Howard Zinn, Intellectual Moron
by Daniel J. Flynn“Objectivity is impossible,” self-styled “peoples’ historian” Howard Zinn once remarked, “and it is also undesirable. That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have any kind of a social aim, if you think history should serve society in some way; should serve the progress of the human race; should serve justice in some way, then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think will advance causes of humanity.”
History serving “a social aim,” rather than chronicling the past in a detached manner, is what readers get in A People’s History of the United States. With any luck, “The People Speak,” the History Channel documentary based on the book that premieres this Sunday, will be, like so many Hollywood productions, unfaithful to the original. Given A People’s History of the United States’ infidelity to facts, this might be the only chance viewers have of seeing anything resembling an accurate retelling of history.
Through Zinn’s looking-glass, Maoist China, site of history’s bloodiest state-sponsored killings, transforms into “the closest thing, in the long history of that ancient country, to a people’s government, independent of outside control.” The authoritarian Nicaraguan Sandinistas were “welcomed” by their own people, while the opposition Contras, who backed the candidate that triumphed when free elections were finally held, were a “terrorist group” that “seemed to have no popular support inside Nicaragua.” Admitting some human rights abuses, Zinn writes that Castro’s Cuba “had no bloody record of suppression.”
Readers of A People’s History of the United States learn very little about history. They learn quite a bit about Howard Zinn. In fact, the book is perhaps best thought of as a massive Rorschach Test, with the author’s familiar reaction to every major event in American history proving that his is a captive mind long closed by ideology.
If you’ve read Karl Marx, there’s no reason to read Howard Zinn. In fact, reading the most important line of The Communist Manifesto makes a study of A People’s History of the United States a colossal waste of time. The single-bullet theory of history offered by Marx–“The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle”–is relied upon by Zinn to explain all of American history. Economics determines everything. Why study history when theory has all the answers?
Thumb through A People’s History of the United States and one finds greed motivating every major event. According to Zinn, the separation from Great Britain, the Civil War, and both world wars—to name but a few examples—all stem from base motives involving rich men seeking to get richer at the expense of other men.
Zinn’s projection of Marxist theory upon historical reality begins with Columbus. According to Zinn, those following the seafaring Italian to the New World did so for one reason: profit. “Behind the English invasion of North America, behind their massacre of Indians, their deception, their brutality, was that special powerful drive born in civilizations based on private property,” maintains the octogenarian scribe.
A materialist interpretation continues with the Founding. “Around 1776,” A People’s History informs, “certain important people in the English colonies made a discovery that would prove enormously useful for the next two hundred years. They found that by creating a nation, a symbol, a legal unity called the United States, they could take over land, profits, and political power from the favorites of the British Empire. In the process, they could hold back a number of potential rebellions and create a consensus of popular support for the rule of a new, privileged leadership.”
Zinn sarcastically adds, “When we look at the American Revolution this way, it was a work of genius, and the Founding Fathers deserve the awed tribute they have received over the centuries. They created the most effective system of national control devised in modern times, and showed future generations of leaders the advantages of combining paternalism with command.” Rather than the spark that lit the fire of freedom and self-government throughout much of the world, he portrays the American Founding as a diabolically creative way to ensure oppression. If the Founders wanted a society they could direct, why didn’t they put forth a dictatorship or a monarchy resembling most other governments at the time? Why go through the trouble of devising a constitution guaranteeing rights, political participation, jury trials, and checks on power? Zinn doesn’t explain, contending that these freedoms and rights are merely a facade designed to prevent class revolution.
Zinn paints antebellum America as a uniquely cruel slaveholding society subjugating man for profit. Curiously, the war that ultimately results in slavery’s demise is portrayed as a conflict of oppression too. Zinn writes, “it is money and profit, not the movement against slavery, that was uppermost in the priorities of the men who ran the country.” Rather than welcoming emancipation, as one might expect, Zinn casts a cynical eye towards it. “Class consciousness was overwhelmed during the Civil War,” the author laments, placing a decidedly negative spin on the central event in American history. America is in a lose/lose situation. The same thing, according to Zinn, caused both slavery and emancipation: greed. Whether the U.S. tolerates or eradicates slavery, its nefarious motives remain the same. Zinn’s jaundiced eye fails to see the real issues surrounding the Civil War. Instead, he envisions the chief significance of the grisly conflict as how it allegedly served as a distraction from the impending socialist revolution.
By the time the reader reaches World War I, Zinn begins to sound like a broken record. “American capitalism needed international rivalry—and periodic war—to create an artificial community of interest between rich and poor,” the Boston University emeritus professor of history writes of the Great War, “supplanting the genuine community of interest among the poor that showed itself in sporadic movements.” Yet another diversion to delay the revolution!
“A People’s War?” is Zinn’s chapter on the war in which he served his country. Zinn suggests that America, not Japan, was to blame for Pearl Harbor by provoking the Empire of the Sun. The fight against fascism was all an illusion. While Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan may have been America’s enemies, Uncle Sam’s real goal was empire. Regarding America’s neutrality in the Spanish Civil War, Zinn asks: “[W]as it the logical policy of a government whose main interest was not stopping Fascism but advancing the imperial interests of the United States? For those interests, in the thirties, an anti-Soviet policy seemed best. Later, when Japan and Germany threatened U.S. world interests, a pro-Soviet, anti-Nazi policy became preferable.” Reality is inverted. It’s not the Soviet Union that went from being anti-Nazi to pro-Nazi to anti-Nazi. Zinn projects the Soviet Union’s schizophrenic policies upon the United States. While Zinn awkwardly excuses the Hitler-Stalin Pact, he all but proclaims a Hitler-Roosevelt Pact.
The reader learns that the Second World War was really about—surprise!—money. “Quietly, behind the headlines in battles and bombings,” Zinn writes, “American diplomats and businessmen worked hard to make sure that when the war ended, American economic power would be second to none in the world. United States business would penetrate areas that up to this time had been dominated by England. The Open Door Policy of equal access would be extended from Asia to Europe, meaning that the United States intended to push England aside and move in.” Yet, this didn’t happen. The English Empire expired, but no American Empire took its place. Despite defeating Japan and helping to vanquish Germany, America rebuilt these countries. They are now America’s chief economic rivals, not its colonies.
The profit motive certainly is central to numerous major events in American history. The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Fort in 1848, for example, undeniably stands as the primary reason—alongside the favorable outcome of the Mexican War—for the subsequent population explosion in California. The Gold Rush is one of several historical occurrences that conform to Zinn’s overall thesis. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. For every major figure or event whose catalyst was economic interests, scores were sparked by some unrelated concern.
To question Zinn’s method of analyses is not to say that economics does not influence events. It is to say that one-size-fits-all explanations of history are bound to be wrong more than they are right. History is too complicated to find a perfect fit within any theory. For the true believer, this inconvenience can be overcome. When fact and theory clash, ideologues choose theory. To the true believer, ideology is truth. Time and again, A People’s History of the United States opts to mold the facts to fit theory, leaving the reader to wonder what “people” he is referring to in the book’s title. Dishonest people? Left-wing people? Delusional people?
“Unemployment grew in the Reagan years,” Zinn claims. Statistics show otherwise. Reagan inherited an unemployment rate of 7.5 percent. By his last month in office, the rate had declined to 5.4 percent. Had the Reagan presidency ended in 1982 when unemployment rates exceeded 10 percent, Zinn would have a point. But for the remainder of Reagan’s presidency, unemployment declined precipitously. While Zinn teaches history and not mathematics, one needn’t be a math whiz to figure out that 5.4 percent is less than 7.5 percent. Despite unleashing an economy that created nearly 20 million new jobs during his tenure, Reagan continues to be smeared by historians—and it’s not hard to figure out why. Reagan’s free market polices were anathema to Marxists like Zinn. Upset at the pleasant way things turned out—Reagan’s policies unleashed an economy that continuously grew from late 1982 until mid 1990—historians prefer to rewrite history.
These are but a few of Zinn’s errors, which curiously seem to always bolster the left-of-center position. No error goes against the grain of the author’s general thesis. Every author makes mistakes. Zinn, it seems, would make less of them if he used his mind rather than his ideology to do his thinking.
By now one might be thinking: On what evidence does Zinn base his varied proclamations? One can only guess. Despite its scholarly pretensions, the book contains not a single source citation. While a student in Professor Zinn’s classes at Boston University or Spelman College might have received an “F” for turning in a paper without documentation, Zinn’s footnote-free book is standard reading in scores of college courses.
More striking than Zinn’s inaccuracies—intentional and otherwise—is what he leaves out.
Washington’s Farewell Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and Reagan’s “tear down the wall” speech at the Brandenburg Gate all fail to merit a mention. Nowhere do we learn that Americans were first in flight, first to fly solo across the Atlantic, and first to walk on the moon. Alexander Graham Bell, Jonas Salk, and the Wright Brothers are entirely absent. Instead, the reader is treated to the exploits of Speckled Snake, Joan Baez, and the Berrigan brothers. While Zinn highlights immigrants that went into professions such as ditch-digging and prostitution, he excludes success stories like Alexander Hamilton, John Jacob Astor, and Louis B. Mayer. Valley Forge rates a single fleeting reference, while D-Day’s Normandy invasion, Gettysburg, and other important military battles are left out. In their place, we get several pages on the My Lai massacre and colorful descriptions of U.S. bombs falling on hotels, air-raid shelters, and markets during 1991’s Gulf War.
How do readers learn about U.S. history with all these omissions? They don’t.
Daniel J. Flynn is the author of A Conservative History of the American Left (Crown Forum, 2008) and Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas (Crown Forum, 2004), from which this essay is adapted. Copyright © 2004 by Daniel J. Flynn.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Big Hollywood, Mr. Pink. Mr. Pink said: Howard Zinn, Intellectual Moron http://tinyurl.com/y96ezg2 [...]
What a great gaggle of buffoons in that picture. It is apparent that you can still fool most of the people most of the time.
Have they no clue why our antecedents fled the tyranny of the European and other oligarchies?
Do they have so little experience exercising personal responsibility for their own welfare that they are brain-dead to the concept of keeping the fruits of one's own labors?
This is so blatantly identical to the Soviets' and others' periodic rewriting of history to "rehabilitate" or "obliterate" individuals and events to meet current exigencies that it is both laughable and alarming that so many people are willing to buy into it.
His screeds vilifying America belong in the "Fiction" sections of our schools' libraries and he belongs in an institution that can render appropriate care. What's the psychiatric term for being divorced from reality? Schizophrenia?
PS: I'm beginning to think this entire hard left movement throws out such garbage as bait to distract us from what they're doing behind the scenes – destroying the foundations of this Republic that have given us unparalleled personal freedom and unprecedented standards of living.
We need to see what they have under the other shells they're moving around on their folding tables.
Most likely, we'll find insidious fascist plans to remake the entire country into a vast socialist state.
Be damn sure you vote next November. It may be the last legal chance we'll have to blow up the tracks underneath their "Commie Express."
Objectivity is not possible, nor desirable and if you disagree with me you are a "Troglodyte"
Love the fist pump. Yeah, power to the people, baby.
Seriously, I wish that these fools, and only these fools, could live in the world they are trying to build for just a few weeks, because their reading (If they actually do read) about socialism in the 20th century hasn't taught them a thing about how the world works or human nature.
I have a great idea! Let's confiscate all the private property of those in the picture and half their wealth and give iti to the Native Americans or any other group. I mean, they do not feel that this country has ever had good motivatations and that capitalism is bad – so they should not reap the fruits of this system. Let's harvest their goods and give it to others!
Ask any immigrant from a socialist or recently-socialist country and they will tell you that "system" does not work.
It takes decisions and resources away from the people and gives them to social engineers who generally never tried to earn a living providing goods or services.
The kind of people who gravitate to such social constructs are those who learn that they have few aptitudes for any kind of productive work in the private sector. They run like hell from any kind of quantifiable accountability for their actions because they simply cannot deliver.
The only silver lining I see in the current convulsion wracking our country right now is that they perps are so overreaching and arrogant that they've managed to offend and frighten anyone who values personal freedom.
Vote next November. Don't delay registering and be sure you get to the polls early.
When I hear these "intellectual morons" wax philosophically about the motives and mores of the people who founded this great country, I'm reminded of an old cliche….It aint why, it just is. Were the founders motivated by economics? Of course. Or greed? Maybe. But the bigger consequence was liberty and a refusal to abide with tyranny. If that is simplistic then so be it, it's still the historical fact. Liberals like Zinn have and continue to do harm to this country by exploiting powerful emotions like guilt and compassion, that have been used by politicians for generations to consolidate powe for themselves. In other words the very definition of tyranny.
Someone should put Zinn's books into the fiction department where they belong. Who knows anyone in the chain Bookstore business?
Zinn has been full of hot air all his life. He is a poor historian and a worse economist. He has always surrounded himself with left wing ideological robots. Zinn is the definition of tunnel vision.
Why is it that so many educate people still believe that man is perfectable? You would think after thousands of years of recorded history, regardless of motivation, it has been proved time and time again that man is not perfectable. That is the reason that our founders designed our current Republic with all the checks and balances. If man were truely perfectable we would not need a government at all.
It is simply HUBIRIS of the educated. They believe because they have been EDUCATED that they are in a position to know better than anyone else. In order to actually believe this they have to fasten thier blinders very securely so that any evidence to the contrary won't be seen.
Most of us who are educated went through a "Zinn phase" while in college. It usually occurs sophomore year when, after many beers, moral clarity emerges in the form of alcohol-induced good feelings for all.
Most of us also, quickly left such nonsense behind as we forged ahead attempting to gain knowledge and skills that would be marketable.
It appears that Zinn remains stuck in sophomoric arrested development. Those who want to feel good about themselves, generally because they cannot do so through productive labor, tend to gravitate towards his alleged teachings and beliefs because they provide an explanation to under achievers why they are the way they are.
And it takes litttle to fool a fool, anytime.
This is exactly what needs to happen.
As the old joke goes in Louisiana, Vote early and vote often.
I'd even say that Zinn is practicing the same type of oppression that he's preaching. He's brainwashing people into following his beliefs with the goal of becoming some sort of "hero". He knows that he's got the fools in that photo under his thumb to the point that they will do whatever he wants them to do.
It's the same joke repeated in Chicago. Go figure, both are democrat strongholds.
The left is intellectually bankrupt.
That makes sense. We've become a society where it's out of fashion to be responsible for one's own life. It's much easier and more in style to blame someone else for your own short comings.
Thanks for the article, and the picture. I need to strike all of those clowns off my viewing list.
The authoritarian Nicaraguan Sandinistas were “welcomed” by their own people, while the opposition Contras, who backed the candidate that triumphed when free elections were finally held, were a “terrorist group” that “seemed to have no popular support inside Nicaragua.”
Oh, it's even better than that. If the Contras were so terrible and Oliver North was so terrible, why has the right not only won plenty of national elections but politicians on the right in Nicaragua and they why did they bring Oliver North down there to campaign for them? (Daniel Ortega won the last election primarily because the right split it's vote.)
See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/25/usa.r...
I agree, give me half their wealth so I can squander it on usless authors who are so pissed off that they have to live in a free country with few worries and less threat than any time in history.
Parents need to stop just writing check to schools and colleges without asking what they are teaching. It's like the movies. All the complaining in the world is meaningless if you still give them your money and hand your children over to them.
It amazes me how anyone could even listen to this Froot Loop, much less agree with him….
I have to disagree with the Professor. I was always the person that was arguing with the liberal clowns in college and telling the professors I had how their view of society was warped. Of course my grades suffered and since I have long hair and look like a goth cowboy many dismissed me. It made life more difficult at times but I wouldn't have changed a thing I did then or now.
So ZInn is going to donate all the proceeds from this book to socialist charities to keep from falling into the capitalistic greed trap he likes to tout in his books??
I have concluded that Zinn is a moron just because of this qoute. "Objectivity is impossible" Because no it's not… I have seen many historical accounts and sat through quite a few history and government classes that would tell me otherwise… As I've said before, I was very fortunate to have professors that didn't bring their politics into the classroom and LOVED to play Devils Advocate and did every chance they got… If Objectivity was impossible than Wikipedia would be allowed as a reference in term papers…. Objectivity is possible if you are interested in teaching and not indoctrinating.
A lot of people have been defending "The People Speak" by saying that it's what people actually said/wrote. I'm glad to see a post disputing that silly defense for exactly what it is. Nonsense.
And now I'm working on an important history of '90's called "Women Speak the Truth" and it will only contain the words of Paula Jones, Juanita Broderick, Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinsky, Linda Tripp, Kathleen Wille, and Lucianne Goldberg. And the quotes used will be selected by me. No other context is needed, is there? Is there?
You're a rare breed. But I'd be willing to guess you're not an under achiever, and therefore not in any need of a scapegoat for your life.
Doubtful. He lives in a very wealthy neighborhood. He's got a mortgage, yo.
That quote got me too. The Sandinistas were welcomed, but they lost the first elections because the terrorist Contras were more popular? Only a looney leftwing idiot could write or believe something so contradicting.
"Objectivity is possible if you are interested in teaching and not indoctrinating"
That pretty much sums Zinn up, doesn't it?
I lived in Nicaragua for 2 years.
I was there during the 1996 elections
you have never in your life seen such a zoo 23 major political parties (with aliances among the smaller groups and 22 presisential candiadates, Ballots with color photos and logos and 3 feet wide. theme songs, and give aways and parades)
It made me appreciate the simpler process here
Pretty much… That guy is a moron… I am tempted to read and study his book though so I can refute it… But at the same time I doubt I will ever finish it because of all the tripe.
My grandfather was killed by the Red Guard and several of my family died of starvation during the Great Leap Forward.
Mao was an evil man who killed millions of his own people. This is not a hidden fact, everyone knows that Mao and his regime did great evil. Howard Zinn glorifies Mao. It is not ignorance it is evil.
Can the group of (t)fools in the above photo best be termed as 'Useful Zinniots?'
Wow its amazing how close minded one can be. It is impossible for history to be objective because each individual has their own subjectivity and while the effort to be objective is there one is naturally inclined to actualize their ideology in history. It's the same with the news folks, would you expect a positive news report on Obama's healthcare plan from FOX News, well how about MSNBC?
Howard Zinn states the purpose of his book in the front; to tell the other side of history. We often learn history from the mouths of the powerful, where Christopher Columbus was a benevolent explorer for example. Howard Zinn attempts to tell history from the perspective of the oppressed, and I find it necessary for a more complete conception of history.
And as for socialism, the buzz word used most frequently in these comments, I'm not sure how you could be so opposed to socialist ideas when you perhaps drive on socialist roads and send your children to socialist schools (oh wait, in this country we call that 'public') A wider social safety net is the wave of the future, look at Europe.
FYI: that was supposed to be a new post not a reply
Sense? What sense. When has "sense" had anything to do with the Uberleft and the Left mentality….they are into "it's my way or the highway"…or as in Stalin, Mao, Castro, Chavez and Hitler…"it's my way or the gun, rope or oven"!!
I've always been fascinated with the "imperilism" andle that progressives are always spouting as this country's motivation for everything. If we really wanted to build an empire, why do Canada and mexico still exist? I'm sure we could take them over without much hub bub.
I found it particularly ironic that the initial growth of California is one of the actual identifiable products of man's greed (rather than survival, honor, or justice).
This nation is not without fault as man is not without fault, but based on our brief life as a republic, any rational human being on the planet would be hard-pressed to buy into the idea that the formulation of this nation was to serve no other purpose than to conquer and oppress. The facts belie Mr. Zinn pathetic attempt to characterize us that way. This is just another attempt at idiologically-driven revisionism. Ho-hum.
We don't need to imperialize Canada and Mexico because they're already Christian democracies. In our own image and all that.
I thought it was about wealth and power. So we would usurp their resources as our own. Also, I'm told by our POTUS that we are not a Christian nation.
Guilty as charged, though for other reasons as well. I can't talk about it.
Is Zinn moronic? yes. Is Zinn an intellectual? not really, unless your purpose is to insult others that actually are.
Is Zinn twisted and twisting facts? absolutely. Does Zinn give "out of touch with reality" Hollywood folks
an interesting persona with warm fuzzies? yes.
Zinn's "noggin" is full of fantasy "fizz", rather than ideas of substance based on reality. He is the kind of guy that wishes to create a socialist toilet, whereby he and his friend's" can and get excited about manipulating the flush.
I've never seen any futuristic work (movie or book) that is based on the assumption that man has finally been perfected…that may be the way the society at the time portrays it, but ultimately, the reason that there is a story in the first place is because this assumption is false. Leaders in future civilizations in pristine climate-controlled environments still do reprehensible things to other people out of greed, fear, or a need for power, and the hero generally rises above humble origins to fight the leaders out of a sense of justice, honor, or liberty…in other words, a classic conservative…
Excellent suggestion. The power of mass media via the internet.
Just like we're doing here now.
No matter how you package it….Howard Zinn is a MORON!
Zinn is correct in that most actions taken by people are for their own benefit.
The left calls this greed, and classifies it as a sin against 'the people.' Though 'the collective' would be a more honest description of their ideology.
They are unable to grasp the concept that it is possible for humans to look out for themselves first, and in that process, others can benefit as much or more. That's the simple, underlying theory in free markets. If I have something you want, and you have something I want, we can exchange or things peacefully, and both are better off for it.
Economics is not a zero sum game. That's what they don't understand. While none of us will be 100% satisfied at the results of economic transaction, we can all be satisfied enough, to get along and live harmoniously.
And that fact drives them up a wall. They believe we should not be allowed to make our own decisions because some one will lose. There fore all decisions should be made by a few well educated rulers who have total control over all of us.
People who are free are not economically equal. And people who are economically equal are not free.
No footnotes or cited authorities. Thus, far from being academic, it seems to me that "A People’s History of the United State" is just a long-winded, leftist opinion piece. The author is absolutely correct, if a student were to hand in a history paper without any cited sources, that student would and should receive an "F". Instead, Zinn and his sycophants want to impose him as the authority. Are there any reasonable people on the left who have a problem with this?
If the Founders wanted a society they could direct, why didn’t they put forth a dictatorship or a monarchy resembling most other governments at the time?
Interestingly they actually did, for a time. After the main British fleet and army seized New York, Washington and his army were in disarray, fleeing to New Jersey. The Continental Congress granted Washington unlimited power and authority to keep the revolution going. They essentially made him King of America.
Washington replied that he was deeply troubled by this, he promised to use the authority as judiciously as possible, and return it to Congress as soon as possible. And he did.
During the Constitutional Convention some delegates floated the idea of a monarchy with Washington as King. He declined. And at the close of his second term, there were concerns that he and his political allies might not have a peaceful transition of power, and instead might seize power in a coup. Instead he packed his bags, and went home to farm.
Every American, and the citizens of every democratic country around the world that holds free elections and peacefully transfers power, owes a debt of gratitude for his stellar example of those with great power, walking away from it, proving the power is the office, not the person. Apparently absolute power does not always result in absolute corruption.
There is a reason he's known as the Father of our Nation. Because he was.
For those who may have missed it, four part debate between Dennis Prager and Howard Zinn, August 2006:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM-HTWAoJZo&an...
Well worth a listen.
How about Zinny Ninnies?
Mark Levin the author of the great book "Liberty and Tyranny" is an excellent example of a true intellectual.
Mr. Zinn's "ideas" are only a thinly veiled disguise for his hope of a weak and failed America.
Actually, I am quite the Troglodyte, but like T-Rav, for other reasons.
When I hear people talking about how wonderful Castro is, I always remind them: Castro killed my children's great-grandfather. He had him lined up against a wall and shot, along with a lot of other people. And while about 300 people died trying to cross the Berlin Wall, as many as 80,000 people have died trying to escape Castro's Cuba, either by drowning when their makeshift boats fell apart, or being eaten by sharks, or machine-gunned by guards.
Facts are such troublesome things, aren't they?
As for Mao's China being a truly people's government — I can't count how many Chinese I've met over the years who have relatives who were murdered by that same "people's government." There are 60 million graves in China as a result of that people's government's actions, ten times more slaughter than Hitler committed in Europe.
This Zinn sounds like a complete loon, frankly. But there's no shortage of loons here in America, is there? Freedom does indeed have its cost.
Zinn goes right to the top of the "MORONS ON PARADE" list. I am so sick of these meglomainiac intellectually bankrupt egocentric bags of pus spouting their elitist vomit every chance they get and in every forum available…..when will we just get it over with on us vs. them…win or lose, let's have at it and be done with all the BS….
Ahhh, that's what the ol' lady means when she yells "Troggy – TIME FOR DINNER!"
thank you for clearing up that dilema.
Their trick is that they stash the cash with both nahds while spouting Marxist crapolla.
"Do as I say, not as I do" – Karl Marx
You might want to chase down some comments from the actress Elizabeth Gracen for that book as well.
That'll be the day when this deranged phony Zinn collects only a "living wage" and rides a bike to his
"academic bubble" where reality is suspended and reason and truth are disallowed.
Indeed, a man who is worth deep study by us all.
You have been to Mexico lately. Only recently has an even more corrupt government supplanted the previous "ruling party" of 80 plus years. The murder rate about 2.5 miles from my house is over 2200 for the calender year and the entire counrty is on the edge of chaos.
as for Canada? ah, well their just stoned out of their gourds.
Couldn't agree more.. Oh, and for the record, Hitler's regime murder much more than 6 million (it's only that said 6 million were Jews, including my Grandfather's family).
Off the subject (looking at your post name) I liked "Eddie and the Cruisers" too.
Thank you for instilling a bit of realism into the fantasy idiots like Zinn try to peddle. I share your view that shills like Zinn ARE EVIL.
If they wern'yt they'd at least try to be accurate and spin the facts, not weave lies.
I'm glad you're here and not over there. Thank you!
Zinny's Zanies?
The 2nd photo should be titled
The Crypt keeper and a host of overpaid half wits.
I had the same thought, it does tell you a lot about the people that follow him though, they probably do their reading off the the back of a cereal.
That picture says it all…..bunch of actors and lefties living in a fantasy land. Outrageous
The distance between the Arrogant Obama and the Humble Washington is as wide as the distance between what Washington did for our country and Obama is doing to our country.
My thoughts too. Perhaps we build a coalition to finance productions based on the truth.
Klavan already proffered up the identity: "Empire Of Truth"
"I'm beginning to think this entire hard left movement throws out such garbage as bait to distract us"
Is there any other explanation for Van Jones, Jarrett, Jennings, Browner et al? Perhaps to you and me this is political suicide yet they flaunt it like medals of honor. Truly inexplicable.
yeah dennis prager is the moron in that debate and i have only listened to the first 5 minutes..on what basis is 10 percent not an annihilation? at what percentage does it become an annihilation? to jump ahead what percentage of jews were killed during WW II? if it is only about 10 percent does that make it ok because it doesnt qualify as an annihilation?? YOU PEOPLE ON HERE ARE FLIPPIN CRAZY!! NOT JUST YOU JIMMY! what i want to know is WHAT DO ANY OF YOU STAND FOR?? BECAUSE ZINN STANDS FOR HUMANITY AND YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK!! I CANT WAIT TO TEACH YOUR KIDS TO BE "RADICAL LEFTISTS" because they mite actually stand for something positive!!
A dangerous moron, surrounded by morons, spewing moronic ideas usually are hidden in a compound in the woods. I still have hope that they'll drink the koolaid. And soon.
It's usually followed by "And don't forget to wash your knuckles before comming to the table. No telling where you've been dragging them all day."
Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud come out. The day these buffoon grace our earth in fertilizer only will be ONE GREAT DAY for our country.
Thus the acurate comparisons to the great Roman leader Cincinnatus…
Its just hubris that informs people in this picture. An elitist arrogance gives them a need to pretend they know the REAL TRUTH.
hee hee…tie a plastic bag around your head and ~breath deeply~ then repeat until you ~relax~…
dream of Zinn *giving it to you* in the side pocket…dream little one, dream…
Indeed, Hitler killed more than the 6 million Jews we all hear about, including some of my Catholic relatives in France! Those totalitarians — to me, the most interesting fact about history is that governments kill more people than wars do. For example, the government ban on DDT has been responsible for more than 40 million deaths from malaria. That's nearly as many people as were killed in World War II.
I don't know what Eddie and the Cruisers is, though. Was there a Toby Tyler in that one? My post name comes from the book (and later film) about the boy who ran away and joined the circus, just like I did many years ago. I'll have to look up Eddie, et al. and see what it's about. Thanks!
I've read Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, John Jay, Franklin, and while they all had varied reasons and ideas for our new Republic, nowhere have I seen any inkling that their motive was "profit". These men were all pretty well-to-do under British rule…why risk it for something that would in all likelihood end with their necks in a noose? We even went into deep debt in order to compensate the British landowners for all the property we took from them in the Rebellion. But I guess Zinn is relying on people who haven't studied history to buy the load of crap he's selling.
Ok, this idiocy qualifies for the Billy Madison quote:
what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I've ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response was there anything that could even be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul!
Zinn's statement that “Objectivity is impossible" is, of course, self-contradictory, since it assumes that which it claims is impossible.
How do these malicious half-wits become so popular?
Zinncompoops?
That's what I don't understand. A lot of people (think Hollywood types) have it all and yet they are voting to strip themselves of everything – why? What's in it for them?
And morally bankrupt as well.
I hadn't heard of that one. This might need a volume 2.
I don't think the term "under achiever" was ever applied to me, most of the time I had too many irons in the fire. lol
I made krispy treats substituted with froot loops once…pretty tasty.
Can anybody imagine just how more successful these people would be if they applied all of this energy into conservative/patriotic causes? Such a disappointment.
Wrong site, friend – the trolls all go to Huffington Post and Kos. ========>
Way to explain your side of, well, whatever you're angry about, though.
Yes! Had the same conversation with a well-meaning lib once when she told me there were no absolutes. "Absolutely?" I replied!
Look Zinn knows that he is full of it. He is a devout Marxist and that is what this is all about. He is the Julius Streicher or de Gobinau of the left in this country. He writes garbage, makes up storys and has gotten these little sheeple who follow him like well sheep to believe every stupid word he has ever written. Meanwhile he cynically sits back and smiles knowing he doesn't really believe a darned word he has written. He knows full well Castro is a digusting butcher and that the Sandinistas were murdering thugs and that Mao was the biggest spree killer the planet has ever seen. He just wants to perpetuate this myth like L Ron Hubbard did only Zinn is far more malvolent and evil. Yes, Howard Zinn is evil and the idiots who believe this garp he spews are idiots.
Annihilate is a verb that means "to destroy utterly", "to obliterate". Words have meanings. That's why it's best to use them properly and according to their actual definition, particularly when writing historical and/or biographical accounts.
You never know what soft skull might come along and decide there's a new, malleable definition for the word you used. No doubt, the meaning gets lost or the information is misunderstood. Something Zinn is obviously counting on.
Now, Zinn mite[sic] stand for something positive at some point, but he hasn't yet. He plays on hate, bigotry and manufactured anger where it's not warranted. Complacency on the right brought us to the point where a simpleton feels perfectly justified in ranting lectures at others, and those of us who allowed someone like Zinn to operate uncorrected for so long are now paying the price. Hopefully this attention he's getting will also shed light on his false facts and get his booty sent home to his comfy chair where it belongs.
Thomas Jefferson tried to free his slaves but he wasn't allowed to because he was broke and he had leins on his property, which slaves were considered. So … I guess that profit thing didn't work out too well for him.
Zinn's book is FORCED on students. He gets sales of his book that in a free market would be zero. He has a special, elite, favored vendor relationship with educators. Typical gov't-type contracting – the norm in socialism. .
Love that raised fist. Is that the SE ASian lady? What's her caste? If she's traveled and well-educated, she isn't any low caste or Untouchable – they don't go ANYWHERE, EVER. India has about only 100 million out of 1 BILLION who have lifestyles anywhere comparable to the US Middle class – college, houses with electricty, two cars … & 300 million at abject poverty that even the poorest American cannot comprehend. How much of her precious intellect has SHE put to moving SE Asia past the uber-oppressive caste system, esp. regarding the Untouchables? The highest caste, the intellectual Brahmins favor communism because – get this – making money is lower caste or "dirty" to them. Even professional white collar Brahims in India also have a very infuriating habit of not even flushing a toilet they use, because that would be low caste – leaving their poopy mess for the next person at the office. !!**@!!!
I wonder if a show created to directly refute Zinn's garbage and sponsored by celebrities like Jon Voight and Kelsey Grammer would make it on the History Channel….
I can feel my teeth fizzing right now……I'm gonna try that tonight….
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