Commentary

truth and consequeces

Scott Sidney - December 2021

About 2 years ago our nation’s economy was purposefully shut down. Two weeks, so they said, to slow the spread, flatten the curve, of a worldwide pandemic.

Two weeks passed. Then months. Now years in never ending directives and mandates based on unreliable science; incomplete, shifting, expert opinion; all of which erodes constitutionally secured liberties; furthering skepticism and loss of faith in institutions making ripe a complete displacement of them by authoritarians.

During the shutdowns, school classes were conducted at home, online.

“[W]e should thank lockdowns for bringing classrooms into our homes”, said Julie Barrett founder of Conservative Ladies of Washington, “and allowing parents and citizens all over the country to see exactly what is being taught to American children.

“Students of all ages are being taught racism under the guise of equity, social justice, and all the rest. These teachings have opened our eyes to the indoctrination going on in every level of our society.”

“Parents, according to … teachers” in Wake County Public Schools “should be considered an impediment to social justice. ‘White parents’ children are benefiting from the system’ of whiteness and are ‘not learning at home about diversity (LGBTQ, race, etc.).’”

By observing lessons taught to our children, the social justice triad lay exposed: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity (DIE).

The fact is, anyone not in a coma from birth or living in a box all their lives understands diversity. You are as diverse from your mother, father, sister, brother, friend, neighbor, cat, or dog as anything existing separately from you.

And yet, colleges and universities, schools and businesses spend excessive amounts of time, effort, and money teaching “diversity” with the indistinguishable “inclusion”. The diversity and inclusion being taught, however, features racial and sexual conditioning; how whites are universally racist; how heterosexuals are totally homo- and transphobic without redemption.

The real threat though is the left’s jettisoning of equality for insistence on equity. The dictionary definition of equity is not what Progressives mean. Instead, "The radical-left educators ... see their job as ... equalizing outcomes."

Equity, for example, gives us participation trophies, and no fail grades. “The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is eliminating accelerated math courses ... to “[i]mprove equity in mathematics”.

Equity gives us distributive justice: "Distributive justice is a concept in which goods in a society are distributed equally."

Equity gives us low income housing pushed into middle-class suburbs.

Equity gives us low or no-bail policies.

Arguments for “equity” seem reasonable enough. Everyone gets a trophy. No one feels badly. Similarly for eliminating AP coursework.

Equity requires society’s goods and services be distributed “to each according to his needs, from each according to their ability”.

And what better way to level income disparities than low income housing transplanted to middle income neighborhoods?

Equity in the justice system? Low or no bail? In California and across the country "judges primarily based bail decisions on defendants’ previous criminal records and the seriousness of their current offense(s). [J]udges will now have to also consider the accused’s ability to afford bail."

Unfortunately, when everyone receiving trophies discovers they are not as competent as led to believe, failure, resentment, and disappointment results.

Eliminating AP coursework creates resentment among those now precluded from early admissions to college.

Appropriating the income and efforts of some and distributing to more unfortunate others certainly inspires resentment.

Constructing low income property in higher valued neighborhoods diminishes the value of hard earned investments; even more resentment.

Then there is the low or no bail push even for those with extensive, violence filled criminal records.

The result? A Christmas parade celebration calamity.

6 horribly murdered.

Others grievously injured.

The truth is “ideas have consequences”.

Unmasking the Critical Race Theory Manifesto

A Patriot of Ozaukee County - December 2021

America has been experiencing civil strife on a scale that rivals the Civil Rights era; accusations of America being a fundamentally racist country abound and charges of “white supremacy” are everywhere. In the media, we are seeing fights break out during school board meetings in Loudoun County Virginia [1] (2021) where hundreds of parents flood auditoriums, accusing schools of teaching that America is systemically racist and providing sexualized content to their children, which the school board denies. There are news reports that Critical Race Theory is not being taught in classrooms, claiming it to be panicked dialogue [2] that does not reflect reality. Further claims from media outlets explain that Critical Race Theory is hysteria from the right [3] (2021) on academic legal framework that analyzes structural racism. Who is right and what really is happening, what is Critical Race Theory, and should I be concerned is the question on many parents mind. These claims have moved their way into Wisconsin school boards and classrooms [4] (2021), so it’s time to take a good look at the claims, and why you should be concerned.

We take a look at what is Critical Race Theory (CRT), and then better understand it’s inherent controversy across America. Critical Race Theory is a radical, Marxist-inspired ideology that came into being in the 1970’s and initially found an entry point largely into the confines of academia[5] (2021). After the fall of the Soviet Union and the failed systems of 8 different Socialist countries which demonstrated poverty, tyranny, and a death count of about 100 million people[6], the Socialist system was not received in the Western industrial nations that had a growing middle class with no sense of class consciousness, and considered their rise to a better life was through hard work, good citizenship, and education. In response to this evident economic and social failure, critical theorists updated their theory, developing a new entry point which they found in the social and racial unrest of the 1960’s. Abandoning the economic dialectic of the working class rise over the bourgeoisie class and replacing it to the new racial dialectic between whites and colored persons, critical race theory came into being and made it’s way into largely the academic arenas. Radical movements such as the Black Panthers came into being during this time, and soon died out when the Martin Luther King Civil Rights movement under the law came into being. However, over the course of 30 years, the radical left became disillusioned with equality under the law and the poor outcomes of anti-poverty laws. Intellectuals on the left went back to the drawing board to resurrect strands of Marxist thought from previous generations. In the 1990’s Critical Race Theory came into formation by building on the framework of identity politics and critical theory[7]. While it sometimes is labeled as Critical Race Theory, it is nowadays typically referenced under a series of euphemisms such as equity, social justice, diversity and inclusion, microaggressions, and culturally responsive teaching[8]. By design, today’s critical race theorists, such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, are masters of language construction because they know that neo-marxism would be a hard sell to the American public. Critical race theory euphemisms such as equity sounds soft and were easily confused with American principles of equality that is codified into law in the Declaration of Independence, Fourteenth Amendment, Fifteenth Amendment, Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act. Also by design, they made their way first into elite institutions such as Harvard through writings of “Godfather of CRT” Derrick Bell, in order to reach the elite and gain power. CRT spends no time at all assessing actual issues that affect poverty of the colored minority, and as a result the CRT pedagogy and teaching practices have no charitable efforts, but focus on divisions between race, claiming reparations for proclaimed racist inequalities, and stereotyping through claims of inherent racism which within time will offer no means of assistance to struggling minority communities. CRT considers equality under the law as camouflage for white supremacy and oppression, and they further attack overall Constitutional principles such as nondiscrimination, property rights, meritocracy, individual rights, school integration, and freedom of speech. CRTprinciples are in fact diametrically opposed to equality under a law that protects individual rights regardless of race. In contrast, CRT theorists use equity which seeks to suspend private property rights, seize land and wealth and redistribute them along racial lines as defined by Cheryl Harris’s article “Whiteness as Property”[9]. Their ultimate goal, as proposed by Ibram X. Kendi is to develop a government institution of Antiracism [10] (2021) that holds power to abolish, veto or nullify any law, silence the speech of intellectuals and political leaders that are not deemed antiracist, and overall this new department would be unaccountable to voters, the executive, and the legislature, developing into an all-powerful fourth branch of government that would end the federalist system[11]. According to Kendi, “In order to truly be antiracist, you also have to be truly anti-capitalist.” CRT is indeed a system aspiring to replace the system of federalism and capitalism, equality under the law, freedom of speech, and the Constitution, replacing it with a system of collectivism, resulting in a socialist revolution.

Shortly after the outbreaks of riots in response to the George Floyd in 2020, and other racially derived incidences, Ibram X. Kendi and the revised history of the 1619 Project has built momentum, managing to sneak its way into the U.S. federal government Department of Education in April 2021[12], as well as reeducation training programs to government departments[13], and further spread from universities into public school systems, teacher training programs, government agencies, and Corporate HR departments. A Department of Education-funded conference advocated for “abolition” of American institutions and told whites they must “give up” their “wealth.[14]” Due to public fear of speaking on sensitive issues such as race, Critical Race Theory is pushing it’s way through institutions far beyond academia, including the K through 12 schools. According to a recent gallop poll[15], 52 % of liberals, 64% of moderates, and 77% of conservatives are fearful of sharing political beliefs in public. They are all fearful of losing their job, or become publicly berated, so they stay quiet. This offers fertile ground for the most intolerant voices of Critical Race Theory, to install their ideology in public institutions. Equity and inclusion departments enforce their new orthodoxy and punish any dissent, creating a mouse trap where dissent is framed as white fragility, or unconscious bias, building principal disagreement into evidence of guilt and shaming. Their premise is indisputable as they pose that America has a history of racism, injustice, and slavery and that it is necessary to examine the relationship between racism and power in society. The conclusion is what brings controversy, hostility and overall is un-constitutional, as they manipulate and bully people to accept that America is systemically racist and must be overthrown through a moral, economic and political revolution.

When citizens witness the affects of Critical Race Theory, how do we move away from abstract disputes and towards practical efforts that address Critical Race Theory’s system of hostility in the classrooms? And where are we seeing these real-life disputes take hold and build change? Parents who witness the hidden schemes of Critical Race Theory in the classroom have to address the practical realities that violate individual Constitutional rights under the law. Parents across America must ask and search what curriculum is being taught in the classroom, and simply must show up at the school board meetings since we are now in a position where Critical Race Theory has made it’s way into many American schools. And what are these schemes we must look out for? Here is a starting point on what to ask at school board meetings and look for in class curriculum. Are there activities that pull children away from fundamental curriculum around basic subjects such as math, reading and writing, and instead separate children into groups based on race classifying them as the oppressors and the oppressed? Does the curriculum claim that all white people support systemic racism? Do they propose white abolition and claim parents to be “white traitors”? These are absurd theories communicated to impressionable children that have real world examples. We witness these real world examples through whistle blower reports from North Carolina[16], and many other schools and government institutions throughout the country, including the US military [17]. In one instance, a North Carolina teacher made a quiz question that asked what type of voters vote republican and the answer was rich white men. Another major aspect of antiracism programming involves activities which separate students, teachers, or employees by race. For example, the Evanston/Skokie, IL school district instituted antiracist curriculum and education, which resulted in (1) separating administrators in a professional development training groups based on race program into two groups based on race—white and non-white; (2) offering various “racially exclusive affinity groups” that separated students, parents and community members by race; (3) implementing a disciplinary policy that included “explicit direction” to staffers to consider a student’s race when meting out discipline; and (4) carrying out a “Colorism Privilege Walk” that separated seventh and eighth grade students into different groups based on race[18]. Such classroom exercises are repeated offenses from centuries of historical strife that was addressed and successfully delivered under justice through the rule of law.

Concerned citizens must know and use the rule of law to demonstrate how practices under Critical Race Theory violate an individuals Constitutional rights, under the First Amendment [19] (2021) which protects a persons free speech; the Fourteenth Amendment [20] (2021) which provides equal protection under the law; and Civil Rights Act of 1964 [21] (2021) which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race; and states such as Wisconsin apply the Wisconsin Pupil Nondiscrimination law [22] which enforces pupil nondiscrimination program on matters relating to nondiscrimination and equality of educational opportunity under state law with a complaint and appeal process. James Copland, Director of Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute, drafted model legislation to prohibit state agencies and public schools from compelling employees and students to believe in the key principles of critical race[23]. In particular, Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects all students who attend institutions receiving federal funding from being treated differently based on their actual or perceived race, color or national origin. It is violation under this law if a person experiences enumerated discriminatory actions, including harassment, which includes slurs, stereotypes, or other hateful conduct. Overall our corporations, and government & educational institutions are beholden to these laws in providing a nondiscriminatory environment that is conducive to learning and working. It further specifies that younger, less mature children are generally more impressionable than older students or adults. Schools that have discriminated on the basis of race will overwhelmingly build racially hostile environment, and ultimately racially hostile outcomes in society. Once parents understand the provisions of the law, there are a multitude of organizations offering support for anonymous reporting and Counsel, such as the Manhattan Institute [24], Parents Rights in Education[25] which will support you with guidelines for taking action.

If we are to put this in the context of history, we look back to the chronicled incidences that turned to the Supreme Court. A test case occurred in 1896 when Adolf Plessy entered a train and sat in a “For Whites” car under Louisiana laws that provided equal but separate accommodations for each race for the comfort of all the passengers. A group of well-to-do blacks raised money and challenged the constitutionality of Fourteenth Amendment. It was Adolph Plessy’s claim after he was discriminated for sitting in an “All White” train car, which was brought to the Supreme Court. Judge Ferguson, of the Criminal District Court of New Orleans found the law constitutional as did the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1896. Seven justices ruled against Plessy, but one, Justice Harlan dissented. He asserted that justice should be color blind and that the enforcement of “separate but equal” interferes with the personal freedoms of individuals by legally forcing separation. Justice Harlan stated, “The destinies of the two races in this country are indissolubly linked together, and the interest of both require that the common government of all shall not permit the seeds of race hate to be planted under the sanction of law[26].” He foresaw that the decision would lead to a pattern of behavior which would be very dangerous and undermine a basic sense of justice[27]. In fact, the outcome of the seeds of injustice resulted in the Jim Crow laws for the next 60 years. It wasn’t until 1954 when black children of elementary school residing in Topeka, Kansas, one of them being Oliver Brown who issued a claim against the Board of Education to desegregate schools between black and white children. This claim was brought to the United States District Court of Kansas to review a case where the school wished to maintain separate school facilities for Black and White students. The three judge District Court found that segregated public schools had a detrimental effect of lower social and academic conditions upon black children. The case was finalized at the Supreme Court, and concluded that in the field of education, the doctrine of “separate but equal” was unacceptable. Segregation is a denial of equal protection of the laws as defined in the 14th Amendment[28] (2021).

Make no mistake, from Adolf Plessy to Oliver Brown, to the thousands of cases that plague our country under the Critical Race Theory practices in schools, corporations and government today, the seeds of hostility are sewn and belong with equality under law once again. We shore up courage to say, do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is your power to act. We present the case with the same argument shared by Justice Harlan for current and future generations to realize that the destinies of the all races in this country are indissolubly linked together, and the interest of shall not permit the seeds of race hate to be planted under a hidden yet deliberate cultural and political force. Such pattern of behavior is very dangerous and undermines a basic sense of justice, resulting in the backlash we have witnessed across the country. This time, we manifest what has been hidden, and turn to equality under the law to preserve our basic equal human rights under God through the United States Constitution.

[1]Oliphant, James and Borter, Gabriella. (2021, June 23). Partisan War over teaching history and racism stokes tensions in US schools. Reuters. Partisan war over teaching history and racism stokes tensions in U.S. schools | Reuters.

[2] McCousland, Phil. (2021, July 1). Teaching critical race theory isn’t happening in classrooms, teachers say in survey. NBC News. Teaching critical race theory isn't happening in classrooms, teachers say in survey (nbcnews.com).

[3] Hemmer, Nicole. (2021, June 18). The right is panicking over Critical Race Theory. CNN. Opinion: The right is panicking over critical race theory - CNN.

[4] Staff, Maciver. (2021, May 25). Critical Race Theory in Wisconsin K12 Education. MacIver Institute. Critical Race Theory In Wisconsin K12 Education | MacIver Institute.

[5]George, Janel. (2021, 2021, January 11). A Lesson on Critical Race Theory. American Bar Association. A Lesson on Critical Race Theory (americanbar.org)

[6]Satter, David. (2017, November 6). 100 Years of Communism and 100 Million Dead. Wall Street Journal. 100 Years of Communism—and 100 Million Dead - WSJ.

[7] Butcher, Jonathan & Gonzalez, Mike. (2020, December 7). Critical Race Theory, the New Intolerance, and It’s Grip on America. The Heritage Foundation. Critical Race Theory, the New Intolerance, and Its Grip on America | The Heritage Foundation

[8] Zais, Michael. (2021, June 3). Keep Critical Race Theory out of our Schools. Orlando Sentinel. Keep critical race theory out of our schools: Commentary - Orlando Sentinel

[9]Harris, Cheryl I. (1993, June 10). Whiteness as Property. Harvard Law Review. Whiteness as Property. Whiteness as Property - Harvard Law Review

[10]Hughes, Coleman. (2019, October 27). How to be an Anti-Intellectual. City Journal. “How To Be An Antiracist” is Wrong on its Facts and in its Assumptions. (city-journal.org)

[11]Rufo, Christopher F. (2021, June 14). Critical Race Theory Film. Critical Race Theory Film (christopherrufo.com).

[12]US Department of Education. (2021, April 19). Proposed Priorities – American History and Civics Education. US Federal Register. Federal Register :: Proposed Priorities-American History and Civics Education

[13]Critical Race Theory Briefing Book (2020). Critical Race Theory Briefing Book (christopherrufo.com)

[14] Bad Education: Department of Education-funded organization Conference Calls for “Abolition” of American Institutions. (September 10, 2020). Bad Education (christopherrufo.com)

[15]Ekins, Emily. (2020, July 22). Poll: 62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid of Sharing. CATO Institute. Poll: 62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share | Cato Institute

[16] The Office of Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. (2021, August 24). Indoctrination in North Carolina Public Education. Report Summary.pdf - Google Drive

[17] https://fb.watch/87xXXSs7fN/

[18]Carl Campanile, US Dept. of Education curbs decision on race-based ‘affinity groups’, N.Y. POST (Mar. 7, 2021), https://nypost.com/2021/03/07/education-dept-curbs-decision-on-race-based-affinitygroups/; see also Ben Zeisloft, Tulane hosts anti-racism teach-in with profs divided by race, CAMPUS REFORM (May 3, 2021), https://campusreform.org/article?id=17344; Benjamin Fearnow, Minnesota College Sparks Backlash With Anti-Racist ‘Struggle Sessions’ Segregated by Race, NEWSWEEK (Apr. 19, 2021), https://www.newsweek.com/minnesota-college-sparks-backlash-anti-racist-struggle-sessions-segregated-race-1584776

[19]Interactive Constitution. (2021). Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition. First Amendment - Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition | The National Constitution Center

[20]Interactive Constitution. (2021). Citizenship Rights, Equal Protection, Apportionment, Civil War Debt. 14th Amendment - Citizenship Rights, Equal Protection, Apportionment, Civil War Debt | The National Constitution Center

[21]Department of Education. (2021, January 28). Race and National Origin Discrimination: Origin of the Law. Race/National Discrimination Overview (ed.gov)

[22]Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Pupil Nondiscrimination Program. Pupil Nondiscrimination Program | Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

[23] Bad Education: Department of Education-funded organization Conference Calls for “Abolition” of American Institutions. (September 10, 2020). Bad Education (christopherrufo.com)

[24] The Manhattan Institute. (2021, June 17). Woke Schooling: A Toolkit for Concerned Parents. Woke Schooling: A Toolkit for Concerned Parents | Manhattan Institute (manhattan-institute.org).

[25] Parents Rights in Education in Wisconsin

[26] Yale New Haven Teachers Institute. (2021). From Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education: The Supreme Court Rules on School Desegregation. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute

[27] Yale New Haven Teachers Institute. (2021). From Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education: The Supreme Court Rules on School Desegregation. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute

[28]Yale New Haven Teachers Institute. (2021). From Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education: The Supreme Court Rules on School Desegregation. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute

Indictment

Scott Sidney - November 2021

We don't know what it's like living in other suburbs especially those with far less median income than here in Cedarburg; indeed Ozaukee County is the wealthiest in the state and ranks 50th of over 3,100 counties in the country.

We live in a bubble well insulated from the insanity impacting the country most especially in major and not so major cities.

A woman from Yugoslavia recently compared events here in the US with those leading up to the deaths of 100,000 during their civil war in the 90’s. She begins, "Unless you were living under the rock [sic], you might have noticed that something very strange and vicious is happening in your country.”

It might be that those of us comfortably ensconced behind the bubble barrier believe the riots, rapes, murders committed during the "summer of love", the nearly 2 million illegals crossing our borders - few if any of whom have been medically screened - flown secretly into cities in the dark of night accompanied by record levels of illegal drugs with fentanyl the primary product enough seized this year to kill over two and a half billion people which doesn’t include the resulting addictions and crime, the threat of violence and bloodshed by blm activists in New York if the new mayor enforces the law, the threat of violence in Kenosha if the "proper" verdict isn't reached, the complete corruption of every major institution, major supply chain disruptions, rising inflation, the FBI and United States Department of Justice targeting parents as domestic terrorists for daring to have a say about school curricula during school board meetings, pandemic lockdowns and unconstitutional mandates for a pandemic without end, pornography promulgated in middle schools, the abandoning of hundreds of US citizens in a country governed by terrorists who express hatred towards the United States, teaching children, teaching young adults in college, to hate not only themselves but the country in which they reside, teaching others that their lives are controlled by people deemed superior to them, people losing their jobs because they hold political or religious beliefs contrary to the ruling class or refuse forced medical care, young boys playing as girls and then raping young girls in school bathrooms designated as transgender by adults who should but do not know better, the disgusting portrayal of “Goober the Clown” on a decidedly unfunny comedy show by an Hollywood actress in a comedic script glorifying abortion (Abortion as comedy. This is considered Progressive.); it might be that those of us in the bubble believe the near total collapse of society around us, won't reach us here behind the bubble.

But these things are not isolated incidents. These things will land at our very permeable barrier and engulf us all. You might say it's a pandemic of anarchy because there is not any governing philosophy – none - behind the chaos. It's only, 'tear the whole system down' All of this destruction, and more, is a consequence of government policy, an ideology adopted by one political party.

Whatever you want to say about the Republican party, the feeble, feckless party such as they are, who, if they do anything at all, it is only to apply a gentle brake against the worst inclinations of their political opponents or to do nothing at all in the face of obvious discontents; Conservatives who identify as Republicans, love the country, have not called for violence - as have Progressive US House Representatives - against political opponents, who believe in the United States Constitution, the greatest governing document written in all of history and has produced the wealthiest, most diverse, most free nation on the planet. These are strong beliefs in which Republicans do not appear capable of defending.

You would be grievously wrong if you think this is the normal rough and tumble of partisan politics. Your progressive neighbors are responsible for the chaos engulfing the country. Your progressive neighbors think you are irredeemably crooked, unethical, unscrupulous, and malevolent; in a word – evil. They may not say that to your face. They don't have to. They elect representatives to do their dirty work. It's either that or they are dangerously ignorant of their own party's direction.

Let’s be honest. Neither political party is worthy of an honest citizen’s support. Only one has the destruction of the country as a goal; the other, populated by cowards and appeasers.

Rock-a-bye baby. When the bubble breaks. The country will fall.

impressions on the road to hades

Scott Sidney - October 2021

Since teaching the classics of dead white males has long fallen out of favor, replaced instead by transitory flashes in the pan, the phrase "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" falls on deaf ears, its meaning impenetrable to progressives who flail about in pursuit of an utopia populated by gender confused women, emasculated men and everyone hating the race to which they belong all looking to an effete ruling class to fulfill their emotional and more essential needs.

The progressive road to paradise runs thru our educational systems where students of all ages are taught such timeless concepts as white fragility, the pervasiveness of systemic racism, microagressions, spirit murder, internalized racial superiority, patriarchy, and whiteness; manifestations of subconscious behaviors observable only by an educated elite. These abstractions and more fall completely under the umbrella term “critical race theory”. It’s a veritable bouquet of roses.

Addressing these hidden behaviors, by teaching pupils they are responsible for atrocities committed hundreds of years ago, shaming young children in the process, somehow moves all of us to a progressive Shangri-La.

Mind you, the institutions - having schooled our children for generation after generation and who have grown into today’s adult racists under their tutelage - now figure they are the proper and only qualified establishment to remedy this phantom, yet pervasive, system of racism that elected a black president to two terms, created nearly 2 million black millionaires along with 7 black billionaires under a democratic, free market system in a society chock full of racist white supremacists.

The total failure of progressive policies to meet the needs of the transitory indigents among us has led the progressives to an undeniable conclusion. There's something wrong with the people. Only critical race theory can address the problems plaguing the nation and its institutions.

It might take a generation or two or three to reach nirvana and in the meantime we have to dismantle the illusory white supremacist barriers, move them off the yellow brick road, by force if necessary, and finally, finally we'll have a society of totally race conscious, disaffected, resentful people. But at least they will all be equitably positioned. Misery not only loves company, progressives will legislate it.

Shame on us for allowing a progressive elite to dismantle an education system that at one time functioned pretty well. That's not denying the serious problems of race since Reconstruction. Issues exist to this day but not to the degree progressives would have all of us believe.

Today, those issues in race relations are created by Democrats who also, by the way, not only created the Ku Klux Klan, passed Jim Crow laws, engaged in horrific lynchings, kept minority children out of schools, and were, by and large, the 18th century slave holders but also implemented the welfare state, the Great Society, creating generations of dependency. That’s the real history of oppression today. Not something made up in 1619.

Somehow the Democrat party, the progressives, exclude themselves from the collective guilt they heap on others and ignore acknowledging their past atrocities. Instead they spread the blame across all Western civilization diluting their near total culpability.

You see, keeping minorities in perpetual borderline poverty benefits the Democrat Party as it has since Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 declaration of War on Poverty which has racked up a bill of over $28 trillion dollars, is the 3rd largest expenditure of the federal budget surpassing defense, and hardly changed the rate of poverty in over 50 years. Bribery is expensive. Government dependence a suitable substitute for good old-fashioned slavery.

But enough is enough. Playtime for progressives is over. The adults among us must to stop the hand wringing and engage the infantilized, morally bankrupt left. As has so often been advised: All it takes is courage to stand up to these wolves in socialist clothing. Challenge them at every opportunity. And, in the words of Sir Winston Churchill, “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, …. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” We in the United States have a highly evolved culture. A first rate, first world civilization. Our economy is the envy of the world. Technology provides us with comforts and entertainment, amenities unknown to any civilized population since the start of time. We are smart, educated. And most especially, undeniably, hubristic.

Hardly seems possible that half the population believes the other half to be evil when only a few years ago, yes there were disagreements but, we heard each other out. We worked towards acceptable compromises and solutions. Now, if you don't believe as I do, you're backwards, you're dangerous, you're evil.

Ask yourself this: how did we come to this point? How is it we're comfortable characterizing huge swaths of the population as "deniers", "homophobes", "transphobes", "racists", "white supremacists", "domestic terrorists", "insurrectionists"? How is it we're not embarrassed by our complete lack of perspective, our total suspension of reason or at the very least our absolute certainty in our beliefs that nothing will shake our certitude. That alone should provoke introspection.

But it doesn't now any more than it did in 1600s Salem, or late 70s Cambodia, early 2000s Venezuela, and the obligatory yet valid 30's/40s Germany. Large populations have been known to fall under delusions they mistake for reality.

Hubris prevents us from seeing the obvious. That and the fact that traditional, legacy information sources broadcast willful taunts of governing authorities creating rifts between all of us in order to secure power and position for them.

What nonsense! Conspiracy theories! No reasonable person would believe that!

No reasonable people would build mass crematoriums. A reasonable people wouldn't murder a near quarter of the Cambodian population or purposefully starve millions of your own citizens in Soviet Russia. Certainly burning people at the stake goes well beyond rational thought.

But those people were not as sophisticated as we today. Our demonizing of the other is fully justified. Just listen to the experts. Pay heed to the hearings. Believe in the science. You'll see we are right.

What we see is a population manipulated by fear generated by believers in a certain worldview having characteristics no different than any religious order but one built on the beliefs of a Jim Jones or Karl Marx. Suicidal and destructive in every sense.

Power and control by a ruling elite is at least as probable a theory for our present state of affairs , the current mindless chaos, as half the population is racist, sexist, homophobic, and you get the picture.

And that should give you pause. But your religiosity precludes honest, unprejudiced thought. Something you'd think an advanced civilization would have.

If we're not going to talk dispassionately and reasonably with each other in order to bridge divides there are only bad options. Forced compliance. No fault divorce. Civil war.

So. When you find others demonizing people they don't know personally and never met, stop them, shun them, call them out, ostracize them.

When you find yourself demonizing people you don't know personally and never met, resist the temptation to feed your ego and treat the other as you would want to be treated. Sounds familiar.

the golden rule

Scott Sidney - New Graphic Editorial Section, September 16, 2021

We in the United States have a highly evolved culture. A first rate, first world civilization. Our economy is the envy of the world. Technology provides us with comforts and entertainment, amenities unknown to any civilized population since the start of time. We are smart, educated. And most especially, undeniably, hubristic.