Choices from the Left: Jackboot or Birkenstock

It is quite difficult to know how many times one should keep pointing out the obvious. When it comes to the MSM it seems the message never sinks in when it comes to the differences among the various statists looking to run our lives. What should be obvious to even the casual observer is lost on our betters in the media. As an example:

Nestled in the vineyards and rolling uplands east of Vienna, the town of Neusiedl am See is celebrated for its wine taverns, fine fish restaurants and water sports. Geraniums peak from window boxes; the cobblestone streets are meticulously swept clean each morning. The only thing the casual visitor might find mildly unnerving is the squawk of storks from their huge nests on the old town's chimney tops.

But for Austrian far-right politician Heinz-Christian Strache, Neusiedl am See is ripe for revolution.

Now, what is exactly "far-right" about Mr. Strache? What the media fails to notice about the "blood and soil" branch of the statist tree is what these, in reality, "far-left" statists stand for:

- Against economic globalisation
- Deep state control over all facets of an individual's life
- Deep state control over all aspects of societal life
- Heavy state influence over economic matters
- Heavy state influence over individual matters
- Heavy state care of the individual from cradle-to-grave
- Against the free flow of individuals (ie. anti-immigration)

With the exception of last highly noxious item, what differentiates these "far-right" blood-and-soilers from the others on the far-left statist tree, nothing but a matter of degree. As Erik Svane far more lucidly quoted Jonah Goldberg:

Fascism, at its core, is the view that every nook and cranny of society should work together in spiritual union toward the same goals overseen by the state. "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State," is how Mussolini defined it. Mussolini coined the word "totalitarian" to describe not a tyrannical society but a humane one in which everyone is taken care of and contributes equally. It was an organic concept in which every class, every individual, was part of the larger whole.

Yet the media continues to miss the boat on the far-right-far-leftism:

This produces some jarring juxtapositions. Though he has built his career on dire warnings about the dangers of foreigners, Strache poses on his website as Che Guevara, donning the rebel's trademark beret and highlighting the last three letters of his name for anyone who misses the point. He praises Venezuela's left-wing demagogue Hugo Chavez and, in his campaign rap "Viva HC!", chants "Yes-We-Can" (in English), a reference to the campaign slogan of Barack Obama. That's an odd choice given that Strache is urging that some African immigrants be deported. "Austria! First!" he sings, backed by an unsettling crowd chant. "Our Homeland! Our people! Our culture! Our language! Is what I stand for, HC Strache!"

There is nothing jarring or juxtaposed, the goals of all mentioned are identical: Deeper state integration and control into the life of every individual. The only difference is whether you prefer a shiny leather jackboot stamping on your face forever -or- a moldy tattered Birkenstock.