PANIC IN THE FLOUNDERING PRESS

 The other day I was reading The NY Times opinion and editorial pages. These have been the work of pretentious mediocrities for some time now, but it has gotten worse, It was mind-boggling to find virtually every opinion piece playing the same note- that Trump will be a dictator, destroy democracy, etc.  The issue here is not Trump and what we think about him, but rather the lockstep monotone groupthink that too many people are uncritically swallowing.

This is literally a party line that was also echoed in mainstream magazines, as though someone gave a signal and everyone followed. It is really rich to hear cries and “warnings” about the ominous return of Trump by supposed professionals who have lost any capacity to think independently or objectively. These are stupid people who fancy themselves accomplished seers that never get past their navel. 

What is clear is that there really are no mainstream publications left that are even nominally independent of any consequence., so it is hilarious to hear that Trump is a threat to the “free press” when it basically doesn’t exist anymore. In the past there was at least some diversity in publications, with alternatives to this cabal, mainly due to the presence of the founding owners. But once departed they all degenerated into the same corporate media structures that now dominate the “news” and there is little to distinguish one from another. As a result you have a bunch of well-versed ideologues who are otherwise abysmally ignorant of the real world, and having such people control the flow of information has lead to an  ever-increasingly dumbed down public. But that is how they want it; they want to control the agenda with skewed information, along with the direction of things. 

What is even worse is that there is no single sinister figure or group behind the scenes to expose. It is rather a shared mindset that is so governed by ideology and narrow-mindedness that it predetermines the same judgements and conclusions they all make. This is the sort of obtuseness they are constantly projecting on others, when they are the worst practitioners. These are people who should know better, but having been cranked out by radicalized “higher education” they have learned nothing, lacking even the critical thought capacity of ordinary people with simple common sense, which is why they have lost all credibility with the public. But it doesn’t matter to them because they are myopic enough to think that what is important is what is floating around in their bubble. In other words they are more concerned with validating and pleasing their peers than any sort of actual “journalism.”

Contrast this with other countries, including most of our allies. In the U.K. for example, there is a rich variety of publications that reflect the full political spectrum, along with special interest publications that exceed ours in quality beyond all measure. In the rest of Europe there are a variety of publications that are generally affiliated with, or sympathetic to various political parties. In truth that is the historical norm, and effete notions of journalism above it all has never existed here apart from the mid-twentieth century period. Our newspapers in particular were started by political partisans with opposing points of view, usually contemptuous of whatever other side there was. This goes all the way back to the founding of this country with figures like Jefferson and Hamilton, with even more vitriol than we see today. But here they have use of the phantom of “journalism” to cover their ideological monopoly. 

Everyone is for “democracy” based on their own interpretation of it, and while people may express devotion or concern about it, they for the most part have far more immediate concerns, like how they are going to get by, feed themselves and their families, have a home, basic transportation, all the necessities of life, as well as a little left over for discretionary spending. When inflation has driven prices and credit card debt up, it is the latter that gets cut off first, and they are not at all happy about it. People who are affluent enough accept higher taxes and prices because they have more than enough left over for their pleasurable pursuits, but most people today do not have that luxury. Still the media may be shocked at the extent to which the public could care less about their free press/free speech mantra (that they have themselves disregarded) when faced with basic standard of living questions: food, shelter, transportation, health care, spiritual matters and at least some recreation. If they are provided with that, if their living standard is uplifted at the cost of freedoms mostly exercised by the elite that they themselves have no real means of enjoying, they will opt for safety, security, a brighter future for themselves and their families over anything else. The resultant choices between an affluent life and vague principles should be clear.  

That is why totalitarian or even mildly authoritarian regimes have failed; not because of the repression, supposed lack of freedom, etc. which really only matters to those who have the luxury of meddling in politics. They collapsed because they failed miserably to deliver for the people. That is why communism failed, and why the Chinese regime’s grip on power is more tenuous than we realize because they can only maintain legitimacy as long as they can deliver. People easily forget that even Hitler was quite popular in the early years because his government did deliver for the people before stupidly going to war and degenerating into hideous mass murder. People making words just don’t seem to understand that actions speak louder than words, or that the every day reality people face is what determines their outlook and preferences. 

So those who are so fearful of Trump have thrown everything at the man and nothing sticks, and the more they rage this way the more they are tuned out. They still don’t get the big picture. They created the pathway for Trump in the first place, and it is the incompetent, self-serving rotten elite that have made his rise possible through their miserable failure to get virtually anything right. While I doubt that the doomsday retribution scenario they envision will ever be realized, and may in fact be more reflective of their own guilt in mismanaging all the privileged affairs they have had control of, they sure as hell deserve it. 

BLATANT, OPEN ANTI-SEMITISM EVEN IN NEW YORK

I am truly astonished at the spectacle of anti-Semitic demonstrations in the 21st century, in New York City of all places. These appalling activities are yet another indication of the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of what passes for “higher education” in this ever more dumbed-down society, and that entire system needs a complete overhaul.

Having been born and spent much of my life here, including college and graduate school, at a time when there was a very substantial Jewish presence among both students and faculty, it never occurred to me that things could possibly change so much. It is just mind-boggling to see the extent to which these failing institutions have degenerated into wellsprings of anti-semitism. Anti-semitism New York!  That is absolutely is what we are seeing because there is no rational analysis going on here. For even if a normal person disapproved of some aspect of Israel’s strategy they would express it in a civilized fashion. This is something else, something very sinister and deep. 

On top of that they are already claiming that the atrocity photos, that Hamas themselves took are “fake.” Worse there are people dumb, blind, or hateful enough to give this nonsense possible credence. Given these tactics this is not ordinary people objecting to a policy, but dedicated, despicable, unapologetic campaigners for evil.

Whatever moral legitimacy of human concern might once have been there on the left, it is gone now. I have been struggling against them all my life, but in earlier times you could at least take them seriously and even have a civil discussion. That hasn’t been true for a long time now, and in graduate school I had my own problems with them, had to abandon an academic career, and saw all this emerging decades ago. What we have now is beyond even that; it is pure evil and the political will must rise to crush it once and for all.

If nothing else all of this certainly confirms the utter lunacy of believing in nefarious Jewish cabals, secretly all-powerful and controlling things behind the scenes, etc.  It isn’t there, never was, and the way these events have unfolded,  it is clear that “the Jews” are nowhere near as powerful as hateful psychopaths have imagined over the years. Not when anti-semitic demonstrations are blithely accepted in New York. Not when there is no retribution, no sanction, no cost, no strong pushback. 

But beyond that it isn’t just the Jews, it’s Christians as well. You can’t have a public event even as innocuous as lighting a Christmas tree without it being ruined, or attempted to be ruined by these devils. This is nothing less than a civilizational struggle directed against everything we have achieved and built over many centuries- our exceptional, and yes great, western civilization. This is not only an assault on religion of ages, but everything that came of Greek rationalism, considered critical thought, and reason itself. We’ve sat still for more than a generation of academic nonsense and relativism  disparaging the concepts of reason and truth which is the fundamental basis of anything being “academic” in the first place. Along with this fuzzy-headedness our standards not simply degenerated, they have collapsed. 

For too long we have allowed people who don’t represent anyone take the initiative and set the agenda. This has to end now, once and for all. What has been unmasked in all of this is the darkest impulses of human experience, always festering below the surface, now arisen nakedly in the open and spreading. The solution is not in passing more laws or resolutions on these things, which only address symptoms of a deeper malady rather than the disease itself. It is a cancer, and like a cancer it must be completely excised. That can only be done at this stage with the re-establishment of legitimate authority that people can again trust, with confidence to resolutely act strongly and decisively to root out this evil wherever and however it appears.