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Soft Tyranny

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Defuse the Google Bomb on Soft Tyranny

I first ran into the attempted Google Bomb on the web site Irregular Times, where I saw that the same person had left two comments on separate articles, under different names, but both linking to the same Obama White House page. The idea was to get a Google search of the phrase "soft tyranny" lead to the Obama White House.

It was a pretty inept attempt, given that the Wordpress software on Irregular Times automatically adds a nofollow tag to a link which prevents search engine software bots from following and registering the association of a linked-to site with a search phrase.

I'm creating this lens as a place for me to share my notes about this Obama-related Google Bomb project - and for other people to share what they know as well.

Origins of Soft Tyranny

Where Did The Phrase Soft Tyranny Come From?

Alexis de Tocqueville is often credited with the creation of the phrase soft tyranny, but the truth is that interpreters of de Tocqueville worked up the phrase themselves, from what they saw in his writings. The truth is that de Tocqueville's work, Democracy in America, does not contain the phrase soft tyranny at all.

Actually, the earliest use of the phrase soft tyranny that I can find is in Charlotte Bronte's novel Shirley:

"I have known the moment when I seemed about to forget it; when Confusion and Submission seemed about to crush me with their soft tyranny; when my tongue faltered, and I have almost let the mantle drop, and stood in her presence, not master - no - but something else."

Your Tips On the Soft Tyranny Google Bomb

Share what you know

Who came up with the idea of the soft tyranny Google Bomb? What are its goals? What is the origin of the phrase, soft tyranny?

Use this guestbook to share what you know about the weird soft tyranny movement.

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  • Reply
    Wang Mar 25, 2009 @ 9:56 pm | delete
    I know it may be hard to believe.

    However, it is absolutely true that Ronald Wilson Reagan committed horrible, racist, hate crimes during his presidency.

    A lot of people know about Reagan's infamy.

    And a lot of people will know about Reagan's infamy--even until the end of human existence: they'll find out.

    Numbers 32:23: "Be sure your sins will find you out."

    Respectfully Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang, J.D. Candidate
    B.S., With the Highest Level of Academic Honors at Graduation, 1996
    Messiah College, Grantham, PA
    Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993

    (I can type 90 words per minute, and there are thousands of copies on the Internet indicating the content of this post. And there are at least hundreds of copies in very many countries around the world.)
    _________________
    'If only it were possible to BAN invention that bottled up memories so they never faded and never got stale' (an analogy: like scent is held in or restrained or inhibited or suppressed or 'bottled up'). Off the top of my head-it came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.
  • Reply
    jimcook Mar 25, 2009 @ 9:58 am | delete
    "Soft tyranny" sounds like some kind of comfortable S&M fantasy play session. Even if they google bombed the phrase successfully, I can't imagine that the phrase would actually frighten people. "Soft." Aw. Cuddly. Comfy. Like Kleenex with Aloe. They should have thought about their vocabulary more carefully before choosing their term, picking a hard-sounding adjective instead.
  • Reply
    irregularworld Mar 25, 2009 @ 6:47 am | delete
    The Coldstreams Business and Economy blog notes the Google Bomb attempt as well.
  • Reply
    irregularworld Mar 25, 2009 @ 6:18 am | delete
    Kevin Holtsberry, over at his rightward-leaning blog, notes the attempt to use comment spam at his site to elevate the search engine link between soft tyranny and Barack Obama as well.
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Putting soft tyranny in context

Let's focus on the real tyranny, not the soft stuff

Irregular Times writes on soft tyranny: "If we're going to oppose acts of tyranny in the Obama Administration, let's focus on acts of hard tyranny rather than the supposed soft tyranny of using government funds to promote the general welfare, as the Constitution suggests. Soft tyranny, after all, appears not to really be tyranny at all, but mere inconvenience for an elite few."

Gear Against Tyranny

Posters, postcards, buttons that stand against tyranny - soft and hard

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Reading On Tyranny

Books about tyranny

Perhaps all this soft tyranny nonsense isn't where it's really at for you. Here are some books on tyranny, so that you can inform yourself - and then compare the actions of Barack Obama to the actions of a tyrant.
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by

irregularworld

I am native resident of Upstate New York who lives in the 24th congressional District, in the village of Trumansburg, in the town of Ulysses, in Tompk... more »

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