We have become a nation governed not by truth, vision, science or even majority vote -- but by fear.
Fear in social interaction.
Fear in the media.
Fear in politics.
Social
media has become a tool for screaming at, shaming and, in extreme
cases, silencing all views with which certain preferred groups disagree.
Take the transgender movement as one example.
I
will go out on a limb and suggest that the majority of Americans do not
believe it is possible for a biological male to become a woman, or vice
versa, notwithstanding a legal change of name, rewriting a birth
certificate, taking medications or even undergoing surgeries to remove
or restructure body parts. That's not to say that most people care
whether or not anyone else chooses to do those things, only that they
do not necessarily accept as truth the conclusion that they are told
follows those acts. But most prefer to remain silent about their views,
rather than invoke the outrage of the social media mobs (as author J.K.
Rowling has discovered).
That said, when authors, social
scientists and medical experts want to study the physical,
psychological, behavioral or sociological implications of this
relatively recent phenomenon, the attack of the outrage mobs is not just
disturbing; it is dangerous. Physicians' credentials are put at risk.
Scholars have seen their scholarly research denounced or denied
publication or denounced thereafter. Authors' books are pulled from
shelves. The truth -- whatever it may be -- is not just irrelevant; it
is forbidden, because a small segment of the population has declared
that anyone who will not validate its worldview is guilty of "hate,"
"bigotry" and "transphobia."
That is not science. It is propaganda of fear.
Nor is it
science when physicians, pharmacologists and epidemiologists across the
country are slammed as kooks, quacks or political hacks for daring to
suggest COVID-19 treatment methodologies that differ from the
pronouncements of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Politically,
we find ourselves in the middle of a post-presidential-election
cataclysm, and a climate so thick with fear you can smell it.
As
each day goes by, there is more and more evidence that fraudulent and
unlawful actions were deliberately taken in multiple swing states
(Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia) to suppress,
destroy or switch votes for President Donald Trump; and to confect,
import, create or artificially multiply votes for Joe Biden. These
allegations include steps taken to deny legal poll watchers -- at least
Republican poll watchers -- access to the vote-counting process in
Detroit, Milwaukee, Atlanta and Philadelphia.
Hearings have taken
place in several of these states, and hundreds of eyewitnesses and
voters have come forward to state under oath -- in person or via
affidavit -- things they saw or that happened to them, all of which
strongly suggest fraud.
With each new allegation, our leaders --
politicians and law enforcement -- are terrified. You can see it on the
faces and hear it in the voices of the legislators who are listening to
statement after statement after statement of witnesses and experts: Oh, God. At this rate, we're going to be expected to do something.
And they don't want to do anything, not because
they're all on the take (although it's possible that some are) but
because real leadership takes courage, especially when that means
standing up to the mobs and the media.
While we're talking about mobs, let's be honest about some other relevant recent events, shall we?
The
Democratic mayors and governors did not allow the looting and burning
and vandalism and destruction during all of summer and fall because they
"stand in solidarity" with the "protesters." They allowed it to happen
because they are afraid of them.
Seattle Mayor Jenny
Durkan and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee were -- and continue to be --
afraid of the mobs that took over blocks of downtown Seattle and
declared it an "autonomous zone."
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown have let antifa and other violent groups run
roughshod over the citizens of Portland because they are afraid to
confront those groups. Even Wheeler's abasement of the mobs did not
protect him from attacks on his own condo building that forced him to
move.
The mayors of Kenosha, Wisconsin; Atlanta; Chicago; and Minneapolis let throngs of rioters burn and destroy because they are afraid of them.
By contrast, look at whom these politicians do enforce the laws against.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo goes after the Jews but does nothing about
the rioters because he is afraid of the rioters but not of the Jews.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot praises huge crowds of protesters but would
not call out the police to protect the owners of Michigan Avenue shops
when thieves arrived to smash, steal and destroy. Michigan Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer shuts down bars and restaurants and barber shops because she is
not afraid of restaurant owners or barbers.
California Gov. Gavin
Newsom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor London Breed
violate the mask laws they impose on everyone else. Illinois Gov. J.B.
Pritzker and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock paid no attention to the
travel bans they insisted other citizens had to follow.
And now,
with elections clearly capable of having been rigged, these same
hypocritical politicians don't even have to be afraid of being voted out
of office. Masked, muted, shamed, silenced, emasculated and
disenfranchised, the overwhelming majority of Americans are being left
with nothing -- no business, no voice, no vote.
No doubt, those playing this game applaud themselves for their
win-at-any-cost tactics. This is dangerously childlike thinking,
characteristic of a country that has come to worship youth and pooh-pooh
impulse control: "I want what I want right now, and I don't care what
the future holds."
They'd better start caring, and fast.
When
a country abandons truth, the only winners are the biggest liars. When
it abandons basic justice -- the protection of private property, the
rule of law and the integrity of elections -- then the only way to get
what you want, whether it's stereos or political power, is to steal it.
And when a country's politicians are cowed by fear rather than motivated
by principle, those who win will instill the most fear.
This is a dangerous prospect indeed.
