A Low-Energy Monday

     Good morning, Gentle Reader. I’m coming off an extremely trying weekend. (Why did I look forward to weekends when I was working? I can’t remember.) So, rather than produce an essay of the usual sort, I’d like to make a couple of comments on a piece you might find notable.

     This piece from the U.S. edition of the Guardian is about a year old, but it’s valuable even so as an illustration of the Left’s driving need to politicize everything:

     Today’s extremist styles are more diverse and more subtle. Beyond T-shirts that advertise blatant racism, polo shirts with coded symbols create a shared in-group identity and signal support of violence to other believers. Tradwife-style prairie dresses and beauty regimens promote conservative visions of family. Clothing is a powerful tool to spread fascist ideas to promote authoritarianism and recruit new members to this cause.
     […]
     This new fashion no longer seeks to shock or to antagonize, but to appeal to a sense of identity and belonging, said Monica Sklar, associate professor of textiles, merchandising and interiors and curator of the Anne Barge Historic Clothing and Textiles Collection at the University of Georgia. “The idea is not being quite a subculture but to be embedded in the power structure. Instead of coding things to move away from the masses, this fashion is coding things to move into the masses,” and this is a purposeful shift.
     […]
     These styles not only allow their wearers to blend in, but they also play a role in normalizing an aesthetics of radicalism and violence. Sociologist and American University professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss, who studies extremism and polarization, has written that “it is simply much harder to recognize ideas as hateful when they come in an aesthetic package that doesn’t fit the image people hold in their heads about what white supremacists look like”. When the radical right looks like the mythical boy and girl next door, it’s hard to know who can be a threat.

     The whole article is like that. But savor the ironies.

     The Left promotes an all-embracing uniformity among its allegiants. They must think alike. They must speak alike. They must associate solely with other Leftists. And to an extent unimagined by the individualist-oriented Right, they must look alike.

     The article makes no mention of Leftist fashion preferences, of course; that would be wrong. But consider the Bertholt Brecht-inspired outfit that dominated Communist chic in the early Twentieth Century:

     Bertholt Brecht, whose play Drums in the Night was first staged in Berlin in 1922, when he was twenty-four, wrote political allegories. He was attracted to Communism by its violence, as he was to American gangsterism, and his friend Arnolt Bronnen to fascism; Brecht designed his own ‘uniform’, the first of the Leftist outfits–leather cap, steel-rimmed glasses, leather coat.

     [Paul Johnson, Modern Times]

     …and of the uniformity among Leftist street activists of our time in shabby dressing and cramming as many piercings as they can into their faces. Then there are the masks… but I digress.

     The article also illustrates how far from actual scholarship our universities have gone. “Associate professor of textiles, merchandising and interiors” -- ? There must be a quote somewhere about this… ah, I have it here:

     “I don’t like to be called ‘Doctor.’ ”
     “Sir?”
     “Oh, I’m not offended. But when they began handing out doctorates for comparative folk dancing and advanced flyfishing, I became too stinkin’ proud to use the title. I won’t touch watered whiskey and take no pride in watered-down degrees. Call me Jubal.”
     “Oh. But the degree in medicine hasn’t been watered down.”
     “Time they called it something else, so as not to confuse it with playground supervisors. ”

     Once again, RAH is “on point.”

     It has been said many times that to confuse their opponents, Leftists routinely accuse them of whatever it is that they are currently doing. Hold onto that observation. It can keep you properly oriented when dealing with such adversaries. Remember how Islamic activists cry “Peace! Peace! We are for peace!” as they attack and maul their targets?

     Have a nice day.