Don’t be fooled by what the media choose to emphasize…
…or by what a small group of attention-getting radicals want.
In the turmoil we’re now experiencing, many people are afraid. That certainly makes sense – it’s frightening. Just a few short months ago things seemed relatively “normal.” Then COVID came, and now the country seems gripped by riots orchestrated by leftists.
Yesterday I posted a video of black conservative Candace Owens. In it she asks – among other things – what do black people want? I don’t profess to know the answer, and I realize the question is mostly rhetorical. But one thing in particular about the question bothers me: “black people” are not a unitary group just because they are in that racial category. It would be just as misleading to ask “what do white people want?”
My guess, though – and it’s completely a guess – is that the majority of black people want the same things the majority of white people or people of any other race want. That is, they would like to live their lives without violence, support their families, have children whom they love and protect, work at jobs, have a decent place to live, see friends now and then, and a host of other “normal” aspects of life in the US in the 21st Century.
Yes, there is a higher percentage of criminals among black people, and a higher rate of father absence (two things that are not unrelated). But the vast majority of black people are not burning their cities down. For that matter, the vast majority of white people are not antifa thugs. As I wrote yesterday, the majority of people of all races prefer “all lives matter” to the phrase “black lives matter.” That’s pretty amazing, considering the full court press to push the latter phrase to the exclusion of the former, and to even demonize those who would advocate “all lives matter” as racists.
When last I checked, Americans reject socialism as well, at least in polls.
The problem is not what the majority thinks. The problem is the power and dedication of that minority of leftists, black and white, and what they are willing to do and how far they are wiling to go to get their way, as well as the wholehearted cooperation of many institutions of US society in recent years, in particular the MSM, the educational system, and the Democratic Party.
So, just to take one example, the MSM is determined to support the rioters, and to make it seem as though Antifa is either a bunch of do-gooders who only want to stamp out real facism, and/or completely uninvolved in riots in which they are quite obviously involved. And to take another example, the Marxist affliation of BLM is hushed up by the media, and any disagreement with BLM or even criticism of it is now labeled as evidence of racism.
I have long believed that the two most dangerous and powerful institutions in our country are education and the press. They are powerful because they shape minds, and if minds are shaped in a certain way there is no real need for armies or a hot war or even a revolution in the classic sense of bearing arms against the government. If minds are shaped to hate the US and to gravitate towards the left, the left can win at the ballot box or intimidate through mild violence (such as arson, for example, and the destruction of national monuments).
Much of this work has already been accomplished, and the hour is very late. But the forces of sanity still have the majority, although those voices are muted and often frightened, as well as confused. For quite some time I’ve thought the 2020 election would be – as Victor Davis Hanson said recently – an existential one to determine which way the country will turn and whether it will survive in any recognizable way:
It’s an existential question, a Manichean choice between whether you want civilization and you believe that America doesn’t have to be perfect to be good and we are not … going to destroy all that people died for, or [whether] you feel it was inherently flawed with a cancer and we have to use radiation and chemotherapy and kill the host to kill the cancer.
Well, yes. But even more than that, the election is only a very small part of it. Trump was elected in 2016, but he has spent way too much of his presidency fighting fabricated attacks from his enemies, amplified by MSM coverage wholly dedicated to removing him. Whether he wins or loses in 2020, the struggle between left and right in the US will not end.
It’s going to be up to the right to become more activist in fighting against the MSM and the entire system of educational propaganda in this country, and it won’t be easy. I don’t have many practical suggestions, but I do think that it’s time to speak up rather than be silent with liberal friends and relatives. Choose a few of the more moderate ones to begin with, stay calm, and see what happens. They may even be more in agreement with you than you might expect about certain issues – for example, defunding the police.
It is only to be expected that the MSM would devolve even more shamefully into transparently fraudulent propaganda; what is more distressing is the capitulation of corporate America (it is not obvious whether this is from cowardice before the mob, or from being infiltrated from within by young SJWs, or from a cold calculation that the future lies in a totalitarian synergy between the state and “woke” capitalism) and the utter fecklessness of the GOP at a time of severe crisis for our republic.
j e:
I think it’s a combination of the factors you list, rather than either/or.
For Thermidorian reaction on Leftist assault on liberty be succesful, at some point in the future a Napoleonic receipt of quelling riots should be applied: a whiff of grapeshot.
Don’t be fooled by what the media choose to emphasize. . .
Or, additionally, what Twitter chooses to censor: Missing Trump Tweet
No matter the outcome the day after the election, the SWHTF. Even the wonderful John Kerry said yesterday to prepare for a revolution if Trump wins. They are laying the groundwork for some major violence. There are no moderate Dems anymore. And if Trump loses, everyone on the right will assume massive voter fraud; which will probably be right. We’re screwed either way.
I got a brand new 12 gauge for Father’s Day.
“Yes, there is a higher percentage of criminals among black people, and a higher rate of father absence (two things that are not unrelated).”
There are a number of studies showing that single parent households headed by women are incubators for criminals. That was why Moynihan said the great society programs were destroying the black family. He was called racist and told STFU.
Keep in mind that slogan about the power of a small group of people to change the world. It’s really about the power of a small group of people to impose its will on a majority too complacent, clueless and disorganized to push back.
The problem for that small group is that the majority is no longer complacent or clueless. The Left’s real fear is that this majority will become organized. This is why the Left freaked out over the Tea Party.
“…choose to emphasize…”
The blowback against Facebook et al. begins:
https://twitter.com/mrddmia/status/1275477463632678919
https://twitter.com/mrddmia/status/1273306156774064128
Comment at Hanson article, in re the taking down of statues and erasing of history:
“I think people are missing the point. The goal is to destroy all ties to European and Judeo-Christian roots.”
That resonated with me because of two stories I encountered a few minutes ago in the internet labyrinth. Look at the dates. There are plans that have been in the works for a long time.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tom-knighton/2017/08/17/new-orleans-joan-arc-statue-vandalized-take-n53019
Which linked to this story, declaring a goal that has now been accomplished.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/leftist-activists-demand-new-york-museum-take-down-michael-qazvini
On the Teddy Roosevelt statue.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/06/american-museum-natural-history-purges-its-most-daniel-greenfield/
And this one too, as a companion piece to the Candace Owens video.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/high-cost-racializing-crime-daniel-greenfield/
Mon Jun 22, 2020
“Black Lives Matter is what happens when you reduce civil rights to the rights of criminals.”
Don’t be fooled by what the Democrat leaders choose to offer you.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1275041115788451840.html
Doc Zero 6/22/2020
Easy answers in a single chart.
https://babylonbee.com/news/infographic-is-something-racist
Do Black lives really matter to the Left?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyTTxWtOBZM&feature=youtu.be
It was a real tossup whether to post this to this thread or the thread about Jonestown – the part of the video that shows the white progressives would be astonishing if it were not so funny.
But one thing in particular about the question bothers me: “black people” are not a unitary group just because they are in that racial category. It would be just as misleading to ask “what do white people want?”
I don’t think so. I think it’s different Neo. While it’s clear that not all blacks agree in a political sense, I think the fact remains that they do identify and relate as a unitary group. For example, when they see blacks being brutalized by “the man” they see centuries of cumulative abuse that have been heaped upon them. “Here we go again, how can they treat us like this”? They take it personally. Likewise, when they see other blacks acting like fools they take that personally too. “Look how that fool is making us look.”
I don’t think whites ever see white victims or perpetrators as representing them as a group. He or she may be crazy or a victim, but they don’t see themselves in those people.
Not excusing recent and ongoing criminal behaviors in the black community I would say that what it is they want is to be seen and recognized…as equals
I am still hoping for a group of wealthy conservatives to start a new social media company, one that will allow for all opinions to be heard. Social media is the future of politics. The bandwagon effect is what makes most people act. Presently, we are losing this battle. Twitter, YouTube and the rest are tightening the thumbscrews in anticipation of the election. If we don’t get a mass digital voice, we are not going to survive.
quiet conservative:
Much easier said than done. It’s been tried. The problem is that Twitter, etc., have reached enormous size without competition. They dominate, and anyone who wants to be heard by a lot of people must go there. Any competitor would start small, and if conservative voices are the only ones that go there (and a small number, as well) any effect on public discourse would be negligible.
neo:
Yes, the discourse would be negligible if the site were aimed at conservatives. The idea is to have an open forum where conservatives would know that they would get a fair shake, in addition to but not the exclusion of others. Think of a Twitter or YouTube that didn’t come down on only one side of the political spectrum. I know, easy to say and hard to do….
quiet conservative;
The site would not be aimed at conservatives. But only conservatives would come, because they’re the ones who would need it.
RedState has posts that address both questions – what do blacks want (or at least one groupof them), and why isn’t there a conservative social media organization.
https://www.redstate.com/heartlandinstitute/2020/06/24/what-does-black-lives-matter-want/
https://www.redstate.com/brandon_morse/2020/06/24/media-attack-parler/
No commentary needed, I suppose?
This explains the upsurge of interest in Parler.
https://www.redstate.com/brandon_morse/2020/06/24/twitter-twexit/