Sunday, July 5, 2020

A foolish consistency

This started as a comment on Francis' excellent post, but got a bit too long.)

So, these things happened over the weekend:

1. President Trump gave a pre-Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore.

2.      CNN described him as “standing in front of a monument of two slave owners and on land wrestled away from Native Americans.”

3.      Bloggers on the right fell over themselves pointing out that the media had thought it was just peachy when Bernie Sanders visited Mount Rushmore in 2016, when Obama did so in 2008, etc., etc.

4. CNN blushed and slunk off in shame.

Just kidding, #4 didn’t happen and what’s more, it never will happen. What we on the right fail to grasp is that for the left, inconsistency isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. The whole point of their attacks is to keep insisting that we apologize for statements and opinions that were perfectly okay four years ago. Or two weeks ago. Or yesterday morning.

There is absolutely no point in trying to embarrass them by showing their inconsistency. It’s about as useful as mud wrestling with a pig.

I think we should forget about the consistency argument and go straight for the real problem. “So you hate the fact that Mount Rushmore honors Washington and Jefferson? You hate America. FOAD.”


Don’t waste time and energy trying to call them out for hypocrisy and inconsistency. Don’t address them at all. Talk to their audience. Point out that the people mounting the attack clearly hate America and want to destroy it, and ask everybody you can reach why they would ever, ever be so suicidal as to put these idiots in charge of as much as a lemonade stand. 

7 comments:

ontoiran said...

"ask everybody you can reach why they would ever, ever be so suicidal as to put these idiots in charge of as much as a lemonade stand."
c'mon frank...because they promised to fix all of my problems, save the planet, pay for my college (and everyone else in the hemisphere), pay for my healthcare (along with everyone else in the hemisphere), give me (and everyone else in the hemisphere) a basic universal income, and the rich are going to pay for it all. duh.../sarc

Francis W. Porretto said...

I rather doubt they could run a lemonade stand, Margaret. Their calls for federal financing would probably be almost immediate. (:-)

NITZAKHON said...

Hopefully this makes sense.

The Left is a cult. As such, the ONLY OPINIONS that matter to cult members are those of other cult members.

Are they hypocrites? Sure, we know this. They're supernova-level hypocrites. But since we're the eeeeevil enemy, anything we say, any comment, any writing, about that is something that originated from The Enemy - and therefore doesn't count.

There's a great meme: Val Kilmer in "Tombstone" where the caption is "To be offended by what you said, I must value what you say". Precisely. They don't value anything we say. And since they vote/speak/act in lockstep thanks to dopamine-fueled altruistic punishment/conformance, they will never take anything from us seriously.

It's one reason, BTW, why I think they turn so viciously on any Leftist that steps out of line.

HoundOfDoom said...

Yup. This echos the kurt Schlicter column on townhall.com

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2020/07/02/stop-making-sense-n2571665

Their object is to control, enslave, impoverish, and kill you, and your children.

My response? Usually nothing, but the more agitated ones might get a F-off if I'm feeling frisky. The more you engage, the more empower them. Live your life. It's the most damaging thing you can do to them.

Andy Texan said...

Amen. I listen to talk radio a lot and it seems that the conversation is dominated by pointing out left wing hypocrisy. If this argument style has not worked in 35 years why continue making this case. Come on guys. Use ad hominem attack. They don't deserve anything more cerebral.

NITZAKHON said...

@Andy:

Some months back a local talk show host - whom I do like a lot - was saying we need to "take the high road" and act like Gandhi. Screw that. Gandhi's non-violence worked because the British were an honorable people (in general) and could be shamed. Our opponents cannot be shamed.

I look at these two young girls screaming a vile version of "G-d bless the USA" and think that the only thing these two twits need is a one-way ticket to rapistan over somewhere in the middle least.

Paul Bonneau said...

Eh, Gandhi did not restrict himself to only safe and easy venues. He was not about shaming or converting them anyway; he was about making them look evil.

Nonviolent resistance is every bit as useful and effective as violent resistance is. Any revolution that does not employ both is one that is asking to fail. Please do some reading to get more information about it.

But yeah, I like the FOAD response. Still not a fan of Lincoln though. They can blow him up; I won't be sad. ;-)