A MAGA hat and My Small Choice

It had been over a week since I placed my order online and I had almost given up hope that my package would arrive. I walked out to the mail box after getting home from work to pick up the mail and there it was.

I pulled the gray bag and the rest of the mail from the box with a little bit of excitement and walked into the house. After letting the dogs out I pulled out my pocket knife, cut open the bag and pulled out the item.

The red cloth hat was clean and bright and across the front in vivid white letters were the words Make America Great Again. I turned it over in my hands, noticed the small American flag on the side and, looking into the mirror, I placed the hat on my head.

As I was adjusting the hat to fit I was reminded of why it took me so long to order a MAGA hat.

Ordering My MAGA Hat

During the 2016 Presidential election I was not the biggest fan on Donald Trump and did not consider ordering a MAGA hat. I liked him over Hilary but I was hoping that a third party candidate would be able to make a serious bid this time.

I was wrong, but I was glad that Trump won over Hilary. After the election I would watch the news and see Trump supporters attacked for wearing a MAGA hat. Mobs of people would surround them and shout at them and even a few people were beat up.

I wanted to buy a hat at this time but I also wanted to understand why I wanted to buy one now as opposed to earlier. As I thought about my reasons for getting a MAGA hat it became clear that I only wanted to get one so that I could trigger those who opposed Trump.

This was an unacceptable reason for me. It was not that I was opposed to offending people, in fact I was fine with that. Instead I did not think intentionally offending people for the sake of offending them was a worthy goal. I put the idea out of my head.

As time went on these attacked increased and I heard from my friends that they were afraid to say they were Republican, Conservatives, or a supporter of Trump. They were afraid of losing their jobs, getting attacked physically, or being called a racist.

It was at this time I considered buying a MAGA hat again. I asked myself the same question, why do you want to buy a MAGA hat? This time my answer had changed, it was twofold. One I wanted to buy a MAGA hat as a form of protest against the violence committed against those who wear MAGA hats in public.

The kid who got his hat stolen and a drink thrown in his face by someone who yelled profanities at him. Violent protesters dressed in all black assaulting anyone with a red hat while yelling that they were Nazi’s and racists. Or the father who offered to pay his daughter $100 to knock a MAGA hat off the head of another kid who was minding his own business in the mall.

Events like this made me want to buy a MAGA hat out of protest. The second reason was that I wanted a MAGA hat as a keepsake. Love or hate President Trump his presidency is going to be remembered and I thought it would be interesting to look back in ten years and remember this period in American history.

My First Interesting Comment

I had told my wife when I ordered the hat and when it arrived I showed it to her. She is not very interested in politics, so she was not as excited as I was. I placed the hat in our room and went about my day.

It was about a week later that she saw the hat in our room again and actually read what was on it. It was at this time that I walked into the room and she looked at me, a question on her mind. “Why did you want a Make America Great Again hat, aren’t you just asking to get beat up?”

My reply was one word, “No.”

Of course this line of thinking had crossed my mind before. I thought of this before I started writing about politics on my blog. I thought of this before openly admitting I am a Republican in a deeply progressive state. I thought of this before registering as a Republican. I thought of this when I bought a hat with the American flag on the front and before I attended a Patriot Prayer rally or events held by Jordan Peterson.

Each time I made the choice to do what I believed was right and to not let myself be intimidated or censored, least of all by myself. I am reminded of rule 7 in Jordan Peterson bestselling book 12 Rules for Life: Pursue what is Meaningful (Not what is expedient). It would be expedient to keep my mouth shut as opposed to writing this blog, it would be expedient to just watch the Patriot Prayer rally on YouTube as opposed to attending in person.

I could live a perfectly happy, safe and quiet life if I just simply did and said nothing. Do not get me wrong there is a lot of temptation to follow that path and I do not blame others who make that choice, yet the words attributed to Edmund Burke called out to me, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

I am not under the delusion that my purchase of a MAGA hat is some great blow against evil or some heroic act worthy of remembrance. Rather it was an honest attempt to do what I believed is right. The choice I made was not a choice of if I should or should not buy a hat, rather it was a choice of morality.

I am not saying Trump is moral, we know he is not at times, or that supporting him is the morally correct thing to do. I am saying that it is morally correct to refuse to let other people attempt to silence those they do not like under the guise of combating hate or hate speech.

People should not be afraid to speak their opinions out of a fear of losing their job or their business. People should not be afraid to say what they believe is right and true out of a fear of being socially shamed through the use of labels like Nazi, Bigot, Homophobe, Islamaphobe. People should not be afraid to love their country out of a fear of being physically assaulted for carrying or wearing an American flag.

My wife asked if I was asking to be attacked for wearing a MAGA hat. She immediately realized the implications of that question. She came to the conclusion that a person wearing a MAGA hat is no more asking to be assaulted then a woman is asking to be assaulted for wearing a sexy dress.

In Public

While I have made the choice to buy a MAGA hat, I have not yet worn it out in public. I admit part of me is nervous about wearing it. My wife, who does not like politics and does not pay it much attention, was worried that I would get assaulted for wearing the hat in public.

The threat is real but I know that most Americans do not care or if they do will not say or do anything. I live in Oregon outside of Portland in the city of Beaverton. The people here are not as bad as they are in Portland, but it can go either way.

I have a coworker who has worn his hat around town. He told me the reaction is mixed, some people give him a dirty look or ask him about it and others give him a thumbs up or show support. Again I am presented with another choice.

Do I wear the hat out in public or do I remain safe and silent? The choice is not earth shattering nor is it one that will be remembered as a turning point in history. The greatest events in history are rarely the product of a single choice, but the result of several small choices made by many different individuals.

I will be wearing my hat in public. For those who have been beaten up for wearing it, for those who are afraid to speak their mind out of a fear of the social, physical or financial consequences for doing so. I will also be wearing it for myself because it is more valuable to me to try and do what is right than it is to do what is safe and easy.

How to Win the Battle with Antifa

A battle with a group like Antifa needs to be waged on all fronts. Physical, Philosophical, Political, and Societal.

Antifa is a broad and confusing term that covers many different people. In order to win a battle you must know your enemy. I will attempt to define what Antifa means and some of the various types of Antifa.

Types of Antifa

Some people take the meaning of the word Antifa literally and believe it simply means you oppose fascism. These people either are not paying attention or are willfully blinding themselves to the truth.

These are the literalist Antifa. They think Antifa means you oppose fascism and that the people in black bloc are protectors of the community and oppressed.

The black bloc Antifa can be broken down into two camps. The shield maidens and the soy sword members.

The shield members are typically woman and provide cover for the sword members by wearing the black bloc uniform and standing between the sword members and any counter protesters. The sword members are the ones who will step out from the crowd from behind the shield members and hit you on the head with a bike lock, smash windows, set fire to cop cars, and generally cause destruction.

The shield members generally outnumber the sword members so they can claim they are largely peaceful to the media and the media will parrot this talking point. They also provide sympathy for the Antifa cause because if they get hurt it makes the other side look bad for beating up women. Something Antifa will exploit every chance they get for propaganda and recruiting purposes.

They also provide a protective group for the sword members to blend into after they commit their heinous acts. If these tactics seem familiar, that is because they are the same tactics used by ISIS and other terrorist organizations. The terrorists will set up base inside a school or nearby so they can produce propaganda that the evil imperialists are killing children.

Antifa also utilizes people intended to bait the opposition. The goal of this is to get the other side to throw the first punch and make them seem like the aggressors. They will do and say anything short of attacking you, if they think it will make you angry. Do not take the bait, it might feel good at the time and you might win the battle but it is a loss for the war.

Archers are the Antifa members who throw objects into the opposing crowd. They are protected in the group from identification and only seek to make the opposition angry. They will throw bricks, bottle of urine, fireworks, and rocks. This tactic is meant to anger the opposition much the same way the bait does and if they hurt someone in the process all the better.

Antifa does have a propaganda arm. Websites such as Rose City Antifa and It’s Going Down spread this propaganda across social media and the web and even reach into the mainstream media.

Antifa also has ally groups, which include labor unions, sections of the Democratic Party, and the Progressive movement. They also have sympathetic allies in the mainstream media and in local government.

Physically

When I say physically I do not mean violence, but rather actually showing up or being physically present. Show up to Free Speech rallies, do not be afraid to share your opinion, and never be ashamed to display the American Flag.

We also need to show up, in numbers, to town halls and other events where politicians are talking with the public. Note: Do not seek out politicians on their private time or if you see them in the grocery store, it might be tempting to exercise turnabout as fair play but it does no good in the long run.

At these town halls we need to ask hard questions, repeatedly, and demand direct answers. Not in a screaming and yelling sort of way that the Democrats demand everything but in an adult calm but tough sort of way.

Ask questions like, what is your opinion on Antifa? How do you plan to keep the community safe from their violence? Or ask about a specific events, such as the Patriot Prayer march on June 30^th that saw Antifa throwing mortars into a crowd of people. You can also ask them about what they think about Free Speech, if they support borders, and what is their opinion on groups like Patriot Prayer.

The questions and answers need to be recorded and shared in a full unedited format across multiple platforms. By asking these questions repeatedly it will force the politicians to address the problem directly. If one person asks they usually can dodge the question but if 4 or 5 people ask they will be run out of room to maneuver and be forced to answer the question plainly.

By getting them to answer these questions it will force the politicians to either express support for Antifa, which will make them look bad to the general public, or if they denounce Antifa it makes Antifa look bad and will cause them to turn on that politician. Either way we win.

Philosophical

This is one of the more difficult aspects because it is a war of ideas and narratives. The best thing we can do is examine Antifa ideology. Antifa for the most part runs on Socialist/Communist and Anarchist ideologies.

We need to examine these ideologies and their evolutions and address their questions and concerns. A good place to start is the Communist Manifesto and the Antifa Handbook. Check out videos and discussions by members of the Intellectual Dark Web, which includes people like Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, and Dave Rubin.

These are highly intelligent people that are able to help give words to your thoughts. They are able to express ideas clearly and in understandable terms. Support them and share the ideas you agree with and talk about those that you do not.

If you get a chance you should also read what was written by the founding fathers and the thinkers they were reading. The Federalist and Anti Federalist papers are great, works of Thomas Paine such as Common Sense, and The Rights of Man, and of course the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

If you do not have the time to read these works you can always search for audio versions and listen to them while doing dishes, walking the dog, or during your workout.

Political

Antifa appears to be the militant wing of the Democratic Party. I say, appears to be, because I have no direct proof that they are getting their orders from that party. There are also Democrats who oppose Antifa, though most are probably too afraid to say so.

For those who are afraid we need to stand up and show them they have nothing to fear. If they speak up we need to encourage them. If they support Antifa we need to record it and share that video across the internet.

The goal here is to try and tie the Democratic Party together with Antifa. This will force individual Democrats to either come out against Antifa or accept that they endorse them. This will seem to matter little to Antifa but it will matter to the general public.

It will create a split between the Progressives and the Liberals by forcing them to come down on one or the other side of the issue. Those who come out and oppose Antifa can be reasoned with and would make useful allies. We will not agree on everything but as long as we agree that Antifa is a problem we should work together on that shared idea.

Societal

Currently Antifa enjoy the silence on their behavior on the part of the Mainstream Media. Any coverage that makes it on the news is down played as a few bad actors among a largely ‘peaceful’ protest.

Thanks to social media and the camera phone we can see what truly goes on. We need to film Antifa doing the horrible things they do. We need to film them saying the horrible things they say. The media might be able to downplay a story but they will be forced to show a video and the average person will be able to make the choice for themselves.

If a video goes viral it will bring the violence of Antifa into the daily life of the average person and allow them to see what really happens. To do this we need to build relationships with the media as well as police departments.

We also need to build relationships with business owners who have their property damaged by Antifa, people who have been shouted down and no platformed by Antifa and Progressives and community leaders who want to see an end to their violence.

Never Apologize to a Mob

By considering all these factors we’ll be able to end the violence of Antifa. If we continue to show up and peacefully share ideas we will win. If they attack us for doing so, we will win because they clearly have no argument against us.

We need to understand both our ideas and their ideas. This will allow us to push back against their narrative more effectively. Take some time to read or listen to those in the conversation of ideas.

We need to press those in politics to clearly come out for or against Antifa. Most will try to waffle or deflect, keep asking questions, showing up to town halls and never be afraid to state what you believe as long as you do it respectfully and calmly.

Forge relationships with business owners who have been damaged by Antifa or have suffered thanks to the outrage mob. In their quest for ideological purity Antifa will push people away who do not live up to their ideals of perfection. While you might not agree with some of these people on several issues we can come together under the shared goal of doing something about the violence of Antifa.

The culture war will not be fought on one front but on many and we need to be ready to engage in all of them. Do not damage the cause of liberty and freedom by acting in a silly way because you want to own or burn progressives. It might be funny at the moment to get them mad but remember the mainstream media is more than ready to take your actions and apply them to the whole group.

Only do what you know to be right and would be proud to do. Never apologize to the mob for doing what you believe is right, they will only see it as an admission of guilt. They know no forgiveness and will turn the apology into a weapon.

Antifa is a problem, they lie, commit acts of violence, and are willing to destroy your life if you disagree with them. We can beat them but only by being better than they are. We must remember the quote by Nietzsche “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster…when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”

Thank you for the read and I hope these ideas are a start down the road to ending this time of chaos.

A Professor Against Political Correctness

I first encountered Jordan Peterson on a YouTube video when he was part of a Free Speech event on the University of Toronto Campus. At this event protesters called him all sort of names, they unplugged the sound system and created so much white noise so that the speakers could not talk.

I had seen this type of event happen before, but this time something seemed different. I slowly realized that the things Professor Peterson was saying were articulate and well thought out versions of what I had in my mind.

I had to know more about this person. Thanks to the power of the internet I was able to find hours of video on YouTube. The first ones I arrived at were his videos against Bill C-16 that was being discussed in the Canadian Parliament.

Bill C-16

Professor Peterson made three videos where he addressed his issues with this piece of legislation. The series is called Professor against Political Correctness (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). In these videos he talks about the law itself as well as the doctrine and ideas behind the law and those who are pushing for it.

Little did Professor Peterson know that his three videos on an obscure piece of Canadian legislation would attract global attention. He simply thought the law crossed a line that he would not cross, the codification of compelled speech into law.

In his videos he even says that the act of making the videos could be interpreted as illegal under the Ontario human rights commission. He was told he was overreacting at the time but the University of Toronto sent him a letter telling him that he needed to take down the videos and what he was doing was probably illegal, providing justification for his earlier fear.

This stance brought a lot of attention to Professor Peterson, not all of it positive, and started him on the road of speaking tours and a new book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.

Activist Assault

“This is like neutrally playing a speech by Hitler, or Milo Yiannopoulos.” Said Professor Nathan Rambukkana of Wilfred Laurier University.

The quote was uttered during an interrogation of teaching assistant Lindsey Shepard. She was being reprimanded for playing a video of Jordan Peterson in her university classroom. A video that was played on Canadian TV station TVO, broadcasted to the public and at the time of this writing has been seen close to 1 million times on YouTube.

Before this protesters at McMaster University tried to shut down a talk given by Jordan Peterson by making a lot of noise and using air horns to drown him out. Peterson ignored them and kept on talking, eventually moving the talk outside and giving it there.

More recently a surreal scene took place at a talk at Queens College as protestors interrupted the speech by jumping on stage. Another shouted from the audience, while protestors outside banged on windows and doors. Shouts of ‘lock them in and burn it down’(3:44) could be heard as other protesters attempted to block the door from the outside using trash cans. One protestor, who broke a window, was arrested carrying a garrote.

Along with these protests numerous smears have been made against Peterson in the media. He has been called alt-right, a homophobe, and transphobe to name a few, despite identifying as an English Liberal.

The personification of this assault can best be seen in an interview Peterson did with Cathy Newman on England’s Channel 4. One thing that becomes clear in that interview is that the strawman built up of who Peterson is does not hold up to reality.

Sorting it Out

With all the bad press and protests how do you figure out what Peterson is actually about? Go to the source. He has hundreds of hours of videos on YouTube, from college lectures to personal videos recorded in his home.

You could read his books, Maps of Meaning and 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos or check out his public speaking events.

Jordan Peterson is known to give advice such as ‘clean your room’ imploring people to physically clean their room and in doing so taking control of a small part of their world. Setting it in order so that it is clean, functional, and beautiful. It is a call to set your own life in order before you try to criticize or change the world.

Rule 4 from 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos is ‘Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.’ A call to do something no matter how small to make yourself slightly better than you were the day before. Imagine how much better you would be after a month of doing that every day.

So why has Peterson garnered so much attention? For those who are interested in his ideas he offering them a message of personal responsibility and individuality. For those how see him as alt-right (he is not by the way) they fall into a few different camps. Those who have only heard about him as a transphobe second hand and believe it without checking him out for themselves and those who see him as a threat to their ideological and cultural hegemony.

Yet do not take my word for it, I encourage you to look for yourself. If you are interested in hearing it straight from Jordan Peterson, he has a speaking event at the Keller Auditorium in Portland Oregon on June 25. There will also be a book club conversation about his book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos in Beaverton Oregon on June 23^rd.

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.

Media Conspiracy or Out of Control Group Think?

The above video is of an interview that was uploaded to YouTube on January 16^th 2018. Cathy Newman, a Channel 4 News reporter, interviewed Jordan Peterson, a professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, who has attracted a massive following by telling people to ‘clean up their room’ and ‘tell the truth.’

After this interview was posted it immediately went viral, the original YouTube video has been viewed 2,900,851 times with 114,597 up votes and 2,417 down votes and 55,324 comments at the time of this writing.

Shortly after this interview, claims were made by Channel 4 that ‘threats’ have been made against Newman and that they were bringing in additional security. It was at this time that the media smear machine went to work, attempting to paint Peterson, through the actions of his ‘followers’ as a sexist, misogynist ‘alt-right’ bigot.

These media outlets are attempting to use character assassination in order to attempt to salvage their narrative, even if they have to mislead to do so.

The Threats

According to Ben de Pear, the editor of Channel 4 News, Cathy Newman has been on the receiving end of “vicious misogynistic abuse, nastiness, and threat” and that it is “[A] terrible indictment of the times we live in.”

According to the Independent, security experts have been hired by Channel 4 and they are considering police involvement.

When asked for proof of these threats very little is forth coming. According to The Daily Mail the ‘abuse’ included comments such as ‘RIP Cathy Newman’ and ‘Cathy Newman we know where you live.’

That last statement seem ominous to be sure, but no screen shots or images are provided as proof. They go on to say that more than 500 postings have been made calling Newman a bitch. The Daily Mail also claims that Newman’s 13-year-old daughter found a pornographic mock-up on Instagram of her mother with Dr. Peterson.

They go on to claim that Peterson’s “admirers” attacked Newman by describing her in a comment as the “Low IQ Left Establishment” and saying that she should be “ashamed of such a catastrophic interview.”

The Daily Mail continues saying that critical comments were expected but the death threats have caused serious alarm. Yet they do not provide any examples of these death threats. No quote is mentioned nor a screen shot shared.

The Threats seem to amount to people saying mean things to her on the internet.

The Headlines

These are some of the headlines describing this story. Clearly they are misleading, either for ideological reasons or for clicks.

The Independent says that the abuse was misogynistic and that it is all just a backlash against the #MeToo movement.

 

The Daily Mail calls the interview a ‘row’ and calls Peterson an ‘anti-feminist.’ The interview was tough and could be called a row for embellishment but to label Peterson as an anti-feminist is just wrong and has zero evidence to back it up.

The Sun also calls it a ‘row’ and calls Peterson a ‘controversial academic.’ He covered what makes him controversial in the interview.

Huffington Post states that Newman is threatened after the interview. It is miss leading because it is unclear what kind of threats are made, who is making them, and proof that the threats have actually been made.

The headline does not say allegations of threats, rather they just state it as fact.

The Guardian defends Peterson.

 

The Star simply reports that security has been bolstered.

 

One article analyzes the ‘abuse’ and finds it lack luster and worst against Peterson and his supporters.

 

The Mirror says that Peterson didn’t agree that the gender pay gap is unfair. This is very misleading because what Peterson took issue with was the degree to which sexism determines the pay gap as opposed to other factors such as women’s own interest.

Add Mirror:

 

The Copy and Paste Job

While reading these articles and writing my own I noticed a pattern. A few of the articles used the same phrases and I am not talking about using the same quotes.

Several articles call Peterson a Controversial Psychologist or Professor (The Star, Huffington Post, The Mirror). I first thought that they were just writing along similar lines because they were all writing about the same story.

That is until I came across this line from The Star “Peterson is best known for refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns for transgender and non-binary people who request them.”

This line jumped out at me because it is misleading and untrue. I also had a suspicion that is had heard it somewhere else. A quick check of my notes showed that I had written down this quote from a Huffington Post article.

Not a similar quote, the exact same quote. I pulled the article back up and started rereading side by side with The Star article. They were the exact same. Not similar but word for word the exact same (below are screen shots of the text from each article side by side).

I do not know if this is just lazy journalism, two media outlets sharing the same article or a collaborative effort by two media companies to push the same narrative. Something tells me it is a bit of all three.

History Repeats

This is not the first time we have seem media outlets all run the same story from the same perspective, pushing toward the same goal with little or no regard for facts or evidence. We have seen this with President Trump over and over again.

It is also not the first time we have seen the Progressive’s push a narrative in an attempt to further their ideology that turns out to be a lie. The recent hijab cutting in Canada that elicited a response from their Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turned out to be a hoax just to name one.

This time they were pushing to smear Jordan Peterson because of his sound defeat of their ‘social justice’ view of the world, which divides everyone into victims or oppressors. They want to distract from one of the big truths revealed in this interview. That Freedom of Speech is a right and should be protected and the ‘right’ to not be offended is nothing more than a thin excuse for authoritarian control and censorship.