The Leftist Mind: Tell Me A Story That I Want To Hear.

There's been a lot of talk on the blogosphere about lefty institution The New Republic and its "Baghdad Diarist" who writes under the name "Scott Thomas."

Mr. Thomas and his editors at The New Republic claims to be an American soldier on the scene in Baghdad. During his time the New Republic printed reports from Scott Thomas claiming soldiers cruelly mocked a disfigured woman in a canteen full of people, used a piece of human skull as a fashion accessory and used a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to run over stray dogs.

Now I'm not going to try to debunk these stories, there's a rapidly growing movement of experts like Micheal Yon, journalists at The National Review and even the occasional semiotician that are handling that sort of thing. What I would like to discuss is the mindset that makes a publication like The New Republic leap to print stories like Thomas' little tales.

If you read all the posts in under the category of The Leftist Mind, you'll see that I keep harping on the point that the Left believes in a great "meta-narrative" and that all human events and endeavors must fit in the increasingly narrow confines of that meta-narrative.

When it comes to the US Military the Left's meta-narrative follows these simple patterns:

1. All American military action is inherently wrong and only serves to enrich some dark capitalistic cabal.

2. American military leadership is inherently corrupt, incompetent, and completely enslaved to the military/capitalist cabal.

3. People who serve in the military are either:

A) Poor inbred ill-educated bums who can't survive in the civilian world and are forced by their poverty to go into the military.
(The Victim)

B) Blood-thirsty psychopaths who join up solely for the chance to kill, rape and destroy with the support and blessing of the American government.
(The Brute)

C) Both. A poor ill educated bum who is twisted by his training at the hands of the military/capitalist cabal and is brainwashed into becoming a maniacal killing machine.
(The Kill-Bot)

This narrative was born in the days of the Vietnam War. The baby boom generation had developed contempt for the military that many of their parents served in during WW2, and used things like the Winter Soldier program to make it appear that terrible aberrations like the My Lai massacre were not only everyday events, but an essential part of the American military's character. Winter Soldier was the birthplace of the Victim, Brute and Kill-Bot were forever branded into the Left's consciousness.

It didn't matter that an entire industry of experts, pundits, historians, and veterans debunked most of the Winter Soldier testimony as either urban legends or outright lies. The Left had its image of the US Military and it was sticking to it.

That's why in the media you constantly hear about how the military is full of the poor, the borderline illiterate, and the potentially deranged. Even though all serious statistical studies show the rank and file of the US military to be middle-class in upbringing and possessing a higher educational standing than the general population, the media doesn't want to hear it.

Hollywood has somewhere around eight movies about veterans of the Iraq War joining several that have already been released, and in those movies they are to be portrayed as Victims, Brutes, and Kill-Bots. TV shows like Law & Order also follow this pattern, producing several episodes across the franchise about Iraq war vets committing crimes or being victimized by the military/capitalist cabal.

None of the previously released films have made money, the others will most likely fail at the box office, and Law & Order is sinking in the ratings faster than the Titanic but they won't stop.

Why?

Because it is the story the limo-leftists in American film and TV want to hear. It doesn't matter if it's true.

Which brings me back to Scott Thomas, the new Winter Soldier.

The New Republic has declared that it will stand by Scott Thomas and his 'reports' from Iraq, no matter how many people present evidence that Thomas is the next Stephen Glass.

They will stand by Thomas and his stories because they fit the narrative.

The narrative is what matters.

Not the facts.

So basically, the New Republic will print anything that fits its narrative structure, truth be damned.

Too bad, because once truth is damned, the rest of the world follows suit.

That's all for today folks, keep watching the skies, because we're watching you.