Willis Hart Strawman In Defense Of Koch Plutocrats & Slander Of The Left

Yet another strawman from the strawman-loving Libertarin blogger Willis Hart. This one utterly amazing in it's stupidity.

Willis Hart: On the Fact that the Hard Left Goes Bonkers Even When the Koch Brothers Spend Their Money on Good (AKA, Nonpolitical) Things; $100 Million to New York's Presbyterian Hospital, $15 Million to Weill Cornell Medical Center, $30 Million to Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, $25 Million to the Hospital for Special Surgery, $100 Million to Lincoln Center, etc... How small and spiteful that the new left has become... Now, if only they, the Kochs, had spent that money toward ginning up racial animosity, pushing a discredited narrative, etc... (7/11/2015 AT 8:20pm).

First of all, WTF is Willis talking about? I'm guessing he read some unidentified news story about Koch Brothers charitable contributions and some Leftists criticism of it? Who knows. As usual the idiot assumes that anyone reading his blog consumes the same media he does and will therefore know what the hell he's talking about.

That, or he thinks this is a huge story that everyone should be aware of. Well, I have no effing clue what he's referring to... but I can tell you this - that the Koch brothers donate money to worthy causes is a good thing... although I'm sure they do it to aggrandize themselves as well as to buy good will. And as a tax write-off, of course. Another reason for the donating might even be them viewing themselves as good people and liking doing good things with their money.

I know that one aspect of Willis' worship of wealth is his great admiration for wealthy individuals doing just this sort of thing. He'd much rather wealthy benefactors bequeath a portion of their wealth for the charitable causes of their choice than We The People deciding these priorities (and paying for what We think is important with our tax dollars).

Of course, as a Progressive, I view this reliance of society on the largess of wealthy benefactors to address societal needs as both anti-democratic and a sign of oligarchy (and therefore at least a little troubling). But Willis takes the opposite view. According to him, this is the preferred method by which to accomplish good (and he has written a number of commentaries on his blog praising wealthy people's charity... both past and present).

The reference to spending money "ginning up racial animosity" and "pushing a discredited narrative" is a call back to another commentary on his blog in which he claims that it's a fact that "George Soros has purportedly spent $33 billion million financing protest groups in Ferguson, Baltimore, and Other Racially Charged Hotspots". And that in Ferguson we ALL KNOW that "hands up, don't shoot" was a "damned lie".

To which I say BULLSHIT. We do NOT "all know" that "hands up, don't shoot" was a "damned lie". This "lie", as I understand it, came from his friend Dorian Johnson. Several other witnesses say Brown raised his hands briefly. Frankly I think it is more likely that Johnson, in shock from seeing his friend murdered in front of him, wrongly remembered what happened. Witness testimony is notoriously unreliable. This, IMO, is an example of this, and not a "damned lie".

And, in any case, I do not think it matters whether Brown had his hands up in surrender or not. The fact is that Brown was 148 f*cking feet away from Wilson. Something the cops lied about, claiming the distance was only 35 feet. While Brown was running away Wilson should have ducked behind his car and called in the incident. Instead he shot Brown in cold blood, murdering him [1].

Willis' focuses on the "damned lie" to distract from this fact. Just as he distracts from the fact that the Koch plutocrats are attempting to buy the next presidential election by pointing to some worthy causes they are throwing money at (not necessarily for altruistic reasons).

And Willis present ZERO proof that the "hard left" is going "bonkers" over these donations. NONE. He saw or read it somewhere (presumably), but WHERE? How am I supposed to know if this happened or not if Willis is not clear WTF he's talking about? And notice that first he says the "hard left" went bonkers, then that changes to the "new left".

Which is it Willis? And who the hell is he talking about with this reference to the "new left"? Seems to me that the "new left" is anyone who identifies with the Left of today. The Left of the present and not the Left of the past. Which would include ALL Democrats and ALL Progressives, as well as everyone else who identifies with a left-leaning political ideology (Greens, Democratic Socialists, Socialists, etc).

Which is a TOTAL strawman. For example, I watched a segment on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman the other day in which a man working for the Koch brothers and Van Jones appeared. Seems they are joining forces to do something about the fact that the United States prison population is one of the largest (if not THE largest) in the world. Van Jones (who I am POSITIVE Willis would consider a part of the "hard left") was not going bonkers.

Mr. Jones noted that people on his side of the fence normally have problems with MOST of what the Koch Brothers do, but that in this instance they were on the same side, and that working with the opposition when there are areas of agreement is a good thing (and that it should be done).

But the strawman-loving Hart condemns everyone on the Left (or the undefined "new left"), calling everyone in this group "small and spiteful". All while NEVER revealing a source or identifying who, exactly, went bonkers. Or even what these people going bonkers entails. Were these people protesting? Did they issue a statement? What did they say?

I say that Willis can stuff his condemnation sans meaningful details. This post by Willis is nothing but hot air. Him expressing his hate of the Left/Progressives (or the "hard left" or "new left") with a commentary completely devoid of any facts to back up his accusations.

BTW, in regards to Willis' commentary "on the fact that George Soros has purportedly spent $33 billion million financing protest groups in Ferguson"... I say, which is it? Is this a "fact" or is it "purported"?

According to Snopes this rumor is a mixture of True and False. Snopes points out that "a grantmaking network founded by George Soros provided funding to some groups that engaged in Ferguson-related protest activities" but that Soros did NOT give "money to various groups for the express purpose of promoting Ferguson-related protests and riots".

So Willis lies, and that is a FACT. I am not alleging it, I am proving it. You can not call protesting a police shooting of an UNARMED Black man "ginning up racial animosity", you racist piece of shit!

Even if you disagree with the protestors... they still have the right to protest. And they were protesting what they saw as an unjust shooting, NOT "ginning up racial animosity". The "racial animosity" Willis refers to is his own (as well as the animosity of other racists).

But these people ginned it up themselves - when they viewed people legally protesting and (as Willis might put it), "got all butt hurt" at these (as Willis might put it) "assholes" having the nerve to not agree that the shooting was justified.

Footnote
[1] IMO the police lying is more of a "damned lie" than Dorian Johnson (after seeing his friend murdered in front of him) saying Michael Brown had his hands up and was surrendering. 1st, I'm not 100 percent convinced this isn't exactly what happened. And 2nd, if it did not, I'm even less convinced that Dorian Johnson did still not recount the incident - as he remembered it.

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