Privilege is a Poisoned Word

You may have seen or heard the word privilege come up frequently. Since this word has reached common usage it is worth taking a look at what it really means and what its use entails.

A Google search of the word privilege brings up this definition “A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people.”

This is the common usage that I think most everyone can agree on and the one that will be used going forward.

Check Your Privilege

We rarely see or hear the word privilege on its own. Instead it is often coupled with a descriptive word, such as male privilege or white privilege.

This type of usage changes the meaning of the word in a very dramatic way. Privilege in this context is a pejorative designed to make you feel shame for enjoying a perceived advantage, special right, or immunity.

The subtext is that the only reason you have this privilege is because of the descriptive characteristic attached to the word. So when you are told that you have white privilege, what is truly being said is that you are enjoying or have been granted a special right, advantage or immunity simply because of the color of your skin. Of course this removes or diminishes individual agency, or as former President Barak Obama would say “you didn’t build that.”

This privilege is not granted to you through biology, though it does depend on the biological element of your skin color. Instead society has be built to produce these exclusive benefit to people who have this biological element. Underneath this reasoning is a social constructionist view of the world* which is embedded deeply within the philosophy of Marxism.

Socialist Substructure

As we determined earlier privilege coupled with a descriptor is used as a pejorative. It is not a positive to be privileged in this way because your privilege was not earned. Rather it was given to you by a racistly constructed society.

If you have a privilege based on a certain characteristic, such as your gender, than those who lack that characteristic also lack that privilege. The word privilege creates two groups, those with it and those without. A group that has and a group that has not.

It is simply a rewording of bourgeois and proletariat that replaces wealth (capital) with societal advantages. Professor Jordan Peterson describes this change as a philosophical sleight of hand.

A sleight of hand that simultaneously removes the stigma of socialism due to the human atrocities committed in places like the Soviet Union and China while cloaking it in the language of empathy and classical liberalism.

Your Tribe

Another effect of attaching privilege to a descriptive word is that it creates a group based on that descriptor. If male privilege exist than it applies to everyone who is male. This creates the category of male identity while at the same time creating the family that category falls under. Gender identity would be the family of identities and within that family you have male, female, Trans and whatever gender flavor of the month that is useful in placing people into categories.

The concept of privilege is used to divide people into numerous categories and makes the claim that certain categories have more advantages than others. For convenience sake I am going to refer to these categories as tribes.

By splitting people into these tribes and assigning them certain characteristics (both beneficial and disadvantageous) you diminish the individual by placing the tribe in the place of primacy. The alienation of the individual in this manner will cause people to gravitate toward these tribes.

Once broken into tribes it does not take much to point out that one tribe has more privileges than another tribe. From there it is only a small step to thinking that the only reason they have more privileges is because they took them from you or are actively preventing you from gaining them.

At that point you will see conflict between tribes. A real world modern example of this is when a BLM group tried to shut down a pride parade in DC in 2017 and before that in 2015 in Chicago when they organized using #Blackoutpride.

The Poisoned Word

Privilege is used to attack and shame people in an attempt to divide them and place them into tribes. These tribes have conflict with other tribes built-in, ready to be exploited by anyone who is willing and capable.

The biggest tragedy is the assault on the concept of the individual. An offensive that includes removing individual agency by subscribing to the idea that any privilege you have is unearned and is only a product of a society built to benefit you based on immutable characteristics. It seeks to remove individual identity by placing you into a tribe with preassigned characteristics.

On the surface the word privilege seems fairly harmless, which makes it a perfect vessel for the poison of Marxism to slowly work its way into the culture. The words we use matter.

Gun Confiscation: Fact Check TRUE!

On March 20^th 2018 an interfaith group filed petition 42 in the Oregon legislature. This petition seeks to make it illegal to own or possess assault weapons in the state of Oregon.

The petition needs 88,000 signatures in order to make it to the ballot for a vote of the people of Oregon.

What is an Assault Weapon?

According to this petition an assault weapon is any semiautomatic rifle, handgun, or shotgun, that is has a magazine that is capable of holding more than 10 rounds. The petition goes into much more detail but that is the overall definition.

This would include almost all the weapons people possess in the state of Oregon outside of some bolt actions rifles and revolvers. This definition casts a wide net that will impact many lawful gun owners.

Infringing on That Which SHALL NOT be Infringed

In section 4 of this petition it states that “[A] person commits the crime of unlawful possession or transfer of an assault weapon or large capacity magazine if the person manufactures, imports, possesses, purchases, sells or transfers any assault weapon or large capacity magazine.”

If this petition becomes law being found guilty of any of these things would be a Class B Felony. Meaning that if you violate this law you could face up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $250,000 for simply own a handgun.

This petition carves out an exemption, but before you get too excited it only applies to “Any government officer, agent or employee, member of the Armed Forces of the United States or peace officer…if that person is otherwise authorized to acquire or possess an assault weapon or large capacity magazine and does so while acting within the scope of that person’s duties.”

One rule for citizens and one rule for the government class, hardly seem fair in a country that is dedicated to freedom and liberty.

The Big Lie

Every time any sort of gun control conversation takes place you always hear those in favor of additional gun control say ‘no one wants to come and take your guns away from you, you are just a paranoid gun nut.’

This petition proposes exactly that scenario and now we have it in writing. If this becomes law and you, prior to the passing of the law, own an assault weapon as defined by this petition you will have 120 days to either, remove from the state, sell to a licensed firearms dealer, surrender to law enforcement agency for destruction, render permanently inoperable or register with the police the assault weapon or high capacity magazine.

Failure to do any of those things will make you a Class B Felon which carries all the restrictions such a crime entails, such as losing the right to vote while you are in prison.

The Gun Registry

Section five of this petition says you will be able to keep your assault weapons provided you register with the authorities. You must give your name and address as well as the ID number for the assault weapon, have owned the weapon before the passage of this law and allow the police to conduct a criminal background check.

In section six they leave it up to the police performing the background check to set up a fee schedule. Allowing them to simply price you out of registering your assault weapons.

You are also required to submit evidence that you securely store the weapon and only keep it on your property unless you have express consent to bring it onto someone else property, at a firearms dealer for lawful repair or at a shooting range or traveling to and from any of these locations to another.

Under this law, if you are going camping in the woods you will have to leave your gun at home. Just remember, you don’t have to be faster than the bear, wolf, or cougar, only faster than the people you are with.

This act would also make it illegal to buy additional assault weapons or large capacity magazines once it is passed.

My Appeal

If this law passes the Oregon government will be coming to violate your inalienable rights on January 1^st 2019. I call upon everyone in the Oregon legislature to kill this petition and do their duty to stand up and protect the rights of the people they serve.

Man in UK Convicted for Being #GrosslyOffensive

A Scottish YouTuber who goes by the name Count Dankula has been found guilty in a UK court for a joke video he posted.

He is currently facing jail time.

The Video

The video in question was created by Count Dankula, Markus Meechan, in 2016 as a prank on his girlfriend, who was always telling him about her cute pug.

The joke was that Meechan would teach the dog to raise its paw to Nazi phrases as if it were giving a salute. As he stated in the video, he wanted to make the cute dog into the least cute thing he could think of, a Nazi.

Being a YouTube personality Meechan uploaded a video of him training the dog to his channel. The video was viewed over 3 million times and has been put in a suspended state by YouTube as offensive content.

The Verdict

This video landed Meechan in hot water with the UK authorities under the Communications Act of 2003. This lead to charges being filed against him and a court case that has lasted two years.

On March 20, 2018 a guilty verdict was handed down. It stated that Meechan was guilty of being grossly offensive (#grosslyoffensive) and he will be sentenced on April 23, 2018.

This means that being offensive in the UK is now illegal and you could face jail time. Since anyone can be offended at any time by anything it means it is up to those in power to determine what is and is not offensive.

A situation has developed in the UK that would seem laughable if it were not so horribly true. The police refuse to investigate and bring to justice Muslim grooming gangs for fear of appearing racist but will gladly send someone to jail for an offensive video on YouTube.

It is a dark day in history when your government ignores young girls and women being abused, raped, tortured, sold into sex slavery and in some cases killed because the perpetrators of those crimes have a specific minority status (some might call it privileged), but the full weight of the law needs to come down hard on someone posting a ‘grossly offensive’ joke on social media.

I am thankful that I am in the US but my heart goes out to the citizens of the UK and I stand with them in their fight for free speech.

#grosslyoffensive

#Liberalist

The Return of Antifa

I am going to start this off by saying that this is my opinion and that I hope I am wrong about this return.

With midterm elections drawing near and as winter ends and spring quickly approaches the protest season will resume in full swing. We will see a reemergence of the group known as Antifa.

Who is Antifa?

Antifa is short for Anti-fascist, something that I think most people can agree with. But as Shakespeare said, “What is in a name?”

They claim they are fighting Nazi’s and defending the community against fascism. This can be seen as a noble cause, no one wants to live under fascism or Nazism. The truth of this group is far uglier than this noble sounding claim.

Matthew 7:20 says “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” I am not a deeply religious person but this is sound advice. What kind of fruit does this Antifa tree bear?

November 10^th 2016, $1 million in damage in Portland Oregon.

February 2017 $100,000 in damage in Berkeley California.

September 2017 $600,000 for security to protect Ben Shapiro in Berkeley California.

Antifa throws M-80s at Trump supports in Berkeley California.

Antifa distribute weapons at Ben Shapiro speech in Utah.

A time line of Antifa violence in the first eight months of 2017. The list included January 20^th Inauguration Day, March 4^th March for Trump, and May 1 May Day in Portland Oregon.

Through these actions one of two things is clear. Either they do not care about fighting fascism and are using it as a cover to commit politically motivated acts of violence, or they have extended the term fascist to include classical liberals, never Trump Republicans, Libertarians, Conservatives, Trump supporters, the Republican Party, and anyone who disagrees with them.

Capture the Flag

March 5^th 2018 at London’s King’s College a dialogue was set up between Yaron Brook, Chairman of the board at the Ayn Rand Institute, and Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad) a Youtuber and Liberalist.

During the talk members of Antifa stormed the building, forced their way past security and into the room where the conversation was taking place. They attempted to take the microphones away from the speakers and pushed members of the crowd.

A few fights broke out and the protesters were pushed out of the room, but only after pulling the fire alarm and setting off smoke bombs in the building.

This caused the talk to be cancelled and was seen by Antifa as a victory. The conversation moved a few blocks away and was continued without interruption.

During the scuffle Antifa lost their flag, which was proudly claimed as a trophy by the speakers and those who came to hear them talk.

See video, media response and firsthand account here.

“Lock ‘em in and Burn it Down”

Also on March 5^th 2018 Jordan Peterson was scheduled to speak at Queen’s University. Protesters showed up to harass people as they tried to enter the venue. You can even hear someone say, “Lock ‘em in and burn it down.”

During the speech protesters banged on the windows to try and disrupt the event. They even broke an old stained glass window simply because they wanted to silence someone they did not like.

A couple protesters made it inside and onto the stage with a sign. Peterson, showing his capacity for limitless patience continued on with the talk.

Also on March 5^th 2018 in Portland Oregon a talk at Lewis & Clark Law School was also interrupted by protesters when Christina Hoff Sommers (the factual feminist and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute) was invited to speak.

They walked into the room, chanted, sang, and generally made noise, denying Sommers, who has a PhD in Philosophy from Brandeis University and is the author of several books, including Who Stole Feminism? and The War Against Boys, the ability to talk and denied the students who came to listen to her the chance to hear what she had to say.

Nine student groups signed a letter in an attempt to get this talk shut down. In the letter they called Sommers a “Known fascist” and said that she was there to “encourage what we believe to be an act of aggression and violence toward members of our society who experience racial and gendered oppression.”

The groups are The National Lawyers Guild, Lewis & Clark Student Chapter, Minority Law Student Association, Women’s Law Caucus, Immigration Student Group, Jewish Law Society, OutLaw, Lewis & Clark Young Democratic Socialists of America, Black Law Student Association, and the Latino Law Society.

These groups openly believe that a 67 year old feminist is a “known fascist” and out to get people in society.

The Protest Season

There is an idea going around that maybe Antifa and the radical protesters have calmed down in the recent months. That maybe this is a sign that they have given up. On the surface this would appear to be true.

But talking with and listening to people who have reported and dealt this behavior before they explain that protests always die down during the winter months. That it will pick up again come spring and summer.

If the protests and Antifa action we have seen this month alone are any indication we are in store for a long summer full of these ‘activists.’ Antifa may come back, but I hope I am wrong.