Conrad Black on America today
I’m not going to go through this article by Conrad Black point by point, except to say that I disagree with a great deal of it and agree with quite a bit of it.
This is the paragraph on which I want to focus:
The United States now has an official regime of lies, supported by an almost worthlessly dishonest media, and scores of millions of Americans have been brainwashed into the false view that they live in an evil country. This lie will not succeed because everyone in America can see that it is not true.
Let’s take that phrase by phrase.
“The United States now has an official regime of lies” – I would add that, although there have long been some lies dispensed by American “regimes,” it was during the Obama years that we saw much more lying than ever before, and the lies then began to be of a different quality and magnitude as well.
It is my contention that Obama was the first president we have ever had who lied not just about commonplace things like this fact or that one, or this detail of his history or that one, but about his basic political position and his plans for what he wished to accomplish during his presidency. He didn’t fully reveal those things although there were hints for those paying really close attention. Instead, Obama took refuge in vague phrases such as “fundamental transformation” and “hope and change,” reassuring people with his calm demeanor and soothing voice, and letting them fill in the blanks as they wished. Many voters considered him to be much more of a centrist than he ever intended to be as president, and the fostering of this impression was purposeful on Obama’s part. The MSM fully cooperated in protecting and defending Obama’s lies and that most basic lie, and the MSM was perfectly okay with lying for him when necessary.
Biden is a very different person, but one commonality is that a basic lie about intent, character, and purpose was a big part of his campaign and is still part of official campaign rhetoric. His lies are so blatant now that they are easily disproved, and yet for the most part the MSM is still covering for him. In addition, now social media and corporate America, as well as sports organizations, are fully onboard with it all.
“supported by an almost worthlessly dishonest media” – “Worthlessly dishonest,” that is, if you think the media measures its own worth by its veracity. It certainly does not. It measures its own worth by whether it helps to accomplish the desired partisan results, and I’m going to assume that – with the temporary exception of the surprising election of one Donald Trump (unperson-in-the-making) during the presidential election of 2016 – the MSM is very satisfied indeed with those results so far. But it strives to reach onward and upward to greater heights, and the greatest height of all would be the permanent installation of a leftist government and the elevation of members of favored identity groups and their white leftist allies to the leadership of every facet and aspect of government and society.
“scores of millions of Americans have been brainwashed into the false view that they live in an evil country” – I would add that, although there are many older people who adhere to the idea that America is indeed evil, an even greater majority of people under forty and especially under 30 are convinced of the truth of that evaluation of American history and essence. I think that proportion of believers will only increase over time, as that “narrative” of American evil makes further inroads into elementary education and all facets of American life. However, unlike Conrad Black, I don’t think I’d use the word “brainwashed,” although perhaps I’m just nitpicking here. I’d say instead that they’ve been indoctrinated.
“This lie will not succeed because everyone in America can see that it is not true.” – Well, obviously not everyone; that’s hyperbole. But how many, and when might enough of them see it to matter, and will it be too late if and when they ever do? I don’t have Black’s optimism on that score. Maybe I know an atypical sample of people, but I’m acquainted with a lot of people who have always seemed to me to be smart, kind, and well-meaning, and who have no obvious dysfunction in personality or lives, and yet who now fully subscribe to the notion that America is evil and must atone for its sins. They believe that it’s the people who say otherwise who are lying and/or ignorant.
“I’m acquainted with a lot of people who have always seemed to me to be smart, kind, and well-meaning, and who have no obvious dysfunction in personality or lives, and yet who now fully subscribe to the notion that America is evil and must atone for its sins.”
How many of them are Baby Boomers and how many of them are religious to any extent? The oldest Boomers turn 75 in 2021. The youngest turn 57. There’s millions of Americans out there realizing they’re on a one-way road to the end of all flesh without any of the faith, traditions, or permanence humans have relied on for comfort over the millennia.
Of course, how many hippies from the 1960s turned into gross materialists in the 80s? How long before today’s embracers of Critical Race Theory wind up echoing White Power slogans?
Mike
MBunge:
Some are religious; some are not.
And some are boomers, whereas some are 40 and under.
Just spitballing here: Patriots–you can hear the sneer–believe the US is good. You don’t want to be a dumb patriot, do you?
Virtue signaling to oneself. We know better than those dumb patriots, those bitterly clinging irredeemable deplorables. In fact, we are better.
Facts don’t/won’t matter. Haven’t.
I guess I can keep up something with my granddaughters, vaccinate them, in a manner of speaking. Their parents won’t peddle the America bad thing, but they may not see it coming.
Bunge blames the boomers – squirrel. How many younger folks are in the BLM/Antifa, gender bender, race psychosis? Or is it just another shiney object time?
Now he could argue that some of the young uns have been indoctrinated and corrupted by boomers in the educational establishment (primary, secondary, university, and post graduate) but he didn’t.
Here is an interesting Bari Weiss take on placement of blame on the enabling classes who have led so many astray:
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/americas-true-believers-and-their
As I keep saying, here and there, I don’t KNOW if the media is/are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dem Party, or if it’s the other way round, but it’s OBVIOUS that they are in CAHOOTS.
“In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box. All through the critical years many left-wingers were chipping away at English morale, trying to spread an outlook that was sometimes squashily pacifist, sometimes violently pro-Russian, but always anti-British.”
George Orwell
The media has even managed to redefine “lie”. During the Obama years, it was merely excuse making, red herrings, tu quoque, and burying the story to cover up his lies. During the Trump years, the media expanded the definition to include being wrong, a difference of opinion, or reinterpreting facts to fabricate a lie.
That’s not to say Trump didn’t lie. I’m unfamiliar with any politician who hasn’t. No lie Trump told hurt me, or nearly as many others as “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”, yet the media assures me that Trump’s lies about personal achievements and awards were deleterious to the very fabric of Our Democracy™!
Even though Obama’s lies tangibly hurt me and members of my family, I’m not outraged. He was a politician, doing the things politicians do. I expect that. What I can’t forgive is the media’s active participation in the political lying process.
“Bunge blames the boomers – squirrel. How many younger folks are in the BLM/Antifa, gender bender, race psychosis? Or is it just another shiney object time?”
I forgot. I have to wonder what’s going to set you off before I post anything.
Guess how old Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfriend is? 62.
Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy? 56.
Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian? 63.
I know you’re just stupid but for anyone else out there who might not have realized this, the young BLM protesters are not the problem. The people promoting CRT are not the problem. Those kind of people have been around forever and will still be here when everyone reading this is dead and gone. As I mentioned before, how many hippies and hippie-wannabes ended up voting for Ronald Reagan?
The problem is that any time anyone tries to object to BLM, CRT, transgenderism or anything else, they get legions of college educated WHITE PEOPLE screaming at them for being a white supremacist, transphobe, or whatever.
Mike
MBunge:
Please make your points without gratuitous snark like “I know you’re just stupid.”
Unnecessary, needlessly provocative, and doesn’t enhance a single point you make. Au contraire.
And technically, Quincy is Gen X at 56, although he’s right on the cusp of Boomer.
Bunge finds his squirrel and his shift key. Forgets that the young are typically the revolutionaries. Yep, those revolutionaries take their lead from the CEOs of Coke, United Air Lines, and MLB. Who is leading and who is following? And about those CEOs? How old is Zuckerberg or Dorsey or the nerds at the Alphabet Corp? Again, who is leading and who is following?
Ta-Nehisi Coates born 1975 – not a boomer, Bunge. Show your work?
Look, squirrel. Red dot on floor for Bunge.
MBunge;
Oh, and also – from your comment —
“people promoting CRT are not the problem.” Actually, they very much are the problem, but far from the only problem. There are multiple causes for what’s happening now, and multiple groups and types of people are involved.
“Those kind of people have been around forever and will still be here when everyone reading this is dead and gone.” Indeed, they have been around – but in the US they never before had the sort of power that they have now.
“how many hippies and hippie-wannabes ended up voting for Ronald Reagan?” If you look at the statistics for Reagan’s 1980 victory broken down by age, the group 30-44 (many of whom would be part of the Boomer group back then) voted overwhelmingly for Reagan, 55-38, very similar statistics to older age groups at the time. Younger Boomers voted about equally for Carter and Reagan.
In 1984, all age groups voted overwhelmingly for Reagan.
The statistics aren’t broken down by “hippy vs. non-hippy,” of course. But Boomers were big Reagan supporters.
Very pregnant topic (aside: can one be more/less pregnant? I guess it’s an absolute state: so maybe I mean “fertile”). Two quick thoughts:
(1) Once one begins to lie, one has to continue. It’s like a “basin of attraction” in phase space, where, after crossing a transitional “saddle point,” the system stabilizes around a new central tendency. In the case of the media, I think this natural tendency is amplified by the policing of one’s peers, who will fact-check your a$$ if you start to drift from the Party Line.
(2) Why do so many people hate their own country? What exactly is the psychological profile or process by which one comes to loathe everything and everyone involved in making one’s life possible and, very often, incredibly successful? What sustains this attitude? Is it stable, or will we see a sudden terrible awakening as all these historically illiterate self-pleasing pseudo-martyrs come to their senses? If that happens, will it happen before everything is lost?
I just made a donation to a local think tank which is organizing opposition to the new “woke” social studies standards here, and is pushing for having school funds follow the child rather than going to school systems. They’re an effective force around here.
I can’t agree, sadly, with Conrad Black’s belief that “everyone can see” the leftist propaganda is not true. Many people just don’t know any better.
Black, of course, is very down on US jurisprudence after his experience with Patrick Fitzgerald, of “Fitzmas” fame, and Chicago juries.
The problem is that any time anyone tries to object to BLM, CRT, transgenderism or anything else, they get legions of college educated WHITE PEOPLE screaming at them for being a white supremacist, transphobe, or whatever.
Mike
Disagree about the problem. Who is funding BLM ? Look at the board of that foundation that rented the van for the Kentucky protest. One member is the Walton heiress; another is a New York hedge fund manager. Those are not suburban white women although a few are. I could not in a quick search find all the names but they are known.
“This lie will not succeed because everyone in America can see that it is not true.” Conrad Black
In a recent poll, 83% of those who voted for Xiden stated that had they known beforehand of the eight scandals connected to Xiden… they would still have voted for him.
I agree that everyone in America can see that the democrats are liars. Wherein Black goes astray is in not acknowledging that 83% of democrat voters fully support lying, when in their opinion, the end justifies the lies.
In doing so, they demonstrate their unfitness for the freedoms bequeathed to them through the sacrifices of many of their ancestors. They deserve the enslavement they are fashioning.
I don’t see much difference betwixt brainwashed and indoctrinated.
Perhaps those truly brainwashed can never be brought back to reality- they are gone for good – and those merely indoctrinated can still be saved.
Many of us have “discussed” political topics with those who are “indoctrinated” and have quickly realized you are wasting your time. I don’t see how this would differ if that individual was brainwashed.
I have zero idea if today’s woke, hate-America-first world view will eventually flame out or if we are just witnessing the beginning of the end of our Constitutional Republic.
History shows that there is no way to predict how all of this will turn out.
When the results are finally in, rest assured all the experts will come out of their little cubbyholes and explain to us ignorant mortals how it was all so obvious and predictable.
I love my country but fear my government.
Maybe part of the problem is a lack of confidence in our own decision making abilities. There are so many variables that come with each decision we make now. And if we make the wrong decision it’s all our fault. We can’t fall back on saying that’s fate, God’s will, tough luck. I’m reminded of the juggler with 10 plates in the air, who keeps being tossed more plates. We’re overwhelmed by all the decisions we have to make. And now we also have to worry if the decisions we make are tinged with any of the isms. We get to the point where we’re yearning to let all the plates fall down, civilization as we know it to collapse. So fine, let Biden and the tech wizards have their way. Either they’re right and life will be grand or they’re wrong and life will fall apart. Then we’ll start simple and slow all over again. That’s either win/win or lose/lose. You choose.
‘Come on, Man’. No one believes in communism. We know this is true because the one state that came closest to trying it, gave it up, and has since had many chances to vote it back and refuses to do so. And the other state that says it is communist is a pure tyrannical capitalistic state. And every smaller state that says it is communist or socialist is simply a overt dictatorship. Has any state ever actually tried to give “to each according to his need?” and taken “from each according to his ability?” When has the working class ever seized control of the economy? [Well, I guess once. There was a medieval woolen guild in Florence that seized power for a few years.]
The word doesn’t even mean anything because mankind refuses to do anything that even comes close. It’s a crumbly diaphanous film of a idea.
What the woke say they want is for us to stop oppressing them. They need this hierarchy to feel. Groups do not whine themselves into power. What the Woke must want is to be us. It’s jealousy.
If they want power they should take it–as we all have. No one gives away power. Be leaders. Invent stuff. Build. Write poetry and deep thoughts. Have fun and help others.
@dnaxy:
The woke foot soldiers know in their bones that they cannot be us. So, in their envy and self-loathing, they wish to destroy us and all that we have built. See Bioleninism.
That’s the rank and file SJWs, Antifa types, Twitter Mobs, etc.
The origin(s) of the auto-immune disease(s) afflicting Western Civ and rotting the fish from the head down is a separate discussion.
Pretty much sums up the woke and what to do with them:
“Then the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own;
He’s got ’em on the list—he’s got ’em on the list;
And they’ll none of ’em be missed—they’ll none of
’em be missed.”
https://youtu.be/TPGcBvrbcNw
@Paul in Boston:
There’s a certain type goes back a ways… Mrs Jellyby in Bleak House is another.
Zaphod. Ah yes, though it’s been modernized and the starving children in Africa have magically all moved to Guatemala, and joined MS-13.
“scores of millions of Americans have been brainwashed into the false view that they live in an evil country” (from Conrad Black)
The developing irony here is that the people who are preaching this false doctrine may succeed in making it true, if they truly get all the power they’re trying to get, and hang on to it for a while.
Good article about the people manipulated by the Tech Overlords that is causing the strife in our country. Essentially it is almost costless to the people involved.
Including those who fund it. How to fix? Simple prosecute. Do audits of the funding of NGO’s. Expose how the funds were used. Use the SEC to question CEO and board members why they funded these groups without fiscal oversight. Class action lawsuits would be in the offing.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/04/the_phony_woke_risk_nothing.html
Don’t bitch. Don’t moan. Don’t pound your keyboard in frustration. Get out and get into a position to make this happen. It is closer than you think.
Bari Weiss – Substack Article. Very good.
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/americas-true-believers-and-their
Money Grafs:
This line of reasoning is indefensible, and the Enablers know it or should know it. And if they don’t, they’re unfit to lead. You do not share in the suffering of other people, even if you have the same skin color, so you do not derive any moral authority from that suffering. And even if you did derive some moral authority from it, it would not justify making other people suffer.
But the Enablers won’t — can’t — say any of this. To the extent they still possess any authority, that authority derives from their support for the True Believers.
For a while, the Enablers succeeded in creating the impression that the forces of liberalism and illiberalism could be woven together. That they could be harmonized. But that illusion is over. The plate tectonics are shifting away from them, toward the True Believers, and the True Believers are pushing up against the wobbly, castle walls of the Enablers. Peering in through the windows.
I think Bunge is correct with some qualification. Nearly every troublesome element on the left would be inconsequential absent the influence of those Glenn Reynolds calls ‘the administrative class’ (and George Soros’ money). The trouble is that our institutions are governed by awful people. They are drawn from a professional-managerial class that is addled by social fiction and magical thinking.
The trouble with Bunge’s complaint is that the median age of people in charge of institutions (in any generation) is generally somewhat shy of 60. With some exceptions, these people have never faced military conscription and weren’t out of high school during the disorders wracking higher education ca. 1969. People born during the years running from 1958 to 1970 voted Republican in their youth (more often than not). Look at the refuse on the Minneapolis City Council. One of 13 members was born prior to 1958. There’s a woman named Goodman on the council; she’s the oldest member bar one. She was 3 years old in 1969. The current mayor was born in 1981; his predecessor was born in 1969. The idiot mayors of Seattle and Portland were born in 1958 and 1962, respectively. The most destructive figure on the Seattle City Council was born in 1973 (in India – diversity is our strength). The Chauvin Soviet show trial is being run by Peter Cahill (b. 1959), Keith Ellison (b. 1963), Matthew Frank (b. 1964), Steven Schleicher (b. 1969), Jerry Blackwell (b. 1962), Neil Kaytal (b. 1970), &c.
I believe that the lie Mr. Black spoke of is that we know he didn’t win, they know he didn’t win, the media knows he didn’t win but “officially ” the admin exists….as a lie.
Richard Aubrey:
“Just spitballing here: Patriots–you can hear the sneer–believe the US is good. You don’t want to be a dumb patriot, do you?”
Thank you. So much of their success indoctrinating our citizenry is grounded in characterizing patriots and Trump supporters and Christians and Jews who actually support Israel as uneducated and stupid and wholly UNCOOL.
I feel it myself. The great avalanche of their disdain for people like me who hold the “wrong” views.
Every day I wake up to this continuing nightmare and feel ashamed that I do not speak out.
It feels like it is too late now.
Very hard to summon optimism.
Spartacus, it looks like some people have been paying attention…
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/nevada-mayor-leaving-democratic-party-john-lee
Well, that’s one down. Several tens of millions to go….
And it’s back to Georgia (and election “transparency”)….
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/w-georgia-sec-state-files-brief-prevent-ga-voter-group-auditing-physical
Orwell?
Here’s Nancy channeling Orwell like it’s going out of style:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/not-onion-nancy-pelosi-claims-border-situation-has-improved-under-biden
The woman is quite extraordinary….
And here’s her hand-selected pitbull (who, alas—if appropriately—is every bit the truth-challenged thug that she is):
https://justthenews.com/government/security/retired-lt-gen-honore-calls-bs-capitol-police-rioters-latest-commentaries
What a pair….
Barry – they are playing the same game in Arizona. Now legal challenges are being filed. While here in Michigan we have lethargy bordering on sloth re: getting access to the ballots from the State Legislature.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/04/arizona-sue-far-left-protect-democracy-project-misrepresenting-claiming-not-political-doesnt-appear-case/
But we may be answers about machines changing votes. Note that this is FIVE MONTHS after the election and they are just getting the audit AUTHORIZED. The legal and legislative systems are badly out of date/sync. And this is with a cooperative Secretary of State. The coup plotters picked their targets well.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/04/update-new-hampshire-house-passes-sb43-mandate-audit-windhams-disturbing-2020-election-results/
Indeed, it’s incredibly frustrating. It’s exasperating.
It’s utterly disgusting.
On the other hand, I’m surprised that the pushback, such as it is, has been as “successful” as it has in AZ, in MI, even to some extent in Georgia, for example. (I would assume that both WI and PA are “lost causes”, as is NV….)
That is, according to the script, any pushback should have been totally quashed. Nipped in the bud. Murdered in the crib.
But not all of it has. (The cynic in me says they’re toying with us and that it will be stopped—simply closed down—down the road ‘aways without anything being done. But hope springs eternal, I guess….)
I agree with virtually everything in Black’s article: except his conclusion. I am far, far less sanguine about America’s future
it was during the Obama years that we saw much more lying than ever before, and the lies then began to be of a different quality and magnitude as well.
that was AUDACITY, a point he ran on…
Art Deco writes “
I think Bunge is correct with some qualification. Nearly every troublesome element on the left would be inconsequential absent the influence of those Glenn Reynolds calls ‘the administrative class’ (and George Soros’ money). The trouble is that our institutions are governed by awful people. They are drawn from a professional-managerial class that is addled by social fiction and magical thinking….”
This raises the title of the dead-on book by Tucker Carlson in 2018, “Ship Of Fools,” into prophecy. Subtitled “How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution.” Through incompetence.
Given how Trump is no longer front and center of establishment Ruling Class rage and rancor, has anyone here tried making the anti-ruling class case to others through Tucker’s book? Trumpism messaged but without the messenger?
His analysis is dead-on target for this thread.
Peter Thiel looks poised to back Mike Pompeo for the next President.
We do have some influential people not buying into the indoctrination.
https://justthenews.com/government/state-houses/herschel-walker-corporations-should-help-minorities-get-photo-ids-voting
“…not buying…” (cont.):
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/alveda-king-georgia-voter-id-law