Comments on: A Wicked Man? No, a Fool with Wicked Ideas

By: Paardestaart

Paardestaart — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:17:49 +0000

"wicked men, who glut their vanity at the expense of others"

And if that isn't wicked I don't know what is.. You are so right, Chris. He was no fool, and if a teenage girl like I was could fathom what was going on then he centrainly could. But how can it be that people would be willing glut their vanity in this way?? For most communists and marxists here in the west never come to their senses, and how is that even possible?

You made a nice trait d'union by the way to the story of Superkufr – about his poor daughter and the feminist therapist whom it pleased to dig up a false memory of abuse in a paranoid schizofrenic girl, chasing her away from the safety of home and her parents, and convicting her to the misery and sorrow of streetlife when you are ill and out of your mind
What else could make a person do that than utter vanity and abysmal silliness?
How can a person even believe that anyone can repress a life of abuse??
Surely the gods must be crazy..

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:06:43 +0000

Vanity and hatred seemed to motivate much of Zinn's behavior. Stalin's throttling grasp of the human condition arguably struck a chord with Zinn's ignoble virtues. Foolish? A Useful Idiot? I doubt it. He was not a member of the "Innocents Clubs". I will venture to say he knowingly initiated evil with his own propaganda. Collectivists do not have a problem with perpetrating evils upon individuals; it is when evil becomes a collective phenomena that socialists say "mistakes were made". As an ideologue, Zinn had no love of knowledge, as with philosophy, which it intrinsic to good history. A charitable description of Zinn would be Useful Moron, for a moron can learn. And Zinn did learn — to perfect his evils. Unless one wants to argue that he was an intellectual sociopath who was not accountable for his actions, then he may be fairly described as one of many wicked men, who glut their vanities at the expense of others.

By: suprkufrB

suprkufrB — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:53:59 +0000

I'm sure your readers will recall the incredibly destructive pop psychology quackery and charlatanism of "recovered memory therapy," which destroyed thousands of families during the 'eighties and 'nineties. Those interested in the background of this phenomenon may
find complete information by googling the False Memory Syndrome Foundation

By: suprkufrB

suprkufrB — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:53:32 +0000

Hello again Mr. Horowitz:
I see my second paragraph hasn't made it through cyberspace to your site. I'll attempt to duplicate it:
Our daughter was a classic overachiever; she was a 95%+ student, breathtakingly beautiful and an Olympic class athlete. Tragically, she was stricken with acute paranoid schizophrenia at the age of eighteen. As she realized that her mind was slipping away from her, she cast about desperately for help, as a consequence of which she had the tragic misfortune to fall into the clutches of a radical feminist "counselor," who convinced her that her distress had been brought about by childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her parents, the memories of which she had "repressed" and relegated to the "subconcious," where they had lurked undetected all these years, playing hob with her emotions and hindering her efforts to lead a fulfilling life.

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By: suprkufrB

suprkufrB — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:35:28 +0000

To return to the subject of Mr. Ortega, I must tell you that my alarm bells went off when I learned that his stepdaughter had waited until she was thirty to lay her complaint. Smacks to me of "recovered memory" therapy! Contrary to the highly subjective beliefs and procedures of recovered memory practitioners, it has been shown over and over again that the consequence of childhood trauma is not robust repression of traumatic incidents, but rather constant ruminative preoccupation with them. The goal of the mental health professional ought not to be dredging up hitherto forgotten details of traumatic occurrences, but rather enabling the afflicted person to clearly acknowledge the abuses which have befallen her, relegate them to the past, and move forward with confidence into the rest of her life.
As I've said, I have no knowledge of whether Mr Ortega committed the alleged offences or not, but I do strongly believe in the principle of "innocent until proven guilty."

Warmest regards,
j.

By: suprkufrB

suprkufrB — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:34:24 +0000

The outcome of this politically motivated quackery and charlatanism was that our daughter fled our city in her anxiety to escape from us, and spent the next two years on the streets of uncounted North American cities, where she was routinely victimized both physically and sexually. Through a bizarre stroke of good luck (perhaps, but I strongly believe by divine intervention), my wife and I reestablished contact with her and were able to persuade her to return home. She is still very ill, and every day is a challenge for her, but she is now with us and her brothers, who will do whatever might be necessary to ensure her safety and well being.

By: New Paltz Journal II » Blog Archive » Another distinction too subtle for me

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:30:56 +0000

[...] great David Horowitz, for whom my admiration continues to grow, on Howard Zinn (you have to scroll down the page a bit): I’m uncomfortable with calling Zinn a “wicked man” [...]

By: AntiFascist18

AntiFascist18 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:06:10 +0000

I too am a Historian and Zinn was a disingenuous hypocrite, not to mention a vicious self-loather and America-hater.

Zinn does write movingly of what Columbus and the Spanish explorers did to the Natives, but did he ever himself practice what he preached? No sireeee. He occupied Native American soil but never showed an inclination about moving back to the ghetto in Eastern Europe. Trouble is that those Nazis whom he REGRETTED bombing in World War II wiped out those ghettos and the inhabitants whose survivors he later smeared in his vicious attacks on Israel. And what the Nazis didn't do, the guy whom Zinn openly admired, one Joe Stalin, tried to finish the job.

Zinn also lied about the Civil War. But what else was new from a CPUSA hack and hypocrite?

By: Peachey

Peachey — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:17:00 +0000

I agree son of the house of Levi. I personally am proud of the fact that I am an equal opportunity offender and believe that truth will always bear good fruit. It is indeed a sign of last times that evil is viewed as good, and good is viewed as evil by many in this world. I usually couch my beliefs carefully on this post so that the libs, progressives and other struggling greenies can understand even the most simple of explanations and examples. When teaching the children, use simple terms and examples so that they will hopefully learn and change. You mused if Zinn had the power that Hitler had what would the result have been. Worse, I believe. Zinn's philosophical writings have become a religion, far beyond the government that sought to rectify and government build. Hitler and others have always viewed themselves as saviors. Sound familiar?We have a Maoist-based White House in place that seeks to reform our nation from our very thought processes to the ability to breathe. We are in real trouble here.

By: Judahlevi

Judahlevi — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:37:24 +0000

You cannot keep a man and his ideas "separate." The argument could be made that you have no man without ideas.

Hitler had ideas too. Tragically, he was given the power to apply his ideas which resulted in the deaths of millions. If Zinn was given the same power, what would have been the result?

Freedom of speech is not speech which is restricted to only language which cannot be twisted and misinterpreted (if there is such language). My experience with the left is that you may take great pains in choosing your words carefully and they will distort the meaning anyway. I would never choose to comment where what I said would have to pass leftist muster. I would never give them that kind of control. It is sad that anyone else would.

By: Peachey

Peachey — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:32:20 +0000

Eric, I question his "humanity". I do not seek to dance on anyone's grave, however, sometimes evil comes in inocuous and pleasant enough looking packages. I view Zinn to have a deep seated hatred of mankind and sought to control,suppress,deny,and eliminate the humans that he claimed to care for. I do not believe that his "wicked ideas" were anything more than an attempt at human destruction through systemized destruction. Those in control, would then be the very evil that they championed against. Zinn was an expert student in the history and end results of Stalin,Mao and others and yet there was a part of him that chose to embrace and celebrate that evil as a template for human society.

By: Eric Roth

Eric Roth — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:27:05 +0000

Civility and kindness are positive traits, and we should extend the benefit of the doubt to misguided men like Zinn. He appears to have been an honorable man with wrong, terrible, and often even wicked ideas. Zinn showed keen interest in our troubled world, wrote numerous books, and attempted to make the world better. He was also profoundly deluded, held the West to utopian ideals, and excused the worst crimes of some of the worst regimes ever.

But we shouldn't dance on his grave or give our critics easy ammunition to demonize us either. Let's keep the discourse civil, and the debate focused on facts. Everywhere the communists took power, mass murder and tragedy followed.

Yet let's keep the man and his ideas separate. If possible, let's recognize the man's humanity and expose the dangerous folly of his passionately held, leftist illusions.