Tea at Trianon: Of Reichstags and Bastilles

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, January 6, 2022

Of Reichstags and Bastilles

From American Greatness:

It has been said that the most surefire way to create an authoritarian regime is to completely dehumanize a significant portion of the population, so that their subsequent enslavement by the state will not face any larger resistance. It was true during slavery, it was true during the Holocaust, and it is true now.

Actress Gina Carano was right; American conservatives are, right now, on a course for being every bit as ostracized and alienated from broader society as Jews were in the years leading up to Nazi Germany. Children are actively indoctrinated in our education system to turn against their own parents, Soviet-style, if they feel their parents’ views are outdated or backwards.
Despite the Left’s seemingly endless cycle of perpetual hyperventilating over the events of January 6, the truth is that they are grateful the events of that day unfolded as they did. The Democrats were absolutely terrified—literally cowering under their seats, horrified at the prospect of mere peasants walking through the halls of their castle. But since then, they have paraded the events of that day before the American people and transformed them into their very own Year of the Long Knives. Biden Administration officials have openly gloated in televised interviews about how they actively sought to “charge as many people as possible” prior to Biden’s inauguration, gleefully adding that they succeeded in making Trump supporters “afraid to come back to D.C.”

In the 12 months since then, hundreds of Americans from across the country have been arrested, many held in solitary confinement and denied legal representation, and some even being viciously beaten by the guards for their race and political beliefs. Joe Biden, sounding more like Joseph Stalin, has called on Americans to report their friends and family to the government if they have become “radicalized.” The government has even been coordinating with institutions such as Bank of America to investigate any customers who happened to be in Washington D.C. on January 6, even if they had no role in the peaceful protests that took place at the Capitol.

And in the end, that is what they were: Peaceful protesters. Not one person was killed by Trump supporters on January 6, although a few deaths by freak medical accidents were repeatedly and falsely attributed to the protesters.

All who have been charged thus far have been charged with no more than “disrupting an official proceeding” or “trespassing.” There are no charges for assault, terrorism, insurrection, treason, or anything of the sort. In the media, they have been slandered as anti-American traitors, even as they regularly sing the Star-Spangled Banner in prison to keep their spirits up; the very same patriotism that motivated them on January 6 remains one of the only things that keeps them going now as they face persecution for their patriotism. (Read more.)