Occasionally, I make tongue-in-cheek references to the "dirty hippies." I actually picked up the reference from Digby, who uses the phrase, as I do, to refer to the almost pathological obsession rightwingers have for the sixties counterculture. Despite the fact that no one has seen a "dirty hippie" in a good 30 years, the rightwing noise machine is still shocked and horrified that anyone could possibly "drop out" of the capitalist rat race. Make no mistake, whatever else wingnuts mean by "freedom," the freedom to "drop out" is not part of the definition.

So anyway, there I am, perusing the latest offerings on the Wall Street Journal editorial page — which is the best place to monitor what the corporate ruling class is thinking — and what do I see but an article about "dirty, stinky hippies." That’s a direct quote. And of course, the article includes the usual crap about how simply awful those dreadful people were.

Forty years ago hordes of stoned, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which was the calling card of LSD proponent Timothy Leary. Turned off by the work ethic and productive American Dream values of their parents, hippies instead opted for a cowardly, irresponsible lifestyle of random sex, life-destroying drugs and mostly soulless rock music that flourished in San Francisco.

But wait, guess who wrote this article? How about this guy.

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