George Rebane
Mr Mike Thornton, former KVMR news director and current volunteer correspondent for the station, often reads and comments on these pages. By all counts, Mike holds a firm and far left view of the world and its inhabitants. He takes exception to being identified by any of the standard collectivist labels like ‘liberal’, ‘progressive’, ‘leftwinger’, and feels they are either too revealing or cast him in a pejorative light. As a counter to that, Mike started referring to all other RR readers across the aisle from him as “regressives”, to which he clearly means to attach a pejorative connotation.
Since ‘regressive’ is not a common reference to people of a conservative mien (nor a noun in the English language), I took him to task on the use of the concocted label and deleted his comments that carried gratuitous uses of ‘regressive’. I have also asked him to share with us his unique definition of ‘regressive’ in the sense he means it in these pages (and elsewhere?). As a template, I invited him to expand on his definition as I have done for my use of ‘raghead’ – a definition which apparently eludes him and others of his ideology. Nevertheless, in the comment stream to ‘AtPac Lawsuit – still seeking closure’ Mike has graced us with the following bagatelle on the label. I consider that this piece sheds light on an important perception which is doubtlessly shared by many across the land, and therefore needs a more prominent place on these pages. In his own words.
I don't use "Regressive" as you use "Raghead". I believe that the term "regressive" is an actual description of your political agenda and world view. You use "raghead" as a way to dehumanize and entire group of people, in order to make it easier to hate them and therefore kill them.
However, my interpretation is basically this: "Regressives" want the important decisions that govern life, society and the economy of this country (and the world) to be made by the wealthy. The government simply acts as their police force and army. Of course they want courts to settle disputes amongst themselves (largely about how to divvy up the spoils that they make off of or expropriate from the workers) The idea that workers or the poor should have equal access to them or education or anything else is simply a utopian ideal fostered by "Communists". They are "poor" and they are "workers" so how could they possibly have any idea what is good for society. Much of this is based in a Calvinist theological orientation which basically says that your lot in life is an expression of God's favor or lack of same. There are many books written on this subject George and they are authored and researched by folks that are way smarter than I am.
They get very deep into the psychology of the regressive mindset and how it's based in authoritarian family structure. The authoritarian family structure is based on "discipline" and "punishment" (I would also add the need for a perpetual "enemy/other" to fight against)A discipline and punishment model along with a Calvinist orientation make the idea of social equity and or social responsibility (much less programs)anathema to those that hold an authoritarian mindset. The structure of American society has moved too far away from the values that authoritarians are comfortable with and so they are fighting to take society back to a time they they think worked better.
My exit question on this exposition is – What label do the “folks that are way smarter than (you)” use instead of ‘regressives’ in their research? And since these labels have become established terms of art in the literature, why are they not sufficient for Mike Thornton?
rebanesruminations.com 
Leave a comment