Welcome friends!
Do you ever read the public comments on online newspaper articles? Sometimes I do but I have to say I don’t really expect too much. Here in the US the usual scenario is that some conservative Republican will do or say something outrageously idiotic, someone will write a newspaper article about it, liberals will comment upon it, and conservatives will respond in various moronic and insulting ways along the lines of “the loony left must have its knickers in a twist.” It’s actually a pretty funny pattern because one tends to see the same conservative comments time and time again no matter what the article in question happens to be about. Indeed, I sometimes suspect the conservative contributions to these forums are not written by actual people at all but come from some sort of random comment generator. If anyone says anything one pushes a button and it churns out an asinine retort or insult to serve as one’s response. On the other hand, who knows? Maybe it’s real people after all. I have found when some people talk it can sound pretty random sometimes. Anyway, one of the conservative comments I tend to see with some regularity is “at least X (whichever conservative Republican managed to do or say something idiotic that week) is not Saul Alinsky.” The first few times I read this comment I assumed it must involve one of those inscrutable secret codes conservatives use to communicate with one another and thought no more about it. You know, they often seem to have these little side conversations with themselves in which they ramble hither and yon and end up in the funniest places. However, after a while I have to admit I became a little curious. I mean, who is this Saul Alinsky conservatives keep talking about anyway? Is he a real person? Why do conservatives hate the guy so much and why does no one else have any idea who he actually is? Is he a mass murderer who only targeted conservatives? Is he a historical figure from the Russian Revolution, maybe a particularly overzealous Bolshevik hellraiser? Is he a character from an Ayn Rand novel? Maybe someone whose ostensible concern for others led him to commit all manner of atrocities? And how and when did conservatives start talking about him anyway? Did they always talk about him? Lots of questions. So that’s my topic for this post: the mysterious conservative fascination with Saul Alinsky... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website. All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee. Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right? If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then. Thank you my friends!
