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Home » To the public, all lives matter…

To the public, all lives matter…

The New Neo Posted on by

…although to the elites, Democratic politicians, and to the left (is that redundant?), BLM is the new religion and “all lives matter” is unforgivable racist heresy against it. The fact the black lives are included in “all lives” is explained away by the left with various sophistic ploys. But believing all people matter is actually quite the opposite of racism in any sane definition of the word.

Here’s the poll:

Twice as may Americans back the “All Lives Matter” slogan over the “Black Lives Matter” slogan, says a new Rasmussen survey of 1,000 likely voters.

Among blacks, a 47 percent plurality picked “All Lives Matter” over the 44 percent who picked “Black Lives Matter.”

The June 15-16 poll asked respondents: “Which statement is closest to your own?”

“Black Lives Matter” was picked by 30 percent of voters, including 35 percent of voters under age 40, and 63 percent of liberals.

“All Lives Matter” was picked by 59 percent of all voters, 58 percent of swing-voters, and 56 percent of “moderate” voters.

“Black Lives Matter” was more favored by wealthier people. It was backed by just 34 percent of people earning less than $30,000 but by 53 percent of people who earn above $200,000. The slogan was picked by just 22 percent of high school graduates but by 41 percent of people with professional degrees.

Even Democrats are fairly evenly split. And even young voters seemed to prefer all lives, as do black voters (more narrowly).

The poll is somewhat comforting, at least as far as I’m concerned. It suggests that Martin Luther King’s message still has more resonance with US voters than that of the BLM would-be replacements. It also, however, indicates something more depressing, a phenomenon that is one of the strange hallmarks of our time – although it’s not just of our time – that so-called “elites” and in particular intellectuals are far more susceptible than other people to propaganda and in particular to leftist propaganda.

I wrote a post twelve years ago (yikes, twelve years!) that’s quite appropriate, and I’m going to quote it here (the “Podhoretz” in the first sentence is Norman, not his son John):

Podhoretz offers some wonderful quotes from Orwell on the subject, and they’ve worn very well over the years. Try this one on for size, from 1937 (appearing in Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier):

“One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker. nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist and feminist in England.”

Orwell’s “Notes on Nationalism” is another case in point. There is a fair amount in it with which I disagree, to be sure. But the following is spot on, both then and now. It illustrates the military defeatism of the intellectual Left, its susceptibility to wild conspiracy theories, and the origins of both phenomena in the Left’s hatred of the West [one of Orwell’s most famous remarks on the stupidity of intellectuals occurs here; emphasis mine]:

“The average intellectual of the Left believed, for instance, that the war was lost in 1940, that the Germans were bound to overrun Egypt in 1942, that the Japanese would never be driven out of the lands they had conquered, and that the Anglo-American bombing offensive was making no impression on Germany. He could believe these things because his hatred for the British ruling class forbade him to admit that British plans could succeed. There is no limit to the follies that can be swallowed if one is under the influence of feelings of this kind. I have heard it confidently stated, for instance, that the American troops had been brought to Europe not to fight the Germans but to crush an English revolution. One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool. When Hitler invaded Russia, the officials of the MOI issued “as background” a warning that Russia might be expected to collapse in six weeks. On the other hand the Communists regarded every phase of the war as a Russian victory, even when the Russians were driven back almost to the Caspian Sea and had lost several million prisoners. There is no need to multiply instances. The point is that as soon as fear, hatred, jealousy and power worship are involved, the sense of reality becomes unhinged. And, as I have pointed out already, the sense of right and wrong becomes unhinged also.

Unhinged they are, and unhinged (and pretty much unchanged) they remain.

I said they remain “unchanged,” but I’ll amend that. They’re now worse. Antifa is, among other things, a movement of mostly college-educated youth who think they know better than the stupid populists and are willing to put their fists where their mouths are.

Comments

To the public, all lives matter… — 33 Comments

  1. Some, select, Black Lives Matter. It’s ironic that the Transgender Rainbow is exlusive (i.e. political congruence or “=”) of Black, Brown, and features the shredded remains of White.

    #AllLivesMatter, or, the more controversial #BLM (BabyLivesMatter)

  2. Social media. Seriously. It’s social media.

    I checked a couple of liberal websites over the weekend and the number of significant stories they were completely ignoring was amazing. Now imagine that your primary information source throughout the day (even if you don’t admit it to yourself) is an avalanche of liberal/Leftist tweets that don’t even aspire to the meager standards of blogging.

    Mike

  3. No matter how many “Biden is winning!” polls and corporate endorsements of Black Lives Matter I see, I just don’t believe Americans as a whole are falling for this.

    We’ll see in November.

    However, the crazy ain’t over yet.

  4. “We’ll see in November.”

    I’m interested in late August to see what happens to NFL viewership and attendance, since the NFL has gone full bore BLM. For myself as I lifelong Broncos fan, I unfollowed their FB page and stopped all emails after their stunt last month. It will be an interesting bellwether of attitudes.

  5. Some people are so ‘smart’ they will believe the most absurd and contradictory idiocies. As an old farm boy I am always suspicious of the intelligentsia. Having your head in the clouds is merely the yin to the yang of having your head in the gutter.

  6. “…in November…”

    I believe Nancy’s People (we can’t call them “leprechauns”, alas—https://jonathanturley.org/2020/06/21/scottish-man-convicted-of-calling-ex-girlfriends-boyfriend-a-leprechaun/—besides, it would be most unfair to leprechauns) are hatching a plan as we speak to try to ensure that Trump is blocked from even running in November.

    You all know the ploy—accuse him of something, place him under some sort of official investigation or even (surprise!) throw another impeachment party, and then make the claim (with solemn, masked faces, though some of them no doubt will not be able to control themselves and break out in hysterical laughter) that no one under this (whatever) kind of investigation can legally and/or morally be permitted to run in a presidential election.

    Yeah, that oughtta work. Yawn….

    Anyway, I have complete and unbounded faith that these screwballs will come up with something appropriately screwy (something that at the very least they and the MSCM will take seriously).

    I’ve hear where they’re sniffing around this latest incident at SDNY for malfeasance—or something even more sinister. (Maybe Putin, or Xi, or Khomeini wanted this guy fired! Ergo….)

    And they’re no doubt salivating with Pavlovian frenzy at the new Bolton book.

    Moreover there are still some statues and monuments standing here and there, as well as Democratically-run cities with some unbroken, unlooted storefronts left—there much-anticipated destruction of which they will of course pin on Trump (so certain are these cretins that everyone else will do likewise) and so persuade themselves that the WH is theirs come November.

    Oh the possibilities are endless!

  7. Barry Mieslin,
    Sarah Sanders has her own book coming out and she quoted a part on Bolton. I read it on Fox. I don’t see how anyone will be able to defend him after this.

  8. Neo,
    The ‘Black Lives Matter’ phrase is misunderstood [at least in theory] by people who respond by saying ‘all lives matter’. It’s a perspective issue. A little like one of those optical illusions whereby you see an old woman but I see a young woman. https://www.livescience.com/63645-optical-illusion-young-old-woman.html

    What the phrase is supposed to mean is that ‘Black Lives Matter, Too‘. In a time when it seems black lives are not valued and don’t seem to matter the message is; ‘hey, black lives matter, too’.

    They are not trying to replace the phrase ‘all lives matter’ and they are not saying ‘Black Lives Matter More’.

    A popular tweet you might see is:
    Saying “All lives matter” in response to “Black lives matter” is like going to a charity event for cancer and carrying a sign that says “ALL diseases matter“.

    It is seen as dismissive.

    So while yes all lives matter the emphasis is that black lives matter, too.

    I know that the BLM movement comes on strong and some of them may think that black lives matter more. I’m not a fan of the movement or of the tactics of some on the left these days, but from my perspective and many others the phrase All lives matter is a true statement but one that is dismissive in a time when it seems black lives do not. And, yes, I agree black on black crime should be included in the discussion.

  10. Thanks, Montage, for that powerful, clarifying corrective.

    Now I understand why the mob insists on indiscriminately destroying Black businesses, together with their owners’ livelihoods (many of them operating on a shoestring) together with non-Black ones (even if those ungrateful Koreans shop owners have been, shall we say, less than cooperative).

    That, along with their proudly-declared Marxist, America-destroying agenda, is something that has always puzzled me; but now I see they are truly—and nobly—colorblind.

    (Leaves me wondering how I didn’t see it before…)

    Problem solved! Thanks again for the clarification.

  11. What the phrase is supposed to mean is that ‘Black Lives Matter, Too‘.

    In your imagination only.

    The whole stated premise for these protests is utter nonsense and everything they’re agitating for will make the quality of life for blacks worse while addressing not one single problem.

    There are two things going on:

    1. A wish by sorosphere elements to destroy local police forces, because they are an organized counter-valing power.

    2. Status games. The objection is invariably that a deplorable enforced community standards on a person of higher status. Black chauvinists fancy they are of higher status and gentry liberals fancy they make the status decisions and feral blacks are their clients.

    It’s all completely malevolent and destructive.

  12. The number of people falling for this nonsense should be 0%. That you can find 40% subscribing to it is deeply disquieting.

  13. Montage: Just try explaining to a BLM advocate that “Black Lives Matter” really means “Black Lives Matter, Too.”

    Better yet, give me a heads-up on the time and the place. I want to be there.

  17. ‘…like going to a charity event for cancer and carrying a sign that says “ALL diseases matter“. ‘

    Well maybe….

    But, honestly, I really don’t think anyone would be suicidal enough to go to a charity event for cancer carrying a sign like that.

    I just don’t see it. Can’t grock it. In fact, it’s freakin’ inconceivable.

    And if there is ANYONE who is that naïve, that innocent, that out-of-touch, then frankly—and I don’t usually “lose it”, but—he or she deserves EVERYTHING those savages dish out.

    (Whether it’s a set of comp. tickets to the local hospital nursing unit’s revival of “Annie” or a cookbook of low-cal, hi-protein jello mold and aspic recipes—EVERYTHING!!)

  18. What the phrase is supposed to mean is that ‘Black Lives Matter, Too‘.

    So, if I put a sign in my yard that read “White Lives Matter,” and if challenged, I told you it actually meant, “White Lives Matter, Too,” you would be okay with that?

    And that the BLM crowd would be okay with that?

  19. A misleading explanation from Montage. I’ve seen plenty of tutorials on Fb explaining why not to say ‘All Lives Matter’, as if drilling in the tenets of a religion to confused new acolytes. It’s creepy. One even stupidly compared Black Lives Matter to something like ManchesterLivesMatter, if such a hashtag had trended after the Manchester bombings in 2017, and how All Lives Matter would have been an insulting response to that. My response to that was if an ultranationalist group called ManchesterLivesMatter had seized upon the bombings as proof all Muslims in the UK were terrorists, and were the biggest threat to the British people, and all needed to be kicked out of the UK, most British would hesitate to say Manchester Lives Matter. Period. They would absolutely not separate a seemingly positive statement of support from the extreme position of the group who coined the slogan, especially if the public had strong doubts on the veracity of the group’s positions. And rightfully so.

    BLM is a political group, which formulated the slogan Black Lives Matter, and attempts to control the manner of its use to further that group’s frankly dangerous ideas, such defunding (in actuality abolishing) the police, or providing excuses and justifications for riots. BLM must react with extreme hostility to any challenges to the saying Black Lives Matter, because the entire point of the group is that black people are being disproportionately killed by the police, due to systemic racism, so their situation as a group is unique, and must be recognized as so. Since statistics do not indicate that the police are remotely the greatest threat to the black community, nor killing them disproportionately at all when adjusting for crime rate, BLM will fail — and always fail — when engaging in rational argumentation. There is no there there. But they attempt to magnify their public support through emotional bullying, by hiding their radical programs behind an innocent phrase. Thankfully most Americans seem to fully understand the complete link between the slogan and the group it represents.

  20. David S:

    Actually what the phrase means is “black lives matter more than white lives, especially if the black lives in question are ended by the act of a white person.”

    That’s the way it has played out. The BLM people not only won’t let you say “all lives matter,” it is also considered heresy to point out the black lives lost to black on black crime (or abortion, for that matter). So those particular black lives don’t matter, or at least matter less.

    Even the black lives ended by black police don’t matter much if at all to BLM. But if a white cop kills a black person – even if in self-defense – well then, those black lives matter more than all the other black lives put together.

    If a white person is killed by a white cop, does that white person’s life matter? Tony Timpa was killed in nearly the same manner as George Floyd, only Timpa was white and the cops were white. That’s why most people have never heard of Timpa.

  21. A misleading explanation from Montage.

    They don’t pay him to play it straight.

  22. NEO Antifa is, among other things, a movement of mostly college-educated youth who think they know better than the stupid populists and are willing to put their fists where their mouths are.

    Who told them all their lives that they were smarter than everyone, including their parents? even better… why did they tell them? and where did that idea come from?

    i have answered this before…
    understanding was missed… before it was missed…

  23. expat (3:42 pm) said:

    “Sarah Sanders has her own book coming out and she quoted a part on Bolton. I read it on Fox. I don’t see how anyone will be able to defend him after this.”

    Very simple, m’dear. “They” will assiduously read John Bolton (at least all the parts slamming Trump) and “they” will refuse to even consider reading Sarah Sanders.

  24. Neo: “…so-called “elites” and in particular intellectuals are far more susceptible than other people to propaganda and in particular to leftist propaganda.”

    They have more to loose in their social realm than the rest of us. As Orwell says: Only proles and animals are free.

  25. Yeah, Neo, David S., Art D., etc., they could’ve called it “Black Lives Also Matter”, but that would’ve made it quite outre in elite circles.

    That “All Lives Matter” was picked by *only* 59 percent is pathetic, and probably owes to the mentality which spins ALM as code for racism.

  26. They don’t pay [Montage] to play it straight.

    Art Deco: I don’t think that’s the case with Montage.

    I suspect he has some respect for reason plus some sympathy for those to his right and he believes he should be able to straighten us out with a few well-articulated insights.

    Unfortunately, Montage doesn’t understand (as liberal psychologist Jonathan Haidt does) that most conservatives already know the liberal arguments because the media is overwhelmingly liberal.

    Speaking for myself I welcome input from people to my left like Montage. I just wish he would understand we are neither stupid nor inattentive, and he would be better off attempting to match speeds with us first, before attempting to shine a light on what he presumes are our blind spots.

  27. “What the phrase is supposed to mean is that ‘Black Lives Matter, Too‘. In a time when it seems black lives are not valued and don’t seem to matter the message is; ‘hey, black lives matter, too’….Saying “All lives matter” in response to “Black lives matter” is like going to a charity event for cancer and carrying a sign that says “ALL diseases matter“.
    It is seen as dismissive.” – Montage

    There were a lot of replies pointing out that this is a misleading, and thus nefarious, statement insofar as it ignores all of the negatives of #BLM and Antifa and Democrats in charge of all the areas where riots are raging.
    However, I do think that this formulation DOES address the perception of the LIV population, especially black individuals who do not get any information about the genesis and goals of #BLM — and, as with Neo’s friend, might not look at any facts even if they do chance to encounter them.

    So, as with most complex situations, the hard core activists are shielding themselves behind the well-meaning but not well-informed bandwagon riders (cf the Vermont school principal’s firing). (Also cf Hamas & their American dupes.)

    It’s important to remember that the black population as a whole is NOT YET the enemy (per the poll), and giving recognition to their viewpoint while still condemning #BLM is a tactical necessity.

    However, if Montage is correct in asserting that is all the BLM signs mean, then I suggest (a) the signs should say explicitly “black lives matter too”; and (b) the sign carriers should quit going ballistic when someone says “all lives matter…too.”
    They are not trying to replace the phrase ‘black lives matter’ and they are not saying ‘All Lives Matter More’.

  28. It’s getting hard not to see the news as one interconnected root system, kind of like aspen trees or mushrooms, so the post about the Vermont principal, and especially Turley’s comments, are certainly applicable here, and also on the Candace Owens thread, and the War on Western Civ via statues. Well, on any subtopic of the main subject: trampling civil rights in the name of … upholding civil rights.

    https://jonathanturley.org/2020/06/16/vermont-principal-put-on-leave-for-not-agreeing-with-black-lives-matters/comment-page-2/

    She said that she actually does believe that black lives do matter but was motivated to write to object to “the coercive measures taken to get to this point across; some of which are falsified in an attempt to prove a point.” One can certainly disagree with that view. Indeed, it could be the foundation for a substantive discussion on how to best protect black lives and how to deal with police abuse. However, it was declared “tone deaf” because Riley was challenging an approved or orthodox position.
    …
    There is not even a nod of concern over the right of people to support reforms but not necessarily the BLM movement or some of its more controversial positions.

    As always, I come to these issues from a free speech perspective. I am less concerned with the merits of the position than I am in the refusal to allow one side to be stated without punitive measures.
    …
    The message to educators is that you must not criticize BLM in your private life if you want to keep your job. The board does not even entertain the possibility that Riley might not be a racist and still question BLM, which has been involved in controversies over academic freedom and free speech on campuses. We have never had any organization treated as so inviolate that it cannot be challenged by anyone in their private or personal discourse.

    There actually have been inviolate organizations in the past, but that’s tangential to the main point, which is that #BLM is the inviolate organization of today.

  29. “Census data show that more than three million black students were enrolled in college or graduate school in 2018. According to the Washington Post, 23 unarmed black people were killed by police that year. This is 23 too many, yet roughly 136,000 black students were in higher education for each unarmed black person killed by police.”

    This from today’s WSJ commentary, “The Power of Personal Agency.”

  30. Estoy Listo:

    Some “unarmed” people of any race who are killed by police are actually trying to kill the police. So it can be a misleading statistic. For example, you can try to run someone over with a car. Or to grab the cop’s weapon and kill him.

  31. Thousands of blacks are killed by blacks, and not a peep. When a black man is killed by a white cop – almost always resisting arrest in some way – then blacks are outraged. Obviously, it’s not the life of the black man that matters, but what matters is how it makes blacks feel when they see it.
    Even non-inner city blacks feel it. It brings up the history of their complete untermensch status. It’s hatred born of this humiliation. It is their history, and they obviously still feel it, right or wrong. And though they are no longer untermensch they still feel the humiliation because they are not able to compete for the good life. Their culture of victimhood won’t allow it.
    Mao turned loose the lingering feelings of the Chinese peasantry and many – not all – relished the chance to humiliate and often kill their historical overlords. Humiliation in a social animal as we are is the ultimate transgression. It gnaws and grows and humans will kill over it given half a chance.
    My biggest fear is that we’re heading there. It’s obviously a deep-rooted feeling that American blacks have and there’s no reasoning it away. And many useful idiot whites think they understand.
    White America is armed to the teeth and greatly outnumber blacks in most places. I get the feeling that there’s something similar to the Trump phenomenon, where there was this great simmering that was just below the surface, such that many didn’t recognize it. Many white people are nervously, but calmly for now, watching where this goes – this tearing down and trashing of their civilization.
    It’s all not good.

  32. #BLM is right. Brown, Blue, Brunette, Blonde, Black, too. Even the shredded remains of White flown with pride by the politically congruent (“=”). #BabyLivesMatter

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