Down with Christopher Columbus?

From The Catholic Thing:

Columbus is a symbol, and I’m convinced that by hating the symbol our leftist neo-barbarians (what else can I call them?) are hating what he symbolizes.  And what is it he symbolizes?  At least two things: the virtue of courage, and western civilization. Was there ever a more courageous man than Columbus?  Perhaps, but not many.  In recent decades, courage has not been greatly admired by our moral pacesetters.  For courage is an especially manly virtue (just as chastity used to be an especially womanly virtue – before young women were liberated from the awful burdens imposed on them by Christianity), and therefore courage carries with it an aroma of “toxic masculinity.”

Men who come out as gay, and women who come out as lesbian, and persons who come out as bisexual, and above all persons who come out as transgender – people like this may be called courageous.  But Columbus?  A model of toxic masculinity. And western civilization, a civilization based on the heritage of Greece and Rome and Israel – what is it?  It’s a “civilization” of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, Sinophobia, Indophobia, Aztecophobia, Islamophobia, and a number of other awful things, including a narrow-minded prejudice in favor of rationality. (Read more.)

Also from The Catholic Thing:

 For most of human history these taken-for-granted beliefs have been the result of a slow and largely spontaneous growth.  But in the twentieth century the Communist Party (CP) in the Soviet Union demonstrated that it was possible to manufacture a social consensus suddenly and intentionally.  (Something very similar happened in Nazi Germany).  In the USSR, all organs of propaganda – newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, movies, radio, TV, schools, colleges, universities, and more – were controlled by either by the CP or by the state, which was in turn totally controlled by the CP.  Only messages approved by the CP got access to the general public; all political dissent was effectively silenced.

Of course the official propaganda didn’t persuade everybody.  But in the absence of counter-propaganda it persuaded vast numbers of people.  As for the unpersuaded, they were usually prudent enough to shut their mouths.  And if they were so imprudent as not to, they were either shot or sent to the Gulag. This exact thing cannot happen in the United States since we are not a one-party state and we value freedom of speech, thought, press, and religion.  Largely on account of our Protestant heritage, we value the right of private judgment; in other words, the right to dissent, to think for ourselves.

But if the Soviet (or Nazi) model cannot exist here, something very like it can – and does. Let me call it the Great Progressive Propaganda Machine (GPPM).  It is made up of a number of apparently independent elements: (1) the mainstream journalistic media, both print and electronic; (2) the entertainment industry: movies, TV, popular music; (3) our leading colleges, universities, and law schools; (4) most of our public schools; (5) liberal Protestant and Jewish denominations; (6) the Democratic Party.

The propaganda message put out by this GPPM is so well co-ordinated that some people believe there is a conspiratorial command-and-control apparatus lying behind the whole system.  I myself don’t believe this, but I’m not surprised that many do.  It certainly gives the appearance of being controlled from behind the scenes. (Read more.)

 

Meanwhile in Portland...From The Federalist:

Allow me a moment to add here to address the incredibly racist nature of the media’s coverage. If these were primarily black people committing arson, shooting fireworks at and attempting to blind federal officers with lasers there would be wall-to-wall coverage of the mayhem. But no, these are middle class white kids who have the corporate media and the Democratic Party in their back pocket. Talk about white privilege.

What is happening every night in Portland has nothing to do with peaceful protest. It is an organized militia seeking to destroy federal property and undermine the authority of law enforcement. But don’t worry; once the black clad, helmeted, Molotov cocktail-wielding insurgents abolish the police and tar and feather poor Mayor Ted Wheeler, they will be there to protect you.

There will be no more police brutality because there will be no more police. Antifa will decide what property belongs to whom and settle disputes with their equality loving iron fist. Make absolutely no mistake that is the goal of every single person who shows up to assist these criminals in their nightly riots. (Read more.)

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