Freedom is under siege, and the besiegers have now told us they have no mercy
Liberty under siege.
For many years I deeply and sincerely believed that many rank-and-file Democrat voters honestly did not know how corrupt and power-hungry the political leaders of their party had become. I thought that if I could simply get them to see the clear evidence of misbehavior and abuse of power that has been going on in the Democratic Party without check since Bill Clinton was president, they would reconsider their voting habits and abandon their support of that party.
I thought that the vast majority of Democrats were decent people who opposed oppression and intolerance and simply were unaware that they were voting for it when they supported the Democratic Party.
I now know unequivocally that I was wrong. Two stories in the past week illustrate bluntly that a large number of ordinary Democrats, maybe even a majority, are eager supporters of oppression and intolerance and dictatorship. They like the corruption and abuse-of-power coming from Democratic Party politicians. They even want more of it.
First we have a new Rasmussen poll that looked at the attitude of Americans toward the government’s response to the Wuhan flu. While it found the American public largely divided along party lines in their response to lockdowns and mandates, with Democrats supporting such things and Republicans opposing them, a closer look of the attitude of Democrats revealed some shocking facts.
- 55% of Democrats want the government to fine people who don’t get COVID shots.
- 58% of Democrats want to put such people under permanent house arrest.
- 48% of Democrats want to fine or imprison anyone who questions the usefulness of these shots.
- 45% of Democrats want to confine people in camps for not getting the shots.
- 47% of Democrats want to the government to electronically track such people as well.
- 29% of Democrats even want to take the children away from parents who refuse the shots.
This data was further strengthened in that the survey also found that Biden’s strongest supporters, whom obviously were generally Democrats, strongly favored the harshest government actions, such as imprisoning people for expressing dissenting opinions or putting people in camps for refusing the COVID shots.
Obviously, polls must always be looked at with some skepticism. The number of people sampled (1,016 likely voters) is small, and can be skewed to misrepresent the entire population. The questions themselves might have been shaped to get these results.
Nonetheless, these numbers are disturbing, to say the least. The data clearly suggests that a large percentage of the American public — the bulk of whom are Democrats — not only no longer believes in freedom, it is aggressively hostile to it. Instead, this large faction enthusiastically wants a Soviet-style North Korean dictatorship, with variations of Nazi concentration camps added to the mix.
If that conclusion seems absurd to you, the second story this week provides undeniable proof it is true, and the proof comes from their own lips. On January 15, 2022 the editorial board of the Salt Lake City Tribune published an editorial calling for the use of military force to round up Wuhan shot resisters and have them imprisoned. To quote:
Were Utah a truly civilized place, the governor’s next move would be to find a way to mandate the kind of mass vaccination campaign we should have launched a year ago, going as far as to deploy the National Guard to ensure that people without proof of vaccination would not be allowed, well, anywhere.
In other words, the editorial board of this newspaper doesn’t think it right for Americans to have a different opinion, or to have the right to decide for themselves what medicines they should take. No, they believe the government should have that power, and it is right and proper for it to send storm troopers out to arrest anyone who disagrees.
Is this board made up of Democrats? From my experience as a science journalist I would say it is a safe assumption that almost all of them are. Like the academic and entertainment community, the journalism field has spent the past three decades aggressively blackballing all conservatives, so that today these communities are dominated and largely controlled by the left.
Some would argue I am wrong because the owner of the newspaper, Paul Huntman, claims to be a Republican. However, his family — which includes former Utah governor Jon Huntsman — has consistently shown in its politics that they are unreliable conservatives, and have regularly allied themselves with the establishment Republican Party that has spent the past three decades purposely losing to the worst policies of the Democratic Party in order to feather its own bed.
This editorial from Huntsman’s own newspaper further confirms his own fascist tendencies, and strongly suggests that he is all in with Biden’s mandates and the worst dictatorial measures of the past two years that are so eagerly endorsed by so many Democrat Party voters.
[A quick side note: When I first read this editorial yesterday it ended with a paragraph listing the editorial board’s members with their email address. I wish I had done a screen capture. That information is now gone. I suspect it was removed because the public was overwhelming them with outraged opposition to their editorial, and rather than rethink their position, they — the petty dictators that they are — decided to block any dissent from reaching them.]
So where do we go from here? As Sun Tzu wrote in his classic book on military strategy and tactics, The Art of War,
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
For decades conservatives like myself have thought we knew our enemies. We have assumed the left really did believe in freedom and liberty and the legal values expressed so well in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and were merely disagreeing with the right on basic policy and the methods for achieving it.
We were wrong, and as a result “every victory gained [we] also suffered a defeat.” This is why the right has consistently lost ground for the past half century. We thought our opponents were fellow Americans who believed in individual rights and human dignity and personal freedom. They did not, and as a result they surreptitiously used every small victory they gained as a weapon to further weaken those American values, until we have reached the situation of the last two years, where the political leaders in power, from both parties, consider it entirely proper to issue unilateral edicts violating almost every amendment of the Bill of Rights, and the police and government officials everywhere consider it entirely proper to enforce such dictatorial and illegal edicts.
For those who love liberty, the present battlefield is thus not favorable to victory. That does not mean however that the cause of liberty should be abandoned. Instead, it means that its soldiers must coldly recognize the shape of that battlefield so that they can move forward in battle effectively.
Know your enemy. They are out to destroy us, without mercy. We can’t negotiate with them any longer. We have to approach this war as Winston Churchill did in World War II. As he said at the beginning of every volume of his memoirs of that war:
In War: Resolution
In Defeat: Defiance
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace: Good Will
We now are somewhere between war and defeat. The lovers of liberty need to stiffen their spines, and push forward with resolution and defiance in order to win. Only then can we return to magnanimity and good will.
One final note: I was originally going to title this essay “An obituary for America?” I decided to reject that title, as even with a question mark it was too defeatist and pessimistic. In the end freedom will always win, if only we have the heart and determination and — most importantly of all — the courage to stand up and defend it. I decided rather than talk of death and defeat, I would instead bluntly outline the hard battles we face, and then use that as a clarion call for action.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
There is an enormous amount of “I am a good person and I support these policies, and people I consider good people propose and support these policies, so they can’t be evil fascist policies, those only come from those other nasty people.” And I think it’s really that last part that matters. Liberals can’t be fascists, only white people can be racists, and only Republicans will lead us into senseless war. I have friends who are clearly smart people, and who are wonderful, caring people, who nonetheless will scream and cry about the perils of fascism and warmongering and hatred coming from the right, and are totally, willfully blind to the fact that they support far worse. And no amount of arguing will sway them, and facts don’t matter, because they have been conditioned to believe only what their own sources tell them is truth. And if you keep arguing, then you become the problem and get shut out. I’ve lost several friends in the last decade because I was unwilling to join in the chant proclaiming that war is peace, slavery is freedom, etc.
Mr Zimmerman,
Excellent essay. I personally have never been fooled by the phony Party ideologies. One becomes a professional politician, one becomes an ideological government puppet, regardless of Party. One becomes government dependent, one becomes a government puppet. And this crosses all citizen demographics in our contemporary society from lost college-obsessed millenials to old Soc Sec geezers (like myself). No doubt corporations can be or are similarly avariciously ruthless, but they can’t arbitrarily employ police enforcement (leftism), I can run from them, unless of course they also become government puppets, like we are seeing. For me at least part of the political solution is demanding codified rigorous term limits, and of course brutally cutting government bureaucracy. “They” hated Donald Trump, he wasn’t one of them.
Thank you, thank you, appreciate both your Space and political reporting.
John S.
That was an excellent summation of our present situation by Mr. Z. Now to go on the offensive, we need to intimately know the battlefield, and for that we need a much deeper understanding of or American History. Many conservatives date the start of this ‘great divide ‘ to the 1960s. But the divide has much deeper historical roots. The Founders of our Nation understood the basic corrupt nature of individuals and groups, and so structured the government of a Constitutional Government Republic with numerous checks and balances. That structure in my opinion has been eroded away for more than a century, and the Constitution has been severely degraded.
Here in my opinion are three key phases & some key dates in US History that illuminate our difficult battlefield.
First Progressive Phase – During 1913 to 1932 the Progressive Movement created the intellectual basis for National Mobilization Domestic Politics to advance a “great cause for the good of the people”; the political necessity to nationally create a movement”; and the national political commitment to “mobilize”.
* 1913 – The 16th Amendment (February) gave the federal government the power to collect income tax. The 17th Amendment(April) established that senators would be directly elected. Both amendments laid foundations for substantial expansions of federal power in the twentieth century.
* 1917-1918 – The War Industries Board, the Committee on Public Information, the Palmer Raids, the Espionage Act & the Sedition Act.
Second New Deal Phase – During 1933 to 1967 this era saw vast expansions of federal fiscal and regulatory interventions the economy.
* 1933 – FDR’s Executive Order 6102 revalued the price of an ounce of gold, & ordered previously issued government gold-bonds to be paid off in currency in effect defaulting on debt.
* 1936 – FDR’s unprecedented re-election landslide allowed his administration to push a new form of national politics (called the New Deal) which subordinated the constitutional role of State Governments.
* 1936 – Supreme Court Butler case holds that the U.S. Congress has not only the power to lay taxes to the level necessary to carry out its other powers enumerated in Article I of the Constitution but also a broad authority to tax and spend for the “general welfare” of the United States.
* 1937 – Vast expansion of federal economic regulation endorsed by the US Supreme Court through West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, that deferred to Congress’s interpretations of interstate commerce.
* 1942 – Supreme Court Filburn decision again increased the regulatory power of the federal government through the power to regulate interstate commerce by the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.
Third Regulatory Phase – During 1968 to 1989 there were unprecedented increases in federal regulation of states and localities through conditions attached to federal aid, preemptions, mandates, and court orders. Conditions of federal aid are rules that state and local governments must obey to receive and expend federal funds. Conditions increased significantly in number and policy scope.
* 1968 – President Johnson promoted Centralized control through the Federal Budget increasing ‘Aid’ to States which hit $110 billion by 1969. This entailed the creation of 210 new grants, federal aid awards not only to states but also to local governments (especially large cities), community organizations, and nonprofit entities, and greater federal involvement in more areas of state and local governance, such as the War on Poverty and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act.
* 1970 – The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created
* 1984 – Federal Highway Bill had condition that required states to raise their alcoholic beverage purchase age to 21 or lose up to 10 percent of their federal highway aid. All states complied.
* 1989 – Federal Government exerted control over States by funneling aid through categorical grants. By 1989, 478 grants were categorical grants for specific purposes. Only 14 were block grants, which combine related categorical grants and give state and local governments more discretion over how to spend federal dollars.
The above three phases of U.S. History, along with the shift in power from the Congressional to the Executive Branch, have resulted in a much diminished Constitutional Republic, and a very unbalanced relationship between the Federal Government and State Governments.
So with the above in mind, going on the offense has to translate to rollback of federal power. The last movement to address this was the Tea Party movement which was not embraced by the Republican Party. So we already know the battles ahead will be difficult.
What an awesome time to be alive!
I hope everyone’s prepared.
Original Mark–
Highly recommend–>
Prof Murray N. Rothbard
“The American Economy and the End of Laissez-Faire: 1870 to World War 2”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLTBStFYBSJv-wegvcIibcHbwzOR4YVKg
(comprising 13 lectures in his own voice)
I think you would find it pushes back your timeline by 30 years.
Great essay. There was a time when Democrats and Republicans were both Americans who disagreed. The modern Left is an entirely different animal. More and more are seeing this, the facebook page for people walking away from the the tyrants had something like half a million followers before it was censored. There is a push back, and more will join the worse it gets, as long as we can still talk.
It’s difficult for Conservatives to understand some will always oppose freedom and liberty. It’s difficult for us to understand how afraid and conditioned ‘Covidians’ really are. I believe the poll cited is not far off the mark. People that afraid will allow anything if it makes them feel safe.
We also don’t understand how much meaning the leftist ideology brings to its follower’s lives. At the core of woke-ness is an easy path for a follower to be a good person. Unfortunately, the only way it works is if the un-woke are bad people. By bad people we could say racists & nazis. It isn’t name calling, they believe it. If they weren’t fighting racists and nazis, their woke-ness has no value and brings no self-worth.
Freedom and Liberty may or may not win. The country has gone through transformative times before, and now they mean to fundamentally transform it. Many institutions are corrupt. Many people are psychotic. But the Truth will set your free, and if we stick to it, we’ve got a fighting chance. But we have to fight, and with fighting comes sacrifice.
“What is a dollar?”
Foundation for Economic Education
(1994)
https://fee.org/articles/what-is-a-dollar/
“The Coinage Act of 1792, embodying the constitutional principles that Hamilton had re-affirmed in his Report. First, Congress followed American tradition by continuing the use of silver and gold as money. Second, it reiterated the judgment of the Continental Congress and the Constitution that “the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units.” and defined the “DOLLARS OR UNITS” as “of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure . . . silver.” Congress also created a new gold coin, the “EAGLE, . . . . each to be of the value of ten dollars or units” (i.e., the weight of fine gold equivalent in the marketplace to 3,712.50 grains of fine silver). It fixed “the proportional value of gold to silver in all coins which shall by law be current as money within the United States” at “fifteen to one, according to quantity in weight, of pure gold or pure silver.” It made “all the gold and silver coins . . . issued from the . . . mint . .. a lawful tender in all payments whatsoever, those of full weight according to the respective values [established in the Act], and those of less than full weight at values proportional to their respective weights.” And it provided free coinage “for any person or persons,” and affixed the penalty of death for the crime of debasing the coinage.”
–> “….and affixed the penalty of death for the crime of debasing the coinage.”
Wayne:
In the context of Russia vs. the decadent West, here is a new article written by your friend Curtis Yarvin. Isn’t Putin an ally for every true conservative in the West?
“A new foreign policy for Europe (Give Russia a free hand on the Continent.”
“…. It follows that, just as the old postwar Europe was a laboratory of democracy, the new, post-Trump Europe must become a laboratory of reaction. Once Putin has a free hand on the Continent, every old European nation will find a helping bear-paw in restoring its traditional culture and form of government—the more autocratic and legitimate, the better.”
https://graymirror.substack.com/p/a-new-foreign-policy-for-europe
He can have Europe for my part. It is as if the DNC wants to poison the brand of ‘don’t let Wall Street ru-i-n America’ politics. I noticed talk radio and Townhall against wage and price controls-but being an independant-I figure the vax would not be pushed on us as hard if it were made at cost and the GOP lawsuit protection were removed. I bet if Chinese owned agri-businesses were Kilo-New Londoned…they would howl if farmland were put back in American hands…or at least us not being ripped off. I don’t buy much of what I hear…except how unvaxxed Stinchfield was mis-done even by Newsmax-remember that? America’s enemies wear many hats…not just one. Oh, Henry Cuellar’s home got an FBI raid…for whatever that is worth.
Wayne – thanks for the link.
Winter is the proper time to think on the lessons of History, and BehindTheBlack can be part of a Pilgrimage of Learning. My work obviously is not yet done.
This reminds me of the labyrinth library scene in the book by Umberto Eco “The Name of the Rose”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC9EG9Vh9CA
The book stands on its own as a murder mystery (made into a movie with some fantastic actors), and can also be viewed as a monk’s treatise on questioning the meaning of “truth”.
BtB’s Original Mark:
You still wanted to say something about the political philosophy of A. Dugin!
Questioner – you are right that in Umberto Eco’s labyrinth library, there are thought gems in a section named ‘Russian Heideggerianism’, with a sub-section on ‘philosophical civilizational analysis’.
I am just getting started and on my ‘to read’ list I have ‘Beginning with Heidegger: Strauss, Rorty, Derrida, Dugin and the Philosophical Constitution of the Political’.
Do you know if there is an English language version of Dugin’s site?
http://platonizm.ru/
I do follow an American named Darren Beattie who wrote his dissertation on Heidegger. I think you may enjoy this interview of him by the very interesting Central European Alex Kaschuta. They discuss the origins of our present derangements, Empire, Moral Fervor and Modernity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dJGTQ08Xjo
Perhaps the recent Tonga undersea volcanic explosion threw so much ash into the air that my winter of reading will be prolonged by global cooling.
Perhaps a more accurate way to understand this rejection of respect for one’s neighbors (and Naybors), is in Michael Vlahos’ descriptor of the Progressive Left as the “Church of Woke”.
By-and-large, our opponents are not mustache-twisting villains who promote the Church as their con. They are fundamentalist fanatics; True Believers in their socio-economic worldview as The One True Way. In their eyes, they are Normal, and we are The Evil Other that is obstructing them from realizing their Paradise on Earth … enabled by millions who see these fanatics as Nice People and Smart People who are therefore “better” than ordinary people and therefore should be trusted in Flounderian fashion instead of questioned and challenged to justify their views.
Their fear is that our stubbornness will lead to their judgment by future generations as less than wise and heroic (“stunning and brave” ??? )… never seeing how they are anything but all that, as they emulate bulls in the china shops of our lives.
First step in slipping out of their grip: manage our own lives to give them fewer handles to grab onto. Our own expedience and lack of confidence in our ability to manage our own lives have provided them with many.
As you can, find employers and goods/services providers (including banks) who are not beholden to the Church of Woke, and go beyond the minimum to support them so that they will be there when you need them.
Get out of debt.
Establish your presence on other social networks, away from Zuckbook and Twitcage, to keep up with family and post your cat videos. This does not necessarily need to be a digital “platform”. This principle also applies to educating your kids – move out of the public education system unless the local administration is willing to keep the Church of Woke out … and even then, be ready to move out if they can’t do so.
Support your local and state officials who are willing to not just go along with the Church … and work to remove any who are willing.
We do this, even if it takes more effort and risk on our part.
Ref:
the Huntsman family— (all of them):
=Phony pious progressive republican rino’s.
The [insert Noun] to which they adhere, worships communal ownership of property.
Jester-
Good stuff.
Original Mark–
I use the Edge browser; it translates that page to English instantly.
Original Mark–
If you have another 90 minutes in your schedule……
“Talking with Russians”
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast S4: E 74
https://youtu.be/Cn_lucBscH4
1:40:4
“Jordan Peterson is interviewed by Mihkail Avdeev, a member of his foreign translations team. The interview focuses on the impact of Peterson’s work beyond the western world.”
if you truly learned anything/something, you would recognize you are pathologically naive, and stop voting. but you didn’t, and you won’t.
If you ask me, what’s really scary about that poll are the age cross-tabs. It really looks like the up and coming generation have successfully been indoctrinated to want a police state.
BtB’s Original Mark:
Canadian Michael Millerman appears to have written his dissertation on Dugin. He translated (one of?) his books. Here, on his site, he presents Dugin’s work, e.g. this book chapter by chapter.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp19_tJlXTN8kXoHJx7mIXQ
With all due respect Robert, I had correctly read the intentions of these people by the time I was 13 years old. That was way back in 1972. At the time, I estimated 2020 would be the start of the terminal phase of our national cancer. None of that early realization has lessened my shock and dismay at developments since that time.
So, yeah, I know my enemy. I also know my allies. There aren’t many. And they, like me, are woefully under-prepared, to some degree, either spiritually, intellectually and\or physically.
Sun Tzu didn’t say you’ll win battles with knowledge of your enemy; he said you need not fear the outcome.
He said nothing about grief.
Who do you think has more to hide behind “Executive Privilege”? PRESIDENT TRUMP, the turnip in the White House, The POS oblama, George Bushes, or Three Dollar Bill?? The dems have established a DANGEROUS precedent that should be used IMMEDIATELY by the next R House to bolster their Impeachment Proceedings against the Pres and VP! AND, shedding some light on the roach (double meaning here) infested POS oblama White House might result in a few “I told you so’s”!!
Oh man. :(
I feel bad that you are getting here so late. But, I have already made you angry on these lines before. The shooting hasn’t started yet. Prepare for it. Listen for the rattle of musketry, and move towards the sound of the guns. You might just be saving the lives of your neighbors and your neighbors children. Will it cost us our lives? Probably, but I am old and I am trying to figure out the best way to get my family out of harms way. There are times when an old man’s life does not matter.
(paraphrase of Gen Hancock in the film “Gettysburg”)
In the Political Realm its all about Strategy and not at all about Morality.
“Who’s “Cleaning” Our Voter Rolls? Soros Founded and Funded ERIC Is Now Used In 31 States”
In the Pedestrian Realm when it becomes clear that the Political Realm and their conversation must first secure their political power and it is clear that they will accomplish that “By Any Means Necessary” and that securing of their political power in fact threatens those in the Pedestrian Realm freedoms, then they will take action.
The Pedestrian Realm is ALWAYS behind the curve because of these two on going unrelated conversations, and the only thing that structures the ability of the Pedestrian Realm to some degree right the political balance in the country is the existence of the Constitution.
“S.O.M. CONCLUSION: The public lives and operates under a subjective moral code or within a “Pedestrian Realm” perspective which they assume their leadership which exists within the “Political Realm” is constrained by. This is a subjective false perspective conclusion on the part of the public. Leadership at its existential core is not about morality, truth and honesty. Leadership is about the fundamental exercise of power and its survival.”
Our opponents / those in the Political realm are always ahead of the curve, they are attempting to establish the curve. But they can be counterbalanced as long as there is some degree an ability to freely communicate, and that is where big tech media being allied with government and a likeminded agenda is VERY dangerous and is an existential threat to the freedom of all.
You see. They deny it. But there it is all the same.
They like the corruption and abuse-of-power coming from Democratic Party politicians. They even want more of it.
I’ll disagree. The problem is that, as members of the Progressive Church, they believe that the ends justify the means. They don’t want corruption per se, but they accept it as a necessary step* to achieving the Progressive utopia. It is functionally the same, however.
(* Much like the “necessary” step of a gov’t-run socialism on the way to the final proletariat socialism.)
This data was further strengthened
It’s a poll, not really data. It might be “data” if the poll was done properly and they don’t have issues with things like “all the anti-mandate folks refused to even look at the poll.” The numbers are still disturbing.
not only no longer believes in freedom, it is aggressively hostile to it
Absolutely true. Because they are believers in the Progressive Church, they are aiming at their heaven on earth, and not trivial things like “freedom” or “(no prefix) justice”.
consistently shown in its politics that they are unreliable conservatives
They are Progressives, not conservatives (insomuch as that word has any real meaning nowadays), as many Republicans are. That happens when you let a technocracy creep in.
For decades conservatives like myself have thought we knew our enemies.
I think that until you figure out this is a religious conflict, with Progressivism against the Christian Enlightenment that built our nation, you still know neither your enemies nor yourself. Progressivism set out to use America to achieve its utopia over 100 years ago, supplanting Christian virtues with Progressive ones. As they have neared victory, they have decided to unleash their Inquisition (Woke cancelling) and to use their power to no longer convince (and indoctrinate) but to simply crush and steamroll the remaining heretics and unbelievers.
David Eastman
January 19, 2022 at 4:31 pm
There is an enormous amount of “I am a good person…
And this is because it is a religion. They may think it is not, it’s merely being ‘rational’, but that’s because they have been indoctrinated into believing that only Christianity and other “god”-centered religions are really religions. They fail to see how believing in ones own self can be a religion. Or believing in SCIENCE!. But, ultimately it is: received wisdom, priestly (and prophets) class, “magic” words like “bigot!” (heretic) and “racist!” (unbeliever) and “you’re not really black!” (apostate), a huge amount of faith, inquisitions, etc.
But, understand, this is NOT something like a religion. It IS a religion.
“But, understand, this is NOT something like a religion. It IS a religion.”
Tribalism, religion, right, wrong, good, bad, just, unjust.
Once you have chosen your side you tend to stay with that side and seek everything and anything that supports and justifies your position and its righteousness, goodness and the righteous justification to slay your enemies and those who oppose you.
You want to call that a religion? (I tend to call it political warfare, but they are essentially the same) I have to agree.
GWB – Regarding your last point on the hundred years plus of Progressivism, do you have any key events to add to the chronology I posted above? It seems odd to me, but very few conservatives engage in discussions on the history of Progressivism. That Progressivist Church didn’t sprout overnight from a group of misguided or liberty hating Politicians.
This explains the Trump phenomenon, IMO. The Right is scared because they understand the Left and its take-no-prisoners mindset. They’re tired of electing pols who bring a knife to a gunfight. Trump, for all his faults, fights with everything he’s got. He governed as a good conservative, true, but his fighter’s attitude is why he has multitudes of diehard followers. The polarization in the country will get a lot worse before it gets better, because the GOP base has run out of patience for elected officials unwilling to jump into the fray. Meanwhile, as this poll reveals, the Left just gets more and more extreme. Interesting times.
BtB’s Original Mark:
In fact, isn’t progressivism already at the core of Americanism’s liberal ideology? Isn’t this Americanism, which forms the basis of America’s political system, inherently very much like a leftist ideology? Both believe in the permanent progress of society and both are against traditional societies and want to reform them under the banner of justice and equality. With this goal, the American army “visited” the not yet advanced world. Isn’t what you’re seeing in America today just a natural progression, because the foundations were already laid by the ideology of Americanism?
The only good Democrat, is a dead one. And even then they keep on voting.
BtB’s Original Mark–
Before you tackle the 15 hours of Rothbard to which I linked above, here is a very concise & compact bit of history you will definitely find interesting.
Note the “third party system” from 1854-1896, and (importantly) the “fourth party system” from 1896-1932, which Rothbard characterizes as the ‘open door for progressivism.’
“Rothbard on the Progressive Era”
Patrick Newman
Mises Institute 2017
https://youtu.be/p_PIom3a64w
45:26
Bob DoboliNA:
Would you consider to extend your demand to all forms of leftism?
“In the end freedom will always win”
Historically, that does not seem to be the case.
Usually authoritarianism and subjugation are the norm.
Truly free societies that respect and uphold individual liberty against the state are
rare and fade away, as we are seeing.
“The Progressive Era and the Rise of Crony Capitalism”
Patrick Newman
Mises Institute (2018)
https://youtu.be/_WhB-G52hGw
48:45
“Progressives: Then and Now”
Patrick Newman
Mises Institute (2021)
https://youtu.be/gFrjsOf2euY
44:10
“Comparing progressives from the early 20th century to those of the early 21st century.”
“Similar ideological backgrounds, they cartelize industry to benefit big-business, enact costly environmental and labor laws, fund government programs with draconian taxes.”
Questioner–
I know of Curtis Yarvin, I would not characterize him as ‘my friend.’
As for the soviet-union, or russia, or whatever they call their criminal enterprise these days; I’ve advocated for their complete destruction my entire life, and nothing has happened (ever) in that geographic space, that would dissuade me from that opinion. “Communism” in the soviet gulag, never ‘fell,’ they just rearraigned the deck chairs.
BtB’s Original Mark
January 20, 2022 at 9:02 am
I do not have additions, but I haven’t had a lot of time to look at it. Between work and appointments, today is a bit busy.
I will try later.
Star Trek Original series
The Omega Glory –
https://youtu.be/6smm_pN3dBg
0:11
“Spock, I’ve found that evil usually triumphs, unless good is very, very careful.”
Wayne – thanks for the shorter Rothbard link. I have that lined up to watch tomorrow afternoon. Today I’m starting on some recommended material from Questioner. And I’m afraid if I combine the two on the same day, it may be like slamming matter & antimatter together.
I’m going to drop this in here
–>January 20, 1942:
“Nazi officials met to determine the manner in which the so-called “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” can be best implemented.”
“Die Wannseekonferenz” [The Wannsee Conference]
Lionheart Filmworks 1984
[German with English subtitles]
https://youtu.be/4YAjKUdT3JE
1:26:10
“The script is derived from the minutes of the meeting and statements from Eichmann’s trial. It covers the entirety of the 85-minute meeting. Since no verbatim transcription of the meeting exists, the dialogue is necessarily fictionalized. –>The main theme of the film is the twisted, emotion-less bureaucratic nature of the genocide.”
Mr. Zimmerman I really appreciate your blog and your thoughts, but I find it rather amazing that you’re only now realizing the fascist nature of our opponents. I figured it out after September 11th 2001. Living in New York I heard so-called liberals say… with an ugly look on their face …that they thought those people deserved to be burned alive and I realized it was because they hate Americans, and they hate Americans because we are free. And they are all about slavery of every kind. Slavery of the Mind, slavery of the body, slavery of the Soul. With themselves as the slave masters.
I had voted for the Democrats for several years at that point and I even had marched in Washington because I had believed the lies the media told about the Republicans stealing the election that year. But I realized when I went to Washington that my fellow Democrats were stomping around the mall not because the electoral process of our nation had been sullied, but because they were Furious that their drive to power had been thwarted. And that was a shock to me at the time, and followed up by the inside after 9/11, I was done.
My parents had inoculated me against communism because they were Goldwater Republicans and patriotic Americans. So I never was a leftist, but I bought the lies that they cared about conservation and women’s rights. Boy howdy, they really care about women’s rights So much that the minute the Muslims attacked America and burned thousands of us alive, they immediately made Islam their new sacred cow. Women’s rights went right out the window with shocking speed — and again I realized that their governing principle was anything that hurts America and cuts against Christianity in particular, they were all in favor of.
Kind of like waking up after a long night of drinking and realizing you have been in bed with an orc! You can’t get outta there fast enough….
The real question is, what are freedom-loving American citizens going to do about it? If they manage to fasten the medical manacles around our hands with this so-called injection pass if I may use a euphemism oh, it is game over. They will have successfully instituted a Chinese Communist style social credit system where every single activity you do in your life can be suspended by the dictatorship if you cross them in any way. So what are we going to do, my friends?
Beverly: It appears either I was not clear, or many are misunderstanding my essay. I have been writing about the fascist and bigoted nature of the left now for more than a decade. See for example this early post from 2012. In 2017 I did a regular column, “This week in fascist academia,” which I summarized in this essay at the start of 2018.
I have railed for years about the intolerant and tyrannical left, but have been endlessly frustrated by the numbers of people who refuse to recognize it. Even worse have been the large numbers of conservatives who simply refuse to come to grips with the seriousness of the problem, as well as the growing strength of this fascist movement.
My essay was another attempt to get people to wake up. You see, you might know it, I might know it, but we both know that most ordinary Americans have for years refused to believe it. The data I presented was another try at making them know it.
If that try made me look naive, oh well. That appearance of naivety by me might actually work to convince the doubtful. They might not see me as some ideology ranting at them that they can easily dismiss.
Wayne:
“Screenwriter Paul Mommertz, 54, is happy: ‘An optimal film, on a remarkable level.’ The praise goes above all to the director Heinz Schirk, and rightly so: he has it with a team of proven actors, above all Dietrich Mattausch in the role of Heydrich and Gerd Böckmann as Eichmann understood how to breathe into the Mommertz play that atmosphere of racist madness for cleansing and callous bureaucratic perfection that made the Wannsee Conference probably the most horrific in Hitler’s Germany. But what presents itself here as a document-proof reconstruction of contemporary history turns out to be a product of television’s love of storytelling and combination on closer inspection. Because: This is not the Wannsee Conference as historians know it. It is the Wannsee Conference a la Paul Mommertz.”
– Heinz Höhne: A case of dismay. In: Der SPIEGEL 51/1984[2]
I also wish draw your attention to my conclusions this essay in 2018, after another long description of numerous examples of leftist bigotry, hate, and intolerance:
This week’s essay was simply another attempt at making Americans aware. Sadly, I still think the general public is, as Rick says in Casablanca, asleep.
Still asleep, and tragically, too many refuse to wake up.
Wayne: Peterson Quits – Citing Putin?
“Jordan Peterson: Why I am no longer a tenured professor at the University of Toronto”
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jordan-peterson-why-i-am-no-longer-a-tenured-professor-at-the-university-of-toronto
Michael Millerman: “Peterson Quits – Citing Putin?”
“Today we talked about Jordan Peterson’s article in the National Post… and read the article about Putin’s ideology that Peterson mentions ….”
Thurs. Jan 20th Livestream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQP6sxoVmG8
Beverly (& Robert Zimmerman):
In my opinion, with the Omicron variant forcing ‘reality’ to interrupt leftist unreality, the populist forces in the West may be able to rollback some of the leftist institutionalization of medical tyranny.
There are very hopeful signs coming from the UK and a few other countries. Here is my Quote of the week regarding the substantially diminished UK COVID restrictions: “We will trust the judgement of the British people” PM Boris Johnson proclaimed in Parliament a few days ago. In the U.S. the medical authoritarian have recently had to make many concessions to reality. Here is a list from Ben Shapiro:
1. Cloth masks are ineffective against omicron (Leanna Wen, CNN);
2. The vaccinated can spread and get covid;
3. The death rate is comparable to the flu (Chris Hayes);
4. Many people are entering hospitals with covid, not from covid (Fauci);
5. Natural immunity is a reason omicron hasn’t been as virulent (Fauci);
6. We have to take into account societal needs, not just spread prevention (CDC);
7. The asymptomatic should not be tested (NFL);
8. We should focus on hospitalizations and deaths, not case rate (Biden);
9. Children are not at risk and schools should remain open;
10. Covid is predominantly an illness affecting the immunocompromised and elderly and we should not shut down society.
Even among non-political sports fans, many are experiencing visceral disgust over Australia insanely deporting Novak Djokovic (#1 Tennis Player in the world). Similarly many think the various Sports leagues have been wrong to ban or punish high profile unvaccinated players like the NFLs Aaron Rogers or NBAs Kyrie Irving.
The above now apparent ‘realities’ have exposed the bureaucrats who’ve spent the last 3 years building ’empires of fear’ to a widespread political backlash. Omicron hopefully is the inevitable
viral evolution from a pandemic to an endemic disease.
So now the next question is how deep is the ‘mass formation psychosis’ of 25 to 35% of our population, and to what extend can they be deprogrammed out of accepting & promoting medical tyranny?
Then a further question is how much political & cultural power can the forces of populism muster to stage a ‘Rollback’ of the authoritarian Progressive state? I think Daniel Horowitz writes informatively on this subject of rolling back medical tyranny. He has written “2022 must be the Great Restoration for the ordinary citizens to launch a counterattack against the assault on our way of life. The counterattack begins in the state legislatures.”
I also think we’ll learn a lot from how State Governments can regain control of their voting processes especially in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. On this I am pessimistic as evidenced by my many previous comments on the subject. So I agree with Bob Zimmerman that “We now are somewhere between war and defeat”.
As noted above, Mr. Z. has “been writing about the fascist and bigoted nature of the left now for more than a decade.” Bob has highlighted leftist bigotry, hate, and intolerance, and I agree with his conclusions from his 2018 essay (Linked to in his comments above).
So we should assume that Zimmerman’s prescriptions for our current Authoritarianism will go beyond simply that “The lovers of liberty need to stiffen their spines, and push forward with resolution and defiance in order to win”.
I look forward to his future writing on the subject.
In my opinion there is a deeply ingrained structure of elites that will fight fiercely for continued power and control. For that argument I recommend Angelo Codevilla’s book ‘The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It’.
And elsewhere on this site, I have argued that American elites have merged with European elites and are firmly established in global economic, financial, and globalized governmental & NGO Organizations.
Once you have a handle on the American Oligarchy, you need to marry that to a history of Marxism in America. An excellent book on that is Mark Levin’s “American Marxism. Levin examines how the core elements of Marxist ideology have pervaded American society and culture, including in schools, the media, corporations, the entertainment industry, and the Democratic Party. Levin has a solid grasp on the philosophical and historical basis of the rise of Marxist ideology in the United States.
Finally I recommend Glenn Beck’s best selling new book, ‘The Great Reset: Joe Biden and the Rise of Twenty-First-Century Fascism’. Glenn Beck first exposed the Great Reset almost 2 years ago by uncovering the true intentions of global leaders in finance and politics by simply highlighting their own words. The publisher of the book characterized “The Great Reset” as “a highly influential movement among the world’s elite to ‘reset’ the global economy using banks, government programs, and environmental, social, and governance metrics. If they are successful and the Great Reset is finalized, it would put substantially more economic and social power in the hands of large corporations, international institutions, banks, and government officials, including Joe Biden, the United Nations, and many of the members of the World Economic Forum”.
BtB’s Original Mark.
Your comments on Covid are good! However, ….
I am of the opinion that the term “fascist” is used incorrectly by many here, also by the owner of the blog. What is actually meant is communist. That both are totalitarian mass ideologies does not automatically make them the same. The fact that both use similar means of repressing the political opponent does not make them the same. On the contrary, fascism was communism’s greatest enemy, almost eliminating it.
Both political ideologies (communism versus fascism) are fundamentally different, even if (classical) liberals want to convince us otherwise. For the communists, the equality of people is in the foreground, for the fascists, the hierarchy and the differences between people. In the light of day, Western liberalism has more in common with communism than fascism with communism. That is why liberalism is so vulnerable to communist infiltration, a process we are currently witnessing in the West.
Questioner (Others on BtB can skip if allergic to Political Theory):
In my latest comment I did mention that there is an ‘American Marxism’ ideology that has best been described best by Mark Levin. Also in previous points, I have detailed the century of leftist Progressivist History that has sunk deep roots into America. I think you are right that the term ‘fascist’ is descriptively misleading. So perhaps we call the current trends in America and Europe ‘Marxist Corporatism’. I’ll define that as a collectivist political ideology and set of institutions which advocates the organization of society by national and transnational corporate and governmental elite groups centered on pivotal economic sectors (Tech, Media, Social Media, Finance, Transportation, Agricultural,etc.). Ever evolving Marxist thought is the animating ideology of Marxist Corporatism, and it results in the social domination by national and global oligarchies.
On a related topic, this American & European Marxist Corporatism is a Civilizational threat to other world civilizations and to the more traditional nationalistic western societies such as Hungary & Poland. The other main world civilizations in conflict with America/Europe are Russian Orthodox, Middle Kingdom Chinese, Ottoman Turks, Hindu India, Schizophrenic Islam, and fractured & weak parts of Africa & Latin America.
Lastly, thank you Questioner for providing the links to Michael Millerman, and for asking interesting questions.
BtB’s Original Mark:
Thank you for this beautiful, enlightening summary.
Yes, the new Marxists (communists), in contrast to the old communists, no longer want to socialize the means of production, but have harnessed capitalism for themselves in order to achieve their social goals, which according to the will of the neo-Marxists end in a social utopia that best described by Huxley’s novel “Brave New World”. In my view, liberalism is playing into their hands.
When I mention the terms liberalism or liberal here, it has quite a different meaning in America and the rest of the world, which may confuse many blog readers here. If you ever have time, I’d appreciate it if you could explain it from an American point of view. Thanks very much!
“The real question is, what are freedom-loving American citizens going to do about it? ”
(I read that question as though someone was looking for a magic solution. There are no magic solutions to be had. Our system is functioning and is processing what we all see before our own unbelieving eyeballs. It’s all there you are just not processing it properly because you are observing it in slow motion and that is out of phase with your everyday, I want to see justice now life. It’s not unreasonable, but it’s out of phase and since it is out of phase you are unable to in context properly interpret what you see)
The midterms approach and since the Democrats have so publicly and miserably failed and not been able to install the Federal “Democrats win forever” “Voting Rights” Act they will with almost certainly be eviscerated at the polls all across the country and will be left out of political power for the next 10 plus years. Maybe much more? And they deserve every ounce and inch of its measure, they have earned it.
And that is simply what our Constitutional system provides in dealing with such things. Nothing more, nothing less, this is our system, this is our process. The Constitution provides you with all the rope you need to hang yourself in the eyes of the public, and the Democrats have been revealed and now they will be judged.
Why has the Democrat party that is now without doubt controlled by the extreme radical Marxist / Leftists Constitution hating Socialists among them, big tech Left, and the big Globalist Left agenda, why have they become so allied?
Because in order to install their interpretation, and they are free to attempt to do so, of what the future should be the “Old” system that has provided every good thing in all their lives must now be destroyed. And that is simply where they are coming from, they know better because they are smarter, and they are good. (And you the everyday American are not)
It’s like a son who discounts and constantly confronts and questions his old and experienced father’s more conservative and deliberate efforts at raising his son and he provides him with the proper structure to grow into a responsible adult.
The Democrat party leadership has been infected with a young and very “Smart” Socialist / “More better” / Marxist / Leftist kind of “Eddie Haskel” element and they know better than all others and they are going to raze what was and replace it with their idealistic “NEW” and “More Better” New World order model. Which we all know that in the long term will only result in exactly the opposite of what they propose it will offer. Its a dark and highly managed future.
What does history tell us about “NEW” interpretations of the wise old Founders structure for America and personal freedom? Their brave new world will be filled with Social Credit systems, medical mandates from on high, travel restrictions, Fascistic government and Nazi like management of what would be the masses of what can only be classified as human cattle and guaranteed managed votes in the “NEW” “Voting Rights Act” “DEMOCRACY”.
No thanks Eddie.
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.jt1f7Tbdb5YSoihrVCrurQHaJG?w=142&h=180&c=7&r=0&o=5&dpr=1.25&pid=1.7
What to do about It?
You need to know what THEY the Data Cartel are up to and an easy way to monitor them thus force the Goons out in the Sunshine for All To SEE……
Can We Get 20% of Americans To stand UP?
https://mygoogleresearch.com/
Alton-
just finished listening to Glenn Beck talk with Dr. Epstein, totally forgot he was on-the-job!
Wayne and Cotour;
Did Mr. Heinlein give us a tip on how to solve the problem?
“Starship Troopers: Failure of Democracy”
(2 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBxgrr0wL8M
And PS: There are no guarantees.
“The Politics of Starship Troopers”
Sargon of Akkad (2018)
https://youtu.be/kVpYvV0O7uI
1:21:02
Wayne:
The video has been running for me for 40 minutes.
So is the world of the “Starship Troopers” a liberal, a libertarian or a fascist utopia?
Court finds Pennsylvania mail-in voting law unconstitutional
Court finds Pennsylvania mail-in voting law unconstitutional (abc27.com)
Its out there and its coming.
Here is the piece:
https://www.abc27.com/news/pennsylvania/court-finds-pennsylvania-mail-in-voting-law-unconstitutional/