I&I Editorial
Not so long ago, someone told us “You. Can’t. Say. Anything.” This is America in 2020. Those who speak outside the narrative established by a hard-left mob that has marched through our institutions are blacklisted. If we fail to mount a forceful resistance, there’s a grim future awaiting us.
We’ve seen this coming. The casualty list has been growing for years. The purge is now white hot. What was a non-controversial statement last week is grounds for a death sentence tomorrow. It seems every day we see someone caving in with a groveling apology, declaring they suddenly have a lot to learn, swearing they’re looking forward to the moment they can meet with their hostage-takers and work toward a resolution that will appease them.
But it will never be enough. Apologies and appeasement only encourage the bullies. The Woke mob never sleeps. It lives to cancel the lives of others. We are warned: Conform or else.
No manifesto exists to guide the shock troops through their revolutionary occupation of our society. But on Monday, the day Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy was forced to ask forgiveness for the sin of wearing a One America News t-shirt, praising the network, and criticizing the mainstream media, a maniacal Twitter storm from a leftist blogger laid out the belief system that undergirds the movement:
Mike Gundy cannot remain the OK State head coach. Too influential of a position in society. Fire him, unless he agrees to get extensive psychological help.
It’s time we acknowledge that conservatism isn’t just some political view. It means you’re the very bottom rung of society, dangerous and deranged. Some conservatives are trying to become better people. Great. But people who flaunt their conservatism are psychotic.
Conservatism means you don’t believe in equality. It means you want it all for yourself, and you’re willing to destroy other groups of people to take it all for yourself. That’s not a crime against the law. But it’s a crime against humanity – and we must acknowledge as much.
Conservatives CANNOT be teachers, police officers, doctors, lawyers, coaches, or bosses. It’s constitutionally unfair to others who are subjected to the conservative’s deranged judgment. Conservatives can do menial work, until they’re ready to join the human race.
We shouldn’t be cold hearted about this. But having a conservative as police officer, for instance, isn’t much different from having a KKK member as a police officer. It’s just not something that a civilized society can ever, ever tolerate.
We should rehabilitate any conservatives who are willing to try. We should pay for them to undergo therapy and retraining so they can understand the world around them. But first we must get them out of positions of influence, because they’re infringing on the rights of others.
Got that? Those who hold different views are “deranged.” They’re criminals. Dangerous. They shouldn’t be allowed to hold jobs where they might have some influence over others. They need to be forced into hard labor (“menial work”) and sent to re-education camps, where they will be brainwashed (“therapy”) to ensure they will engage only in Orwellian goodthink.
It’s not just conservatives who are being canceled, either. Some on the left are also being driven from their jobs and their former lives of status and privilege for not being sufficiently extreme.
The purge should have never been allowed to come this far. But the elitists who control universities, school boards, corporations, the media, sports leagues, have surrendered rather than stand on principle, as have a good number of high-profile individuals.
Is there not one provost or school president or dean in higher education, one public school superintendent, one corporate CEO, one publisher or editor who will resist? Who will say that expressing thoughts that challenge the narrative is not grounds for banishment and dismissal? Who will say that no apology is needed for speaking freely? Will anyone lift their head above the crowd and say “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”?
The Twitter storm printed above is no anomaly. It’s an increasingly common form of bullying, one that goes to the very heart of what defines us as a free nation. A society in which only pre-approved speech can be uttered is not healthy. It’s a tyranny, rancid and terror-filled. The only choice is to resist.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
Sadly, when the Right finally comes to and shakes off the stupor it will be too late.
A very sobering and depressing summary of the state of the world. It’s hard to keep from crying. Where do we go from here?
The day they take away my license to practice law because of my political views will be the last day of my life. I am 60 years old and in chronic pain. I work as a temp employee without benefits; I get health insurance via the ACA, but that limits my income (otherwise, I lose $1000/mo in premium tax credits). I lose my job, I won’t be able to pay for rent and expenses and health insurance. The best thing for me to do is die so that my wife can collect the life insurance. It will look like an accidental overdose. I am an outcast in this world; an unwanted outcast. I am old, male, white, Jewish, lawyer and I hold unpopular views.
All lives matter, yours also. We will not be judged for the size of our bank accounts, or our accomplishments or our popularity. We will be judged by how and whether we stayed faithful to God through it all. God gave you life for His purpose, taking it means you would use it for your own. It’s your choice, but I would trust God to have a better purpose. Life is temporary, until it isn’t.
Your views probably aren’t nearly as unpopular as you guess. People are afraid to speak up.
Whoa dude. Don’t believe the hype. The pendulum will swing the other way. They are the small fringe who happen to control media. This is all circus. They are well aware of the firewall. its called the 2nd Amendment
“We” do stand up, but we stand isolated and in lonely places. When will the conservative “leaders” start leading? Where is the conservative money fighting back? Why hasn’t there been a march on DC by conservatives? Or a march on CNN and MSNBC? Why do we think punditry will solve the problem when our opposition is taking action? Pundits are only preaching to choirs anyway. Storming the message boards do nothing but vent stress.
This is no call for violence, quite the opposite. We would quell the violence and protect lives and property. If our government won’t do it, it’s up to us.
A lesson from BLM. The cop who killed George Floyd was charged within a week, record time for a cop, because there was public outcry in the streets. Isn’t it time for a public outcry in the streets over Comey, Page, Strozk, Brennen, Clapper, and the rest? What about demanding Antifa and BLM be investigated for terrorism and freeze their funds? Put a 100k people in front of the justice dept. Make corporate America afraid of funding terrorism, instead of them being afraid not to.
We need a leader. The President can’t be a civil rights leader in this capacity, and he needs a public display of support to do any of these things. Enough hand-wringing. Enough “wait and vote”. The barbarians are at the gates and we think writing angry posts will scare them away.
While we’re doing that, the enemy is converting the masses into an army, an army of sheep, but an army nonetheless. They have generals, where are ours?
You’re describing Glenn Beck and his march on Washington several years back. Where did he go? (Rhetorical question.)
I was at Beck’s rally. It was an amazing experience. Unfortunately Beck allowed that success to go to his head so much he began believing not only was God speaking through…he himself was godlike. He is no real leader
As civil and rational as we like to believe ourselves to be, violence IS a part of the human condition. We reject its judicious and righteous applications at our own peril. Every soul who fought and died for our independence and security recognized that.
What will happen is that this will all end when someone society isn’t willing to cancel steps out of line.
Outstanding point! I for one, absolutely agree with you.
The person who wrote those tweets is a dangerous idiot.
When, you ask. Unfortunately the answer is probably, never. Despite al the keyboard warrior talk it looks like lambs being lead to the slaughter. No one is standing up against this, so we get what we deserve.
No one that you know of, that is. There’s a lot that you don’t know that you think you know, but don’t. When MSM is your sworn enemy, divulging your plans/intentions are out of the question.
Bigot says what
nobody batted an eyelid when others were systemically being cancelled- by laws, by Jim Crow and by straight up racism.
Change is always for the other guy.
Why can’t you be more like me?
What is so wrong with looking in the mirror and saying, “Could I, yes me, could I be the reason this is happening? ”
Jesus asks us to ask that all the time. Why are we afraid to look?
We all,already, know the answer.
Okay to puke now? Learn a thing or two about history, and more importantly, about how to contextualize it, before slobbering all over us with your disgustingly cloying virtue signalling, Mr Plastic Banana.
Quote: “Conservatives CANNOT be teachers, police officers, doctors, lawyers, coaches, or bosses. It’s constitutionally unfair to others who are subjected to the conservative’s deranged judgment. Conservatives can do menial work, until they’re ready to join the human race.”
This is right out of the Third Reich. “Conservatives” merely replaced “Jews”.
Good article. Peaceful protest is a good thing. A mob is never a good thing. The mob on the far left, rioting and destroying American patrimony because they want to burn everything down, now has a lot in common with the Cultural Revolution in China, the Bolshevik Revolution and the French Revolution. hese were social fires that burned out of control and did not stop until people started realizing how deadly and destructive they had become — usually many years later. Sadly, we live in am angry world where people believe everything they think and are willing to bully others to impose their thinking on others. Yes, we need more nuanced leadership at the top. But we a lso need people to bravely say the truth and refuse to cave in or disappear. Some grown-ups need to remain in the room to pick up the pieces when this hatred finally burns itself out. It won’t be easy but then it never really is.
At a minimum we should be tearing down the statue of Lenin in Seattle.
As a gun owner we see that these problems are all in blue states and we dont care. Let them burn they voted for it. I hope President Trump lets them fester few more weeks or longer. We our watching our homes and businesses it wont be the same in Red state cities.
An effective way of pushback is a national MAGA hat day. Needs to happen.
Most people who like MAGA hats wear them every day, anyway. What does wearing a silly political hat really accomplish?
Yeah, the stupid left (as opposed to the more intelligent left) does the same as the stupid right (as opposed to the more intelligent right). Huffington Post will write an essay based off the ravings of some kkk skinhead numbskull and claim it represents conservatives and here the Editorial Board of Issues & Insights claims a twitter storm from some guy on the internet lays “out the belief system that undergirds the movement” and thus provides the straw man for this essay. Oh well, I guess turnabout is fair play. Y’all kinda deserve each other.
The problem is that the “stupid” or authoritarian left/right are much more numerous than you realize.
Coronavirus is also exacerbating extremism, because people have more time at home to go online and be radicalized. It’s important to do what is necessary to stop the spread of this disease, but every big change in people’s lives has unexpected consequences.
If twitter comments don’t really tell you a whole lot about the undergirding ethos, then have a look at the way Academia is stifling dissent these days.
The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech against infringement by government. It doesn’t need to be guaranteed against infringement by private persons. What guarantees that is our determination to speak our minds, and never to be shouted down by anyone.
The people who knuckled under to these threats have been prominent and had a lot of money to lose. No doubt that’s just why they were targeted. I understand their predicament, but it shouldn’t stop the rest of us from standing up to the nasty little would-be gauleiters who detest this great country and its freedoms. It’s ironic that anyone would ever have used the word “liberal” to describe these thoroughly illiberal bullies.
They are NOT liberals. They are Left-wing Authoritarians. Trump is a Right-wing Authoritarian. They have far more in common with each other than with Liberals/Libertarians who actually do believe in things like freedom of speech.
There are basically four political quadrants that people fall into to some degree. Left Liberal (Democrats), Right Liberal (Libertarian/Never Trumpers), Left Authoritarian (today’s Greens, Antifa, Stalin), and Right Authoritarian (Trump, Nazis, Putin).
Well, I guess we’ll just have to burn down the schools/colleges/universities, and start anew. THEN, the “media”.
The comments quoted calling conservatives deranged are . . . ironic.
Hopefully, in November, the country will give a collective middle finger to the democrat-controlled mob and there will a chance to end this nonsense. Provided, of course, that the House also flips or it’ll be another 4 years of investigations, bogus impeachment hearings and soft coup attempts. The best case scenario – Trump wins re-election, the House flips back to GOP and Durham finally has Comey, Clapper, Brennan and the rest of Obama’s henchmen doing the perp walk. Throw in an anti-trust suit for the leftist social media mob stop the censorship of anti-Marxist / anti-Leftist / pro-conservative voices. Yes, one can dream, but short of this, we are destined to be CHOPped. I know I will the first in line at the ballot box.
The left has invested a lot in certain narratives, generally in identity politics, and many ”victimhood” based narratives in particular. A lot of their voter base is exactly this kind of people (not saying all are, but certainly all the PC/identity politics people vote left).
This is an effort started in the 60s, mainly through infiltrating (toxic?) ideologies in peace groups and academia circles/colleges/universities. After 2 generations of these efforts gone unchallenged, we are now in a situation where you can lose your job for simply challenging these narratives.
Like many experts said back in the 80s, the people affected by these narratives will not be able to form rational thoughts. It will not matter if you show them clear evidence of the fake narrative, they will reject it. These ideologies are exactly for that purpose, they have individuals parrot about notions of ”equality’ and such that they do not really even understand. Equality of opportunity? Equality of outcome? If you’re for one, you’re not for the other, but they’re not even sure which one they are championing for. You’re for 0 privilege? So, Oprah and Michael Jordan should not help their family in being ”privileged” by sharing their wealth with them, thus allowing them a privileged position in society? Sounds like a form of communism. That would automatically mean = no to meritocracy. But this is the point, these superficial notions that appear to be good, are in reality very confusing. That’s why these individuals become non-thinkers, that is why they do not argue their point. They do not have an argument. They call you ”racist” ”sexist” ”white supremacist” the moment you attempt debunking any of their positions. They are trained to not think by parroting these superficial notions they don’t understand. The societial pressure is what drives most of them to ”champion” for these ideologies.
Let’s take an example, current narrative: police is racist, they kill almost only blacks. This is easily debunked, ask any stats professor/math professor. Ask them why it is a logical fallacy to use ”blacks are only 14% of population” argument to determine that cops kill too many blacks. Clearly, you need to count the relevant amount of white criminals, black criminals (for example armed/murderous), and then determine bias. Since we know over 50% of all violent crime and murders occur in black neighbourhoods, we are aware that using the ”total pop is 14%” argument is just a misleading one. But these are just facts, and as said before, it doesnt matter. They told us 40 years ago that it will not matter what reality is.
Moreover, most of the media is left-leaning, and even the one that isn’t, has to follow the narrative for obvious business/profit reasons. Can you imagine how much money a newspaper will make if they challenge the news and expose the truth? negative, they will get sabotaged, called racist, they will have a thunderstorm of poop. What if they just confirm the narrative instead? Ahh, now they get ads revenue (because they wont get demonetized) and people will buy their story. Profit. Much easier to keep saying that, yea, police is racist, show only stories of black victims.Reality is of course that there are more white ones, but it doesn’t matter. They are not able to change their core narrative belief at this point. It’s too late, you should have done something 30 years ago, if not even earlier. No, you thought they would be confined to college campuses and hippy conventions. You let it slide through, then college people got to positions of power. 1 more generation, and here we are.Google ”police killings”, see how many white victims you see. If it reflects reality, you should see about 2:1 white:black ratio of victims. Is that even close to what you see when you search that?I hope this explains why liberals believe the mainstream media. Because it is the media that regurgitates their narratives, this last one being ”blacks are always victims”, and they get to play victim and blame the white man (even if they are white themselves!), regardless of what reality is.