One of the more amusing things about those on the Left is that they still believe they are heirs of the “counter-culture” movement of the 1960s. That they and their ilk are engaged in a battle against the established institutions of society such as academia, government, business, the media, the church, the military, etc.
This was indeed true in the 1960s. Demonstrators protested the real and imagined abuses of institutional culture and sought to replace it with a new, more progressive brand of political and cultural thinking.
This, as it was believed, would result in more happiness due to the newly liberated way of thinking and interacting with society. Racism and sexism would be abolished; capitalist excesses would be curbed; traditional, oppressive morality would be relegated to the private sphere if not fully suppressed.
And to be sure, most institutions at the time fought against such changes, sometimes for good reasons, and sometimes for bad in the case of those who resisted civil rights reforms.
But now, my friends, we are in an entirely different time. Pretty much every institution has now adopted or at least accepted the progressive party line. Everyone knows that academia, the media, and journalism are 90% or more left-wing in orientation and that they are using their influence openly to brainwash the populace into being good little liberal lap-dogs, while casting conservatives as the evil resistance to the inevitable triumph of the progressive agenda.
That development was highly predictable, but what is different nowadays is that government — including the military to an extent — big business, and the churches are largely now on board themselves with the progressive agenda. Companies regularly acquiesce to demands from tiny groups of leftists activists and remove products considered “offensive,” like the infamous Nike Betsy Ross shoes.
Companies are spending millions on educating their employees on how to be properly woke and to curb their inherent racist/sexist/xenophobic/homophobic tendencies.
Churches, at least the mainline ones, are largely run by liberal-leaning clergy and staff, and most have capitulated on the controversial social issues of the day.
In fact, there is in reality a cabal of public and private organizations that are collaborating openly to thwart the ambitions of conservatives in this country and promote the interests of liberals and progressives.
We saw this with the attempt by the FBI and CIA to sow seeds of doubt about the connections between the Trump administration and Russia based on a report paid for by the Democratic National Committee.
We have seen how Twitter banned a story about Hunter Biden’s emails found on a laptop that he stupidly abandoned at a computer repair shop. We saw the flagrant suppression of information about Biden while the press used every chance it got to disparage Trump.
We saw that Joe Biden received much more of his campaign funding from big business and Wall Street than Trump. We see that TV shows and movies almost always promote some aspect of the liberal agenda while either ignoring or caricaturing conservatives as evil jerks. The universities, by and large, have become brainwashing machines, teaching students to hate their country, their history, and Western civilization in general.
So, if you believe that siding with the Democrats is some sort of act of “resistance,” of counter-cultural coolness, I have some bad news for you. You, my friend, are firmly part of the new establishment, one which seeks to reduce freedoms of all kinds in its quest to control thought, expression, and belief.
The drive to censor information and debate is coming only from one side, the Left. The drive to limit or persecute religious institutions who resist political and social changes also comes from the Left. Joe Biden, self-proclaimed “faithful Catholic,” has promised to restart the attack on the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order of nuns who devotes itself to helping the elderly poor, because they don’t want to be forced to fund birth control.
The truly counter-cultural force in our society today is instead found on the right. We who do not want to bend to the dictates of popular culture or academic theorizing or power-hungry politicians are the ones who are “resisting.”
But we are resisting something very specific for very specific reasons. We are pushing back against those who want to overturn the US Constitution, reduce our freedoms, and impose their views on us. We just want to be left alone to worship how we want, work how we want, educate our children according to traditional values and disciplines, and protect ourselves from criminals and the state.
In our world, you’re free to be a liberal, a Marxist, a radical feminist, an atheist, etc. Just don’t ask us to adopt your views or impose them on our children on the taxpayers’ dime.
Seems like a fair request to me.
Trey Hoffman
Peachtree City, Ga.
To all bloggers on this forum, how about some friendly bets. Since Trey Hoffman will undoubtedly pen a missive next week explaining the riot at the Capitol, what argument will he make?
1 – The rioters were merely a tiny sliver of the President’s supporters who in no way represent anything but a fringe element to which he cannot possible be linked. (Unlike the BLM protesters who are all hoodlums).
2 – The rioters were actually false-flag Antifa actors trying to discredit the president. No actual Trumpites were even at the Capitol.
3 – There was no riot. A few windows were accidentally broken and the nefarious, leftwing media exaggerated the carnage by photoshopping the pictures to suggest a large group.
4 – The “protesters” were a very friendly group and were peacefully walking to the Capitol when leftwing agitators churned up violence by attacking them first. They were merely defending themselves.
5 – The lawless mob was incited by the President of the United States to disrupt the Congress in order to overturn the national election that ousted him from power.
The only certain bet is that Trey will not pick #5.
My initial guess is none of the above. He will rationalize that this was a patriot movement similar to that which forged our nation. And then like Ted Cruz, will reference patriots taking Bunker Hill, their encampment at Valley Forge, and so forth. Forgetting of course (like Cruz and many others) that our forefathers were considered radicals and liberals of their time and that the conservatives or Loyalists aka Tories numbering 20-30%, wanted a monarchial rule to continue under the name of King George. But since I am a betting man, I’ll go with #1. It reflects the sentiments of the WH and those like Ted, Lindsey, etc. that ran for cover from their supporters.
Mr. Hoffman returns with his weekly jeremiad of white, male victimization. This time his nefarious tormentors are a diverse group of journalists, academics, film producers, big business, clergymen, and even the military. Apparently, anyone who discredits the flat earth theory, asserts that women might be valuable, suggests that minorities could enjoy human rights, or in any other manner “imposes their views on us” threatens his existence. Interestingly, an orange wannabe dictator who attempts to overturn a national election doesn’t even make his list.
Well Trey, you keep holding the resistance line. You might even join your counter-culture soulmates and attempt an insurrection. I’d hate for a white male to be inconvenienced by others who foolishly think that they have some rights themselves.