Another Highly Instructive Graphic

     If you’ve struggled to read Herbert Marcuse’s essay “Repressive Tolerance,” which is central to the assertions, beliefs, and methods of the Left, know that you’re not alone. Others have suffered equally. But thanks to Weasel Zippers, we have a Campbell’s Condensed version that anyone can grasp:

     The Marcuse essay is deliberately written in the most obscure language possible. My belief is that this wasn’t just natural to Marcuse, but deliberate, to conceal the falsehoods and fallacies at the core of his thesis. After all, he claimed that:

     The elimination of violence, and the reduction of suppression to the extent required for protecting man and animals from cruelty and aggression are preconditions for the creation of a humane society.

     ...right at the beginning of his essay. However, he proceeds thence to rationalize all sorts of violence and repression in pursuit of Leftist ideals:

     The whole post-fascist period is one of clear and present danger. Consequently, true pacification requires the withdrawal of tolerance before the deed, at the stage of communication in word, print, and picture. Such extreme suspension of the right of free speech and free assembly is indeed justified only if the whole of society is in extreme danger. I maintain that our society is in such an emergency situation, and that it has become the normal state of affairs. Different opinions and 'philosophies' can no longer compete peacefully for adherence and persuasion on rational grounds: the 'marketplace of ideas' is organized and delimited by those who determine the national and the individual interest. In this society, for which the ideologists have proclaimed the 'end of ideology', the false consciousness has become the general consciousness--from the government down to its last objects. The small and powerless minorities which struggle against the false consciousness and its beneficiaries must be helped: their continued existence is more important than the preservation of abused rights and liberties which grant constitutional powers to those who oppress these minorities. It should be evident by now that the exercise of civil rights by those who don't have them presupposes the withdrawal of civil rights from those who prevent their exercise, and that liberation of the Damned of the Earth presupposes suppression not only of their old but also of their new masters.

     Note the invocation of Marx’s “false consciousness” notion. This asserts, in the simplest terms, that Americans are wrong to think that we know our own interests. Note also the “small and powerless minorities” gambit. Who are they, who “oppresses” them, and how? Blank-out. And of course, we have “an emergency,” so there’s no time to think – we must act now!

     But wait: there’s more! Marcuse wrote his drivel in 1965, when mass media was tightly centralized and entirely one-way, and when individual Americans’ means of communication were restricted to the mails and the telephone call (apart from a small number of amateur radio enthusiasts). Can you imagine how horrified he would be by the Internet, its two-way nature, and the way it’s allowed millions of patriots to find and converse with one another? Can you imagine what he would rationalize as “necessary” in light of the present “emergency?”

     Hold on to the above graphic. You’ll find it exceedingly useful in the weeks and months to come. Sadly, I can guarantee it.