The New Tribalism. ... Mark Steyn

Steyn Online ^ | 21Feb 2014 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

Julie Burchill, my old boss at The Modern Review many years ago, has a bracing column in this week's Speccie on the difference between the left she grew up with and the left today:

While working-class left-wing political activism was always about fighting the powerful, treating people how you would wish to be treated and believing that we're all basically the same, modern, non-working-class left-wing politics is about… other stuff. Class guilt, sexual kinks, personal prejudice and repressed lust for power.

That's why, as Kathy Shaidle observes here, the concept of free speech is no longer widely accepted. If you believe in "treating people how you would wish to be treated", then it's natural to accord them the same rights of freedom of expression that you yourself wish to exercise. But, if you believe (as I discussed with Steve Madely on the radio yesterday) that what matters is what identity group you belong to (the New Tribalism), then it's natural to demand that members of non-approved groups should not be permitted to make their case.

[Rummyfan]

An ideology that can only scream "Shut up!" sounds a wee bit insecure, don't you think? That's true for firebreathing mullahs whose reaction to a cartoon is to demand your beheading as it is for firebreathing climate mullahs whose reaction to a column is to demand your lifetime publication ban.

[Slings and Arrows]

Steyn ping.

[Max in Utah]

B F L

[geologist]

The liberals side has morphed into following socialist and communist policies. EVERMORE!

This is not America ... God help America in this time of take over by those denying Thee. We call on Thee for mercy, and the turning away of evil over America, in Jesus name, AMEN!

[geologist]

What is the Country song ....?

Are we truly going to “fall for anything?”

[The Great RJ]

We have a Climate Change Inquisition that silences heretics (i.e. deniers) by banning their publications, not allowing them to speak publicly and threatening them into silence. The dogma of global warming must not be questioned despite scientific evidence that it is false.

[GeronL]

bump

[Billthedrill]

Tribalism it has certainly become - we labeled it so on FR some years ago - and Steyn is perfectly correct in pointing the finger leftward. There is a nihilistic element in it as there is in so much of leftwing politics today - where there is no truth, the only terms of contention that matter are brute power and the ability to silence the opposition. This is caveman politics, apologies in advance to any cavemen out there who are offended.

Modern political systems are constructed to avoid this sort of brute contention, not stimulate it. We are dealing with primitives here. To paraphrase Al Capone, one gets more with reason and a ballbat than one does with reason alone.

[Boonie]

Liberal democrats believe entirely on diversity, equality, and tolerance.....*mmmghhhhiimmmmddddkkkkhhhh*
(I’m sorry...I got choked from laughing so hard at my own comment...)

[Talisker]

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

- from The Second Coming
by William Butler Yeats

[GOPJ]

As I told Hugh Hewitt yesterday, what with all my royalties from the disco version of "Marshmallow World", I don't need another 20-mil. So, when Mann writes the check, I'm going to donate it to defending and advancing the cause of free speech in America and around the world.

Or maybe something with Columbia - call it the Steyn / Hentoff chair - First Amendment Rights...

[Pining_4_TX]

Excellent!

[Balding_Eagle]

Liberalism has always been what we now see, and more.

The mask has simply been removed.

[JLS]

Mark Steyn ping.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

Thanks for the ping Slings and Arrows.