constitutes a nutcase on the left (i.e., Chomsky says nutty stuff sometimes, but he also tends to be correct far more often than the Washington Post editorial page, so I’m not that sure I’d want to disown him).Report

  2. Jonathan says:

    I don’t know, Mark, on balance, I’d have to go with NIN’s version of ‘Hurt’. Cash’s arrangement eschews the discordant tension of the original, and the lack of dynamics doesn’t give it the same emotional heft that we get from the swells and retreats from NIN.

    Of course, Cash seems much closer to death than does Trent Reznor, which adds to the weight of his interpretation. And, in general, a debate about Cash v. NIN should, more often than not, fall in Johnny’s favour.Report

    • Mark Thompson in reply to Jonathan says:

      Fair enough – the original is certainly a fantastic song to begin with. But I have a hard time hearing the original anymore without wanting to hear the Johnny Cash version, although I can do the opposite. Still, I probably could have found a more appropriate analogy if I had thought about it some more. (Hendrix doing Dylan?)Report

  3. Katherine says:

    People who would laugh at the absurdity of a “Christian Muslim” seem not to recognize the similar incongruity between being a follower of Christ and an acolyte of Ayn Rand.

    [Applause.] Objectivism is the polar opposite of Christianity. As is nationalist militarism, in a different way. Which pretty much covers most of the current-day right wing.Report