Status Report
In article ,
George M. Middius wrote:
MiNe 109 said:
So many of the people that Dobson has been able to get close to and work
with in the Republican Congress and in American culture have been
viciously abused as children. And he understood that by advocating
violence against children, deliberate violence, he was creating this
sensibility, which would produce a radical generation of political
followers.
I assume you're quoting Neiwert or Blumenthal.
I can't figure out what's being said. Since when does Dobson, loony
Bible-thumper though he is, "advocate violence against children"? According to
Wiki, Dobson received "'The Children's Friend' honor by Childhelp USA (an
advocate agency against child abuse) in 1987, and the Humanitarian Award by
the California Psychological Association in 1988."
Maybe you can decode Neiwert's or Blumenthal's thoughts.
It's Blumenthal, transcribed from a Democracy Now! interview. I quoted
selectively to emphasize the S&M bit. The child abuse claim is from his
best-selling book Dare to Discipline in which he advocates spanking.
Blumenthal again: Where did Dobson's fortune come from? How did he erect
this empire? It came mainly from one book, which I quote from
extensively in my book, Republican Gomorrah--Dare to Discipline, which is
essentially a manual for corporal punishment, for beating your child. In
this book, he says pain is a marvelous purifier that a child should
be--that pain goes a long way with a child, that pain should be dispensed
sufficiently enough to make a child cry, but then the child will crumple
to your breast, and you should welcome the child with warm, open arms.
This is a recipe for sadomasochism.
--
Obviously parents differ on this, but "most child-care experts today
disapprove of physical punishment." says the NYT, quoted in the wiki
article on Dobson.
Stephen
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