Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Apologise and retract? Not bloody likely

Several weeks ago I wrote a newspaper column that was republished on this blog under the heading The self-righteous rage of the Left. I referred to anti-G20 riots in Hamburg and a violent pro-government mob that attacked opposition MPs in Venezuela and I asked why, when political violence had so often been associated in the past with the extreme Right, it was now commonly perpetrated by the Left.

I didn’t just use overseas examples. I pointed out that in New Zealand, although we rarely experience overt political violence, it’s the Left that assumes a moral right to disrupt events that they don’t approve of or to howl down opinions they don’t like. Occasional direct assaults on politicians (thankfully rarely harmful) are also invariably perpetrated by leftists.

Since I wrote that column there’s been a furore over a couple of protest marches by white supremacists and other far-Right agitators in the United States. In one shocking incident in Charlottesville, Virginia, one of these angry white misfits struck out at counter-protesters by driving his car at them, killing a woman and injuring others.

Perhaps predictably, someone on Facebook has now challenged me to retract what I wrote about acts of intolerance by the angry Left, and to apologise. Presumably he reasons that the incident in Charlottesville negated everything I said. But there is nothing to retract and still less to apologise for. What I wrote stands. In fact you could even say my point has been reinforced.

First, and most obvious, what happened in Charlottesville doesn’t alter the fact that here in New Zealand, it’s the angry Left, not those on the conservative side of politics, that repeatedly asserts the right to stage protests which interfere with other people’s right to say or hear things that the Left disagrees with.

Second, whatever you might think about the people in Charlottesville who marched in protest against the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate hero Robert E Lee, they have a right of free speech. And no matter how much we might disapprove of their beliefs, they are as entitled to exercise that right as the Left is. The moment free speech is circumscribed by limitations on what sort of speech is permissible, it ceases to exist.

In any case, obnoxious opinions aren’t defeated or magically made to vanish by trying to force them underground. What’s far more likely, as we saw in Charlottesville, is that those who hold them will strike back in defiance.  

So here’s a novel suggestion. Let the morons march. Allow them the same right to protest that the Left insists on, but ignore them. Pay them no attention. Deny them the oxygen of media exposure.

Staging large, boisterous counter-protests plays into their hands. First, it fuels their martyrdom complex. It encourages their perception of themselves as a heroic minority defending traditional white American values against degenerate liberalism.

And of course journalists and camera crews turn up, expecting a stoush. The tension gets ramped up, people start shouting taunts and insults at each other and before long they’re brawling. It’s all over the TV news bulletins that night and the white supremacists have got more exposure than they probably dreamed of.

Imagine how things might play out if these sad, pathetic Neanderthals were left to parade down empty streets watched only by a handful of cops and a stray dog or two. But the Left is incapable of restraining its own overwhelming self-righteousness. By insisting on confrontation, it becomes part of the problem.

In fact it seems clear that in the second of the recent violent American protests, in Boston, most of the trouble was caused by the Left. It was the supposedly liberal counter-protesters who screamed abuse, burned Confederate flags (a gratuitously provocative act), menaced marchers, threw things and assaulted cops. And for what reason? The organisers had promoted the event as a Free Speech Rally. They had distanced themselves from the neo-Nazis and white supremacists of Charlottesville.  But the Left was so pumped-up with rage that what should have been a peaceful event turned into a riot. You have to ask, who was the bigger threat here?

So in answer to the person on Facebook who thinks I should retract and apologise because of what happened in Charlottesville (the Left loves nothing more than intimidating people into giving craven apologies), I say: no chance. Not only was the Charlottesville incident an isolated occurrence, but it wouldn’t have happened at all if the Left hadn’t felt compelled to put on a big display of virtuous opposition.


In fact I’d go further and say that while I loathe and detest the cave-dwellers of the ultra-Right, there’s something almost fascistic in the overwhelming shows of force that the American Left seems determined to muster against what is generally puny and pathetic opposition.   

5 comments:

paul scott said...

I'm afraid you have little or no idea about that alt-right Karl. You are so far south of reality, that Confederate trains don't go there. But defence of the ridiculous is ridiculous, and better we wait a few years before so people can see for themselves what the antifa fascists are up to.

Karl du Fresne said...

Well, I guess I must bow to your obviously superior insight.

Richard McGrath said...

Paul - Karl was saying that even the alt-right should be able to enjoy the right to free speech. That doesn't mean they can break the law. But I agree that some of the tactics employed by the Antifa activists are essentially fascist.

paul scott said...

Alt-Right
To leave Charlottesville now. where the extremes gathered. We can have a wider look.
I do not claim superior knowledge, only a concentrated period of association with the alt- right and conservatives .
The following is a summary of what people know about the alt-right already, but from my own perspective

Firstly Alt-right is a rapidly growing, and loose affiliation of politically and socially motivated people, mainly in USA.

As first impressions would give you it is a loose gathering of mainly young men, but with a surprising number of also [ mostly young] women.
Notably absent is almost any academia, and scarce of students, but the meme is evolving [ think the Milo Milo Yiannopoulos tours around Universities.
It is a sad reflection that if you want to make any impact in USA Society , you need to find an >oppressed individual from an minority < to do it for you.
Yiannopoulos is a Jewish homosexual. It would be better if he was she, black, good looking, educated, Jewish, and Lesbian, but that’s asking for too much for lady luck to give us in one packet.

Next, the alt-right in USA includes a large number of white working men, many of them despised Christians.
I really do not think many people would disagree that a white middle aged working class male from Tennessee easily propels himself to the pinnacle of Society in the eyes of USA Media and progressive elites.

Many of the alt-right come from the heartland and small town USA. . In a dramatic map called Clinton’s archipelago, it can be seen that the overwhelming support of Democrats were from major Cities in the North East and West coast.

Political affiliations are Nationalism, Conservativism, anti Globalism, United Nations, and anti reverse discrimination and a near hatred [ there’s that word ] of the alternative deep State, and the swamp.
The Republican party is seen as being Cuckservative, which means these people are soft liberals at heart, representing business rather than people, and of no future value.

President Trump galvanized the existing alt-right into a massive affiliation of people who began to realize that we do have the numbers. From there attitudes have begun to firm up.

War and foreign intervention The alt-right are united in despair toward foreign invasions. Trump’s invasion of Syria earlier this year filled the alt-right with angst and doubt.
We are Nationalist , and with that goes self protection of trade, an idea almost universally ridiculed elsewhere..
Foreign intervention is an anathema to us, it is a fundamental characteristic of the alt-right to spurn war with foreigners.
.
Immigration Overwhelmingly the alt-right oppose introducing a completely foreign civilization into their country.
Diversity is an Orwellian term for Non white
As a matter of fact Islam is a conquering civilization by fundamental position from the Koran , the Hadith, and the absolute adherence to the prophets teachings, including that in the Medina Quran .

Fifteen hundred years of bloody Muslim invasion leave the historian no room for other that recognising Islam for what it is..
An un reconstructed force of invaders for Allah and the prophet.
Europe will have Sharia law within a few generations except perhaps Poland and Hungary, and some of the Eastern bloc.
The reason the Eastern bloc oppose is because they have tasted the slaughter of innocents in the 7th century or near.
Nothing has changed with Islam .
It is a murderous violent force of world domination and Western civilization which welcomes it commits unpardonable societal suicide.
There will be civil wars, and violence we can not yet imagine, and our civilisation is likely to perish. .
The United Nations and EU are totalitarian monster which must be destroyed if Western society is to survive


End of part 1, this blog program will accept limited length, part 2, in next post paul scott

paul scott said...

Part 2 Alt-Right

Race We all belong to the human, and somehow divided it up into parts, delineated as race divides .
There are obvious genetic and social differences between people descending from Europe. and Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
We in alt- right like to hand liberal calls of racism back by saying we are racially aware.
Another feature of us is that we like to look at the evidence of social situations .
Its called taking the red pill.
Here is an example. Violence all over America is profoundly among Black people and against Black people
The jail population is overwhelmingly black… nearly three quarters of Black Children are raised in homes without a father
The BLM [ Black lives matter ] movement is primarily a violent socio political movement which exists in a vacuum of facts.
None of this is unknown to clear thinking Black people.
To outline these facts as we have done here, has the consequence of being labeled Racist. Nazi, fascist, White supremacist, Patriarchal. Redneck and any or other abusive and mindless associations.

Nazism and the Antifa. . The Antfa [ antifascist ] flag is modeled from the Nazi flag.
The aims of the Antifa and BLM are to by totalitarian force, refuse all forms of expression which recognize the values I have outlined above. There are white supremacists inside the right political spectrum. I do not think they are effective.
Often as Karl pointed out in his column here these people are of limited social capacity, but not always.

Violence The Antifa and BLM movements are then openly in support of violence to achieve the aims of restriction and punishment of proponents of free expression.
American society, is so divided and manipulated by the Media, that there is an acceptance somewhat, of the progressive hysteria which not only calls for close down of free expression but calls for the assassination of the President.c

Alt-Right intellectuals. Internet is teaming with alt-right and conservative thinkers and writers.
Many are our brothers in Australia are now confronting the issue of Race based legislation, hate speech crimes, and an insanely biased ABC, [ similar to Radio NZ but worse ]
Human Rights commissioners who lament the fact that they can not control people’s expression and attitude inside their own homes. This assertion about thought control advocacy in Australia is true.
This is not an academic piece, so I am not leaving references. its just a build up from recent reading and info.

Liberals
We see Liberals and Libertarians as ‘Cuck’ absolutely. At the same time as a Libertarian liberal will virtue signal in public with essays on free speech, that same person will support Governments which impose Race based legislation, insane human rights Commissioners, hate speech laws, Immigration of Islam in the guise of refugees, and anything that feels food.
In short Liberals are prevaricators. Pontificators and collaborators toward the collapse of Society as we know it.
paul scott

There will be some display errors, this reply to Karl very quick while the post is still fresh,
if you post Karl feel free to fix display errors. That’s another thing about our modern condition .
Most of us have the attention span and historical memory of a butter-fly..