Nukes Threaten People; Ideas Threaten Civilizations

Last week, I tweeted, "The news media in the West pose a far greater danger to Western civilization than Russia does."

To my surprise, the tweet went viral. And while there were more likes than dislikes, 99 percent of the written reactions were negative.

--"Your very full diapers pose a very great danger, please change them." That received 1,880 likes.

--"I've wiped s--- off my shoes more trustworthy and patriotic than your sorry a--." That received 606 likes.

But it wasn't the ad hominem insults that I found troubling. What was troubling was the low state of logical thinking that so many responses reflected. This was exemplified by their reminding me how important a free press is to democracy (as if attacking the behavior of the media were the same as denying the need for a free press); their asking how many nukes the media have compared with Russia (as if a threat to lives were the same as a threat to a civilization); and their thinking that my tweet was about President Donald Trump (he was never mentioned, and the words were just as true when Barack Obama was president).

My tweet was about the Western left undoing Western civilization. My one regret is that I did not mention universities along with the media.

The tweet had nothing to do with the existence of a free press. Attacking what the media is doing is not the same as attacking the existence of the media -- any more than attacking Trump is attacking the existence of the presidency.

With regard to Russia having more nukes than the media, those who noted this fact so missed the entire point of the tweet that it is almost breathtaking. When one speaks about dangers to a civilization, one is speaking ideologically, not physically. Of course, if Russia were to unleash its nuclear weapons against the West, it would kill vast numbers of Westerners. However, that would no more mean the end of Western civilization than the Holocaust meant the end of Jewish civilization. Civilization connotes a body of ideas and a value system.

Furthermore, a Russian nuclear attack threatening the West's physical existence is an utterly remote possibility. Russian leaders, just as Soviet leaders before them, fear what is known as MAD (mutually assured destruction).

The real nuclear threat comes from North Korea and, above all, Iran, which constantly announces its intent to exterminate Israel. But while The New York Times cannot stop writing about the threat Russian President Vladimir Putin poses, it accuses Trump of "demonizing" Iran.

The real threat to Western civilization is Western civilization ceasing to believe in itself. And, in that regard, Russia poses no danger, while the left-wing-dominated media and universities pose an existential threat.

That's why the most depressing of the negative reactions were those from people calling themselves conservatives. If conservatism isn't about conserving Western civilization first and foremost, what is it about?

Students in college have voted the American flag off their campus. Where did these students learn their unprecedented contempt for America and patriotism, if not from their schools and the media?

European countries continue to welcome in millions of Muslims, adding to the tens of millions of Muslims already in Europe -- many of whom, if not most, have no interest in adopting Europe's values. Do the critics of my tweet conclude nothing about the left's role -- meaning the role of Western media and academia -- in promoting multiculturalism, the doctrine that holds that no cultural, religious or value system is superior to any other?

At the University of Pennsylvania, its left-wing English department has removed its long-standing portrait of Shakespeare because he was white and male. Is that not a direct hit on Western civilization?

The left-wing prime minister of Canada has proudly announced, "There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada," and that Canada is "the first postnational state."

Has Putin convinced half of America's millennials that socialism is preferable to capitalism?

Did Putin convince Pope Francis that Islamic terrorists are no more of a threat to Europe than baptized Catholics who kill their girlfriends?

Is Putin the reason Oxford University students voted that Israel is a greater threat to peace than Hamas?

Putin is indeed a murderous quasi dictator. But all this contempt for Western civilization comes from the Western media and the Western universities.

The smoking gun was provided just two weeks ago in the media's reactions to President Trump's speech in Warsaw, Poland, in which he called for protecting Western civilization. Virtually the entire Western media said it was a call to protect white racism -- because the media deem Western civilization to be nothing more than a euphemism for white supremacy.

The Hittites may have been overthrown militarily, but their civilization in the sense of culture and values was not that much different from the surrounding empires that overthrew them. I'm sure many of their customs and values lived on after the country was absorbed by the Assyrians. So too remnants of Inca culture lives on today in Peru. Christianity and Islam were bigger factors in changing cultures among the people of the Middle East and South America than the armies that brought those religions to new lands.

I would add that Prager does not preclude the threat of Russian weaponry to devastate our civilization. He merely argues that the ideas of the left are a more immediate threat.

I understand Mr. Prager’s point. I just think it was expressed in such a simplistic way that defending it was a waste of brain cells. It is not “true” in any meaningful way: it’s an opinion, the explication of which would take time and specific evidence.

Re the Incas, I disagree. Their civilization was brought down with weapons (and disease). There are many surviving elements of traditional Andean culture - Inca and pre-Inca - but they are not a civilization as they once were. The civilization is now European.

Speaking of pre-Columbian civilizations, we had a guest priest at my parish on Sunday. He was from Guatemala, and he said the population of his mission area, near the Guatemala/Mexico border, was 85% Maya-speaking.

Jews and other intellectuals were Stalin’s greatest supporters. Their adherence to communism explains NY Jews’ liberalism today, most of whom came from Russia. German and European Jews have no such allegiance.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.