M
member 1013
Guest
This is going to turn into quite the tangential and disjointed FRAT I am sure, so you have all been warned. 
I was raised the son of Soviet immigrants who taught me to honor, respect and uphold the traditional ideals of liberalism; the ideals of equality, liberty, human rights and a healthy democracy. Most of my life, and probably even today I would have identified as a "liberal," as in a left of center person. I still support the core concepts of liberalism: freedom, equity and democracy. I will always. They have been good to me and mine.
But I have perceived a change in the rhetoric, actions and policies of those purporting to be "liberals." Maybe I am a fool and it was always so, but the dialogue and conversation have been hijacked by the fringe radicals of the movement. Akin to "far right" conservatism, and maybe in part fueled by it, those who yell the loudest and most nonsensically are consistently given the podium to spread their toxic ideology.
In particular, the almost militant need to enforce what many term "the P.C. culture" and to crush dissent not through conversation but by labeling anyone with a dissenting opinion as bigoted, racist or displaying some faux "phobia" you will never find in a legitimate medical or psychological text book. It has been stated before, by those with both greater intellect and relevant knowledge than I, but in their almost zealot like quest for "tolerance," they have bred a culture of intolerance and censorship.
This militant indoctrination begins, sadly, at many of our institutions of post secondary education. The liberal arts, as they are often referred to, have always been an insular, pseudo-scientific field full of back patting and intellectually incestuous mutual masturbation. (In full disclosure, I myself have a bachelor's degree in political "science.") Institutions and researches who do not blindly subscribe to the status quo and even dare to challenge it are derided as "right wing think tanks" and discredited. The Ivory Tower that many bemoan is in many ways a real thing, a self contained community that is convinced it's opinions are actually the answers every one has been craving.
In a somewhat ironic and surely unintentional turn of events, the culture of the "liberal" arts has come back to haunt many of the institutions and professionals who so strongly have advocated it. The ridiculous spectacle of students demanding safe spaces and harassing school officials that don't subscribe to their particular buzzwords does have a degree of schadenfreude to it. Unfortunately caught in the cross fire are those like the professor and his wife at Yale or the University President forced to apologize for saying "all lives matter" in support of a certain movement for black equality.
This has spread now to permeate almost every aspect of our society. We have now a class of people for whom being outraged is a way of life. Tina Fey recently refused to apologize to them anymore, and I couldn't agree more. Whether it is taking false umbrage at a joke or mob vigilante internet justice, there is no hiding from it. Politicians are scared to speak honestly about the biggest existential threats to Western Civilization because it is improper.
In many ways these liberals seek to undermine and even neuter our society and the ideals upon which it is based. As an example I would site the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. I would argue that she is in fact no fan of liberal democracy. This woman refuses to heed the will of her people in anyway. Furthermore, she constantly seeks to undermine and impose her will on the sovereign democracies of Western Europe through her hegemony of the European Union. A self confessed hater of "nationalism," she threw away a German flag a minister was trying to wave at a press conference. She looked disgusted. However she mistakes the fact that people identify as part of a nation state as the unconstrained nationalism of men like Adolf Hitler. She is disconnected both from the people whom she is supposed to represent and Europe as a whole.
Then you have people like the Mayor of Cologne, a woman who blamed the victims of the mass sexual assaults on NYE and advised women on a "code of conduct" to be out on the street with these new arrivals. This theme of victim blaming in regards to sexual assault victims has been growing. This is one of the most interesting things I have observed, the same far left liberals who rail against "rape culture" insisting that the victims are at fault and seemingly blindly defending a group that views their whole set of ideals as evil.
I am not the only one who is feeling disenfranchised from this strange disconnect form reality and true liberalism displayed by this new generation of liberal. They should be made aware of the fact that in their zealotry and fervor they drive away and alienate the majority of their sympathizers. Their often toxic rhetoric leaves a bad taste in any reasonable person's mouth, same as that of the far right.
Far right politics is anarchy, and far left ones totalitarianism.
So here I sit, proudly and firmly planted on the fence.
Moo.
I was raised the son of Soviet immigrants who taught me to honor, respect and uphold the traditional ideals of liberalism; the ideals of equality, liberty, human rights and a healthy democracy. Most of my life, and probably even today I would have identified as a "liberal," as in a left of center person. I still support the core concepts of liberalism: freedom, equity and democracy. I will always. They have been good to me and mine.
But I have perceived a change in the rhetoric, actions and policies of those purporting to be "liberals." Maybe I am a fool and it was always so, but the dialogue and conversation have been hijacked by the fringe radicals of the movement. Akin to "far right" conservatism, and maybe in part fueled by it, those who yell the loudest and most nonsensically are consistently given the podium to spread their toxic ideology.
In particular, the almost militant need to enforce what many term "the P.C. culture" and to crush dissent not through conversation but by labeling anyone with a dissenting opinion as bigoted, racist or displaying some faux "phobia" you will never find in a legitimate medical or psychological text book. It has been stated before, by those with both greater intellect and relevant knowledge than I, but in their almost zealot like quest for "tolerance," they have bred a culture of intolerance and censorship.
This militant indoctrination begins, sadly, at many of our institutions of post secondary education. The liberal arts, as they are often referred to, have always been an insular, pseudo-scientific field full of back patting and intellectually incestuous mutual masturbation. (In full disclosure, I myself have a bachelor's degree in political "science.") Institutions and researches who do not blindly subscribe to the status quo and even dare to challenge it are derided as "right wing think tanks" and discredited. The Ivory Tower that many bemoan is in many ways a real thing, a self contained community that is convinced it's opinions are actually the answers every one has been craving.
In a somewhat ironic and surely unintentional turn of events, the culture of the "liberal" arts has come back to haunt many of the institutions and professionals who so strongly have advocated it. The ridiculous spectacle of students demanding safe spaces and harassing school officials that don't subscribe to their particular buzzwords does have a degree of schadenfreude to it. Unfortunately caught in the cross fire are those like the professor and his wife at Yale or the University President forced to apologize for saying "all lives matter" in support of a certain movement for black equality.
This has spread now to permeate almost every aspect of our society. We have now a class of people for whom being outraged is a way of life. Tina Fey recently refused to apologize to them anymore, and I couldn't agree more. Whether it is taking false umbrage at a joke or mob vigilante internet justice, there is no hiding from it. Politicians are scared to speak honestly about the biggest existential threats to Western Civilization because it is improper.
In many ways these liberals seek to undermine and even neuter our society and the ideals upon which it is based. As an example I would site the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. I would argue that she is in fact no fan of liberal democracy. This woman refuses to heed the will of her people in anyway. Furthermore, she constantly seeks to undermine and impose her will on the sovereign democracies of Western Europe through her hegemony of the European Union. A self confessed hater of "nationalism," she threw away a German flag a minister was trying to wave at a press conference. She looked disgusted. However she mistakes the fact that people identify as part of a nation state as the unconstrained nationalism of men like Adolf Hitler. She is disconnected both from the people whom she is supposed to represent and Europe as a whole.
Then you have people like the Mayor of Cologne, a woman who blamed the victims of the mass sexual assaults on NYE and advised women on a "code of conduct" to be out on the street with these new arrivals. This theme of victim blaming in regards to sexual assault victims has been growing. This is one of the most interesting things I have observed, the same far left liberals who rail against "rape culture" insisting that the victims are at fault and seemingly blindly defending a group that views their whole set of ideals as evil.
I am not the only one who is feeling disenfranchised from this strange disconnect form reality and true liberalism displayed by this new generation of liberal. They should be made aware of the fact that in their zealotry and fervor they drive away and alienate the majority of their sympathizers. Their often toxic rhetoric leaves a bad taste in any reasonable person's mouth, same as that of the far right.
Far right politics is anarchy, and far left ones totalitarianism.
So here I sit, proudly and firmly planted on the fence.
Moo.
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