I have two grandchildren: Maggie is 11; Robert is 9. I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.
108 comments
Protip, Amphibian-man: Learn what words mean before using them!
The sad part is that this won’t impact his popularity at all. This is why we can’t win against fundies. So many of them play Humpty Dumpty with their language that you can’t be sure what it is they are actually hearing. Might as well be speaking Klingon for all the use it does.
"be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists"
Uhm, look dude, buy a dictionary and look up the terms before you use them.
Newt isn't going to stand for President. He makes too much money running imaginary ('possible' 'exploratory' 'potential') campaigns than he ever would running a real one, where there are actual rules about what you can spend the cash on. Also, he might win, and that would seriously reduce his income (and seriously increase his workload).
By that time, America will also have been taken over and dominated by luddite technophiles, fascist anarchists, egalitarian elitists, pacifist warmongers, abstinent porn stars and honest politicians.
I think I have to side with Newt on this one. Think about the kind of things that would happen in a secular nation-why, men might even leave their cancer-stricken wives to chase another piece of ass they're after.
Newt you are a piece of shit and stupefyingly dumb quotes like this prove that you and those like you will always pander to the lowest common denominator for votes, which, fortunately for you, is always getting lower and attracting new members.
And yes there's no harm in repeating it: on the big ol' spectrum of religion, Islam and Christianity are practically in each others' hip pockets compared to atheism. That's the thing about being an atheist: we think that all fundies are full of shit, it doesn't matter who they are. "Secular atheist country?" Show me where I sign.
Really? REALLY?!
This endless parade of retards is the best the conservative party has to offer? We're circling the bowl thanks to fiscal irresponsibility, but let's just keep pushing those religo-fascist hot buttons and running up the debt. Guess who has no understanding of what it once meant to be a US Statesman? Go back to your tent shows and infomercials where you belong you political hacks! /rant
by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country
With any luck.
one dominated by radical Islamists
No, just no. Why would radical Muslims want a secular atheist country? Here's a tip, Newt: Radical Muslims want the exact same things that you want, only with Islam being in charge instead of Christianity.
#1 - A secular atheist country would not be dominated by Muslims..in your own words it would be dominated by atheists. Stop equating atheism with Islam.
#2 - Other than being born in America, agreeing with the bill of rights, or petitioning for citizenship in America..what else is there about being an American?
Oh yeah..everyone must be YOUR kind of christian to be American.
And just what does it mean to be an American? Where does it say and American cannot be a Muslim, an Atheist, a Catholic, a secularist?
Your Christianity is not mentioned in any of the basic documents. On the contrary, where it is mentioned is in a treaty, the Treaty of Tripoli, where is quite specific that America is not a Christian country.
So now, kindly hold your tongue until you learn a little about your country.
This:
secular atheist country
Does not, and cannot, by definition, equal this:
one dominated by radical Islamists
Hi, this is Maggie and Robert. Please don't mind Grandpa Newt; he's been a little funny in the head ever since his big contest to "get more tail" than somebody named "Slick Willie." We're not sure what that means, but that's what he says, anyway. Grandpa Newt still doesn't have a tail, except the one on the rubber suit he wears whenever Mr. Boehner comes over to play.
Whoops, gotta go: Grandpa Newt's out in the front yard in nothing but a bathrobe, yelling "Dang Islamofascist bureaucrat, git offa mah lawn" at the mailman again.
Didn't we have this one before ?
Oh... right. That wasn't Newt Gingrich. But, it seems, they share roughly the same level of intellect.
A "secular atheist country" that's "dominated by radical Islamists" you say? Well goodness, we can't have that !
Mostly because it's contradictory, illogical and just plain stupid.
Yeah, Newt. That makes sense. Being opposed to the establishment of religion is the exact same thing as supporting Sharia law. You got it.
And there are people that would vote for this dumbass?
no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.
Translation: They won't be living in the 1950's TV show America that we idolize & wish for.
Radical Islamists running a secular atheist country? WTF planet do you live on, Newt? I know you conservatives always lump everyone you hate into one big group, but damn I thought you were just a wee bit smarter than that. Or is this just anti-atheist, anti-Islam propaganda you feed to your conservative Republican followers because they're stupid and this is what they want to hear?
So someone did submit this quote! I heard it on Jon Stewart, of all places. I wanted to submit it but didn't know the original source, so thank you Tom S. Fox. Now everyone can mock this guy.
As for Newt Gingrich, does the sheer contradiction of "a secular atheist country... dominated by radical Islamists" mean anything to you? I expect conflation of all the positions one doesn't like from the ignorant Tea Partiers and Ruptured Retards, but Gingrich is someone on CNN. He really should know better.
(Yes, I am well aware that Newt Gingrich is one of the most obnoxious and extreme conservatives on the news, but the point still stands. He has to be intelligent if he even got that far in the first place.)
Since everybody else pointed out the contradiction in terms, I'm gonna point out this:
"I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America"
Decisively win, Newt? Pray tell, what does that entail? Rounding up all those who don't fit into your view of Americans? Restricting what can and can't be said? Forcing out all the "undesirables"? Because there was another leader who tried that once. Roughly 60 million people died in the ensuing war.
I'm convinced that he's pandering. He's just using words that he knows will inspire an emotional reaction from people most likely to vote for him. After all, Gingrich is an educated man with multiple university-sanctioned letters after his name. Sufficiently educated that he knows that putting certain words in his sentences, even if they don't make sense together, will get him votes. He's not a fundie. He's an opportunist.
Newt is the kind of idiots the dumb population loves.
USA has a long and sad history of electing politicians that are idiots and for the most part, fascists in their politics.
I hope Newt or Bachman or Palin becomes president in 2012 - USA deserves them!
Hey, remember when America was going to be dominated by Red Chinese Soviet Marxists? Man must we were so stupid and fearful back in those days. It's a good thing modern Americans never let fear of outsiders color their political views these days, no sir.
"y the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists ..."
Sir, a secular atheist society will not be dominated by radical Islamists, and a society dominated by radical Islamists will be neither atheist nor secular.
I'm worried for those kids, but only because I'm reminded of the Goerings, who, unable to face the idea of their children growing up in a non Nazi Europe, killed them all instead.
"by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists"
By the time your grandchildren are my age (ie ten years from now), the words secular and Islamist will have become synonymous in the official American Newspeak. And rich, white Christians will still dominate the country.
So for over 20 years this was the best candidate the people of Georgia's 6th congressional district has to represent them?
If Newt Gingrich is the cream of the crop in the 6th district and Georgia's 6th district is the most well educated region of the state, Georgia is in a sorry state indeed.
A secular atheist country, by its very definition, could not be dominated by radical Islamist, you fuckwit.
"... a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists...."
Yeah, we all know secular atheism and Islam are the same thing anyway.....
ZOMG teh athiests are coming... they beleive in nothing and they're bringing their islamist buddies and muslamic ray guns.
I was going to call Poe on this one, until I saw it's FUCKING NEWT GINGRICH!
@Raised by Horses
Well, since the only say an Anarchist state would work is if everybody agreed on everything (since disagreement inevitably leads to conflict, and conflict to violence), I'd say while "facist anarchy" might be an oxymoron, the two systems are essentially the same thing.
Atheist Islamists...?
-Canama
Newt, if you're really worried that the world won't go on according to your wacko, right-wing preferences, here's my advice: kill your grandchildren now. That way, they won't have to live with the majority of us who really don't give a good crap about the stuff you're worried about. For a guy who can dump his wife while she's dying of cancer, killing a few little kids shouldn't be hard.
"they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists"
How is anyone supposed to take you seriously when you write self-contradictory nonsense like that?
You need better proofreaders Newt...
@LAchlan
"The word is muslims, not islamists. Islamists isn't a word. IF I were religious I'd say 'OH MY GOD! you're stupid!'"
Sorry to disappoint you, but "Islamist" IS a word, and it actually pretty accurately describes what he imagines all Muslims to be. Doesn't make him less stupid though. ;)
"..by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists"
Great job there, Captain Redundant :D
"they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists"
What. Is that like a christian pagan or something.
Um, are those grandchildren from the children of your first, second, or third wife, Mr. Family Values? Oh, I just checked - they can only be from your second wife. You know, the one you cheated on your first wife with. You remember your first wife, right? She's the one you served divorce papers on while she was in hospital undergoing chemotherapy? And how's your third wife doing? You know, the one you cheated on your second wife with?
Die in a fire asshole.
I am so beyond frustration with him. I am to sick to death of people putting the direction of America in terms of conservatism or THE END OF EVERYTHING.
Maybe we'd actually move forward as a country if people started realizing a middle path and instead of seeing the two parties as enemies, see them as complementary halves of a workable whole.
I agree with Flah and aaa here. Gingrich is pandering. He might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I don't think he is this bloody stupid. This is pandering to the far right. He wants to run for president and he knows that he doesn't stand a chance in the Republican primaries if he can't get the far right nutters to support him. He's trying to steal votes that might go to the likes of Huckabee or Palin (should they choose run, God forbid).
I also think that Tolpuddle Martyr brought up an interesting point. Not all Muslims are Arabs and not all Arabs are Muslims. However, the stereotypical Muslim is an Arab and vice versa. Because being blatantly racist and saying something like "Arabs" or "brown people" is universally frowned upon, I don't doubt that certain people use the word "Muslim" as a sort of code word for "Arab" or "person with darker skin than me." So if Gingrich really means he's afraid of America becoming a country full of atheists with dark skin, that really wouldn't surprise me, and his fear at least wouldn't be contradictory.
And I really hate people who try to use Muslim as a code word for Arab. Not only for being bigots, which is reason enough, but also because they make it even harder for sane people to make legitimate criticisms of Islam without being considered a racist.
@ Angua
If Palin (or Bachman for that matter) ran, they would be handing the Democrats a victory and be gloriously crushed. Huckabee stands something of a chance, but even he won't appeal nationally.
I don't think the Republicans stand much of a chance. It's easy to think you're popular when you surround yourself with people agreeing with you (the Tea Party) and the media echo-chambers your name. But in the end, they don't have the national appeal let alone the actual balls to back up their claims.
Let's say Newt or Palin actually does win the presidential election. Do you think they'll actually stick to the ridiculously xenophobic, contradictory, pandering crap they've been spewing? No. They'd be indistinguishable from any other garden-variety conservative force. Ironically, their victory would likely mean the end of the Tea Party. The TP is already pissed that the TP congressmen they elected aren't doing what they said they'd do. Just imagine that with a TP president.
you're missing the point: Gingrich is just pressing the buttons that will get his fan base stirred up. He may know the logical inconsistency, but be assured many of his supporters won't.
Just wondering from which of his multiple marriages these kids sprang.
And you have no understanding how the world works.
Radical Islamists wont be dominating a secular atheist country.
They'd want a theocracy, where you have to follow God's Word or suffer the consequences. Sounds cosy, doesn't it?
You'll just have to decide which version of the Abrahamic God and which parts of the Holy Book you have to follow.
Is this the real Newt Gingrish? I thought he would be better at formulating his ideas than this.
A secular atheist country dominated by radical Islamists.....oxymoron and just plain moron, all in one. Maybe by then Britain will have abolished the throne but will still be a monarchy.
What a doos. (South African word for idiot or fool - beautiful, when pronounced correctly.)
I have 6 nieces and nephews, aged 7 to 18. I want them growing up in an America where they'll have job security, safety, and the right to choose their beliefs. I want them to live in the America that used to help try to protect the world from fascism instead of becoming the fascists ourselves.
Radical Islamism: RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT
Secular Atheism: INHERENTLY NON-RELIGIOUS
*thinks*
And THIS man is the Republican frontrunner for president?
*facepalm*
Newt, you besmirch the name of a noble amphibian.
You also make no sense.
But still, I applaud you for actually knowing the word "Islamist" and that it doesn't mean the same thing as "Muslim." Maybe if you lost the "all bad things are connected" complex (next you'll say they're also Communist Nazi liberals!) you might actually make sense some day.
...Nah, that's too optimistic.
Wait, if they're in an atheistic secular country, radical Islamist can't dominate. And by the way, the United States is, by nature, SECULAR.
A secular atheist country can't be dominated by radical Islamists. Then it would be a radical Islamist country.
Do you understand what it was to be an American 160 years ago? Probably not.
Then why would future Americans understand what it was to be an American during the 1950's?
And yes, I mean 1950, as you all seem to be stuck in that decade.
How the fuck can you be an atheist secular country dominated by radical islamists?
Are they just throwing out scary buzzwords to their evidently utterly braindead flock?
Because if so they left out 'New World Order'.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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