Friends, those of us who (bravely) stand in opposition to the agenda of the Left must live with the fact that, at any moment, something we say or do could go viral, and we could be subject to harassment, dismissal from our jobs, death threats, and worse. The left-wing mob is ornery, to say the least, and it takes pleasure -- undisguised pleasure -- in causing us pain. Its actions are also strategic, however. They are designed to intimidate and thus silence us. Will it work? Bravado might lead us to reply "No way!", but the truth is that no one can say for sure. Bullying is a human universal. That is, it exists in all cultures and sub-cultures. Why? Because it fills an inner need, and it often achieves practical aims. It can only be defeated by stout hearts and granite resolve. Do we have both, and in ample enough quantities? We shall find out in the next few years.
My latest article, soon to appear at
American Greatness, examines some of the recent developments in the battle against cancel culture:
Bill Barr's Offensive Against Antifa
Extremists is Good News, but “Cancel Culture” is Still On the
Rise
Of late, it has
often seemed as though rioting militants and statue-destroyers have
been given the green light by blue state and big city governors,
mayors, prosecutors, and (shell-shocked) police chiefs to terrorize
ordinary Americans, to deface and destroy public property, and to
extort public officials into making further concessions to left-wing
ideologues.
This
week, though, the Empire struck back. Attorney
General Bill Barr announced
that 150 extremists have been arrested for their roles in the recent
unrest. Meanwhile, more than 500 investigations are ongoing that will
inevitably produce an even broader crackdown.
Finally, Antifa
and other similarly violent and radical organizations are being
treated as the font of domestic terrorism that they are.
The problem,
however, is that, even if the Trump administration succeeds in
stifling the “armed wing” of the Democratic Party — for now —
and thus restores order and calm to our streets, left-wing radicals
will remain in a dominant position in most of our key institutions.
Moreover, the Marxist firebrands who hold sway over many of our
corporations, over every level of U.S. education, over our popular
culture, over social media, and over the news media, are increasingly
taking the gloves off as they sense an opportunity to expunge
conservatives and patriots from the public sphere, and even from
private sector employment, once and for all.
Progressives have
long possessed a louder, more robust voice than conservatives in
debates over public policy and social-cultural values. If the
proponents of “cancel culture” have their way, however, the
now-timid voices of the right might be silenced for good.
Consider
the recent
firing
of a Vice-President at Michigan State University. His offense?
Sharing on his blog an
objective, scientific study
that found no evidence of a racial disparity in the incidence of
police shootings.
The
administrator in question is not,
in fact, a conservative. He is, more accurately, a liberal who
accepts most of the “diversity and inclusion” dogmas of the
dominant crypto-Marxist culture of academia.
He
failed, however, to understand that, in the fraught context of the
George Floyd era, there is only
one
perspective on police brutality and racism that is welcome among
progressives. The propagation of any other narrative, even if it is
backed by unimpeachable data, is inadmissible.
As
the fired administrator commented, the consequences for “academic
freedom and freedom of inquiry” will be dire. In effect, there is
now a litmus
test
for all academic and scientific research: does it advance “the
cause” — that is, the agenda of the Left? If not, it serves no
purpose, at best, and it embodies “white supremacy”, at worst.
Speaking
of “whiteness”, the City of Seattle recently subjected its white
employees to a bizarre
form of training
designed to help them “examine [their] complicity in the system of
white supremacy”. City workers were encouraged to “[undo] your
own whiteness” and to accept that social justice requires them to
give up “physical safety”, “expectations or presumptions of
emotional safety”, “the certainty of your job”, and “control
over other people and over the land”. They were further reminded
that even seemingly innocuous concepts such as “individualism”,
“silence”, “intellectualization”, “comfort”, and
“objectivity” are pillars of white domination.
Journalist
Christopher Rufo, who exposed Seattle's misguided attempt at the
racial deprogramming of its white employees, says it best: “...this
is exactly the kind of thought-policing they want to implement
everywhere... The new cultural revolution is being fought via
corporate HR, city diversity training, and public school curriculums.
When you find something like this in your community, expose it,
criticize it, mock it, and reject it.” In Seattle's case, there has
been public pushback to the shaming of whites, but in all too many
companies and institutions a training session like this would be just
another day at the office.
Remember,
academics and public employees have far more protection from coercive
employers, and from outright dismissal, than do most American
workers. If even they
feel intimidated in the present climate, therefore, what chance do
the rest of us have of preserving our right to free speech and our
freedom of conscience?
Conservatives had
better wake up soon. They need, in the words of Rufo, to “expose”
and “reject” the Left's reverse racism and thought control while
they still can.
Otherwise, in the
near future, the leftists won't need to riot in order to exert
control over the American people. They will simply tell us to jump
through whatever “anti-racist” hoops they choose, and, if we know
what's good for us, we'll ask meekly, “How high?”
Here's more evidence of the rise of cancel culture and left-wing wackiness:
Will President Trump make higher ed pay for its attempts to undermine America? You'd think he would, but his threats are often empty, sadly:
Finally, whenever the Left praises lockdowns as a simple way to protect Americans from COVID-19, keep in mind that such policies also have costs and also take lives:
