Midnight repost: Freedom dying
The tenth anniversary retrospective of Behind the Black continues: Last night’s midnight repost tried to predict what would happen politically following the big Republican victories in the 2010 midterm election. I was not sure, but worried that the Republicans would not have the courage to do what they promised (cut the budget and repeal Obamacare) and would fold like a house of cards when pressured with government shutdowns by Obama and the Democrats.
They did fold, and the result was that the Democrats were further emboldened, and the Republicans weakened in the long run. Tonight’s repost, written on November 7, 2018, illustrates the consequences of this by taking a look at the just completed 2018 midterm elections. There, the American people had rewarded the Democrats for their endless slander campaigns and power grabs. Times had changed, but not for the better.
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Freedom dying
The results of yesterday’s election, when taken in the context of the stories below, confirm for me the sad belief that freedom in the United States is steadily dying. Freedom might return, but for the next few decades I think we are headed for oppressive times. Be prepared.
- Professor attacked for reporting that liberal administrators outnumber conservative ones
- Student groups furious at Cal State-Long Beach for supporting First Amendment
- Professor who wrote op-ed urging greater viewpoint diversity finds himself the target of vandalism, anonymous accusations
The stories are only a sampling, and are cited because of what they show: In every case they describe attacks against individuals defending freedom of speech and diversity of thought, and all the attacks come from the students, the future of our society.
The election yesterday further demonstrates the bad future we are facing, not so much that the Democrats won the House after two years of repeated and insane smear campaigns against anyone who opposed them, but because a very very large percentage of the population has decided to support them in that behavior. As I like to say, it’s the audience that counts. The audience here is increasingly oppressive, intolerant, and eager to exercise power to impose its will.
That audience yesterday decided to give power to those who are equally intolerant, and like to wield that power to impose their will.
I could also cite many personal experiences, in just the past few months. The key is that I as a conservative know that if I express my opinions among friends, I will likely lose those friends, and get ostracized. I must choose my words carefully. My liberal friends however feel no such fear, and routinely spout their political views, always assuming that everyone agrees with them.
Meanwhile, I am also gathering that my willingness to express my political views professionally here on my own website has had a negative effect on the website. In recent months certain space aggregate sites no longer link to Behind the Black. Others have even told me that they will block all emails or communications from me.
None of this will stop me from expressing my point of view. It is my curse. I must say what I believe. However, be warned. Bad times are coming. Be prepared.
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 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
Results at the ballot box have gradually ceased to reflect the will of the people similar to how check-a-box survey questions reflect the will of the questioner. For example, a theater queries me: “How important is it to you that our venue require masks, distancing, and temperature checks?” If I check “not important,” they’re permitted to think such policies are okay with me, when the reality is that if such policies were in place I’d stay home, they are that important to me. The survey, like the ballot box, misrepresents its subject.
Together for more than 50 years, as long as I’ve been politically passionate, bred in a free market/entrepreneur/self-employed world, you and I Robert have watched both major parties devolve into a Coke-or-Pepsi choice, epitomized in 2012’s presidential race. It’s past the ballot box now.
The only difference between today’s established “left” and “right” is that Republicans and conservatives complain more about the “necessary evil” of installing tyranny. Yet Robert take heart. I see little to make me believe that “a very very large percentage of the population” supports this. On the contrary, in 2016, vast numbers of Americans were so disgusted with the choice of Dumb and Dumber that they stayed home in November. Of those who took the trouble to vote, 54% rejected Trump and 52% rejected Hillary. Americans are smarter than their pop mass media makes them look.
The image projected by mass media of the political divide is only a projection, an illusion. Illusions shatter when reality hits the fan. That’s what’s happening now. As decades pass and I look, read, and interact, it appears a large plurality just wants iced tea, neat. The political menu is limited however to “lesser evil” so the status quo is safe: the Clintons are still sitting safe and pretty, regardless of Hillary’s loss, while ObamaMandatoryHealthInsurance (I refuse to call that “care”) is mostly where it was anyway.
Stand strong, Robert. Your courage is inspiring. I hope your subscriptions compensate for those sites that have abandoned you and truth.
HOW THE MEDIA SPINS, LIES AND ATTEMPTS TO INFLUENCE
The other day there was an announcement that the Washington Post settled a libel law suit brought by a student, Nick Sandmann. The settlement was for possibly up to $250 million dollars because of how the “News” organization reported that the student, “Catholic”, Nick Sandmann, “CONFRONTED” a Native American protestor during a confrontation that occurred in a protest in Washington DC.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/24/washington-post-settles-250m-suit-with-covington-teen-nick-sandmann/
NY Post: “Sandmann, then 16, was singled out after footage of his confrontation with Native American activist Nathan Phillips was picked up by CNN and other outlets who claimed the incident was racially motivated. Footage released later showed it was the Covington students who were being harassed.”
And this is todays New York Daily News headline:
“COVINGTON CATHOLIC NICK SANDMAN STUDENT SETTLES LIBEL SUIT OVER HIS CONFRONTATION WITH NATIVE AMERICAN ACTIVIST”
And after the settlement is announced, how does the New York Daily News choose to report this? They again cast him as the aggressor in “His Confrontation”. An aggression and a confrontation that again did not happen, the “news” organizations just made it appear that that is what happened, and again the Daily News does it again.
Did the Daily News learn anything? This is how invested the Left leaning in journalism, and to be clear they are not journalists reporting anything associated with news, they are operatives of the Left doing the bidding of their Democrat, Socialist political allies, those who oppose Trump. Just destroy Trump at any cost. And its costing a lot.
I would think the the New York Daily News might expect a legal letter from Mr. Sandmanns lawyer? GulP :O
Cotour …
In a free market, consumers are responsible for how they consume a product. Buyer beware. The story of Sandman reminds us that “lying” by misuse of language should be suspected in EVERY news story — it is up to the consumer to recognize and illuminate the shady spots. It is how to consume news media wisely.
The word “media” is like the word “food” for any or all of thousands of edibles, describing any or all of thousands of individual mediums. There is zero one “media” as there is zero one “food.”
From a free market perspective, blaming the media for this is like blaming a gun for a shooting.
Gun control seeks to outlaw guns. Those conservatives who so cavalierly blame the media are begging to have independent news mediums outlawed, as clearly consumers just aren’t bright enough to NOT trust so many news sources … to be replaced by a nice safe “trustworthy” official government news source.
So rather than allowing a product, provided and consumed in a free market, to manipulate them and then blaming the product for the consequences, Americans will regain their liberty when they snub whiners and start accepting responsibility for how free people consume products, including their news mediums, in a free market. Batteries aren’t included in most toys; context is not included in most news stories. If you want context … the same if you want truth … you have to procure it by your own efforts. In a free market. ALWAYS.
Also for a FABULOUS illustration of the same kind of misleading reporting in science/space news as has happened with Sandmann, only perhaps much more dangerous … see here on this site, Robert Zimmerman’s post yesterday on this site, “Fake News in Space.” It is another very clear illustration of what media consumers must remember while consuming any news media.
I bet the guy at the Washington post that writes that check out will have some of the context you refer to. (As did the owners who already have settled or will settle, because their manipulation was blatant.)
Possibly: TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS AND ZERO CENTS.
I in general agree with your point about a free market, but todays media has long ago left journalism or their fiduciary responsibilities regarding it of any kind behind and are mostly all just partisan anti American political warriors and this judgement is stark proof of my point. And remember, the bar is very high to bring a legal suit of this kind and be successful.
But there it I$.
So IMO in this instance your point is moot.
Cotour, spot on, touche, ya got me! Absolutely in a free market, media consumers need and have recourse to the courts, and this proves they still do. You were eloquent — “… because their manipulation was blatant.” (On a sidenote: will consumers be DENIED recourse to the courts if a C19 vaccine fails, or maims and kills people? Do they have such recourse now? Pharmaceutical industries are very powerful lobbyists)
Another point remains profound: How many stories slipped past us with the same language crafted to reach a flawed conclusion, because the victims remained silent or more likely, ignored? LOTS.
Robert Zimmerman is an honest journalist in every sense of the word, from what I’ve seen and heard. They are very rare. There are many out there but their EDITORS are the gatekeepers. There are many journalists whose words you’ve not yet read because the venue for them is in its infancy. Thanks to guys like Robert gutting it out, and thanks to the explorers and scientists and entrepreneurs he writes about, the tech they produce, that venue is taking root, I believe. Stand strong, Cotour!
janyuary:
Ditto.
I hesitated to use this real world example in nature of just how destructive Socialism and too much “Good” intentions and Social programs and the concept of the “redistribution of wealth” can be and in fact are. But the parallels are just too strong and applicable to what we see today going on in the world and in America.
I have modified this text only slightly for my purposes :
Sound familiar? Racism? Reparations?: “They were here before us,” “We have to adapt to them, not the other way around.”
Crime is rampant, living in fear, defund the police?: “The customers waiting outside a bank left their jewelry at home and kept other treasures out of sight. But danger lurked anyway.”
Lawless entitlement: “In broad daylight, they watched a thief steal an iced tea and a vandal brazenly attack a motorcycle seat. One woman quit her place in the line, when a stalker crept up and threatened to bite her.”
“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish and he will never again go hungry”: “Their growing population in the area with most concentrated in a few city blocks, has decimated parts of the local economy. With territorial gangs roaming the neighborhood, dozens of businesses — including a music school, gold shop, barber, cellphone store and movie theater — have been forced to close in recent years.”
Fat poor people, an oxymoron or a paradox: “They are never hungry,” he said, “just like children who eat too much KFC.”
What the hell am I talking about? You draw your own conclusions.
https://dnyuz.com/2020/07/25/these-monkeys-were-once-revered-now-they-are-taking-over/
Socialism, “Progressivism”, Marxism, Liberal theory, where everything based in your ration thinking and common sense is wrong, up is down, black is white and left is right. Thats what they are attempting to sell you anyway. I say no.
Don’t fool with mother nature.
Fat poor people is because of WHAT they eat, not how much.
janyuary:
You are missing the point.
There are people in America who have grown in number and are beginning to *demand* more and more that are complaining that they are disadvantaged and in need, when the exact opposite is true. No one in America is going hungry and most people of what ever color they happen to be, in America, are only limited by their own degree of industriousness and vision.
So its not what they eat or how much they eat its the entitlement that will destroy us all in the end.
Americans are certainly entitlement minded in terms of news media. They think they’re entitled to sit like baby birds in a nest and have balanced, full-spectrum news fed to them. When the news sources feed them selected items such to manipulate them to draw a specific but wrong conclusion, they blame … those news mediums instead of themselves for thinking they have a “right” to unbiased news.
It’s like thinking one has a right to a nutritionist who will feed them a balanced diet, and when that nutritionist turns out to be an idiot when it comes to eating smart, one blames the nutritionist.
BEING DEPENDENT is what ENTITLEMENT is all about.