Rough Language Ahead!
Send the kiddies out of the room!
Nearly fifty years ago, a great jurist, Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan, decided that it was critical to make an important point about freedom of speech...by saying fuck in an open session of the Supreme Court during his reading of the majority opinion in a freedom-of-speech case. He offended a lot of sensibilities, including those of Chief Justice Warren Burger, by doing so. Yet he had established once and for all that the word fuck, at that time generally deemed one of the “unspeakable” words, is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The incident is reported in Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong’s excellent book The Brethren, a chronicle of the first years of the Burger Court.
As with words, so also with opinions, including political opinions. Of course, that’s hardly the attitude of the contemporary Left. Their military wing AntiFa doesn’t believe you have a right to express your opinion. Your opinion is “hate speech,” and therefore beyond the pale. Only opinions they approve shall be allowed the freedom of speech.
Which brings us to this morning’s pseudo-controversy: a series of tweets from President Donald Trump:
Quoth our second-favorite Bookworm:
The reaction from the Progressive and Democrat cohort, encompassing politicians, presidential candidates, and the media, was predictable: RACIST!!! It did not matter that Trump said nothing about race. There was a dog whistle there and, naturally enough, race-obsessed Leftists heard it.
President Trump refused to be cowed:
The combination has sent a number of generally sensible and perceptive conservative commentators into a frenzy of hand-wringing, complete with prognostications of doom.
I have only one question: Why?
Would the majority of Americans find fault with the sentiments Trump expressed? I think not. Indeed, I think the great majority of the nation has been waiting for a forthright, fearless spokesman for Americanism. It’s part of the reason we elected Trump president, isn’t it?
Then was there something offensive about the way the president expressed himself? I can’t find it. It was clear to whom he was referring. It was equally clear what he was castigating them for. He made no references that exceeded their persistent, vicious, even slanderous denunciations of the laws of the United States and the enforcers thereof.
Yet even conservatives who’ve applauded Trump at other times seem to think he’s damaged himself with the tweets above. Either the Republican Establishment and the media have drummed the “niceness uber alles” ethic too deeply into their skulls, or they harbor an unreasonable fear of the sensibilities and judgment of the sensible and reasonable common people of these United States.
My assessment is quite the opposite of theirs. It’s beginning to look as if, come November 2020, the Democrats will be hard pressed to hold Illinois, New York, and California, no matter how many canvassers they send to the graveyards.
Several years ago, Historian wrote thus:
There is a reason that those who would rule us fear a frank and open discussion of their abuses of power, their arrogance, their elitism, their cowardice in the face of our enemies. They fear an honest critique of their Marxist value system, of their attempts to destroy the rule of law, and of their corruption. They know well the power of ideas, of free thought and inquiry, and they have been working slowly for over a century to destroy that which they fear. Above all, they fear being forced to confront the essential nature of their inhuman creed, which is why collectivists pathologically avoid the truth and strive to conceal their acts and beliefs. One of the ways in which this gradual erosion of our liberties has been concealed is by means of perverted politeness.Politeness was used as a weapon against the Jews, many of whom would not allow themselves to conceive that the German National Socialist pogrom would actually be so rudely carried out against them, and who politely walked to the gas chambers to the strains of Mozart and Beethoven, as requested. There are many reasons for the Holocaust, but perversion of politeness was one of them. If you think it incredible that thousands of people walked to their death for fear of being impolite, ask yourself, "Am I any different?"
Wild applause! If your enemies succeed in silencing you – especially in the expression of objectively verifiable truths – what can they not do to you? And if they’re willing to silence you, what wouldn’t they be willing to do? What virtue is there in kowtowing to their strident and entirely insincere claims of offense?
Fuck ‘em and the swaybacked, spavined nags they rode in on. Fuck ‘em up the ass, sideways, with a rusty ripsaw! Send them back to the shitholes they fled and watch how they express themselves there! The time for prissy self-restraint in the face of their provocations has passed...if, indeed, there ever was such a time.
My Gentle Readers know I have a fair facility with the English language. Yet even I find that certain sentiments are best expressed in the fashion of the paragraph above. Moreover, I deem it imperative that millions more voices be raised in such terms and to that effect.
Historian asked:
Why stand you there silent?
Where are the awkward questions, the rude insistence on speaking the truth?
Why are there not MILLIONS of blogs such as this on the Internet?
Why is Liberty a minority opinion?
Why is the rule of law mostly an historic concept?
Why do you let Marxists set the terms of the debate?
Why do you respect illegitimate authority?
And why, oh why, do we repress our own perfectly justified, righteous anger at these contemptible vermin who, having been succored by the greatest and most generous nation ever to exist, persist in defaming it and accusing it of all manner of entirely fictitious offenses?
Take the gloves off, Gentle Reader. It’s long past time.
DAMNED RIGHT.
ReplyDeleteI'm so so so so so sick and tired of being told we must be "gentlemen" and fight by Marquis of Queensbury Rules while the Left smashes beer bottles (metaphorically, but IMHO coming in reality soon) and gut-stabs us.
As Bill Whittle has noted in multiple videos, one behaves honorably against an honorable foe. The Left HAS NO HONOR. They have no honor, no decency, no ethics, no morality... we're in a death struggle for the fate of America - and have no illusions, they don't just want America in the Socialist camp, they want the world.
i’ll say “amen”’ to that.
ReplyDeleteAmen, brother!
ReplyDeleteHear hear
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Whittle, here's his take:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/l0R4GtHgp1A
Here is how the *logic* of the "controversy" works out --
ReplyDeleteTrump: It's shameful that AOC and "the Squad" react to criticism of their policy preferences by calling Pelosi a racist.
Pelosi: Shut up, you! I *am* a racist!
Dems: Yeah! Trump is a racist for saying that Pelosi is not a racist!