Guest Post by Kurt Schlichter
For some unfathomable reason, conservatives always seem to get excited when a moderately articulate post-puberty pundit comes along and parrots some simulacrum of conservative doctrine – except it almost always ends up like when my retriever-corgi mix tries to walk on her stubby back legs and we gasp in delight, “Look, Bitey thinks she’s people!”
This is not a criticism of young people; it’s a criticism of us grown-ups, and a recognition of reality that keeps biting us on the Jeb. We need to dispense with the cute kid conservative novelty acts and understand that our ideology – unlike liberalism – is not based on feelings and preferences but is instead drawn from a wisdom and understanding of human nature that comes only from hard-won life experience. That’s not to say young people should sit down and shut up – far from it. They have valuable insights we need to hear, especially from worlds they uniquely inhabit, like colleges or the company-level military. Sometimes they have done in-depth study and reporting on specific issues, including writing books. That’s earned expertise, not some mere knack for viral ranting, and that’s not what we are talking about here.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
It’s our own fault for letting them represent us to the world – maybe we do it because they flatter us by offering a dim reflection of what we believe. But when they recite conservative chapter and verse for us, that’s all they’re doing – reciting. It’s not ingrained, it’s not seared into them through study and experience. It’s a stunt, a parlor trick. One of several reasons we conservatives need to stop putting them out there is because most conservatives have a youthful liberal phase and the kid who delights us today by mimicking our views will likely take a misguided off-ramp or two along the road to adulthood.
Remember 13-year old Jonathan Krohn, who wowed the 2009 CPAC with a collection of clichés that would have been utterly unremarkable had it come from someone not wearing Superman Underoos? Someone even published his book, Defining Conservatism; the adolescent’s three star-rated definition of conservatism is currently lurking at about Number 2,605,952 on Amazon. He’s liberal now, if you care.
Then there was C.J. Pearson. He was the teen sensation who liked conservatism, then hated conservatism because of racism, then decided that he liked Trump. It’s been a few months, so he’s probably morphed into something else. I’ll be looking for him in the background at the next #TheResistance rally, wearing a genital beanie and screaming about patriarchy.
The latest is Tomi Lahren, whose media profile, social and otherwise, has exploded thanks in large part to her popular video rants. Lots of people listen to her say unremarkably conservative stuff in a fairly aggressive way, but the fact that she is on camera all over the place obscures the fact that she has yet to mature as a conservative thinker.
Lahren recently decided to reveal, on The View, that she is now pro-choice. But don’t worry – she assured America that she is still “a constitutional, y’know.”
Phew. That’s a relief.
She got suspended from her gig after calling her audience “hypocrites,” which some life experience might have taught her was a poor idea. Here’s another thing she tweeted – oh, and is it ever the kind of sentiment perfectly suited for a venue as fundamentally unserious as Twitter: “I speak my truth. If you don’t like it, tough. I will always be honest and stand in my truth.”
Wow. Here’s “my truth.” That’s about the dumbest combination of words strung together by an alleged conservative I’ve had the misfortune to encounter since Jeb Bush decided to compassionate consplain to us about illegal aliens and their acts of love. Let me put it in terms Millennials might understand: OMG 🙁
“My truth” – can you imagine a less conservative concept? “My truth” sounds like the kind of self-affirming nonsense she likely got out of a lower-division UNLV gender studies seminar. And I love the part about how she’s going to steadfastly defend the dumb no matter how many people warn her that, “Hey, that’s super dumb.” At least I assume that’s what “stand in my truth” means – how deep is your truth, anyway? Like, whatev. You keep fighting the power.
There’s nothing more tiresome than Millennials’ certitude in their claims to moral superiority when combined with their hilariously pretentious posturing as stalwart defenders of their unprincipled principles against some on-rushing charge of imagined haters. Move over, Jews at Masada and Brits at Rourke’s Drift – here’s Tomi Lahren, courageously defending her right to be ridiculous by standing, resolutely, in her truth.
Where’s her parade? Sheesh, if you want snowflakery, it doesn’t get much snowflakier than embracing the notion of “my truth.”
And yeah, I’m being totally condescending, because that’s the proper response to this kind of silliness. Quick, cue the classic distraction, “Oh, my critics are against me cuz I’m a girl!” Among Millennials’ least charming habits is their tendency to attack the motives when they can’t deny the substance. Again, like, whatev.
Hey, I don’t blame the conservakids for cashing in on the spotlight. If I was 24 and someone offered me a gig and a boatload of cash, game on. But as it happens, when I was 24, I was a platoon leader in Germany during the last years of the Cold War leading other young people. That’s not like when you’re a TV star, where everyone tells you how awesome you are – and that lack of pushback against your bad ideas is hardly conducive to developing anything except a personal ideology that makes your thoughts and feelz the foundation of your ideological paradigm. Hence, Lahren’s John McCainian maverick approach that treats conservative tenets like just another entrée at the all-you-can-eat Cafeteria of Principles: “I have moderate, conservative, and libertarian views. I’m human. I will never apologize, to anyone, for being an independent thinker.”
Take that, all you monsters out there demanding that Tomi Lahren apologize for being an independent thinker!
That deserves several more “like, whatevs.” See, being an “independent thinker” is the absolute opposite of being someone who has learned, tested and embraced an ideology over time. You’re either conservative, or you’re something else. And if you identify as something else this week, own it.
Sorry – conservakids who can merely rant a good rant cannot be the voice of the conservative movement and still have it be conservative. We aren’t Rousseauian liberals suffering under the delusion that children have some sort of shortcut to wisdom denied to those with actual life experience and the knowledge gained over time. The leaders of our movement should not be cute kids who are merely reading off of a script that they have not yet lived. I wish Lahren nothing but success – she’s not a bad person, just a young person – but I’m just not interested in what she has to say right now. She can come back in a decade after she’s lived a little and rethought her recent rethink regarding killing babies, and maybe I’ll give her a listen.
Maybe.
This sounds like the same ingenious logic that helped conservatives lose the shit out of the culture war for the past 50 or so years. Keep busting out the same tired litmus tests and roll out some more fossilized mummies who’ve lived the ideals to your standards and lose yourself another generation or two, bud. Conservatism/libertarianism is beginning to pick up steam for many reasons worldwide, but one of the main reasons why it is beginning to prevail in the culture war is that version 2.0 of the thought leaders began to adopt a strategy, while gentlemen like the above author are still bitching about tactics.
I agree with you cynical30. My fathers house has many mansions. Did Gloykristhole, or Sourkrauthammer die and leave Schlichter in charge of defining conservatism ? Even with that being said, I don’t know a thing about this broad and could not care less. If I had to guess from just looking at her I would have to say she is just another mainstream media Whore. just like Megan McCain.
Exactly, I’m a fiscal conservative, as if there’s any other kind, and I’m pro-choice.
Social conservatives can all take a long walk on a short pier, which is exactly what they’re doing if they don’t get behind Trump’s agenda. Mid-term elections will clear up any misunderstanding about the populist movement. Social conservatism was soundly rejected in 2016. Otherwise, there were any number of social conservative GOP candidates the voters could have chosen to represent their voice in our nation’s capital.
Social conservatives can attempt to co-opt the message, just as rhinos co-opted the Tea Party and Progs co-opted Occupy. Sadly they’re a little slow on the uptick, sentimentally holding on their vacuously held unscriptural beliefs, from which the nation is constitutionally protected by the first amendment. We’re here, we’re near, and we’re in your face is the only message the establishment is going to get, and the only warning.
Young people can be anything they want to be just by saying it. They have not yet had to live by what they say are their principles. Ask them again when they are about 40 how they feel about all of this.
“Conservatism”… “Capitalism”… Blabbity … Blah … Blah … Blah. The present system is a rig job, with “Socialized Risk” providing pay-offs to “Privatized Gain”.
It isn’t a “Capitalist System, while, instead, a “Corporatist’s Kleptomockracy”.
But, by all means, keep spouting Nonsense into the night air. The circle has begun to choke itself out and most of the attendees have left the campfire, while all that is left are those hypnotized by the illusion of warmth and the flames prepared by propaganda and prehistoric storytellers.
This country deserves better and for those still spouting, “one side has less corruption than the other”: Please keep staring into the light, because, before long, hopefully, it will predetermine your position, while the train behind it finally puts an end to your foolishness.
There are innumerable Lefty (Soros) funded trolls who have penetrated the Alt-Right. Kurt should know this. It’s ‘warfare 101’. I’m disappointed in him.
There are a couple of commenters on this site who habitually try to change the direction of the conversation whenever the discussion of a sensitive topic gets too ‘real’. If you pay close attention, you’ll notice.
Really Vodka
Who might that be??? Maybe EC or myself. Why spend time on worthless race baiting BS like this Jared Taylor story?
If you can’t see contrived crap like this is put on for the simple minded then we can’t help you. Get a clue before this whole thing comes back to bite you in the butt.
Vodka, 007 said you should be shaken not stirred…..I’m shaking you to wake up.
Good points, Bea. But, no, I didn’t have you in mind when I mentioned Soros funded trolls.
You are one of the contrarians here who’s opinion I always pay attention to. I’m not ready to admit that you were correct about Trump just yet, but it could come to that. If it comes to that, please don’t rub it in too hard. But I know you will, you fucker.
What is it about Masada that people don’t get?
When surrounded and about to be assaulted by the Romans the Jews did what? They gave up and committed suicide, not a kamikaze like suicide taking out as many Romans as possible but I’ll jump if you come near me suicide.
It was the Romans who defined themselves by showing no matter what the cost in manpower, time, and treasure, anyone who defied Rome would pay with their lifes.
To trife with Roman was death. This is the meaning of Masada.\\Rorke’s Drift in contrast shows that the hopelessly outnumbered fight it out regardless of the likely outcomes-too many people are unaware that a British column 12 times the size of the garrison was wiped out with few survivors a day eariler. There is no similarity between the two events.
People blow shit out of proportion all the time. This chick wanted to be friends with people so said some stupid shit.
I don’t have it in me to care even a little bit. She’s never been anything more than a mouthpiece.
Yeah, but look at her. Whatever she is selling, I’m buying. As long as the sound is turned down.