Tag Archives: Totalitarianism

News

New Zealand considers bill to allow freedom of association on campuses

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Well, at least it’s passed it’s first reading. Basically, there are eight government-run universities in New Zealand, and students attending them must join at least one of the leftist campus clubs and pay dues to the leftist club. There is virtually no way to get your money back, and there are virtually no right wing clubs on campus to join – they all get banned, much like pro-life clubs are banned in Canadian universities.

Here’s the summary. (H/T E-mail tip from Matt and Madeleine Flanagan)

Excerpt:

““ACT on Campus is thrilled that ACT MP Sir Roger Douglas’ Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill has been drawn from the private member’s bill ballot in Parliament today.

“ACT on Campus calls on all MPs to support student’s right to Freedom of Association, as guaranteed by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said ACT on Campus Vice President Peter McCaffrey.

“Sir Roger’s bill, originally drafted by fellow ACT MP Heather Roy, now Associate Minister of Education, has students up and down New Zealand excited and we hope this bill makes it all the way to law.

“Student Associations are the only organisations left in New Zealand that can force membership onto someone and students have long been fighting to be given the same rights as all New Zealanders.

“The local tennis or rugby club can’t compel membership and instead relies on providing a good quality service that people want in order to attract members – student associations should be no different.

“It is time to end the unfair funding, by all students, of the political activities of radical left wing groups, and put an end to corruption and fraud at these unaccountable and unrepresentative student associations,” said ACT on Campus Vice President Peter McCaffrey.

Here’s the bill itself.

Matt Flanagan reports that the bill has passed its first reading! I think this is a very helpful story to understand the level of psychological confidence that causes leftists to disregard fundamental human rights and force their views on those who disagree with them. Fascism is solely and completely a phenomenon of the left, and the road to fascism goes through socialism.

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Commentary

Is Thomas Friedman a liberal fascist?

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Consider this post from extremely left-wing NYT.

Excerpt:

Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.

One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China’s leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.

Our one-party democracy is worse….

Jonah Goldberg adds:

So there you have it. If only America could drop its inefficient and antiquated system, designed in the age before globalization and modernity and, most damning of all, before the lantern of Thomas Friedman’s intellect illuminated the land. If only enlightened experts could do the hard and necessary things that the new age requires, if only we could rely on these planners to set the ship of state right. Now, of course, there are “drawbacks” to such a system: crushing of dissidents with tanks, state control of reproduction, government control of the press and the internet. Omelets and broken eggs, as they say. More to the point, Friedman insists, these “drawbacks” pale in comparison to the system we have today here in America.

I cannot begin to tell you how this is exactly the argument that was made by American fans of Mussolini in the 1920s. It is exactly the argument that was made in defense of Stalin and Lenin before him (it’s the argument that idiotic, dictator-envying leftists make in defense of Castro and Chavez today). It was the argument made by George Bernard Shaw who yearned for a strong progressive autocracy under a Mussolini, a Hitler or a Stalin (he wasn’t picky in this regard). This is the argument for an “economic dictatorship” pushed by Stuart Chase and the New Dealers. It’s the dream of Herbert Croly and a great many of the Progressives.

All of this is courtesy of Muddling Towards Maturity.

Commentary

A fishy statement by someone who needs to go on an enemies list

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Sorry for the light posting, because I’ve spent more time spent replying to comments and reading e-mail.

Keith Hennessey has found a very fishy statement that could mislead the public about Obama’s health care plan.

Excerpt:

I call to your attention several fishy statements about health care reform legislation made by a gentleman named Dr. Douglas Elmendorf.  He claims to be Director of the “Congressional Budget Office” and has posted frequently about health care reform on his website, cbo.gov.  This information takes the form of personal posts on his Director’s Blog, as well as in-depth reports that have the veneer of competent, thorough, impartial professional analysis.  The IP address of his site is 206.106.246.254, and his organization has named their hideout the “Ford House Office Building.”

Elmendorf appears to have several hundred followers in his organization, which has extraordinary influence over many in Congress.  I understand that some right-wing Members of Congress support and even vote for his annual funding source.

CBO and Elmendorf make extraordinary claims about bills moving through Congress that attempt to implement the President’s plans for health care reform.  I bring them to your attention so that you can refute them.  I have included these allegations below.  Specifically, Elmendorf and his rabble-rousers make the following claims…

You have to click through to read the evil claims of this evil man! I certainly don’t want to anger Big Brother by re-posting those awful lies on my blog.

Further study

Learn more about health care with my previous posts on health care: