Month: June 2020

On the Backs of Giants

When I initially developed the conceptual framework for this analysis, it rested on the idea of concept creep. However, John Murawski at RealClearInvestigations recently wrote a thorough detailing of “Motte and Bailey” argumentation and its emergence in online debates. Since this is a much more detailed description of a parallel occurence, I will use his framework here to describe the ‘forking’ of the BLM movement.

Basically, the BLM Bailey refers to the extended version of BLM that is being pushed by Google, Facebook, and the NYT – the totalitarian, cultural Marxism that is seeking to destroy the livelihood of all who don’t embrace its ideology. The Ivory Motte is the simple, impenetrable stronghold of the movement – the undeniably true statement that “Black Lives Matter.”

By keeping the slogan uncontroversial and attacking abstract concepts like ‘racism’, they can bully skeptics into compliance and attack anyone who crosses their cultural revolution as ‘racist’ and destroy them socially and financially. By muddying the waters, they can use BLM to push more and more radical policies, such as trans rights, giving benefits to illegal immigrants, and eliminating police departments.

Note: Henceforth, the ‘Ivory Motte’ will refer to Twitter SJWs; the ‘BLM Bailey’ will refer to the ‘footsoldiers’, the undefined mass movement based around mutual respect and police reform. It reverses the analogy above but provides a clear explanation of what’s happening.

Common Jumping-Off Point

To be fair, these two aspects of BLM have a common starting point; namely, that black lives matter. It’s where they go from there that makes them distinct and causes the confusion that those in the Ivory Motte use to push THEIR goals at the expense of those in the BLM Bailey. It’s why liberals can’t say ‘Black Lives Matter’ without adding ‘trans’ in the middle, and it undermines those on the street simply looking to live in peace.

As a mass movement within the black community, the goals are very simple: black people want to feel like their lives are valued equally. Nothing more; nothing less. For the record, this isn’t a view almost any Republican disagrees with** and can be best achieved with some national policing reforms (that will benefit both blacks and police) and A LOT of local activism.

This could have been done years ago, and would have been but for the fact that this doesn’t go far enough for the cultural Marxists in the Ivory Motte. They need to exploit a fundamentally just movement to achieve their more radical goals.

**Now that Steve King is gone…

Cultural Marxism

Simple equality isn’t enough for the Ivory Motte; these people have been ‘educated’ by elite institutions to see the ‘systemic racism’ that encompasses all things American. Therefore, the system itself must be destroyed. It’s about ‘oppression’ – certain groups are oppressed, and ALL oppressed groups must come together to fight the oppressors*. Even if these goals are admirable, they distract from the main goal of BLM – getting cops and black people to stop killing each other.

This allows them to expand the BLM movement from one of simple human decency into a broader movement that encompasses the radical ideas of AOC-style Cultural Marxists. By starting with a common enemy – Donald Trump – and a vague goal – fighting oppression – they can piggyback on a legitimate social justice movement to push an extreme, partisan agenda.

*Donald Trump and an intentionally ambiguous group of ‘white men’.

Two-Front War

The resulting confusion allows Cultural Marxists to co-opt otherwise well-intentioned people. People take up the banner of BLM thinking they’re fighting for basic human rights; they end up fighting for men to compete in sports with women. Furthermore, the BLM slogan allows them to censor and silence any criticism or legitimate questions and gain the support of conformists and cowards.

The result is that – at the same time ‘good’ BLM-madness sweeps the nation – a backlash to the overreach of Google, Twitter, and others pushing ‘bad’ BLM is brewing. Unfortunately, this results in well-meaning activists getting caught in the crossfire since no one knows whether ‘Black Lives Matters’ means the Motte version or the Bailey version.

Exploiting Blacks -An American Tradition

Of course, keep in mind what’s important to both groups. Personally, the Ivory Motte is much more likely to have a personal interest in advancing the extremes of the LGBTIA+ movement than have a problem with police violence. Economically, they have a vested interest in maintaining illegal immigrant labor. Local policing issues are of little interest; it’s all about #TheResistance!

Since the Ivory Motte finances BLM, they get to call the shots. It’s no accident, then, that the movement quickly became the ‘Black TRANS Lives Matter’ movement, with BLM providing nothing more than a convenient cover for Cultural Marxists.

Progressives are again blinded by their view from the Ivory Tower

It’s been sixteen years since What’s the Matter with Kansas? was released; yet, academic Marxists are making the exact same mistake with another key constituency; African-Americans. This being America, blacks are getting the worst of it, of course; Soros-supporters never tried to burn Kansas to the ground. Instead, they just talk down their noses to us at every opportunity (see, e.g., Seth McFarlane, Samantha Bee, Jimmy Kimmel, literally anyone else in Hollywood/New York).

To white progressives, the issue is simple: Trump. He’s the bogeyman; take him out, and all their problems will go away. On this, blacks and white progressive have had common ground. Trump is racist, and his policies go against those supported by black leaders and the civil rights movement. However, common ground isn’t a common raison d’etre. Getting rid of Trump won’t get rid of the problems facing the African-American communities across the country any more than their problems went away with the election of Obama.

‘The Squad’ doesn’t care about local concerns; local concerns kill blacks

It wasn’t Donald Trump who knelt on George Floyd’s neck; it was Derek Chauvin. I’m sure we’ll be hearing plenty about the details of this case in the coming month, and that’s the point. At the end of the day, George Floyd’s death was the cause of a local individual, who may well have known Floyd, making the individual decision to kneel on a man’s neck for ten minutes. The solution isn’t banning Trump from Twitter, checking ‘white privilege’, or acknowledging the micro-aggressions blacks face from systemic racism. The solution is not having officers on the force who are as irresponsible as the three on the video. That doesn’t happen when local, progressive officials are so focused on saving the world that they ignore what’s going on in their own communities.

Nationalization = Neglect

Take a look at The Squad ™’s agenda following their election. Other than AOC costing her district jobs (because work=oppression, #fightthesystem), they have purely been focused on getting progressives elected at more local levels of government and shunning Bernie for not being progressive enough to reject an endorsement from a man who thinks that men should fight men and not women.

These progressive activists are most successful in urban districts, including black districts, where they use racial anger, coupled with the fact that blacks CAN’T vote for Trump/GOPers, to push progressive candidates into office, often replacing long-time, moderate Democrats. Once elected, these college-kid SJWs don’t want to deal with ‘little things’ like complicated, local politics; they want to save the world. This involves pushing policies involving LGBT and immigrant rights, as well as confrontational, anti-cop policies. This is what they care about, and if they want to advance, they need to establish their progressive credentials.

Anti-Cop rhetoric escalates tensions

To make matters worse, part of the progressive ideological pissing contest involves being as anti-cop, and anti-American, as possible. It’s no accident these protesters are burning our flags and disrespecting our anthem. Black people don’t get killed by cops because of a ‘culture of racism’; they get killed by cops because of racial tensions and a culture of distrust between police and the black communities they police. Trying to overcome this distrust by attacking, rhetorically and literally, the police seems like a bizarre strategy (though it makes for a nice tweet).

Finally, anyone with half a brain can tell you that animals (which humans are) are at their most dangerous when backed into a corner. How do you think these cops feel policing a community that hates them and reporting to elected officials who side with those throwing Molotov cocktails? These cops aren’t unaccountable because of Trump; the President has nothing to do with managing street cops. They’re unaccountable because they have nobody in local government they can trust or work with. All the local officials are too busy coming up with their next anti-Trump tweet.

Academics: Too smart for their own good?

Of course, this satisfies the W of SJW, which is all these college-kid progressives wanted – to FEEL like they made a difference. Meanwhile, they can’t see that they, coming into black neighborhoods to spray paint FUCK TRUMP on some old black lady’s house and beat the local white guy to death before returning to Palo Alto, are the real problem. After all, they canceled Kanye and they voted for Hillary; they aren’t the problem, so if they want to call the cops on a bird-watcher every now and then, well, that’s their ‘white privilege’.