…what struck me the most about President Trump’s speech in Warsaw. The fact that it was an excellent speech – presidential, inspirational – but that showed he’s got an interest in Making Western Civilization Great Again…
…or the fact that Big Left found a way to poo-poo the value of Western Civilization:
In his speech in Poland on Thursday, Donald Trump referred 10 times to “the West” and five times to “our civilization.” His white nationalist supporters will understand exactly what he means. It’s important that other Americans do, too.
… The West is a racial and religious term. To be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white.
And here we go.
Yep. The society that first recognized the value of the individual, that figured rights were endowed to us by our creator and not government, that decided every government rules by consent of the governed, happened to be caucasoid and Christian; elements of western history and Christian faith make both amendable to those ideas.
What do critics like Peter Beinart want? To make Western civilization more like all those non-western, non-Christian civilizations?
Have the left learned nothing?
“Have the left learned nothing?”
No, it hasn’t.
If your idea of what is good and what is bad is not based on what has happened, what is it based on?
We know the answer. Good and bad become statements about power.
From the linked article:
“The West is a racial and religious term. To be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white.”
This is an accurate description of how the reprobate, racist left defines “the West”, but it’s not accurate when logic and thought are applied.
The West describes a package of traditions, morals, intellect, risk taking, ambition and ingenuity.
The computer that slag used to write his screed and the electricity that powers it are products of the West. The engineering that went into designing the skyscraper he sat in while writing it, the car, train, helicopter or bicycle that brought him there…yup, Western.
The fact that most of the world’s progress has come from Caucasians is a fact. But its a fact that racist lefties cannot reconcile with their hypocritical, passive aggressive sense of superiority.
There are plenty if examples of brown, yellow and black people making conteibutions to the progress of the human race…but they were employing the logical problem solving and drive that is completely missing from Eastern history.
Japan is an archetype for the East. But they became a truly important player only after they embraced Western culture and science. Same for India and China. Any attempt to obfuscate or deny that fact is symptomatic of liberal mental disease.
West is the best. End of story.
The West was also at the forefront of resisting and ultimately ending slavery, based on the ideal hat ALL men, regardless of creed or color, were equal and important.
No, they know what they’re doing. If they allow the example of a Western government to be considered, their dream of imposing a “soci@list workers paradise” on the proletariat will fail because such a workers paradise inevitably fails. The only way for the Left to gain and maintain power is to denigrate Western civilization.
Alt-Good Swiftee on July 10, 2017 at 11:37 am said:
From the linked article:
“The West is a racial and religious term. To be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white.”
This is an accurate description of how the reprobate, racist left defines “the West”, but it’s not accurate when logic and thought are applied.
Russia is part of the West, now?
All of Islam and what we think of the East — basically Asia and the Indonesian Archipelago — are products of the West. Mao was a Marxist, and Marx was a European philosopher working in the European tradition of his times. Marx’s language of philosophy is very central European (as opposed to British or Mediterranean).
All modern nations, all over the world, adopt the Western idea of the purpose of government or pay it lip service (government exists for the people, not the other way around).
What Beinart and his Lefty pals don’t like is that the Western ideas that much of the world has adopted are not the Western ideas he likes. He wants furriners to be inspired by European socialists, not American capitalists. He recognizes no national legitimate rule that rejects feminism and homosexuality, for example. Those nations must be brought to the heel of current Western values.
The one key contribution to society by the Chinese was gunpowder. Not sure whether or not it was so good of a contribution. After that, they stole all of their technological advancements.
Boss; what about pasta?
I am reminded of a seminar I went to where the speaker noted the tremendous compatibility of western science with Christianity, and the university “helpfully” provided someone to “respond”, but the best response he could come up with was “well, other worldviews have contributed as well”, but without evidence. It was as if he hadn’t even bothered to read anything by the speaker to understand what he was saying.
The left doesn’t change, really.
The despicable West – the place where all those refugees are trying to get to.
There are many Western ideals that Beinart believes are universal, and good, and self-evident, but are none of these. Rule of Law. Equality of law and equality of dignity of all persons, for example. While there have always been groups that existed to help the unfortunate, these groups were specific to members of a caste, or trade, or nation, or religion. That is what makes the Bible tale of the Good Samaritan so remarkable.
Mitch–I have evolved way to the left of you over the years (I live in WalkerWorld, if you recall, and that did it)–but after all this time I still read your blog. And let me say–when you’re right, you’re right.. No pun intended.
That is all.
The real question is whether the US and the West has the will to survive Trump.
DJIA: 21,408.52
People with money are betting on Trump and the GOP.
The disaster never actually seems to arrive. This is what is called “hysteria.”
1. Read 8th graders social studies report on history of Poland.
2. Make a few vague threats and promises.
3. Remember to say those things about NATO this time.
4. Wrap it up with the speech from the movie “Independence Day”.
5. Scout places for a new golf course.
5. Scout places for a new golf course.
For a jew-hating troll and a threadjacker, you share have hutzpah for bringing this up in light of your beloved golfer-in-chief messiah.
Putin and Trump tend to run parallel courses here. If the Kremlin denies something, then it is almost always true. If Trump claims something, it is almost always false. If Trump and Putin were the stock market, I would be filthy rich by now.
Emery, it’s probably closer to the truth to say that the Washington Post and other “fact-checkers” will consistently declare what Trump says to be false. Having looked at a few of the cases, there is a disturbing tendency on their part to redefine the question, and then declare Trump’s answer to a question not posed was false.
I give the Post and others five Pinocchios for this habit of theirs.
Your comments remain indistinguishable from anti-Trump hatred and hysteria, Emery.
I invite you to show me how they differ. You are mind-reading a person you have never met (your 5:46). You have consistently been incorrect about Trump and incorrect about the media reports on Trump. You give the media “pros” far too much credit. The MSM has been demonstrably wrong about virtually every major policy issue in the last half-century. This alone is reason to discount the claims it makes about Trump (or Obama. Or Bush I & II, or Clinton. Or Reagan).
Woolly: Your comments remain indistinguishable from the anti-Obama hatred and hysteria that exists on this blog. There, fixed for you.
Re: DJIA: 21,408.52
I’ve long assumed consumer confidence surveys are basically reflexive: responses to confidence surveys are mostly based on what people read in the newspaper and watch on television. The results of the confidence surveys then drive media coverage, which drives the surveys etc.
The more interesting aspect here is the likely partisanship. Trump-leaning groups are now more confident because their candidate won the White House. Trump-opposing groups are now less confident because their candidate lost.
The same is probably true of business confidence surveys: responses correlate closely with whether the respondent is pro or anti-Trump (and the same thing would have been true in the case of a Clinton victory).
If that’s the case, general confidence surveys probably have limited predictive power.
As an aside, my Vanguard Emerging Markets Fund (EAFE index) is up 13.95% ytd. My Vanguard S&P 500 Fundis up 9.6% ytd and my Vanguard DWCPF Index Fund is up 6.93% ytd.
Trump claims it’s all a “bubble”.
Your comments remain indistinguishable from the anti-Obama hatred and hysteria that exists on this blog. There, fixed for you.
One example of my “Obama hatred”, please. I have no emotional reaction to the man whatsoever. He was the elected president. Most of my criticism of Obama has been criticism of the fawning, useless press coverage of Obama and his policies.
Emery, you need to avoid a scenario common in both the humanities and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the sciences.
This scenario is that, when the data agree with you, you pronounce the conclusion is known. When the data do not agree with you, you say we need more data.
The problem with this scenario is that it leads to a non-falsifiable conclusion.
“The data show that raising the minimum wage depresses low-wage employment. We need more data to reach a conclusion.”
“The data show that raising the minimum wage has a neutral or positive effect on low wage employment. The economic science is settled, disagree and you are a crank.”
Your 12:10 was really sarcastic and a fairly gratuitous put-down. Be careful of that. Be the person you wish the rest of the world would be.
Yeah, try to deflect with “Obama-hatred” to make it less obvious that you are fixated on hating Trump far beyond the ammunition that he graciously supplies you.
Sorry, Emery Incognito, but the drama queen-like “the will to survive Trump” kind of gave it away at the start.
Please read my comment before composing a rambling rant in reply. Try to stay on point. Otherwise you just look foolish.
I am not sure who you are replying to in your 5:06, Emery.
I am a conservative, not a Republican. I did not vote for Trump.
I agree with the late, great Richard Feynman. Knowing a thing for certain is very, very difficult. It takes a lot of work. There is always a temptation to say that you know a thing is true when you really want to confirm your biases, or are too lazy to do the work to prove a thing is true (I am paraphrasing).
That reply was directed to Chupacabra
I quite often write a snarky reply to somebody (on this site ), but I try to ask myself whether this is something I will be proud of before hitting the Post button. I sometimes hit the log out button and move on instead of posting, and when I do that I feel good about myself.
Just in regard to knowing if a thing is true, today & yesterday the MSM was full of stories about Trump jr’s reported meeting with some Russian about dirt on Hillary or Hillary’s campaign.
Since most people aren’t experts on what is and what is not legal or typical behavior, to determine if this is significant you need to compare it to what has been deemed acceptable in other campaigns. Did Hillary’s campaign meet with foreign interests (or interests within the US government government) about getting and spreading dirt on Trump? I am pretty sure it would be illegal for US government employees or officials to do this. How about historically? Has this occurred in other presidential campaigns? Until you know this, you can’t say that Trump Jr’s meeting (if it took place) was improper or unusual, let alone illegal.
None of the “news” I have read on this topic bothered to make this kind of comparison, from which I can reasonably draw the conclusion that the journalists who wrote the stories are incompetent or that their reporting is hopelessly biased. In either case, it can be ignored.
Did you really think I was replying to one comment? That’s … unfortunate.
“I try to ask myself whether this is something I will be proud of before hitting the Post button”
The bar is apparently very low.
“sometimes hit the log out button and move on instead of posting”
That might make others feel good about you as well. *shrug*
Chupacabra: Try to be more concise, your sarcasm doesn’t improve with length.
Woolly: How ironic would it be to have the Trump era end as a result of leaked emails?
I see SFB eTASS, our self-appointed decorum monitor is on a crusade to stamp out runaway decency. Let’s see what he has to say about Natalia’s meeting with 0bumbler’s people on June 14th. Well? Waiting? Anything? Bueler? What a maroon…
As long as you insist to insert Obama, let’s back up a bit.
Drain the swamp starts with the first family who make the Adams Family seem like regular Joes. If Ivanka assistance was required to sit in for her low energy father at the G20, so be it. But the fracas that would have broken out if Obama had one his daughters sit in for him at a G20 meeting as though such meetings are a bring your child to work day would have been relentless — and deserved. The Trump family have no respect for the separation of powers, the rule of law, managing conflicts of interest, appropriate foreign relations and just generally acceptable behavior — they demean America every day and diminish its influence in the world. Rather the opposite of making American great again.
Look a squirrel (stock market)….
Ivanka Trump is 36 years old, not 14.
Use your f*n common sense, Emery.
Powerline is reporting that the Russian lawyer Trump jr met with was in the country illegally, and says this lawyer — along with Fusion GPS, the Trump dossier released by Obama’s intelligence services, worked together to lobby (illegally) against US sanctions on Russia: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/07/how-did-that-russian-lawyer-get-to-stay-in-the-u-s.php.
So what about that meeting of Natalia with 0bumbler handlers, eh eTASS on June 14th? The best you can come with is a non-sequitur comparison of a 36 year-old with a 14? Congratulations, you are indeed proving your SFB moniker was well chosen.
If an Obama daughter was as mature and accomplished as Ivanaka, and was a trusted adviser, I can’t think of a reason why it would be improper for her to temporarily sit in for her father at ameeting. What possible reason would anyone have for objecting to this, other than rank bigotry?
Though I admit it still irks me that Mrs. Obama somehow put herself in charge of redesigning public school students’ lunch menus when she has no expertise in nutrition, and her kids, and her peers’ kids, never attended a public school.
Thank goodness you have Clinton and Obama to harp about. Carry on…..
I demand SFB eTASS answers a question about Natalia’s meeting with 0bumbler handlers on June 14th!
Mueller digging into Kushner giving campaign voter data to Russians so they can precisely target voters in key precincts.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article160803619.html
Given the existing US policy on dealing with Russian political figures, Trump Jr should have reported this immediately to the FBI. He did not, and has – in fact – previously denied that he had any such meeting. A month later the party of his father’s opponent is hacked. It really doesn’t matter what he says was, or was not, discussed in the meeting. He has left himself open to claims that he has colluded with foreign enemy nationals. Not a bright time for US democracy or the rule of law.
There’s a repeat pattern: (1) it didn’t happen, (2) apparently it did but it doesn’t matter, (3) nobody seems to remember anything.
All are innocent until proven guilty, but either they are grossly incompetent or it’s the other thing.
Emery, let’s be honest here. Powerline has demonstrated that the Mueller investigation has filled positions significantly with good friends of Clinton, and whoever the source is here is committing multiple felonies by talking to McClatchy. Don’t ya think that maybe, just maybe, we ought to take this story with a bit of salt, especially since the pizzagate story derives not directly from Russia, but from 4chan?
Otherwise, I’m unaware of any fake stories about Hilliary that came out of wikileaks. Don’t ya think that if the Russians had really been eager to put her out to the curb, they would have done a little better than this?
If you want to demonstrate you’re not just reciting leftist talking points, you are going to need to up your game here, to put it mildly.
Regardless of the composition of Muller’s team of investigators, in the end they will have to show evidence. They might be Democrats to the core, without evidence they can’t do Trump harm.
“Regardless of the composition of Muller’s team of investigators, in the end they will have to show evidence.”
Oh, bullshit. Evidence of what?
What evidence was used to convict Scooter Libby of leaking Valerie Plame’s identity? The evidence showed that the leak came from Clayton Powell via Richard Armitage.
Your “whataboutism” makes a poor argument.
Given how far, and to where, the Trump Administration have come down this path already, it’s kind of mind-boggling to think of where it might all end up.
without evidence they can’t do Trump harm.
Bullshit. Mueller and his felonious Democrat minions can throw a monkey wrench in everything Trump’s team does with tenuously sourced demands for information and the like, for starters, and in doing so, they know they can cajole someone into saying something false like Libby did. If you don’t call that harm, get thee to a dictionary!
I see Mueller has people with expertise in: bank fraud, money laundering, Russia and forensic accounting. Seems like he’s on the right track.
Mueller’s legal team will either find evidence of malfeasance or not. They won’t be ‘making things up’…. so there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Trump’s financial records will finally get the thorough audit they deserve. Trump should have nothing to worry about unless they are involved in illegal activities.
Quite frankly, If Trump had paid one tenth as much attention to his hires as they’re paying to Mueller’s, Mueller would be doing something else entirely.
If Mueller is on the right track, Emery, please explain to me why his team is committing felonies by releasing nothingburger reports to the media. Is that now part of the way honest government is done these days, to commit felonies?
Hey, SFB, is “collusion” a crime? A felony? Simple question, which you will not answer. I guarantee you will not because the answer does not suit your talking points narrative. A non-answer to a question what Natalia was doing with 0bumbler entourage on the 14th and why she was admitted by 0bumbler DOJ to the US without a visa. You are a disingenuous threadjacker spewing talking points. Pure and simple.
Remember that Bill Clinton’s investigation began with Whitewater…..
…which was in itself a set of very real crimes for which a number of very real people did jail time, and where reputable sources indicate clearly that Hilliary worked HARD, and successfully, to hide her Rose Law Firm billing records from Ken Starr.
Contrast that with this, and I would hope that even you could see the problem.
Also of importance here is the very interesting proximity of Ms. Veselnitskaya to the Russian ambassador, and her employ by the same law firm that outed vacuous allegations against President Trump. Oh, not so interested in looking at that, are you? You’d rather use Mueller to harass Trump into inaction, it seems.
Mueller’s team is leaking like a sieve. Highly illegal leaks, BTW.
We need a special prosecutor to investigate the leaks.
The WH is leaking like a sieve. Who do you think leaked Trump Jr’s emails? Jared Kushner?
Well, since the Times didn’t tell us who their sources were, it could be any number of Obama holdovers, couldn’t it, Emery? Keep in mind that only about a quarter of Trump’s staff nominations have gone through the Senate courtesy of clowns like “Senators” Franken.
Use your head for more than a hat rack, Emery, and figure out what’s really going on. It is not subtle or surprising.