Commenting on a recent post, our reader “John” writes:
…the urge to speak truth to leftist insanity is immense.
But by doing so you expose yourself to tremendous risk”…
Yes, I’ve thought about that a lot. Most bloggers who write from a contrarian position about these things seem to use noms de plume. In fact, I do have another blog I’ve set up for this purpose, but I almost never post anything to it. I prefer to speak under my own name — not because I’m trying to be “brave”, which this really isn’t at all, but just because it feels more honest, and because I have a right to, and because I’m ornery. (Running into that theater in Paris to try to save the people inside, knowing you are overwhelmingly likely to be killed: that’s brave. Writing grumpy blog-posts from the comfort and safety of my home is not.)
I’ll be 60 in the spring, and I am mostly retired now (I still work a couple of days a week writing code, and have the occasional recording project). I’m really not daunted, at this point, by the prospect of losing my job, which is what keeps a lot of younger reactionaries running for cover. I suppose that I might run into trouble while traveling, if things really go south, but I am hardly famous, and I doubt this blog even appears on any government’s radar. (Or, for that matter, any jihadi’s.) And so far, here in America we still have Constitutional protections for the free expression of heterodox opinions, even if you might lose a friend or two, or some customers, or your job. Any “risk”, then, is for me mostly social, and at this point I really don’t care. I know who my friends are.
So for now, I’ll just keep speaking my mind under my own name. I’m really only trying to do my civilization a favor, after all.
9 Comments
The left has perfected non-governmental punishment of free speech, thereby negating the need to conform to any sort of constitutional formality (your constitution feels smooth against Obama’s gay ass). An incomplete list of the purged can be found here:
https://handleshaus.wordpress.com/2013/12/26/bullied-and-badgered-pressured-and-purged/
The right would do well to develop a similar system to punish leftists, although given the control of media and academia this seems unlikely. What we have is the modern equivalent of samizdata (the samiznet, if you like) a distributed, anonymous, decentralized collection of hatefacts. Sure, the left can get you fired for saying things they don’t approve of, but they can’t control the facts.
“Sure, the left can get you fired for saying things they don’t approve of, but they can’t control the facts”. I was always in the habit of exploiting factions within the Left and turning one against the other. Sort of like the Islamist factions do to each other within the ongoing framework of jihad. It comes natural to me work inside their maze and set fires in each faction’s camp. The Left is vulnerable.
“The moment Galileo was set free, he looked up to the sky and down to the ground, and, while stamping his foot, in a contemplative mood, he said, Eppur si muove, that is, and yet it moves, meaning the planet earth.“
@ Whitewall.
You asked some’eres else using a slang WW whether I could do but fact is, I can’t.
Give you the answer in two simple words to something else figures to both the “Why we ain’t seen the Part #3 wrap-up” on where we first made acquaintance.
And how things could’ve been so bad more guys shoulda been cashiered off to K-Street.
Paul Bremer.
Even-Steven?
JK, I understand. No prob. I wondered about that #3 item for a while. K street seems to be the pasture where political and diplomatic disasters end up. This is the way, like earth, that DC moves.
Audie Murphy, America’s most decorated soldier of WWII, when asked about his bravery under fire said something to the effect: “I wasn’t brave. I was crazy.”
@ Whitewall again
(As you’ve done the “bidness” here an’ around you’ll appreciate …)
You’ve not however signaled Even-Steven.
I didn’t just fall off the Grapette truck you understand.
Malcolm,
You are doing your civilization a great favor!
My thought when making that statement was mainly in regard to confronting leftists directly under one’s real name.
There just isn’t any upside. They cannot change their minds or engage on any rational level.
When you try to engage non-leftists or doubting liberals in a public setting (Facebook) the leftists swarm in attack and any possible discussion is hijacked by accusations of racism. The decent people out there are mostly too afraid to side with anyone after the R-word comes out. The fervor of the lefties overwhelms. I have begun to view them as a different species that speaks an incompatible language. Best to give them a wide berth.
My strategy is to speak openly only with people I trust and through anonymous channels. I plan to minimize association with leftists and avoid leftist spaces.
As for our “constitutional protections”…I worry.
Hopefully keeping a low profile is enough to stay safe, but there is no doubt with all the surveillance currently happening that if “wrong think” ever becomes criminal, they’ll have the digital ammo to persecute all of us.
JK, Even-Steven