Steve Scroggins is a volunteer contributor to the Georgia
Heritage Council who lives in Macon. He is the deranged creative force behind
the X-Files parodies.
Zombie Journalism – Commentary by Steve Scroggins, 1/27/2011
"If virtuous, the government need not fear the fair operation of attack and defense. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting the truth,
either in religion, law, or politics." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1792.
CNN published a story Jan. 25th noting the reaction of various politicians to a Spanish newspaper (El Nuevo Georgia) that published a
"doctored photograph" of Gov. Nathan Deal as a Nazi, complete with uniform, swastika and Hitler moustache (Jan. 6th issue). Oh, the horror! [ The article is entitled
Repression in the Era of Deal -- you're on your own for the translation of the article.]
We here at GHC and especially
this author (AKA "the deranged creative force behind the X-Files")
cannot imagine that anyone would DARE parody a Georgia governor such as Deal's predecessor Gov. B.S. Perdue.
Boss Sonny "B.S." Perdue was not the only target of
our ridicule and parody, but he was a frequent target. In fact, he was a key DORK leader in our
"Dukes of Heritage" series.
In this case of Deal criticism, we think it was a low blow, out of proportion to Deal's support of an anti-illegal immigration law similar to Arizona's (to which Deal's opponents also pledged support).
We must defend El Nuevo's right to free speech, even if it is repugnant, unfair or bizarre speech. I'm sure the editor didn't mean to imply that the countries from which illegals migrate are concentration
camps (to which Deal proposes illegals be sent), or that Deal has proposed to murder the illegals. The paper's intent was to get attention...and it worked as far as that goes, but probably not to help
the cause they advocate which is open borders, amnesty and full citizenship for illegals.
Nazifying one's political opponents is way overused. It's like skipping the diplomatic protest, the dirty look, the sabre-rattling, the duel and the ---er, "Mexican
standoff" and and just going directly to the nuclear strike. Boom! Take that you Nazi! To be worthy satire or legitimate criticism, the analogy needs to fit the alleged
wrongdoing. How many politicians really take totalitarian or racist actions worthy of that analogy? Certainly not many governors.
As has been often noted, Nazi hyperbole generally cheapens the language and belittles the toll of death and destruction the Nazis caused not to mention being disrespectful
to the many American veterans who defeated the Nazis leaving thousands of Americans buried in foreign soil. Many American families have gaping holes
from the sacrifices of their husbands, fathers and sons.
El Nuevo Georgia editor Rafael Navarro suggests that Americans and Georgians ignore the hispanic community's concerns and that since we don't read Spanish, he had to use a picture
to get our attention. I would suggest to Mr. Navarro that he publish an English edition if he wants our attention. As Deal's spokesman pointed out, it's preferable to use "a
coherent argument" in the "marketplace of ideas" than to lash out with a childish or offensive tantrum. Those who really want to be legal
Americans are willing to assimilate our culture and learn our language in order to make a coherent argument to the public. Then they would KNOW
that such a Hitler comparison is inappropriate.
On the other hand, we understand that Mr. Navarro is a Columbian immigrant. Being from a country where political expression often takes the form of bullets and
car-bombs, perhaps Mr. Navarro saw this rebuke to Gov. Deal as rather low-key. If Mr. Navarro first observed our American Zombie Journalism, then
it's understandable that he might think incoherent shrieking and smears are the normal and accepted approach to "journalism."
What is Zombie Journalism, you ask? I promise to get to it soon... read on.
Given the prevalence of photo editing software, it's virtually taken for granted that
every U.S. president will be presented as Hitler, Satan and in other ways visually demonized. Before computers and digital photography, cartooning is an
age old political practice as old as the printing press. Predictably, the web-snipers who commented on the CNN story
wailed about Bush being nazified and Obama being Nazified, or parodied as a witch doctor and so forth. Columnist Ellen Goodman whined back in the early 1990s about
various pols Nazifying each other -- that is, using rhetoric to cast their opponents as Nazi-like. She failed to notice that in almost every case, it was
pols on the left who were first to escalate the rhetoric to the Nazi level... and they were first to cry "foul" when opponents hit back. Of course, the
whiners on the left claim the exact opposite and that people like Glenn Beck, et al, escalated the rhetoric first.
I tend to avoid such characterizations... unless the recipient 'has it coming.' We save the "Nazi Treatment" for the likes of Al Sharpton, Julian Bond and
similar race hustlers who are quick (and constant) to characterize the Confederate battle flag as a 'swastika.' This trend started in 1991 when the
NAACP decided that battle
flags and all things Confederate were the needed bogeyman or red herring on which to blame the failures of The Great Society and Affirmative Discrimination to
end the various social and economic problems in the black community. NAACP membership was slipping and the money was running low, too.
Now, those failed government programs are just a
racial spoils system requiring constant injections of "white guilt" for world-wide slavery and post-slavery oppression to keep the spigot of taxpayer
dollars flowing to "fight racism and discrimination" (this despite the
Amnesty and Pardon granted by Dr. Walter E. Williams). If every Confederate flag and statue disappeared overnight, the problems of black-on-black crime,
high incarceration rates, fatherless children, poor education, etc., would continue unaddressed. For now,
Confederate symbols remain a favored bogeyman for the NAACP...while the NAACP continues only lip service to address the real life problems for the
average American black family. Not a peep, of course, about real slavery that still exists in Africa.
I would be remiss not to mention that bastion of propaganda and smears known as the
Southern Poverty Law Center. Their
primary mission is to enrich themselves. Their secondary mission is to squelch free speech by smearing everyone with whom they disagree on various
political issues. They've made a lucrative career of smearing people and now they have the force of the U.S. government to assist them
in harrassment and intimidation given
that they have connections with the Obama administration and the (DHS) Department of Homeland Security.
Way back in their history, SPLC founder Morris "Uncle Mo" Dees made a
name for himself by litigating real hate groups like the modern KKK, Aryan Nations, and others to bankrupt them. Those groups now are scattered,
unorganized and largely defunct...not to mention that a large percentage of them are paid FBI informants. That created a problem for the SPLC... how could they continue to raise money without scarey stories of skinheads
hiding behind every weed patch waiting to strike?
No problem, they just made stuff up...and expanded their definition of "hate" to include any form of thought they deem verboten. In order to hype up the
count of "hate crimes," the SPLC counts such things as racial slurs in graffiti and flyers/leaflets distributions. Pathetic. Now casting themselves as the authority on "Hate Groups" (with the help of the government and Zombie Journalists) they
have turned their smears on any group that opposes illegal immigration (they call them "nativists"), or homosexual activists (they call them "Christian extremists"),
or anyone who opposes excessive taxation ("right wing extremists"), supports the Second Amendment, happens to be a military veteran, supports Ron Paul or Rand Paul, or flies a Gadsden Flag...and on, and on.
"What makes the Southern Poverty Law Center particularly odious is its habit of taking legitimate conservatives and jumbling them with genuine hate
groups (the Klan, Aryan Nation, skinheads, etc.), to make it appear that there’s a logical relationship between say opposing affirmative action
and lynching, or demands for an end to government services for illegal aliens and attacks on dark-skinned immigrants. The late novelist/philosopher
Ayn Rand called this 'the broad-brush smear.'" --Don Feder,
THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER – NO ARTISTRY IN ITS SMEARS, 11/28/07
My reason for mentioning the SPLC is that they play a huge role is supplying misinformation and propaganda that supports "Zombie Journalism." The scientific
term for this species of propaganda is Argumentum Ad Hominem and
is more commonly known as "brainless zombie smears" or what Ayn Rand called "broad-brush smears."
See, you WERE wondering how all this was going to tie into Zombies. With apologies to author
Thomas E. Woods, Jr., I borrow the phrase "Zombie Journalism" to describe
the mindless use of epithets and labels in order to silence debate of political issues. I have previously described the SPLC as
"Debate-Crushing Goons, so one
might say that the SPLC's website is the Zombie Journalist's Bible.
If your opponent is making an argument using facts or history
or stuff you don't want to discuss, just call him a Nazi, or a Neo-Confederate, or a neo-secessionist, or a slavery supporter, or a racist, or a xenophobe, or a nativist, or a right wing
extremist, or a TeaBagger or a militia member or...(wait for it.... Drum Roll please......) part of a HATE GROUP!!
Facts really can be inconvenient, can't they? Don't bother wrestling
with them, just pull out your handy Label Gun!
If you don't like what I'm writing here, just dismiss it because I belong to the Sons of Confederate Veterans which the Southern Poverty Law Center says is "Neo-Confederate." Others with
whom I associate are known to be members of a hate group (ACCORDING TO THE SPLC), the League of the South. So, you can dismiss everything I write or
say, regardless of the sources I cite or the reason/logic I present, because the SPLC says I'm a neo-confederate
and known associate of hate group members. See how easy that was? No need to refute facts or get bogged down in real issues. Just label, accuse, and
Move On!
What is a "Neo-Confederate" you ask? Good question. It's a nonsense term coined by neo-commie Zombies named James Loewen and Edward Sebesta (more on them soon). Most likely, it's intended
to bring "Neo-Nazis" to mind --- there are no favorable connotations to any word pre-fixed with 'neo.' That's why the SPLC loved the term and put
it to use on their so-called "Hate Map" on the
immensely popular Zombie Journalist's Bible.
Back to Zombie Journalists. Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts is
a perfect example of a Zombie Journalist who uses SPLC smears in an attempt to establish his ideas as superior to actual history.
But how are they Zombies, you ask?
When you view the video below, you'll recognize the host immediately and you'll know that you've seen his like-minded zombie colleagues on CNN, MSNBC, CBS and
other networks (and the Miami Herald!) -- pretending to be a legitimate journalist or commentator -- while using loaded but brainless words rather than logical
arguments to try to stifle debate or steer it to his/her slant.
In the video below, you'll see that author Tom Woods encounters the
typical zombie attacks when trying to present an idea like nullification. The
concept is well established by the founders and best known as the "Principles of '98" in the documents written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
known as The Kentucky Resolutions" and
"The Virginia Resolutions." The principles have been used more
often by northern states than by southern states, but that doesn't stop the zombie from from using his label gun attack.
So, the lesson here is that Zombies will attack. It's what they do. Protect your brain, folks!! And keep your powder dry... prepare for the attack.
"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
"Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people." --John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765
"Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is
confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal." --Benjamin Rush, Essay 1786
"It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people." --James Madison, Second annual message to
Congress, December 15, 1810
"I am... against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our
citizens against the conduct of their agents." --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799.
Steve Scroggins
is Commander of the Lt. James T. Woodward Camp 1399, Sons of Confederate
Veterans, in Warner Robins, GA. He is the deranged creative force behind
the X-Files parodies.
Atlanta (CNN) -- A Spanish-language newspaper in Georgia has drawn bipartisan criticism for publishing a doctored photograph depicting the state's new governor as a Nazi.
El Nuevo Georgia Editor Rafael Navarro said the picture was meant to call attention to Hispanic issues -- and grab the attention of residents and politicians who often ignore the Hispanic community.
"Americans don't read our paper because they can't read Spanish. They don't read our news, our editorials and the opinion of the community. But if they see a picture, they'll get it," he said.
The photo illustration, published in the paper's January 6 edition, shows Republican Gov. Nathan Deal wearing a Nazi uniform, a swastika armband and a Hitler-like mustache.
The accompanying story, entitled "Repression in the Age of Deal," recaps an ethics investigation against Deal and talks about the governor's past financial troubles. The full-page article also quotes local community leaders forecasting tough times ahead for illegal immigrants in the state.
One leader quoted is Democratic state Rep. Pedro Marin -- one of only two Hispanic legislators in Georgia.
Marin condemned the photo and said he did not know about it when he spoke to the newspaper.
"It is disrespectful," Marin said. "I might disagree with the policies of Governor Deal, but I respect him and the office he represents."
Marin said he understands firsthand what it means to be the target of inflammatory rhetoric.
"Ever since I got elected and began supporting immigrant issues, I have received hate mail and my house and car have been vandalized," he said.
Marin said the photo might make it harder for the Hispanic community to communicate with state leaders.
Deal, who took office earlier this month, has not spoken out about the photo. His spokesman, Brian Robinson, issued a statement saying, "Those who can't formulate a coherent argument in our society's marketplace of ideas often resort to childish, even offensive tactics. This is pathetic."
Navarro, who immigrated to the United States from Colombia, said he printed the picture knowing he didn't have to fear retaliation from the governor because of the freedom of speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Marin recognizes that right, but also said that responsibility comes with freedom, adding that "it is a shame that he decided to print the photo to sell more papers"
El Nuevo Georgia prints about 40,000 copies every month. Navarro admits that after other local media started to report on the controversy, traffic to the paper's website rose to record levels.
But Navarro said the picture represents the fear immigrants in Georgia feel with the arrival of Deal to the state's top office, because of Deal's strong anti-immigrant rhetoric during the last campaign.
Navarro pointed to Deal's support of legislation similar to laws enacted in Arizona aimed at tough enforcement against illegal immigrants.
Deal was elected last November. He won the Republican primary, edging out a former secretary of state who was endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Then he defeated Democrat and former governor Roy Barnes.
Both of Deal's rivals also supported immigration legislation similar to Arizona's.
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