Guest Post by Kurt Schlichter
There’s a basic rule that far too many conservatives ignore: if some alleged conservative principle makes you less free, then it’s not a good conservative principle and you should toss it in the trash. After all, principles are merely shorthand for the best practices of a just society. When some alleged principle helps leftists enserf-ify you, then it’s a pretty Schiffy principle, isn’t it?
Weaponizing principles is one of the left’s favorite tactics, and it’s right out of Alinsky 101. Rule for Radical No. 4 is “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” And it works really well, right up until the moment that you stop playing by the rules that the left is trying to jam down your throat.
Now, the objection to my view – offered in good faith by good faith conservatives (you old softies) and in bad faith by the cruise-shilling Fredocon hacks who make common cause with our enemies – is that this kind of wokeness makes one unprincipled. It doesn’t. Those of us who see what’s happening and refuse to go full lemming – never go full lemming – are not abandoning conservative principles. We’re just not trying to hold onto the alleged principles that have abandoned us.
This comes up a lot recently as the left has redoubled its efforts to weaponize our principles to create a monopoly on power. We’ve seen Big Tech do it for a while now, but today it’s happening even more. The idea is to leverage our purported beliefs so that we are diverted from protecting and asserting our own interests by blind adherence to a version of conservative dogma that our opponents force-feed us and that we, for some reason, all too often fail to puke back up all over them like a supermodel exiting a Golden Corral.
Time to get woke to the scam and stop playing their no-win game.
One of the best examples of this is the argument that we conservatives cannot make a moral argument against, or use their political power to provide legal remedies to, the liberal cancellation game. This game is the informal process by which individuals and companies deter dissent and enforce conformity of thought and expression by threatening and sometimes destroying the livelihood of dissenters. One of the conservative principles we aspire to is individual choice, manifesting in not interfering with the choices of individuals and companies over who they do business with. This often means a conservative is stifled or fired.
But another conservative principle is freedom of expression. This is distinct from the First Amendment, which bars the government from preventing or punishing free speech. The left makes a great deal of this distinction – “Cancelling you racist sexist cisgender monsters does not violate the First Amendment, and individual and companies have a right not to do business with anyone they want” – when we seek to use our power to correct these outrages.
The lib objection sounds plausible, until you understand that individuals and companies punishing you by preventing you from earning a livelihood is as much of a punishment as the government coming and punishing you under criminal law – except in the cancellation kangaroo court you have no rights, no due process, and no appeal. And, in fact, this is not even an accurate representation of the allegedly operative principle. We already bar individuals and companies from discriminating on the basis of many attributes – race, sex, religion. What’s the – wait for it! – principle that bars all that kind of garbage invidious discrimination, yet somehow requires us to accept invidious discrimination on the basis of our political views, specifically views that are pro-American?
There is not one, and there is no valid principle preventing us from demanding formal legal protection. States like mine, California, actually already have political discrimination protection laws (check a competent lawyer in your jurisdiction if this issue comes up for you). But some argue that because we cons generally support allowing individuals and companies to run their businesses as they choose, we’re supposed to allow them to drive us conservatives out of full participation in society merely because we like America and dare say so?
After all, liberals control almost all the major institutions of society. The premise that a coder can just go across the street to a more tolerant version of Google, or that an oppressed professor can go grab tenure at one of the myriad conservative colleges, is nonsense. They have the power that comes from infiltrating institutions, but we have the power that comes from winning elections, yet we’re not supposed to use our power to enact laws that protect ourselves when the left uses its power against us without restraint?
Nope, not buying it. The politicians we support should be aggressively pushing regulation and legislation to protect our rights. “BUT CONSERVATIVES ARE SUPPOSED TO HATE REGULATION!” Yeah, maybe, but we definitely hate being oppressed. After all, any principle that is construed in a manner that makes us second-class citizens, unable to speak without the threat of retaliation, is not a principle worth having.
When they tell us that our own beliefs – to which they do not subscribe – force us to accept serfdom, we need to tell them to go pound sand.
Then there is the cancellation selection criteria issue. Some people are more cancellable than others. The insufferable liberal Jimmy Kimmel utters racial epithets and prances about in blackface, but he’s cool. But if a patriot like you accurately observes that “all lives matter” instead of just some of them, you’re Bull Connor II: Electric Boogaloo. Please point out what principle makes that cool so I can light it on fire and watch it burn.
Of course, we have not stood for this double standard, and many social media cons took a break from following Jesse Kelly’s admonition to #CancelYale – Elihu Yale built Yale on the skulls and bones of slaves – to demand Kimmel’s ritual defenestration. We were then informed that demanding cancellation is not what conservatives do.
Well, it’s what conservatives who refuse to accept dual-track justice do. See, they don’t get to win.
As I have pointed out before, there are three scenarios in descending order of preferability.
Option 1: We all live freely and say what we wish and no one gets canceled.
Option 2: Conservatives get canceled, but liberals get canceled too.
Option 3: Conservatives get canceled, but liberals never get canceled.
My preference is Option 1, everyone says whatever they want and no one gets canceled. This seems like the best arrangement, and until recently it seemed to be the one that we had adopted as a society. If we can’t have Option 1, then we will take Option 2, mutually assured destruction. But Option 3, liberals do whatever they want and we get gagged, is a non-starter. They do not get to win.
Hence, Jimmy Kimmel must be canceled. Maybe this will inspire them to return to Option 1, but maybe not. What is not happening is that we get locked in the social gimp box and they get to do whatever. Nope.
Any principle that applies to us but not to them is not a principle but a mini suicide pact, and we’re not doing it.
Principles are nice things to have. They are a marker of a healthy society. But today our society is not healthy, and we are not morally obligated to pretend that it is by observing to our own detriment norms and rules that are not universally applicable. And we won’t cure what is wrong with society by further empowering those who have sickened it at the expense of our own liberty.
My principle is freedom, and any principle that doesn’t make me freer is not a principle worth having.
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Ok, instructions please. We need to group up and do things. Who do we call to get Jimmy Kimmel cancelled?
Cancel DC. Cancel Planned Parenthood funding. Cancel Hollywood. There are many things we can do, albeit we are few and weak for now. Real change takes work and can be inconvenient. But, it can be done.
Free Men, Protect Your Homes!
Most folks might not remember this, but there was an amazing scene in the first “Godfather” movie, and it took place in the board room of a bank. It was a meeting of the top members of organized crime, where they agreed to take control of drug smuggling. They weren’t opposed to peddling poison; no, not at all! They just wanted to make sure it stayed in the inner cities, away from suburbs and rural areas and other respectable neighborhoods.
Well of course, that was an illusion. Hardcore drugs of every kind have not stayed in the “lesser neighborhoods”, but are now in every city and every town in America, coast to coast and border to border. Because the criminals who organized the drug trade were as blind and stupid as they were heartless and vicious. They didn’t care about those Other People, and so they ended up hurting everyone, even people they actually did care about.
The newest criminal organization is not composed of men with slicked back hair and silk suits and sinister nicknames; but it is a vicious band of criminals nevertheless. The new criminals are the “liberal” mayors of every big city in America, from Portland and Olympia and Seattle on the West coast, to Chicago and Minneapolis in the Midwest, to Atlanta and Louisville in the South, and on up to Baltimore and New York on the East coast. And please note, this is not the end of this roster of villains, not by a long shot! Some are men, some are women, some are black, others white, and they come from a wide variety of backgrounds. But as varied as they might seem, they are united in their hatred of law and order, and their contempt for the decent, hard working, tax paying Americans who make everything in their cities and this country possible.
These despicable criminals have
greatly increased taxes at all level, and borrowed enormous sums of money;
borrowed yet more money to make payments on the money they already borrowed;
lied to the voters that all this taxing and borrowing and spending would keep them safe;
pretended to support local police, and to help them maintain peace and safety for the public good;
disarmed these very same voters, declaring that the police would always protect them, no matter what;
allowed criminals back out on the streets on the flimsiest excuses;
made excuses for the vast camps of rootless, mentally ill drug addicts;
praised every hate filled radical roaming their streets, crushing free speech and opposing views with fists and clubs and mace.
And now, after a nationwide explosion of lunatic rage and violence, and whole neighborhoods have been destroyed, disgusting thieves have stolen everything not nailed down, bomb throwing arsonists have burned shops and stores to their foundations and hate filled maniacs have beaten and murdered anyone getting in the way of their sick, demented “utopia”; this is the moment that these tax fattened parasites disguised as “elected leaders” have stabbed the police in the back, sided with the criminals and the anarchists, and betrayed the very people who put them in office.
NO ONE IN THOSE CITIES IS SAFE. The ordinary, decent people who live there, who are still disarmed and haven’t been in a fight since grade school: what chance do they have should anyone smash down their doors? What recourse do they have if they are out shopping for food or clothes, if they are attacked by criminals or anarchists or both? What will they do if someone needs to see a doctor, and they get ambushed in the parking lot? When they dial 911, and no one picks up, what will they do?
It would be all too easy for me to not care. I don’t live in a big city; I don’t live anywhere close to one; I don’t know anyone who does. I could be an unfeeling jerk. I could smirk and say “serves ‘em right!” or “let them wallow in their own filth!”. I could puff out my chest and boast, “I will never be disarmed!” But I will not do that. For one thing, those folks who live in those cities, however much we might disagree with them, and as often as they have sneered at us, they are still our fellow Americans. They deserve better than what they have got.
More importantly, anyone who thinks that this hate filled lunacy is going to just remain in the cities is flat out wrong. Just as no one in the 1940s would have ever believed that someday American farm boys would be dying from meth or fentanyl, we would be fools to think that this new poison of hate could never spread to where we live. The criminals and the anarchists alike have boasted about their desire to invade the suburbs and the rural areas and the small towns of America. And they will do it, if we let them. If we make the same mistakes as our fellow Americans in the big cities, and believe the empty promises of politicians, will they stand with us? Or will they cut and run like their counterparts in Seattle? Will they too, “defund” the police, then run and hide behind 24/7 private security?
Most importantly, do any of us want to take that chance? I believe it would be suicide to trust to luck, or to say “that’s someone elses problem”. No. No its not! Any man or woman defending their home or their neighborhood should not be left to do it all on their own. There were families and neighbors before there were politicians, and it is long past time that families and neighbors re-asserted their natural rights to self defense.
The very first step must be taken by everyone who lives in any place that is not a big city:
if you don’t have a gun yet, GET ONE AND LEARN HOW TO USE IT.
It is going to be suicide to be a decent, law abiding person in this country who is not armed. Not becoming armed and prepared now, while you still have a chance, is no better than writing the suicide note. Take this step, no matter what! Do it in spite of any legal hoops you have to jump through. And don’t be stopped by the disapproval of anyone you know, or anyone in authority. In a worst case scenario, the first group can’t help you, and the authorities might just cut and run; or worse, might take sides against you. Mask your intentions if you have to! After all, it is YOUR life that is at stake. You have a right to be alive, and the right to protect your life.
The next step for the newly armed is to seek out someone you can trust, who is already armed, and who knows what they are doing with a gun. And for the love of GOD, don’t get caught up on any stupid, irrelevant differences. Whether that other guy roots for the “wrong team”, or goes to the “wrong church” or watches the “wrong TV shows” or is “the wrong color” is 100% not important.
On the flip side, you who already have that knowledge, who are experts with firearms, you must try and reach out to at least one of the new guys. Come on: if you saw a person drowning, and you could help, would you stand by and take pictures? Of course not: that’s something the enemy might do, but not us! Don’t let them just flop around, making mistakes, and then maybe giving up. Please help them! Just remember, not everyone had your good luck to have firearms training as part of their education. There are millions of good and decent people who have grown up surrounded by people who have mocked the very idea of anyone owning a gun who isn’t some ignorant redneck. They should not have their lives put at risk simply because of past ignorance, or because of the peer pressure that they’re trying to break away from.
We need to take care to keep this on a face to face basis. There might be “communities” on social media, but they can’t help us defend ourselves. The people who run those websites don’t care about you: they’re filthy rich and live safe, cozy lives behind walls and gates and 24/7 private security. Many other people on those websites will hate you and try to get you banned. Also, we live in a time when hackers are breaking into police computers and stealing their information. They are not doing that to send them love notes! You don’t want your information ending up in their filthy hands.
While we’re on the topic of police, the safest thing to do is not get them involved. At least, not officially! They might see you as a competitor trying to take away their job. You have a right to self defense, but they might have forgotten about that. Also, formal ties with the police can make you just as much a target as them. And if that does happen, the police are going to be looking out for their own, not you or me or anyone else. Individual officers, who you can trust, might be a different story. Just don’t make their life harder by saying anything that could cause them trouble.
One final thought: KNOW YOUR ENEMY. It’s not enough to be armed and organized; you always have to take action. Find out everything you can about people in your area who take sides with the hate filled monsters trying to destroy our country. It doesn’t matter how you get this information, find out everything you can about everyone attacking our rights to peace and freedom. And don’t just look at your immediate area, but also the biggest cities nearby. If your town is attacked by outsiders, that is where they will be coming from.
Deserves a stand-alone post, think I. Very sound reasoning. One hopes that these ideas are adopted and put into practice before it’s too late.
It’s like listening to the stereo in your car. If you don’t like the music, turn to a different station. Not force any station you don’t like off the air.
Oh. Minding one’s own business and expecting others to kindly mind theirs is not tyranny. Who knew?