If we want to know who's really in power, then perhaps one way to know is to think about who or what we cannot openly criticize in a reasonable manner...
...without being shouted down.
...without being publicly shamed.
...without being called false names.
...without losing our reputations.
...without made into social pariahs in our own communities.
...without being ostracized in our own nation.
...without having our speech curtailed or even silenced.
...without being fined.
...without losing our jobs.
...without being imprisoned.
...without being forcibly "re-educated".
...without unjust corporeal punishment.
...without being "disappeared" in the middle of the night.
...without being publicly executed.
...without being (shall we say) "canceled".
In China, it is the CCP.
In North Korea, it is the Kim family.
In Russia, it is Putin.
In Iran, it is the ayatollah.
In many Middle Eastern nations, it is Islam.
In the US, are we still able to openly criticize in a reasonable manner people, organizations, institutions, the government, and so forth without significant cost to us or our families?
[O]ne theme in particular dominated all others: the growing tyranny of the majority, the ever-increasing and most formidable barriers raised by the majority around the free expression of opinion, and, as a result, the frightening oneness of American thinking, the absence of eccentricity and divergence from the norm.A perfect liberty of the mind exists in America, said Tocqueville, just as long as the sovereign majority has yet to decide its course. But once the majority has made up its mind, then all contrary thought must cease, and all controversy must be abandoned, not at the risk of death or physical punishment, but rather at the more subtle and more intolerable pain of ostracism, of being shunned by one's fellows, of being rejected by society.
Throughout history kings and princely rulers had sought without success to control human thought, that most elusive and invisible power of all. Yet where absolute monarchs had failed, democracy succeeds, for the strength of the majority is unlimited and all pervasive, and the doctrines of equality and majority rule have substituted for the tyranny of the few over the many, the more absolute, imperious, and widely accepted tyranny of the many over the few. (Richard Heffner, Democracy in America)
Funny timing, I was having a conversation eerily similar to this post earlier today with two colleagues.
ReplyDeleteOne of them asked if I'd heard that Biden appointed a transgendered person to lead the Health and Human Services dept., which I hadn't.
The overall conversation was not spiteful, hateful, or very controversial, but afterwards I admit to wondering to myself, "what if someone had overheated the discussion, found it offensive somehow, and reported it to our HR staff?"
The way our policies are structured now, indeed the law of the land pursuant to certain Title VII updated including LGBTQ protections, it's entirely possible to lose one's livelihood over perceived biases connected to sexuality. Even seemingly innocuous discussions or comments can easily be perceived as hateful or bigoted by those so inclined.
This is the outworking of thought policing in a microcosm. I briefly reflected on the fear of reprisal over pretty much nothing.
David Wood as an example from Hawk's prior post is merely a "canary-in-the-mine" scenario. If big tech and doxxers can censor and destroy powerful elected public figures with large platforms with ease, then they can certainly do so with lesser-known private citizens like David Wood. And you. And me.
These public examples are meant to teach me and you a lesson: "keep your mouth shut, keep your head down, and to the line...or else."
And you know what? It's effective.
Good points, CD.
DeleteBiden said in his inauguration speech: "We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature, for without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury."
I think these are just pretty words. I highly doubt there will be any "unity". Or at least "unity" will only be had once everyone becomes a leftist or no longer speaks out against leftism.
And Orwell himself could have written: "without unity, there is no peace."
Oh, haven't you read the article from the USA Today? And I see one from Vox as well now. Everyone using the word Orwellian is misusing the word Orwellian (which, given that it's a lousy claim, comes off more than a little Orwellian itself). Like Martin Luther King Jr, the right can't quote, paraphrase, or refer to Orwell either without receiving the left's rebuke now.
DeleteThe really bad part of all this is the by fiat declaring what is/is not true. People on CNN apparently were talking about how there are more viewers seeing content from the right on youtube than watch CNN, and CNN needs to fix it to make sure people see the right things (I'm badly paraphrasing).
Example: the right has all the conspiracies (QAnon, stolen election), but the left? Nothing. Because Democrats in 2016 onwards get a free pass, Stacy Abrams gets a free pass, BLM gets a free pass, Antifa gets a free pass, heck, the NYT tried to sell everyone on 1619 being the US's real origins with shoddy history that historians, including those the NYT asked to do reviews, were pointing out. You've got everyone's-a-racist (or sexist, or some phobe) with critical race theory, which is reheated Marx, which according to Marx was Hegel turned on his head.
Maybe dictionary website will start changing the definition so our usage will, by definition, not be correct.
DeleteAll true!
DeleteI think it comes down to power. The left can say black is white and white is black because the left knows they're the ones who wield power. The left controls most our political, social, and cultural institutions. Hence the left can criticize Trump for being a rude and crude demagogue, even though Biden himself has always been a rude and crude demagogue (e.g. how he treated Clarence Thomas, calling conservatives "ugly folks", saying "If we were in high school, I'd take him [Trump] behind the gym and beat the hell out of him").
Not to mention the left attempts to associate the ~74 million people who voted for Trump with the ~5,000 (at most?) people who "stormed" Capitol Hill. Yet, during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in 2018, I recall the Women's March, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the Center for Popular Democracy (all leftist organizations) "stormed" the Capitol Hill building and even broke into Senator Chuck Grassley's offices. But somehow this is noble and heroic.
The left can accuse Trump of tyranny, the right as wanting to oppress minorities, and so forth. The left can also say they're the ones for democracy and freedom. Yet the left is in control of the Presidency, Congress, our largest major cities, the West and East coasts, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the establishment or mainstream media, academia, etc. So the left is the one who has really been in control and the ones using their power to silence others. How are conservatives the ones "tyrannizing" others? It's as if the left is attempting to gaslight us. It's as if the left is psychologically projecting onto us.
Again, it's all so Orwellian, where black is white and white is black, and the left gets away with it because they're the ones in power. It's all about might makes right. And the left knows this. And the left is more than willing to use its power to cudgel others.
Yeah, definitely gaslighting. I don't know what it was, but a few weeks ago, or maybe a month, I did have a moment where I went, "Am I the crazy one?". The "no fraud at all" stance, for example. I don't think Trump really won but there were enough flipped ballots to sink him. But I also don't think that there's zero fraud. A lady in Texas, who was filmed last fall, has been arrested. Even in the recordings of her she said she could go to jail for what she's doing. That's not no fraud. It may not be systemic, but it's none. And when Project Veritas (who recorded the above lady) recorded a guy harvesting ballots before that, the media pounced on it and said it was made up, lies, mistranslation, right-wing propaganda, etc. Of course, due to threats of lawsuit some of the stories were amended/retracted...but no one noticed those, they noticed the wall to wall coverage saying it was fake.
DeleteOh yeah, I agree with you, TFC. I think it's clear there was voter fraud, and arguably even more voter fraud on the Democratic side than on the Republican side, but I don't know that there was sufficient voter fraud to overturn the presidential election.
DeleteThat said, one problem is that it seems like Biden could be an illegitimate president, not because he necessarily is an illegitimate president, but because the Democrats and especially the mainstream media - who are supposed to be the American republic's non-partisan and objective watchmen - immediately began to unequivocally state that the election was won fair and square (when literally on Nov. 2nd they were worried about voter fraud and a stolen election), demand that Trump concede the election, and call for censoring any and all doubters.
What the mainstream media should have done is say something like: it looks like Biden won, but Team Trump alleges there there is voter fraud, and voter fraud of a degree or kind that could overturn the presidential race, so we should investigate their allegations like we did with Gore back in 2000, then we'll uncover the truth. If that had happened, and Biden emerged victorious, then all doubt about the presidential election would have dissipated. It only served the interests of Biden, the Democrats, and even the supposedly unbiased mainstream media to argue for a proper review of Team Trump's allegations about voter fraud and irregularities rather than to knee-jerk attempt to silence everyone and move on as quickly as possible to inauguration day. So, since the mainstream media behaved like this, there's now enough room for Americans to believe "something is rotten in the state of America".
That said, I suspect the presidential election was lost at the beginning of 2020. Maybe around March 2020 or so. Not only because of COVID, of course, when prior to COVID it looked like Trump was cruising to re-election, but perhaps more importantly because of the dramatic changes in several battleground states' voting laws or policies as well as laws or policies regarding mail-in ballots during a pandemic, both of which heavily favored Biden and the Democrats. Trump should have more seriously contested and even fought to the death, so to speak, these changes in voting laws or policies. But hindsight is 20/20.
Of course, we should still definitely look into reforming our voting system before the next election. All fair-minded and freedom-loving Americans should wish to look into reforming our voting system. Otherwise we will continue to crawl (if not sprint) toward a banana republic or the like. Of course, the left will likely oppose voter reform because the left is in power and the left wants to maintain its political power, but all Americans of any stripe who still cherish our republic should not cave to the left's agenda. To be honest, I'm totally cynical we'll see any such reform, but hopefully I'm proven wrong.
If anyone is interested to know where the US is heading politically just look at the coasts. The third world, tin pot, Democrat-controlled oligarchies characterized by California and New York are the future of the nation.
DeleteI cry for my once-beloved state of California! :(
DeleteAnd again where were the calls for unity from the day after the last election through 4 contentious years, even before 45 set foot in the West Wing? Odd that. Why is it suddenly urgent *now* for conservatives to sit down and be quiet? Interesting.
ReplyDeleteWhat "unity" really means in leftspeak is "conformity". :)
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