"X" is NOT violence

No, "X" is not violence. Only violence is violence.

Recently I was reading an article I came across in which a gender-confused person (I'm not sure which way) declared that her chosen pronouns were "they" and "them," and, more important for us - to call her by other ones, including the one we would all normally use, was "violence."

Yes, under the rules that the new fascists would have, to call someone by their biologically correct pronoun is violent. This shouldn't surprise anyone who has read Orwell's 1984.  Nor anyone who wondered why Antifa claims it is (and names itself) anti-fascist, when they are plainly fascists, trying to assert their law or just control on the rest of us by violent means (and, it seems, based on racial reasons to the degree we can not separate them from BLM).

And, this author's insistence that to use a correct pronoun "them" (why plural, I wonder) disfavors is "violence" is not new recently either. We are told by the new radicals that disagreeing with them on race issues or to just say All Lives Matter, is racist and violent. I don't think I will ever get past that one - saying All Lives Matter - is racist to them.

But, this is not just something to laugh at. "X" is violence has a purpose. You see violence normally renders self-defense viable, and self-defense is a violent - but permissible act. Leave aside that it seems that some people, including those in governments in our own formerly free country have decided that self-defense is not available to whites accosted by blacks,  at least to some degree. It's not an exaggeration at all, as, for example, they say that George Zimmerman and Wilson were murderers for taking the lives of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, both of whom attacked them, and they were essentially exonerated - Zimmerman after a trial and Wilson after federal investigation). And they should have been if you care not about skin color, but facts.

In other words, by saying "X" - saying whatever they don't like - is violence, gives them the right to attack you physically. It hardly seems to matter to so many now that first amendment rights means we had to accept that people could say things that were offensive to us and they had to accept that what we say may be offensive to them. Ironically, it was primarily the left, over many generations, that brought about the victory of first amendment proponents. Now, they want to use what they call hate speech as a weapon. And hate speech means, essentially, speech they don't like, usually because it ruins their narrative or hurts their feelings, even if it is true. So, it enables them even to block speakers they disagree with from speaking by violent means, as has been done many times (almost always to right-wing speakers - some who I would agree are idiots, some they just disagree with and other's they just lie about - Charles Murray comes to mind - the last thing The Bell Curve was, was racist, which you'd know if you actually read it.

What's to be done? All we can do is speak out, support the police and demand our politicians speak out against it. And, I know people are afraid. So few people are reading this that I'm probably in no danger from saying this. But, if I argued this to a crowd of BLM or Antifa, what do you think would happen? Or if they just happened upon this. And people get fired or cut off from friends just for differing with opinions. So, many of my friends have told me that they are just shutting up, except among people they trust, of course. 

Unfortunately, one of the downsides of fascism is that when it gains power, as it might under a Joe Biden presidency, people may start to rat each other out. We see it in communist, fascist, theocratic or totalitarian countries. Why not here?

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. ""X" is Violence" sounds harmless, until someone gets hurt. And it has already begun to happen.

All Lives Matter!

Letter to a BLM Friend

PREFACE

I have written and re-written this blogpost, trying, foolishly, to keep up with the absurd rhetoric, destruction and killing. It is impossible given other things to do in life.  And, though I would like to write about other things, right now, at this time in our history, I feel it would be cowardly to ignore what was going on and just be safe. So, I will continue on about the disaster known as Black Lives Matter ("BLM"), the opposite of which, let me tell you, is not that black lives don't matter, but that All Lives Matter. 

Had I any large numbers of readers (literally counted on one, occasionally, two hands) and any advertisers, and I could be boycotted, I'd say - go ahead and boycott me - but All Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, All Lives Matter. Because we need to take a stand against the coming fascism.

I think, instead of a shotgun approach like last time, I will just write a letter to a friend who feels that what is going on is "exceptional":

"Dear . . . ,

We've known each other a long, long time. I still believe that you are one of the kindest, nicest people I know, who just wants to help people. But, I also know that you are lost in the beliefs of our left tribe, which has gone off the deep end.

I'm sure you feel it is exceptional because no doubt your side is winning. The radicals have so altered the balance of power that the D moderates - and, there are still some on the left who do not want violence and revenge (for what, we all wonder) they cannot even speak rationally without almost instant ex-communication - probably being fired (or suspended indefinitely or the like - all the same thing really), if they are in education, big business, government or media, just for saying something like - "well, of course all lives really do matter," or "looting is wrong," or "things have gone too far."  Someone in their department would say the new magic words - "I don't feel safe," and they'd be canceled. Probably lose a lot of friends too. I know they do this because people on all sides have told me this except for those driving the buggy right now, the far left. So, they shut up. Unfortunately, this is how fascism happens, you know.

As to you, you should know better. You are educated and have read enough to know what you are doing, what you are advocating is not only wrong, but, in your words - murderous. But, you are now blind to it. If Drew Brees (not sure you know who he is) and all the toppled heads of businesses, even founders of businesses, have taught us anything, is that in the new racism, you cannot have a contrary opinion. You cannot hint at moderation.

I'll go further. People who are completely opposed to your friends, the new fascists, are also intimidated. And the bulk of the news media so lies to the country, or keeps news from it, that many friends I know just hate Trump (I always admit, I don't like him very much) and don't even know what is going on. Frequently I am told by them . . . but, David, I have never heard of such things in the news (they almost always watch CNN, MSNBC, WAPO and read the New York Times, all of which are now active parts of the revolution).

You and I don't talk about to one another about what's going on or state our opinions, when we speak, so that we can still be friends, but it is getting harder and harder. Honestly, I'd rather not call you a fascist, but that's certainly who you support. I can almost hear you in the 1930s telling me not to worry, when Hitler takes power, all the violence will come to an end and he will be controlled by the real powers, the moderate folks. Uh huh. Well, it doesn't happen the same way twice, but it is all based on lies, violence, racism, seeking power and often have many similar attributes, like the control of the news and an enemy to personalize (here, Trump and "white supremacists."

In any event, I know what you think not only from past conversations, but also because I've read some of your Facebook posts that people send me in disbelief, and I would love to respond to you as a proxy for all those who think like you, because BLM is not only a racist and terrorist movement, even if being accepted in mass just as the Nazis were by so many, but is a movement based on lies almost in every particular, from that Trayvon Martin was murdered to that cops want to kill blacks.

You would never want that, right? But, you close your eyes right now to the many dead and maimed, and call it exceptional.

Yes, I read your comment a few weeks after George Floyd was killed - everyone I know, including haters of BLM and Antifa agree it sure looks like he was murdered (can't wait for the excuse) - where you said that what has happened in our country was "exceptional." Exceptional! I asked someone to write in my name - "What do you think was more 'exceptional' - that someone shot Shay Mikalonis, a 29 year old cop, in the head so that he is paralyzed from the neck down and can't even speak - or that they gunned down David Dorn, a retired police caption, so that he's now dead - because he was doing the unthinkable and trying to protect his friend's property from looters?

Do you know that people I asked who are on facebook won't do it for me, even referencing that it was my question, because they literally - literally - worry that your friends would show up at their house. Isn't that great? I have to wonder if it makes you, who has always been a gentle soul, feel powerful now that your people are getting to force their will on others? I know, you will say that your friends are peaceful protesters, right? Please. BLM/Antifa is peaceful when you obey.

You would think you and your friends would not find Dorn's death exceptional because he was black - so his life should have mattered, according to your mantra. But, in reality, BLM should really be BLWSOBOFM - Black Lives Who Support our Brand of Fascism Matter. Because, you know, all those people in your exceptional world who are dead in Chicago, New York, Seattle and many other places from gunfire, including some older and younger people going about their business - are most likely a majority of black and/or Hispanic (I know you personally care about Hispanics, but if I were you, I wouldn't say that to the wrong friends). Going to blame these deaths on cops too? Or Trump? The cops are fighting like crazy trying to save all lives, which is what cops mostly do - save lives.

These are the same people we cheered because they risked their lives running into the Towers and  who the gangs (and BLM and Antifa are now the two biggest and well-funded gangs in the country - probably ever) across the country are trying to defund. Really, who do you think wants cops defunded except criminals or those who want power unregulated by law? Gangs. Corrupt politicians. I bet Al Capone and the KKK would have loved to have seen the police defunded too. If there are no cops in the city, or they've been handcuffed, I guess no one can stop Hawk Newsome or AOL, can they.

I don't even know how many people, black, white, Asian, Hispanic whatever . . .  are literally dead because of you and your friends thinking this is exceptional. At least to some degree, the blood of all these people (you can just count the black people if that suits the new racism) is on your hands, as if you pulled the triggers. You helped motivate them, demonized cops - the only ones who could save them other than themselves - and you got what you wanted. Good for you and your friends. Some dead cops, many hurt or resigned, and so many others dead or maimed you would think you'd care about.

By the way, because it is the nature of your movement to call everyone racist (including you calling yourself racist - I've heard you, because you are a white man - which is laughable), I must say, despite the great increase in hatred and racism you've participated in, I certainly don't hate black people or blame them for all of this. I don't hate anyone because of their skin color or ethnicity. But, I do hate BLM, Antifa and all those inspired by them, or who just feel free now to murder, loot, light fires, etc. I don't hear you mention them.

For all I know, this movement is not even mostly black people, because every video I see of mayhem and mobs and other lunatics running around is filled with what I can only describe as idiot white kids. Well, young people are just ignorant regardless of skin color. One of the dumbest ideas that comes from the left is the idea that we should follow young people in politics. Seriously, are you all nuts? Why do you think we have to educate kids? If a kid suggests it, it's a good sign it's not well thought out.

Unfortunately, educating them is becoming impossible too because of you and your friends, who have been proselytizing to them for a long time now in the radical mentality, and many of them are taught that they are victims too. And now they too are the victims of themselves, because the ones rioting and breaking glass, even killing people, probably aren't getting real good educations or, if they have them, are so lost, it doesn't matter.

I will get no joy that if your side is successful, you will actually also probably become a victim of their friends, who will come for you too, because you are the wrong color or religion (you really think they are not going to turn on all those Jews supporting them, or the gays either? Good luck). This is what fascists do, my friend; they turn on their own. If you don't think so, do some reading about the French Revolution (about which your friends seem so fond) or the Nazis. It didn't turn out real well for Hitler or Robespierre or their mobs either. Not only did they kill each other right and left, as well as those they saw as their enemies, but they eventually lost.

I'd like to think that eventually that will happen again, but after how much bloodshed? My death (ironically, I am protected for now only in that so few people read this)? Your death? Our families' deaths? Would that be exceptional to you? Or would you say the old standard, well, sacrifices have to be made. I wonder if one of your children were at risk from a mob, if you'd change your mind. Or tell them that it may be wrong, but you understand why they are doing it (as you've told me before). The truth is, not that anyone on that side would recognize the truth if it was right in front of them, it is already beyond a tragedy, a hundred times the tragedy of George Floyd, because his life is not worth more than all the others who have died or been maimed, made comatose, saw their life's dream or job go up in flames - because of you and your friends.

Now I know you are an educated person, who at least at one time did read about the Nazis and the French Revolution. You seemed to read a lot of history. But now it seems you completely buy the new history, the Orwellian history re-written daily to fit the movement's narrative.

How do I know that? I also read your post on the Museum of Natural History wanting to take down the statue of Theodore Roosevelt. Your post spoke about your own evolution into realizing how many his "victims" TR hurt. Are you kidding? Do you not know his history or has your going to BLM meetings wiped out any sense of perspective, of understanding that cultures evolve over time, and that we can't judge people from prior eras by the mores of today. Some call it presentism.

One of the other dumb thinks that the new "woke" or "cancel culture" wants, is to wipe out any memory of racism (except theirs). They want to do that by destroying any history that reminds them of the victimhood they have gleefully grabbed and wrapped around themselves.

I'm sure you have read a book or two on TR and must have forgotten what you read, so suffer through this friendly lecture, even it insults you to suggest you don't know something -

Do you not realize that TR was the first successful progressive president? That he was the first president to legitimize unions in 1902, mediating between management and labor in a coal strike to avoid a costly social war? Or is that why he is a bad guy to you and your friends now - he wanted to avoid civil strife?

Was he a racist by today's standards? Absolutely. Do you think Abraham Lincoln, who wanted all blacks to go to Liberia and said that blacks were inferior and he wouldn't want his sister to marry one, that their slavery was preferable to a breakup of the union, and other things along those lines, would not today be deemed a horrible racist - a monster (of course, wouldn't surprise me if you supported taking down the Lincoln Monument). I'm sure they will try. I understand they (your idiot friends in San Francisco) tore down a Grant statue, and you have to wonder what idiotic train of thought led to that. Did they think he led the Confederate Army?

But, are you also not aware that the year before he resolved the coal crisis, despite the firestorm it caused, TR invited Booker T. Washington, then the most famous black leader, and his family to dine at the White House, the first time this happened since John Adams (and that was only the black wife of a white diplomat, who was the actual guest), and that TR had made the same gesture while Governor of New York. The point is not that - well, of course he should invite them; what's wrong with it? The point is that it wasn't done then - it was unheard of, because we did have a racist society.

I'm going to have to guess that you didn't learn or at least forgot that TR was also profusely thanked by the other most famous black leader of the early part of the 20th century, W. E. B. Dubois, after TR, now out of White House, because TR stood up against the horrifying riot that led to the death of at least dozens of blacks (many more injured), in St. Louis, Missouri.

In fact, TR shook his fist under the nose of Samuel Gompers who blamed the blacks for taking white jobs and yelled that murder was murder regardless of skin color (I paraphrase). What other powerful white leaders so condemned racial violence?

Do you know these things? Do you care? Probably not, because all you seem to hear now is the drumbeat of BLM and their Antifa brown shirts (I know, you think they are fighting fascism - please) and what Dubois was saying, what TR was saying, in essence, was - all lives matter. And that you and your friends will not have. Ruins the narrative, right?

Why would G. Washington Carver and W. E. B. Dubois thank or dine with TR? Maybe we should destroy all references to them?

You want to destroy something with a racist history? Instead of a statue of a great American president, who was far less racist than others of his day, how about the New York Times? Read up on how racist the New York Times was against blacks for most of its storied past (again, I know you should know this -probably would be insulted I'm suggesting you don't; but you act like you don't know it). Don't stop at the white-washed examples the Times itself gave when virtue signaling (I think you know what that is) about what they did, but the horrible things they've said about blacks over the years. Just as one good example, look what they wrote about the first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson (who was railroaded and sent to prison, essentially for marrying a white woman). Why can you forgive the New York Times for far worse racism than Roosevelt was ever guilty of, and not him? I'll tell you why. Because the Times is selling the same perverted narrative you and your friends are, so, they get a pass. By the way, you know what president finally pardoned (the long-dead) Jack Johnson? Not the first black president (he, along with Carter and Clinton found time to pardon some terrorists for votes, but not Johnson, who actually deserved it, even if it's posthumous). Donald Trump did.

I will go on to another Facebook post of your I recently saw that said - "So many times in past decades I've been horrified to think what it must be like to walk around black, having to think about being harmed or worse having your children harmed or killed because of your blackness. More horrified during the past couple of years, months and weeks. I can never really understand. This article brought me closer maybe and to tears. It's terrible people have to live with racism. Homocidal (sic) racism. More than terrible."

Honestly, I can't believe the stuff you write. It is hard for me to believe that a rational person (never mind one I know is well-read) of any ethnic or religious or political group could write that, unless they are in a protective shell and read and watch only the approved propaganda media.

Well, no doubt there is racism. Of course, there is racism. We are humans, we have prejudices, and often they are unfair and sometimes murderous. No rational mildly educated person doesn't know that blacks suffered hundreds of years of horrific and yes, "murderous" racism. They were hardly alone. Virtually every group has suffered from some form of racism. I remind you that some of my and your family members were likely, at some point, serfs in the Russian Empire until it was ended just before the Civil War was fought here. But, no other identifiable group in our country that I can see has suffered in the same way as blacks did, except American Indians, who were practically wiped out over the course of centuries, and still suffer the ramifications of it too.

But, you do know that that was then and this is now? You do now our world changed and in our lifetime? I didn't have to change. I was raised on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the horrors of Jim Crow. But, don't believe me. Believe President Obama who said more than once something (one example):

"Let’s start with the big picture. By almost every measure, this country is better, and the world is better, than it was 50 years ago, 30 years ago, or even eight years ago. Leave aside the sepia tones of the 1950s, a time when women, minorities, and ­people with disabilities were shut out of huge parts of American life. Just since 1983, when I finished college, things like crime rates, teen pregnancy rates, and poverty rates are all down. Life expectancy is up. The share of Americans with a college education is up too. Tens of mil­lions of Americans recently gained the security of health insurance. Blacks and Latinos have risen up the ranks to lead our businesses and communities. Women are a larger part of our workforce and are earning more money. Once-quiet factories are alive again, with assembly lines churning out the components of a clean-energy age." Wired magazine, 10/2016.

Is Obama a racist for saying that? I have to wonder in the view of you and your friends who think it is racist to say "all lives matter," if he is anathema now. I kid. That wouldn't fit the narrative. I do notice how quiet he is being now, but, like any relatively moderate liberal - and he's now a D moderate, though once he was the most liberal member of the senate - he's probably terrified that he will be canceled. A few months before he said this in a speech to college grads:

"If you had to choose one moment in history in which you could be born, and you didn’t know ahead of time who you were going to be–what nationality, what gender, what race, whether you’d be rich or poor, gay or straight, what faith you’d be born into–you wouldn’t choose 100 years ago. You wouldn’t choose the fifties, or the sixties, or the seventies. You’d choose right now. If you had to choose a time to be, in the words of Lorraine Hansberry, “young, gifted, and black” in America, you would choose right now."

I don't know, but I bet he doesn't say that anymore. Can you just imagine if Donald Trump said that in a speech? You and your friends would say he might as well have read from Mein Kampf. But, it was Barack Obama and he's an icon to you - for no other reason than his skin color - and he'll get a pass from you, right (don't answer; just chuckle)?  For now he will. You never know, because radicals eat their own, what will happen in the future to him. Don't get me wrong. I'm not an Obama fan. I think he was a terrible president. No, I really don't think he was a traitor or anything the far right called him. Like most presidents, he did what he thought was right - and everything got worse, most importantly our military, our allies, our foreign policy (all our enemies got stronger) and especially racial division. But, he often spoke out of both sides of his mouth, and while encouraging feelings of division and victimization, also occasionally said what was undeniable - it was the best time in history for minorities.

Yes, blacks are still being killed. But, honestly, though you are not free to say it to your friends, whisper it to me - you do know that almost all murder of blacks are by other blacks, right? Not just by a little margin, but a gigantic margin. Here's a quote by a New York mayor you might recognize, from 2013 (I gave it away - Bloomberg):

“Ninety percent of all people killed in our city — and 90 percent of all those who commit the murders and other violent crimes — are black and Hispanic. It is shameful that so many elected officials and editorial writers have been largely silent on these facts … Instead, they have argued that police stops are discriminatory because they do not reflect the city’s overall census numbers. By that flawed logic, our police officers would stop women as often as men, and senior citizens as often as young people … To do so would be a colossal misdirection of resources and would take the core elements of police work — targeting high-crime neighborhoods and identifying suspects based on evidence — out of crimefighting … . The absurd result of such a strategy in Policing would be far more crimes committed against black and Latino New Yorkers. When it comes to policing, political correctness is deadly.”

I know, when running for president, he said he had been wrong. Why would a candidate lie? Hmmm. But, he was already tainted by it and attacked by others in his own party for what must have been racist.

Let me be clearer, if this hasn't been clear enough. You and your friends are responsible, in part, killing people. Maybe you are not pulling the triggers but you have been trying to make it impossible for police to do their job and encouraging mob rule. You have also helped make some blacks so afraid of the police that they run. I don't know yet what I think of the Brooks shooting in Atlanta (I know what you think - but I have a choice). I need more information about tasers and exactly what happened, but I do believe he ran because of you (generic "you," of course - you and your friends, Sharpton, BLM, etc.). You convinced him that police were looking to kill blacks and he bolted.

Well, I'm sure there are crazy cops - we saw what happened in Minnesota (we don't know it was racist), but on the whole, it is a ridiculous proposition. I've always been for 365 day a year police training and reform. We give them guns and power, and it's always dangerous to do so. You know what is far, far more dangerous? Anarchy. I don't want crazy, or poorly trained cops either. But, we live in a country of 330 million people. When I read that last year only 10 unarmed blacks (that doesn't necessarily mean not at fault - Michael Brown was both unarmed and at fault) were killed by police, far less than the cops who were killed in this country, it boggled my mind that it is argued and believed by intelligent people that cops are out to kill blacks. Yes, each death is a tragedy of some kind or another, and the families and friends are always going to feel outraged, perhaps even vengeful. But, you could want reform without destroying civilization, or pretending that the best time ever for minorities is the worst time.

Do I really think you are responsible for the dozens of deaths and hundreds of shooting in urban areas since Floyd's death? Do I really think you are responsible for the hundreds in millions in burnt property and other losses? I said it was in part. I don't care if you are only marching for a peaceful movement, shouting the same things, but far worse is going on done by or inspired by BLM and Antifa for the same movement and you know it. Not to mention that the insurrection - and that is what it is - is certainly a part of the uptick in the virus. Well, the shooters and arsonists are obviously mostly responsible for their actions. But, you make it much more likely and it is not a coincidence what is going on in NY and Chicago. I have read that hundreds of cops resigned in NY even before they began defunding them. I'd kind of like to see every cop in the country go on strike for a day or more to bring its citizens to a realization - they are backing the horse that is going to kill them (note the killings in the short time in Seattle's CHOP) instead of the one that is going to save them. But, only because I would hope it would bring people to their senses and maybe save lives in the long run.

You see. This is why we don't  - talk about this stuff - to preserve our friendship in crazy times. I know you think I'm a racist for thinking all lives matter and that Martin Luther King, Jr. had it right -

- "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" -

MLK, Jr.'s dream was coming true. You can't read Obama's words any other way. But, you have helped killed that dream for everyone, and now have dozens if not hundreds of deaths to feel at least a little responsible for, and mostly those you care about (don't worry - I didn't mean straight whites). Perhaps your side will win and you will get to feel it is even more exceptional - until they come for you.

Whatever hatred has overcome your calm demeanor and gentler nature, All Lives Matter. All Lives Matter."

Note from your friendly neighborhood blogger:

That was hard to write, but it has been bottling up inside me. I promised myself if friends say things that are outright untrue directly to me, I'm going to respond. He hasn't said these things to me, and as I wrote, we avoid discussing it so that we don't fight - But, since he writes publicly, I can write publicly too. He doesn't read my blog, anyway (like almost all of the other 7.6 billion human beings on Earth). The friend I wrote this in response to, is actually someone I care a lot about and I'm sure thinks he is doing the right thing. So did Hitler and his followers, of course. So do almost all who do such things:

“Power always sincerely conscientiously . . . believes itself Right. Power always thinks it has a great Soul, and vast Views, beyond the Comprehension of the Weak; and that it is doing God Service, when it is violating all his Laws.”


                                  John Adams to Jefferson

I don't want to stop writing, but I must if the few readers are going to get through this without putting a bullet through their own heads. I've written so much the last few weeks and not posted because it is coming out in a jumble, and there is too much information. I mean, who can keep up with the numbers of those killed, BLM's NY leader in the Bronx giving his own Mein Kampf speech about burning down the system and saying that white people should stay out of black communities (and this is the guy who says he's for peace); an editor at the Washington Post threatening white women with violence, apparently for what was done decades or centuries ago (not that any of them on either side were alive or present) and not getting fired, though across the country, even in other countries, people are fired for saying as little as all lives matter? Etc. etc. etc. So, if I can, I'm going to try to post more frequently for a while on related topics, such as the actual comparison of BLM to the Nazis, and why this may already be lost, what we can do even if we think we can do nothing. I have more letters to write to friends, those on my side, those who watch CNN/MSNBC, and maybe others. 

If what I wrote here works for you  or you just want more evidence to send me to a re-education camp (wish I was kidding), I posted on this same subject last week, and you might want to look at The Curse of Group Guilt - 8/6/19, and all the way back in 2016, Killing the Dream - again - 8/28/17.

Apologies as always for the formatting. It does what it wants.