Friday, October 09, 2009

Guess The Demagogue

Let's play Guess The Demagogue: American Fascist (and Hitler's pal) Father Coughlin, or anti-capitalist gasbag (and Castro's pal) Michael Moore?

1."We maintain the principle that there can be no lasting prosperity if free competition exists in industry. Therefore, it is the business of government not only to legislate for a minimum annual wage and maximum working schedule to be observed by industry, but also to curtail individualism that, if necessary, factories shall be licensed and their output shall be limited."

2. "The rules of the money game on Park Avenue and Wall Street are comprised of things like charging the public 29% credit card interest, tricking people into taking out a second mortgage they can't afford, and concocting a student loan system that has graduates in hock for the next 20 years."

3. "Capitalism, in the last year, has proven that it's failed. All the basic tenets of what we've talked about the free market, about free enterprise and competition just completely fell apart."

4. "I have dedicated my life to fight against the heinous rottenness of modern capitalism because it robs the laborer of this world's goods."

5. "There's no democracy in our economy. You and I and the people watching have no say in how this economy is run. The upper 1 percent, the people down on Wall Street, the corporate executives, they're the people that control this economy."

I'll post the answers in Comments later; post your own answers there, "FC" or "MM," and no cheating!

Y'know, when you can hardly tell an under-educated Lefty filmmaker from a Fascist radio yakker, I'm thinkin' it means they're pretty much the same kind of critter. This is one reason why we've got a First Amendment, so snakes of their ilk can out themselves.

15 comments:

charles said...

FC: 1,4
MM: 2,3,5

Stingray said...

I'll bet 5 is a gimme for Fat Bast... er, MM on account of "the people watching."

4 goes to FC because I think Moore would shy way from words like "heinous" when his target audience has so much trouble with words like "real".

3 is a coin toss. I'll give it to FC just because Charles above me there thinks MM said it.

2- MM. The mental image of a banker in a trench coat standing on a street corner, pushing second mortgages, smack, and fake Rolexes, while hilarious, sounds about right for the sort of attitude that equates walking in, jumping through large paperwork hoops, and saying repeatedly through the whole thing "Yes, I want to do this" with being somehow tricked.

1- FC. Again, this reads like something that'd sound better on radio than in a film aimed at folks what want my stuff. I wonder if we can get some of those official limits on the output from both of the gas bags in question, just as a test case?

Patrick said...

(Without looking at any other comments):

1. FC
2. MM
3. FC
4. FC
5. MM

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

FC, MM, MM, FC, MM

WV: rephippo. Er. No thanks.

perlhaqr said...

I'm going FC, MM, FC, FC, MM.

Also, dearest retrotechnologist, this may be worse than wikipedia in terms of getting sucked in for hours...

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html

Enjoy!

Larry said...

Coughlin
Moore
Moore
Coughlin
Moore

Coughlin was more literate in his turn of phrase than MM could ever aspire to.

staghounds said...

1,4 Coughlin- better vocabulary.

Bob said...

1 = FC
2 = MM
3 = MM
4 = FC
5 = MM

Ken said...

Coughlin: 1,4
Tubbi Riefenstahl: 2,3,5

You can tell which are Coughlin's because his grammar is better. :-)

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Ken: That was exactly my reasoning, too :)

Roberta X said...

Ah, the unexpected result -- one goes looking to prove that fascists are fascists and find further proof of increasing ignorance. Which is probably good news for fascists.

perlhaqr said...

That was why I picked Coughlin for #3. I didn't figure MM would know a word like "tenet".

kahr40 said...

FC 1,4
FA[MM] 2,3,5

Ken said...

That was why I picked Coughlin for #3. I didn't figure MM would know a word like "tenet".

Assuming it was Riefenstahl-Harkonnen, I'd bet a nickel he said "tenant" and some helpful State Media soul FIFH.

Roberta X said...

...Ad for the few still wondering, our very first contestant, the redoubtable Charles, aced it.

Vocabulary is the key; MM is "keepin' it real," which is how the kids today say "dumbin' it down." Better be on your guard; the only thing worse than being pushed around by authoritarian scumbags is being pushed around by stupid authoritarian scumbags.