Posted by Silverfiddle
The Left is on a Savonarola Roll...
The left excels at propaganda and the rhetoric and symbolism that powers it. Those on the right should study and learn from the masters. At VH1's Hip Hop Honors, Pharrell delivered a very effective message, and he did it in his characteristic nice way
Let's break it down and analyze it:
Next, he uses the word “enemy.” Who in this country has ever called Mexico or Mexicans “the enemy?” This is a wickedly effective double-rapier strawman. Pharrell avers--with no evidence whatsoever--that “they” call Mexicans the enemy, but this is just the setup.
Next, he flips over the term “enemy” and applies it to those with a “divisive mentality,” which by implication means anyone who believes in enforcing the nation’s borders and following UN-approved immigration controls.
The conclusion:
“They keep talking about a wall. But the enemy is this divisive mentality. It’s on this side of the wall… The white nationalists are walking towards your future. What you gonna do?”First, he used the undefined “they” allowing the listener to fill it in for herself. This gives the message the broadest appeal possible.
Next, he uses the word “enemy.” Who in this country has ever called Mexico or Mexicans “the enemy?” This is a wickedly effective double-rapier strawman. Pharrell avers--with no evidence whatsoever--that “they” call Mexicans the enemy, but this is just the setup.
Next, he flips over the term “enemy” and applies it to those with a “divisive mentality,” which by implication means anyone who believes in enforcing the nation’s borders and following UN-approved immigration controls.
The conclusion:
Anyone wanting immigration control or, ¡Dios mÃo!, a wall, is a “white nationalist.”
See how he just called half the nation racist without sounding like he called them racist? Brilliant.
Here’s his next sentence. Note the echoes of Martin Niemöller...
Learn something, conservatives and Republicans! Not just words. Action:
This is why the left owns the commanding heights, while conservatives are mired in the bogs, shouting themselves hoarse to no avail.
A Ray of Hope
Despite Barack Obama being elected twice by healthy margins (victories powered by white people, btw--43% in 2008, 40% in 2012), elections over the past decade make it clear half the nation is disgusted with this crap and vote Republican (the only other game in town, such as it is) either out of strong conviction, or as a nose-holding reaction to the Democrat Party, which is the home of brown supremacist La Raza, Islamic supremacist CAIR, black supremacist Black Lives Matter, fascist antifa and the entire squirming scrum of hatred stirring, race-baiting Maoist vandals.
See how he just called half the nation racist without sounding like he called them racist? Brilliant.
Here’s his next sentence. Note the echoes of Martin Niemöller...
“Don’t think just because they’re coming at the African-Americans, and they’re coming at the Jewish community and they’re coming at the Hispanics that it can’t be you.”In these dark days of dangerous white nationalists “coming at” “the African-Americans,” “the Jewish Community” and “the Hispanics,” these entertainers exercise some very American, help-your-neighbor benevolence.
Learn something, conservatives and Republicans! Not just words. Action:
Williams is set to headline a concert for Charlottesville with Dave Matthews Band, Justin Timberlake, Ariana Grande and The Roots...”
While tickets are free [...] Beneficiaries of the fund include victims of the events in Charlottesville on August 11 and 12, their families, first responders and organizations devoted to the promotion of healing, unity and justice locally and nationwide.The sharp eyes in the audience will notice Ariana Grande’s name. Imagine if she, Pharrell and other leftwing entertainers--after Islamic terrorists murdered teenage girls and their parents at that concert in England, or slaughtered all those people in the Florida nightclub--had talked about Muslims being the “real enemy,” “walking towards your future,” and “coming at” the LGBTQ community, girls who like pop music, and those not sufficiently Muslim…
This is why the left owns the commanding heights, while conservatives are mired in the bogs, shouting themselves hoarse to no avail.
A Ray of Hope
Despite Barack Obama being elected twice by healthy margins (victories powered by white people, btw--43% in 2008, 40% in 2012), elections over the past decade make it clear half the nation is disgusted with this crap and vote Republican (the only other game in town, such as it is) either out of strong conviction, or as a nose-holding reaction to the Democrat Party, which is the home of brown supremacist La Raza, Islamic supremacist CAIR, black supremacist Black Lives Matter, fascist antifa and the entire squirming scrum of hatred stirring, race-baiting Maoist vandals.
SPLC estimates there are 5,000-8,000 kkk members, and 917 total hate groups (including 193 black separatist groups) in the US.
Q: Why does the Leftwing Infotainment Media Complex fixate on the 0.0001% of the population who are openly racist?
A: The societal vandals want clear lines of demarcation, and clearly-defined enemies. They hope to provoke angry "whitelashes" to further fan the flames. Like all provocateurs, when they don't get the desired response, they will egg on their loonies to greater and greater acts of incitement.
They are noisy, but they are not the majority. The majority of good, hard-working people in this nation of all races, creeds and colors--who don’t hate anybody--have learned that the only way to win this game is to not play.
No, this isn't a Savonarola bonfire. The Left isn't pitching it's own wealth into the bonfire. It's burning their enemies and their wealth in that bonfire. In other words, since there's no self-sacrifice, it's ALL witch hunt.
ReplyDeleteHEAR! HEAR!
DeleteLeave it to Farmer to destroy my analogy. My understanding was those bonfires consisted of confiscated contraband, not just objects freely surrendered, but you are much more a historian than I.
DeleteNo, you're also right. There were confiscations, but I believe it was Machiavelli who stated that it began as a public demonstration of self-sacrifice and impetus for resisting temptation.
Deletefrom Wiki: Although it is widely reported that the Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli burned several of his paintings based on classical mythology in the great Florentine bonfire of 1497, the historical record on this is not clear. According to the art historian Giorgio Vasari, Botticelli was a partisan of Savonarola: "He was so ardent a partisan that he was thereby induced to desert his painting, and, having no income to live on, fell into very great distress."
Deletealso from Wiki
DeleteStarting in February 1495, during the time that would normally have hosted the festival known as Carnival, Savonarola began to host his regular “bonfire of the vanities.” He collected various objects that he considered to be objectionable: irreplaceable manuscripts, ancient sculptures, antique and modern paintings, priceless tapestries, and many other valuable works of art, as well as mirrors, musical instruments, books of divination, astrology, and magic. He destroyed the works of Ovid, Propertius, Dante, and Boccaccio. So great was his influence that he even managed to obtain the cooperation of major contemporary artists such as Sandro Botticelli and Lorenzo di Credi, who reluctantly consigned some of their own works to his bonfires. Anyone who tried to object found their hands being forced by teams of ardent Savonarola supporters. These supporters called themselves Piagnoni (Weepers) after a public nickname that was originally intended as an insult.
In some ways, the "Weepers" are like the NFL Players, trying to induce us to throw our "cops" into the fire.
You are right about the method... "guilt-tripping the gullible" Problem with that is, most of us feel we no longer have anything to feel "guilty" about. Jim Crow is gone. All formal legal race discrimination is gone. All that's left is an historical "legacy", and only "time" can take care of THAT.
Delete"most of us feel we no longer have anything to feel "guilty" about"
DeleteIndeed. And that is our best defense. Don't cop to the guilt; refuse to play the game.
Also, protesting a legacy (which no one can do anything about) is the magical Everlasting Gobstopper of victim-based identity politics.
NOTE from an ENEMY #1:
ReplyDeletePick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.
~ Saul Akinsky
You make the obvious error of assuming Alinsky's teaching aren't available to the right wing.
DeleteIf you're in a mood to think, imagine Rush Limbaugh.
I would never deny that your hero Alinsky has had a powerfully degenerative, distinctly immoralizing influence on EVERYONE, Canardo.
DeleteNOTE from an ENEMY #2
ReplyDeleteThe job of the [community] organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a 'dangerous enemy.'
~ Saul Alinsky
NOTE from an ENEMY #3
ReplyDeleteThe [community] organizer dedicated to changing the life of a particular community must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community.
The above is also by Saul Alinsky
DeleteNotes from an Enemy #4
ReplyDelete'The Prince' was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. 'Rules for Radicals' is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.
~ Saul Alinsky
Note from an ENEMY #5
ReplyDeleteAs an organizer, I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be - it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be. That means working in the system.
~ Saul Alinsky
NOTE from an ENEMY #6
ReplyDeleteIf the real radical finds that having long hair sets up psychological barriers to communication and organization, he cuts his hair. If I were organizing in an orthodox Jewish community, I would not walk in there eating a ham sandwich unless I wanted to be rejected so I could have an excuse to cop out.
SAUL ALINSKY
DeleteSilverFiddle wrote:
ReplyDelete"[E]lections over the past decade make it clear half the nation is disgusted with this crap and vote Republican (the only other game in town, such as it is) either out of strong conviction, or as a nose-holding reaction to the Democrat Party, which is the home of brown supremacist La Raza, Islamic supremacist CAIR, black supremacist Black Lives Matter, fascist antifa and the entire squirming scrum of hatred stirring, race-baiting Maoist vandals."
Yes, but look what we GOT –– a GOP so divided, so weak, so cowed, so arrogantly disloyal to its constitutients that the apparent TOTAL VICTORY achieved in the last election cycle has proved to be not worth so much as the proverbial TINKER'S DAM.
Discovering WHY this should be OUGHT to occupy a great deal more of our time than endless dennciations of an admittedly abominable status quo.
But that is not the subject of my blog post...
DeleteI'm sorry, but as I said, "Discovering WHY this should be OUGHT to occupy a great deal more of our time than endless dennciations of an admittedly abominable status quo."
DeleteI honesty FELT I was being helpful to your Cause (anti-Marxism, I hope!) by supplying a small number of quotations from a few of the super-villains who have been prime movers in pushing us towards the lamentable state in which we find ourselves today.
NOTES from an ENEMY #7
ReplyDeleteRidicule is man's most potent weapon.
~ Saul Alinsky
Kinda makes you think of our Number One Site Pest –– the feathered quickstep –– doesn't it?
I've always sid he was weaned at the anus of Saul Alinsky.
]:^}>
That should have read "feathered QUACKSTER."
DeleteSorry!
NOTE from an ENEMY #8
ReplyDeleteLet the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!
~ Karl Marx
Note from an ENEMY #9
ReplyDeleteThe theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property.
Karl Marx
DeleteNOTE from an ENEMY #10
ReplyDeleteThe first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.
Karl Marx
DeleteNOTE from an ENEMY #11
ReplyDeleteThe production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. Without doubt, machinery has greatly increased the number of well-to-do idlers.
Karl Marx
DeleteNOTE from an ENEMEY #2
ReplyDeleteIf we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it.
~ Edward Bernays (The Father of Modern Adverising)
That ommedoatelu above was supposed to be #12 of course. Sorry!
DeletePosted on the wainscoted walls of a wise man's blog:
Delete"Gratuitous Displays of Extraneous Knowledge Offered Not To Shed Light Or Enhance the Discussion, But For The Primary Purpose Of Giving An Impression Of Superiority are obnoxiously SELF-AGGRANDIZING, and therefore, Subject to Removal at the Discretion of the Censor-in-Residence.".
I'm sorry you feel that way, but as I said above,
Delete"Discovering WHY this should be OUGHT to occupy a great deal more of our time than endless dennciations of an admittedly abominable status quo."
I honesty FELT I was being helpful to your Cause [anti-Marxism, I hope!] by supplying a small number of quotations from a few of the super-villains who have been prime movers in pushing us towards the lamentable state in which we find ourselves today.
I am frankly stunned at the vehemence with which you have musubgterpreted my intent.
NOTE from an ENEMY #13
ReplyDeleteIt is not necessary for the politician to be the slave of the public's group prejudices, if he can learn how to mold the mind of the voters in conformity with his own ideas of public welfare and public service. The important thing for the statesman of our age is not so much to know how to please the public, but to know how to sway the public. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.
~ Edward Bern's
The author of the above quotation was Edward BERNAYSnot Edward Bern's. I have to monitor the SpellCheck more carefully to be sure it does not try to "correct" me arbitrarily.
DeleteThank you for totally hijacking the thread and completely steamrollering what I have written.
DeleteYou delete comments at your blog for behavior like this. I'm not mad at you and I'm not complaining that AOW did not delete your comments, merely pointing out this fact.
I was hoping to spark a conversation based upon something different that the stale, picked over Alinksky criticisms.
Oh, well. Again I am reminded why keep trying to give this up and move on...
The Scorpion and the Frog
Delete@sf,
DeleteLooks to me like FT became "inspired".
And I apologize if I failed to recognize the suitability of the analogy. The media and NFL players are certainly playing Savoranola's role, but it's having an inverse effect... as the bonfires are all of NFL gear.
I have my doubts as to whether the Pittsburgh Kneelers or Baltimore Cravens will ever recover.
DeleteBeanie seems to be the ony one who best understands my motives in this. I read Silver's post carefully from head to toe, and was indeed "INSPIRED," to give examples of the SOURCES that led to our present predicament.
DeleteI'll repeat this once more, and then I promise to depart:
I'm sorry my longtime friend Silver Fiddle took this the wrong way, but as I said above –– TWICE ––, "Discovering WHY these dreadful things should be OUGHT to occupy a great deal more of our time than endless dennciations of an admittedly abominable status quo."
I honesty FELT I was being helpful to SilverFiddle's Cause [anti-Marxism, I hope!] by supplying a relagtively small number of quotations from a few of the super-villains who have been prime movers in pushing us towards the lamentable state in which we find ourselves today.
As Thoreau said:
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."
Beantown:
DeleteApologies not necessary, but thanks.
I think there is a dedicated enough core of fans that the NFL is in no danger, but time will tell.
I realized what a waste of time it was years ago, when the kids were young and too many NFL Sundays featured beautiful weather to good to not go outside with the family and enjoy it.
FT, thank your for counting me as one more leaf beater, but you missed the point of my post.
DeleteIt is not one more tired "denunciation."
It is an (admittedly amateur) critical analysis of rhetoric employed by a delightful fellow of the left.
Textual clues such as "Let's break it down and analyze it" and "learn something" should have given it away.
There also stands the fact that I didn't denounce anyone, unless you detect my tacit criticism of conservatives and Republicans for failing to watch and learn.
No need to go anywhere. I often focus in on areas that don't make for good reading or that are uninteresting to others, and I can be a terrible judge sometimes of what will go over.
No hard feelings.
""A delightful fellow of the left."
DeleteThere AIN'T no such animal –– at least not when it comes to ethics, morals, economic and political philosophy, ideology and the effects those have on society.
That said I could never deny the existence of leftists who are perfectly delightful to know and interact with socially –– as long as conversation avoids any and all references to POLITICS.
Attempts to find anything positive, profitable, encouraging or heartwarming from polemicists who favor Marxism over Capitalism and Atheism or Islam over Christianity, and Antifa over Law and Order is tantamount to attendung a cocktail party in a room heavily polluted with poison gas.
"Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing," etc.
];^}>
elections over the past decade make it clear half the nation is disgusted with this crap and vote Republican (the only other game in town, such as it is) either out of strong conviction, or as a nose-holding reaction to the Democrat Party
ReplyDeleteLet us consider yesterday's GOP primary results in Alabama, when the electorate had a choice between, more or less, a GOPer and a type of outsider (particularly in the culture wars), instead of a choice between a GOP candidate and a Dem candidate:
Voters are marching on to further war with the political establishment.
The last paragraph from the above link states the following:
The populist march that propelled Moore to victory isn't aimed at securing conservative policies nor built around one politician, Trump, or the Tea Party. Each is a symptom of a dyspeptic electorate, not its cause.
As my IBA friend Epa wrote:
The public has recognized that Corporate, Chamber of Commerce Republicans, and Wall Street Democrats are the same party, and serve the same constituency, and it’s NOT THEM.
The big surprise to me is how Trump stepped in for the Establishment cat. They steered him right into that one. He may have good gut instincts, but Trump is not politically savvy in the traditional DC sense. He was manipulated.
DeleteSF,
DeleteA deal with McConnell?
Who knows? I'm done trying to figure out politics and politicians.
DeleteSF,
ReplyDeleteAt VH1's Hip Hop Honors, Pharrell delivered a very effective message, and he did it in his characteristic nice way
Recently, in a disconcerting conversation with a 17-year-old I've come up against just how much Pharrell and other dividers have.
Use of the undefined “they” is nearly impossible to counter -- or at least such was the case with young man with whom I had the above-mentioned conversation.
Pharrell Williams had phenomenal success with "Happy"; therefore, Pharrell is an infallible sage. Sheesh. That Pharrell has done something useful with a sizeable portion of his multi-millions, and that gives his even more clout with certain young people, who will soon be voting.
I wish good people on the right would study this, dissect it, develop counter-strategies and adopt these tactics in the service of conservative values.
DeleteThere are some smart people on the right (Jonah Goldberg, Ben Shapiro) but they are using 18th Century wooden sailing ships against 21st Century destroyers.
Milo Yiannopolus, 4Chan, etc have the right idea for this new millennium, but are given to wretched excess.
SF,
DeleteThere are some smart people on the right (Jonah Goldberg, Ben Shapiro) but they are using 18th Century wooden sailing ships against 21st Century destroyers.
100 upvotes!
I'm not particularly interested in what Milo Yiannopolus, 4Chan, etc have to say. But I KNOW that younger generations are reached by them.
As for the counter-strategies you mentioned, perhaps they are being developed by "the younger set." I've see a few such presentations. They leave me cold, but do seem to reach younger people.
The baton is being passed, but not very effective for any number of reasons.
There are some smart people on the right (Jonah Goldberg, Ben Shapiro) but they are using 18th Century wooden sailing ships against 21st Century destroyers.
DeleteNow you're trolling FreeThinke with Jewish legends. ;)
@ Silverfiddle
ReplyDeleteIn the film “The Right Stuff” we heard this quote allegedly attributed to Gus Grissom: “No bucks, no Buck Rogers.” Who owns the media? They are those who willing to spend great sums of money to channel public opinion, and as you’ve said, they are experts in developing the most effective message to their targeted audience. It is not a single audience. There is nothing new about this; the left realizes that the last man standing wins ... so they have been wearing down the conservative right since the early 1900’s. America’s silent majority has been awakened, but now the fight is all uphill. The question is, do conservatives have the stamina to achieve the crest of the hill? Perhaps a better point would be, is the conservative right willing to spend as much money communicating their message? If the answer is yes, then again as you’ve said, we need to spend some time constructing that message and sending it out to multiple audiences.
This falls apart when you try to define contemporary media as "liberal".
DeleteFox, Sinclair Media, Breitbart, liberal? Please, you'd be hard pressed to find a hard left prime outlet.
The even more troubling question is what you define as conservative. You seem to expect everyone to gravitate to a hard libertarian perspective in the belief that is going to be embraced by anyone but the hard right.
You've had control since Saint Ronnie Raygun and Gingrich started tearing things apart and continue to complain about the results of your own program.
C'mon ducky. You can admit that your side still loves throwing turds like Obamacare into the legislative punch bowl.
DeleteSo, ducky, you think that Bill Gates or Bloomberg is something other than pure leftist bullshit? Or that Breitbart is a media mogul? You are two things: consistent and daft. It’s what we’ve come to expect from Stalinist twaddle.
DeleteQ: Why does the Leftwing Infotainment Media Complex fixate on the 0.0001% of the population who are openly racist?
ReplyDelete-------
They don't.
They are talking to the hard core 20% Trump base that is tacitly bigoted.
Memo to leftwing loons: Your Ever-Expanding definition of "Racist" is pissing off the normals.
Deletea Quinnipiac poll from 2016 re-upped by FiveThirtyEight on Monday showed that in addition to 87 percent of Republicans, 57 percent of Independents disagreed with the protests.
...
Much of the Left operates with a broader definition of racism than the rest of the country, one that lumps, for instance, a patriotic independent in suburban Milwaukee into a category society has long reserved for neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. As you can imagine, that's infuriating for decent people who believe fully in racial equality but don't believe kneeling for the national anthem is an appropriate form of protest.
The Left must begin to think carefully about how its ever-expanding definition of racism impacts people who believe in fundamental racial equality, but are now placed into the same category society has long reserved for groups such as the KKK.
Keep it up. Yer doin'a heckuva job, Ducky
SF,
DeleteMemo to leftwing loons: Your Ever-Expanding definition of "Racist" is pissing off the normals.
Yeah, I'm there now. FED UP!
I've never before felt this disconnected from my fellow Americans.
The very infrastructure of my quotidian perspicacity enjoins me to juxtapose the fastidious eschatological lamentations of what the impending iteration of the youthful illiterati will elevate as our national leaders against the current manifestation of our political process: Donald Trump.
DeleteWhile the kids are scampering for dictionaries...
...the avalanche will not care how the pebbles vote. Find solace that your doomsday visions are soft enough to imply that people will have a choice. Snoop Dog will be President. The Republic is safe.
I think it's reasonable to assume that the KKK's official membership list is the tip of an iceberg. It's can only serve as a lower bound bound on the total number of people who sympathise with the group.
DeleteAnd how many people in Germany were sincerely convinced by the Nazi's racial theories? What's the tipping point for this kind of thing? Far less than 50%, I estimate.
"Much of the Left operates with a broader definition of racism than the rest of the country"
Can we agree that racism is the misguided belief that a person's ethnicity reliably predicts aspects that person's character?
Why would on assume its the tip of an iceberg?
DeleteIf you're going to damn a large percentage of people with the term "racist" you better have some damn good evidence to back it up.
Because my experience of my own enthusiasms is that only a few people actually sign up to the fan-clubs for the things they're interested in.
DeleteI wish we could use the term "racist" not as a pejorative, but in a detached observational manner. If I want to "damn" someone, I'll make it explicit and obvious; I'm not doing that. You brought up the question of how widespread racism is by quoting the KKK membership numbers, and I agree it could be a fruitful area of discussion, but it looks like you'd rather I didn't approach it.
"I think it's reasonable to assume ..."
DeleteWhenever we dare to ASSUME anything,
it generally makes an ASS of YOU and ME.
];^}>
Jez, of course we should approach it, but with specificity.
DeleteSpecificity is what is lacking from the incoherent the wild bedlam of accusations flowing like sewage from the left.
Protesting things that happened in the past and beating war drums over "legacies of discrimination" are a magical Everlasting Gobstopper to the shit-stirrers. There is no end to it because you can't change the past.
So please, be my guest, discuss racism, but stop trafficking in generalities.
Right now, here in the US, it's tribal warfare. We are slinging catapult-loads of heavily-freighted charges and wild accusations at each other.
I'll try. But I thought the protest was about police brutality and lack of accountability, both contemporary matters.
DeleteFreeThinke: good one :sarcastic-emoticon:
Well, Silver, we can be as "specific," and "particular" as we like about the many manfestations of the Mental Disorder some rather stupidly call "Liberalism," but what difference does it make to discuss one or two specific FACETS of something that is made up entirely of BS to begin with?
DeleteI am NOT taling about historical injustices, et al. but about the incessant CAMPAIGN the Left has cleverly conjured up to use as a CLUB to beat Western Civilization, Christianity, Capiralism, The Bourgeois Establishment, and the Good Ol' USA to a pulp for the PRIMARY purpose of WEAKENING "US" to the point where "THEY" can move in and get a death grip on DICTATORIAL POWER?
At bottom that IS what this endless struggle really IS all about. All the malevolent accusations, earnest preaching, disingenuous rationalization,and flowery admonitory rhetoric notwithstanding.
I adamantly refuse to endorse any mode of thinking that even dares to suggests we should MEET the DEVIL Halfway.
I keep irritating you, because I think that YOU think "The Devil" is suxeptible to and amenable to REASONED argument.
He is NOT now, –– never HAS BEEN, –– and never WILL be.
[NOTE: I hope you realize that when I refer to "The Devil" or to "Satan" I am NOT ttaling abut an unpleasant looking creature with red skin, jet black hair, horns, a tail, and cloven hooves?]
Why else do you think I would post a quotation like this, if it were not to help us understand the NATURE of the EVIL that has paved the way for the FANATICISM that has produced the Strife and Agony we live with today?
"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it."
~ Edward Bernays (The Father of Modern Adverising)
All by itself that is a PROFOUND REVELATION –– not just a "Fun Fact" to add to our arsenal of rhetorical ruffles and flourishes to help us appear erudite.
So, say the protests are about "police brutality" and "holding police accountable," specifically in their actions against minorities.
DeleteIt's still nebulous (perfect for endless protest) How do you measure it? How do you declare victory or defeat? What are the quantifiable measures?
Declaring war on undefeatable human nature is a specialty of the left and their endless social wars.
A more useful pursuit would be to analyze those infamous incidents where a white cop shot and killed a black person, and the cop was exonerated.
Angry tribespeople on all sides hate getting bogged down in details; it smothers the righteous rage.
@ Jez: "Can we agree that racism is the misguided belief that a person's ethnicity reliably predicts aspects that person's character?"
DeleteNo.
Actually, you and I could, but cultural forces here in the US have been mitigating against such common sense for decades.
Goose-stepping Progressivism, ever on the march, is possessed of an "arc of history" determinism that makes Calvinists blush.
People of color WILL play the part of oppressed minority, and if white people won't play their angry, racist roll, we need to keep prodding and provoking until they do.
Here's More:
A legacy of racism is holding black people back, despite the evidence that a vast majority of black people are hard-working, responsible Americans, many of whom pulled themselves up out of very bad circumstances they were born into.
Some dysfunctional subsets of black culture punishing peers for "acting white."
I don't know who and I don't know why--the dynamic has a life of its own now--but forces are herding us into tribes and assigned roles.
I sincerely and cynically believe there are groups on the left disappointed and angry that angry and violent white racism has not exploded.
Race relations have gotten much worse since Barack Obama was first elected.
http://news.gallup.com/poll/1687/Race-Relations.aspx
I'm not putting it all on him, although he, his wife and cabinet members did subtly fan the flames.
His election touched emboldened racists at the extremes in many camps, including white supremacists, black supremacists, brown supremacists and Islamic supremacists.
We Americans lack the intellectual and emotional maturity to have frank conversations about race, so we engage in endless proxy wars and proxy arguments.
The left screams about the right using "dog whisles," but its all dog whistles, all the way down, on both sides.
I don't see civil war breaking out, but I do see fissures widening and hardening, and its thanks in large part to people throwing out casual assumptions that all Trump voters or white people or (fill in the blank) are racists, whether they know it or not.
We all laugh about Safe Spaces, but what is happening is that people are retreating to safe spaces where they don't have to deal with noisy scolders getting in their faces over nebulous triggers and microagressions.
SF,
DeleteHow do you measure it? How do you declare victory or defeat? What are the quantifiable measures?
Nothing can possibly be resolved because all metrics are completely subjective.
"How do you measure it?"
DeleteWhole reply was excellent, but this in particular is almost always the best question we can ask.
"Nothing can possibly be resolved because all metrics are completely subjective."
Might be subjective, but no reason for despair. The desired outcome is for black citizens to trust the police and judiciary as much as other groups. We can measure that with surveys, estimating the proportion of crimes that get reported etc. Yes, it's partly about perception, and I've no objection to some effort going directly into that.
That "race relations" gallup poll might be reflecting perception, rather than individual experience. Folks might respond differently when asked about racial relations within their circle of acquaintance vs their assessment of it in society at large, because our news is so filtered and skewed. Not all filtering is a bad thing, but people tend to forget that the news is not a representative sample of events.
'Some dysfunctional subsets of black culture punishing peers for "acting white."'
I have some sympathy for the paranoia that I believe drives that phenomenon, but it's still ill-founded and damaging.
"The desired outcome is for black citizens to trust the police and judiciary as much as other groups"
DeleteYou're measuring subjective feelings. Good luck with that, especially when we are plagued with "fake news" and sh*t stirrers with a vested power and money interest in chaos and keeping people pissed off.
As I've already stated, protesting legacies and ill-defined grievances is a magical Everlasting Gobstopper for the race hustlers on all sides.
That's politics - even when we take readings of objective measures, they are interpreted as proxies for the subjective feelings we're really interested in. Police brutality isn't ill defined.
DeleteFrom Charles Blow an Respected Establishmentarian writer for the New York Times:
DeleteThe Flag Is Drenched With Our Blood
He dedicates all but the last few paragraphs to sins of the past, which cannot be changed.
If this small subset of black American want to disrespect the flag because it is "drenched with their blood," nothing anyone can do today can un-drench it.
He tacks on at the end proforma criticisms of black incarceration, as if klan members in cop uniforms are out hunting young black men, and adds that although blacks are only 12% of the population, they are the victims of 25% of police shootings.
The perspective missing here is that young black men punch above their weight when it comes to crime, so if you look at racial percentages of crime breakdowns, police shootings and incarcerations are in line with that.
Here is a more complete picture:
https://www.city-journal.org/html/hard-data-hollow-protests-15458.html
7881 black people were killed in 2016, 233 killed by the police.
90% of murders of black people are committed by other black people.
So, 233 killed by cops, over 6,000 killed by a black murderer.
We can discuss reasons for this, and there are areas of society still feeling the effects of institutional racism, but nobody wants to get down to brass tacks and discuss cold, hard crime statistics. Go look at them yourself.
If you examine this FBI Table, it explains much about the disproportionate numbers of young black men being shot by police and being incarcerated.
Having said all that, I am in favor of community boards overseeing policing, and I have never been one to knee-jerk defend the police. Each infamous case over the past few years has had its own horrible dynamics. We need daylight and honesty, not demagoguery.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2013.xls
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2013.xls
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-43
The mainly African-American players who are grossly overpaid for playing a game are showing their utter contempt for all Americans. Sure they can kneel, who is going to stop them? But the big diaper babies can't take the heat and are now claiming normal Americans of all races can't criticize them or call for them to be fired. Trump expresses the outrage of the vast majority of American when he said fire the SOBs!
ReplyDelete"Q: Why does the Leftwing Infotainment Media Complex fixate on the 0.0001% of the population who are openly racist?
ReplyDelete-------
Because the Hardcore Left-wing base of the DNC cannot survive much attention to their 50% who are tacitly Fascists or the other 40% that are in your face Fascists. (The remaining 10% are just useful idiots and tools.)
Yes, Warren, but the IMPORTANT questions lurking behind all this folderol would be
DeleteWHY is the ENEMEDIA (Information-Entertainment Complex) so firmly rooted in MARXIST ideology?
HOW did that dismal phenomenon come about?
FT,
DeleteTo answer your questions: the education machine (K-graduate school now and the "new approach" to journalism).
The Information Complex will no longer hire traditionally-trained journalists -- and has actually fired some of the traditionally-trained journalists, one of whom I knew personally. He worked for CNN. Until one day he didn't. He was given a generous severance package.
To my knowledge my friend he has never again found a job in journalism. His age is against him, of course, but that is not the complete picture. This man, a liberal with integrity, refuses to write in any style except the Inverted Pyramid.
Maybe I don't give Pharrell enough credit, but I don't think his remarks were this pointed. I don't detect any precision in his comments. I think his unspecified "they", for example, is just lazy.
ReplyDeleteAs an entertainer, it's not his job to make perfect sense. But Trump has the same failings (he's worse, actually), and I despise him for it.
I don't accuse Pharrell of not making sense. He makes perfect sense. He probably did not diagram out his statement as I have done, but he's a popular, likeable guy hurling an increasingly-common insult at half the nation.
DeleteDoing it with a "Happy" smile doesn't make it any better, but it sure does make his message effective.
We are probably at the point where some rifts will not be healed, thanks to people like Pharrell.
SF,
DeleteWe are probably at the point where some rifts will not be healed, thanks to people like Pharrell.
Agree. And it also plays on what we used to call "the generation gap."
Bonfire of the Sanities!
ReplyDeleteYes, and it is long long LONG past time we stamped that out, and supplanted it with a BONFIRE of the INANITIES.
DeleteSh*tposting RULES! Seriousness drools.
DeleteGive me ironic distance!
DeleteBALLS!
Delete];^ ∂
Packers and Broncos say they will all stand.
ReplyDeleteI predict NFL Corporate is quietly cracking down. The players will shoot off their mouths about how they bravely stood against President Trump, declare victory and look for other ways to be spoiled, over-paid a-holes.
Overpaid?
DeleteNot much of a free marketeer.
Sounds like a little class warfare to me.
But buck up. Trump has a great tax plan. Lowest rates increase, highest rates decrease. You can figure it out.
Bottom line -- you get nothing. No ACA repeal, no DACA repeal, no wall and no useful tax reform. He has proposed to lowered the business tax so there can be executive pay increases and stock buybacks to artificially inflate the value of executive stock options.
It's all good.
Can't we all just get back to drawing pictures of Muhammad?
DeleteWhen the NFL surrenders anti-trust protection and starts building their own stadiums instead of threatening and shaking down taxpayers, get back to me.
DeleteCan't we all just get back to drawing pictures of Muhammad?
DeleteFree market? When have we ever had that here?
ReplyDeleteI got nothing? I got no President Hillary and a chorus of Democrat crybabies still whining about President Trump. Music to my ears!
tax cuts? Meh, the rich always win out on that one, since most lower middle class pay from 5 - 0% effective tax rate. The entertainment part of this is listening to Democrat suddenly start whining about the federal debt.
Apologies for not playing the role of Religious Right Winger, but we divorced a few years back and still are not speaking.
If only one of them could demonstrate they have any knowledge whatsoever of Russell Kirk...
Russell Kirk was at his most hilarious when he was trying to convince people he'd read John Stuart Mill.
ReplyDeleteI'm referring to his 10 Conservative Principles.
DeleteAsk a GOP politician today about conservatism and he stutters out something about Reagan.
Kirk was so anti-libertarian that maybe it's a good thing nobody gives a hoot'n holler what else he wrote. It's not like Rick Santorum was ever going to beat Obama.
DeleteAt least Hillary Clinton was gracious enough to point out that Donald Trump is not a conservative. Maybe she was the wrong observer for that given her usual confusing a microphone for a poop bucket, but she eas clearly correct that one sentence.
In 2012, conservatives were told to set their principles aside and "vote for Romney anyway." My take is, if you can set your principles aside, you never had any to set aside. Now we have a President who thinks principles are those lamers that gave him detention after school.
Kirk was a conservative, not a libertarian. The two share some slight overlap, but they are different philosophies.
DeleteIf you want to talk the blending of philosophies, Hayek hit the sweet spot, imo.
My point is, looking for conservatism in the GOP is like looking for God's salvation in a whore house.
This "White Nationalist" worked hard last night to save a black American man's life. The narrative of the Left is false. Great piece of writing, Silverfiddle.
ReplyDeletehttps://thelastenglishprince.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/the-value-of-the-black-american-man/
Addendum: If the Packers and Broncos all stand with arms locked, it is in a sign of unity for those kneeling.
ReplyDeletePresident Trump misunderstood the gesture when he sent out his Tweet. The standing with arms locked affirms the grievance of the players against our nation and her traditions.
Let them apologize. And then let them stand like real men with real love for our nation. Hands at the side, or a hand over the heart.
Tammy
Tammy,
DeleteThe standing with arms locked affirms the grievance of the players against our nation and her traditions.
I strongly agree. And I have to wonder how
President Trump misunderstood the gesture. Surely he is aware of such body language!
Yeah, they're trying to have it both ways now, "standing," but locking arms.
DeleteFie on them all. Also, the dummies don't realize the authoritarian SJW left hates half-measures. The left will demand the full monty from them
I've taken to begin asking people when do we civilians get to have a flag and anthem? I say this because flags are supposed to be displayed upright or flying, not draped over the damn ground end zone to end zone of a football field. You'd think if the people crowing about their patriotism were really savvy to flag protocol they'd get butthurt over servicemen displaying the flag that way, rather than people kneeling or chugging a hot dog during the playing of the national anthem. It's gotten so ridiculous that it seems to me veterans and servicemen are now trying to monopolize the flag and anthem for themselves, as if getting one on their coffin whether they die in battle or not ain't enough. I'm not trying to disparage those that served, but seriously, I don't have to react all worshipful to anybody's tantrum. Most of my family are veterans and servicemen. I even have a cousin who's foster son is a former Niner / current Packer. He occasionally makes the news as one of the few NFL players that helps hold the flag when they stretch it across the field, and he was doing that well before Colin Kaepernick got pissed about being benched.
DeleteEnough is enough, y'all.
I always thought they did those big displays so that the flag doesn't touch the ground. You're saying the flag does touch the ground? That don't sound right.
DeleteI don't like all the military worship, either. I liked it better when I had to fight my way out of local bars because I was military.
People in uniform sucking up all the adulation, discounts and freebees is bound to end up backfiring. I never liked hearing "thank you for your service!"
You also make a good point about people in the stands disrespecting the song as well, but I don't think its just veterans upset with the players for taking a knee. I doubt there is a military installation that's not full of shouting men and women drinking and watching the NFL games.
My points was this half-assed kneeling before, standing and locking arms during is trying to have it both ways, but it won't work.
The flag doesnt touch the ground, it just isnt displayed upright or flying. Technically such a diplay breaks protocol, but no one gripes. An American flag as big as a football field is awesome.
DeleteThe flag doesnt touch the ground, it just isnt displayed upright or flying. Technically such a diplay breaks protocol, but no one gripes. An American flag as big as a football field is awesome.
DeleteIsn’t it Funny, or Sad, or Despicable, how the Racist Bigot Democrats ALWAYS Politicize Natural Disasters.
ReplyDeleteLike President Trump's racist neglect of Puerto Rico is threatening lives!!! But what President Donald J. Trump said, and is right again. “Left Wingers are complainers, not doers”
And how about that Mayor of San Juan gets off her fat, bitching ass & start figuring out how she and her army of ranters can be delivering the goods that have already been delivered there herself? The docks, ships, and airports are already stacked with thousands upon thousands of shipping containers, that these isn’t any room for any more. The problem is that the floods, and lack of roads etc are preventing it from being distributed.
Just wait until electricity is restored in Puerto Rico and the people struggling there find out the President of the United States used his access to electricity to charge the phone he used to cry on Twitter about people badmouthing him.
Delete