There are times when I shake my head in disbelief at what the Left takes seriously. This is one of those times.
It starts with New York Times tech reporter Taylor Lorenz taking her role to new depths by attempting to publicly shame a conservative mother online through bullying her daughter. Rightly, Lorenz has been called out for this behavior. Then, she started complaining about online harassment she’s received, which caused many a Leftist to ignore the utter garbage she did to warrant the attention. Thanks to Tucker Carlson naming Lorenz and using a photo of her available on the Times website, the victimhood meter got turned up to 11 through the invocation of a magical phrase the Left has been using for the past few years, “online violence.”
Let’s demystify this term, shall we?
online violence
What the Left thinks it means – mistreatment of minorities and women online, including taunts, insults, and trolling
What it really means – a made-up controversy with real-life inspiration
With the advent of the World Wide Web (thank you, Al Gore…not!), American society changed forever. Even though we were able to chat with people around the world, our worlds shrank inward. Things we wouldn’t say to people in public were said online, often with our real names attached to them. And don’t get me started on Rule 34. If you don’t know what that is, please don’t ask. You really don’t want to know.
Out of that change came troll culture, which then turned into American culture. And as exchanges got more heated, egos got more fragile. People on social media go from bully to victim in a matter of keystrokes. Hell, I’ve been shit-talked by 12 year olds playing Call of Duty.
Does it cross lines of civilized society? Absolutely. Should we be trying to do better than throwing more shade at people than Rosie O’Donnell sunbathing? No doubt. Is it violence? In a word, no. In two words, fuck no.
Words, by definition, cannot be violence because they lack the ability to be physical. When spoken, they are the expulsion of air through the mouth combine with muscular actions. Even a literal tongue lashing doesn’t involve actual lashing of the tongue. Words can inspire violence (i.e. fighting words), but the words themselves don’t commit the violence.
Now, let’s add in the online element. This may come as a shock to many people, but online life isn’t real life. Even if you believe words are violence (which just confirms you’re a dumbass), the fact the words occurred in the cyber-ether renders your opinion more useless than Eric Swalwell’s security clearance.
So, why are so any people convinced online violence is really? One, online life has made people dumber than a bag of hammers. More importantly, though, it’s a clever play on words the Left uses to convince people it’s a serious problem by playing to their emotions through the negative implications of violence. Let’s be honest. There are very few positive aspects to violence, and those that are positive usually cost at least an extra $50…not that I’d know about that, mind you…
Where was I again? Oh yeah, Leftist word play. By invoking the concept of violence, the Left counts on us to fill in the blanks and assume the worst. Adding the word “online” makes it seem widespread and a direct threat to us personally because everybody and their Grandmother is online these days. Although I get a chuckle imagining an octogenarian trolling a 20 year old over his or her taste in anime, the desired effect is to get us afraid of what could happen.
And by creating that fear, the Left can take your voice, equating legitimate criticism with the modern equivalent of an elementary school taunt, only with more vulgarity. As with other times the Left attempts to manipulate us through creative wording, the key to countering it is to recognize it for what it is and call it out. What Taylor Lorenz and her enablers are trying to do is to escape responsibility for being reprehensible to someone with less power than they have. With Tucker Carlson calling her out, the shoe is on the other foot and now Lorenz is getting a taste of karmic justice.
Let’s just say she’s not a fan. Which makes it all the funnier to me. So, win-win!
Meanwhile, don’t fall prey to the emotional manipulation the Left is using here. They want you to avoid using your brain and simply believe, just like one of the Left’s online darlings Anita Sarkeesian says: Listen and Believe. But when what you’re being told to believe is absurd on its face, you have my blessing not to listen.
Category: Social Issues
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
The Leftist world was shaken to its core within the past 2 weeks due to allegations of sexual harassment against New York Governor and the Left’s example of how a state can handle the COVID-19 crisis (more on that later), Andrew Cuomo. As of this writing, three women have come forward to accuse the Governor of inappropriate sexual advances, up to and including unwanted touching. In light of these allegations, the Left have circled the wagons to try to discredit the accusations as politically motivated due to former President Donald Trump’s impending legal case before the state court.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are scratching our heads trying to figure out the new rules about sexual harassment. Is it okay to do what Cuomo did, or is it excusable because Trump did worse more often? If only we had a weekly piece that would explore the Left’s mindset on issues like this…oh, wait!
sexual harassment
What the Left thinks it means – unwanted sexual advances or comments made by men in power that make the victims uncomfortable or frightened of possible reprisal
What it really means – unwanted sexual advances or comments made by men in power that make the victims uncomfortable or frightened of possible reprisal, unless you’re a Leftist
We’ve come a long way since Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, but we’re no closer to making progress on the issue. Powerful men and women have used it to get what they want for decades, and if current events are any indication, it’s still happening. That’s why the #MeToo and #BelieveAllWomen movements got started, folks! Well, that, and it’s easier than a Paris Hilton murder mystery novel plot to appear like you care by tweeting and re-tweeting hashtags.
When it comes to actually doing something about the problem…I guess it depends on who the Left considers an ally. I’m old enough to remember when Senator Bob Packwood was run out of office for chasing a secretary around his desk, and rightly so. Then came Bill Clinton, who was accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Certainly worse than chasing a secretary, but not to the Left. They said the accusers weren’t credible, accused them of being money-hungry, and tried to paint the Commander in Briefs as a victim of a “right wing smear.”
Guess what? The Left is doing the same with Cuomo. As inconsistent as they are about what constitutes sexual harassment, they are consistent about recycling bad ideas.
In Cuomo’s case, though, the Left has a bigger target: Donald Trump. Ever since Trump mentioned grabbing women by the puddy tat, the Left has painted him as a sexual predator. As a result, every time a Leftist gets caught doing more than talking about such an act, the Left brings up Trump. I seem to recall there being a term for trying to deflect negative facts by bringing up a tangentially-related person, but I can’t seem to come up with it. What about you, dear reader?
Although I can’t completely discount the possibility of Trump acting like, well, Trump, it doesn’t excuse what Cuomo is alleged to have done. It also doesn’t help Cuomo’s cause that there are photos of him doing what he’s accused of doing, and that the photos support the allegations against him.
But it shows a lot more than the Left wants us to see. For one, it shows us how ugly Cuomo is. I mean, money and power may be aphrodisiacs, but there are limits!
More importantly, though, it shows how far the Left will go to protect their own, even at the expense of optics and ideological consistency. I don’t have the hard data on this yet, but I’m willing to guess a good chunk of the #metoo folks are defending Cuomo by any means necessary at the expense of women. Yet, these are some of the same folks who wonder why more women aren’t believed when they come forward with their allegations. Hmmm…well, I can’t figure it out. I’ll leave it to the “smart” Leftists.
Another tack being used by the Cuomo defenders is they want to have an investigation done into the allegations before they will call for him to resign. By the way, Justice Brett Kavanaugh is on Line 1. He wants to have a word with the Cuomo supporters.
Seriously, though, the defenders will try to act like they’ve always wanted investigations into sexual harassment allegations. I know you’re going to be surprised, but the Left is lying about this, too. When it comes to the Right, any and all allegations are believed, no matter how weak they are. Case in point: Christine Blasey Ford and the aforementioned Brett Kavanaugh. For Kavanaugh, the mere allegations were enough to disqualify him from the High Court, even though Blasey Ford was as credible as a Nigerian prince’s email. The more we dug into the allegations, the less believable they were.
That wasn’t a problem for the Left, though. They still invoke Blasey Ford’s name to show they support and believe women. When the roles are reversed, no benefit of a doubt is given. Whether it’s Paula Jones, Juanita Broadrick, or Tara Reade, the women have to be lying or being used by the “Right Wing Smear Machine” (Patent Pending) to bring down an innocent Leftist.
Even if the “innocent Leftist” has photos of him doing what he’s alleged to have done.
The thing to remember about the Left is they politicize sex because they politicize everything. When it comes to sexual harassment, they play jump rope with the tightrope they expect the rest of us to walk. And since the time of Anita Hill, they’ve learned how to play Double Dutch to the country’s detriment. When you are allowed to play fast and loose with the rules you personally set, you can justify anything.
That’s how cults get started. And Amway.
Right now, Cuomo is benefitting from the Leftist double standard, oddly enough in two ways. First, he’s skating on behavior that would get most of us drug through the mud by the people defending him. Second, it takes attention away from a more serious issue, that being his boneheaded approach to dealing with COVID-19 by putting patients with the elderly, one of the groups most susceptible to contracting it…and dying from it. Then again, the media have done a piss poor job of covering this aspect to Cuomo’s incompetence, so they’re focusing on the sexual scandal because sex sells. If the Left can get us to focus on the sex, they’re betting we’ll forget about the killing of Grandma and Grandpa. Then, once the sexual harassment story goes away, so does the nursing home scandal.
Unfortunately for them, that’s not how it works, kids.
Using sexual harassment as a means to cover up a major scandal is low, even for Leftists, because it shows how little they care about women’s issues that don’t rhyme with abortion or the gender pay gap. They can and will use women to achieve political ends, thus making the women affected by sexual harrassment and sexual assault acceptable losses as long as the Left gets what it wants.
In other words, the Left are the sexual predators they keep warning us exist.
The thing we have going for us is consistency. While the Left changes their rules at the drop of a hat, or some other article of clothing for that matter, we rely on facts and evidence gathered through research and logical thinking. No matter who is being accused, we want there to be an investigation where every allegation can be verified or rejected. What’s more, we don’t care whose ox gets gored in the process. As long as we continue to follow that mindset, the Left will ultimately lose.
In the meantime, Andrew Cuomo should be held accountable for what we’ve seen him do. Even though his sexual harassment is being used as a scapegoat, the fact he and his ideological partners are willing to throw women under the campaign bus to protect him should make the Left take a seat.
As in a Colosseum’s worth.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
As we get closer to the first full school year under COVID-19, it’s interesting to see the differences in whether the schools are open, closed, or on a hybrid system. Many schools are open without issues, while others are closed up tighter than Rosie O’Donnell in a size 1 dress. After the Center for Disease Control reported public schools were safe to be open, there was one tiny little problem.
Teachers’ unions.
These unions have taken it upon themselves to build a case against opening schools, citing potential health issues (i.e. contracting COVID-19) as reasons schools should remain closed. And the Left, following the science, has sided with…the teachers’ unions.
Who are these people who can defy science without the self-described Party of Science get upset? Let’s find out!
teachers’ unions
What the Left thinks it means – a union devoted to ensuring top quality teachers are represented and are free to teach to the best of their abilities
What it really means – a unaccountable union devoted to donating funds to the Left while holding no standards for the union members, no matter how much it hurts students
It’s scary to think about how much power teachers’ unions have as compared to their private sector counterparts. While a labor union can order strikes to get better wages and/or benefits, their impact is still relatively limited to a company or industry. A teachers’ union’s reach can span generations and impact millions of students and families to the point society itself is forced to change. The kindergarteners of today are going to grow up to be the Leftists of tomorrow, thanks to teachers’ unions.
Now, I’m not saying this as someone who doesn’t know the ins and outs of public schools. I am a public school graduate, and many of my family and friends have direct experience with the public school experience, and it’s getting to be where we’re all singing the same song. In my lifetime alone, I’ve watched public schools go from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every morning to not reciting it to possibly not have any student know what it is in the first place. Sure, they’ll know all about inclusion and how to use condoms before they’re even past the “girls/boys are icky” stage, but not how to do simple math, write complete sentences, and the three branches of government. You know, stuff that’s kinda important to creating the next generation of citizens?
And the sad part is we let it go unnoticed and unchecked until it was too late to do anything about it.
That’s by design, so it’s not all our faults. Teachers’ unions love to work in plain sight while hiding their true intentions and devices. And, as you might expect, it all comes down to money. Thanks to the Department of Education (which is as useless as footnotes in a TMZ article), teachers’ unions are paid heavily to promote Leftist ideals under the guise of education. The only cost is these same unions funnel money back into Leftist coffers to support “pro-education” candidates. Once those candidates get into office, they can appropriate money to the teachers’ unions, who turn around and use those funds to…oh, I don’t know…build and maintain office buildings in Washington, DC. But I’m sure it’s for the kids…
If you believe that, I have swamp land in Arizona I’d love to sell you.
In fact, I’m hard-pressed to find anything teachers’ unions do for students, but they’ll bend over backwards to protect even the worst teachers in their ranks. Including defying the direction of the CDC. Let that roll around in your noggins for a bit. School districts are being kept shut in spite of the science we’re supposed to be following according to the Left because of a bunch of people who probably don’t teach science saying it’s too dangerous to teach because of a virus with a high-90% survival rate.
If that doesn’t tell you how much power teachers’ unions have right now, nothing will.
As much as I’d like to say there’s an easy answer to curtailing this power, I can’t. I mean, I can, but I wouldn’t be accurate in doing so. Instead, all I can suggest is to keep tabs on what is being taught in your local schools. Even if you no longer have children in school, the only way to combat indoctrination via teachers’ unions is to stay involved. Get on the school board. Keep current on what is being taught and try to combat the misinformation. Above all else, expose the bad actors whenever you can. After enough exposure, the teachers’ unions will lose their cover and will be forced to take action. After all, nothing hurts Leftists more than exposing their tactics.
And besides, how can we mock them if they aren’t exposed to be the total dipshits they are?
The United States of Orwell
We’re less than a month into the Biden Administration and we’re already seeing changes in the way things are getting done. Unfortunately, those changes aren’t good ones.
In the past week alone, the following events occurred:
– Leftists and non-Leftists called out the Biden Administration for promising $2000 COVID-19 relief checks, only to watch the President and the DNC lower that amount to $1400, citing the $600 previously approved was a “down payment.”
– White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki scoffed at the use of anonymous sources for news leads potentially critical of the Biden Administration.
– Biden supporters have expressed a desire/need to limit conservative voices in mainstream media, social media, and in general, suggesting they should be “named and shamed” so people don’t ever do business with them or take them seriously.
– Members of the media are arguing any seemingly dishonest statements from President Joe Biden lack nuance or, more frequently, advise the dishonesty was far worse under President Donald Trump.
– New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose wrote the Biden Administration needs to appoint a “reality czar” to address what he called a “reality crisis.”
– Leftists have eagerly supported “reeducation camps” for Trump supporters as a means to “deprogram” them.
– The Biden Administration requires people to wear masks on federal property as a means to stop the spread of COVID-19 while he has been photographed without one, leading Leftists to try to explain it away.
– Joe Biden announced a program to roll out COVID-19 vaccinations that matched what the Trump Administration was already doing at the same rate.
– Leftists are calling the incoming Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg the first openly gay person to serve in a Cabinet, thereby erasing Richard Grennell’s existence as the first openly gay person to serve in a Cabinet.
We’re not in the Upside Down, kids. This is what is actually happening.
Right now, we’re being told to believe what the government and its agents are telling us, even if it doesn’t live in the same neighborhood as reality. If you though the “gender is fluid” debate was insane, we’re entering a whole new suburb of Crazy Town.
And this is by design. The Left’s playbook has always relied on affecting change through manipulation of language. If they can get people to think a certain way through framing a topic in a certain way, Leftists can reshape perception, which reshapes the audience’s reality even if it creates self-delusion. Although there are many real life examples of this happening, there’s a literary one that seems to fit what the Left is trying, and in some cases succeeding, to do: 1984.
And before you Leftists call me out on it, I have read the book and understand it quite clearly. Unlike you, I also understand it’s not an instruction manual.
Whether it’s Big Brother (the fictional entity, not the TV show) or Big Biden, the principle of controlling the narrative is vital to the outcome. The more they can get you to believe 2 + 2 = 5, the better able they are able to convince you of other absurdities, like there are more than 2 genders, white people can believe they’re black, and it’s okay to enact fascism under the guise of preventing it.
George Orwell would be proud. Or frightened. Or confused.
But you needn’t be any of those because non-Leftists have a secret weapon that undercuts the Left’s most Orwellian of policies: free will. When you really think about it, the Left requires subservience to be successful, but only if you choose to be subservient. We can’t all be as outwardly rebellious as Number 6 from “The Prisoner,” but we can camouflage what we believe through the kind of intellectual subterfuge the Left employs. Outwardly comply, but inwardly resist. At some point, the Left will over-reach and their house of cards falls down.
And that’s the other secret weapon we have: the Left is just that stupid.
No matter what, the Left always manages to find a way to ensure defeat after securing victory, usually within a short time. Their main flaw is and always has been they don’t typically think strategically in advance of the next election. They think in terms of what wins now versus what will win years from now. The whole $1400 check debacle is proof of that. They keep doubling and tripling down on the “it’s basic math” argument when they need to be thinking of how to deliver what was promised without trying to weasel out of it. That doesn’t help anyone, let alone the people who actually need the money. Plus, once more people realize why they didn’t get $2000 in the first place and what party caused it (Spoiler Alert: It’s the Democrats), it’s not going to end well.
So keep your chins up, dear readers. No matter how many times the Left tells you 2+2=5, just remember these same rotten eggheads came up with Common Core.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
The Left loves recycling. Just look at the ideas they keep bringing up even after they’ve failed worse than Michael Dukakis trying to look tough driving a tank. One of the ideas that has come back into vogue for the Left is cancelling student debt. And with the possibility of Democrats taking back the Senate as of this writing, the idea may become a reality before we know it.
And in typical current year fashion, there’s a hashtag to promote the idea, #CancelStudentDebt, designed to get the President and Department of Education to use their powers to forgive federal student loan debt. But as anyone who’s seen “Jurassic Park” a couple of times will tell you, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Should we? Let’s discuss it further, shall we?
#CancelStudentDebt
What the Left thinks it means – a great way to stimulate the economy and allow college students to put their money towards more practical means
What it really means – a way to remove consequences for people who ran up debt studying stupid majors
Back in the day, going to college was a big deal because it meant you had the intellectual drive and economic ability to go. To help people less fortunate, but no less driven, than wealthier families, student loans were created, and it proved to be the gateway to higher education. As time passed and Leftist ideas about education took hold, the value of a high school education got devalued faster than Arthur Andersen’s reputation, so college went from a luxury to a necessity.
Then, Leftists started coming up with all sorts of crazy majors that result in an utter lack of marketable skills outside the halls of academia. Of course, the students who take on these crazy majors don’t find this out until after they graduate with a ton of debt and a lack of ability to do anything more challenging than asking whether you want to Mega-Size your drive-thru meal. Instead of going back to the colleges and universities that gave out the academic equivalent of a Burger King crown, these students (who are all Leftists because that’s what they’ve been indoctrinated to be) look to the government to help them again after asking them for help to get the useless degrees they got in the first place.
Funny how that works, isn’t it?
When it comes to cancelling student debt, I can see what the proposed economic benefits could be. Not having to pay through the nose monthly to pay for the education received would be allow young people to put more of that money towards living expenses, like rent, food, and, oh yeah, the latest iPhones. Just because you have more money to spend doesn’t mean you will spend it wisely. As someone who ran up credit card debt like a scammer at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch, I am proof of that.
Although this will put money back into the economy (at least on paper), it also allows people to run up a different kind of debt. If you think student loans are bad, wait until you see the interest payments on credit cards. (Of course, the Left also wants to cancel credit card debt, but that’s a blog post for a different time.) And unlike student loan holders, credit card companies expect to get paid monthly and have the tools to really make your life a perpetual 2020. Given how much people spend these days to get the latest stuff and their lack of even a cursory knowledge of basic economics, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb saying cancelling student debt will be a bane to the folks who ran up the student debt and a boon for credit card companies.
Here’s a fun little fact to mull over if you support cancelling student debt. The people who tend to default the most on student loans are…doctors and lawyers. In other words, the Left are inadvertently helping former students who could afford to pay their debts, but choose not to. Tell me again how you Leftists are against tax cuts for the rich again…
But there are a few groups of people who will be left behind with this idea. Some people worked their way through college without student loans, while others have been paying off or have paid off their debt. To put it simply, these folks are hosed. Yet, these are the ones who will be expected to make up the shortfalls of cancelling student debt, all while not getting any of the benefits. As it turn out, that may be by design.
When the Left thinks of economics, they think in terms of winners and losers. If someone gets ahead, it’s solely because they took advantage of someone else, even if the former did everything by himself/herself. When you view the world like this, there will always be a power dynamic that has to be “corrected” to make things “fair.” So, the Left will always see those who have paid their debts as the ones with power and the ones who ran up the debts but haven’t paid them as victims.
The one thing the Left overlooks in this dynamic is choice. We choose to go to college, we choose what classes to take, we choose what majors we want, we choose to accumulate debt, and we choose whether to pay off said debt. That’s a lot of choices, and all of them personal choices. That means the people complaining about crushing student loan debt are the ones who put themselves there in the first place. But since Leftists are incapable of accepting responsibility for their actions, they will blame others for the stupid decisions they make and expect the government to bail them out.
But that’s not how it works. The government isn’t there to be your babysitter, nor is it there to fund your dreams of finding a job in the Albino Native American Pottery Poetry field. At some point, you have to realize a lot of the crap you’re experiencing is on you and you might need to figure out how to get yourselves out of it. The first step towards that end is realizing you’ve made some horrible decisions, and I’m not just talking about getting multiple piercings to the point you trigger the metal detectors in airports 3 states over. Take a look at who and what you support and what role they’ve had in shaping your decisions. If they’re the cause or at least the cheerleaders of your bad decisions, they’re not role models; they’re enablers, and they might just be making a buck or two off your misfortunes.
In the meantime, let’s take the hashtag activism for a walk on the responsible side. Even if you agree with the #CancelStudentDebt notion, there are parts of it that, if unresolved, will lead to the biggest producer drop-out rate since Atlas Shrugged. And without someone else’s money to fall back on, what will Leftists do?
Probably create another hashtag.
Thanks, But No Thanksgiving
Maybe I missed the memo on this, but has November become the black sheep of the calendar family? It seems we’ve gone from wearing scary costumes to Santa costumes in the span of, oh, minutes after Halloween ended. It’s almost as though we’ve forgotten the major holiday that occurs in November: Black Friday.
Seriously, though, we’re more interested in running up credit card debts we’ll be paying off right around next Christmas than we are about being thankful for what we have right now. Granted, COVID-19 and 2020 in general make it harder to be thankful than usual, but I’ve noticed this trend well before this year. It seems like the one time of the year set aside to appreciate what God (or whatever entity you worship or don’t worship) has given us has been replaced by a new god. No matter how cool the PlayStation 5 is, that should give us pause for concern.
It’s natural to want to have what others want and to get it first so you can be the envy of your friends. This feeling has grown to Godzilla-sized proportions with society getting more narcissistic and tech-addicted because they have allowed us to shrink our universe where we are the center of it and can document it all from the exhilarating to the mundane. Technology has also allowed us to reshape our reality for the online world. Don’t like your face? There are any number of filters and cartoonish features that you can add! Think you look fat in your pictures? A little Photoshop work and you’re thinner than the plot of a romance novel. You can be the perfect you in your own little world.
But the problems really start when you prefer your little world to the real world. Ego is a double-edged Sword of Damocles. A healthy ego allows you to be proud of who you are while admitting you’re imperfect. An unhealthy ego doesn’t split the difference; you either love yourself excessively or hate yourself excessively. And right now, there are a lot of people comfortable with loving themselves.
I know this seems like an odd tangent when we were just talking about Thanksgiving, but here’s the payoff. When your ego is inflated like the Goodyear blimp, you start thinking everything good comes from you, thus you have nothing to be thankful for than you. I’m sure that saves time when it comes to thinking what to be thankful for this year, but it alienates a lot of people in the process.
I have a saying: “Success is never singular.” What I mean by that is you never achieve a personal goal without some help along the way. Think back to some of your greatest achievements in life and look at who was there for you as you achieved them. A teacher, a loved one, an author, the list is potentially endless, but they’re all united by the fact they gave you the tools to be the best you can be. When you look at life in that way, you learn to appreciate more and be grandiose less.
In other words, you learn to be more…what’s the word…oh, yeah, thankful.
Even with COVID-19 taking a big chunk of the heart of Thanksgiving, we can still take a moment to be thankful. After all, the Pilgrims had a rough go of it, and they didn’t even care about what Black Friday deals the local trappers had. Even when they had little, they were thankful for what they had. In today’s world of instant gratification, ego stroking, and trying to keep up with the Joneses, it shouldn’t take less time to appreciate who and what you have in your lives than it does to place an Amazon order or post a heavily-filtered selfie on Instagram.
Yet, somehow, I think the majority of people will do just that. That doesn’t give you an out, though. Take a moment or several to open your heart and mind to the possibility/probability there are people you should be thankful for and then thank them, publicly or privately. You’d be surprised at just how awesome you feel afterwards. The turkey tastes juicier, the mashed potatoes and gravy taste better, the cranberry sauce tastes…well, I don’t know because I don’t touch the stuff, but the point is your perspective changes when you are thankful for what you have. Money can buy you a new iPhone, but it can’t buy you a moment of personal reflection and gratitude.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
During the first Presidential freakshow…I mean debate, moderator Chris Wallace asked Presidential Donald Trump about his stance to discontinue federal racial sensitivity training using Critical Race Theory. You would have thought the President decided to throw kittens and puppies against a brick wall by the way Wallace and the Left reacted to the President taking action on this.
As you might expect, the Left loves Critical Race Theory and hates anyone that would curtail its use. But what exactly is it? An academic exercise? A sociological theory? A combination shampoo and conditioner that prevents dandruff while keeping your hair bouncy and manageable? Well, allow me to be your tour guide on this bus tour of the latest Leftist Lexicon entry. And remember to bring your hip waders because it’s going to get pretty deep here.
Critical Race Theory
What the Left thinks it means – an important concept necessary to address systemic racism and create an even playing field for all
What it really means – a crackpot idea that perpetuates racism as a means to gain financial, political, and social power
Granted, I might have a bit of a slanted view on Critical Race Theory because, well, I’m applying common sense and logic to it. Darn my logical mind! Let me try to explain it concisely and without my biases getting in the way. Critical Race Theory has two facets. The first is white supremacy has obtained and maintained a monopoly of power through various systems, including the law. The second is these systems can and should be dismantled and transformed to balance the scales, as it were.
On second thought, let’s go with what I originally typed.
The first tenet of Critical Race Theory sounds a lot like what the Left thinks today about whites, or as I prefer to be called Honkey-Americans. There is an article of faith on the Left (which is weird given their stance on religion generally) that there are power structures all over the place controlled by whites. You can’t swing a dead voter’s stack of absentee ballots without hitting one! If you question it, the Left doesn’t provide proof. Instead, they call you ignorant, backwards, or worst of all…a Trump supporter!
The funny thing is the lack of proof the Left provides is the proof of the lack of racist power structures. Even though there are still predominantly white positions of power, there are people of all colors making strides into said positions. Do we have a point of equity yet? Nope, but we have a point where race is not a factor in determining qualifications for a position. If anything, hiring practices may be moving in a direction where being white is a hindrance.
Then, let’s take a look at college enrollment and pre-enrollment activities, like the SATs. As far back as the 1990s, the SATs have been adjusting their scoring based on the race of the student taking the test. It’s like handicapping a horse race, but with scores. If student A is of a certain race, he or she will get points added to the final score. If student B is of a different race, he or she will get deducted points from the final score. Based on research done on these scoring practices, the ones getting the points added tend to be black, while the ones getting points deducted tend to be white and Asian. When these students enroll in college, blacks get higher acceptance rates than whites or Asians with similar or superior qualifications.
Feel superior yet, my fellow Honkey-Americans?
The second tenet of Critical Race Theory looks good on the surface, but underneath lies, well, lies. Even if you replace all of the white people in power (which would be incredibly sexist) and replace them with people of color, it’s not going to change the system itself. All it will do is change who is in charge of it. And if you do destroy the allegedly racist system and rebuild it in your image, what would that look like? I think I do.
Maybe there are some white farmers in South Africa right now willing to help educate the Critical Race Theory fans about what their ideas might lead to if allowed to come to fruition. Provided they’re not murdered for being white, that is.
The real damage from Critical Race Theory isn’t limited to the perceived systems of power. It’s also affected education, the legal system, and of all things freedom of speech, just to name a few. But it’s in those few areas where the bulk of the damage can be done because each area I just mentioned affects us personally, even if we’re not people of color. We have at least a generation or more of college students who have been taught on various aspects of Critical Race Theory in numerous academic disciplines who then apply that information in other sections. And before you can say “Put on a mask,” it’s spread far and wide.
On second thought, you might need a hazmat suit because Critical Race Theory is as toxic as 1987 Chernobyl.
One of the big questions I have for Critical Race Theory advocates is what happens if you can’t persuade people to adopt it. It’s going to be a hard sell for a lot of people, so there is going to be pushback, and based on what I’ve seen on the topic, it’s not well-developed beyond “white people suck.” And if this is about holding people accountable, who will keep you accountable should your idea go the way of South Africa, circa…oh, today?
As Bill Clinton would say, “There’s the rub.” Wait, that was “Rub me there.” Either way, the basic concept of Critical Race Theory lacks the kind of specificity that would make it persuasive and actionable. Then, there’s the prospect the idea could spread to other minorities and be used against the ones currently pushing for Critical Race Theory. For example, what if Critical Race Theory was used to say African-Americans have institutions of power that have been used to oppress Asian-Americans? Or black conservatives using it to suggest black Leftists have institutional power used against them? And don’t get me started on the power structures that have oppressed albino Eskimo tap-dancers who self identify as Cher!
From where I sit (which is usually in my living room), Critical Race Theory has the potential to be abused to the point of absurdity, further diving people and making the current situation worse. To put it another way, Critical Race Theory is the academic equivalent of 2020: you don’t know what’s going to happen next, but you know it’s going to suck.
Here’s my solution. Ignore race and treat each other like human beings. Sure, it’s not good for the Leftist outrage machine, but it has a track record of working multiple times a day in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and social interactions. Look at where you live, work, and play. Even in my neck of flyover country, people of all races and beliefs get along, and without needing or wanting Critical Race Theory. If anything, we have Critical We Don’t Care About Race Because It’s A Superficial Reason To Hate Each Other Theory. It may not roll off the tongue easily, but it makes a heck of a lot more sense than the alternative.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
As the situation in Portland continues to cement the idea of how gonzo the Left has gotten, the media are doing their parts to minimize the PR damage being done. Who knew trying to set a federal courthouse on fire and leaving trash everywhere would be bad for the image of a movement? Right now there are two narratives being expressed. One is based on on-the-ground videos of rioterrrrr…I mean protesters doing what is being attributed to them. The other is based on trying to downplay the situation to give the impression what we’re seeing isn’t what’s really going on.
Guess which one the media are running with.
As the Left tries to contain the blowback, they’ve come up with a turn of a phrase: mostly peaceful. Seems nice, doesn’t it? Well, I’m about to be the black fly in your Chardonnay if you believe that.
And no, I’m not being ironic, and yeah I really do think.
mostly peaceful
What the Left thinks it means – the best way to describe what’s going on in Portland well before Donald Trump sent his government stormtroopers to cause problems
What it really means – a phrase designed to make you think what you’re seeing play out on live video isn’t what is happening on live video
To better understand the Left’s narrative, we need to figure out why it seems plausible. Since the rioterrrr…I mean protesters aren’t keen on letting people know who they are and what their motivations are (Spoiler Alert: it’s most likely socialism), it’s hard to pin down whether their motives are peaceful or violent. While this would be a problem for normal people, it’s actually a boon for the Left because it’s impossible to discern who is the second coming of Gandhi and who is the second coming of Guy Fawkes. With this uncertainty of motives, it’s plausible to say it’s only a handful of people committing the crimes, leaving the others’ hands clean.
On a larger scale, too, the Left’s narrative makes sense. The vast majority of Portland isn’t Beirut with better coffee shops. In fact, most of the chaos is contained within an approximately six block area that just so happens to be located in the same neighborhood as a federal courthouse. So, in all actuality to the Left, Portland is mostly peaceful.
If you’re expecting a “but” out of me, you know it’s about to drop.
Let’s take the “handful of criminals” aspect first. Appropriately enough, the Left’s own rhetoric against the police department destroys this idea. One of the Left’s favorite slogans during this flaming fiasco and others of a similar vein is “Silence Is Violence.” In essence, if you remain silent when there is a crime against another person being committed, you are condoning it. (Granted, these are some of the same nozzleheads who also say words are violence, but that’s a blog post for another time.) Now, let’s apply that same thought process to Portland. If you see bad actors using your platform to cause harm to someone or something else, shouldn’t you be considered someone who condones the actions being taken? Wouldn’t your silence be violence, in this case literally?
As far as the larger Portland area is concerned, it’s true there’s only a limited area negatively impacted at the moment. However, when you have the Mayor and Governor giving silent consent for the anarchy going on, the fact it’s been contained to that six block area is a miracle in and of itself. What happens when that good fortune runs out and that six block area gets wider? Based on riots…I mean protests in other cities, it’s only a matter of time before the downtown folks decide to head to the suburbs (provided, of course, they don’t already live there in Mommy and Daddy’s basement). Then, the permissiveness granted previously might not survive much beyond the first incident between the protesters and the private security guard at the gate.
Even if I buy the notion Portland is mostly peaceful because the criminal activity is limited, it’s hard to argue with the video coverage. And, yes, you can claim these videos are out of context, but until you provide a viable alternate context, I have to go with what I see, and what I see is a less-than-peaceful protest. No matter how many shields you make and show off, no matter how many moms (or alleged moms) show up to form a wall, no matter how many veterans (or alleged veterans) supply support, no matter how many fathers (or alleged fathers) show up with leaf blowers, we have to believe what we’re seeing.
The Left can’t have that, though, so they’re trying to get us to disbelieve what we’re seeing. It’s a mild form of gaslighting, which is a grossly overused term these days to describe when someone tries to get another people or group of people to doubt themselves through psychological means. The Left’s tactics here are subtle, but evident and need to be called out for what it is: an attempt to downplay criminal behavior by ideological allies because the Left think it helps them against President Donald Trump in the upcoming Presidential election. In order for this to be successful, however, they have to lie repeatedly. Some are small, some are large, but all of them are lies.
That’s why their gaslighting attempts won’t work. We can see what the rioterrrr…I mean protesters are doing in the videos and livestreams. Spin it all you want, Leftists, but it’s clear these activities aren’t remotely peaceful, let alone mostly peaceful. The more you try to make it look and sound otherwise, the more foolish you look.
Then again, your partners in crime are LARPing as revolutionaries, so maybe you’re used to it by now.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that inevitably everything bad can and will be pinned on race. Just within the past year or so, everything from chess to Dr. Seuss has been deemed racist by some member of the Left, and not ironically I might add. The reasons for this are simple: 1) it’s identity politics, and 2) they’re morons.
Yet, if someone like me were to try to push back, the Left would accuse me of “white fragility.” Personally, I’m more into blues, but I wasn’t aware fragility was color based these days. I did, however, know it may be Italian.
To keep everyone in the loop on this, let’s explore white fragility in all of its…I would say glory, but there’s nothing glorious about it.
white fragility
What the Left thinks it means – a negative reaction from whites in reaction to people of color pushing back against white-controlled entities
What it really means – racism against whites
The Left will disagree with my definition of white fragility because of their own definition of racism. To them, whites can’t be victims of racism because whites have power, while people of color don’t. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say the cities where Black Lives Matter members/supporters have burned and looted might have a different opinion of how powerless people of color are. Regardless, this notion is at the core of white fragility because it implies whites are scared of people who don’t look like them exercising the rights whites have been able to exercise themselves.
Which, of course, is crap fostered by the Left in their attempts to be the Great White Hope to people of color.
The Left truly believes they are the only ones who can speak for people of color, and too many people believe it even within the POC community. (Apparently a lack of irony is not just a Leftist phenomenon.) Yet, when it comes to white people like me who openly question why race is such a factor in these types of discussions, the strong white Leftists and their POC counterparts all assume it’s because we’re scared of the change they say is inevitable. Yes, whites will no longer control anything and will have to pay for the sins of systemic racism because…reasons.
And really that’s what it comes down to: reasons devoid of reason.
Any pushback against this sort of thinking is deemed as “white fragility,” but it’s not. In today’s society, taking a stand against racism is pretty much the current societal default setting. The issue is being against all racism, not just the acceptable racism against whites that is so pervasive on the Left. Although the Left has watered down racism to the point of Rep. Eric Swalwell’s Presidential aspirations this year, there is still a definition of racism that works pretty well: the idea that one race is superior or inferior to others. The entire concept of white fragility has its foundations in the notion whites are weak and incapable of adjusting to a situation where whites aren’t the majority.
Guess what, Leftists. You’re racists! Congratulations, and don’t forget to grab your racism starter kit before you leave. And since you believe only whites can be racist, you have no defense.
Once you get beyond the delicious irony of white Leftists being the actual racists in this situation, there is another level of delicious irony when you consider Leftists are the ones who say words are violence. Let that sink in for a moment. The people who love to use “white fragility” think words are violence. If that isn’t fragility, I don’t know what is, but it’s good to know I can use my vocabulary to bludgeon a Leftist figuratively and quite possibly literally.
At the end of the day, it’s night, but it’s also the height of white Leftist snobbery to use white fragility as a response to anyone who isn’t down with their imaginary struggle. If anything, it takes a strong person to stand up against the Left’s bullying these days, so fragility isn’t even in the equation. What is in the equation is the lengths the Left and their POC allies will go to protect the Leftist narrative at the expense of the very POCs white Leftists claim to support. Using racist terminology while proclaiming utterly unrelated things as racist weakens the concept of racism, thus making it harder for actual racism to be confronted. And using “white fragility” to dismiss concerns, legitimate or otherwise, doesn’t help. All it does is create divisions where there don’t need to be.
Granted, there are entitled white folks (Karens, Chads, etc.) who can be used as examples of white fragility, and rightly so. As a white (or if you prefer Honkey-American) man, I can tell you most of us are sick of these idiots, too. Not all of us are like that, though. And shouldn’t we avoid condemning an entire group of people because of the actions of a few?
Or does that standard only apply to Black Lives Matter? Asking for a friend.
CHOPped Short
If you had the under in the CHAZ/CHOP betting pool, go to the window to pick up your winnings.
After three weeks of murder, mayhem, and general government incompetence, the Seattle Police Department spent a few minutes of their morning today to retake the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest compound. And I do mean minutes. If they had retreated any faster, the French would have sued for copyright infringement.
The funny thing is their failure was not only imminent, but predictable. In order to be autonomous as CHOP claimed to be, there is a need for personal discipline and a respect for others. Needless to say the Left doesn’t subscribe to either of those. They want what they want when they want it and they don’t care how they get it, but once the bill comes to pay for what they want, the only thing you see of them is the cloud of dust as they leave as quickly as possible.
This is in contrast to the way libertarians (small and capital L) and some conservatives approach the idea of self-governance/autonomy. Although they passionately believe in Man’s natural desire to be free, they also understand the necessity of not infringing on other people’s desires to be free as well. Without the latter, any society built on the former will not succeed.
Although I would hope we would see more of the right-leaning philosophy on autonomy take hold, I’m not confident it will happen. Society today has made a lot of people self-absorbed and unconcerned about the plight of others (which, oddly enough, is kind of what motivated the CHOPpers to start their little social experiment in the first place). We have become so fractured and distant from people who live across the hall, across the street, or across the country that self-governance even on a small scale will be a flop of “Gigli”-esque proportions.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate those little moments of freedom that come not from a government or a warlord, but from the conscious decision to live my life as I see fit with an understanding of the implications of my decisions on others so I do as little harm to them as possible. At a time when we can’t get a chunk of the population to wear masks in public to protect others from possibly catching COVID-19, it’s important we balance rights and responsibilities for no other reason than because it’s the right thing to do for everyone involved. If you’re constantly looking out for number one, you invariably wind up as a piece of number two, if you know what I mean.
And speaking of number two, there will be a lot of that to clean up, literally and figuratively, from the CHOPping grounds, and it won’t be the CHOPpers who get to foot the bill. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a Leftist it’s they never think they have to pay for their failures, no matter how badly they’ve screwed everything up. They’re like the rowdy kids who will always come to a party, but leave right before it’s time to start the clean-up. To the Left, it’s the intentions that matter, not the results. Which is good for the CHOPpers because they accomplished exactly nothing. Bad cops are still out on the streets, good people are still getting murdered, theft and violent crimes continue, and CHOP turned out to be…well, the aforementioned “Gigli”-esque failure it was destined to be.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen what the CHOPpers would have done over the next couple of months, maybe even into the fall when temperatures drop and Seattle’s climate turns a bit cooler and wetter. Oh, well, I’m sure there will be another CHOP site somewhere that will provide me with more giggles. It’s only a matter of time before history repeats itself.