So the co-founder of Greenpeace, as some of you know, has come out against Greenpeace citing it is no longer the organization it once was. He has since wrote a book:
"Confessions of a Greenpeace Drop Out"
But this highlights another issue I've brought up before.
"What can you do when you've spent your youth ignorantly advocating and voting for socialism?"
Famous conservatives today were liberals. Michael Medved, Joe Soucheray, and now Patrick Moore. Thankfully, they've at least done something. But what irks me is the "JOhnny Come Lately's" who in their 50's and 60's realized the crap they swallowed back in the 70's was nothing more than leftist garbage. Oooo! Great! You get 3 more election cycles before you die of old age! Good thing you only wasted the first 15 election cycles of your life voting to make my future hell!
Sorry, in a particularly foul mood.
Too soon old and too late smart.
ReplyDeleteEmbarrassing, but I'm also a super famous former leftist. Luckily, I didn't do any voting damage before I had my epiphany. I know my/our enemies VERY well. Too well.
ReplyDeleteIf you mean Patrick Moore the English astronomer...he died last week...which rather proves your point!
ReplyDeleteThis is why I consider Churchill's comment about being a liberal in one's youth and a conservative in one's age: sound principles are to be learned early and adhered to early in one's life.
ReplyDelete"What can you do when you've spent your youth ignorantly advocating and voting for socialism?"
ReplyDeleteTeach your kids better. Debunk the arguments that convinced you, and may yet convince your children. Write a book blasting the nonsense that you were once a part of.
Hopefully the impact of his book will be greater than the impact he had when he was with Greenpeace, because from the excerpts I read it's good sense.
Glad I'm not alone here. As a Hispanic, I was a former leftist too growing up, though I never really called myself a "liberal" by any means and have always been an individualistic type, but blindly supported the Democrat Party and Barack Obama's administration without knowing a thing about economics prior. I spent half of my life in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, two highly liberal states and my father is a huge fan of Obama, along with my sister in college, as I have told you many times before. These days, if I did classify myself as a liberal, I would fall into the Englightenment/classical liberal category of thinking, especially in terms of economic freedom and limited government though I hate to resort to boxing myself into one political movement or a "label." I have a lot in common with libertarianism, so if you want to call me a consequentialist libertarian, please feel free to do so, though in terms of the war on socialism, all these labels would be inconsequential anyway.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, I am part of the right wing now in terms of my vehement opposition to the hypocrisy of the radical left and socialism and support anyone who wants to stop them whether they are conservative, libertarian, classical liberal, anarcho-capitalist, reactionary, etc or part of the "alternative right" as Davis Aurini put it. Count me in as a fellow Cappy Cappite. We're all on the same page in terms of those goals.
I've met people who actually make a good living from working, but have artistic tendencies and are still liberal, more because of where they grew up (New York for example). They pay a lot in property taxes, etc. but dismiss the free market as nonsense.
I am reminded of the story of the kindergarten child who told her teacher that her family's dog had had puppies and that they were all Democrats. A week or so later, President Obama visited the kindergarten and the teachers thought that she would be the ideal child to be presented to the President. When she was presented her teacher asked her to tell the president about the puppies, and she said , "Our family's dog had puppies and they are all Republicans" The president looked shocked and the teacher asked her, "Why did you say that? Last week you told us they were all Democrats"
ReplyDelete"Well," said the little girl, "Last weekend they all opened their eyes!"
CS,
ReplyDeleteOne thing about leftists that I admire and respect is this: their TOTAL commitment to the cause, and their willingness to literally do ANYTHING to win. It doesn't matter if they have to rape, rob, murder, or steal to get their way; if it advances their cause, then it's okay. They have taken over a century to remake and remold America in their image; that's commitment! Would God that our side would expend 10% of the effort...
MarkyMark
In this guy's defense, he did break with Greenpeace back in the 80s or thereabouts. Looking at his track record, he always aspired to be what environmentalists *claim* they are - forward looking scientists, who make a scientific study of the environment, and warn about very real threats.
ReplyDeleteThe shame of it all is that the marxist scam-artists are better at acquiring resources and attention. He screwed up on Nuclear Power, but everything else he personally fought for was on the up-and-up (I forget the details, but it was stuff like CFCs, mercury, and asbestos). Unfortunately Marxists are attracted to power, and they are held back by honesty, so when they began infilitrating Greenpeace, they pushed the legitimate Ecologists out.
Only now, with Climategate turning the Global Warming movement into a big joke, is this man finally receiving the attention he deserves.
MarkyMark or anyone, rank-and-file leftists are not more committed; they are more funded, by the endless fiat money of financial engineering. Only the banksters and such need have the patience of centuries, and they can only suppose they do with their powerful family heritages to embrace.
ReplyDeleteI never had to go through that. But I grew up in the military during the Reagan years, so I guess becoming a Republicrat was the logical conclusion.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I notice about leftists is they often go by how policies and politicians make them feel. Sure, there's no objective evidence their policies work (public schooling, for one), but it makes them FEEL good.
Google .... patrick moore shill nuclear industry.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't put too much stock in what a flip-flopper has to say.
I would guess that the flip has more to do with money than actual beliefs.
Three election cycles is better than two, which is better than one. I realize "take what you can get" isn't very useful or satisfying. In the words of Catherine Aird:
ReplyDelete“If you can't serve as a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.”
I predict that will replace "In God We Trust" on the currency one of these days.
Mike James