02/12/2018
It’s a truth of modern post-America that criticizing Political Correctness not only endangers your career, but enables Social Justice Warriors to demand concessions from your employers. Thus “conservative” Fox News pulled an op-ed by its own executive editor and executive vice-president John Moody which criticized the U.S. Olympic Committee for obsessing about “Diversity” a.k.a. Affirmative Action rather than the accomplishments of athletes [Fox News Caves To Leftist Pressure, Pulls Their Own Editor’s Op-Ed Decrying Identity Politics At Olympics, by Ian Mason, Breitbart, February 9, 2018]. And now homosexual vigilante groups are demanding not just an apology, but op-eds from homosexual athletes on the Fox News website. The fact that the most rightward TV network collapsed so quickly shows how hollow American institutions have become — and how Social Justice Warriors, no matter how absurd we may think they are, really are in power at all levels of American society.
What sparked the Fox News op-ed was the Olympic Committee’s efforts to create a team that looked “more like America”. [Trying to make Team USA look more like America, by Rick Maese, Washington Post, February 4, 2018] But just as the film Black Panther is being praised for its “embrace of diversity” because it is almost entirely black, what is meant by a “more diverse” Olympic team is simply a less white Olympic team .[Black Panther is the grown-up Marvel movie we’ve been waiting for, by Bryan Bishop, The Verge, February 6, 2018] Affirmative Action is now wedging its way even into the Olympics.
Indeed, expressing skepticism about Affirmative Action is now apparently sufficient to bar you from being a judge. Ryan Bounds, who was nominated to fill a seat on the notoriously Leftist 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, expressed opposition to race-based groups and their tactics on campus when he was a student at Stanford 22 Years ago. [Race Think: A Stanford Phenomenon, by Ryan Bounds, Stanford Record, February 27, 1995 ]He argued their confrontational behavior did more to harm racial unity and intercultural understanding than heighten it. In a particularly Orwellian twist, this has led to the leftist Alliance for Justice to accuse him of somehow being unable to “to dispense even-handed judgment for all.” Needless to say, Bounds is already groveling [Oregon nominee for 9th Circuit Appeals Court under fire for racial ‘hostility’ in college writings, by Maxine Bernstein, Oregon Live, February 10, 2018].
(For comparison’s sake, consider how Democratic National Committee Chairman Rep. Keith Ellison’s career has not been even slightly hindered by his proposal of the breakup of the Union and the creation of a black ethnostate during his law school career.
Or how “Mexican judge” Gonzalo Curiel’s membership in the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association was somehow construed to give him immunity from criticism.)
Even those institutions which Americans like to believe are inherently conservative and somehow immune from SJWs are falling quickly. The U. S. Marine Corps, traditionally seen as the most stringent of the military branches, has made part of its officer qualification course easier in what is widely seen as an attempt to allow more female officer candidates to pass. [Marine Corps Quietly Drops Major Obstacle to Female Infantry Officers, by Hope Hodge Seck, Military.com, February 11, 2018] This is a great disappointment to those who believed the administration of Donald Trump would see the Political Correctness which infected the military during the Obama years driven out. [Political correctness has destroyed the Army’s readiness and morale, by Ray Starmann, Daily Caller, May 11, 2015] The military has been training its “Equal Opportunity” officers in the doctrinal fine points of “white privilege” for years [Pentagon training manual: white males have unfair advantages, by Todd Starnes, Fox News, October 31, 2013].
More recently, Secretary of Defense James Mattis made an implied swipe at immigration patriots when he said DACA recipients in the military would not be deported, even if their legal protections expired. [James Mattis says ‘Dreamers’ serving in the military will not be deported, by Eli Meixler, Time, February 9, 2018] Of course, it’s unlikely those actually serving in the military would be the first targets for deportation, but it’s not really Mattis’ decision to make.
Of even more concern: the politicization of the FBI by Leftists — something which is being exposed more every day as evidence surrounding the farcical “Russian collusion” witch hunt is brought to light [Trump: Senior FBI, Justice officials have ‘politicized’ their investigative powers, by Anna Giaritelli, Washington Examiner, February 2, 2018]. As two FBI agents advised a new recruit: “Go in and think like a liberal” to pass the agency’s entrance exam [Former FBI Agent Jonathan Gilliam: Bureau’s Top Brass Climb Ladder By Ideology, Not Merit, by Robert Kraychik, Breitbart, February 8, 2018].
Individual FBI agents may well be conservative patriots. But ideologically-driven Leftists claw their way to the top and then make sure to promote only their own — in a modus operandi any conservative academic denied tenure will recognize.
Yet all too often, Americans simply assume certain institutions are inherently conservative and have not been hollowed out by the Cultural Marxists’ Long March Through The Institutions. Thus “Never Trump” faux conservatives such as Evan McMullin (not to be confused with the breakfast sandwich) and Senator Jeff Flake (who, mercifully, is not running for re-election) essentially base their careers on exploiting those naïve enough to believe this fallacy — demanding Americans meekly acquiesce to corrupt federal institutions, Leftist judges and openly hostile journalists [Jeff Flake urges Trump to block public release of Nunes memo, by Naomi Lin, Washington Examiner, February 1, 2018]. They suggest we uncritically respect these institutions, even though the essence of these institutions has been lost.
It’s no coincidence figures like McMullin and Flake are also fanatically hostile to Russia and appeal to memories of the Cold War. But Americans didn’t oppose Russia because it was “Russia,” we opposed it because Russia was the dominant part of a Soviet Empire that was trying to impose Communism on the entire world.
Once the nature of something changes, it’s natural for a person or a political grouping’s attitude to change as well. This applies to domestic institutions as well as international relations.
Social media is partially to blame for this environment. For example, the government worker who quit rather than enforce immigration law quickly began virtue signaling to fellow-Leftists on Twitter as a source of emotional, and, eventually, possible financial support [Montana state employee goes viral for quitting over work on ICE subpoena, by Jacqueline Thomsen, The Hill, February 9, 2018]. This is something only Leftists can do; when the MSM focuses on a nationalist, it’s to destroy him economically, not give a boost to his profile.
But most of this lies in Leftists’ greater political commitment and ability to politicize everyday life. Immigration patriots certainly have their problems with the late Ayn Rand, but the libertarian icon did make some startling observations about how American progressives operate, especially when it comes to taking over institutions [A Sense of Life: Ayn Rand & White Nationalism, by Gregory Hood, Counter-Currents, November 30, 2015]. For example, in The Fountainhead, the socialist Ellsworth Toohey essentially steals the newspaper he works for out from under its owner by making sure every position, even those with seemingly no power, is filled by one of his own ideological followers.
This process is now taking place in every institution, in every industry.
The resistance to this is what fueled Gamergate — the attempt to stop SJWs from taking over video games and using industry journalism as a Leftist political tool — and similar cultural battles within various fandoms, including, apparently, the ongoing Comicsgate, described by Leftists as “bigots…organized under a new banner”. [Comicsgate is Gamergate’s Next Horrible Evolution, by Eric Francisco, Inverse, February 9, 2018]
In a larger sense, it was this kind of a reaction against Political Correctness which motivated so many people to support the candidacy of Donald Trump.
Now, from video games to the FBI, everything is political. Every job in every company is simply another strategic position to attack or defend in what is becoming a continuous cultural conflict.
As their power over Fox News, the FBI, the military, and other institutions shows, the Left is already waging Total War, and winning. American nationalists, in contrast, have barely begun to fight.
But thanks to Donald Trump, and his ability to break through the paralyzing conservative shibboleths of the past, at least they have begun.
James Kirkpatrick is a Beltway veteran and a refugee from Conservatism Inc.
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