People I'm Sick and Tired Of #2,451: C. Thomas Sowell

[thatcrazycajun]

Today's reactionary right-wing nonsense comes to us from the Republican Party's favorite African-American sock puppet, "Uncle Tom" Sowell, who is quoted on Quote of the Day as having opined:

"Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good."

This statement demonstrates once again one of the key motivating beliefs of the modern conservative movement, that everything currently wrong with this nation's culture and politics can be traced back to the social upheaval and legislative reforms of the 1960s, and that said reforms need to be rolled back for these problems to be solved. One would think a person in a position to have directly experienced the racial and ethnic bigotry and institutionalized discrimination of that era would know better than to put tripe like this out there. My theory is he was brainwashed quite some while back by a secret GOP cabal of psychologists.

Comments

He's right

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

About 30 years ago was about when the "Reagan Revolution" began and we began to replace economic theories, theories about the nature of government, theories about the separation of Church and State, etc. that actually worked with all this crap we have now.

Re: He's right

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Um...wasn't that more like 20-25 years ago, now? Or is my math faulty as well as Sowell's? If you count it back to 1980, maybe you can argue for "almost three decades," but if you take Sowell literally, three decades refers to the period since 1977. Having seen many similar comments from conservatives wanting to basically repeal the 1960s, however, and not knowing the date of his original quote, I took it in that context and assumed he really meant "the past FOUR decades."

Re: He's right

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

As my point was merely to mock him and turn his intent on its head, I saw no need for mathematical precision.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

*wryly* Actually, I think that "replacing what works with what sounds good" is what politicians of all stripes are best at. And corporations. No one really takes long-term views any more; it's about what will get them elected/hired/promoted/good stock options.