A pro-free speech rally is planned for London today. This is an issue that should transcend ordinary political differences.
Category Archives: Culture Wars/Current Controversies
EXCLUSIVE: RT speaks to Milo Yiannopoulos ahead of Day For Freedom rally Reply
RT UK speaks to author, commentator and self-proclaimed ‘provocateur’ Milo Yiannopoulos ahead of Sunday’s #DayForFreedom rally in London, where many are expected to protest in defence of free speech. Other controverisal figures, such as: Tommy Robinson, Lauren Southern, Gavin McInnes, Count Dankula & more, will be speaking at the event.
Romney praises Trump’s first year in office: It’s similar to things ‘I’d have done’ 1
Another former Never Trumper admits Trump turned out to be just another moderate Republican/neocon stooge, as all presidents ultimately do if they want to remain alive, out of jail, and employable when they leave office.
By John Bowden
MSN.Com
Former GOP presidential nominee and current Senate candidate Mitt Romney praised President Trump’s first year in office on Tuesday, saying it was similar to what the first year of a Romney administration would look like.
In response to a question from a voter in Utah, Romney seemed to indicate that he largely approved of the policies pursued by the Trump administration during Trump’s first year in the White House, calling it “better than expected,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“His first year is very similar to things I’d have done my first year,” Romney said. “The things he’s actually done have been better than I expected.”
Mar 7, 2018 Special Interview Noam Chomsky Reply
Chomsky on Trump.
FOSTA and the Federal Seizure of Backpage.com Reply
The state always needs a moral panic to justify the expansion of its own power. Gay rights are now mainstream, marijuana legalization is moving rapidly, sanctuary cities are resisting immigration enforcement, skepticism of the drug war is growing, support for criminal justice reform is expanding, and protests against police brutality are now common. In other words, the state is losing many of its tools for self-expansion. This is one reason why political correctness is increasingly becoming incorporated into the state’s ideological framework, and why we are likely to see “traditional” cultural groups (i.e. gun owners, religious traditionalists, conservative whites, etc). becoming increasingly under attack in the future. However, the Red Tribe continues to be a major player in US politics, and currently controls all three branches of the federal government, plus a majority of state governments, even if the Red Tribe is losing ground and does not reflect majority opinion per se. Therefore, the state needs yet another target. Just in the nick of time, here comes hysteria over sex trafficking. Sex trafficking hysteria is becoming the new war on drugs, with the predictable bipartisan enthusiasm in the mainstream, and acquiescence on the part of much of the Left, as there was with the war on drugs. In the future, there will be a sex workers rights movement similar to the gay rights and marijuana legalization movements.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown
Cato Institute
Fentanyl, Mandatory Minimums and the Death Penalty: Trump’s War on Drugs Reply
This would seem to go against the general trend toward marijuana legalization, skepticism of the “war on drugs” and support for “criminal justice reform” generally. It’s also interesting how after 50 years of the “war on drugs,” there are now more drugs, more powerful drugs, and more drug overdoses than ever before. In the future, the Trump era will probably be regarded as Reagan-era “conservatism”‘s last stand.
By Matt Laslo
Rolling Stone
Don’t let all the chaos and scandals of the Trump administration distract you from one of their most stunning successes: They’ve utterly changed the conversation in Washington when it comes to drug crimes. While a few prominent voices on Capitol Hill continue to call for doing away with mandatory minimum prison sentences, there’s a new bill being pushed by top Trump allies inside the Capitol to actually extend mandatory minimums to more fentanyl dealers and to eventually even apply the death penalty in some cases.
“It’s not just that it’s so potent, but it’s also that it’s so concentrated. So, it poses a unique risk in the way that other drugs do not,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) told reporters when he unveiled his bill at the Capitol.
Young People Are Shifting Left on Abortion Reply
Abortion is the issue on which there is probably the most common agreement among social conservatives. There is probably no issue which social conservatives appear to be winning over the long run, and yet liberal and left opinion continues to act as though social conservatives are a dire threat to civilization as if the last 50 years had never happened.
By Elizabeth Nolan Brown
Reason
A new poll suggests that young Americans are becoming more liberal about abortion as they age. According to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), a quarter of 18- to 29-year-olds say they have become more supportive of abortion rights in recent years; only nine percent have become less supportive.
This stands in contrast to baby boomers and older Americans. Among respondents age 65 and up, only six percent tell PRRI they’ve recently become more supportive of abortion access; 12 percent are more opposed. “The relative stability of attitudes in the general public towards the legality and availability of abortion over the past few years has masked a growing polarization of opinion between younger and older Americans,” says PRRI CEO Robert P. Jones in a press release.
The 18- to 29-year-olds surveyed (a mix of younger millennials and elder Gen Z) were also significantly more likely than their oldest counterparts to agree that at least some health care providers in their community should provide abortions: 69 percent versus 46 percent.
Who Is Candace Owens? 7 Things To Know About Kanye’s Fave And The Next ‘Tomi Lahren’ Reply
By Rebekah Kuschmider
YourTango.Com
Who is Candace Owens and why is Yeezy tweeting about her?
Who is Candace Owens? If you’d never heard of Candace Owens before yesterday you’re not alone. The conservative commentator who’s been called the ‘next Tomi Lahren’ and YouTube star was working her way up the media ladder slowly until she got a huge social media boost — from Kanye West.
The hip-hop star and Kardashian spouse busted Owens’ world wide open when he tweeted:
When Conservatives Become Outcasts Reply
The Southern Poverty Law Center now attacks religious conservatives and mainstream political conservatives in the same way it attacks white supremacist organizations. The further leftward the wider society, government and culture drift, the more people and groups with “conservative” values will be on the receiving end of such attacks. It will be interesting to see if these groups retain their traditional patriotism the more they are regarded as outcasts, or whether they will (hopefully) embrace “anti-Americanism.”
By Carol Swain
First Things
Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and pro-family organizations have a common adversary, one that is virulent and relentless. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a powerful progressive advocacy group that says its primary mission is to fight hatred, teach tolerance, and seek justice. Despite its noble beginnings in the years following the civil rights movement, during which it fought white supremacist groups resisting social change and the rule of law, the SPLC now works to advance the agenda of the cultural left. Ironically, given the deeply Christian character of the civil rights movement, the SPLC now equates traditional Christian and pro-family organizations with hate groups such as the Aryan Nations, the Ku Klux Klan, and neo-Nazis. What makes these religious groups an SPLC target? A shared biblical worldview that condemns homosexuality and transgenderism.
The Ugly Coded Critique of Chick-Fil-A’s Christianity Reply
Liberal and left hysteria over “Chick-Fil-A” coming to town is reminiscent of the way the religious right would react to the opening of an adult bookstore or a gay bar back in the day. This article also makes an interesting point about demographics.
By Stephen Carter
Bloomberg.Com
The New Yorker has been taking it on the chin lately for its essay about Chick-fil-A’s “infiltration” of New York City. Although most of the piece is about the evils of fast food and the chain’s ubiquitous “Eat Mor Chikin” advertising campaign, the essay has been excoriated for its anti-Christian tone. “The brand’s arrival here feels like an infiltration, in no small part because of its pervasive Christian traditionalism,” we’re told. Not just that: “Its headquarters, in Atlanta, are adorned with Bible verses and a statue of Jesus washing a disciple’s feet. Its stores close on Sundays.” And lest we forget: “The restaurant’s corporate purpose still begins with the words ‘to glorify God.’”
What the author really seems angry about is that the company’s CEO opposes same-sex marriage. But the framing of the piece made Christianity the villain, and the headline — “Chick-fil-A’s Creepy Infiltration of New York City” — was sufficiently troubling that Nate Silver quickly tweeted “This is why Trump won.” Fair point. Religious bigotry is always dangerous. But there’s a deeper problem here, a difficulty endemic to today’s secular left: an all-too-frequent weird refusal to acknowledge the demographics of Christianity. When you mock Christians, you’re not mocking who you think you are.
The Great Lesson of California in America’s New Civil War Reply
I agree with the author of this article that there’s likely no compromise in the Red/Blue tribal civil war, and that it will likely the Blue tribe that wins with the US increasingly becoming a one-party state under the Democrats. Although I don’t share his optimism about the outcome of all that given that his preferred model, California, is developing a Third World class system (see Joel Kotkin here and here).
By Peter Leyden and Ruy Teixeira
Medium
he next time you call for bipartisan cooperation in America and long for Republicans and Democrats to work side by side, stop it. Remember the great lesson of California, the harbinger of America’s political future, and realize that today such bipartisan cooperation simply can’t get done.
In this current period of American politics, at this juncture in our history, there’s no way that a bipartisan path provides the way forward. The way forward is on the path California blazed about 15 years ago.
In the early 2000s, California faced a similar situation to the one America faces today. Its state politics were severely polarized, and state government was largely paralyzed. The Republican Party was trapped in the brain-dead orthodoxies of an ideology stuck in the past. The party was controlled by zealous activists and corrupt special interests who refused to face up to the reality of the new century. It was a party that refused to work with the Democrats in good faith or compromise in any way.
The solution for the people of California was to reconfigure the political landscape and shift a supermajority of citizens — and by extension their elected officials — under the Democratic Party’s big tent. The natural continuum of more progressive to more moderate solutions then got worked out within the context of the only remaining functioning party. The California Democrats actually cared about average citizens, embraced the inevitable diversity of 21st-century society, weren’t afraid of real innovation, and were ready to start solving the many challenges of our time, including climate change.
This Revolution Is Non-Ideological 2
Absolutely correct. Ultimately, the battle is not between East and West, which merely represent different wings of the international elite. Nor it is about Democrats and Republicans, which merely represent different wings of the domestic elite. Nor is it about the “far left” or the “far right,” both of which are merely ruling classes in waiting.
By Caitlin Johnstone
Steemit
I don’t write about socialism much. I’ve been a socialist my entire life and always vote as far left as the ballot will let me go, and that worldview certainly informs the way I think and write about the world issues I tend to focus on. But I don’t write much about socialism itself, or any other ideology for that matter.
This is because the revolution that I am always pointing to here is necessarily non-ideological in nature.
Sex ads website Backpage shut down by U.S. authorities Reply
It is interesting how the state always seeks to capitalize on whatever moral panics are going on at the present time. The biggest moral panics at present are arguably illegal immigration (for the Red Tribe), guns (for the Blue Tribe), opioids and “sex trafficking” (for both tribes). Immigrants are generally included under the umbrella of the Blue Tribe, and gun owners under the umbrella of the Red Tribe, and therefore have certain shields available. But drug users (except pot heads) and sex workers are not included in either tribe and therefore among the most easy targets for the state.
By Sarah N. Lynch, Lisa Lambert
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. law enforcement agencies have seized the sex marketplace website Backpage.com as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to a posting on the Backpage website on Friday.
A New Study Shows How American Polarization is Driven by a Team Sports Mentality, Not by Disagreement on Issues Reply
Glad to see someone actually notices this.
By Zaid Jilani
The Intercept
n 2004, then-Senator Barack Obama wowed the country with an address at the Democratic National Convention designed to unite the country and tear down partisan divides.
“Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes,” he said. “Well, I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America.”
He talked about how in so-called blue states they “worship an awesome God” and about how people have gay friends in red states. “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America,” he said to thunderous applause.
What Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You About NATO’s StratCom Reply
This includes an audio clip of an interview with yours truly.
Sputnik News
The Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, or StratCom, was established in 2014 as a response to Western governments’ concerns over supposed Russian propaganda in Eastern Europe. The center insists that it is countering Moscow’s alleged disinformation campaign, but is that really the case?
Is Tribalism Really on the Rise? Meh. 5
The rise of the Meh Tribe?
By Heather Wilhelm
National Review
Fury and finger-pointing are all the rage on social media. Plenty of Americans just shrug.
‘By now we all understand that America is in the grip of political tribalism,” Yale professor Amy Chua wrote in the February 22 New York Times. “We lament and condemn this phenomenon even as we voraciously engage in it.”
It’s a familiar refrain, is it not? Chua’s widely discussed new book on the topic, Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations, has been praised as “timely,” “spot-on,” “brilliant,” and “insightful.” (The author’s earlier launch to fame was a bit more divisive: In 2011’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, she detailed her unorthodox method of perfectionist parenting, including the crazed and principled rejection of a crookedly folded, happy-face-strewn birthday card made by her four-year-old daughter.)
When the Left Was Still Worth Something 3
How the hell did the U.S. Left go from this to crying about microaggressions?
1968
2018
Democrats Should Blame Themselves, Not the Russians, for Trump’s Election: Keith Preston Interviewed by C-Realm Radio 1
A C-Realm listener commented that some of “the denizens of various C-Realm-adjacent parts of cyberspace” aren’t much impressed with the narrative that Russian interference in the 2016 election put Donald Trump in the White House. KMO isn’t remotely impressed by this narrative, nor is this week’s guest, Keith Preston of Attack the System. By fixating on the notion that Clinton would have won had it not been for those meddling Rooskies, DNC partisans remain blind to the fact that their party has very little to offer the people on the losing end of wealth and class polarization. Later, KMO explains why he is making a deliberate effort to disengage from the madness that is Facebook.
The Bankruptcy of the American Left 2
Kudos to Chris Hedges. This is as good an analysis as I would ever expect from someone on the Left. This is a fairly straightforward Marxist analysis within a social democratic ideological framework. But he knows who the real enemy is.
By Chris Hedges
Truthdig
The Alt-Right is Gay 5
Gay.
One thing about European New Right philosophy that I think is right is that America is a completely separate culture and civilization from Europe even if it is a derivitive in many ways. Interestingly, North American New Righters try to be more European culturally and intellectually even if many of them are Americans by birth and citizenship. That said, as the demographic change continues and whites become just another minority I don’t see how white nationalists will not become even weirder to most Americans or not be a right wing version of the creepy cross dressing homo plastic surgery freaks of leftist identity politics groups with their own bizarre subcultures and idiosyncracies. I am just not convinced that a high brow, intellectual, racialist counter culture is going to achieve intellectual hegemony in US cultural institutions and then trickle down from the Alternative Bourgeoisie to the white masses to forma zee Eudapean Amedikin Etno Homozexuelle State.
A Former Alt-Rightist Calls Out the Alt-Right 2
I have no way of personally verifying whether the claims made in this piece are true or not, but multiple sources from alt-right circles have said much of what is being said here is correct, with a couple of exceptions
So this is so something I’ve had mulling in my head for some time now and I just really wanted to get my thoughts out there. I feel like it would be healthier. Throwaway for obvious reasons.
I am a former white supremacist who helped organize the Charlotessville rally. My actions have destroyed the lives of countless people and lead to the death of a young woman.
I suppose I should start from the beginning so there is a little better context about my involvement. My beginnings as a white supremacist began a few years back when I first stumbled upon a podcast called “The Daily Shoah”. For those who don’t know, this is probobly the largest alt-right podcast out there, run by Mike Penovich and Jesse Dunstan (better known as Mike Enoch and Seventh Son) of “therightstuff.biz”. At first, I didn’t even take what was being said to heart. It was mostly just dark entertainment, but after having their words filling my ears for hours at a time every week, I began to actually take what they were saying to heart. I think when a lot of people imagine what turns people into white supremacist, they think of a middle aged bike gang member bruning crosses, but I was just a young college student who thought the N word was funny. It took a few weeks, but I soon internalized their arguments.
When Will Trump Supporters in The Freedom Movement Realize They Were Duped? 3
By Derrick Broze
The Activist Post
What will it take for Trump supporters to admit they were duped like Obama supporters before them?
One of the most surprising (and disappointing) effects of the Trump presidency has been the shift of certain “independent” and ” alternative” media outlets from truth seekers to establishment supporters.
We have seen several once great outlets become part of the divide and conquer put forth by the powers-that-wish-they-were. It’s been one year of the Trump administration and I think it’s quite clear that any perceived benefits are vastly outweighed by the negative actions of the administration. Some indy and alt outlets saw that Trump was a deceiver from the get go, but others somehow fell prey to the deception. Some have since abandoned the Trump train, picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and rejoined the fight for liberty.
Now, of course, there are the diehards who will inevitably stick with Trump through his entire presidential career no matter what policy he takes, even when in contradiction with not only his own words, but with the principles previously espoused by these die hard followers. Just as with Obama (and Bush, Clinton, etc. before him) some of the supporters have such a level of cognitive dissonance that they are literally incapable of having a rational discussion without a flood of emotion and panic which shuts down all reason and critical thinking. It’s best to walk away when you recognize this stage.
However, if you are a Trump supporter and you’re still reading this, I’d like to offer four pieces of evidence showing where Trump has displayed authoritarian behavior. Let me preface this by stating that attempts at defending Trump by claiming “he is only carrying on what Obama did”, or, “it’s not his fault”, etc. will be dismissed outright. However, if you have something substantial – a legitimate reason you can put forth for supporting him – I will consider it. I won’t support him by any means (he needs some serious help), but perhaps I’ll have a more full understanding of my fellow human. So here you go…
The Border is turning into a Surveillance and Police State
Under the guise of “border security” and “fighting illegal immigration” the Trump administration has granted the Customs and Border Patrol and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement wide ranging powers which violate constitutionally guaranteed protections (and rights that all people should have). The expansion is not about catching illegal immigrants, but establishing a “biometric wall” with facial and retinal scanning for ALL people leaving and entering, armed surveillance towers, automatic license plate readers, and other forms of surveillance.
