George Rebane

[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 16 August 2017.]

The Charlottesville clash is metastasizing across the country.  In these look-alike demonstrations, the Civil War and all that it entails has become the latest collision point of several ideological and political agendas.  For those able to handle historical nuances, our Civil War was not a civil war, but a War for Southern Independence, or more neutrally, the War Between the States.  In a real civil war, each side wants to wind up in control of the entire country.  But since time is short, we’ll call it a ‘Civil War’ in the sequel.

That in 1865 the South, among its other objectives, wanted to perpetuate slavery is today enough to charge anyone, who wants to retain reminders of that bloody conflict, with a long list of additional social sins.  For example, to defend the continued acceptance of statuary, paintings, plaques, and other symbols that memorialize that conflict in the South, is to be cast as a white supremacist who longs for the day when the blacks can again be enslaved.  And the promotion of American nationalism immediately equates with the hidden objectives of white nationalism – in short, such people are identified simply as rank racists.

So, to assure that these symbols of social injustice will disappear from our land, our politically correct factions outdo each other to demand removal of all such blatant displays of our despicable past.  Hence, we see statues of Confederate leaders and soldiers being toppled, and hear new cries to take down Civil War paintings in state houses and heroic facades from their exteriors.  And in the exercise of exquisite chutzpah, the Council on American-Islamic Relations joins in the demand that every Confederate memorial in the US be torn down.

The reasonable underpinnings for these progressive and alt-left sentiments are hard to understand.  Where do we stop destroying and removing symbols of past ages that conflict with our revised and ever-changing cultural tenets; where do we stop blotting out reminders of the inconvenient eras that really happened; and with warts and all, that are still a part of our history?

Do we follow the presumably sincere and heartfelt sentiments of ISIS and the Taliban who vandalize and destroy historical artifacts they consider hateful and even blasphemous to their God?  According to the tenets of their culture, such monuments and artifacts are an affront to the very foundation of our universe.  What about removing all evidence of the Roman Empire, a regime that conquered, ravaged, and enslaved so much of the world?  And was it not the Arabs in the first millennium who opened up the African slave trade along that continent’s east coast; do we also tear down the symbols of Arabic faith and glory?  And then throw in the Judeo-Christian scriptures and manifold artifacts abetting slavery.  To complete the job here in our foothills, hydraulic monitors were used in the Sierra to wash away entire mountain sides, polluting rivers and spoiling the livelihood of farmers in the valley below, all in the fevered search for gold.  Should we also remove these proudly-displayed symbols of exploitation and destruction erected in gold country towns that now memorialize that history?

However, on deeper reflection, today’s attacks on the historical Confederacy can also be seen as the next opportune and expedient battle in the ongoing war on America and western culture.  In this war, the white supremacists and neo-Nazis are the conveniently useful idiots who unwittingly aid the assault on the west when they extol the virtues of the Confederacy, and by implication slavery.  Were that their aim, these public demonstrations are an extremely destructive attempt to promote and sustain western culture.

But the whole affair reveals the real agenda now playing out in America, to equate white nationalism with western culture in the minds of the lightly informed, as our Left continues to forge a path to autocratic globalism.  The globalist elites know that as long as a significant number of the earth’s people cling to tenets of western culture, there is little hope of convincing countries to forsake their sovereignty, and replace it with one overarching world government.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the addended transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However, my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

Addendum – It is again interesting but not surprising to note that the Left is finally beginning to understand the deep schism that rends our country.  The formerly denied Great Divide, and one that may arrive violently, is even now coming up on their usually dimly lit and perennially askew radar.  Charlottesville may then be remembered as our Fort Sumter redux.  Most of us hope that there will be a better resolution.

(It’s also interesting to see how the Left deports itself when they come in conflict with the feds on their deeply held beliefs – they just say no.  I’ve promoted that same policy with our Board of Supervisors regarding the county kowtowing to regulations from above that stifle our growth and local economy.  Smarter heads have explained to me how that is impossible to do (at least for a right-leaning BoS).  Well, now we have examples all over the place, and like I predicted, it all started with one sanctuary city and then went viral.  We’ll see how it all plays out with AG Sessions at DoJ helm.)

Since the preservation of western culture is prominently featured in my aired commentary, we should start by defining what it is.  Turns out that Wikipedia has a very useful definition with which I, in the main, agree.

“Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization, Occidental culture, the Western world, Western society, European civilization, or Judeo-Greco-Christian civilization, is a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems and specific artifacts and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe. The term also applies beyond Europe, to countries and cultures whose histories are strongly connected to Europe by immigration, colonization, or influence. For example, Western Culture includes countries in the Americas and Australasia, whose language and demographic ethnicity (and) majorities are currently European.

Western culture is characterized by a host of artistic, philosophic, literary and legal themes and traditions; the heritage of Greek, Roman, Jewish, Germanic, Celtic, Slavic and other ethnic and linguistic groups, as well as Middle Eastern Christianity including the Roman Catholic Church, and the Orthodox Church, which played an important part in the shaping of Western civilization since at least the 4th century. The teachings of Jesus, such as the Parable of the Good Samaritan, are among the important sources for modern notions of Human Rights and the welfare measures commonly provided by governments in the West. Before the Cold War era, the traditional Western viewpoint identified Western Civilization with the Western Christian (Catholic–Protestant) countries and culture.”

With regard to the ongoing demonstrations, there is a clear answer for the Left when asked, ‘Is it possible to love free speech and defend a speaker without by necessity having to agree with what the speaker says or believes?’  The answer, save the ACLU’s lone disagreement, is a firm NO!  Today perceived, yet unspoken, thought is proscribed by the Left – ‘But we know what he is really thinking.’  Such selective granting of constitutional rights are among the existential core values of progressives, and not just outlier sentiments held by their fringe.

We are now growing accustomed to mass actions in the public forum that in their aggregate can be understood as a preamble to a true civil war.  The coming conflict may be one in which the victor either defines our new or renewed form of governance, or executes the Great Divide, thereby establishing two sovereign nation-states in the wake of such a conflict.

The leftwing lamestream media is working overtime to cast current events as confirmation that our federal government is run by radical ideologues who promote white nationalism.  The current press hullabaloo, joined by all Democrats and some Republicans, about President Trump’s politically incorrect denunciation of Charlottesville demonstrators is a prime example of this.  His ascription of responsibility to both sides in the riot – the so-called notion of ‘moral equivalence’ – is the lynch pin of their entire argument.

Yet no one in the national media has pointed out that President Obama was equally, if not more so, ambivalent when even more egregious events came to pass.  The hallmark of these was, perhaps, “when five Dallas cops were murdered last year, the 44th president faulted police as well as the killer.”  In ‘Trump Follows Obama’s Example of Moral Equivalence’, Jason Riley reluctantly reminds us of this one-sided treatment of the two presidents.  The Left’s high dudgeon media made nary a peep when on numerous occasions Obama saw two sides of clearly one-sided tragedies.

The Left has no trouble publicly promoting and protecting anti-white groups like Black Lives Matter, and lifting up prominent black racists like Al Sharpton.  All forms of nationalist groups are darlings of the lamestream, except, of course, American nationalists who are vigorously attacked at every opportunity.  This generation of our formerly noble Fourth Estate has a big problem denouncing all forms of race-based supremacy and nationalism.  Their rule for such discrimination is simple – if it has any provenance in European culture, it is proscribed.

So what is happening now?  Well, the temperature is rising as “Democrats and media figures work to mainstream violent Antifa protesters. … Journalists and major liberal news outlets have compared violent American flag-burning protesters to soldiers storming the beaches of Normandy — all while downplaying the leftists’ violence. … The protesters, known as antifa (short for anti-fascist), often advocate for communism and have been deemed a domestic terrorist movement” by at least one state. (more here)

Concurrently, the work to erase parts of our past continues apace.  Look for demonstrations calling for the sandblasting of Georgia’s Stone Mountain and the radical reduction of Mount Rushmore’s occupants.  Perhaps the insanity, which usually intensifies in such pre-revolutionary political frenzies, may yet reach to the internet and school texts, and call for the photoshopping (nee Stalinist 'air-brushing') of historical photos and deletion of politically incorrect videos.  This is recognized by the better read as gross historical revisionism and Orwellian newthink.  Today saner voices counsel that in order to inform future generations, we should add to history, and not just take from it.

[17aug17 update]  Among the many intellectual hurdles that face those of the Left, understanding the definition of ‘conspiracy’ seems to of particular difficulty for them.  RR has tried to help in the past to clear up their confusion; let us try again.

Conspiracy: an evil, unlawful, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons.  Random House Dictionary of the English Language (unabridged);

Conspiracy: a secret agreement among several people usually involving treason or great treachery.  Mirriam-Webster Dictionary (online);

Conspiracy: an evil, unlawful, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons. Plot. Dictionary.com;

Conspiracy: a secret plan to achieve some goal.  Rationalwiki.com

So what does one learn about ‘conspiracy’ if first bothering to consult any dictionary?  A conspiracy is something done by two or more people, always in secret, to achieve a goal or end that may be legal or illegal.  But to those who have never consulted a dictionary, the meaning of the word remains forever a mystery, which causes them to say butt stupid things like, "So let’s remind George when he spreads this conspiracy nonsense on KVMR to promote his blog that when you lay down with Richard Spencer, American Nazis, and the KKK you are who you are intimate with."

RR has never claimed or posited that the Left is conspiring to “fundamentally transform America”, or to abrogate the Westphalian world order, or to reduce America from its hegemonic status to second world peerage, or to promote global governance.  Not at all.  We have always pointed out how openly the Left has done this, and continues to advance such ends through any and all agents and agencies it controls or can influence.  They have written books and publish this message continually.  To them, worldwide collectivism is a fervent and cherished end.  They freely admit that the world’s cadre of independent sovereign-nation states stands in the way of this goal, and that this Westphalian world order must be brought down in order for mankind to advance and achieve its destiny.

Now admittedly, the Left no longer loudly proclaims the benefits that derive from the historical nostrums offered by Marx, Engels, Lenin, et al.  However, the mountain they are encouraging people everywhere to climb is the very same.  Today we are ascending on a slightly different and more politic path as required by the times, but as the attacks on capitalism, wealth distribution, merit-based advancement, etc emerge from academe and grow louder, we will soon be encouraged to follow the celebrated icons of socialism cum communism in their very footsteps.

For recent examples of this openness and non-conspiratorial ideological promotion, I call your attention to two interesting developments by our progressives.  First, let’s see what messages the alt-left proudly puts into the public domain today.  A summary with links to their own sites is available in ‘In Their Own Words: The Radical Political Goals Of ‘Anti-Fascists’’.  When reading this, recall the recent words of Senator Warren (D-MA) about what part of the political spectrum the core of the Democratic Party now inhabits (here).  To get the full snootful on the Left’s agenda, I refer you to their Progressive Manifesto (2003) by Anthony Giddens.  You are, of course, invited to compare their manifesto to the goals espoused in the UN’s Agenda 21 document extensively covered in these pages.

And then to follow the immortal words of V. Lenin – “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” – we turn to the recent efforts of Democrat worthies such as Van Jones, former Obama advisor and self-ascribed communist (more here and here), who now is busy inserting a new “anti-bullying” program into our high schools’ curriculum called ‘Challenge Day’ and sits on its openly leftwing board.  Over 2,200 high schools have offered the program in which “no longer are young people taught to find the good in people and society, to be optimistic, to be self-reliant, to be hopeful, and to have good relationships with their families. … Programs like Challenge Day teach students to find divisions constantly: Everyone and everything is racist, poses a direct threat to their safety, or is the product of some form of social privilege. … Instead of teaching resilience, respect, and independence, students are taught to break down and cry, discuss their feelings, and check their social “privilege.” (more here)

In the end we come full circle and realize that leftwingers who cannot debate the tenets they promote will simply attack and denigrate their opposites as advancing conspiracy theories in the hopes that their audience will react with the usually unexamined dismissal, 'Oh yeah, one of those guys …'