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Let’s Talk

The coronavirus story won’t go away soon, from the “progressive” media, though a few months is their equivalent to a geological era. They will do what they can to spread panic, and make the disaster as large as it can be, for a purpose that is narrowly, and unambiguously, political. They are hoping for as many dead as possible, especially among older, Republican voters, from which class they instinctively exclude themselves. They think it’s the only way to defeat “Trump.”

What I have just written came from a lifelong “progressive,” to say nothing of candid, friend. He was “guessing” that is what I would say. (It was a good guess.)

But he added that I am probably right because that is exactly what HE wishes for.

He did point out that I had recommended a subduction earthquake, that would correct for the anomaly of California, by sliding a few million Democrat voters into the Pacific Ocean.

Fair is fair.

It is refreshing to discuss politics openly, though frightening sometimes. The same could be said for many other topics. Usually we have tactical evasions; a person will pretend to have “concerns” that are the opposite of his true feelings. As Jonathan Swift put it, “In such a case they talk in tropes, and by their fears express their hopes.”

I much prefer the women with long hair: “AOC,” or the notorious “Ann Coulter,” who, in a video I was watching recently, declared: “If they say that one more time, I’m going to track them down and kill their children.” (The correct response is to smile broadly, the way we smile when AOC utters an opinion.)

But if a meejah talking head is straightforward (the disemployed Chris Matthews comes to mind), and tells us what he really thinks, or otherwise exhibits his personality – with or without a sense of humor – he must forfeit his job.

The past, we know, is a foreign country. Reading books and newspapers from past times, I am often struck by “the sort of thing one wouldn’t dare say today.” And I often regret that demonstrable truth is now actionable under law.

*

In the benighted country in which I live (Canada), there are “concerns” all day. Our last election was decided because the media exposed an opposition leader who might have a “hidden agenda.” They believed that he was secretly opposed to such things as abortions. No matter how many times he said this openly, belief in his “hidden agenda” survived.

The fact that a considerable part of the Canadian population also dislikes abortions – possibly the majority – is blanked out. Millions in this country must believe that they are the only “social conservatives.” Those rumored to harbor such views will actually apologize for themselves, and vote directly against their own beliefs and interests.
I realize Americans may not believe this. You’d have to live in Canada to realize that I am telling the truth.

And you should be warned, as Americans, that this contagion still spreads. Perhaps “Trump” has sealed the psychic border for a while, but when it reopens Canadian attitudes will resume floating south.

That is, silence in the face of demonic assertions. Inability to speak up. Self-censorship until you don’t even think about expressing a contrary opinion, near anyone who might hear you. Mortal fear that they can read your mind.

We are content, that people be killed, from unborn and just-born babies to the old and the ill, so long as it happens out of our sight. For as so many Germans agreed after World War II, “I never knew.”

The fear of “uncoolness” exceeds, in some cases, the fear of death. Philosophers underestimate the power of embarrassment to determine historical trends.

This is why the Left, and all other aspiring tyrants (falangists, fascists, nazis, whatever), settle quickly on the policy to avoid any argument. Instead they shout it down. Inwardly they know that reasonable discourse cannot end well for them. Rather, they focus on silencing their opponents. The “cancel culture,” as it is currently called, where it hasn’t the power yet to shut down breathing, turns to censorship as the next best means.

But their inward knowledge is sound: that the debate they cannot shut down, they will lose. Which is why it is important to shout back, and repeat until heard. At a lesser volume, the whole phenomenon of “political correctness” must be defeated. We must say, exactly, what they forbid us to say.

From hovering on the brink of extinction, we suddenly prevail. This is not hard to understand, if the background condition is grasped. For suddenly, the assailant is disarmed. He depended entirely on our silence. And where he cannot find a way to enforce it, the game is up. He is very likely to abjectly surrender.

It isn’t up among the candid, however. The debate will resume among those from all sides willing to speak the truth, or acknowledge truths when they become apparent. It continues among those who will say what they mean; and it becomes livelier as well as more improving when listening to an argument comes back into vogue.

For all arguments are improved without brown shirts, beating on the doors and trashing the furniture. Gentle reader will have to take this on faith: for I claim to have seen this principle in action. A hearing can be had even for such extreme positions, as the Love of God, when the obstacles to its expression are removed, and opponents must consider the question, “What is my alternative to this?”

Or on the smaller scale of an unborn baby. If it is not a baby, what is it? If humans have a right to life, why doesn’t he? Seriously: try to explain it.

A politician, even in Canada (she is Leslyn Lewis, see for instance HERE) [1], is prepared to lead the flight out of silence. It always comes, eventually. Why not now?

 

*Image: Fetus in the Womb by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1511 [Queen’s Gallery [2], Holyroodhouse, Scotland]

David Warren is a former editor of the Idler magazine and columnist in Canadian newspapers. He has extensive experience in the Near and Far East. His blog, Essays in Idleness, is now to be found at: davidwarrenonline.com.