What Steve Bannon Really Wants (Muslim, countries, American, Democrats)

[Wayland Woman]

Originally Posted by stburr91

That's not his own words, that is what someone claimed he said. There is no evidence he ever said that.

There were claims that Bill Clinton said about Obama, "Not long ago, that boy would be carrying our (golf) clubs".

Do you believe Bill Clinton said that?

Of course I believe Clinton said a line similar to that---only he didn't use the word 'boy.' I heard the video and it was meant as an admiration of how far blacks have come in a short time---from caddy to running for president.

[whogo]

From reading that article Bannon has much in common with Pat Buchanan.

I now wish Pat had won in 2000.

[randomparent]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

First of all, and keep up press, that was journalism.

Second of all to me it seems that Bannon and Trump really have one endgame, a god fearing nation of yore. While I can appreciate this premise, I, like the majority of us, am secular and have no interest in these values.

I disagree. Donald Trump used his supporters' desire for a God-fearing nation of yore in a quest for power and influence, and as Jefferson pointed out: once you have a wolf by the ear, you can neither safely hold him nor let him go.

[TwoByFour]

Originally Posted by redwood66

This is a much better article about Bannon than any I have read. It took thinking and actual journalistic qualities to write such a piece. Rather than arm flailing "he's a racist, misogynist, other -ists, and no research or thought. If, as a writer, in your mind, your subject is subhuman you end up with editorials posing as "news."

You do realize the absurdity of that statement, don't you? We can never know what is in the mind of any writer, so we never know if the piece, according to you, is unbiased. That leads to accusations of "fake" news when you read something you don't like since you will assume the author did not have the empty mind that you want.

At some point you have to just trust your news sources to hire people who report the facts.

[EveryLady]

Thank you for the article.

History shows that nothing positive usually comes from a blend of nationalism and religion layered onto an idealized view of society. It can be a toxic mix. In addition, those who tend to have a messianic view, that they are the savior of a country often give themselves permission to work outside normal societal constraints - all for the common good, of course.

It's interesting - Hillary Clinton has a strain of this in her, albeit to a milder extent. She is deeply but quietly religious (Protestant) in a way that can lead to becoming somewhat sanctimonious. Those who devote their life to bettering society can be the first to ignore the "little laws."

Clinton, though, is not at all the revolutionary that Bannon appears to be. And perhaps she is much saner about process. Clinton's background in law grounds her in our Constitutional tradition in a way that Bannon's immersion in philosophizing does not.

Societal changes are much more random and accidental than we may like - particularly when they bring discomfort and so perhaps it's a normal human tendency to look to and blame the THEY. A determined effort to channel society to a set vision by one in power tends not to work out well and is historically connected to a number of "isms."

[EveryLady]

Originally Posted by randomparent

I disagree. Donald Trump used his supporters' desire for a God-fearing nation of yore in a quest for power and influence, and as Jefferson pointed out: once you have a wolf by the ear, you can neither safely hold him nor let him go.

I've a couple good friends who want nothing but to return to the days of the past. The time when life was like how it was portrayed in Little House on the Prairie. In talking, it is STRIKING how little they actually know of history. It is all so idealized - the sexuality, patriarchy, work conditions, education. A good dose of reading like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle might be called for.

The 1950s *was* a wonderful decade for many though certainly not all Americans - the depression had been survived, the war won, the middle-class ascendant. Many older Americans remember it, if only as children. It forms this cognitive backdrop against which the march of time is measured - and not favorably.

We here in America have been relatively protected from turmoil - if only by a pair of great big oceans. Interesting that Bannon uses the term "inherited DNA." Our inherited DNA has not experienced the turmoil of generations of war in Europe and so perhaps that hampers our ability to deal with change by increasing the fear factor. Folks panic - instead of coping. Change is normal - and inescapable.

[whogo]

Originally Posted by dothetwist

He's a fear mongerer. Unfortunately it play wells in middle Amerika.

It seems like fear of Trump is playing well in the East and West coasts.

[randomparent]

Originally Posted by EveryLady

We here in America have been relatively protected from turmoil - if only by a pair of great big oceans. Interesting that Bannon uses the term "inherited DNA." Our inherited DNA has not experienced the turmoil of generations of war in Europe and so perhaps that hampers our ability to deal with change by increasing the fear factor. Folks panic - instead of coping. Change is normal - and inescapable.

Can you expand on this? I'm interested in how Bannon presented this idea. (If it's in the link, forgive me, I'm off to read it right now.)

[EveryLady]

Originally Posted by randomparent

Can you expand on this? I'm interested in how Bannon presented this idea. (If it's in the link, forgive me, I'm off to read it right now.)

Sorry. Didn't see your post. Here's the quote.

People who do not sign off on this set of shared values should not be welcome in the US. This logic forms the basis of Bannon’s opposition to immigrants, whose lack of democratic “DNA,” he believes, will harm society.

“These are not Jeffersonian democrats,” Bannon said last year, referring to immigrants heading from Muslim majority countries to Europe, USA Today reported. “These are not people with thousands of years of democracy in their DNA coming up here.” That rationale might justify closing the borders to immigrants from Latin America, even though they are usually devout Catholics.

It's an idea intriguing concept - think I wrote "inherited DNA," which is dumb for all course all DNA is inherited. Rather, I assume he's speaking of epigenetics. Let me google that -

Epigenetics is the study, in the field of genetics, of cellular and physiological phenotypic trait variations that are caused by external or environmental factors that switch genes on and off and affect how cells read genes instead of being caused by changes in the DNA sequence. Hence, epigenetic research seeks to describe dynamic alterations in the transcriptional potential of a cell.

Wow, that's a mouthful. It's usually presenting in terms of processes like healthy eating. That patterns established by the parent can be passed to their children through changes in the DNA. Can it encompass behavioral changes?

Let me google that -

Behavioral epigenetics is the field of study examining the role of epigenetics in shaping animal (including human) behaviour. It is an experimental science that seeks to explain how nurture shapes nature, where nature refers to biological heredity and nurture refers to virtually everything that occurs during the life-span (e.g., social-experience, diet and nutrition, and exposure to toxins). Behavioral epigenetics attempts to provide a framework for understanding how the expression of genes is influenced by experiences and the environment[5] to produce individual differences in behaviour, cognition personality, and mental health.

Interesting stuff. For example, the US is thought to have fared much better than did Argentina (with whom we shared a similar climate, abundance of raw materials, comparable European immigrant pattern) due to the US experience with democracy from our English parent. Was that a learned pattern? Or part of our democratic DNA, in an epigenetic sense?

Do Asians do well in school because of the inherited Confucian tradition? Or have there been changes in how genes are expressed?

Thinking ... there ARE some negative implications here (historically).

[burdell]

Originally Posted by Wayland Woman

In his own words, this is what he wants.....

"I’m a Leninist,” Bannon proudly proclaimed. Shocked, I asked him what he meant.“Lenin,” he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”

Steve Bannon, Trump

To paraphrase his little Red Hero, 'Alternative facts told often enough become truth'