Ending the Abusive Relationship With the Left

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”  George Orwell's famous line from his novel Animal Farm is a consistent theme in the Maoist revolution we are witnessing. 

    Writ small, it is the petty and self centered behavior of hypocrite politicians to whom COVID-19 restrictions don’t apply. For instance, Nancy Pelosi relying on her power and position to get her hair done in a San Francisco salon during a time when, by law, all salons are closed due to COVID-19 concerns. (Reminiscent of Bill Clinton tying up air traffic at Los Angeles International Airport for nearly an hour in 1993 "all so that President Clinton's Beverly Hills hairstylist, Christophe, could come aboard [Air Force One] and gave Clinton a trim before he took off for Washington.").

    Writ large, it is the philosophy that underlies the "Black Lives Matter" slogan and "anti-racism." Although you will hear platitudes that "Black Lives Matter" doesn't equate to downgrading the lives of others, that really isn't what the most vocal BLM supporters actually believe. A few have even been honest about their feelings. For instance, a Cambridge professor tweeted that "White Lives Don't Matter" and was rewarded with a promotion. In one Canadian town, someone was posting signs that said that "White Lives Don't Matter" and "It's OK to Hate White People". We've seen BLM protesters state that "White Lives Don't Matter." 

    The philosophy of BLM and its advocates is critical theory which came to America via the Marxist Frankfort School and has since metastasized throughout the halls of power and academia. As Eleanor Krasne explains:

    Critical theory, also rooted in Marxism, says that we must understand our beliefs—including on religion and politics—vis-a-vis the “means of production”; namely, businesses and industries. In this view, it’s in the business owners’ interest to create laws, social norms, and ideas that keep them in power. 

    Later on, this concept was applied to race, gender, and other identities. Critical race theorists see these identities as social constructs that support systems of oppression. 

    Regrettably, these theories have permeated higher education, the mainstream media, and, most recently, the responses to Floyd’s killing in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.  

    In college humanities classes, critical theory and its grievance studies accoutrements (critical race theory, feminist theory, and postcolonialism, to name a few) are presented as the only and correct way to understand the world. 

    The Western canon’s lack of gender and race diversity makes it unworthy of study. In other words, one’s gender and/or skin color make their ideas worthy (or not) of discussing. 

    Critical race theory is presented as the singular lens through which one ought to see the world. Race is a social construct, enforced by those in power (white men), and predetermines someone’s role and ability in society. 

    Philosophy and literature (and, increasingly, science) exist to dismantle the power structure instead of serving as vehicles through which we understand the most profound questions around human existence.

    As a result, anyone who went to college during or after the 1960s may very well have never explored ideas around the truth,  justice, or the origins of our rights.

    Simply put, most college graduates with training in the humanities and social sciences lack the vocabulary to talk about racism and prejudice without using the framework of “systemic racism” and “white privilege.” 

    If you disagree with that philosophical framework, then you are ipso facto against fighting racism or deny that racism even exists. And if you push back on the use of terms such as “power structure” or “systemic racism,” you are likewise accused.   

To its adherents, "[c]ritical race theory asks us to consider how we can transform the relationship between race, racism, and power and work toward the liberation of People of Color." 

Some of the basic tenets of CRT [critical race theory] rest on the belief that racism is a fundamental part of American society, not simply an aberration that can be easily corrected by law; that any given culture constructs its own social reality in its own self-interest, and in the United States this means that minorities’ interests are subservient to the system’s self-interest; and that the current system, built by and for white elites, will tolerate and encourage racial progress for minorities only if this promotes the majority’s self-interest.

As such, "[i]t often elevates the equality principles of the Fourteenth Amendment above the liberty principles of the First Amendment."

    There are various tactics or methods employed by the left to break down so-called "systemic racism". One is the protests, riots and looting we have seen.  Activist, Vicky Osterweil, recently published a book called In Defense of Looting in which she argues that "looting is a powerful tool to bring about real, lasting change in society. The rioters who smash windows and take items from stores, she claims, are engaging in a powerful tactic that questions the justice of 'law and order,' and the distribution of property and wealth in an unequal society." Osterweil goes on to argue that:

    [Looting] attacks the very way in which food and things are distributed. It attacks the idea of property, and it attacks the idea that in order for someone to have a roof over their head or have a meal ticket, they have to work for a boss, in order to buy things that people just like them somewhere else in the world had to make under the same conditions. It points to the way in which that's unjust. And the reason that the world is organized that way, obviously, is for the profit of the people who own the stores and the factories. So you get to the heart of that property relation, and demonstrate that without police and without state oppression, we can have things for free.

    Importantly, I think especially when it's in the context of a Black uprising like the one we're living through now, it also attacks the history of whiteness and white supremacy. The very basis of property in the U.S. is derived through whiteness and through Black oppression, through the history of slavery and settler domination of the country. Looting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness and of the police. It gets to the very root of the way those three things are interconnected. ...

In not so many words, then, Osterweil views looting as taking goods from unworthy whites and distributing it to people of color. It is a wicked, Satanic view, inasmuch as God has commanded that "[t]he son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." Ezekiel 18:20. 

    But the purpose of the riots and looting is really less about the temporary distribution of goods and more about demoralizing and controlling the white populace, akin to an abuser engaging in a pattern of abusive behavior to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. 

    We read of domestic abusers, for instance:

Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.

The linked article continues:

    ... Abusers, particularly those in an interpersonal relationship, know well how to exploit the compliance and kindness of their victims

    Ironically, the more compliant and accommodating the domestic violence sufferer, the more demanding and abusive the perpetrator usually becomes. Abusers seek compliance as permission to continue their assault and when in fear of losing control of their targets they escalate their behavior through physical violence, emotional violence, and sometimes spiritual abuse. The predictable response by most domestic violence victims is to engage in self blame. ...

    Domestic violence perpetrators follow a nearly predictable pattern of behavior which very often is difficult to detect from the outside observer. Once they have their victim well under control they work diligently to isolate their victim from all outside influences up to and including restricting the contact between friends and family members of their victims. They will very often go out of their way to shape the public view of their victims in such a light that they are perceived as unstable. Therefore, anything they say negatively about their abuser should not be trusted. Very unfortunately this tactic seems to work successfully across cultures as well as socioeconomic environments. The typical abuse victim does not understand that what they are experiencing from their abuser is not some form of love. DV abusers seek to exert authority and power over their victims and typically have no love or respect for them at all. This can be a very difficult point to accept for the abuse sufferer, and is often difficult to understand that they have spent often decades in a relationship where they were not truly loved.

I don't see how the current rioting and protests, anti-white messaging in the media, silencing of conservative speech by the social media companies, the refusal of Go Fund Me and an unnamed bank to allow fundraising for Kyle Rittenhouse, doxing, and the re-education classes now required by "woke" corporations and government agencies are anything but forms of psychological and emotional abuse. "People are booted from internet platforms, fired from their jobs or have their reputations smeared and their businesses ruined for differing with the left."

    For instance, there is a kerfuffle developing over Sandia National Laboratory requiring white male employees to undergo re-education. As Ace of Spades has reported, participants were told that the "roots of white male culture" "consists of 'rugged individualism,' 'a can-do attitude,' 'hard work,' and 'striving towards success'--which sound good, but are in fact 'devastating" to women and POCs." The trainers also claimed that "white male culture" led to "lowered quality of life at work and home, reduced life expectancy, unproductive relationships, and high stress." The white male participants were then required to write letters of apology to marginalized people whom they may have harmed.

    Like the spouse or partner of a domestic abuser, white men are being coerced into self-blame. Why? Well, as Theodore Dalrymple has explained:

In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.

Thus, we hear nonsense such as BLM supporters asserting that it is not enough for whites to not be racist, but that whites must be anti-racist. What does this mean? Essentially, it means to discriminate against whites. 

Racial discrimination is antiracist. Inequality is equality. When whites react angrily to their current treatment by claiming “it’s unfair” or “it’s discriminatory,” they’re refusing to acknowledge (or maybe they just can’t bring themselves to acknowledge) that the definitions have shifted to the extent that black radicals and their allies don’t dispute that point. Yes, it’s discriminatory. Yes, it’s unfair. For only through unfairness and discrimination will we achieve fairness and nondiscrimination.

"Racial discrimination is antiracist." "Inequality is equality." "War is peace." "Freedom is slavery." "Ignorance is strength."

     It's time to stop the abuse and get out of the abusive relationship. Aram Bakshian Jr. penned a piece for The American Conservative that argued that Republicans needed to move beyond a strategy that merely tried to stay the descent into darkness and instead craft one that looked toward victory. Victory may not be as we envision it. For instance, we may need to aim for a national divorce and accept a loss of territory; much like the split of the Roman Empire. Freed of the West, the Byzantine Empire went on to last another 1,000 years.