Quote of the Day 9-14-10
… [T]he best explanation for the left’s bizarre Palin obsession is status-anxiety… [which] occurs when a person believes that their position in a real or imagined social hierarchy is threatened… [and] when a group has no meritorious claims to its social position….
Leftism at its heart holds that a small percentage of humans have a vastly superior understanding of everything compared to ordinary people. The point of leftism is to empower these superior individuals to impose their superior understanding upon society by the force of the state.
… [L]eftists… try to restrict status not by merit but by conformity to their own life pattern….
On this basis Palin is a nightmare: She went to a state college. She lives in the “backwoods.” She likes hunting, fishing and sports. She likes country music and representational art. She doesn’t have the right accent. She doesn’t dress appropriately. She’s a Pentecostal instead of atheist, Unitarian, Episcopalian, etc.
… If Palin can be a successful political leader, what does that say about the leftists’ claims of intellectual and moral superiority? If people don’t just instantly assume that leftists are smarter and better than everyone else, why would people trust a leftist government to make so many decisions about the people’s live[s], e.g., medical care?
… If she succeeds, worse, if she is right, then they become nobodies.
~Shannon Love, Chicago Boyz, September 10
[HT: RushLimbaugh.com]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
… “[T]he best explanation for the left’s bizarre Palin obsession is status-anxiety… [which] occurs when a person believes that their position in a real or imagined social hierarchy is threatened… [and] when a group has no meritorious claims to its social position”….
The ‘leftists’ constantly accuse anyone who is opposed to b o’s policies of this very thing.
When W defeated Gore it was attributed to the anger of white men [still clinging to their God and their guns.].
When Americans of representative of every demographic category protest the policies of the obama administration it is attributed by the leftists and the MSM as racism.
They falsley portraty these same ‘angry white men’ [which includes an equal number of women] from every state in the union representing every age group and ethnic group, as being motivated exclusively by the fact that an light brown skinned man is occupying the white house.
Rush is correct in his observation that it is the leftist’s, who have few, if any meritorious claims, to their positions of power, influence and notoriety, except for their notoriousness.
These ‘progressives’ have rightly determined that their status, imagined or real, is threatened.
Correction: Palin went to not one, but several state colleges. This shiftlessness might not be too much cause for concern, but her disdain of intellectualism in all forms is alarming. These days, higher education isn’t perfect, but it’s more of a meritocracy than it has been in the past. Should not education no longer be used as a gauge for life success? Do we want people in public office who have demonstrated little command over language, logic or law? Or, worse, someone who is outright contemptuous of the fruits that higher education can bring?
Hi Megan.
Zing!
Oh, and gosh, that Abraham Lincoln! Everyone knows he was brought up in an affluent community and only went to fancy schools and wore a letterman jacket, haha! Because, you know, we should only trust and elect people who’s parents had the money to send them to ivy league colleges. Lol! Did you get a Pell Grant? Sorry, not votin’ for ya.
Oddly, I didn’t like Bill Clinton’s whole political agenda or career but I always found him likable when I saw him on TV. Sarah Palin has a similar quality: very easy to like. Even before I knew much about her, she seemed so comfortable in her own skin, I warmed up to her immediately. I’m sorry so many “feminists” find that so hard to take.
“Do we want people in public office who have demonstrated little command over language, logic or law?”
Nagem, At the very least, I want my public officials to be able to spell their own name backwards.
Sedexarp
Megan, do you even have any idea why Sarah Palin went to several colleges? Have you ever spent more than five minutes reading or listening to anything she’s ever said, without the mainstream media interrupting to tell you what they think it means?
And, yeah, I’m sure the children of retired science teachers are just brimming with contempt for education. [/sarcasm]
My boyfriend’s been to three different colleges, two of which were state universities. He started one, quit due to some problems with debilitating depression, got back on track and got a 4.0 from a two-year college, and is now finishing his undergrad degree with a current GPA of 3.9 something (forgot the numbers after the 9). How SHIFTLESS!
Marauder, et al.:
Did you read my post? Sarah Palin’s disdain for “elitism,” i.e. pursuing higher education, is cause for conern. The fact that she attended a bunch of different schools wouldn’t matter if she didn’t knock intellectualism so much.
For the record, I graduated from an ivy league school and paid for it with a combination of loans, scholarships and part-time jobs. My parents are middle class and helped where they could, but nobody paid my way for me. There were also just as many poor kids as “good old boy” types–thanks to endowments, financial aid was great for talented but disadvantaged kids. The “letter jacket” stereotype just doesn’t fit the school anymore.
*And I’m also attending grad school at a state university, which is the smartest decision I’ve ever made. So the issue is not “state schools,” if you want to try and twist my words.
I repeat: Do you have any idea why she went to several different schools?
Show us the evidence that she has a disdain for pursuing higher education. Seeing as she has a degree in journalism, that doesn’t even make sense. I want links that will clearly show she has a disdain for going to college or getting post-graduate degrees, not just for people who think they’re smarter than other people because they went to a big-name school. (Not saying you did that, saying that, not higher education, is what she has disdain for.)
Um, how could the disdain be ignored?
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/sarah-palin-explains-her-qualifications-no-ivy-league-education.php
“And I believe that what Americans are seeking is not the elitism, the the kind of spineless… a spinelessness that perhaps is made up for that with some kind of elite Ivy League education and a fat resume that’s based on anything but hard work and private sector, free enterprise principles. Americans could be seeking something like that in positive change in their leadership. I’m not saying that has to be me.”
Apparently it’s really easy to fly through an Ivy League school–oh, and resume building! Dont’ get her started! Because getting jobs and internships is really easy. Because well-educated people had everything handed to them. Ugh, women like Sonia Sotomayor, even Michelle Malkin, put Sarah Palin to shame.
Several current elected officials do have Ivy League educations and do lack real-world experience. Are you spineless and do you have a fat resume based on anything but hard work and private sector, free enterprise principles? No? Then she’s not talking about you.
I repeat: I want links that will clearly show she has a disdain for going to college or getting post-graduate degrees, not just for people who think they’re smarter than other people because they went to a big-name school.
I ask for a third time: Do you have any idea why she went to several different schools?
How much more pointed can she be without direct mudslinging? “Barack, I don’t think you actually earned your position…I think you got pulled through Columbia and Yale and all that community organizing in Chicago by a good old boy system?”
You win. Sarah Palin is a huge fan of higher education. So much so that she’s a staunch supporter of scientific research:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCXqKEs68Xk
(Um, half of what we know about pathology and genetics and medicine comes from research on the fruit fly. Earmark spending???)
If you need further proof of her love for learning and JOURNALISM, explain her remarkable inability to recall a single newspaper she reads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9go38MgZ4w8
Also, one could ask why she isn’t helping Bristol attend college, but I won’t even go there.
Palin’s been remarkably shifty about her education, first claiming a degree in journalism, then communications. I have little proof of her credentials as a politician, so I look to her education. I don’t know why she transferred so many times, but if it was about “money,” I wonder why a) she would head to Hawaii, which is a decidedly expensive place to live b) in-state tuition? c) credits are hard to transfer…I imagine the whole process wasn’t cheap. If she had some kind of trouble with mental illness and couldn’t finish school, I can respect that, but she hasn’t demonstrated any remarkable amount of support for higher ed., and she hasn’t done much policy-wise to lead me to think she’s judicious enough to lead a country.
Maybe you should bear the burden of proof. In what way does Palin SUPPORT higher education?
Also, one could ask why she isn’t helping Bristol attend college, but I won’t even go there.
Bristol isn’t in school at the moment – I think her plan is to go back when Tripp is a few years older. Also, she didn’t want financial help from her parents and is making a decent income from speaking engagements.
If you have little proof of Sarah Palin’s credentials as a politician, you obviously haven’t really researched her at all. Alaskans on the whole were very pleased with her tenure as governor, and there’s extensive information online from various sources about the things she did in office. You’re not even aware that Katie Couric’s question threw her off-balance because she was amazed that Couric would ask her something so insulting. The implication of the question was that she was some moron from nowhere who couldn’t even be trusted to be a knowledgeable person. Imagine Couric asking Obama, Biden or Pelosi what newspapers they read.
If you don’t know why she transfered so many times, your claim that it represented “shiftlessness” is based on nothing but your own prejudices.
The person making the accusation has the burden of proof. That’s how it works in America.
Yeah, and her popularity swiftly plummeted. Alaskan Native groups are really fond of her, too:
http://www.themudflats.net/2009/03/05/harsh-criticism-of-palin-from-rural-alaska-tucker-insulted-and-wants-apology/
(oh but wait, Todd’s part Native, so that absolves her from actually doing anything to protect the livelihoods of subsistence fisherman)
I think it’s a legitimate question to ask a woman who believes in creationism, doesn’t seem to find anything much redeeming in scientific research, and opposes sex education. Politicians are asked difficult and insulting questions all the time. Media exposure involves a terrible vetting process. If she was offended, she could have told Couric to go jump in a lake. But if Palin was taken aback so much about her reading habits, what would she do in a truly difficult situation?
You’re right. I have no way to determine whether Sarah Palin went to college to get an education or a sun tan. I’m making inferences. But based on her speaking ability, it doesn’t look like that journalism degree did her any good.
Had no internet connection for the last few days…
Megan, why don’t you just go read Going Rogue and see what SP says about herself in her own words? Even if you don’t believe it or agree with it, you’ll at least know how she’d answer your questions.
The part about not supporting sex education was debunked over a year ago now.