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Monday, August 14, 2017

They're Lying to You: Charlottesville and the Narrative (Updated)

        The last 48 hours has seen numerous headlines like these:
Many, many news outlets have used the events over the past couple of days to paint a picture of the Alt-Right as hateful and fascists and/or Nazis (it is interesting to me how socialists always jump to paint their opposition as Nazis). Many have even drawn the box wider, and blamed the violence on the National Rifle Association (NRA) and American conservatives generally. Nearly universal, however, is condemnation of the Alt-Right and a call on President Trump to denounce the Alt-Right. So, it is worthwhile to go over the facts and deconstruct what happened:

1.   The Three Deaths.

      First off, we have headline after headline touting that there 3 deaths due to the rally/protest. Not true. There was one death caused by James Alex Fields Jr., whose vehicle struck the rear of a slow moving vehicle, causing a it to ram another vehicle in front of it, which plowed into numerous people, killing Heather Heyer--probably an Anti-Fa counter-protester. Fields supposedly belonged to a group called Vanguard America, which the Anti-Defamation League claims is a white nationalist group and, by implication, a Neo-Nazi group. It is presumed that the crash was intentional, both because of the speed Fields was driving, and the fact that he quickly backed away from the scene. However, we don't know why he was driving fast or why he crashed into the other two vehicles--his speed, at best, only suggests that he was driving recklessly. As for his backing away, if you watch the videos, you will see that a crowd almost simultaneously rushed his car. If he hadn't backed away, he probably would have been severely beaten by the Anti-Fa rioters.

       The other two deaths were two State troopers, H. Jay Cullen and Berke M.M. Bates, whose helicopter crashed late in the afternoon, after the violence had ended. The helicopter crashed 7 miles southwest of the City by a golf course. The site of the rally was at Emancipation Park (formally Lee Park in honor of Robert E. Lee), which is located in the heart of Charlottesville. Thus, the crash--and the two deaths--is not a result of the violence at the rally.

2.    "Unite the Right" And Other "Right Wing" Protesters Were Responsible For the Violence.

       Another theme current in most of the reports was that the rally organizers were responsible for the violence.  But let's step back in time a bit and review the facts leading up to the rally. First, the rally was being held to protest the decision of the City of Charlottesville to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee. This has been a part of a larger by the left to remove any statues or monuments celebrating or memorializing Confederate leaders or soldiers. It has been viewed by many on the right--and rightly so, in my opinion--as an attempt to eradicate the history of Southerners. In that regard, it is not dissimilar to similar actions by ISIS and the Taliban to eradicate any traces of pre-Islamic history in the regions they have controlled by destroying museums and historically significant monuments.

       The Unite the Right rally had a rocky start, with them having to fight a court battle to obtain and keep their license to hold the rally. Conveniently, though, Black Lives Matter and Anti-Fa (collectively, the CTRL-Left) were quickly granted their licenses to hold counter-demonstrations and, overplaying his hand in my opinion, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) declared a state of emergency before the protests had even begun.

       On Friday evening, a small number of attendees held a "tiki torch" vigil and listened (as best they could) to speeches. They were outnumbered by police and the CTRL-Left which attempted to drown out the Unite the Right speakers with their screaming and chanting. Nevertheless, the protest was peaceful.

       That all ended on Saturday. Numerous sources indicate that the CTRL-Left attacked the Unite the Right supporters. Although the Unite the Right had a license and a court order allowing their rally, the police and national guard on scene did nothing to keep the two sides separated; rather, as we have seen at other Anti-Fa and Black Lives Matter incidents, the police stood down, which allowed the leftist free reign to attack. The Unite the Right, based on past protests, apparently expected this, and were themselves prepared to fight back. Thus, in short, this appears to be another case where the incident was manufactured by the left, and aided and abetted by Democrat party officials in city and state government.

3.    Connecting the Events with the Alt-Right or New Conservatism.

       The left, of course, vehemently fear and hate the Alt-Right. And Jews--even those that are politically conservative--have a knee-jerk reaction causing them to condemn anyone perceived as white-nationalist. So it is not surprising to see widespread condemnation in the media over the violence and attempting to pin the blame on the Unite the Right organizers. More disturbing, though, is that these same groups--including conservative Jews--have linked the Unite the Right and its supporters to the Alt-Right more generally. Let there be no mistake about this: this is yet another attempt to undermine President Trump, either by requiring him to denounce a large portion of his political base, or condemning him via guilty by association with what the CTRL-Left are terming Nazis. As The Daily Caller reported: "[Charlottesville Mayor] Signer sought to place the blame for the alt-right rally on President Trump, declaring that the supposed empowerment of racism 'goes right to the doorstep of the president and the people around him who chose to dance with the devil in their presidential campaign.'"    

4.    Long Term Results.

       My take, as well as that of many others, is that this riot and how the media and political wonks have responded to it will have the opposite effect intended, by actually increasing support for the Alt-Right.

       I have stated before, and I still believe it, that Trump's presidency is the last attempt by wide swaths of the American public to peaceably restore balance and sanity to the political order. Continued sabotage and senseless attacks on the Trump presidency merely push America toward a conclusion that peaceable political change is no longer possible.

      In addition,  much as some may decry it, the genie of identity politics is out of the bottle. Identity politics begets identity politics because it breaks society into tribes. Minorities and all the "special snowflake" interest groups could safely engage in identity politics as long as their numbers remained relatively small to the body politic as a whole. However, as the left has been crowing about for the last several years, minorities are now reaching numerical parity with whites. Suddenly, whites (especially white men) have begun to realize that are the marks in a huge political con job; they are the ones slated for extinction. As an example, The Daily Caller reported that "[Virginia Governor] McAuliffe issued a strong denunciation of the alt-right and the rally violence on Saturday, telling white nationalists there was 'no place for you in America.'" As Michael Ledeen points out, the combination of identity politics and the obvious siding of the government with the CTRL-Left will ensure more incidents like Charlottesville.

       If you want to see this push back in action, I would direct your attention to the article "Terror in Charlottesville and American Decline" by Jason Willick at The American Interest. Willick took the path of least resistance, and wrote:
The events in Charlotesville—in which a neo-Nazi ran down anti-racist protesters after a white supremacist march, killing at least one person and injuring many more—were distinctively hideous. The anti-civilizational fascists of the alt-right, no longer confined to marginal online forums, were out in force in a storied American town, maiming people on the streets. The President whom they openly admire (former Klansman David Duke praised him in an interview at the march) deliberately equivocated when given the opportunity to condemn them. Maybe he was egging them on, or maybe he is simply so narcissistic that he cannot distance himself from anyone who has offered loyalty. It doesn’t matter. Neo-Nazi blogs delighted at the President’s non-response. Fascists are emboldened. More on the far-Left will become convinced that racism cannot be fought adequately within the political system.
Then look through the comments. A lot of push back. A good example is this this comment:
Where are the disavowals of Black Lives Matter, the Baltimore rioters, Antifa campus fascists, Assassin of the Dallas policemen, CAIR, LA RAZA. the Communist Party U.S.A., the Knockout game players, Black Mob Violence gangsters, MS 13, not to mention Eric Holder, Susan Rice, Loretta Lynch and Barack Hussein Obama! All these organization and individuals have violated the civil rights of ordinary American citizens without a peep coming from the "Establishment" except to blame their victims. 
Yet one guy who kills one person with a car is somehow a planned right wing terrorists campaign equal to 911. That is the reason Trump won and will continue to win election. Such one-sided analysis shows disrespect for ordinary American Citizens and displays the "D.C.'s" effete and totally out-of-touch concerns. 
The American People have wised up. They will no longer be diverted by the "Establishment's" Shiny Object Strategy. The squishy Republican Senators (McCain, Graham, etc.) days are numbered. There will be a reckoning for the aforementioned Democrat Rouge's Gallery. The American People demand it!
       The Anonymous Conservative and Vox Day both make good points in relation to the reaction to the protests and violence in Charlottesville. Vox Day notes that dishonestly conflating the Unite the Right group(s) with the Alt-Right generally, "is one of the strongest indicators that our views are convincing and catching on with more and more former conservatives and libertarians and liberals alike."  Anonymous Conservative observes:
       What has happened here is the left is establishing that some speech is able to be deemed unacceptable by the left, and then can be attacked violently, with government support. Now Ted Cruz is supporting them on that front by helping them attack someone who they are using as a proxy for the right. That will only increase leftist violence at conservative events in the future, probably even including Ted Cruz rallies. 
       If White Nationalists can’t speak their views in public, the left will assume that now they can determine other ideological ideas are also verboten. I don’t care if it is Nazis, socialists, or simple conservatives. If you use violence to shut down free speech, that is a grave threat to freedom.

5.    The Violence Continues.

       No, not the violence from the Right, but the violence from the CTRL-Left.

Links:
Update: Added citation and quotes to Vox Day and Anonymous Conservative.
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