Hegemony And Dissonance

     When you see a man acting in a fashion that contradicts his stated positions, you are witnessing a variety of cognitive dissonance. BizPac Review has cited a number of such occasions on the part of the “forces” asserting hegemony over the streets of various American cities. A snippet:

     A hodgepodge of conservative groups had reportedly been scheduled to rally in downtown Portland this Saturday in support of the city’s beleaguered police officers.

     The event was titled “Mother of All Back The Blue Rallies”....

     But according to renowned journalist Andy Ngo, the otherwise peaceful pro-police rally wound up being hijacked by virulently anti-police left-wing extremists.

     “Numerous conservative groups held a pro-police rally but it was crashed by #antifa, who threw eggs, rocks, feces & urine,” he reported via Twitter.

     What ensued was a tremendous deal of violence, the majority of it (but not necessarily all of it) seemingly instigated by the left-wing extremists.

     Apparently, the AntiFa types didn’t expect that the pro-police demonstrators would fight back:

     It seems left-wing extremists hijacked a peaceful pro-police rally, threw “eggs, rocks, feces & urine” at the rallygoers, and then cried foul the moment one of the otherwise peaceful pro-police protesters had enough and decided to fight back.

     Please read the whole article. It’s replete with links and tweets from the intrepid Andy Ngo, who’s specialized in covering these events at considerable personal risk.

     There’s an enormous message embedded in these events. The leftists who have been asserting hegemony over the streets of Portland and elsewhere are hollow. They have no real substance. They crumble before any meaningful opposition. What could be more revealing – indeed, more pathetic — than whining for protection from the very forces you claim to oppose?

     He was seeing the enormity of the smallness of the enemy who was destroying the world. He felt as if, after a journey of years through a landscape of devastation, past the ruins of great factories, the wrecks of powerful engines, the bodies of invincible men, he had come upon the despoiler, expecting to find a giant—and had found a rat eager to scurry for cover at the first sound of a human step. If this is what has beaten us, he thought, the guilt is ours. [Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged]

     If we want to keep this country, we must be willing to fight.