RoR: Forum

He never did; people just told themselves he did.

Post 1

Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 5:22pm

Another excellent column.

Dr. Machan wrote, "Emotions, although they are ultimately unreliable
guidelines to action, are pretty good clues to what system of values
someone has internalized. If one has to force oneself to disapprove of
or condemn vicious conduct and people and it doesn’t arise naturally,
people who do have a sense of just how bad some others can be will
become suspicious."

Yes, very true. Then you suggested the possibility that, "perhaps Mr. Obama just despises being disliked by people,
even by vicious rulers abroad."

I realize that you were setting up your next point, but it is worth pointing out that Obama does have people he doesn't mind attacking or having despise him: Businessmen, the wealthy, the Tea Party and the political pundits on the right. And those emotional responses, those positions say something about his perverted value system.

These points are just minor asides, in light of the column's main message on the intellectual bankruptcy of moral skeptics.

Post 2

Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 11:26pm

Well said, Tibor!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - 11:30pm

All I ever saw while watching Obama campaign was a smooth-talking bullshit artist who looked like he'd be more at home on a runway model in Milan, or on the cover of GQ.

It was almost like watching Dwayne Johnson campaign..."if you smell what the Rock is cookin'"

Well, I smelled what Obama was doing...and he should've been doing it in the restroom.

Post 4

Friday, October 29, 2010 - 2:08am

I'm not buying what Tibor is saying here. It doesn't resonate with my gut impression of the glib prevaricating egotist I've come to loath.

For example: Like those ever-permissive parents who always have an excuse for what their offspring are doing, no matter how mischievous or outright evil it manages to be, for Mr. Obama those who attack America, actually attack innocents everywhere, just could not be all bad, unworthy of understanding.

This does not square with the way Obama treats Republicans. He doesn't act like a permissive parent with them. I think Obama's treatment of foreign leaders has more to do with a combination of deference to foreign leaders who are modern liberals, and a sense of liberal guilt for imagined or real historical sins leading to excessive acquiescence to those leaders who are not Caucasian males. Between those two categories, that pretty much eliminates any foreign leaders for harsh treatment.

It shows a spirit of perpetual self-criticism and mea culpa, attitudes that appear to dominate the president’s conscience

This does not mesh with my impression of him as an egotistical bastard who can't conceive that he could possibly be wrong about anything.

This mentality of turning the other cheek, no matter what, appears to underlie the widespread distrust people have of Mr. Obama’s emotional makeup.

Again, this does not comport with his treatment of Republicans. Obama does not turn the other cheek with them -- more like he drops trou and tells them to kiss his cheeks.

I do think Tibor is right about Obama being naive about the viciousness and depravity that some people are capable of -- if they are NOT leftists.

I think the following description of Obama explains almost all of his actions:

He is a glib, shallow, compulsive liar who does not think deeply or rigorously about the possible consequences of his actions. He is an egotistical bastard who has extreme difficulty conceiving that he could possibly be wrong about anything, and has uncritically bought into conventional leftist thinking, though he is willing to compromise those ideas to perceived political expediency, so long as that expediency is articulated by other liberals. He does not understand economics at all, and reflexively thinks the solution to almost any problem is more powerful government.

Post 5

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 8:30am

Obama has an underlying distaste for all things American: our history, our economic dominance, all things conservative. Not to be too religious here, but the greatest trick that the devil foists on mankind is the belief that he doesn't exist (not to hint that Obama is a devil). Likewise, moral relativism attempts to make all cultures and acts equivalent given the context they occur within...a philosophy that there are no (or should be no) differences in morals. That way, you make a moral culture into an amoral culture by ignoring moral norms. Like Ayn Rand's essay, "The Age of Envy", the moral relativists attempt to remove all value systems by calling them "discriminatory"...hence, the ability to play a 60 minute Mozart piano concerto is equal to the ability to rap and a 60 minute ballet has the same worth as a 45 second break dance. Obama's lack of distrust or distaste for despotic or dangerous governments stems from his desire to value all nations equally and, I think, arises from his desire to cut America down to size.

It is not dissimilar from his "redistribution of wealth" mantra. He genuinely thinks that accumulation of wealth can only occur at the expense of a lack of resources somewhere else -- a form of theft. And, he thinks that America's success can only be achieved through the starvation and poverty of other countries. He has said, "We must return America's wealth to it's rightful owners." This is another display of his dislike for America's success -- which is ensconced in America's wealth. End wealth accumulation, in Obama's mind, and you will end inequality, injustice, and oppression.

But, that dream can only be attained through mass deprivation. Those who will suffer most from this nonsense will be the poorest countries and poorest people here. It has been proven over and over again through history.

Post 6

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 8:36am

My father was a prisoner of war in Germany for 222 days in 1944-45. He watched Obama during the campaign and since and he says, "I don't usually know what he just said, but he sure said it well. The last person I remember with that ability was Adolph Hitler and he led his country into an oblivion that they have still not recovered from."

Post 7

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 11:47am

Some really good points, Thomas.

Welcome to RoR.

Ed

Post 8

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 2:35pm