FASCISM IS JUST FINE....NOW: INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS REDUX

Charles Winecoff at Big Hollywood:

Recently, at the office (a place I sometimes affectionately refer to as Obama Central), I made the mistake of printing out a Washington Post editorial that questioned the foreign policy expertise of our new Commander-in-Chief. By the time I got to the printer to pick it up, someone else had already seen it - and stamped “DENIED” across the top of the page in red ink. Next to that was scrawled, “RIGHT WINGER GO HOME.”

Hardly surprising. And as far as hate, he knows what he's talking about:

I’ve been the object of hate before. As a teenager, holding my black boyfriend’s hand in Greenwich Village, a truck swerved to hit us while we waited to cross the street. To be honest, I prefer that kind of hate. It’s direct, out in the open, and in response to an action - in that case, our hand-holding - not in response to a thought. Had I committed a hate crime without realizing it?

As I headed back to my office, images of the Ku Klux Klan, going after people they didn’t know in the middle of the night, raced across my brain. Then I had to stop myself. And chuckle. There was no comparison.

But my gut kept telling me there was. Whoever stamped ”DENIED” across my document clearly felt justified in defacing it. Though petty, this was a hostile act - another tiny blow in the insidious war on free thought. And one thing I’ve noticed in the stifling PC smog of LA: the Obama generation doesn’t think twice about openly ridiculing folks who don’t follow in lockstep. They’re still acting like there’s a Texan in the White House. They can’t let go. They don’t want to. Because, like the believers of a certain 7th century ideology that’s made a big comeback in recent years, their objective is not, despite claims to the contrary, to coexist. To quote Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, it’s “to rule.”

...since the Election - I’ve begun to suspect that the rejection of critical thinking is more than a regional custom. Forget the swine flu, anti-thought is a viral pandemic - and it’s spreading fast. As Marge the Palmolive lady used to say, “You’re soaking in it!”

Twenty-somethings are fond of declaring, “It’s a free country!” But is it? Really? And what exactly does that notion mean to them, anyway? Because from what I can tell, they believe the First Amendment is a natural phenomenon which, unlike the climate, will never change. At the same time, these kids - who see nothing odd about surrounding themselves with creepy, halo’d icons of The One - mock folks who actually make the effort to exercise their right to free speech on talk radio, at Tea Parties, and at workplace printers. ...

As the media distracts us with constant fear-mongering about hate speech, racism, and possible assassination attempts on our President - by rightwing nuts, of course - a virulent new strain of politically correct intolerance has risen swiftly and silently in our midst: an all-out intifada against the individual.

In 1950, journalist Edward Hunter coined the term “brainwashing” to explain how some American POWs were converted to Communism during the Korean War. Today, the practice is commonplace. In 2009, every time an American turns on a television, he faces non-stop identity assault from a rat-tat-tat of guilt-inducing messages and innuendo: America is bad; America is collapsing; America should become more European; America deserves to be put in its place; America must bow to the wise and humble global community (especially if it’s Third World). ...

Guilt also plays a major part in brainwashing. Everyone from gay activists and environmentalists to socialized medicine zealots use it to browbeat people into submission (like any of us need more that). If you resist their arguments, then you must: a) be suffering from internalized homophobia; b) own shares in Exxon, or c) secretly want minorities to die waiting to get into the ER. ...

Guilt also plays a major part in brainwashing. Everyone from gay activists and environmentalists to socialized medicine zealots use it to browbeat people into submission (like any of us need more that). If you resist their arguments, then you must: a) be suffering from internalized homophobia; b) own shares in Exxon, or c) secretly want minorities to die waiting to get into the ER. ...

In 1983, best-selling shrink M. Scott Peck published his second book, People of The Lie. In it, he tells the stories of several patients whom he came to believe could be clinically diagnosed as “evil” - a character disorder he describes as “militant ignorance.” According to Peck, an evil person prefers to psychologically destroy others rather than face his (or her) own faults, exhibits zero empathy towards his targeted scapegoat, and enjoys falsely labeling other people as evil.

You know, like spending eight years comparing people you disagree with to Hitler.

Self-deception, Peck states, is the number one risk factor for evil, easier to maintain in groups - like MoveOn.org, Al-Qaeda, Queers for Palestine, Rachel Maddow’s Facebook page - than individually. ...

So when did groupthink suddenly become cool? When did words start meaning the opposite of what they were intended to mean? When did “progressive” come to mean ”do nothing,” and “conservative” mean “progressive” (i.e. “do something”)? When, as Andrew Klavan has so eloquently pointed out, did the belief system of the angels get reduced to the two-syllable mantra: “Shut up?”

When did dissent become a de facto hate crime?

In Don Siegel’s classic sci-fi flick, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), the citizens of Santa Mira, California, are gradually replaced in their sleep by emotionless impostors - the proverbial “pod people.” The film is often interpreted as an allegory for Communism and McCarthyism (a tactic first reviled, then hijacked, by the Left). But Body Snatchers is more relevant than ever - right here, right now.

You walk the halls, wander the streets, visit the homes of other two-legged beings who appear to resemble you on the surface, yet seem to have no clue you exist as a separate person, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. These seemingly intelligent beings talk about you, in front of you, as if you were in another room, automatically assuming you are of like mind. (Maybe they just never read Miss Manners.)

If you say something to correct them - or just ask a question about their leader - they blink, not comprehending. You repeat the question. They smile at you wanly. It does not compute.

...the O generation carries on, oblivious to its own cruelty or mortality. As long as they have Dancing with the Stars and Tivo, all is well with the world. Are these overgrown, enlightened rejects from Village of the Damned the new ugly Americans? If so, they are primed to be thrown over, fatally, themselves. By whom? I think we all know - and it ain’t The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

At the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter have managed to escape pod-dom by staying awake for days on end. Exhausted, Wynter finally succumbs. When she awakens, changed, she gives McCarthy some icy advice: ”They were right… Stop acting like a fool, and accept us.” If she’d had a rubber stamp, she might have branded him - “DENIED!”

McCarthy flees, desperate for human help, lamenting in voiceover how “a moment’s sleep, and the girl I loved was an inhuman enemy bent on my destruction.” Watching the attractive people I see everyday, working out at the gym, driving their Smart Cars, grabbing a Starbucks, watching CNN, listening to their iPods - and talking about Hope - I know how he feels.

When did they all fall asleep? When are they going to wake up? Perhaps when they learn, the hard way, that freedom is not just another convenience.

The kicker here is that, unlike the left, most of the right don't believe it is ok to hate people with whom they disagree. Maybe its that pesky Christian influence....no, wait....that would be an evil influence...sorry, Pod People!