Dark Forebodings Part 2: Cannibals

     My level of disgust with the American political dynamic is getting very near a red line labeled “Unpack the Barrett .50 and the emergency package of Oreo Double-Stufs.” What about yours, Gentle Reader?

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     The 1991 movie Guilty By Suspicion, which stars Robert De Niro and Annette Bening, presents a garish picture of the House Un-American Activities committee that pursued allegations of Communist involvement among persons in various fields, including entertainment. As a drama it’s pretty good. Whether it’s a just portrayal of the tenor of politics and the mood of the country at that time, I can’t say, as I had not yet been born. At this point all recollections of those events must be regarded as questionable, possibly tainted by partisanry, particularism, or the depredations of age. However, three things the movie presents do have the ring of truth:

1. Communist evangelism in the U.S. was high during the postwar decades;
2. The entertainment industry was one of its preferred targets;
3. The FBI, flush with power and high repute from its wartime counterintelligence successes, was overzealous in the extreme, and private citizens were sufficiently cowed to kowtow to them.

     All it took was an accusation, which could be lodged anonymously, to put you under the crosshairs of the HUAC and its FBI investigators. And once they’d opened one, their file on you was never closed. It must have been difficult for their targets to conduct ordinary, private lives, regardless of whether the accusations against them had merit.

     Here I must note that an interest in Communism was not and has never been against any of the laws of the United States.

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     Certain other “offenses” that have been used to destroy lives have been in the news. For a white man ever to have uttered the word nigger or worn blackface are currently the most newsworthy. The ever-increasing shrillness and hysteria of the “social justice warriors” – as was once said of the “Meal Ready to Eat” (MRE), that’s three lies for the price of one – has made it dangerous to expose oneself to public scrutiny, for accusations of such things can be lodged against anyone, entirely without substantiation. Moreover, as saying nigger and wearing blackface are not and have never been against any law, it’s exceedingly difficult to counterattack against such charges. What, after all, is one to say? Libel and slander suits about such things rarely succeed in winning justice for the plaintiff. Moreover, blacks call one another nigger every day, in every state in the Union. (They also routinely go about in blackface, but I suppose that can’t be helped.)

     Other “offenses” in frequent use involve relations between the sexes: for example, telling a joke to an audience full of semiconscious SJWs, or touching a pissy virago lightly on the shoulder to ask that she permit you to move past her. And it gets better yet! One of the most heinous “offenses” seems to be protecting yourself against SJWs’ unjust accusations. Last year outspoken conservative Christian writer Jon del Arroz, who had purchased admission to the 2018 World Science Fiction Convention, was told he would not be allowed to attend it. Though the organizers of Worldcon never specified a reason, apparently it was because he intended to wear a body-camera so that objective evidence of the attacks he expected from SJWs – any hint of conservatism or Christianity makes them piss their panties – would be available.

     (Have I offended everyone yet? Patience, I’ll get to you by the end of the piece. If I don’t, send me $20.00 and a stamped, self-addressed envelope and I’ll do you personally. Promise!)

     When seemingly everything is justification for taking mortal offense, and a nebulous accusation of some non-criminal, non-violent, non-invasive act is enough to ruin a man’s life, what Keith Weiner has said about the death of good will becomes too substantial to pass over in silence.

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     We’re devouring one another.

     I hope that’s clear to you, Gentle Reader. Americans, a people supposedly committed to freedom, especially in the realm of ideas and their expression, are turning on one another with intent to destroy, usually over inanities and trivia. So far most of the aggression has come from the Left, but the imperative of the dynamic strongly implies that that will change dramatically, and soon.

     This is what has raised tensions between the races, the sexes, the ethnicities, and the creeds to the boiling point. This is what has sundered innumerable friendships and imperiled many others. This is what has made it hazardous ever to speak one’s mind – about anything! – in a gathering with unknown participants. This is what has so many commentators musing about the feasibility of partitioning the country.

     Though I nearly choke to say it, I believe America has passed the point of no return. For a modicum of social peace to return, one side must utterly destroy the other. The victory must be so complete that afterward, there will be no place here for the vanquished.

     The prescription “should” be “obvious.” Hearken to the Right’s current Jeremiah-in-Chief, Kurt Schlichter:

     Now yes, I am advocating two different sets of standards, one for Democrats and one for the GOP. That dual-track rule thing is itself a New Rule imposed by the left, and when you see Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit in an orange jumper doing the pokey time we would all do for classified stuff shenanigans we can talk about having one set of rules again.

     If the rule is that “there are no rules,” then there are no rules. The Left has allowed the Right no exemption for entirely private conduct, no “statute of limitations” for juvenilia, and no “it was just a joke” exculpations. Very well: from now on the same goes for you, Lefties. Ralph Northam goes down. Justin Fairfax goes down. And just as soon as the evidence reaches the “not impossible to believe” stage, so do Dianne Feinstein, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and many other Leftist icons. Henceforward, when lodged against a Democrat or a Leftist luminary, an accusation, no matter how petty or tendentious, shall be deemed equivalent to conviction. However, except in cases of well-documented felonious conduct, the Right shall protect its own.

     We’ll see which band of cannibals has the more robust appetite.