"President Donald Trump delivered another deeply divisive speech to mark Independence Day on Saturday, comparing the US's fight against Nazis and terrorists to his efforts to defeat "the radical left" in the US and accusing social justice protesters of trying to destroy America.
"American heroes defeated the Nazis, dethroned the fascists, toppled the communists, saved American values, upheld American principles and chased down the terrorists to the very ends of the earth," Trump said. "We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and people who in many instances have absolutely no clue what they are doing."" CNN
————-
One hears the left in the US claiming daily that Trump is "divisive." I did my best to ignore that usage but it is so pervasive that I am forced to take note. Both the media and the Democrats say and write this every day.
What the lefties mean of course is that Trump and the conservatives do not accept the new dispensation of the gospel truth spread by the left. This automatically causes a division of opinion, This is clearly a very bad thing in their eyes.
IMO the freedom of speech and thought that we have had in the US is in great peril. pl
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/04/politics/trump-july-fourth-remarks/index.html
Colonel, your choice of words is right on target. To the modern left, the exercise of government power–the use of force–in advancing their dictates/doctrines is a religion. The government, when they are in charge, is to be worshiped and never questioned. Heretics deserve banishment and punishment.
Tolerance is not one of their virtues. They are a very real threat to free speech, true religious freedom, civil discourse, etc.
Brought to us, I might add, at taxpayer expense via public education.
Col. Lang,
The results are utterly predictable………and when the left gets its wish and police are defunded and neutered, the bad guys will come out of the shadows. Their “prey” after their own communities, will be the very inner city dwelling “progressive” Snowflakes that instigated this. Guess who will scream the loudest for law and order then?
If The Guardian is to be believed, NYC is already halfway there.
“ According to figures released by the New York Police Department, for the first six months of this year, there were 176 murders, an increase of 23 per cent on the 143 killed during the same period last year.
The number of shooting victims has gone up 51 per cent to 616 this year. In June alone, there were 250 shootings compared to 97 in the same month last year. Month-on-month, burglaries are up 119 per cent and car thefts up 48 per cent.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8490367/How-coronavirus-BLM-protests-liberal-mayor-doing-Bin-Laden-never-could.html
I listened to Trumps speech. How can a reaffirmation of American values by “divisive”?
I would say that the quote provided above is divisive because it sets up a comparison between foreign enemies that numbered in the hundreds millions at time and people he disagreed with here at home — many of whom have not broken any laws much less threatened our existence.
But certainly it is true that the left categorizes much disagreement as divisiveness. This is hypocritical in that they celebrate “diversity is our strength” yet then do not want to live in a nation full of conflicting opinions.
It does seem like there’s becoming more and more things that people can’t say out loud anymore in public forums. It does seem like people are quicker to jump to negative conclusions about the integrity of people they don’t know or disagree with.
I can only say that I intend to keep on doing what I have always done, which is to assume the best about people, to try to listen to what all people say, to cherish truth no matter where it comes from and to admit when I’m wrong.
Why is there no push back by the conservatives? They’re gonna be the ones getting cancelled as the Big Tech companies de-platform and de-monetize them and the corporate media gives them no space.
Something’s fishy as so many corporations provide “charitable” contributions to BLM. Who runs this entity, which I understand is incorporated? What are the use of funds?
It would seem that it is a reprise of 2016 to defeat Trump at the polls in November. Painting Trump as “dark and divisive”. Following up on “chaos” themed stories.
Trump won by narrow margins in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in 2016. The fall will see the opposition throwing everything they got.
Is the federal government doing anything to identify and arrest the looters of a month ago? I highly doubt it, so why mention it?
Those looters defeated us with their incredible organization, speed and efficiency. Hardly any were arrested. Their loot has been sold and transferred to their new owners.
Cities should all have plans in place in the future to shut highways down so looters can’t just sweep in, rob stores and drive away again.
The left need only label your speech ‘hate’ to start the process of de-personhood.
jerseycityjoan,
The federal government has very limited legal authority to police cities. The left knows that and it is local politicians who are complicit in this distruction.
fred
Yes. The word “hate” also has a special meaning for the left. As for federal intervention in cities, it would be possible to do if the president declared them to be in rebellion. If Trump wins we may see that.
jerseycityjoan
Sadly, I must say that you are naive and a natural victim. You or your descendants will awake one day to realize that you are living in a country not much different from the Soviet Union and the reason for the creation of such a monstrosity will be your wish to believe in the goodness of mankind.
Col.,
He needs to start with D.C.
I don’t think we are at any greater peril than at any other period of emotional contention over power. Divisiveness is a trait of the Experiment, multiplied in these times by our rotting party system. They do little constructive, little more than contending over share of the numerator.
There is a lot more talk about “hate speech” and “haters” than there should be.
“Hate” should be reserved for hate. Instead it is used to refer to dislike and disagreement.
Overuse of “hate” only makes matters worse as people demonize each other. It is important that children be taught to disagree without being disagreeable. They are taught self-restraint, self-questioning and tolerance that way. Yet we are teaching them the opposite with what we say and do in front of them.
People are creating a world we don’t want to live in. There’s just too many accusations these days.
This is one of these typical games the left play with words, using adjectives with negative connotations to describe speeches they do not like and positive ones if they want to promote the cause.
An expensive American-influenced PR consultant wrote up a whole manual about this manipulation technique (most commonly known as “Framing” in Germany) for the German public broadcasting service ARD, which got leaked online: https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2019/02/framing_gutachten_ard.pdf
If a BLM activist had given a similarly “divisive” speech, CNN would have called it “impassioned” or “fiery” or “powerful”.
There are many such examples, one of my favourites is that the positively connotated “diversity” suddenly becomes “heterogeneity” in the reporting if the story exemplifies the negative effects of “diversity” in some social context.
I’ve paid attention to this ongoing and continuous effort from the get go, for what it always has been.
De Humanizing the man.
So that he would NEVER be “legitimate.”
This is the Modus Operandi.
It matters not if Trump could walk on water, as it were.
This demonization and dehumanization of all things Trump is and always has been intentional.
The NYTimes the biggest or among the biggest partisan actors, along with many Republicans and Democrats and of course the Hollywood whores and whore-masters.
The Carter Page villainy was to send a message to all of us that: not all Americans have the right to freedom of assembly and more particularly, to volunteer to work on any political campaign that we choose.
This effort against Page, run by Obama and his cronies, had nothing to do with Liberalism. It was the antithesis of Liberalism.
This was actual Fascism. And this continued with Flynn, and RussianHoax-gate, and continues now with Corona911-gate.
This is the most vile or one of the most heinous consequences of this ongoing dehumanization campaign.
Those styling themselves “Liberal” not only destroy liberty, by behaving as Fascist: they destroy our common language that we use to name things, to call a spade a spade, in plain English.
CNN is Cable News Nazis.
Put another way: When Russian re-claim Crimea, I noticed the mass media began reporting on Russia that same way they have reported on Palestine and Palestinians for decades.
In a biased and flagrantly a-historical and vicious manner, which of course is not journalism.
Trump is treated like the Russians and the Palestinians [and Syrians].
They, the media apostles, that actual fascists and their partisan political comrades in high places in government and business: do not try to report on Trump, any more than they try to report on Palestine.
Palestine remains under brutal military occupation.
Trump, win or lose come November, will remain under brutal attack by a section of the ruling class, many of whom fancy themselves “left” and/or “liberal”. . .
However, there is no Left in this country. And, these neo-fundamentalist frauds would be cut down to size, were their an actual, principled, Left organizing for the working class, the poor, the deplorables to use Hillary’s mean and unctuous terminology.
There is a large pack of mad-dogs, angry and possessed, that have appropriated to themselves the mantle of Liberal. Because if they called themselves what they are, Fascists, it would be clear who they are, what they are, how they act, and why they do so.
These fakers calling themselves “Liberal”. . .well, they are prejudice, bigoted, and judgemental, and worst of all, are zealots.
Their hatred of Trump, just one measure of their zeolatry.
A Liberal cannot be a Zealot.
A Liberal cannot be prejudice, and an ongoing and continuous bigot.
The Psuedo Liberal, these zealots are a danger to liberty and the Liberal Tradition.
And to the Conservative Tradition.
And to humanity.
+++
jerseycityjoan
You need to face reality, which you do not rather than what you wish was the truth.
The media and the Democrats – the same people.
The media has been overwhelmingly Democrat since at least the 1950’s.
They had a hard time (barely) disguising their bias going back to Reagan, but Trump so enraged them that the last mask fell off.
Trump not only didn’t suck up to them like previous – and current -Republicans did, but he challenged their biases and agendas.
Divisive means I don’t agree with you so you are bad.. “Some one who can bring us together” means the same thing; agree with me or else. They cloying campfire tune Kumbiyah is really a fascist anthem. My way or the highway.
Nancy Pelosi tearing up President Trump’s SOTU address was divisive. This act ushered in the current “revolution”.
One needs to prepare a time line of this Leftist chaos from that historic moment forward. Pelosi donned her white sheets – but this time they were only sheets of paper – and then her minions marched into the flames.
However, I still believe this is all about the Democrats making sure they get their hands back on the federal check book for their 44 million public sector union member cronies, spread across this entire country.
Who else has so much direct skin in the game? Not sure there are even that many welfare recipients. They remain a potent force in the shadows – not yet on the radar of most observers. Once the pattern is picked up, it all does lead back to 44 million pubic sector workers wanting their in house power back.
Fundamentally, this is a struggle about power and about control of resources.
Both resources and power available to America overall are decreasing , mostly due to concious options taken by the US elites (Globalisation, dumb wars). Due to this, the US elites now seek to disenfranchise and essentially enserf the overall population, both by greatly expanding elite control over private lives (big tech, also by making everyone racist post facto) and by criminalizing dissent from elite narratives.
However, this will result in considerable further decreases of US wealth and power, because serfs do not work as effeciently as free men do and because peacefull societies tend to be richer and civil warring ones. Of course, this decrease of power and riches will spawn even more destructive contests over the bits of power and riches that remain.
I hope you manage to stop this quickly, before it spirals out of control.
They are coming for the Constitution. The main legacy of the men whose statues they are pulling down. They will demand a new Constitutional Convention. It may very well serve, like the call for the Estates General in Paris did, as the spark for Revolution.
I agree. It would have been inappropriate for a President to ignore the attack on federal monuments and growing lawlessness on a national level.
I’m even okay with him calling out specific groups. Had he used the standard political weasel words, ‘those who would … ‘, CNN would accuse him of using ‘code words’ and ‘dog whistles’. Tired of politicians who always hedge, I think most people are which is why Trump got elected in the first place. Having said that, not going to vote for Trump or Biden this time around, can’t get over the likes of Pompeo. I think Trump will win because when people are scared they will vote for the alpha male to protect them.
The president said “American heroes defeated the Nazis, dethroned the fascists,…”.
Not to minimize the sacrifices of those on the western front, but the Red Army should be properly credited with defeating Hitler.
Freedom of speech is most threatened by corporations controlling communications. This has been aided and abetted by both political parties by not enforcing antitrust law. And Reagan’s abolition of the fairness doctrine in broadcasting surely didn’t help by allowing networks to become extensions of political parties.
Notice that it took 7 writers to assemble that ‘article by committee’.
They say that if you put a million chimps in a room with a million typewriters, eventually they will write the works of Shakespeare. Well, we see what 7 CNN authors creates.
“Divisive” means you don’t want to buy the product the Democrats are selling.
jonst
38 States required for ratification of amendment. Think the radicals could get that? How is a national constitution called? Same number for ratification? Could states withdraw from the Union by not ratifying a new constitution?
As long as it appears to be the unwritten agenda to never even mention the role of drugs in minority and impoverished communities, let alone drugs being key factors in recent high profile minority member incidents, how can we ever heal “divisiveness” in this country?
The 800 pound dragon in the living room no one talks about. Why?
Turcopolier wrote:
“IMO the freedom of speech and thought that we have had in the US is in great peril.”
Fred wrote, in a comment to a previous post:
“What you are seeing is the result of a successful decades long anti-Western propaganda campaign.”
https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2020/06/the-lynching-of-officer-derek-chauvin-by-larry-c-johnson.html
I couldn’t agree more with both comments.
For an excellent description of the campaign that I have observed (although Fred might have something different in mind) called variously Cultural Marxism, Critical Theory, and The Culture of Critique,
see Chapter Four, “Four Who Made a Revolution: The Frankfurt School Comes To America”, of Patrick Buchanan’s book “The Death of the West”, published in 2001.
This excellent and prescient book is easily and inexpensively ($8!) available from both Google Play and Kindle.
As to its relevance to the suppression of speech, here is Buchanan describing Marcuse:
———
In “One Dimensional Man”, [Marcuse] advocated an educational dictatorship. In “Repressive ‘tolerance,” he called for a new “liberating tolerance” that entails “intolerance against movements from the right, and toleration of movements from the left”.
…
In “Carnivorous Society,” [Marcuse] wrote:
“One can rightfully speak of a cultural revolution, since the protest is directed toward the whole cultural establishment … there is one thing we can say with complete assurance. The traditional idea of revolution and the traditional strategy of revolution have ended. These ideas are old-fashioned … what we must undertake is a type of diffuse and dispersed disintegration of the system.”
———–
Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/cOPOWf6
The printing presses were vulnerable to the wielders of the sledge hammers and fire axes.
It is even easier to unplug the internet. The DNS are the simplest points of failure and the registrars are the easiest ones to suborn.
Think your thoughts, and as always be parsimonious with what you say. Coat your words with unctuous oils and let safe similes and modest affect be your coat of invisibility. And always keep your powder dry and unannounced.
The bill of rights was ratified in 1791 and freedom of speech lasted until 1798 and the passage of the Alien and Sedition acts.
Col, I think it would be stretch to imagine they could get, at this PRESENT TIME 38 States. But let me ask you Col, rhetorically, if things keep ‘progressing’ like they are now, is a it a lock they could not get the needed votes? The Elites of both Parties now remind me of the Lebanese Army. I do not know the exact manner you would hold a Constitutional Convention. But give me the House, the Senate, and the White House, NY, California, Texas, and Florida and put a hundred selected lawyers in a room for a week (think chimps), and I bet they could figure out a way to accomplish what they want. Things would have to deteriorate for that to be anything near a reality. I grant you. But who is to say with certainty they won’t? As you know better than I Col, retreats can become routs. And I see retreat everywhere. But in any event, I stand by what I wrote, they care coming for the Constitution. It is their ultimate aim. The statues are Operation Torch. The Germans knew what the ultimate target was. Torch was the softening up process.
CK
And was restored under Jefferson.
Jonst,
You won’t need to wait long. An election of Biden will coincide with another “Covid” crisis needing emergency powers to “protect Americans”. Emergency powers that are broad and sweeping, just like the ones granted to the newly elected Chancelor did in ’33. A timely podcast by Lewis Lapham in reviewing a book on the infamous one’s first 100 days covers some of the details. I can easily see party ‘antifa’-lite community groups being incorporated into ‘defunded’ police departments as auxiliaries. It’s been done before, and an election just adds credibility to the farce.
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/content/peter-fritzsche
@ The Colonel
And limited again under Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt and Clinton. All speech is the precursor to action and all actions have consequences.
Behind the hedge of the teeth one may think what ever one wishes and chase whatever chimeras and unicorns he may devise.
Doesn’t (or shouldn’t) divisive here simply mean remarks specifically designed to attack a particular other group and its actual or supposed policies/goals and decisively draw the line between one’s own group (to that group’s satisfaction) and the other group — this aside from the social-political rightness or wrongness of such acts of decisive/devisive separation, both in terms of “Who struck John?” and of the likely outcome of each group’s policies should they come to pass. My point, or one of them, is that there’s nothing innocent about such rhetoric on either or any side; it’s would-be power politics of the mouth and deed.
This fella spoke to this phenomenon several years ago. It has been on the march on campus for decades.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRIKJCKWla4
KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov said that the “Leftists are useful IDIOTS”
Stages of communist takeovers- Yuri Bezmenov (Leftists are useful IDIOTS)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfvXwuZ-bok
Radical Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant Vows to Overthrow the United States and Replace with “a Socialist World”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/radical-seattle-city-councilmember-kshama-sawant-vows-overthrow-united-states-replace-socialist-world/
Fred @ July 6
Doesn’t anybody ever run out of inappropriate Hitler comparisons?
So tiresome.
Artemesia,
Yes, watching the pattern unfold before our eyes is tiring. I would reach back to Sulla and Crassus, but the proscription lists haven’t been made public yet.