Reich: Why Anyone Should Care that Bill O’Reilly Calls Me A Communist (It's a sign of the times.)

[pampango]

Bill O’Reilly, the tumescent personality of Fox News, said on his Friday show “Robert Reich is a communist who secretly adores Karl Marx.” (This came after Fox News’ Neil Cavoto called me a “sanctimonious twit” for suggesting the rich should pay more in taxes.)

O’Reilly’s accusation isn’t even logical. How can he know if I secretly adore Karl Marx, if it’s a secret?

Ordinarily I don’t bother repeating anything Bill O’Reilly says. But this particular whopper is significant because it represents what O’Reilly and Fox News, among others, are doing to the national dialogue.

O’Reilly based his claim on an interview I did last week with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, in which I argued that because America’s big corporations were now global we could no longer rely on them to make necessary investments in human capital or to lobby for public investments in education, infrastructure, and basic R&D. So, logically, government has to step in.

Since when does an argument for public investment in education, infrastructure, and basic R&D make someone a communist or a secret adorer of Karl Marx?

Obviously, O’Reilly has no interest in arguing anything. Ad hominem attacks are always the last refuges of intellectual boors lacking any logic or argument. (Whoops, I think I just stooped to name-calling. Sorry, Bill.)

Yet this is what’s happening to all debate all over America: It’s disappearing. All we’re left with is a nasty residue.

http://robertreich.org/post/21670907549

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[liberalmike27]

17. That is It, Isn't It

First, economic systems rarely qualify as Communist, Socialist, and Capitalist in the most pure forms. The simple reason is, they don't work, at least Communism and Capitalism, if they are practiced in their most pure form. In fact, the very reason we're living in a failing economy is that the "slight" Socialism of our Capitalist economy, has been mostly distilled out of it.

So we've got a moving system. You could admit yes, we're heading more Socialist or Communist, when we do things like raise the minimum wage, or create health care for those who are sick and dying and do without. But it doesn't make us Communist, obviously.

But that is the way the Class War meme is set up by our center-right, wildly-right media spectrum. The rich can nearly say "worship me, pay me more, give me taxes," and it's OK. But the minute the worker asks for a bit more, or someone talks about the richest people and American corporations showing the mildest form of patriotism, and creating jobs here, instead of a foreign land, they go apoplectic. They talk about the worthless poor, how they can't hack it, already get paid too much, and that is all OK with our media. But don't ask for more. You don't get a say, as improving your life by using the government is NOT fine, it is, ahem, Communist. Giving huge handouts and government cash transfers to the rich, and their corporations, just fine. That means we're moving further to the right, squeezing ever more poor people out of the mix, so Billionaire capitalists can have "theirs."

It's all about brainwashing. They've taught us all these words, which ones are good, which ones are bad. They've taught Americans this stuff in the last 30 years, repeated them millions of times. The poor actually "feel" worthless, even though the worst thing most of them did, was be born to a poor person. Likewise, guys like Romney have as their best accomplishment being born to a big-time politician, that had a huge bank-account.

I hope we're not stuck, I hope Americans aren't too dumb to snap out of it, to feel worth, to demand theirs. We could have a full-employment, living wage, single-payer economy tomorrow if our government officials wanted it. It's a choice, and they've chosen to screw us--and most of the jobs could actually be from the private sector. It's all about making our own stuff again, making laws that make it difficult and more expensive to ship product, or money, in and out of the country, putting levees on both. Sadly things don't move so fast.

[JDPriestly]

31. +1000

[freshwest]

39. +1,000 Also. Thanks.

[chervilant]

60. Tres + 1000

You might be interested in Marilyn French's Beyond Power.

(I am with you on that hope thing--#Occupy gives me much hope.)

[Cosmocat]

63. We are stuck

I am absolutely convinced.

The 2010 elections, when there was NO good reason at all to give republican's any power, and they wildly swung the house to their favor, darn near took the senate and made MASSIVE gains in state governors/house/senates just in time to redistrict completely proved that we are stuck.

The Rs, and as you accurately noted, the SUPPOSED "liberal" media have crafted an effective loop where they get to play everything both ways and because they scream the loudest and control the media, they get away with.

We get the democrat being labeled communist 1,000 times a day, and there are 1,000 other ways the republicans sling mud and degrade the public debate.

But, it won't matter, because the republicans and "liberal' media will take the odd examples of a democrat going over the top or something that is said by someone who is not even a fricken democrat to ...

Repeat after me, THEY ARE ALL THE SAME, the right and left do it equally.

It IS a losing battle overall ...

[highplainsdem]

2. K&R

[bullwinkle428]

3. K&R. Reich does a beautiful job in illustrating how the level of discourse

has utterly plummeted over the course of the last 30-40 years, and every last bit of that can be laid completely at the feet of the RIGHT WING. One only has to visit Youtube and take a look at the debates between Noam Chomsky and William F. Buckley to see what it was like before the wingnuts were collectively lobotomized.

[Kurovski]

58. The word "Communist" has triggered a Pavlovian response in an entire generation of Righties.

Some of their more obedient (or perhaps bludgeoned) progeny likewise drool.

No thoughtful debate ever required there. When you can go straight to emotional response, why hazard the risks of discussion? Destroying debate was the plan.

[dkf]

4. Interesting observation...

"Because America’s big corporations were now global we could no longer rely on them to make necessary investments in human capital or to lobby for public investments in education, infrastructure, and basic R&D. So, logically, government has to step in."

I would like to see this elaborated on. Did they ever do this?

[newspeak]

15. yes, at one time we did have some american companies

who were actually interested in the well being of their communities and workers. He's right, many american companies are now global and basically don't give a shite about this country, as long as they make a huge profit. And, just by O'llielly's attacks, I'd say bill isn't much of an american, if he will defend a corporation (like halliburton who has moved their offices to dubai) over the well being of americans and our infrastructure.

Caring about your country, your community does not make one a communist. He's jumped the shark.

[Bette Noir]

51. In California, which used to have a lively aerospace industry,

the aerospace companies (which, of course, needed an educated workforce) used to financially support local colleges. They've mostly left the state, now, first for poorer parts of the country, then for poorer countries.

[dkf]

56. That is a good example.

It seems such a foreign idea now. Sad.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

5. K&R

[Xyzse]

6. Mr. Reich

He was my primary choice to write in as a candidate in the Presidential elections.
Sadly, I can't do that any more.

[Richardo]

7. "tumescent"

[AlbertCat]

13. "tumescent"

I know!

I haven't seen the word since prep school... and I thought I knew what it meant: swelling or growing.

But I looked it up and it's even better:

Adj. Swollen or becoming swollen, esp. as a response to sexual arousal.
*figurative (esp. of language or literary style) Pompous or pretentious: tumid


Such the correct word on so many levels.

[denverbill]

8. I'm beginning to think Democrats should just start calling Republicans communists as well.

WTF, Republicans apparently don't even understand what it means and neither do too many gullible voters.

So if Republicans want to privatize education call them communists for doing so.

[newspeak]

16. actually it would be more like fascism

of course, that's when the government and business works against the will of the people. Now when big business becomes the government, what would that be called? Corporatocracy? Corporate communism?

[cbdo2007]

25. You're missing the point. "Communists" and "Socialists" are bad - haven't you been watching FoxNews?

These idiots don't know what fascism is cause they never hear any of their heros say it. They don't know what Communists or Socialists are either, only that they are "bad".

[usrname]

28. You're right

It's not the word or the meaning of the word that they're hearing. It's the sound of the word and the tone of the voice saying it. It's music to the Right's ears. They've been inculcated by years of church going attendance to no longer hear words for their meaning, but for the evocative effects of the words upon their psyche. It's like listening to music. When one hears a minor-key funereal piece, like the second movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, one gets that somber feeling. It's a feeling. So the same is with these words. They evoke a feeling and that feeling is what they're basing their rational life off of. The right has no concept of what communism or socialism is or what the tenets of those political philosophy are. They only hear the sound, spoken by their leaders, and understand that they're disgusting. They hear them like they hear atonal music. It grates their psyche.

[bayareaboy]

29. Fascist pigs come to mind ...

But I do like pigs!

[Selatius]

55. Actually, the Republican Party is structured not too differently from the Soviet Communist Party.

They own whole news outlets to print their slant on things, unofficially of course and not true direct ownership. They have a whole network of so-called "think tanks" that turn out research papers that purportedly show evidence that their views are the correct policy and would result in desired outcomes if enacted into law, and they have a support network of childrens' groups and organizations geared to indoctrinate the youth into accepting Republican ideas.

You see, liberal groups eschewed the whole idea of trying to take over news outlets and printing presses and forming organized, concerted networks of propaganda dissemination and think tanks precisely because they could never come to an agreement on what to do, and they also opposed it for the fact that liberals were infinitely more libertarian on letting people think for themselves, as opposed to spoon feeding people the "right" ideas. Republicans win precisely because a) they are far more organized, b) communicate better within the organization and with the public, and c) are very well financed by the wealthiest business interests.

[judy]

9. I wish Obama had that attitude...

This hits a nice tone, that debunks O'Reilly, yet is not hateful or revengeful (aside from the 'intellectual boor' part which could have been skipped altogether).
Like when Obama is accused of being a Muslim, he could take advantage of it, and remind people that the US is a secular country from its founding, stuff like that.
"I happen to be a Christian...but what if I was a Muslim? Where is it written in the Constitution that the President has to be of a particular religion?"...etc.

[Bake]

10. On the Ed Show, Reich challenged O'Really to debate him any time, anywhere

I assumed he excepted Billo's show from the "anywhere," since Billo has a propensity to cut people's mics when they're making too much sense ...

Bake

[Uncle Joe]

11. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, pampango.

[cbdo2007]

12. All someone needs to do is start calling them all communists.....

for using public roads, etc. and it turns the argument right back around on them. I'm going to a Romney rally this summer and holding up a sign calling him a "Communist". You dont' really need any reasoning behind your claim, you just need to put the idea out there and the overthinking population will fill in the blanks themselves.

[Brigid]

26. "Overthinking?"

I think "underthinking" would be more accurate.

[the_chinuk]

14. This is why I never "join the conversation".

You know, it's what they say on every bleedin' news cast or in the paper. "Hey! Join the conversation on our website". And then you see the conversation and you know why what's left of this country is in the state it's in, and why Gandhi (or anyone who could truly love humanity) was a superhero.

If an extraterrestrial were following the comment sections of the major media "organs" in this country … well, hell, they might take a few lines from the Bush Doctrine and call in a preemtive curettage on humanity, you think?

[hifiguy]

18. In anything like a real debate,

Reich would pound O'Liely into mulch.

[Mz Pip]

20. O'Reilly would spend the whole time

interrupting and talking over Reich. Then he would claim he proved his point because Reich never really challenged his premise. That's how O'Reilly works. On FOX who ever talks the loudest and the longest wins.

[atheous]

19. Billdo is an idiot, but..

It doesn't really matter how stupid he gets because his 'faithful' are even dumber. He can say nearly anything he wants short of a Lush Limpball style attack and the righties will all stand in lockstep pointing their collective fingers... "What he said"..

[Domingo Tavella]

21. Intriguing

Dear Mr. Reich,

There are two things about your post that intrigue me. The first is that you bother to reply to someone who can only be described as a carbuncle on the face of civilization and whose followers could best be referred to as zits on the landscape of America. By doing so, you elevate that individual to an intellectual space where he doesn't belong. The second aspect of your post that intrigues me is a tinge of defensiveness. You are an established authority - there is no need to explain (besides, the shadowy creatures that dwell below the cultural Mason-Dixon line don't come to this site nor know you exist; they are, in fact, too busy listening to your offender.)

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. ...

[GETPLANING]

22. The fact that Marx was right about so many things

drives the right insane. Marx's observations on everything from what happens when too much wealth accumulates in too few hands to the causes America Civil War were spot on. They can't kill the truth, but they can kill the messengers.

[socialist_n_TN]

49. But what their puppeteers REALLY don't want..........

You to know is how much they use Marxist analysis in their capitalist system. From the internationalization of capital to the reserve army of labor a lot (most?) Of the theories that they use for capitalist gain are Marxist.

But they don't want their RW toadies to know that. Because if Marx was right about the methods of capitalism, he also right about the prescriptions for endind it too.

[sulphurdunn]

23. What right wing ideology

desires more than anything else is to burn witches and always has.

[hfojvt]

24. there's actually more at the link

Your OP makes it look like you are reposting the whole blog post without any edits.

[Gregorian]

27. Poisoning America, one "newscast" at a time.

Bravo Reich!!!!


tumescent. Hahaa

[shcrane71]

30. Robert Reich has a 60-page eBook/pamphlet out.

I think it's only 1.99 at B&N.

[Taverner]

32. Reich is a Keynesian, not a Marxist

BIG difference

HUGE difference actually

Neocon philosophy, however, did originate from Trotskyism

[ErikJ]

33. Memo to Bill and Fox: THE COLD WAR IS OVER!! DEAL WITH IT!

[progressoid]

34. Uh, yeah. This have been going on for a loooong time Bob.

[Indydem]

36. When in the hell did this ever happened???

"I argued that because America’s big corporations were now global we could no longer rely on them to make necessary investments in human capital or to lobby for public investments in education, infrastructure, and basic R&D."

Corporations have never lobbied for those things. Not sure what has changed in that regard.

[Madmiddle]

37. Why hasn't anyone punched Orielly in the face for his bullshit.

He is the backer of the republican/communist party.

[Jamaal510]

38. I wish Obama would hire Reich as his advisor.

[Blue_Tires]

41. kick for truth

"Obviously, O’Reilly has no interest in arguing anything. Ad hominem attacks are always the last refuges of intellectual boors lacking any logic or argument. (Whoops, I think I just stooped to name-calling. Sorry, Bill.)

Yet this is what’s happening to all debate all over America: It’s disappearing. All we’re left with is a nasty residue."

[iscooterliberally]

42. This reminds me of the Lincoln-Douglas debates as shown on SCTV

[90-percent]

43. How to get a righty to stop in their tracks

When they bitch about Obama the socialist, simply ask them what's so bad about socialism. They will then realize they can't even define it and may realize they have no clue what they're talking about.

-90% Jimmy

Reich explicitly called out O'Reilly to debate him, any where any place any time. Too bad Bill has a strict no debating with communists policy. Or what ever lame ass excuse Bill will come up with to recuse himself from certain death by debating a person that is clearly intellectually superior in every way, shape and form.

Bill just doesn't have the balls.

I've been a fan of R.R. since he was an economics adviser in the first Clinton Presidential Campaign. Damn good man and a pretty good cartoonist, too!

-90% Jimmy

[eridani]

45. One good tactic. Another is to call them on what they are really doing.

As you pointed out, these jackasses have no clue about what "socialism" or "communism" actually mean, and just use them as snarl words. Why not go after what they are doing, namely attacking the idea of the public good?

In conservateive easther WA, all the state representatives this year objected to cuts in state funding for rural hospitals, putting them on the same side as lefty health care activists. Funny how they like public goods for themselves--they just don't want other people to have them. But in that case, the goods are no longer public.

[chervilant]

61. Been there, done that...

Have yet to hear a cogent response.

[AverageJoe90]

44. It's like we're in the 1950s all over again.........nt

[treestar]

46. Exactly, right wingers refuse to recognize the difference

between a Marxist and a liberal. They just pretend they are synonymous.

They ought to be called out on that constantly. Of course Faux lets them get away with it repeatedly.

[tex-wyo-dem]

65. you see, this is the way it works...

RW pundit gets on faux news and RW radio and says:

Liberal = socialist = Marxist = Maoist = Communist

Oh yeah, and of course: Liberal = Democrat

Conservative knucklehead listening/watching pudit believes everything he says, without question and he/she now knows that Democrat = Communist.

Anybody who tries to argue reason with the knucklehead that what he believes is BS is automatically a communist trying to spread propaganda.

Unfortunately, t's really that simple.

[colsohlibgal]

47. National ADD and Bizarro World

We hear days and days of wall to wall coverage of the most inane things, high ranking republicans amazingly labeling Obama a marxist/socialist, Mr. West emulating Joe McCarthy. Bill-O making ridiculous comments about Robert Reich. More than a few righties have labeled those on the left as fascist, so now apparently left is right on top of up is down.

The MSM asks almost no hard questions anymore, it's 99.9% softball after softball. The MSM really fell down on the job during the lead up to Bush's idiotic lie based invasion of Iraq, the pom poms were out, no hard questions asked. Now we hear outrage about the GSA's spending spree.....which is justified but a drop in the bucket compared to the money missing and wasted in Iraq, and that tab will keep growing as we go on.

I just re-watched Eisenhower's ultra prescient warning, as he was leaving office, about guarding against letting the military-industrial complex gain undue influence. You can bet Ike, a republican, is spinning in his grave about how that turned out. I then watched "inside Job" and it's incredible that no Wall Street big shots are spending time in the Big House, and more incredible that many of them instead walked off with bonuses in the hundreds of millions for committing massive fraud and bringing our economy down.

Washington, our mainstream media, our whole system is fubar at the moment.

[Bluenorthwest]

48. Retread McCathyism is all the rage, and it is not just O'Reilly and Fox....

It is suddenly all lists of names and enemies among us, denouncements of socialism, accusations of communism, it is I think a sign of utter desperation. Throwing their lunch against the wall to see if it sticks. Still it is good Reich is calling attention to this, and we all should, no matter where we see it.

[Bette Noir]

50. I <3 Reich.

On Twitter, he challenged O'Reilly to a debate. He said, "What is he afraid of? I'm 4'10."

I think he (O'Reilly) might be afraid of getting in a discussion with someone so much smarter than he is.

[supraTruth]

52. TheO'REALLYstupidlyArrogantPinhead is going off the cliff w/the rest of FIXEDnewsCORP.

[ffr]

53. Fox broadcasts is one day, the next I'm being called a Communist

What am I to think when they joke about beheading Democrats! Is that what I have to look forward to?

NMR. NMR. No More Republicans.

[mfcorey1]

54. O'reilly has officially been nailed to the wall. Thank you Reich.

[spiderpig]

57. I've loved this guy since the days of the Clinton administration

His arguments are well-thought out and forceful. He doesn't brook dummies and hypocrites. Would I ever like to sit down and share a pizza with him!

[chervilant]

59. Tumescent personality?

I don't know if I'd use 'tumescent' to describe Billo. Bombastic, narcissistic, egomaniacal, perverted, arrogant--I'm sure these and many other words are much more descriptive of this pathetic creature.

[quinnox]

62. beyond pathetic that the republicans and their propaganda outlets are reaching for communism

accusations now. First the moron congress-scum(R) from Florida makes this comment about Democrats, and now this. Why do I start to see a trend? Of course they get off on this type of false smears but get some new material for once. Communism is so 1950s, and no longer relevant. Have the republicans forgot we won the cold war?

At least calling us "domestic terrorists" was semi-interesting and novel.

[chervilant]

64. TYVM for this post

Without respect and civility, it’s not a debate – it’s just name-calling.

We humans are manifesting a level of mental disease that is both frightening and corrosive. Far too many of us are in react mode, driven by inchoate fears and resentments. Far too many of us are willing to pollute our spirits with negativity, eagerly engaging in name-calling and other forms of vilification. Far too many of us are willing to glorify violence or resort to violence, often just for entertainment or personal gratification.

We seldom acknowledge the import of overpopulation, but Calhoun's research with rats has proven that when a critical level of overpopulation occurs, the outcome isn't pretty. With rats, abnormal sexual behavior, hyperaggression, eating their young, and increased mortality are a few of the problems that occurred. With humans, well...isn't it past time we acknowledge that our species has passed a critical tipping point?

When I was younger (and naive) I thought our species was in its adolescence--obsessed with sex, drugs, and all other forms of self-gratification, especially as regards our economic behaviors. However, I've come to understand that overpopulation is a macro-level manifestation of our species' hedonism. Regardless of how much energy we devote to denying the ravages of overpopulation, they are writ large by our increasingly sophisticated, increasingly corrosive socio-cultural and technological constructs--the very same constructs we use to remain in denial, and to externalize responsibility for our collective hubris.

Bearing this in mind, I feel overwhelmed with disappointment about the choices we (as a collective) have been making, because we seem to be moving inexorably back into 'balance' on a planetary scale. When it's time for Gaia to roll over and scrape us off her backside, the inevitable consequences of our hedonistic overpopulation and denial of personal responsibility promise to be extreme.