News of the Week (July 26th, 2020)

 

News of the Week for July 26thth, 2020


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Firing Line Friday: Are Ideology and the CIA Compatible?

     In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.

     During the Trump administration, and before, many are readily questioning foreign intelligence services and the concern over ideology. Nearly thirty years ago, the question was discussed by Mr. Buckley and guests Cord Meyer and Frank Snepp.

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The Underground Railroad Is Now Racist

     A mural at the Vermont Law School which depicts the underground railroad and both Black and White individuals helping said slave, including Frederic Douglas, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Brown has been deemed racist and oppressive.

“‘The depictions of the African-Americans on the mural are offensive to many in our community and, upon reflection and consultation, we have determined that the mural is not consistent with our School’s commitment to fairness, inclusion, diversity, and social justice,’ McHenry said in the email.

“The colorful mural entitled ‘The Underground Railroad, Vermont and the Fugitive Slave’ depicts Africans being forced into slavery and sold at auction, images of John Brown, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe, and a blond Vermont woman trying to block the view of a bounty hunter looking for fugitives trying to escape slavery on the Underground Railroad.”

“…

“‘One issue of many, is the fact that the depictions of Black people are completely inaccurate. Regardless of what story is being told overexaggerating Black features is not OK and should not be tolerated. White colonizers who are responsible for the horrors of slavery should not also be depicted as saviors in the same light,’ they said.”

     The only problem with the mural is that is it ugly, in your humble author’s opinion, and all the figures are painted in an unapealing way.

     Only in this woke day and age would a celebration of the fight against slavery be considered “problematic”.

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The Hitlerite Playbook

     To many people, the temper-tantrums in Portland and Seattle, as well as rioting elsewhere, the danger of the Left is presumed to be of a Jacobin nature of open revolt and tearing down, and more akin to the French, Russian, and Chinese Communist revolutions, which many people fancy will never have the proper support and can be opposed the non-Antifa majority.

     This, however, ignores the fact that these “autonomous zones”, #BlackLivesMatter, and Antifa black bloc thugs have tacit approval, if not outright support, of governments and powerful corporations, all of which combine to have actual “institutional privilege” (to use their parlance).

     Portland’s mayor allows Antifa to run wild, Seattle is moving to hire just social justice advocates, Berkeley is replacing police for things such as traffic stops, and Columbus wants to purge its police force of thought criminals according to not just the SPLC’s lists, but beyond that.

     That private companies have gone woke is manifest, with not only corporatist collaboration with government, but completely without prompting from the state.

     The danger comes not from the mob or even those who are honestly caving into the mob, but from those who act in a Fabian nature to use the mob as an excuse to implement in a seeming “moderate” stance what the mob was fighting for anyway.

     Indeed, it is less a Jacobin revolution than a Fabian one won by more than a century of the Gramscian march through the institutions. But perhaps there is an even better comparative example: The National Socialists and their co-option of Germany from the inside.

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When Intolerance of Tolerance Becomes Tolerance of Intolerance Against the Designated Evil Race

     Being open to the artistic works of people regardless of the race of said people is inclusive and diversity-minded… or at least is supposed to be provided that the race of said people is not “White”. Indeed even considering accepting a piece of artwork into a museum by a White individual is declared “White Supremacy”.

“Until last week, Gary Garrels was senior curator of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). He resigned his position after museum employees circulated a petition that accused him of racism and demanded his immediate ouster.

“‘Gary’s removal from SFMOMA is non-negotiable,” read the petition. “Considering his lengthy tenure at this institution, we ask just how long have his toxic white supremacist beliefs regarding race and equity directed his position curating the content of the museum?”

“This accusation—that Garrels’ choices as an art curator are guided by white supremacist beliefs—is a very serious one. Unsurprisingly, it does not stand up to even minimal scrutiny.”

“The petitioners cite few examples of anything even approaching bad behavior from Garrels. Their sole complaint is that he allegedly concluded a presentation on how to diversify the museum’s holdings by saying, ‘don’t worry, we will definitely still continue to collect white artists.’”

     This has been a consistent Leftist position for decades: Declare “Whiteness” to be evil and thus intolerant, dishonestly and incorrectly invoke the “intolerance of tolerance” paradox, then declare lack of discrimination against “White art” to be discriminatory.

     Anything “White” is not “White Supremacy” because anything associated with “Whites” (except the Leftist ideology which is ironically the Whitest of them all) is filled with “Whiteness”, and one is either a “White Supremacist” or one is “anti-Racist” by purging society of “Whiteness” in a delusional manichean choice.

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Stalin Clapping Test For The 21st Century

     Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn recounted in “The Gulag Archipelago” of an audience applauding Josef Stalin who kept on applauding for over ten minutes to the point where some people’s hands started bleeding, until one brave person became the first to stop and earning an arrest for doing so.

     What does this have to do with the 21st century?

     Sadly, increasingly quite a lot.

     With anti-racist training, meetings, and modern day struggle sessions becoming more common, those who don’t show sufficient enthusiasm, as with the “Stalin clapping test” above will find themselves the target of a purge, like a NYC professor who is facing job termination for “resting her eyes” during an “anti-racist meeting”.

“Nearly 2,000 people called for the termination of a New York City professor after she reportedly fell asleep during an anti-racist meeting held on Zoom.

“Patricia Simon, a theater arts associate professor at Marymount Manhattan College, is facing requests for her removal after a June 29 Zoom meeting to discuss the adoption of an “anti-racist framework.”

“The Change.org petition reached 1,902 supporters before being closed.”

     This is the Stalin Clapping test of the year 2020.

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Social Justice: The Presumption of Guilt

     One of the core tenets of the Social Justice faith is a manichean worldview of demonic perpetual oppressors and saintly perpetually oppressed; this requires a presumption of guilt based on race (or some other kyrirarchical aspect) which can not be disproven, for the accusation will always be there and if one isn’t guilty of one thing, then one is necessarily guilty of another. A recent thread by a John Hayward (@Doc_0) is worth reading in it’s entirety, but a few highlights are worth mentioning especially.

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The Canceling Of America And The Rough Woke Future Slouching To Be Born

     From the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror with its obsessive desire to toss old units of measurement and replace them with with such follies as metric time and a new calendar untethered to the past that starts at “Year One” in the 19th century, to the Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields where the sins of the past would be washed away in a tidal wave of blood in “Year Zero”, there is a tendency to eliminate the inconvenient past that might contradict with the utopian narrative of the future that is perpetuated to a degree that is, ironically enough, almost conservative in nature.

     It is far to easy for one to say that “it can’t happen here” based upon some idea that “normalcy” is somehow in perpetual motion rather than a commitment that must be taught in the face of opposition and contrarianism to future generations to come now and into perpetuity.

     Instead, however, we have seen so much of society far too readily embrace organizations and ideology that wants to eliminate American society and civilization and “burn down this system and replace it”. Momentum has built to the point where to not embrace this revolution in society is to results in, at best ostracism, and at worst mob violence and execution. The history, culture, and very being of America is now erased and replaced with a new woke narrative that portrays it as a fairy-tale villain in order to justify in absolutely, unequivocally, and sacrosanctly its antithesis with blindness to the hell of the rough Hegelian synthesis that slouches towards America to be born.

     But ‘tis not a Jacobin revolution we are seeing, but a Fabian one. The pillars that supported the mores, values, and essence of America were replaced piecemeal sub rosa, and what we are seeing now is simply the tearing down of the thin edifice that signaled “normalcy” to those who did not grok the full depth, extent, and manner of the Gramscian march that ate though America like a worm through an apple. The precepts have changed and those who now cry out that no one seems to listen do not realize that they are now the barbarians inside the gate. This not a battle for fundamental transformation, but a signal that the fundamental has already been transformed and we are now seeing the woke Quinceañera of this brave new world.

     This is not to say that they are not still immanentizing the eschaton—for it was not so much about the eschaton as it was about the immanentizing—but the momentum has become so great that many who instituted the change feel that now is their Fabian moment. The increasing open acceptance and embrace of this fundamental transformation to birth a new “beginning of history” has become manifest, with support for a nouveau regime made clear, such as support for:

  • Rebalance the history taught in schools until its voices and subjects reflect the demographics of the population and heritage of Native people and citizens of color
  • Move, after public consultation, to a new American anthem that better reflects our diversity as a people
  • Rename our cities and towns until they match the demographics of the population
  • Rebalance the art shown in museums across the country until an analysis of content shows that it reflects the demography of the population and perspective of Native people and citizens of color
  • Move, after an open public process, to a new name for our country that better reflects the contributions of Native Americans and our diversity as a people
  • Rename our states until they better reflect the heritage of Native people and citizens of color
  • Gradually replace many older public buildings with new structures that don’t perpetuate a Eurocentric order, until a more representative public space is achieved
  • Respectfully remove the monument to four white male presidents at Mount Rushmore, as they presided over the conquest of Native people and repression of women and minorities
  • Allow our public parks to return to their natural state, before a European sense of order was imposed upon them
  • Move, after public consultation, to a new American flag that better reflects our diversity as a people
  • Consider adopting a new national language, that will be forged from the immigrant and Native linguistic diversity of this country’s past
  • Remove existing statues of white men from public spaces until the stock of statues matches the demographics of the population
  • Gently remodel the statue of liberty to make it better reflect the diversity of America
  • Rename our streets and neighbourhoods until they match the demographics of the population
  • Move, after public consultation, to a new American constitution that better reflects our diversity as a people
  • Begin changing the layout of our cities, towns, and highways, moving away from the grid system to follow the more natural trails originally used by Native people

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News of the Week (July 19th, 2020)

 

News of the Week for July 19thth, 2020


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Firing Line Friday: The Revisionist Historians

     In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.

     With the call by some to redefine American history as one of inherent evil, by #BlackLivesMatter, the “1619 Project”, and increasingly woke academia, let us look back on when William F. Buckley, Jr. discussed with former Secretary of State Dean Rusk the very question of revisionist history.

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