Re: "smoked salmon socialists"

"Jonathan Ball" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I learned a great new term of disparagement from an
> L.A. Times opinion piece:  "smoked salmon socialists".
>   I think this must be akin to "limousine liberal",
> "brie-and-chardonnay liberal", etc.  Most of the
> references to the term seem to be Irish or English.
> The meaning is obvious:  comfortable upper income
> hypocrites of the left, advocating "socialism" while
> enjoying the fruits of capitalism that the poor people
> they pretend to champion would never enjoy if the upper
> income leftist hypocrites ever succeed in implementing
> their socialist dystopia.

This is an excellent article! I think it's strange, that not only are
English socialists, or French or German socialists, but Americans as well
are doing this kind of stuff. And when I mention to them that hating their
own country is unpatriotic, they call me a jingo.

I think for the anti-American Americans it's a matter of guilt and
self-hatred. They know they were lucky enough to be born here and they know
that they have a very good life compared to people in most of the world. I
mean, most Americans have access to as much food as they need (and more),
have clean running water (or bottled, if they prefer), have homes complete
with an indoor toilet and bathtub and soap, have toilet paper, have a gas or
electric stove instead of having to start a fire, etc. These days they also
have a radio, tv, and computer. They have cars that can get them from place
to place. Most people in America, even lower income families, don't really
know the meaning of poverty.

This is also true for the well-developed nations of Europe.

So you get these people, who are guilty because they have so much when other
people don't have as much as they do, so they turn to being socialist,
instead of saying "Hey, this democracy and capitalism stuff really works,
let's spread the word, and maybe these other nations will build themselves
up as well!"

If someone tries to spread Western ideals of freedom, democracy, and
capitalism, they're seen as "imperialist." The smoked salmon socialists will
say "How dare you pretend that our culture is in any way superior to theirs!
How dare you try to place your values into their country!"

So while the smoked salmon socialist is always so self-hating over having so
much while others have so little, they destroy any and all efforts to
actually spread the freedom, democracy and capitalism that could make a
difference for those people. Doing something about it isn't important, it's
FEELING bad for the other people that counts.

Everything they promote seems to be against what they say they want.

During all the protests against the war, if I talked to an anti-war
individual, they'd say "Oh, I'm not in favor of Saddam, not any more than
you are!" However, they only got angry with me if I said "Well you certainly
don't seem to want to do anything about him."

-Rubystars