I’ve been spending the day pointing out the bias and hypocrisy of various Facebook friends who posted emotional, warped, virtue-signaling junk assuming they would be greeted with the sounds of a thousand well-trained seals clapping. I’m not sure why I bother: it gets close to the cartoon about the guy who tells his wife, “Someone is wrong on the internet!” I feel like the alternative is to just let a brain virus run amuck. These once intelligent people just know the President is secretly a white supremacist. He’s obligated to specifically condemn the white nationalist group, because they were “emboldened” by his election. And, they say, their “side’s” violence is “less disgusting” than the violence of the bad people….because, though they don’t say this, the ends justify the means.
I think the reason I subject myself to the sneers and abuse—did you know I must be a Donald Trump supporter and a white nationalist?—is that the Left’s assault on free speech, which is the cornerstone of democracy, has to be opposed, called out and condemned every single time, until they either embrace the Constitution, move to Canada, or haul us off to re-education camps. White supremacists aren’t a danger to the nation, because that kind of prejudice is antithetical to core American values, and no credible, respectable institutions and individuals support them, or ever will. Fascism of the Left is a real danger, because it is seductive and misleading, and it is infecting the most powerful and influential institutions we have. We saw it in Charlottesville. In a college town indoctrinated in the progressive cant that the wrong opinions don’t deserve to be heard because they constitute harm and violence by spoken word, the state and local government combined to use violence to stifle political speech.
One of the best and most objective political, government and ethics websites around is City Journal; I really should cite it more often. Today Bob McManus posted an excellent essay which began with this…
Why did the city of Charlottesville, and the state of Virginia, suspend the First Amendment for Saturday’s calamitous “Unite the Right” rally? And would the outcome have been different—one protester dead in a deliberate car-ramming, two state troopers killed in a demonstration-related helicopter accident, and a nation’s confidence in its institutions severely shaken once again—had the authorities vigorously defended all parties’ constitutional right to free expression?
and concluded with this…
Almost at first contact, Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer and Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and cancelled the demonstrators’ permits, whereupon police began funneling the alt-right protestors away from the designated demonstration site—and, some reports have it, toward the counter-protestors. The carnage followed in short order. Whether the breakdown in police protection was purposeful—that is, intended to quash a constitutionally protected demonstration and provoke a violent confrontation—is a question unlikely to be pursued in Virginia’s present political environment. As partisan eye-gougers go, Governor McAuliffe, a Democrat, is near the top of the list; Mayor Signer, also a Democrat, seems to be cut from the same cloth.
But deliberate or not, the effect was the same: when the sun went down over Charlottesville Saturday, the First Amendment was lying in the dust, and the civic ties meant to bind all Americans were just that much weaker.
Bingo.
Ethics Alarms 
Thank you for your excellent commentary and for finding sources who are able to see these events from the perspective of constitution and law. It’s very clear our founding values are under attack and clarity and reason are desperately needed.
You said, “White supremacists aren’t a danger to the nation, because that kind of prejudice is antithetical to core American values, and no credible, respectable institutions and individuals support them, or ever will.”
I say, Our core American values are in the toilet, and have been for some time. Where it all began, I cannot say. I agree with you that Obama was a divider, not a uniter, although I believe his heart was in the right place. (You don’t believe that, and that’s ok. We agree to disagree.) Trump’s heart is not in the right place. Millions of us know this for a fact. I can easily prove this by calling up a number of tweets and public pronouncements, but I won’t bother because you will dismiss them with your over arching logic. Your continued defense of Donald Trump is an embarrassment to you and to Ethics Alarms.
I’m going to bed.
1. I definitely believe that Obama’s heart is in the right place.
2. So is Trump’s but his brain is lost, so it doesn’t matter where his heart is.
3. The assumption that he is malign is complete bias and supposition.
Nighty-night!
Morning, Jack! (4:10 a.m.)
Trump doesn’t have a heart.
There’s a rational, unbiased, fair and reasonable comment.
Thank you. I agree. The man has been in the spotlight for what, 30 years? Trump is a pig. We have ample video and text to support the fact that he is a pig. Trump cares about one thing — himself. If, by chance he happens to do some good in his presidency, it will only be because he took such action for self-promotion.
With apologies to Dr Seuss.
The Trump loved his tweeting – with all kinds of unreason. And some even think he’s committed high treason. It could be, perhaps, that he loved the alt-right. Or it could be he can’t let pass a soundbite. But I think that the most likely reason of all… may have been that his heart was two sizes too small.
Clapping clapping clapping!!!
Hey, that’s pretty good valkygrrl, did you “create” it yourself?
I doubt i’m the first person to Seussify Trump.
In the sense that I didn’t get any external input beyond the source text, yes, all me. I really wanted to go with hands too sizes too small but Spartan’s use of heart both put the idea in my head and locked me in.
Good job.
Oh, I also used a rhyming dictionary if that matters. It gave me soundbite.
I used to refuse to use a rhyming dictionary as a matter of pride, until I heard Stephen Sondheim say that he used one, and that anyone who didn’t was nuts. Good enough for me.
valkygrrl wrote, “Oh, I also used a rhyming dictionary if that matters. It gave me soundbite.”
Nope, that doesn’t matter; it’s your “original”.
1. Are you saying pigs have no hearts?
2. Bill Clinton and Trump: narcissists and “pigs.” Clinton is pretty clearly a sociopath; I’m not sure about Trump yet. But Bill kept saying “I feel your pain.” Did that fool you?
Bill Clinton never fooled me Jack, but we aren’t talking about him right now. We are talking about Trump. And no, Trump does not have a heart.
More progressive arrogance.
Feel better for denigrating our President, Sparty? Sound like sour grapes from here. You ilk sowed this wind, now reap the whirlwind.
Both sides and Mayor Singer too!
Love me some city journal. I don’t read it often enough.
I just wrote a book addressing the meme that ticked me off most this morning. Comprised of four photos, one of Kaepernick kneeling, one of the women’s march in DC, one of a red Starbuck’s cup (oh, please….) and one of the Nazis. The first three are captioned ‘That’s offensive!’ The last one is captioned ‘Hey man, that’s free speech!’
Grrr….no one’s answered yet, I’ll probably just see my friend count go down with no explanation. That’s usually how they operate.
THANK YOU for that brain poison.
Sorry, Jack…
Here is more brain poison.
https://www.facebook.com/ chris.kelly.7315720/posts/10213908517846549
(Remove gap in link to go directly to the page. Here is the quote in question.)
“Colin is an American hero. His fight against the white Christians will be remembered”
Hope he kept some of the millions he made working in oppressive captivity for the eevul capitalist NFL… because that is the last of their money he will see.
Colin Kaepernick never claimed to have been fighting against white Christians.
But Chris Kelly did.
https://www.facebook.com/chris.kelly.7315720
Jack should do an entire blog post on his posts (which keeps basjing white Christian males)
From my perspective up here in Canada (where you wish to relegate those Democrats that you disagree with) it is neither the Democrats nor the ‘lefts’ that are undermining the right to free speech in America and attempting to muzzle the press, but the Republicans and Trump himself.
And how on earth do you reach that ridiculous conclusion? It must be cold up there—BRAIN FREEZE! Surely you must have some accurate sources of information.
I do not want to send Democrats to Canada, just the ones who don’t believe in the Bill of Rights. I was pretty clear about that, I thought.
Are there any Democrats who value the Bill of Rights? They have been awfully quiet the past few years…
What!? Who is preventing conservative speakers from speaking at universities (to the point they flee in fear of their safety), who is firing people who don’t 100% toe the party line (Google, Harvard, other universities), who was smashing windows and burning cars because a Republican won the Presidency?
After the San Jose riot in June, 2016, I found myself hoping Trump would win, and had resolved to vote for him no matter what.
Why? Because when his supporters were assaulted after attending a rally, the blame was not placed on those who assaulted them. Trump was blamed for causing it.
To paraphrase Optimus Prime in Transformers, The Movie: “This assault on free speech must be stopped, no matter the cost.”
35 years ago, Captain America stood against such fascist tactics. I wonder if such a comic could be done today without ending careers from the writer to the CEO of Marvel…
The scary thing is that I doubt it is the case.
I enjoyed the comic.
To defend our right to be right, we must defend the rights of others to be wrong.
You know, we had real heroes, who lived and breathed, fight and die for these values.
Why does our generation feel the need to appeal to cartoon heroes?
The Justice Department is taking immediate action against these “protestors” undermining the very fabric of the nation.
The Department of Justice has requested information on visitors to a website used to organize protests against President Trump, the Los Angeles-based Dreamhost said in a blog post published on Monday.
Dreamhost, a web hosting provider, said that it has been working with the Department of Justice for several months on the request, which believes goes too far under the Constitution.
DreamHost claimed that the complying with the request from the Justice Department would amount to handing over roughly 1.3 million visitor IP addresses to the government, in addition to contact information, email content and photos of thousands of visitors to the website, which was involved in organizing protests against Trump on Inauguration Day.
The #Resistance and Antifa have shown a pattern of attacking people for wanting to peacefully assemble and/or petition for the redress of grievances. Like the times Ann Coutler and Milo (right of center political shock jocks in the vein of Bill Maher) wanted to speak at Berkeley. Or how about the Patriot Prayer rally in Seattle just Sunday? Or the threats to violently assault a Republican organization taking part in a parade in Oregon (prompting the cancellation of said parade)?
The Inauguration Day riots were also criminal.
Or are you arguing that those you call fascists are somehow subhuman?
Reading your post is yet another reason that I will vote to re-elect Trump, and do so gladly.
Umm didn’t you take a comment of mine from another website, combine it with words someone else said about owning guns on it, and attempt to use those words on this website against me to make it seem like I believe in violence against trans folks?
So how are you different from any other smear operator? Seems like the tactics of Dreamhost would be right up your ally Ms. Dunim. Btw have you read that book by Sharyl Attkisson I mentioned that you never responded to? Once again it was called The Smear.
Jack,
The shaming has begun:
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/charlottesville-doxxing.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&referer=http://m.facebook.com
1) Yep, getting it wrong is horrendous. And there will be about 1/20th the amount of corrections made to false accusations that spread like wild fire. Social Justice Warriors don’t care, they just want someone to hurt.
2) Even ‘accurately’ doxxing someone is a disproportionate response to someone involved in this episode…most certainly to the younger men who have plenty of time left to get their worldviews in order.
Doxxing sounds similar to the blacklisting in Hollywood during the 1950’s.
I wonder, someone should meditate on whether or not by some stroke of fate we entered WW2 against the USSR, and stifled our hatred of Nazis to fight to the common enemy (just as in reality we stifled our hatred of the equally loathsome Communists to fight Germany) if things wouldn’t have worked out similarly.
After the War (assuming we won), would Nazi Germany infiltrate American institutions like academia and Hollywood and quietly and methodically influence an entire political party until the modern day when now, we’d be facing a Democrat party wildly influenced by a would-be normalized fascist worldview?
Would we be listening to sycophants crying about how Communist protesters should be doxxed because it’s a worldview on the out and outs?
We the progressive people don’t need no justice system.
We’ll never know because the authorities didn’t bother to defended all parties’ constitutional right to free expression.
Not defending the Constitutional rights of individuals is exactly how the end of the Constitution begins.
I’m really appreciating my fellow citizens kicking and stomping the statue they pulled over…
It’s like the leftist protesters just want to skip past socialist phase for our country and jump straight to third world phase for our country in pursuit of their economic and civil worldview.
Of course, at least in the third world, when they pull down statues of the dictator they just toppled, they stomp and kick on the images of someone who *actually* tormented them…
Not the likeness of someone who lived 150 years ago.
Something about this whole event reminds me of learning about the fights between communist Bolsheviks and German National Socialists (i.e. Nazi’s).
Two supposedly opposing sides who both ultimately had their ideologies heavily influenced by Marx.
Jump forward less than 100 years to America and we have SJW socialists fighting neo Nazi’s or American National socialists.
Anyone notice a trend here?
How many times will those with Marxist influenced ideologies fight in the streets & fool us into believing we’re supposedly seeing opposites fight against each other?
When will we figure out socialism/communism/communitarianism/greater goodism is actually a blood thirst that always ends up like a fire seeking to consume fools or brainwash them?
Those people in Charlottesville wanted us to believe one side was righteous and the other the “sinner” yet both acted in the same manner. Are we stupid enough for fall for this garbage?
“The quarrel between Communists and Nazis or between Stalin’s Communists and Trotsky’s Communists is not an economic controversy, but a struggle for the spoils of office.”
Sir Arnold Lunn
“Socialism as the final concept of duty, the ethical duty of work, not just for oneself but also for one’s fellow man’s sake, and above all the principle: Common good before own good, a struggle against all parasitism and especially against easy and unearned income. And we were aware that in this fight we can rely on no one but our own people. We are convinced that socialism in the right sense will only be possible in nations and races that are Aryan, and there in the first place we hope for our own people and are convinced that socialism is inseparable from nationalism.”
Now replace a few of Hitler’s words & any staunch leftist would agree…
Common good before own good, a struggle against all capitalism and especially against easy and unearned income. We are convinced that socialism in the right sense will only be possible in nations and races that are diverse, and there in the first place we hope for our own people and are convinced that socialism is inseparable from multiculturalism.”
Humble Talent in another post I believe is correct, we’re going to see violence increase. However if things continue to follow the pattern, Marxism will rear it’s ugly head on multiple sides to create confusion, and instead of just Jews, gays, blacks, etc. it will be ideologies & those that espouse them, that will be destroyed, by any means necessary.
It SHOULD remind you of that.
My favorite Burt Lancaster character quote: “Maybe there’s only one revolution, since the beginning, the good guys against the bad guys. Question is, who are the good guys?”
Same here. Looks like each side is hoping for a Reichstag fire they can use to justify the persecution of their enemies. The left may have just gotten theirs.
Here’s the ugly thing I don’t think anyone wants to admit:
The ‘alt-right’ chuckleheads probably have next to zero support across the nation in terms of their actual views. They are gaining sympathy from a principled free speech standpoint, as Jack demonstrates.
The
proto-fascist‘antifa’ chuckleheads, I suspect, have WIDE sympathy and support across the nation in terms of their actual views.I would suspect, that if it boiled down to real widespread violence, one side would have a large popular support for its Republic-undermining conduct, while the other side would probably fizzle out lacking the same support.
As I reminded you the other day, one of the leading promoters of the alt-right remains one of the president’s closest advisers.
Prove it. Sources other than crazed progressive rags?
Steve Bannon told Mother Jones that his website Breitbart was a platform for the alt-right in 2016. He never denied saying this, though he now denies that he or the site is affiliated with the alt-right.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/stephen-bannon-donald-trump-alt-right-breitbart-news/
Anyway, thankfully since I wrote that comment the news broke that Bannon is out.
We agree that his ouster is good for our nation: we just disagree on why
I assume the author would not have had a problem with white supremacist protesters vandalizing synagogues.
But maybe she draws the line at murder…