War for the West

There is a war going on in the west and we are losing. This year has seen a rise in mass protests and a belief in social justice. Students on college campus’ calling for the end of freedom of speech. As well as a rise in totalitarianism. This has not sprung up overnight and is not spontaneous despite what the media would have us think. These movement are deliberately planned and carried out with the full knowledge of those leading these movements.

            I live near Portland Oregon, a city known for being weird, where it is acceptable to be different. That is unless you disagree with the group or the narrative that is being pushed. I see this mentality on the rise in other place in the country. People will take to the street over a lie they were told that is being pushed by the media. “Hands up don’t shoot” or the Mizzou Protests are just two large examples of this happening. The ideas behind these movements is not based in fact but instead works on emotion. They act like a mother bear protecting her cubs, anyone or anything that tries to get close is to be seen as a threat and to be destroyed. If you disagree with Black Lives Matter then you’re a racist. You don’t believe in the wage gap, then you’re a sexist.

            This is nothing new, there have always been people who get offended at anything, and the difference now is that the movement is gaining traction. If you listen to these people, on the surface, they seem compassionate and seem to care for others. In fact they actually view themselves that way. But anything taken to an extreme is going to be bad. Too much compassion for an issue blinds you to the facts. The repeated calls for social justice and the actions taken by those making those calls are alarming. They are alarming because of what is being asked and the fact that people are giving in to those demands. You don’t like the president of the university, just say he hit you with his car and go on a hunger strike, and he will be forced out/resign. You don’t like that an organization has too many white or male employees, start a protest about how they do not care about diversity. There are even calls for ‘safe spaces’ for black people, meaning the same people who will tell you Jim Crowe and segregation was bad, is now acceptable as long as they are in charge.

            That is the point to all of this. They use people’s emotions and empathy to gain power, and if that does not work they switch to shaming. Then if you still refuse, mob social justice. They want to control the conversation and police your life because they, in their wisdom as degree holders who have seen the light, know what is best. If something is too offensive to someone then it should be illegal, if you make too much it should be taken away and given to those who ‘need it more’. If you are part of the wrong group then you are an oppressor, regardless of any actions you may or may not have taken. Instead of personal responsibility they see everything as a group. If people in your group ever did anything wrong in the past then you are responsible for it and reap the benefits of it now. That is why you are successful, not because you worked hard but because you stole it from someone else. This is socialism and totalitarianism. And people are giving in to it. Nowhere is this more evident than on university campuses where the faculty give in, promote, participate, and even celebrate this sort of behavior. The university is where our next generation of leaders are supposed to come from and if this is what the leadership is promoting, than the west is in trouble.

            As a millennial myself, I find that my ideas of free speech and a right to a trial are quickly becoming outdated. Free speech will be censored in the name of stopping hate speech, innocent until proven guilty will be replaced by social justice. Not because of an appeal to facts but because it feels good to do it. Yet with Brexit and the election of Trump I can see a hope that maybe I’m not the only one who is outraged by those who fight for social justice. Maybe I’m not the only one who waits for the facts before making a decision. The very values of western society are under attack and we are losing that battle, but we have not lost yet.