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Comment by hga | Hacker News Reader

Name some members of it.

Of course not counting those of us who note, as I noted in another posting in this sub-thread, that Reagan just happened to be the very first President who tried to end vs. "contain" the USSR. I.e. the difference between giving it a strong push into "the dustbin of history" as he put it, vs. "personally responsible".

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My father, for one.

I think you'll have to do better than that to establish the existence of a "sect". I.e. you need to name some of its leaders, the ones making statements, speeches, etc. propagating this program.

I know he didn't come up with this idea independently. I haven't paid enough attention to know precisely who it came from, but given his reading and listening habits, I'd expect the names to be found on a list of contributors to National Review and the list of top talk radio hosts.

You seem awfully defensive about this, given that I said nothing that indicates you are a member, or indeed that anyone in particular is a member until you asked. Are you that uncomfortable with the idea that there are crazy people in the world who hold some opinions similar to your own? That's true of all of us.

Defensive? Perhaps that comes from being viciously slandered and libeled for 4 decades (starting from when I became politically aware in the very early '70s; heck, I'm old enough to remember when the "scientific consensus" was that the earth was entering an ice age and it was axiomatic it all our fault). This brush is broadly used against everyone on "the right"; to bring it back to this discussion and e.g. the impression flohofwoe got as a teenager behind the Iron Curtain in the '80s, by supporting and voting for Reagan we demonstrated a desire to kill those behind it in nuclear hellfire.

Based on my knowledge of the right, I did't know of any such "sect", your language explicitly said there's a specific group of "crazy people" with this set of beliefs. Except you can't identify any of them besides your father, and no one can claim complete clarity in viewing their parents.

Believe me or don't, I really don't care. If you choose to take my post as libel against you, that's your right, but given that I don't know you and apparently haven't described your beliefs, it takes some amazing mental gymnastics to pull that off, and that's on you, not me.

You seem to know a lot about the "government is evil, taxation is theft, global warming is a hoax" fringe crowd, but when questioned, you refer only to your father. You're extrapolating to a whole group of people from a personal family anecdote. Your comment is devoid of data and that's why such drivel is not appreciated.

Yeah, I know a fair amount of what that crowd believes, as a result of lots of exposure, direct and indirect, to the aforementioned talk radio and magazine. No, I can't name names. So what? I couldn't name any hosts on Fox News or CNN, but I can state with confidence from what I've seen of them that a lot of them are full of crap.

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