I’d like to issue a hearty “welcome” to all of you “progressives” out there who, in view of Twitter’s wholesale de-platforming not only of President Trump but masses of fairly mainstream conservatives, have become zealots for property rights (private and corporate) and freedom of association.

Good for you! It’s a big step!

Now – you and your movement owe a bit of an apology to all those bakers, photographers and florists you’ve been legally harassing for the past decade.

But baby steps! You can do it!

It’s rhetorical, because Big Media never actually responds to the plebs.

But is it possible…:

…that there could be a less scientifically literate phrase than “believe in Science?”

How about “Think Critically about the data in front of us, and make an informed decision?”

Nah, that’s just more radical conservative talk.

Berg’s Eighth Law of Diversity states: “American Progressivism’s reaction to one of “their”constituents – women, gays or people of color – running for office or otherwise identifying as a conservative is indistinguishable from sociopathic disorder.”

And given the news that Trump had the highest share of the African-American vote since Richard Nixon in 1960, I’m going to suspeect that an awful lot of progs are going to be working extra-hard at gaslighting people back into compliance. Heck, it happened during the campaign, from Biden himself (“You don’t vote for me, you ain’t black, maaaaaan”), and becoming incredibly vicious when directed at actual “out” black conservatives on the retail level.

Gaslighting, by the way, is pretty much all you get from this piece on the subject in Medium (Motto: “Like Tumblr for pretenious and often narcissistic fops”).

It was hard to find a single pullquote that simultaneously encapsulated both the piece’s awfulness and its barometric nature for Big Left’s assigned role for black progressives. They all pretty much suffice.

So I cut to the conclusion (since I don’t want you all to have to try to stomach it):

And yet, the Black Republican bridge in 2020 is a bridge too far. There is too much “I” in their statements, too much “mine.” Too many personal anecdotes, too much misrepresented history presented as evidence. If you only want to go for yours, just say so. Or better, don’t say anything; people can read between the lines. Just stop citing Black survival as a reason for siding with a party that is wiping Black people off the map.

And is there a better statement to sum up all progressivism – “there is no “I” in “Unity”?

Our stereotype of the banana republic dictator is that he/she does their oppressing from above – with the military, the secret police, the “legal system” and so on.

And that’s all true – the KGB, the Gestapo, the Pasdaran, were or are all pretty effective at making life miserable, nasty, brutish and short for those who didn’t toe the authorities’ lines (and, often enough, for those who did, just to be safe).

But Americans are blessed to live in a place where, for the most part, we haven’t had to learn about how authoritarians subjugate us from “below” – by weaponizing the “underclass” against the middle.

History is chock full of examples, of whom most Americans are blissfully uneducated.

The Soviets weaponized envy against the closest thing that existed to a “middle class” in much of the USSR, the “kulaks” – which, like “counterrevolutionary”, was a fungible, malleable term that ould be expanded to include pretty much anyone those in power disdained. Sort of like “racist”, “misogynist” and “fascist” today.

The Nazi Sturmabteilung – popularly “the Brownshirts” – were a popular way for people with no particular talent or skill to fit into something, by being a thug and smacking down the opposition (and the Communists’ Rote Fahne, which lives on as “Anti”-Fa today, were the same thing for the communists).

The “Red Guards” in China certainly weaponized class envy, along with a parallel groups in Cambodia.

Former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega enlisted his “Dignity Battalions” – a “paramilitary” mass of down-and-outers and slum-dwellers who beat down opposition without a whole lot of ceremony.

Iran’s Basiji – basically a theo-political militia reporting to the Revolutionary Guards – serve much the same purpose in Iran; they are “Karen” with firearms. ]

And Venezuela’s “Bolivarian Militia of Venezuela” – basically a half-million-strong mob of thugs that bypasses the military chain of command to report to Maduro? Same exact model – a mass of characters with no particular stake in life other than upholding the regime/s that gave, or give, them any status at all.

All of them were threats looming out there, awaiting anyone who spoke up, who demonstrated, who were seen to be thinking about being a threat to the various regimes. A nervous knot in the stomach that everyone needed to keep in mind, and keep happy.

The lesson is obvious – a population that’s nervous about getting pummeled in the street, and publicly castigated out of public life by a drooling mob of (usually armed, always legally-supported) people, can’t do mundane (to Americans) things like organize, speak, oppose the regime. It ratchets the consequence curve outside the range of more and more people’s abilities to accept.

Nervous people are politically passive people.

I thought about that reading the news that Los Angeles County is decriminalizing a wide swathe of offenses:

In a new policy directive entitled “Declination Policy Directive,” Gascon has directed his subordinates not to enforce Penal Code Section 602 (trespass), Penal Code Section 415 (Disturbing the Peace), or Driving without a Valid License (Cal. Vehicle Code Section 12500).

Social justice warriors believe these are all statutes the white aristocracy uses to subjugate members of minority communities, institutionalizing racism. Resisting Arrest will also no longer be prosecuted.

Gascon will end the practice of charging minors as adults for murder and other serious crimes. He will extend victims services to the families of anyone shot by police. He will eliminate gang enhancements in criminal complaints, a practice Republicans initiated in the 1990s. He will have no cash bail, and the death penalty will no longer “be on the table.”

So – if you’re a “normal” in LA County, you have to worry about your city/county regime arbitrarily shutting down your livelihood. You have to worry about “Anti”-Fa and the cancel mob coming after your personal and professional reputation. And even without all that, you have to be concerned about the ongoing decay in your community that these sorts of policies inevitably bring.

LA County is doing de jure, by the way, what Minneapolis is doing de facto today. Watch for the student senate that runs Minneapolis to keep up with the Joneses before too terribly long.

In the world we live in, going out in public wearing a swastika will get you pretty roundly reviled. Even Finland, which has been using the swastika as a national symbol since well before the Nazis stole it, finally had to cave in and stop using them.

History will have a way of doing that.

Of course, wearing a MAGA hat might get one reviled, or physically assaulted, by the #Unity “In This House…” crowd. Like it or don’t, but that’s the way things work.

But wear a red star – a symbol associated with more death and suffering than the swastika, by a serious multiple?

Why, you get a job with the Biden campaign, that’s what.

And it’s your fault for bringing it up:

She – the incoming State Department spokesperson – is rocking genocide-wear and turning around and pleading victimhood.

Gotta say, that’s the kind of talent a Democrat PR pro needs.

That, and the knowledge that Democrat voters just don’t think that critically about things, and the in-the-bag media either doesn’t care, doesn’t know any better themselves, or bet on the other guys all along.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emailed a week or so back:

Saint Paul, Minnesota
November 20, 2020
For Immediate Release

Dictator-for-Life Walz today announced a new Executive Order intended to save Minnesotans from the deadliest virus ever known, Covid-19.

“It is well documented that Black people are more susceptible than Whites,” he said. “It stands to reason the more people who have the virus, the more people they can spread it to. We must prevent the spread of the virus which could overwhelm medical facilities and leave thousands of people to die untreated. Therefore, effective immediately, all Black people are required to present themselves to local authorities for removal to permanent and isolated Relocation Authority camps where they will be confined for the duration of the emergency.”

In response to Republican claims that such an order would somehow violate the “Constitution,” a spokesman for Attorney General Ellison stated, “Since the Governor’s order is authorized by statute and has not been overturned by the Legislature, it is presumptively valid. There is ample legal precedent for this measure provided in the Supreme Court case of Korematsu v. United States. The notion that the Governor lacks the authority to suspend people’s so-called “Constitutional rights” during the time of state-wide emergency is absurd on its face.”

Local Black Lives Matter and NAACP officials called a press conference to protest the order but were summarily arrested and have not been heard from since. It is believed they are the first Blacks to be sent to the Relocation Camps, although that rumor cannot be confirmed.

In Saint Paul, Joe Doakes, reporting.

It only seems preposterous if you haven’t been following Governor Fredo and Mayor Squiggy in New York.

Or, y’know, history in general.

…not only that Berg’s Seventh Law is universal and immutable, but that Democrat politicians can and do count on their voters being unthinking lemmings who know neither history nor critical thought.

Barack Obama:

Barack Obama – who won a Nobel Peace Prize before spending eight years making “Hellfire” a more common precipitation in the Middle East than rain, and who did more to clamp down on critical media than anyone since Woodrow Wilson – bags on Trump, who made the first serious progress on Middle East peace in decades, and who ramped down military adventurism..

…the way the increasinly Wilsonian-looking Obama promised, and failed, to do.

…when the Southern Poverty Law Center did actual useful work fighting real injustice.

Those days are at least 30 years behind us. The SPLC today is no less a lefty PR firm than Media Matters or Common Cause.

And it appears the ACLU is well down that same path.

Memory is a survival trait.

Squirrels remember where they buried the nut, so they can eat it later
to survive the winter.  Those that don’t, die.

Children remember burning their finger, so they treat fire
respectfully.  Those who don’t, burn to death.

Conservatives remember past public policy disasters, so we can avoid
repeating them.  We use monuments and books to help us remember.

Liberals remember . . . nothing.  Nothing ever happened before they were
born, except slavery, which was bad and therefore everything that
happened before they were born, is bad.  So it must all be torn down and
thrown out and replaced with something that sounds better.  And it must
be done right now, because Liberals have no patience for history lessons
or experience or hard-gained wisdom.  Why would they need any?  What
could possibly go wrong?

Half the population believes President Trump bungled the Covid response
by failing to impose a travel ban and nation-wide lock-down in January,
when Covid hit the news.  They literally cannot remember that we spent
January dealing with impeachment, or the World Health Organization
telling us Covid was nothing to worry about, or hand washing and
elbow-bumps as sensible precautions, or all the Democrat protests over
banned flights from China.  They believe 200 million Americans died of
Covid because they don’t remember differently.

Loss of memory is an anti-survival trait and half our society is eagerly
embracing it.  This does not bode well for the continued existence of
the nation.

Joe Doakes

I’m not sure it’s entirely fair to say “Progressives” (I’m not gonna continue debasing the term “liberal” – the left did enough of that) have no memory.

Orwell showed us how important controlling history – our “collective” story about ourselves – was to a would-be tyrant. This has been borne out in countless socialist and totalitarian regimes – knowing the wrong history could be a lethal error.

Having the correct memory, the one one is told to have, correctly and punctually, is a survival trait, historically (ahem) on the left.

Chicago major Lori “Walker” Lightfoot shuts down Thanksgiving, but defends going to Biden rallies.

Because science.

I think Democrat politicians count on their voters having the attention spans of ferrets on espresso:

Is there a Democrat who can think critically?

I’m not trying to ask a trick or rhetorical question…

Just a further reminder…

…for those who may need it…

…(and “those who may need it” in are pretty much invariably Democrats)…

…that when the left jabbers about “unity”, they mean “everybody who isn’t united with us shuts up”.

At the, er, very least.

The Lincoln Project is a group of ostensible “principled Republican” Never-Trumpers (which I can respect, so far)…

…who ended the cycle by going all-in for Biden (which I cannot).

But now, there’s this:

And with that, I’m gonna suggest they pick a more appropriate name.

Maybe “The Beria Project”.

(Kids, ask your history-literate parents).

Member of Biden’s “Covid Task force”, Ezekiel Emanuel, has a cutoff on quality of life:

Wondering if “Dr.” Emanuel has checked the “birth date” section of his boss’s bio…

It’s been my thesis for some time that Democrats know they can say anything they want, because they know their audience are, shall we say, not critical thinkers, and that the media and education systems will do nothing to fix that.

To wit: Democrats who called for defunding the police now say that they never called for defunding the Police, Winston.

Emphasis added by me:

“Not a single member of Congress that I’m aware of campaigned on socialism or defunding the police in this general election,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) said on CNN’s State of the Union. “These were largely slogans or they were demands from activist groups.” The congresswoman, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, added that “Republicans levied very effective rhetorical attacks against our party” by linking Democrats to the movements.

Next, to continue the narrative that “democrats didn’t call for defunding the police”, is Ilhan Omar, who called for defunding the police:

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), who called to “completely dismantle” her city’s police department this year, went further and said it was a Republican “narrative” that radical movements doomed Democrats in swing districts.

I’m fairly convinced that if Red America seceded from Blue America, within a decade the good guys would have to intervene tell the Blues not to water their crops with Brawndo.

My hypothesis: “Progressive” politicians can say anything, no matter how outlandish or false, not only because they know the media will nearly never call them on it, but – more importantly – because they know people who are susceptible to voting for them are gullible, lacking in critical thinking skills, and so poorly-informed and in curious that they’ll never know better.

Data point: Alexandria “Tide Pod Evita” Ocasio Cortez claims President “disrespected” [1] her by calling her AOC.

Experiment: Does she make “AOC” a part of her public persona?

Observation: Why yes, she does! #Unexpected

Conclusion: AOC isn’t a gullible rube. She can merely count on anyone who takes her seriously to be a gullible rube.

[1] If you use “disrespect” as a verb, I dis-hear and dis-care-for, and have no respect for, anythingi else you have to day. Disrespect is an adjective.

May 14: Ken Martin, chair of the DFL, makes a bold prediction and a really dumb statement:

Fast forward nearly a month: as of June 12, Wisconsin’s death rate per million is half that of Minnesota. Its active cases are a solid 40% lower than Minnesota’s.

And that was after Wisconsin started out “leading” Minnesota in both categories.

The problem?

I don’t suspect it’s that Ken Martin believed anything he wrote in his May 12 tweet (least of all about the useless and idiotic Steve Sack).

The problem is that Martin can count on his DFL voter base – bovine herd animals with the critical thinking skills of a Teen Vogue reader – to know the difference, or care if they can.

 rumors that violent crime and homicide have spiked in Minneapolis and St. Paul in the last year are…

… Well, pretty much a political football.

Yesterday, House Republicans started messaging on the imperative to clean up Minneapolis:

Outstate Republican legislators today unveiled a proposal to tackle urban crime, months after they first started planting political seeds about the hazards of Minnesota’s cities.

And Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey didn’t seem thrilled with the presentation.

Mayor McDreamy responded with a bit of cheap theatrics, lavishly staged for the eager cameras of the Twin Cities TV stations, as was thoroughly predictable.. I’m not going to plug his little tantrum here – read the link to article, in the “Minnesota Reformer”, which is to the 2020 is what the “Minnesota Monitor” was to the 2000s.

The “Reformer” being a bought and paid for “progressive” propaganda site, I’m sure its audience let this next bit – which I will emphasize – slide without much thought. Kind of like to do their politics. To wit:

GOP legislators — not a single one of whom represent either St. Paul or Minneapolis — made clear long before the session started that they were prepared to leverage urban crime to gain support in the suburbs…

So – if you don’t live in Minneapolis or St. Paul, you have no business talking about policy for either city.

Naturally, that isn’t going to be applied to people from the metro area imposing land-use, mining and gun control policies on the rest of the state. That’s just crazy talk.

When they left makes good on its goal of getting rid of the electoral college, they won’t even have to bother insulting people from outside the urban core.

…, despite the fact that violent crime in both cities has dropped since the early 1990s, in line with national and state trends. Reports of violent crimes reached a 28-year low in Minneapolis in 2018, and an all-time low in St. Paul in 2019, Minnesota Reformer previously reported.

So – when the subject is urban crime, the cities are safe Dash but when the subject is law abiding citizens with guns, then the streets are running red with blood?

The problem, of course, is that the Democrat base can’t be bothered with , and most cases has never learned, the sort of critical thinking that would allow them to read this sort of twaddle and think “who do these people think we are? Idiots?”

I noted the other day that “progressives” seem to have only read-only memory; once they get a point in their heads, regardless of veracity or logic, it just stays there.

It has literally gotten to the point where the politicians and pundits of Big Left don’t even bother trying to convince people with any basis in fact or critical thinking skills; their entire message is repeating Big Lies often and loudly enough to convince the invincibly ignorant and browbeat the underinformed and insecure.

The mission today: add to the list. What are the lies, one line at a time, that Big Left gets the ignorant and the authoritarian to believe?

I’ll start below – but leave more in the comments.

• “Trump’s election was illegitimate!”
• “We’ve got more ‘gun violence’ now than ever before!”
• “The ‘Republican War on Women’”
• There are 57 genders
• America is a racist nation
• America is an antisemitic nation
• America’s past is a uniquely terrible thing
• Trump supported neo-Nazis at Charlottesville
• Socialism lifts people from poverty; the free market does not
• Obamacare benefitted more people than it harmed
• Slavery in America was uniquely more terrible than slavery elsewhere
• “Nixon won because all the racists came over to the GOP, and stayed”
• “Nobody’s coming for your guns!”
• Boys and girls are identical in every way.
• “White privilege”, rather than class privilege, is a suffocating force in society. 
• “We’ve got twelve years to solve manmade global warming!”
• “Increasing public school funding directly benefits The Children!”
• Racism is in America’s very cultural DNA
• Religious faith is ignorance – it has nothing to do with meaning, merely a crutch for the intellectually vacant. 
• Blacks are more likely to be shot by police than whites
• Voter ID = “Voter Suppression”.
• The Second Amendment was intended to defend slavery 
• Rape culture dominates colleges – 1 in 5 women at colleges are raped or otherwise sexually assaulted
• Women are paid 3/4 as much as men for the same work
• “Children! In cages! It’s Trump’s fault!”
• LIfe only begins when the baby emerges from the birth canal.  
• “90% of the people want “universal” background checks on guns!”
• “Abortion is about womens’ health!”
• “Trump attacked women!”

UPDATE 12/18: Adding reader comments. 

• Trump trying to appeal to black voters is voter suppression!
• “There’s evidence that Trump has committed crimes!”
• “Impeachment is a serious inquiry into Presidential abuse of power.”
• “We must remove Trump to preserve Constitutional norms.”
• The “Scandal free Obama administration.”
• “Jimmy Carter was a good president.”
• Social spending is “an investment”
• Immigrants are a benefit to society (as a blanket statement)
• Gay marriage is all about love.  Not politics. 
• School choice hurts poor people
• Trump had sex with “Stormy Daniels.”
• Trump paid Daniels hush money, Daniels did not blackmail Trump
• There is 97% scientific consensus on global warming
• All of our problems can be solved by raising taxes on the wealthy
• That’s not who we are!
• We’re on the right side of history
• “If ________ saves the life of just one child” then some usurpation, oppression or indignity is “worth it”. 

What else? 

Please respond in the comments.   

Responses that are not direct answers to the question – i.e. Democrat chanting points – will be removed.