Today’s blacklisted American: Teacher suspended for criticizing students for being offended over nothing
Mao’s 1966 cultural revolution comes to Coastal Carolina University
The modern dark age: Today’s blacklist story might illustrate better than any I have posted the oppressive, mindless, and emotional madness that is sweeping our country. Let me first sum the story up in a simple way.
–A teacher invites a guest speaker to a class to help the students find friends with like interests.
–The guest writes some student names on the blackboard with this intent.
–The students enter the class, and some immediately assume that because some of those names are minorities, the list has a bigoted intent.
–These students leave the class and immediately begin organizing a protest and a boycott of the teacher.
–Even after it is shown, without doubt, that these protesting students are 100% wrong, that the goal was to help all the students, including the minorities, the school apologizes to the protesters, not to the teacher or the guest speaker. The guest speaker also apologized, even though that speaker did nothing wrong.
–The teacher however does not apologize. He defends his guest, and notes that people should not let their feelings get hurt so easily.
–The student protesters, most of whom it appears did not attend the class and did not even know the teacher, immediately renew their call for a boycott of his classes.
–The administration of Coastal Carolina University agrees, suspending the teacher and accusing him of being “racially insensitive.”
Do you see the madness? The wrong-doers are in charge and it is the innocent who are punished.
Now for the punchline:
The teacher’s name is Steven Earnest. He was a theater teacher at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina. His job had been to teach students how to be actors on stage, which requires their emotions to be exposed for all to see, and to face the strong possibility that audiences will respond badly. In such work you need a thick skin. As Earnest said in response to this fake protest:
“I’m just sad people get their feelings hurt so easily. And they are going into theater?”
Not surprisingly, Earnest has already sought legal counsel, and is being represented by the Faculty Legal Defense Fund, run by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). As their representative noted,
“I thought I’d seen everything, but my head is still spinning from this case,” said Ronnie London, the Faculty Legal Defense Fund vice president at FIRE. “A professor stands to lose his job for not being sufficiently mad about something that wasn’t meant to cause anger in the first place. Coastal Carolina’s response is not only overly dramatic, but also unconstitutional.”
While Earnest is likely to win his case and resume teaching, the harm done here is likely permanent. The school has now told everyone that hecklers rule. Submit a complaint of racism, no matter how false, and the school with immediately do exactly as you command.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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Mao’s 1966 cultural revolution comes to Coastal Carolina University
The modern dark age: Today’s blacklist story might illustrate better than any I have posted the oppressive, mindless, and emotional madness that is sweeping our country. Let me first sum the story up in a simple way.
–A teacher invites a guest speaker to a class to help the students find friends with like interests.
–The guest writes some student names on the blackboard with this intent.
–The students enter the class, and some immediately assume that because some of those names are minorities, the list has a bigoted intent.
–These students leave the class and immediately begin organizing a protest and a boycott of the teacher.
–Even after it is shown, without doubt, that these protesting students are 100% wrong, that the goal was to help all the students, including the minorities, the school apologizes to the protesters, not to the teacher or the guest speaker. The guest speaker also apologized, even though that speaker did nothing wrong.
–The teacher however does not apologize. He defends his guest, and notes that people should not let their feelings get hurt so easily.
–The student protesters, most of whom it appears did not attend the class and did not even know the teacher, immediately renew their call for a boycott of his classes.
–The administration of Coastal Carolina University agrees, suspending the teacher and accusing him of being “racially insensitive.”
Do you see the madness? The wrong-doers are in charge and it is the innocent who are punished.
Now for the punchline:
The teacher’s name is Steven Earnest. He was a theater teacher at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina. His job had been to teach students how to be actors on stage, which requires their emotions to be exposed for all to see, and to face the strong possibility that audiences will respond badly. In such work you need a thick skin. As Earnest said in response to this fake protest:
“I’m just sad people get their feelings hurt so easily. And they are going into theater?”
Not surprisingly, Earnest has already sought legal counsel, and is being represented by the Faculty Legal Defense Fund, run by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). As their representative noted,
“I thought I’d seen everything, but my head is still spinning from this case,” said Ronnie London, the Faculty Legal Defense Fund vice president at FIRE. “A professor stands to lose his job for not being sufficiently mad about something that wasn’t meant to cause anger in the first place. Coastal Carolina’s response is not only overly dramatic, but also unconstitutional.”
While Earnest is likely to win his case and resume teaching, the harm done here is likely permanent. The school has now told everyone that hecklers rule. Submit a complaint of racism, no matter how false, and the school with immediately do exactly as you command.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Mob rule!
Submit a complaint of racism, no matter how false, and the school with immediately do exactly as you command.
That lesson was learned LONG ago; it’s why all this happened in the first place.
See also garage door nooses (neese?).
… and what were these “like interests” ?
NO I am not missing the rampant madness, lack of moral absolutes, and lack of reason or critical thought which is ongoing and destroying our “society” (culture) today, especially in the midst of (academia) and (politicaldemia). Even as individuals we suffer encroaching and demanding nominal-ism.
I would just like to know …… before I take my nap …..
What were these “like interests” anyway ?
Would it be giving these jackanapes too much credit to suggest it may have been a performance art piece? Thought so.
Today, on college campuses (and elsewhere), you’re walking not just on egg shells, but egg shells on a mine field! Unfortunately colleges are sewing the mine fields, by coddling their students and not preparing them for the real world where there are bloody few safe spaces. What will be the result? Thousands of suicidal young people with PTSD, or thousands of enraged young ones lashing out at anyone who upsets them – even fatally?
I’m hoping that when enough lawsuits against these colleges are won, (and perhaps alumni and governments stop funding them), it will shock them enough to change their behavior. I’m not holding my breath however.
Alex–
thanks for pointing that out. The more I think about it, the more I’m wondering. (and yes, not to disregard the blatant weirdness from the ‘protesters’ or their lap-dog administrator co-conspirators.)
Who was the guest-speaker?
And just thinking out loud here…. Theater students who have trouble meeting…other Theater students?
something that wasn’t meant to cause anger
I’m going to say that unless you overcome the inherent fallacy in this statement, you can’t beat this sort of thing.
The problem here is that intent is actually irrelevant to this issue. The fact is that the complainers are mentally deficient. Their feelings are NOT VALID. Sorry, but they are wrongfully angry. They have no true cause or right to be angry about this. Until we conquer this idea that “all feelings are valid” we won’t stop the stupidity. What was intended was irrelevant; what mattered was whether they should have been angry over a list of names at all.
“STRATEGY OVER MORALITY / S.O.M. DESCRIBES JUSTIFIABLE EXISTENTIAL LEADERSHIP THOUGHT PROCESS AND ACTION WHERE THE ENDS ALWAYS JUSTIFIES THE MEANS. WHERE MORALITY AND TRUTH ARE ONLY HUMAN CONCEPTS, ADHERED TO BY “OTHERS” AND IS THE SUBJECTIVE JUSTIFICATION POINT FOR THE ABUSE OF POWER.”
(I am yelling)
Those who become politically empowered or their by extension empowered subordinates will tend to become / manifest sociopathic behaviors in order to secure their power, position and the policies that ensure that model be sustained.
Sociopath: “A person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.”. (This is the technical definition of most politically empowered politicians)
This is the self interested perversion that can supercede an individuals objective interpretation of their fiduciary responsibilities.
This subjective self interest is fundamentally what the Founders of the United States Of America understood as a principle characteristic of the human animal related to power over others, and the Constitution is the attempt to counter balance that tendency.
And this is exactly what we are all big picture watching unfold before all our eyes in government. Usually this condition is not so clearly observable but because there is such desperation in the Political Realm to secure their position it all becomes crystal clear.
And in this truth there is hope
From the article:
So, why weren’t the students suspended for refusing to show sympathy for the wronged professor and his guest? Why wasn’t the professors real offense from the student reaction also acknowledged as a legitimate offense? After all, the professor and his guest were the only ones wronged, the others only pretended to be wronged — possibly only due to the diversity training that they were given, the inability to recognize the diversity around them but the requirement that everyone be exactly like everyone else.
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.” — Walter Scott
What happened to the students’ ability to ask questions for clarification? They enter a classroom, make an assumption (making asses out of themselves), and rather than ask questions they run away pretending to be offended and frightened. What are we teaching kids in our schools, these days?
Welcome to Obama’s fundamentally transformed America, land of the formerly free, home of the formerly brave.
Edward
October 23, 2021 at 4:23 pm
So, why weren’t the students suspended for refusing to show sympathy for the wronged professor and his guest?
Because we worship youth now, instead of age. We prefer ignorant feelings to wisdom and experience.
Welcome to progressivism’s utopia.
Jefferson Airplane
“We Can Be Together”
https://youtu.be/cxA3Q96a8XE
5:50
“We are forces of chaos and anarchy
Everything they say we are we are
And we are very
Proud of ourselves…..”
GWB wrote: “Welcome to progressivism’s utopia.”
Ah, yes. The progressives’ utopia. Where central control of healthcare results in the refusal to treat disobedient citizens, and where central control of the economy results in supply line shortages. Where the military is ordered to drop their weapons and run, French style, faster than the civilians they were supposed to protect, leaving both the weapons and the civilians in the hands of the terrorist enemy. Where the progressives beg OPEC to increase oil production right after ordering our own domestic oil production dramatically reduced, and where the Russian pipeline is approved but our pipeline is halted. Where our heroic first responders (heroic under the other president) are summarily fired from their jobs. Where we are mandated to be injected with serums that the FDA won’t approve, as though we are peons set to be lab rats. Where inflation is the new normal.
Where our students are more ignorant than they were before they went to school but feel like they know more than their educators, and the bat-soup crazy school administrators encourage such feelings.
What a cluster let’s (as in “Let’s Go Brandon!”)
LBJ gave us The Great Society, where government would solve all problems, such as poverty. We now see that government is a complete failure at problem solving. LGB (Let’s Go Brandon!) solved all these problems that I mentioned in my last comment, except that they were all exacerbated. Even LBJ’s war on poverty was a failure, as we now have more poverty than when he started.
In 1960, the Democrats took over Detroit from the Republican Party and declared the city to be the model city of what the Democrats could do. They have since stopped calling it their model city, because they took that once-great city and turned it into a dump. The population is half the 1960 level, yet the rest of the country has twice the population as in 1960, and a larger number of that remaining population depends upon government handouts (not hand ups). LBJ’s Great Society does not work.
When liberals and progressives claim that America was never great (so we cannot make it great again), they are admitting the failure of LBJ’s Great Society.
These days, LGB is telling us to lower our expectations. Talk about a malaise speech! There once was a time when we expected our children to live better than ourselves, but after a half century of increasing central control, we now are directed to expect the opposite.
Obama’s fundamentally transformed America is a cluster let’s.
In 1960, the Democrats took over Detroit from the Republican Party and declared the city to be the model city of what the Democrats could do.
I think, sometime in the 1980’s, there was a cinematic presentation of that model. It was titled “RoboCop”.
As a teacher, what is rarely pointed out until recently and frankly not to the degree it should be is much of the problem with schools is the revolving door of administration. These men and women come into a school normally for about 3-5 years leaving the place on fire and move up to another school with HIGHER PAY! its failing upward with the best up them. Principals and teachers are not from the community they are teaching they have no skin in the game. If they have children they rarely go to the school they teach at. Its a good sign of the quality of a school if the teachers send there own kids there. If they don’t run away.
This story is in insane Bob. Thank you for posting it. Its little wonder no one wants to be a teacher the insane part of that is while few people are going into teaching the license requirements are are narrowing so people can teach less than a similarly teacher in the past. In my state the elementary license used to be k-8 now its k-5. And many of those teachers who taught k-8 are retiring. The 5-12 endorsements are all based on subject area. And most people that go into secondary education aren’t doing it to teach 6th graders.
Andrew R,
One thing we are going to see happening in the near future is colleges closing sadly not because they are terrible. Which is true in most cases but because the total number of school aged children is peaking and will be declining in the coming years. To say nothing of increasing numbers of students not going to colleges are universities.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/12/15/more-high-school-graduates-through-2025-pool-still-shrinks-afterward
Jester–
yeah…. the documentary known as Robocop.
(good one!)
going tangential…
(This is so well done, I can’t believe it hasn’t been consigned to the memory hole, yet…)
“Let’s Go Brandon”
Forgiato Blow [Kurt Jantz] (October 18, 2021)
https://youtu.be/C9DClYso2FA
1:55
(repetitive adult language)
Alanis Morissette –
“Reasons I Drink” (2020)
https://youtu.be/jWHpIP1-kUI
4:06
(to paraphrase VH-1, “…behind the scenes, things were going terribly wrong…”
markedup2 asked if the plural of ‘noose’ was ‘neese.
I would suggest not. ‘Moose’ is the same plural and singular. Closer to my hobby interests, the plural of ‘caboose’ is not ‘cabeese’, but ‘cabooses’. I would think ‘nooses’ would be appropriate, and the Internet, never wrong, agrees.
I think that GWB has penetrated to the very heart of the progressive’s understanding of how the world should work. As he concludes:
“So, why weren’t the students suspended for refusing to show sympathy for the wronged professor and his guest? Because we worship youth now, instead of age. We prefer ignorant feelings to wisdom and experience. Welcome to progressivism’s utopia.”
That’s right. Wisdom, experience, and even the idea of something like objective reality are no longer privileged in any way in the university, and the “lived experience” of a student (including their racial history) — regardless of what he or she may not know or the critical life lessons that they have yet to experience — trumps the rights of everyone else, and it is now the sole measure of “truth.” In short, students no longer attend university to learn / experience anything that is new or challenging but to embrace their tribal identity* and enhance the collective power of their group.
*Especially with regard to the idea of victimization and marginalization — or embracing their collective guilt should they be white or cis / binary.
The irony, of course, is that in their educational sojourn they will never be exposed to such concepts as logic, comparative philosophy, and critical thinking. Or, most of all, to the bizarre conceit that there may be many important things, including decent, civilized behavior, that they do not already know and that colleges are supposed to exist to correct, in some measure, this deficiency… Distilled down even further, the left’s idea is that societies / cultures such as ours have no right, duty, or obligation to try to perpetuate themselves through their educational institutions. God, no. Instead, their only obligation is to fund their own destruction so that Marx’ prophecy might sooner be fulfilled.
As bad as all of this is — and it is hard not to see this as the death knell of our civilization — at least, thanks to the Internet and the alt media, more and more people are beginning to catch on to what is being done to them and to their country while they have been asleep. As Cotour points out:
“And this is exactly what we are all big picture watching unfold before all our eyes in government. Usually this condition is not so clearly observable but because there is such desperation in the Political Realm to secure their position it all becomes crystal clear.
And in this truth there is hope.”
Now, all of this IS clearly observable, and this ought to be a teachable moment — a clear demonstration of principle — for anyone who is even half awake. The question, as always, is what can be done about what is happening in our educational institutions and what kind of support can be given to anyone who is courageous enough to stand up and oppose this insanity.
Starting with the idea that those in power at the universities are probably so cowardly and / or invincibly woke / ignorant that their minds cannot be changed, the only effective response at this point may be for state and local legislators to simply starve them out, aided by declining enrollments.
“Hope” is putting better people into office and making sure that The Powers That Be at the university (and at local school boards) understand that we are on to them, and we aren’t going to continue to tolerate what they are doing. Again, we are watching all of this play out in the Virginia election, and this may represent a real turning point in the struggle to preserve our country and its culture.
THE FUTURE BECOMES APPARENT ?
(Copy and share with a friend, share with a Democrat or a RINO)
What do you get when as president of the United States you are clearly NOT conducting the business of the American people in their and in their country’s best interests?
https://youtu.be/W-Dar70Lz9k 6 minutes and 47 seconds of reality for, Joe Biden and the Democrat party machine.
What do you get from the American people in many public venues across the nation, calling you out for:
* You have destroyed and have undermined America’s energy and energy supply system.
* You have empowered our international competitors and military enemies.
* You surrendered military control of a strategic air base and have enriched the Taliban with $85 billion in military hardware.
* You through incompetence have caused the deaths of 13 military service members.
* You have abandoned Americans behind enemy lines.
* You have lowered all barriers on our Southern border and have millions of illegal’s flooding into the country.
* You have mandated that all Americans have no choice and receive a still experimental vaccine and wear masks.
* You have NO requirement for those illegally flooding the country to be checked for Covid or to receive that same vaccine.
* You have created an unreasonable mandate for everyone to receive a still experimental vaccine, or lose your job!
* You seek to spend Trillions of dollars to install a permanent Socialist model of government dependency in America, without any mandate to do so. And you say, “It will cost Nothing!”. In reality it won’t cost the government anything, but it will cost the people of America who pay the taxes that pay for it plenty and it will essentially bankrupt them. And there in will create modern day slavery to that debt. And there in exists governments eternal control over the masses.
What are the American people telling you in those many public venues? This “LETS GO BRANDON!” / “F” Joe Biden sentiment will become reality in the elections this coming November 2nd, and in the coming midterm elections in 2022.
A cold, disrespectful, very public slap in the face. And, Joe Biden and your political party deserve it all and what it brings you.
Offended over nothing?
Is this the Seinfeld version of identity politics?
Milt asked: “The question, as always, is what can be done about what is happening in our educational institutions and what kind of support can be given to anyone who is courageous enough to stand up and oppose this insanity.”
Choose to refuse. This is the ‘Freedom isn’t Free” part. I have declined work on the basis of COVID-19 protocols. It’s nice when life is easy and convenient; a lot of people sacrificed a lot to get us here. Living has been forcibly inconvenient, arguably oppressive, the past couple of years; and the risk does not warrant the action.
“You’ve got to ask yourself, punk; convenience, or dignity?”
Harry Callahan, maybe.
“We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes And Our Sacred Honor”
Some rich, White, males, with a whole lot to lose.
https://www.americanheritage.com/we-mutually-pledge-each-other-our-lives-our-fortunes-and-our-sacred-honor#2
Cotour:
I have wondered why America (i.e. a large part of Americans) is so easily a victim of neo-Marxist ideas, just as we are currently experiencing it, and how it is demonstrated almost every day by entries on this blog.
My thesis is as follows: From the outset, the political ideology of liberalism, on which the American system is based, has substantial correspondences with left or communist ideas, especially with regard to the following fundamental points:
1. Universalism: the belief that ideas, ideals, rights and duties must fundamentally apply to all people. 2. Globalism / Cosmopolitanism: Desire for the creation of a cultural and economic unification of the world. 3. Progressivism: i.e. the conviction that there is (or should be) a general, permanent social (including technology and economy) progressive positive development that leads to the “better”.
4.Egalitarianism: i.e. one proceeds from the conviction that justice is primarily determined by the basic value of equality.
5. Conceit of superiority: i.e. the conviction that one’s own ideology is far superior to all others and should only be the only one that should benefit the whole world or that other worldviews should be rejected and opposed.
Questioner, you stated that, “I have wondered why America (i.e. a large part of Americans) is so easily a victim of neo-Marxist ideas, just as we are currently experiencing it, and how it is demonstrated almost every day by entries on this blog.”
Not just America, but global civilization as a whole. Though particularly In America, respect for individual liberty, as a fundamental value of our governance from our founding, was a powerful moderator against the collectivism you describe. As was the physical reality of a mostly-agrarian society spread out over a vast landmass, where it was simply not possible to implement that collectivism and make it stick.
A moderator, for a while.
But over a century of conditioning, starting when we moved off the farms and into urban areas and their industries, led us to tell ourselves that our own, close-to-the-problems/skin-in-the-game, informed common sense is inherently inferior to the thinking of an elite few that – on the basis of surface appearances – are put on pedestals by our culture as wiser, more trustworthy, and more virtuous than the ordinary person.
As a result, we have put that elite few in charge of our institutions with the thinking that, if their “superior” attributes are applied at an industrial scale upon us as though we are interchangeable widgets, we ordinary folks don’t have to assume the burden and risk of charting our own course through life.
That collectivist mindset opened the door to the five categories of flawed thinking that you rightly described.
Let us not attribute to malice, what can be explained by hubris … and a lack of confidence in one’s own ability to challenge it.
Jester Naybor:
I find the overemphasis on collectivism or individualism very bad in both cases. It all depends on the right kind of collectivism and a good combination of collectivism and individualism. Man is a social group animal, after all, and the glorification of individualism leads to a number of bad things like selfishness etc.
An organic collectivism that has grown naturally over a long period of time – based on natural principles of hierarchy formation – is a good thing in contrast to the artificial collectivism that is imposed by an “intellectual” elite. Nevertheless, in this external framework, the personal freedom of the individual – combined with a high degree of personal responsibility – remains of great importance. Because that ensures a high level of economic and cultural performance and protection against totalitarianism.
What I ask myself – and this question should actually be directed primarily to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos – is whether the mechanization of the world, which is also being promoted by these two men, is compatible at all with the pursuit of an autonomous and free individual and with a healthy, harmonious, organic society or does it even run counter to this objective? With your comment, you pointed out this general development. Probably these two gentlemen don’t even think about your self-love, what do you think?
Jester Naybor:
Communitarianism seems to cover my ideas, which is why I have summarized excerpts from various texts here:
“Communitarianism diagnoses, in the sense of postmodernism, a crisis of modern societies (desolidarization; decline in values; crisis of legitimacy, identity and meaning), the cause of which it identifies as a radical individualism promoted by the ideology of neoliberalism, in return for the necessary return to meaning and to demand value from community.
The communitarians are of the following opinion; Their assumption is:
Only a person who is embedded in a linguistically, ethnically, culturally, religiously or otherwise defined community is able to judge the principles of justice. In the community, certain shared values, morals and traditions prevail. Only on the basis of these common values, above all on the basis of a common conception of the good, can the principles of justice be meaningfully negotiated. Communitarians emphasize the dependence of the individual on the community, which is in sharp contrast to certain liberal views, which view man as an independent individual.
However, this does not exclude his individuality and his independent and reasonably justified judgment. It would therefore be better to view people as a social individual. Sandel, Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre in particular worked this out. Communitarianism advocates the free development of the individual as long as it is socially acceptable. In liberalism, however, the free development of the individual is often seen as more important – it should only be restricted for very important reasons.”
Questioner:
“I have wondered why America (i.e. a large part of Americans) is so easily a victim of neo-Marxist ideas, just as we are currently experiencing it, and how it is demonstrated almost every day by entries on this blog.”
1. You are not watching a large part of America be victims of new / Marxist ideas. IMO what you are witness to is a minority of Americans who are in control of certain elements of government, education and communications who are victims of neo Marxist ideas. That being said its not always the majority that prevails. That must be recognized.
2. “Progressivism”, “Globalism” yes. Its an illness.
3. “Egalitarianism”. This term has been perverted into a Leftist tool of political warfare where everything will be good when everyone is equally depleted and everyone lives in the dirt. No thank you.
4. “Conceit of superiority”. I want you to choose who you personally want the world to be dominated and lead by:
1. The United States, even understanding that we are just as corrupt and perverted in our politics as any other country. And the only reason that you can understand that is that we for the most part are more transparent than most all others.
2. Russia, although Russia is really not in that world domination level business. To be respected, but really not at that level.
3. Communist China.
4. The Globalist lead U.N.. (Probably thee most corrupt and ineffective organization that has ever existed, you just do not hear about it)
Do Americans have a conceit of superiority? I would have to agree to some degree, and that is not based in not being able to support that conceit of superiority to some great degree. But you make that choice. You tell everyone who you want to dominate and lead planet earth and those who populate it.
America is currently going through a political cycle, a cycle that may be nothing we have ever seen before, but a cycle it is. What will come out the other end? Unknown and there are no guarantees, but you tell me who you want in that number one place in the world.
Choose wisely. (And do not choose Sweden or Denmark or any other not listed country because they are not on the list)
EMBARRASSED BY AND COULD NOT STAND TRUMP?
(copy and share with a friend, especially a Democrat or RINO friend)
Even I was many times uncomfortable with Trump and his over talking and some of the things that he had to say. I just turned it off and did not look or listen.
And I only did that because I understood that was his process, and additionally that no other country would screw with America when he was the president. He was feared and he was dangerous because he was unpredictable and focused. And that is exactly how you want and need your adversaries to see your leadership.
And the policies and actions that you could clearly see him undertaking were in the interests of America and the American people while he was in office. Personally like him or not, Trump took care of business. That is clear now even if you did not support him and detested him personally.
And what do we have now? Joe and Kammy: https://youtu.be/DEW1UWdUbww
My God, this is not good. And you thought that other country’s were laughing at us under the Trump administration? Other leaders did not like him and were offended by him because he was effective. This is not effective.
Both these people threaten our security and our country, you and your family, that is clear.
Cotour:
You don’t make an easy choice for me. China or America? From the point of view of European nations that are as independent as possible, it is a choice between plague and cholera. The situation seems almost hopeless to us.
At the moment I would say America is in the long run (in case that your men do not take power in America) more dangerous and toxic for the continued existence of independent nations and peoples than China, because it actually has the whole power over Europe. China’s influence is still far behind. I do not expect China to attempt to station troops in Europe or to impose their culture on us. Should I be wrong here?
For a number of European nations the following would be best, for which the existing political power relations in Europe (I do not want to go into detail here) would have to be overturned completely:
1. “Pendulum policy” between America and China in order to play these two forces off against each other and to get the maximum out of it for us. 2. Close alliance with Russia in various areas (but cleverly playing Ukraine off against Russia). 3. Development of own nuclear forces.
Fair enough.
And who exactly would control and have their finger on the button of your nukes?
And who would they be pointed at?
Cotour:
You concentrate almost exclusively on politics in this blog and say little about space.
How do you actually see the role of space in the context of globalism and progressivism? How do you rate the role of Bezos and Musk in this?
Questioner:
I am very interested in space and technology, that is how I landed here.
Without understanding the politics that rules space and the technology that both Musk and Bezos are developing where does that leave us? Globalism and “Progressivism” in the context of space? IMO it will only result in disaster, destruction and death.
Globalism and “Progressivism” are not based in excellence, they are based in a Socialistic / “Social Justice” / “Equal” results belief system. Is space going to be ruled by and structured in Socialism in your estimation? Its actually an interesting question, but the rules of good results and freedom are just as in effect on planet earth as they will be anywhere else in the universe.
Do the rules of human nature end the moment that man goes into space and steps on another planet? I think not. The human animal is the human animal no matter where he or she exists.
And in your EU / nuclear day dreams, who is it that has their finger on the big red button. Klaus Schwab?
And who are they pointed at?
What is fair? Is it fair for a teacher to teach something that runs contrary to the feelings of his students? Should slavery not be taught, because it may upset some students? Is it fair that students be able to reprimand a teacher for teaching something upsetting?
Andrew Klavan asks and answers the question: How did the WOKE become THUGS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgS61uDvNb4 (15 minutes)
“[What the woke thugs think about] is goodness, what they think about is fairness. They think life is unfair and they want to make it fair, and they think that all unfairness is due to human evil, right? It’s not just built into the system. So, in order to make things fair they need power. They need power from on top to control your freedom and make you good. And that turns people into thugs.”
“And so we let people say these [wrong, shallow, rude] things and be these ways in private, and we govern a little bit more what we say in public because we understand it’s going to have an effect on people that we don’t know … To do otherwise is thuggery. The opposite of what she calls okay culture is thuggery. It assumes that you have some moral perch, wokeness, that gives you an insight as to what people should say, and that you should spend your time governing their thoughts, and that is going to make the world a better place. It will not make the world a better place. It will only crush the souls of your fellow human beings, crush the discourse that makes us free, crush the expression of our personhood which is the essential act of being free, the expression of our personhood. Even when we are wrong, even when we are small, even when we are being nasty, expressing that in the proper place in the proper time is part of our humanity. The woke have turned themselves into thugs, because they have lied about what it is to be a human being, and they’ve lied to themselves, thinking that they have some insight that they call woke.”
So, the woke want fairness. Again, what is fair? Must something that I think is fair also be fair to you, or could you feel as though you were treated unfairly?
What we today call capitalism, socialism, and feudalism are the three major forms of governance and economy in the modern world. Even most of our corporations and companies are governed based upon the feudal model. Is it fair that the most productive people get to keep the fruits of their productivity, thus live more prosperous lives than those who are less productive? Is it fair that the fruits of productivity are stripped from those who earned it in order to be distributed evenly throughout the citizenry so that all share equal prosperity? Is it fair for those who inherit their leadership positions to live more prosperous lives than those who work under those nobles?
And why should one person be the arbiter and controller of fairness? Is that fair?
Cotour:
Don’t these quotes remind you of the current situation?
Alexis de Tocqueville – A few quotes from “On Democracy in America”
“It seems as if despotism should set up camp among today’s democratic nations, it will have different traits: it should be more extensive and milder and humiliate people without tormenting them.”
“I am convinced that it is easier to establish an absolute and despotic government in a people in which the social conditions are the same than in another.”
“I want to imagine the new characteristics under which despotism could appear in the world: I see a multitude of similar and equal people who restlessly turn in circles to obtain small and ordinary pleasures that fill their minds. Everyone in his isolation is alien to the fate of all others: his children and his personal friends embody the whole human race for him; As for the rest of the fellow citizens, he stands next to them, but does not see them; he touches it and he does not feel it; he is only present in himself and for himself, and if he still has a family, one can at least say that he no longer has a fatherland. A tremendous patronizing power rises above them, which alone ensures that their enjoyments are secured and that their fate is monitored. It is unlimited, going into detail, regular, precautionary and mild. It would be like paternal power if, like this, it pursued the goal of preparing people for mature old age; instead, however, it merely seeks to hold it irrevocably in the state of childhood; it is right for the citizens to enjoy themselves, provided that they have nothing else in mind than to amuse themselves. She likes to work for their good; but she wants to be its sole guardian and sole judge; it ensures their safety, measures and safeguards their needs, facilitates their amusements, conducts their most important businesses, directs their industries, arranges their inheritances, divides their estates; could it not also relieve them of the worry of reflection and the troubles of life? ”
“So the sovereign, after he has taken each one in turn in his mighty hands and rearranged at will, prepares his arms over society as a whole; he covers its surface with a network of small, intricate, narrow and uniform rules, that is not once able to penetrate the most original spirits and strongest souls, they want to leave the crowd behind; it does not break the will, but weakens, bends and guides it; it seldom forces action, rather it constantly stands in the way of action; he it does not destroy, it prevents the emergence; it does not tyrannize, it harasses, oppresses, exhausts, weakens, dumbs down and ultimately brings every nation to the point where it is only a herd of fearful and busy animals whose shepherd the government. ”
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
Cotour:
I also find this video summary very insightful.
“Alexis de Tocqueville was a 19th century French aristocrat with some crucial things to tell us about the strengths and weaknesses of that once-new and now widespread political system: democracy.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzr3AOtFA8o
“So the sovereign, after he has taken each one in turn in his mighty hands and rearranged at will, prepares his arms over society as a whole; he covers its surface with a network of small, intricate, narrow and uniform rules, that is not once able to penetrate the most original spirits and strongest souls, they want to leave the crowd behind; it does not break the will, but weakens, bends and guides it; it seldom forces action, rather it constantly stands in the way of action; he it does not destroy, it prevents the emergence; it does not tyrannize, it harasses, oppresses, exhausts, weakens, dumbs down and ultimately brings every nation to the point where it is only a herd of fearful and busy animals whose shepherd the government. ”
Questioner … that is where communitarianism leads, if it is not based in respect for life and individual liberty as its primary value.
It is like the typical group project back in school, which gravitates into one or two Smart People operating as sovereigns in the realm of the project, making the decisions while the rest of the group passively accepts that – neither adding to the human-nature-limited intellect being applied to the project, nor protecting their own interests from the errors of the Smart People. Been there, done that … I was one of those Smart People, and in hindsight realize just how vulnerable those who trusted me to call the shots, made themselves. (As did at least one classmate, who insists that they got though high school by sitting beside me.)
Cotour, understand that my call for individual liberty as society’s primary value is not a call for anything-goes license. One’s neighbors do have the right to interdict your liberty if its exercise poses a clear-and-present danger to theirs. But that right does not extend to imposing their view of what is “good” upon you, outside of that – otherwise, there is no liberty. Only dominance and submission – and that is a degenerative state of cognitive limitation for human society to exist within, for it both paints people into corners that are difficult to get out of, and breeds a sense of “why bother? who am I to question?” complacency that keeps them vulnerable to the failings of the elite few.
The Declaration of Independence talks of government deriving its “just powers” from the consent of the governed – powers that do not work against the reason government exists: “to secure these rights”. That is a recognition of the danger in using the coercive force of law to impose what society deems to be “the common good” at any point in time.
Tyranny does not drop on us with white sheets and jackboots, as often as it creeps in wearing the royal robes and softer slippers of condescending “bless your heart” arrogance that deems to Know Better™ what the rest of us need than we do ourselves. The collectivism that stems from communitarianism “social contracts” that invoke the coercive force of law to establish any other “common good” save respect for individual liberty, has been a very easy path upon which such tyranny comes strolling in to lord it over us.
Man is a social creature – the problems start, when we insert coercion into the mix, as we are seeing with our society’s responses to WuFlu.
Jordan B. Peterson
“Nihilism, Totalitarianism, and The Divine Individual”
[excerpted from: “New Years Letter to The World, January 2017”)
https://youtu.be/MdsVC_qR4t0
5:33
“The Group itself cannot be done away with because for better or worse, human being’s are social animals, not loners like shark’s or tiger’s. We’re team-players, but being on one team, means not being on others…”
“The Group must unite, but under the banner of the Individual.”
“Europe”
My ancestor’s got the Brandon-outa there, the first chance they could get. One set went through Ellis island, the other set went through Canada (then into Minnesota).
Communism– European
Fascism– European
Socialism – European.
Two World wars in one century — European.
“Your Job in Germany”
Occupation Training Film (1946)
https://youtu.be/1v5QCGqDYGo
10:40
“Directed by It’s A Wonderful Life’s Frank Capra and written by Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, produced by the United States Information & Education Division of the Army Services Forces in 1946, this film proposes, “War with Germany ends in victory, victory leads to peace … Sometimes … Sometimes not.”
(Interestingly, the high-definition National Archive print of this, at Youtube, is age restricted.)
Then we have communist china…. the record holder in killing their own people, and busily working right now on killing the rest of us.
There are roughly 90 million hard-core chinese communists that run the gulag known as China, they need to go, all the way.
Questioner:
I absolutely agree with what de Tocqueville has to say. What is the long term wild card that he did not survive to see pushed to its max?
The Constitution. And you could reasonably argue that the Constitution has delivered us to where we are right now, and that would be accurate.
But there exists the POTENTIAL of the Constitution and what it structures to still counter balance the perversion and the corruption and the abuse of power. What we are witness to is the desperation of the Democrat party which has through their natural progression become more and more despotic as they by necessity become more and more Leftist as they attempt to remain relevant in government.
Why is that? Because in their chase to further acquire and retain political power and control they must become more and more despotic. Why? Because they are bereft of the fundamentals that define America: A respect for Individual freedom and a respect for the one thing that constrains their aspirations to absolute power and control, which is the Constitution itself. They despise it! All Jr. Nazi’s do.
That is exactly what the Constitution is all about, counter balancing that nature of man related to power. The two are eternally intertwined and the Left, (The current day Jr. Nazi’s) and the “Ambitious” Right for that matter. The RINO’s are not without blame here. They both test the outer parameters of what the Constitution structures.
And where can you look to try to get a read on how effective the system, this social experiment in governance is? Watch the coming in 8 days the elections of the Virginia governor, the New Jersey governor, the mayor of NYC and the several other elections around America. That will tell the tale.
And IMO what is ongoing in the world in general stands against the American experiment in governance which can be documented is and can be the most chaotic and corrupt for all to see. Most other governments are able to hide their perversions and corruptions, but America and Americans are better able to drag the truth to the surface for all to see and comment on. By design.
Bu there we are all the same. The only long term hope for the planet IMO? The Constitution and what it structures and how it can adapt and adjust to what is coming. Because given the powers and the ambitions in the world and understanding the nature of man in relation to that the Constitution and a strong America (As perverted and corrupt as it is and can be) is the only way forward.
(The long term reality is Star Wars, not Star trek)
You never chose, Questioner: America, China or Russia? And Russia is not a realistic choice. (Neither is the EU) Please share your read with the world.
Stay tuned, there are no guarantees. The Constitution and what it structures is an ongoing, live social experiment in governance.
(I know I sound like a broken record on this subject, but there is only one way. An unrestricted Communist China is not the answer. And this cycle America is going through will be over soon enough and if things are somewhat fair and honest in the coming elections everything will be as it should be. The Democrats can only cheat to a certain degree and at the point where the people have had enough, and I believe we are there, they will complete their assigned fiduciary responsibilities. But there are no guarantees)
Jester Naybor wrote: “The collectivism that stems from communitarianism ‘social contracts’ that invoke the coercive force of law to establish any other ‘common good’ save respect for individual liberty, has been a very easy path upon which such tyranny comes strolling in to lord it over us.”
Ah, yes. The common good, sometimes called the greater good. How many crimes, evils, and horrors have been committed in the name of the greater good? Last century alone, communism, socialism, and fascism killed off one hundred million people in the cause of the greater good.
Who gets to choose what is the greater good or the common good? Why is his good better than someone else’s good? Why are the students allowed to decree what is the greater good and the teacher is the victim of that greater good? What is the school teaching if the student is treated as the teacher?