The left in the US has long been protected…
…by the values of the right. The rule of law, free speech (which the left also championed when they were a relatively small minority), polite discourse in the public arena, respect for private property.
But all that time, the left was working to undermine and even destroy the right. If they succeed – and they might – they may find they miss those things, which also protected them from each other.
That’s what the left always learns – too late, after the worst on the left have devoured the best.
The adage “like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children” was coined by Jacques Mallet du Pan, a contemporary French observer of the terror accompanying the first modern revolutionary upheaval. There do exist some intelligent and moderate left-of-center intellectuals who are wary of the madness currently engulfing much of the country from multitudes of those acolytes of “the Great Awokening” who are caught up in the millenarian “anti-racist” fervor, but they are not sufficient at the moment (with far too many mainstream conservatives cowering and silent) to stem the tide.
The “best” of the left are under the thumb of the worse. The squad, antifa, blm, and assorted neo Marxists are calling the shots (also the actual shots). I think it is too late for the “best” to take back control of the party. Pelosi and others have let the crocodiles inside and they ain’t leaving any time soon.
I started college in 1960 and remember the so called free speech movement. The leftists claimed they were demonstrating for free speech. We jokingly called it the filthy speech movement. Now that they have taken over the campus, they are demonstrating to prevent people they disagree with from speaking. The leftists are big hypocrites, AKA liars.
Pelosi one of “the best”?
Surely not.
Feasting on the carcass of American civility. I think this is a very valid point. And just as Republicans don’t mind losing if it’s with good grace and sportsmanship, Democrats love the idea of indulging their radical ideologues (as if they were distant, poorer family relations), thinking that the worst that can happen would be to pick up a few fleas. Both are profoundly surprised when worse things happen.
I perceive something analogous with respect to muslims.
They’re all for minority “rights” as long as they’re in the minority, but should they ever become a majority, or even a muslim-woke plurality, watch out!! I trust the more reasonable among them to respect fundamental rights and to keep things civilized, about as much as I trust the more reasonable lefties to respect fundamental rights and to keep things civilized: in both cases, they’d have insufficient numbers and influence.
We have all noticed that Heronnah da Mayah of Seattle was all for the Antifa occupation at first- calling it a “summer of love.” Then they went after her house- led there by a Socialist/Commie member of the City Council. All of a sudden Heronnah da Mayah of Seattle decided she didn’t like the Antifa occupation so much. Like Neo’s posting on that said, you never think the alligator is coming after YOU. Until it does.
Fascinating (nauseating?) example of what happens when the Left loses just a wee bit of control over “The Narrative” (TM):
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/07/authors-of-study-on-race-and-police-killings-seek-retraction-because-conservative-cite-it/
“what the left always learns – too late”.
Moreover, it’s my guess, that today’s Lefties are hugely less Adult, than were Montagnards in Robespierre’s day.
Some protesters on July 4th burned an American flag in DC near the White House. As they carried on that ‘America was never great’ they were unable to consider the fact that in many other countries in the world this act is a violation of law and can lead to serious jail time. The Bill of Rights is one thing that makes this country great. The other Amendments have, of course, made it even better.
Montage:
19th Amendment wove what was left of the Old Republic’s winding sheet.
It’s hard when we’re all living in the same punchbowl, but any observations about whether this is a US phenomenon or more global? Are we just early adopters or haring off on our own?
If it’s just the US Left being nefarious, then we might expect to see other countries avoiding this same fate. If it’s systemic and the Left is capitalizing on it, then we would expect to see it occur widely.
I’ve been overseas but haven’t had the time or exposure to really hazard a guess about whether we’re witnessing a global or local phenomenon.
Montage’s observation about the flag burnings is correct.
In fact, a lot of things that the leftists are doing (and have been for decades) would have serious negative consequences anywhere but in the Western European countries and America (and probably Israel).
As the meme goes: if Trump were Hitler, everyone on the left would be dead or in jail; they aren’t, so he isn’t.
Or, more generally: If we conservatives were fascists, you leftists would be dead or in jail; you aren’t, so we aren’t.
Not as catchy, though.
Ray,
I was a member of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. You might be interested to know that in the wake of the FSM somebody actually launched, in Berkeley, the Filthy Speech Movement.
http://www.fsm-a.org/FilthySpeechMovement.html
The Amendments remark prompted me to do a little research.
Of 27 amendments added to the Constitution, 17 are definite pluses (1-10 of course, 13-15, 19*, 22, 24, 27).
These 5 were administrative tidying up, or partisanly neutral (11, 12, 20, 23**, 25).
Two cancelled each other (18, 21).
These 3 were, I think, ultimately negatives (16, 17**, 26***).
* – sorry, Zaphod, have to disagree with you there.
** – neutrality or value of this one can be debated.
*** – would have preferred a different solution to the problem.
A no-prize to anyone who can identify #11 without looking it up.
In a speech at the Minnesota State House on Tuesday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called for the “dismantling” of America’s “economy and political system” in an effort to root out “oppression.”
“We can’t stop at criminal justice reform or policing reform for that matter,” Omar said. “We are not merely fighting to tear down the systems of oppression in the criminal justice system, we are fighting to tear down systems of oppression that exist in housing, in education, in health care, in employment, in the air we breathe.” Ilhan Omar (my emphasis)
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/07/07/ilhan-omar-calls-for-dismantling-americas-economy-and-political-system-to-root-out-oppression-n612588
Barry – a commenter at LI is kind of an Aesop Fan (or at least a Khayyam Kid):
pfg | July 7, 2020 at 2:03 pm
“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it”
“It’s hard when we’re all living in the same punchbowl, but any observations about whether this is a US phenomenon or more global?” BravoRomeoDelta
America is the last bastion of freedom and with the exception of some Eastern European nations every other Western country has already fallen to the Left.
But the impatience of youth and Marxist/progressive fanaticism is leading them to act prematurely. Had they waited another generation or two, they could have simply voted in their Marxist utopia.
Instead, after Trump they will have to move to ‘cancel’ our unalienable rights, as “unalienable rights” are ultimately an immovable obstacle to their fundamental transformation of America. It is then that they will have brought upon themselves a fatal introduction to “politics by other means”.
“And, when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you?–?where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat??…?d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then??Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.”
Applies to the “unwritten laws” that constitute civil society as well, which have been the under the stewardship of conservatives, pretty much by definition — else what are we trying to conserve?
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/07/liberal-and-leftist-writers-condemn-cancel-culture-with-obligatory-anti-trump-nod/
The LI post focuses on the obligatory castigation of Trump and the political Right as being the source of all evil (as if conservatives have somehow cast magic spells on the left forcing them to start cancelling their own colleagues), but it can be separated from the primary purpose of the letter, which is trying to stuff the genie back in the bottle.
I’ve been resisting for weeks the urge to slap a Sir Thomas More quote on just about every post Neo writes; they are like Aesop’s Fables — applicable to a wide variety of situations.
For the record, then, here is a batch of them from which the most relevant can be selected for any given news story.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Bolt
On the “wait, wait, we’ve gone too far” letter signed onto by a bunch of leftist Names, the irony is scorching.
I have to keep looking to make sure I’m not reading the Babylon Bee.
https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/07/07/869407/
It’s very long, and absolutely not problematic in any way up until November 2016, but the reaction to it has been unbelievable, or would have been before we witnessed the Orwellian rising of the past few years. It also states, right up front, that the Right is to blame for the acrimony on the Left against…other leftists.
The list of signatories really is full of high-profile luminaries, and not surprising to see, but the problem is that some of them have managed to cross some red-line of leftist orthodoxy.
There are lots of Tweets by people who are upset that they didn’t know the name of everybody on the list before they signed, as if their agreement with the principles is wholly contingent on who else supports them.
Which it probably is.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2020/07/07/ironic-names-are-dropping-off-letter-decrying-an-intolerance-of-opposing-views-because-of-opposing-views/
I don’t particularly like Twitchy, because they often just throw in any old Twit to make a (weak) point, but some of the opinions voiced on this post require some consideration.
First, from one of the three people cited by Twitchy illustrating the point that it’s not what you believe, but what you think other people think you should believe, that matters.
And the response —
One of the endorsers retracted before publication in the printed magazine.
Ben Shapiro:
This is from another Twitter stream, but worth adding (presumably Ted doesn’t agree with the clause blaming the Right for the problem, even though the very existence of the Right clearly forces the Left to cancel both heathen and heretics):
They just haven’t gotten around to everyone yet.
Forgot the Twitchy link:
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2020/07/07/ironic-names-are-dropping-off-letter-decrying-an-intolerance-of-opposing-views-because-of-opposing-views/
I’m not quite as cynical as streiff at RedState; I think most, if not all, of the signatories really do believe what they said:
There follows a long list of recent news events, NONE of which involve censoring by the right, radical or otherwise.
Loosely translated: that person whose life was ruined for no good reason could have been ME.
Why not just say: The cure for bad speech is more speech.*
Translation: There is no protection for anyone from Woke mobs, and we don’t want you coming after other people any more, because at some point you might (and now have) come after us — even if they really DO believe what they signed onto.
Considering how long the left has been okay with trashing the idea of “good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences,” this group is a day late and a dollar short with their beggar’s petition.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Attributed to Edmund Burke, quoted by John F Kennedy in a speech in 1961.
* * *
*The origins for this saying are generally traced back to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ concurring opinion in the 1927 Whitney v. California case:
Everything is an emergency for the Left, because leaving any time for discussion reveals the bankrupt and corrupt foundation of their agenda.
So — I was wondering who actually wrote the letter and persuaded all those people to sign it. I’m not the only one.
https://www.mediaite.com/news/j-k-rowling-bari-weiss-and-noam-chomsky-among-dozens-to-sign-open-letter-calling-for-end-to-cancel-culture/
Mediaite rounds up responses from left and right, so the letter-writers are over some kind of target. Or else they are the target.
Personally, I hope they have the guts to actually DO something the next time someone gets hounded for their offenses, even if it’s just one of them, although they don’t make any promises, threats, or even suggestions about what that kind of something might be.
PS Both Mediate and NYP claim the letter doesn’t cite specific examples, but it has a whole paragraph of recent instances; it just doesn’t give the details. I recognized all of them, being an addict of the media cycle.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/07/j-k-rowling-among-dozens-to-call-for-end-to-cancel-culture/
Short version (so it seems to me):
“Just look at what Trump and his deplorable posse are making us good and decent people do. Let’s not help them!”
(I think that’s a winner—especially if one jettisons the second sentence, which is kind of weak beer, in any case….)
As President of the Council of Public Safety, George Danton led the execution of roughly 1400 victims deemed Enemies of the Revolution. You can still see Danton’s desk at which he planned the revolution. It’s displayed at Procope, the oldest restaurant in Paris. Metro stop Odeon.
Unfortunately, M. Danton was found to be insufficiently enthusiastic in the area of revolutionary zeal, and he too met the Nation’s Razor.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredlawrenceholt?challengeId=AQHtodgQp8LL2gAAAXMucVq4qliqhjN7stmK1vXOzk3iE3S-56Nhtv9KrkVy8TCdtPBn5yjp1PuLZ7antHVsHzYxLMGPVNIGpg&submissionId=1cb3ba13-69c7-1f16-c7ec-aedfd3a4663b
Jared Holt works for an outfit founded by Norman Lear. Like the $PLC, they were subject to an expose in Harper’s about 20 years ago. The writer, IIRC, was a former employee who’d left the organization in dismay over the trivial character of their activity. One of the features in their newsletters was on the year’s ‘most challenged book’. The disaffected employee reported: “The ‘most challenged book’ typically has fewer than 10 complaints against it. A complaint is typically one parent’s gripe, about which nothing is done”.
Steve Sailer’s pessimistic take on matters was as follows:
“Dr. Pinker:
What’s the average age and IQ of the people defending you versus the people trying to get you canceled?
Maybe 65 / 140 vs. 40 / 115?
The intelligent old idealists might win this round, but the young, dumb, and filled-with-hate have time and numbers on their side.”
Again, the ‘cancel culture’ would hardly be worth a brass farthing if you didn’t have tech companies, payment processors, higher ed apparatchiks, and hr directors making it a reality in the lives of people the twitter mobs go after. Start publishing the names of the enforcers, and their addresses.
It would really be something if they also had Marat’s bath tub….
In any event, for anyone also interested (as should be the case) in French Connections more recent:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/07/learning-from-france-68.php
“…really do believe what they said…”
And that’s part of the problem.
Because they’re STILL lying and I’m not even sure that they know it—which is a most interesting (if not surprising) “feature” of our so-called intellectual elites:
Several examples (of many):
“…the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides…”
So it’s “on all sides”, is it?
“….While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture…”
So you’re saying that from its “starting point” on “the radical right” it’s “also spreading” to “our culture”? (One has to love “our culture” part. “Censoriousness”, too is lovely; but why not just say “intellectual depravity” and leave it at that?)
Yes, it’s “Airbrushing-Out ‘R Us” indeed. (That is, if they’ve even noticed what it is they’ve airbrushed out….)
“We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences.”
Might one dare assume that “[preserving] the possibility(?) of good-faith disagreement” means ending the flagrant slander and lies about Trump and his supporters?…. (No, didn’t think so…)
For starters….
They’re most dishonestly striving to come to grips with the obscene reality they’ve helped to create.
….but should one say that at least they’re trying…(?)
the left’s double standards demonstrate that they have no concern for moral authority. They do not intend any kind of concern for moral and cultural issues to protect the right or the center.
Which is to say that, if those issues are irrelevant to them, they plan to have absolute power and you can go pound sand with your complaints of discrimination. Eff you, righty.
From which I suggest it’s a waste of time to be arguing about rights and wrongs as if it makes a difference to the left.
Was it Rules for Radicals which suggested making the opponents waste time and energy arguing rights and wrongs you have no intention of honoring once you prevail?