Well, some things never change. Back in 1937, outgoing prime minister Stanley Baldwin joined his successor, Neville Chamberlain, in expressing the sentiment to members of parliament "that if they felt they must deplore totalitarianism and aggression, they must not name names."
"It was important," implored Baldwin, "to avoid 'the danger of referring directly to Germany at a time when we are trying to get on terms with that country'" (Manchester).
Consider this an open thread, since I don't have much time this morning -- in fact, for the rest of the week. It's October, and it's an even-numbered year, which means I have until the end of the month to complete my 36 hours of discontinuing education. Something has to give, and you're looking at it.
TRIGGER WARNING: some readers have expressed the view that my deployment of any salty language diminishes the blog. TURN BACK NOW.
Recall that we were just about to dive headlong into Principles of History, if there are any. The above example may or may not reveal a principle, but it certainly suggests a pattern.
But why should naming evil cause good people to want to turn evil? That doesn't make any sense. And why should evil people care if someone calls them evil? Evil people don't care what others think, except insofar as they can manipulate them.
Another parallel: Obama and Clinton say that naming the evil is a great recruiting tool for the evildoers. Therefore, appeasing them should lessen their appeal and thin their ranks.
Okay. How'd that work out? "Time increased Hitler's momentum.... Now that England had shown the white feather, recruits swelled in the ranks of the Nazi parties in Austria, Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, western Poland, and the Free City of Danzig." Hmm, exactly the opposite of what the Theory of Appeasement would predict.
Besides, if going after enemies creates more of them, why does the left never stop attacking our deplorable asses??
You know how the Palestinian cause -- not to mention Bernie Sanders and liberal fascism in general -- is so popular on college campuses and among Hollywood and media eliterates? Well, by the mid-1930s, "Nazism had become fashionable in London's West End. Ladies wore brackets with swastika charms; young men combed their hair to slant across their foreheads.... The Fuhrer still had many admirers in Parliament and a lofty one (King Edward VIII) in Buckingham Palace."
Each generation must learn anew the same lessons. Especially this one: "History is mankind's painfully purchased experience, now available for free, or merely the price of attention and reflection" (Thomas Sowell).
Oh, and one more -- a memo to the Kaeperdicks among us: "There is not one of our simple uncounted rights today for which better men than we have not died on the scaffold or the battlefield" (Churchill).
30 comments:
TRIGGER WARNING:
Oh my stars! Let me clutch my pearls a little tighter before continuing...
Besides, if going after enemies creates more of them, why does the left never stop attacking our deplorable asses??
They only attack people who don't fight back. Christians have an unfortunate habit of not lopping off heads at the slightest provocation. Or even the worst provocation. Plus they think we are too stupid to do anything about it.
Grabbing the Raccoon right now. There, I said it!
(BTW, great comment thread between you and William on Saturday. Would hate to see that get lost in the blog shuffle.)
I meant on Friday's post.
"Oh, and one more -- a memo to the Kaeperdicks among us: "There is not one of our simple uncounted rights today for which better men than we have not died on the scaffold or the battlefield" (Churchill)."
... or for which they will not have to do so again, because lesser men didn't realize or care.
Is there anyone unaware of the male Ann Coulter?
I speak of Milo! [Yiannopoulos]
Hilarious unPC wisdom and unabashed
Trump-'USA all the way'ism from a super gay Brit Greek!
Yes. The wife in particular is a big fan.
Prager U blacklisted by YouTube?
The left is evil.
That's absurd. And yet there are tons of videos of sjw drivel, profane and lewd sexual content, and utter complete nonsense. This is sad.
It's more than sad. Prager has had more of an influence on me, and in a uniformly positive way, than any other living human. Thus, it is literally a war on truth and decency. Which is the essence of evil.
Oh, and Catholicism is just the bastardization of a great faith -- you know, like Islamism.
Catholics who are Democrat are either stupid or satanic.
Unreal.
And satanic is an utterly nonhyperbolic way to describe them.
You have to be quite messed up in the head to equate "Google blocking some videos" with "The left is satanic". Google is not the left, and blocking a video is not exactly a violation of any of god's laws that I can think of (plus they aren't even blocked, I just accessed one with no interference at all).
What they are is achingly stupid.
There is no censorship on the left, no speech codes, no safe spaces, no trigger warning, no liberal bias in the media or university, no political correctness -- none of it. All made up by wingnuts.
"Satanic" was used to describe the left's determination to fundamentally transform Catholicism.
Google blocking videos is merely "evil," which of course is quite bad enough.
Left-wing Catholicism is not exactly a new thing. If it's satanic, then it's odd that Dorothy Day is being considered for sainthood.
I nominate her for patron saint of useful idiots.
Yeah well if you are a follower of supply-side Jesus I can see why someone like Day would be anathema. But the Catholic Church hasn't gone full wingnut yet.
I've been out, and now am trying to catch up. Doing everything off my phone which wants to post under a different name.
I like Milo, too. He's doing good.
Have any of you checked out the Twitter alternative, gab.ai? I never was on Twitter so I'm trying to figure out how it works, but it's pretty cool.
Haven't heard of it. I quit tweeting some time ago, before they could ban me.
I heartily recommend the Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism to the economically illiterate Catholic hierarchy. In particular, I direct their attention to Catholicism or Socialism: Pick One.
When "liberal" is used as the adjective before a noun, it is actually always the noun, whereas the supposed noun is the adjective. Thus, there can be no "liberal Catholicism" -- it is impossible -- only Catholic liberalism. The latter may advocate for abortion, or female priesthood, or socialism, or the redefinition of marriage, etc., because the primary allegiance is to liberalism, not Catholicism.
Mushroom, I've heard of Gab but haven't looked into it. So far, it sounds like there's a waiting list to get on; that plus the fact that i never got into Twitter has kept it from piquing my interest yet. Lord knows I don't really need more distractions online :)
I do like the idea of Infogalactic as an alternative to Wikipedia, though. Now all they need is a streaming video platform that won't censor someone like Prager.
Re. Milo, I like him but with caution. I don't mind that he's gay, but the "twinks for Trump" thing is a little much. That, and there are stories about some serious misallocation of monies he solicited for donations to something. I don't know if they're true, and I do think he's doing great work in a lot of other ways, but... just cautious.
I don't agree with everything he says, but he's a great provocateur, and, like Breitbart, actually enjoys doing battle with the Left Wing Hate Machine. The best part, though, is how he just runs circles around them intellectually. No wonder they want to ban him.
Yes. He's absolutely correct that feminism is cancer, and I do love how he drives them frothing mad.
Milo did a hilarious interview with the original New Castrati, Joel Stein, and Stein didn't know what hit him. He has that liberal combination of complete confidence and absolute ignorance, so he didn't seem to realize he was pwned beyond recognition.
Milo and Prager as intellectual beacons. Ho-kay.
Maybe the problem isn't so much stupidity as abominable taste. Crappy people and crappy ideas, all reinforcing each other and coalescing into various wingnut formations, with Trump as the emerging gas giant of awfulness. It's already collapsed into a moral black hole from which there's no hope of decency emerging.
--a moral black hole from which there's no hope of decency emerging
Stop reading my mail!
--Crappy people and crappy ideas, all reinforcing each other
Leave academia alone!
--Maybe the problem isn't so much stupidity as abominable taste
Create your own entertainment industry!
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