Ayers’ life was a just a joyous, misunderstood frolic

I have to admit to screaming with laughter when I finally got around to Bill Ayers’ short-form autobiography for the New York Times, one that sees him classifying himself as just a joyous idealist, frolicking through the 1960s and 1970s — a Dennis the Menace for his times, all good intentions and humorously bad outcomes.  The best take-down of this inane little op-ed piece is, of course, Patterico’s satirical discovery of a similar piece from Charles Manson.  I opted here for a fisking, one that shows, I hope, that the New York Times has sunk so low that even Polly no longer wants it to line her bird cage:

I was cast in the “unrepentant terrorist” role [Perhaps he was cast in that role because he himself wrote the line.  Let me remind you of Ayers own boastful words in 2001:  ”I don’t regret setting bombs,” Bill Ayers said. ”I feel we didn’t do enough.”  To most sentient beings, setting bombs to kill fellow citizens + no regrets = “unrepentant terrorist”]; I felt at times like the enemy projected onto a large screen in the “Two Minutes Hate” scene from George Orwell’s “1984,” when the faithful gathered in a frenzy of fear and loathing. [Poor baby.  Tough enough to build the bombs to kill the people, but just can’t take the criticism that comes with it.]

[snip]

I never killed or injured anyone. [If we’re talking about personally pulling the trigger, neither did Hitler, dude.  Both in law and popular culture, though, we tend to hold the instigator responsible for the direction in which he led his troops.  Indeed, I’m willing to bet the a very little bit of digging will find Ayers calling for Nixon or Bush or Cheney to be convicted for war crimes, notwithstanding that none of them ever put a finger on the trigger.] I did join the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s, and later resisted the draft and was arrested in nonviolent demonstrations. [Well, I’m sure it’s true that he was arrested in nonviolent demonstrations.  What Ayers forgets to tell credulous readers is that he was also an active participant in some of the most violent anti-War protests the 1960s had to offer:

Ayers was an active participant in Weatherman’s 1969 “Days of Rage” riots in Chicago, where nearly 300 members of the organization employed guerrilla-style tactics to viciously attack police officers and civilians alike, and to destroy massive amounts of property via vandalism and arson; their objective was to further spread their anti-war, anti-American message. Reminiscing on those riots, Ayers says pridefully: “We’d … proven that it was possible — we didn’t all die, we were still there.”]

I became a full-time antiwar organizer for Students for a Democratic Society. In 1970, I co-founded the Weather Underground, an organization that was created after an accidental explosion that claimed the lives of three of our comrades in Greenwich Village. [I love how he glosses over this “accidental explosion” (there’s that Dennis the Menace innocence again) as if it was just a gas main that blew, as tragically happened in my community the other day.  This particular explosion happened because Ayers and his buddies were building bombs that they intended to use to kill hundreds of people.  Here’s a bit more info:

In 1970, Ayers’ then-girlfriend Diana Oughton, along with Weatherman members Terry Robbins and Ted Gold, were killed when a bomb they were constructing exploded unexpectedly. That bomb had been intended for detonation at a dance that was to be attended by army soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Hundreds of lives could have been lost had the plan been successfully executed. Ayers attested that the bomb would have done serious damage, “tearing through windows and walls and, yes, people too.”

In other words, when Ayers, in the very next sentence, speaks about the WU placing “small bombs in empty” offices, that’s simply because these WU clowns were, thank God, too inept to carry out their intended level of murderous mayhem.]

The Weather Underground went on to take responsibility for placing several small bombs in empty offices — the ones at the Pentagon and the United States Capitol were the most notorious — as an illegal and unpopular war consumed the nation.

The Weather Underground crossed lines of legality, of propriety and perhaps even of common sense. Our effectiveness can be — and still is being — debated. We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war.  [“Extreme vandalism”: More than thirty actual, not merely attempted bombings, aimed at the federal infrastructure, not to mention the intent to kill hundreds of military men and civilians.  I think even Bill Clinton would be impressed by this misuse of language.  As for the “attacks on property, never on people, [that] were meant to respect human life,” we know this for the outright lie it is.]

Peaceful protests had failed to stop the war. So we issued a screaming response. But it was not terrorism; we were not engaged in a campaign to kill and injure people indiscriminately, spreading fear and suffering for political ends.  [Let me repeat:

In 1970, Ayers’ then-girlfriend Diana Oughton, along with Weatherman members Terry Robbins and Ted Gold, were killed when a bomb they were constructing exploded unexpectedly. That bomb had been intended for detonation at a dance that was to be attended by army soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Hundreds of lives could have been lost had the plan been successfully executed. Ayers attested that the bomb would have done serious damage, “tearing through windows and walls and, yes, people too.”]

I cannot imagine engaging in actions of that kind today. [Another lie. Again, let me repeat:  ”I don’t regret setting bombs,” Bill Ayers said. ”I feel we didn’t do enough.” ]

[snip]

The dishonesty of the narrative about Mr. Obama during the campaign went a step further with its assumption that if you can place two people in the same room at the same time, or if you can show that they held a conversation, shared a cup of coffee, took the bus downtown together or had any of a thousand other associations, then you have demonstrated that they share ideas, policies, outlook, influences and, especially, responsibility for each other’s behavior. [And the man lies again.  For those who would like to take the time to research it, there’s ample evidence that these two were not just nodding acquaintances at coffee parties, but had a tightly interwoven friendship that spanned many, many years.  And yes, on that record, I will assume that Obama was comfortable with Ayers’ attitudes towards America and revolution, given Ayers’ self-professed role as a “teacher,” that Ayers did what he could to indoctrinate Obama.] There is a long and sad history of guilt by association in our political culture, and at crucial times we’ve been unable to rise above it.  [Always the McCarthy trope.  It’s truly become the last refuge of a Communist.]

You’ll notice that I repeatedly used the word “lie” or some variation thereof in the above fisking.  That is actually a loaded word to use when discussing verbal emanations from a true narcissist, whether he’s comes that way by process of upbringing or political ideological, never lies in his own mind.

To the Leftist ideologue, there is no such thing as absolute truth.  Instead, there are only ideologically pure results, and the truth is whatever is necessary to achieve those results.  That’s why Leftists are such cool liars.

Contrast Nixon’s sweaty-faced lies with Obama’s cool-as-a-cucumber refutation of statements made practically minutes before.  Nixon, an old-fashioned Quaker, knew he was lying and, despite the compulsion to do so, suffered for it.  Obama and Ayers, and their buddies, never suffer pangs of conscience because truth is infinitely malleable, and “factual” statements exist only to further their goals.

In this regard, it’s worthwhile remember that sociopaths almost always pass lie detector tests.  They are functioning in their own immediate reality, and are very comfortable with the rightness of any statement that passes their lips.