02/22/2017
The Radio Derb transcript for February 17 is up. Go here to read or listen. Sample:Meanwhile, Trump Derangement Syndrome rages on in the intelligentsia. Here’s a data point at random from that demographic.Among the non-political blogs I follow is one called “Not Even Wrong,” run by mathematician Peter Woit of Columbia University. It’s one of the better blogs on math and physics.
The title of the blog, by the way, is taken from an anecdote about the great mid-20th-century Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli. Pauli was asked to review a paper by a younger physicist. Pauli thought the paper so incoherently bad, so mistaken as to the most fundamental principles, he is supposed to have said that not only was it not right, it was, quote, “not even wrong.”
Well, on January 28th, following President Trump’s executive order suspending entry of people from the most dysfunctional Muslim nations, mathematician Peter Woit over at Columbia felt moved to comment.
You can read what he wrote for yourself over at the blog. Here are just some scattered highlights, representative of the whole post — whose title, by the way, is “Fascism and the Current National Emergency.” Just from that title, you can see the general zone we’re in here. Quotes … or rather, sputters:
The actions ordered today that are now being carried out by US officials around the world are the product of a deranged and dangerous personality who has surrounded himself with similar others. This is a national emergency with no parallel in our history …
At this point the US may be one terrorist attack away from full-blown Fascism, this time with nuclear weapons. This needs to be stopped, now.
The Constitution does provide two ways to deal with something like this: either the impeachment process or removal under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment as “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Many of Trump’s recent statements are clearly the product of delusional mind that is incapable of dealing with reality, and these delusions are now reflected in his actions …
End sputters. And so on, and so on. These are the words of a first-class mind at one of our premier universities. “Fascism,” … “deranged,” … “delusional,” … “incapable of dealing with reality,” … “a national emergency with no parallel in our history …Has Dr Woit ever heard of the Civil War, with its death toll of one in fifty Americans? Does he really think that President Trump will incite us to kill six million of each other?
And “fascism”? Does he know the major distinguishing characteristic of fascism? Since he plainly doesn’t, I’ll remind him: it was street violence. That’s how fascists came to power.
We saw some nasty street violence last week in Berkeley, California, but it wasn’t coming from Trump supporters.
Come to think of it, we’ve seen some even nastier street violence this week in Paris, France. Two weeks ago a 22-year-old black man claimed that he suffered violence at the hands of the French police. Street mobs — blacks and Muslims — came out in sympathy, and they’re still causing mayhem, right into the heart of Paris. Dozens of cars have been burned, shops looted, police attacked.
Those aren’t national conservatives out there burning cars, Dr Woit. What we’re seeing in Paris are the consequences of mass Third World immigration — the very thing that President Trump’s supporters wish to see addressed and curtailed.
“Fascism”? “National emergency”? Sorry, Dr Woit: You’re not even wrong. As for “incapable of dealing with reality” — well, pots and kettles come to mind.
I’m sorry to pick on Dr Woit — not very sorry, but somewhat sorry. He’s just a random example from the intellectual division of the anti-Trump opposition.
He’s a useful reminder, though, that Trump Derangement Syndrome can be passionately sincere. It’s not all cynicism — a calculated strategy by government-work log-rollers defending their iron rice bowls. A reminder, too, that Trump Derangement Syndrome can strike at any point of the cognitive bell curve: at super-smart high-cognitive types like Dr Woit as well as vaporing showbiz airheads like Madonna.
I doubt Dr Woit would have come to any misfortune if he’d declared himself a Trump voter, or just kept shtum and toiled away quietly on differential forms and the metaplectic representation. He felt moved to speak, and out the words came: “Fascism,” … “deranged,” … “a national emergency with no parallel in our history” …
We have a President constitutionally elected, who is implementing policies he promised to implement when he was campaigning, using standard executive procedures. This, say Dr Woit and thousands like him, is grounds for impeachment, or for declaring our President unfit for office.
Rougher types, who hold the same views, are breaking windows, setting fires, and stomping opponents.
Who are the fascists here? Who are the “deranged and dangerous” personalities?
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.