Posted on 11/28/2015 4:27:06 AM PST by Kaslin
"From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia ... could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide." -- Abraham Lincoln
The winning streak enjoyed by campus activists this fall was violently interrupted by the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. Some activists were sufficiently annoyed by their ejection from the limelight that they took to Twitter to complain under the hashtag "F---Paris."
The most obvious irony stemmed from the fact that some of the same protestors who griped about media coverage of their antics -- even declaring First Amendment-free zones -- suddenly whined when the cameras turned to bloodshed in the heart of Europe.
But there's a deeper irony. In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, fueled by a cynical media strategy directed by the president himself, the national conversation turned quickly from Barack Obama's foreign policy failures to the bigotry and insensitivity of the Republican Party. There's no denying that Donald Trump made this an easy pivot for the Beltway Brahmins. But left unnoticed in the clamor is the dismaying disconnect between the conversation elite liberals want to have and the one being pushed by their left-wing shock troops on the ground.
For instance, on ABC's "This Week," Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) ripped into Republican rhetoric about Syrian refugees, saying that we must have "confidence in who we are as a nation ... we need to be adhering to the values that have made this country strong."
Ellison was hardly alone. Everyone seems to be talking about those American "values" of tolerance, diversity and pluralism. Obama has been on a tear about how rejecting refugees is "not American" and how those refugees are akin to the pilgrims who arrived on our shores. He pays rote lip service to denouncing murderers in Paris.
Meanwhile, back on our campuses, those very values are routinely denounced as little more than "white privilege." Needless to say, the people who want to see Columbus Day banned and call for an accounting of America's crimes against Native Americans don't think too highly of those Pilgrims.
As for our values, student protestors and their enablers on and off campus offer a full-throated rejection of America's (classical) liberal principles and, at times, America itself. By now you've heard it said that "free speech" is just code for "white privilege" or even "hate speech." Tolerance itself has become a dirty word for many.
Many campuses have announced a zero-tolerance policy for "hate speech" and "racial insensitivity," and countless more campuses have students demanding that such policies be implemented at their schools.
In principle, that doesn't sound so bad. The problem is that the definitions of hate speech and insensitivity have become entirely elastic and subjective. Disagreement with the mob of right-thinkers is now deemed unacceptable. There's a vaguely Maoist flavor to demands that liberal white professors and administrators confess and atone for their "white privilege."
It's gotten to the point where even admiration for non-European culture is denounced as bigoted if that admiration blossoms into so-called "cultural appropriation." Ethnic food fads are denounced for their insensitivity; the website Everydayfeminism.com recently offered "The Feminist Guide to Being a Foodie Without Being Culturally Appropriative."
For generations, we've heard that "diversity makes us stronger." I'll leave it to another day to question whether this premise can withstand the test of reality. The relevant point is that many of the chief beneficiaries -- or at least their self-proclaimed leaders -- of what was once called "Diversity Inc." now reject the logic of diversity at the most fundamental level. The famous "melting pot" is now derided as a kind of cultural genocide.
Nothing is more comfortable for the Sunday-morning talk show elites than taking on the alleged forces of intolerance to their right. Ohio Gov. John Kasich recently argued for promoting America's "Judeo-Christian" values of tolerance, equality, free speech and pluralism. NBC's Chuck Todd fretted that such rhetoric sounded "anti-Islam."
Meanwhile, the campus left is openly rejecting those core American values, and the response from media elites has run the gamut from condescending tolerance to abject encouragement.
By all means, we need more civilizational confidence. But demonstrating it only to denounce partisan opponents isn't confidence at all. It's a recipe for suicide.
The United States chose suicide.
Diversity does not exist in nature. Why are liberals determined to force it upon us?
Let loose in the land by those who have rejected God.
The disintegration of America is a real strategy being put in motion by charlatans that hope to reap wealth and power from our bloody demise.
the people who want to see Columbus Day banned...
I’m Italian and LOVE the Columbus Day parade. Dignitaries from Italy even show up.
Recently, an acquaintance sent me a video of “Native Americans”, whatever the hell that means, slandering and insulting Columbus.
The email I sent back pretty much ensured no chance of a budding friendship.
Poor babies. Good Lord that was more than 500 years ago. Stop the @#$ing whining.
You didn’t invent gunpowder fast enough. You lost. It’s life. It sucks sometimes. tough.
And yes, of course Italy comes a very very distant second to the US, my country of birth. Not even close. But a great parade :0
Native American means American Indians whose ancestors migrated here from Asia before 1492.
Islam's "values" do not include tolerance, equality, free speech and pluralism.
If they migrated here then they’re not native, I guess.
I would think the only true natives would possibly be in some part of Africa, where man spread out from.
They never did.
And chuck todd is an @#$@#$.
I’d love to have one of these newsmen in a room for 10 minutes.
Or sent to live with ISIS.
Either is good.
It is an example of claiming a title which is not factual and then convincing the media to run with it and then claiming superiority based on the inaccurate wording. Undocumented, black lives matter, and so on.
Youre right! And then the current generation thinks these terms have been around forever!
White privilege, blacklivesmatter, undocumented, the new meaning of marriage, etc.
The words of my generation (born in 1968) were Minorities and underclass.
If you broke down whites into ethnic groups, minority could be just about anybody.
Idiots.
Actually, diversity is the essence of nature. There are a huge number of species on earth. However, contrary to the progressive narrative those many species battle each other every day for survival.
One secret to America's success in the past was the "melting pot" concept. There were shared values that immigrants adopted. We celebrated the values we shared.
Today's Latinos, Muslims and inner city black refuse to assimilate. Just like in nature, the species battle for survival. The problem is that whites are prohibited from fighting back.
It does, but not intermixed. Eagles don't eat and sleep with jackasses. Natural law is purposely ignored and belittled by proggies. They live lies.
Diversity and tolerance to the Left are code words for conformity and obedience to the party line, whatever the party line it decides is the party line of the moment.
Stepping out of bounds brings about swift reprisal and immediate punishment. As long as you agree with the Left on its definition of diversity and tolerance, you’re safe. But if that should change for them, you’ll be reminded that you need re-education.
Our cultural Red Guards are as ignorant, nihilist and destructive as Mao’s Red Guards. The old order must be overturned with no thought to what should take its place. Chaos, anarchy and upheaval are literally the order of the day. Their presence is destroying the classical liberal foundation of America in front of our very own eyes.
In the long run, the backlash arising out of it will result not in a return of freedom but in greater repression. I fully understand why the Chinese Communist leadership is afraid of freedom. They reason that if they loosen the reins, all the ghosts of the past will return that brought unimaginable suffering to China.
Our campus revolutionaries should be aware that you don’t always get you want. And should they have it their way, all of us - and America will be the losers. What is happening today on our campuses does not bode well for the future of our country.
colored-negro-afroamerican-African American (even though whites are born in Africa also)-people of color; all since the 50s.
——Our cultural Red Guards are as ignorant, nihilist and destructive as Mao’s Red Guards.——
That is a brilliant comparison.
that’s when the nonsense started.
Or was it just barely in the 50s?
mostly 60s and especially after that racist Johnson started all this nonsense.
what a hero of the black people her was...
Forty-eight? You’re just a BABY! Enjoy your 40’s while
you’re there! Many of us have so many “ethnic” groups
in our put-togethers we don’t even know all of them.
I’m American Indian on both sides of my family; but I
don’t know what else really. Doesn’t matter.
Wow!
That guy in the picture is at LEAST 176 years old!!!
(2015 - 1839 = 176)
I wonder what his secret is?
But, as Obama would say, “You didn’t build that.”
Activists, as though it means they have a legitimate cause. As soon as these spoon fed racist brats conjure up a hoax they wait for the news outlet ghouls to show up with cameras up thier a##es to help stoke the false fires these little bastards created
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