fascim lite, david neiwert's blog, enlightenment

Thanks to a link on Joe London's blog, I just spent some time reading Seattle journalist David Neiwert's blog Ornicus. Compelling analysis of the American conservative movement's transformation into what David calls "facism lite".

Comments from right wing attack dogs are also interesting. One sobering thought that dawned on me while reading the comments over . . . we on the left tend to believe that we're engaging in a meaningful dialogue with the right. But the right abondoned the negotiating table years ago (sometime in the early 70's, it seems). When we appeal to enlightenment values of ethics and reason, we may as well try to talk the school bully into apologizing for having stolen our lunch money.

And yet we can't preserve enlightenment by force, by undermining the possibility of the very conditions in which has a chance to take hold. I can't conceive of a way out of this bind.