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Monday, June 1, 2020

Anarchy vs. America: It Ought To Be A Simple Choice



Friends, when the forces of anarchy run riot in America's cities, you'd think that all "responsible" voices would unite in condemning the lawlessness and calling for it to end.  Not so!  Many leftists are praising the rioters, and defending the unrest as a legitimate response to black America's long list of grievances (some real, and some imagined).  In many cities, liberal mayors are forcing police to stand down and let the hoodlums have their fun.  President Trump has been restrained so far in his response, as have many Governors, but it's time we all joined forces and said: "Enough is enough!"  My latest article, though, isn't about what lies ahead.  It's about how we got here, and, as you might expect, I lay much of the blame on the American Left.  Read on, and see if you and I are on the same page.

Let's Be Honest: Racial Grievances are the Lifeblood of the American Left

Politicians all over the political spectrum are finally coming around to the commonsensical conclusion that, regardless of how unwarranted, scandalous, and illegal police officers' treatment of George Floyd may have been, there is no justification for the campaign of looting and organized violence that has been unleashed on America's cities. Violence is rarely the solution to violence, and crime is never the solution to crime.

We also should be candid about the fact that the mass protests, civil disobedience, and even the acts of arson, assault, theft, and murder we are witnessing in cities nationwide is the product of careful cultivation by the American Left and a complicit media. 

For years, these charlatans have been selling to people of color a delusion of gargantuan proportions: first, the idea that America in the early 21st century is one of the most prejudiced and oppressive places that has ever existed; and, second, the idea that it is progressively getting worse. 
 
Neither notion is remotely true, but careful editing of news coverage, as well as indoctrination in the schools, higher education, and in virtually all facets of our popular culture, has convinced racial minorities (and many whites) that racism is the defining feature of the American experience. 

Not freedom. 

Not opportunity. 

Racism.

The recipe is simple: ignore all prejudice and violence that emanates from people of color and from liberals, and trumpet all prejudice and violence that emanates, or can plausibly be claimed to emanate, from whites who have not knelt before the gods of progressivism. 

Thus, every time a white American is rude to a black person, or displays bias, and the incident is caught on tape, it is, perforce, national news. If that white person inflicts any type of violence on people of color, so much the better — such a storyline fits the agenda of the Left and the media to a tee. Bias and/or violence that flows from the wrong sources, however, the Left and the media feel they have a solemn obligation to cover up, because even to acknowledge these phenomena would “reinforce” America's “original sin”: white racism.

The result is predictable: people of color are bombarded with messages, from politicians, pastors, movie stars, pop singers, sports heroes, teachers, and news anchors, that draw their attention to white racism, and which explain virtually all dysfunction and misfortune in communities of color as the product of such racism, both on the individual level and in “institutional” forms. 

Moreover, as we see in so many guises these days, the standard of evidence for proving the presence of racism has been steadily lowered. No longer does one need to demonstrate clear racist intent to be labeled a racist. A mere slip of the tongue, or a failure to demonstrate sufficient enthusiasm for the causes beloved of self-declared “anti-racists”, is more than enough to mark one as racist trash, destined for the dustbin of history. 

Likewise, no longer does an organization or institution have to intend to discriminate against any group to be accused of racism — merely failing to produce the “equality of results” that leftists desire will suffice to prove that “implicit bias” must color the policies and leadership of the relevant party.
Put simply, racism is the default explanation for everything of which the modern liberal disapproves. The burden is on each and every white American to prove that he or she is not racist, and only complete submission to the agenda of the Left can accomplish this (provisionally, that is, or rather until the Left decides to make one of its own a sacrificial lamb to social justice, which it often does).

The upshot of this sad state of affairs is that the Democratic Party, which is the political embodiment of the American Left — even though most leftists hold the moribund Dems in contempt — has embraced with aplomb the strategy of race-baiting its way to victory. The use of racially-based dog whistles is now de rigueur among Democrats, and the thought that ordinary Americans, much less people as odious as Republicans, are entitled to the benefit of the doubt has long since been dismissed as fanciful and naive.

And now, in our smoldering streets, in the wreckage of countless stores, in emergency rooms where the victims of mob violence are being patched up, and in the dingy morgues where the fatalities from street brawls are accumulating, we see the Left's philosophy of racial grievance taken to its ultimate conclusion. 

Liberals cultivated fear, anger, and despair, because they expected to profit from them. They did profit from them, in fact, but America as a whole has paid, is paying, and will continue to pay a steep price for the leftists' gravely irresponsible and short-sighted conduct.

And the saddest part is this: we were so close to healing many of the racial divides that now threaten to swallow us whole.

Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears weekly on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.

And here it is at WND:

https://www.wnd.com/2020/06/racial-grievances-lifeblood-american-left/ 

14 comments:

  1. Dr. Waddy: I agree with everything you said above. Personally I refrain from using the term "racism" because I consider it thoroughly discredited by presumptuous, often mindlessly reflexive and assumed intimidating misuse and overuse by the left and its pitiful avatars. But it is a widely recognized term still and your use of it to describe the left's disingenuous and dismissive claim of unassailable righteousness and justice for its every outrage is credible.

    Gee Antifa sure was Johnny on the Spot weren't they? You might even guess they are organized, yes? Antifa? No Neofa is the right appellation for these leftist Brownshirts.

    It has long ago become an article of well supported faith among people of our persuasion that the American left is existentially committed to destruction of the U.S. by any means, BY ANY MEANS, and its embrace of the thugs who are the core of these anarchic mobs ("No police anymore"), really,Really?! If these people ever take over there WILL be police alright, of a kind unknown outside of Nazi or Commie hell.

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  2. Dr. Waddy: The Attorney General has announced that Antifas will be treated as domestic terrorists. Good, good; now follow through Mr. President, we are counting on you. Let the flawed but fundamentally solid American legal system take its course in taking immediately and legally indicted for the alleged crime against Mr.Floyd and move resolutely against any leftist opportunistic intent to arrogate guilt upon entire groups the excoriation of which serves the revolutionary ends of the totalitarian, murderous left (eg. the police, without whom, the chaos the left craves is come again). We face an internal enemy every measure of which is comparable to ANY faced by our nation. We must muster the political will to smash them; they would gladly do us, the real America, the same and they are showing it once again. They may think 1905 Russia is at hand, provided they have ever heard of those events.

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  3. Dr. Waddy: In having reread your comments in your previous post I thought it best to reply here. Your comparison of 2020 to 1968 is very credible; yet we still have half of the year to go. In "68", the Dionysian excesses of my unhinged boomer generation attracted very much attention, oh yes, since the MSM had already been usurped by leftists. But the real America reacted by electing one they knew to be one of them. Can it happen today? Oh yes. Humphrey was a pitiable remnant of the old American loyal Dem party and he convinced, well, not enough of his leftist, boomer infected party "stalwarts" to stand up for him, the radicals that they were. The result of 1968: Nixon. Biden is the latter day Humphrey I think.

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  4. Historically speaking, race riots seem to be a part of the American landscape. What's happening now is just a continuation of what's been going on for decades. Remember the "Watts" and "Rodney King" riots in L.A. Sadly, these riots are almost
    predictable. Every time an African-American is mistreated by the police (regardless of what they were doing to deserve police attention), the situation becomes an excuse to riot.

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  5. Dr. Waddy et al: The real America, that majority of Americans who think our nation not to be in need of fundamental transformation, the real America, is under siege. The assailants are led by the American left, an organized, terribly purposeful faction fully committed to the annihilation of our country by means very possibly including the murder or enslavement of the recalcitrant. Their growing tendency toward violence, characterized by their tolerance of the Antifa ("Neofa" I say) terrorist gang must be taken as a harbinger of expanded coercive tactics. Their haughty elitism is manifested in complete dismissiveness of views at all contrary to their own and their malice for any who actively resist them is exemplified by their truly vicious campaign of sometimes near treasonous nullification and excoriation of our President and his administration (and of the rule of law). They are supported by a multitude of those tragically convinced of their justice and unmindful of the evil promised should they acquire the dictatorial power they consider indispensable for the realization their bizarre ideals (eg. humanly unattainable, undefined "equality"). The 20 th century bears dolorous witness to the incalculable wrong done by the left in their onslaught on human nature in those countries cursed by their rule.

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  6. Dr. Waddy: The present state of insurrection rose by chance but there should be little doubt that the left has long been prepared to take advantage of such an opportunity. Just how much of an advantage they see in the chaos now obtaining is to be questioned. This is not their main chance; this is not 1917 Russia and they probably know it. But by pouring copious amounts of ideological salt into the wounds understandably inflicted by the monstrous MSM advanced lie that the police are essentially compromised by consummate racial antipathy against blacks (anyone in corrections and law enforcement is fully cognizant of the absurdity of the charge) the left continues its incipient destruction of our fundamentals (eg. the rule of law). The criminal element so very obvious in this mayhem is of course murderously resentful and vindictive toward the police; the left clearly sees thoroughgoing criminals as a revolutionary class to be cultivated and then extinguished when no longer of use. The left knows that the police will surely now face a renewed onslaught of morale busting "consciousness raising" completely absent of any regard for the abuse and brutality the police often experience in high crime areas. The left hopes to bring cynicism to a boil in their ranks and thereby prevent them from doing the job they CAN DO, the suppression of thugs. Some day soon, the "rational" left assumes, it will all come together for them, perhaps as early as a second Trump term, during which their refuge of the judiciary will be thoroughly flushed (that is if law and order prevails and they will do their best to prevent that).

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  7. Dr. Waddy:Thanx for providing a setting for frank discussion of this situation; anymore one must be careful how frank one waxes.Before long, it may involve criminal liability. I don't have a job to lose and sticks and stones? Oh well. Right merrily might I return their blows.

    The public view so far expressed, that the police are condemned, is so prevalent in its expression that it need not be reprised here.

    But it embodies a contradiction ( and oh how the left craves society destroying "contradictions) which prevents measured resolution of perceptions on most sides of the matter at hand today. It is simply this: it is close to impossible to engage in painfully honest, courageously courteous, intellectually sound, TRUE DIALOGUE, free of presumptuous ad hominem attack, in public today.

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  8. Dr. Waddy: To broach the following concepts - the police have a point of view on their relationship with minorities which MUST be aired out and considered objectively; the police often face abuse and brutality, including murder, on the job from some members of minorities; minority neighborhoods are often plagued by crime from thuggish members of their communities (the police , being human are naturally cautious and wary in such settings and this COULD be misinterpreted as racial animus indicative of general fault among all police) - all this and more, is to put oneself at risk of excoriation and even physical hazard! Most leftists and those who are guided by them launch into reflexive and immediate condemnation and patronizing demands for auto da fe like self abnegation and cringing subjection to correction when surely offended by such insolent views.

    So called "systemic racism" ( accusation of which is often freely directed by the politically correct to individuals)has been methodically and painfully addressed, legislatively, judicially, administratively, editorially, religiously, democratically, with knowledge of history ,in our society for five decades now. But it seems that some will never admit satisfaction of their grievances because they see advantage in such denial and are carefully cultivated by the anarchic and eventually totalitarian left.

    Until ALL sides of this conflict are willing to consider the strongly held views of ALL sides, free of fear of sanction for expression which is of good will, this problem will fester on!

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  9. Dr. Waddy:Ergo: Drew Brees simply expresses disapproval of disrespect for our flag and Ed Reed says " he's doing what he needs to keep black folk down". Reed must think Brees automatically condemned upon accusation and he may, in effect, be right. I think that in his comments Reed is doing what he needs to do to advance anarchy and surely consequent totalitarianism in our country.

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  10. Jack, you're right -- the willful blindness of leftists when it comes to the shameless violence being perpetrated by their own gives us ample reason to believe that, were they to capture power, we conservatives would be hunted like rabid dogs and, in due course, no one would be safe. Simply put, the Left believes that the law exists to serve their will -- it doesn't protect those they dislike for one second.

    Now, I don't watch CNN or MSNBC, but my guess is that Antifa is completely absent from their news reports, which are instead filled with outrage against Trump, images of "excessive" actions by the police, and hot rhetoric about systemic racism and why virtually any response to it is excusable. You would think it might matter who the people are who are perpetrating the current unrest...but to the Left what matters is how blame can be deflected onto the usual suspects.

    Biden=Humphrey? Perhaps, although I think that's an insult to Humphrey!

    Ray is right: race riots are an American tradition, and they certainly won't stop if Biden wins in 2020. They may even get worse, as police are told to stand down. The truth is that racial antagonism is and has been for a long time useful to the Left, and for that reason they will never let it die.

    Jack: your chilling account of the leftist game plan is plausible, although consider the irony that, once the Left seizes power, it will naturally rely on the military and the police to execute its edicts. Truth be told, the liberals have done a pretty good job of taming law enforcement in blue areas already...but they can't stop trashing it anyway. Old habits die hard.

    And yes, Jack, it has become virtually impossible to have a conversation with a liberal in good faith. Simply put, they are full of venom and totally off their gourd. What's the point?

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  11. Dr. Waddy: But of course use of brute force, justified by the perceived consummate perfidy of any who resist or doubt, is the hallmark of the left in power. Some East Asians thought the Japanese would be beneficial rulers and found them to be far worse than the European colonialists. And evidence already existed in China, Taiwan and Korea of Japanese cruelty and intolerance. The American left's contemporary use of "politically correct"totalitarian power where it can do so (eg the MSM,the American academy and states already cursed with dismissive leftist leaders) but presages the promise of unlimited tyranny, including corporal sanctions, if it takes power.

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  12. ...in ref. to not watching CNN/MSNBC Dr. Waddy, believe me when I tell you, they are encouraging the protests and riots. It's sad to watch.

    I can't think of anything to add, Jack and Ray have pretty much summed it up.

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  13. Linda, why we don't punish those who incite lawlessness and violence I can't imagine. There ought to be consequences...but even the advertisers, who you would think would be sensitive to such matters, don't break a sweat. That's our fault as conservatives. If we don't stand up for what's right, no one will.

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