A Dangerous Precedent

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The rush to ban display and sale of the Confederate flag in the wake of last week’s shooting in Charleston should cause concern for any person intelligent enough to understand how such precedents, once established, are often used to justify further aggression by Cultural Marxists.

They often argue by analogy, saying This Offensive Thing is exactly like That Historic Atrocity in order to justify the suppression of anything that can be deemed “offensive.” In confrontations with the Cultural Marxist, therefore, we are never arguing merely about the point in controversy — e.g., gay marriage or the Confederate flag — but we are always aware that ceding the immediate point will embolden them to some further demand because, after all, Progress must always march forward.

Whatever it is the Left is arguing against will predictably be compared to the Holocaust — or slavery, or “McCarthyism” — and disagreeing with the Left thereby makes you a Nazi Who Wants to Kill Six Million Jews.

We have to beware of ceding ground to this kind of sophistic argument, because progressives always find in each victory some “principle” that they will then leverage in arguing for their next demand. The Confederate flag is offensive and therefore must be banned and, once we acquiesce to that demand, what will be demanded next? Will feminists demand that Gone With the Wind be censored because of Rhett Butler’s “marital rape” of Scarlett? Certainly the same people who demand that the Confederate flag be prohibited as contraband will not prevent the suppression of Gone With the Wind. And exactly how much of American culture could be similarly banned? Where is the ultimate limit of this censorship? What about the pin-up girls painted on the side of World War II bombers? What about depictions of homosexuals in movies and literature? Will LGBT activists censor The Silence of the Lambs because of the negative portrayal of the transvestite killer “Buffalo Bill”?

“Oh, Stacy, you’re just being alarmist,” you may say.

Dismiss my concerns as the special-pleading of a Southerner, and tell me that I’m making a silly “slippery slope” argument. Disregard the reality that there is a slope in our culture, and that we do seem to be sliding down it at an accelerating pace. Go back 20 or 30 years, and try to think how few people in 1985 or 1995 imagined the point in the Culture War at which we find ourselves now. Certainly two or three decades ago I did not foresee, inter alia, ObamaCare or same-sex marriage, nor could I have imagined then the state of U.S. foreign policy now.

Really: Suppose that in 1990, someone had told you two years into the presidency of George H.W. Bush that the governor of Arkansas would defeat him in the next election, eventually being impeached for having sex with a White House intern, and yet survive that scandal. Imagine, in 1990, if anyone had told you that the Arkansas governor’s wife would someday be elected senator from New York — ?!?!? — then be appointed as Secretary of State by the man who had defeated her for the Democratic nomination to be president in 2008. What would you have said if someone had told you all that in June 1990?

You’re crazy! That could never happen!

And no one then would have imagined that Wal-Mart in 2015 would be prohibiting the sale of the Confederate flag, either.

Well, I doubt I’ll be alive in 2040, but I shudder to think what kind of America my children and grandchildren will be living in, 25 years from now, if things keep going in the direction they’re going now, at an ever-accelerating speed. Conservatives must either pick a fight we can win, or else make up our minds that the next time progressive pick a fight — no matter what it is about — we’re going defeat them at all hazards. Every time progressives win, they become stronger and America becomes weaker. Unless we can find some way to counterattack and force the Left to fight on the defensive, there will be no stopping this cultural and political avalanche short of tyranny or anarchy.

 

155 comments

  1. when the gay pride flag comes to symbolize racism, and slavery, and is flown by hate groups like the KKK you let us know, ok?

  2. Now, it really obvious why you’re defending a flag that symbolizes institutional racism: you’re a bigot. This issue really is turning into the right wings Waterloo.

  4. The rainbow flag symbolizes intolerance for religion and is flown by a Gaystapo that demands compliance from private citizens. I find it offensive.

  5. Meanwhile, you’re defending a flag that symbolizes segregation, the beating of civil rights activists, the KKK, and denying other people freedom and human rights. To say it symbolizes “no such thing” makes you either woefully naive, or a liar. And how can a devout Christian defend such anti-Christian values? The flags expiration date was 150 years ago. Let it die.

  7. Wow, a bunch of racist Americans are acting like racists! Shocked! Please, let them fly their flags! At least we got the asshole losers out in the open now.

  12. Try reading a little history troll. Who are you to say what anything “symbolizes”? I don’t see you calling out people who wear Che tee shirts, or Obama campaign workers with Che posters hanging above their desks, and Che was an admitted racist. What would Che symbolize but Marxism and racism? It is you who are “woefully naive” or a “liar”.

    Furthermore, you have no idea about anything pertaining to Christianity, because you are not a Christian, you have no idea what Christianity is about, you have not read the Bible, and even if you tried to, you wouldn’t understand it, as the Bible itself states.

    I don’t see why you give a rat’s rear end what sort of flag that I or anyone else may or may not own. You just think it’s cool to mock people and deprive them of their liberties, and are too dumb to see that you are just a b1tch of the propaganda arm of Progressives, Inc. I guess it makes you feel powerful to try to bully people, but some people can’t be bullied and don’t care if idiots mock them, and I’m one of those people.

  13. Ooooo…you sure burned me. Why don’t you go and high five your Leftist friends down at the Hillary campaign? You guys can have a s’mores frappuccino and browse the internet for Soviet propaganda posters, ’cause you’re just so super cool. Hahahaha!

  14. Here’s an idea: why don’t YOU give it a rest? You came here for the sole purpose of attacking some conservatives about a piece of cloth that I’d be willing to bet none of us even own. The issue under discussion here is not a flag, it’s freedom, but you are too dumb to grasp that.

    Go back and read the blog post a few times and see if you can figure out how that works, and try to stop repeating the same tired, ineffectual, inaccurate arguments again and again. Try to come up with a really good argument for why it’s good to take away people’s freedom of speech. Because I’d wager that there’s not a peep out of your mouth when someone burns the American flag, but if somebody wants a CS battle flag at a Confederate war memorial, or somebody wants to skip making a cake for a gay wedding, or somebody wants to donate a couple of bucks to a cause that you personally don’t support, then ZOMG! it’s the end of the friggin’ world!

    If you think hard, maybe you can “get it” before the banhammer comes down on you.

  15. Whatever it symbolizes exists only in your own mind, what little of it you have. You see, that’s the thing with symbols, it’s in the eye of the beholder of what that symbol means. So if it represents what you say it does, that reflects more on your views and prejudices than on anything else. Now you can go whine and stamp your feet elsewhere.

  18. Grant believed that the Civil War was God’s judgment on America for fighting the immoral Mexican War. (His opinion, not mine.)

  25. My general inclination is to do the opposite of what SJWs want, and I don’t think you’re smart enough for reverse psychology. I think that your ass is genuinely chafed by our lack of gently folding in the manner to which you are accustomed.

  27. It wasn’t meant to be, but 1984 turned out to be a damned fine ‘How To’ for the totalitarians among us. They control the language. They control the symbols. Criminalizing their improper use is next.

  29. The gay pride flag symbolizes hate and is flown by hate groups. It is inherently offensive and it was intended to be from the start. My tax dollars aren’t used to fly the Battle Flag of the Confederacy, but they sure are used to hang hateful rainbow flags all over this city.

  30. “I really don’t understand…” I can’t help but wonder if this is based upon your capacity to understand or your willingness. Some people understand that totalitarian impulses must be resisted. Some do not. Some actually embrace them. Some champion them. Some people understand that banning symbols does not ban what they symbolize. Some people understand that symbols are not universal in what they symbolize. Some people are just trolls.

  33. A line I read several years ago that I’ve had much fun quoting:

    The 21st century definition of a racist is anyone who’s winning an argument with a leftist.

  34. …being impeached for having sex with a White House intern…

    No. Impeached for lying to a grand jury.

    Sorry, but that’s a big point with me.

  35. Amazon still sells noi merchandise. Amazon still sells la raza apparel. Amazon still sells hezbollah apparel.

    I used to love amazon but I’m done with her. She’s no good.

    You know former Obama press secretary Jay muthafuckin Carney is fuckin her now, right?

    I love won’t buy rope from the hangman. No more amazon prime, no more impulse buying gifts for family and friends through amazon (I bought almost all of my Christmas gifts through them last year), no more kindle books.

    I wash my hands of amazon AND ebay.

  39. I have said many times that Jefferson would convict them of treason and send them to the Gibbet. Jackson would spring the trap, and Jeff Davis, and Lee would proudly drive the tumbril.

  41. Praise Cheney? lol, I’m an independent and even I see that he manipulated his position to get Bush to invade the wrong country after 9/11 (look it up, Iraq had literally nothing to do with 9/11, we should have invaded saudi arabia or afganistan first), in order to make a massive profit by running Halliburton. Cheney’s company made more than a billion dollars off the wars in the middle east, tell me why he was so good again?

  43. Can you explain why I’m wrong? Posting facts and such? I can post multiple sources, I can even post Halliburton’ earnings for 2000 v. 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 if you really want. I mean, I have no trouble with that because it will prove me right. I can also post evidence that 9/11 was extremists from Afghanistan, funded by extremists in Saudi Arabia and government officials in Iran. All of this is true, what you said was just an ad-hominem attack, I change my opinions frequently as I am presented with new evidence, I will never stick to a belief that is not backed by evidence. If you can prove me wrong (by posting/sending me non-biased sources that can disprove anything I said) I will gladly consider it and do more research into it in order to change my opinion. However, so far you have not posted any fact, it has been fully opinion, and when I called you out on that, you came at me with an ad-hominem attack. I currently own 2 guns, I am pro-nuclear, I want to cut spending on non-essential programs while improving the use of money for societal support that can provide more tax paying jobs, I am not liberal, but I’m not conservative. I base my opinions and politics on fact, and I like to have more fact. Can you give me any facts that can disprove anything I have said? Halliburton profited immensely from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, or do you not do econ 101? Bush made the right decision with the financial bailouts, I agree there, I don’t agree with him going to war, but that was mostly influenced by Cheney, Bush was just a little kid who wanted to please his father and Cheney so he pretty much did what they wanted. Can you give me empirical proof that anything I said about dick Cheney or Halliburton are wrong?

  44. Also, what lefties have started burning libraries? I’d really like to see that, haven’t seen any stories about it. Remember, non-biased sources.

  50. Disregard the reality that there is a slope in our culture.
    Really? A SL**E? This is racist against Asians!
    😉

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