It is amazing how the received wisdom of yesterday is airbrushed away in a flash. Of course I refer to “social distancing” – not that it is going to lead to any calamity. As the co-blogger Rebel Yell has pointed out, “the fatality rate [from] the coronavirus [for] 0-49 years old: .05%”. Despite the image of a 75-year old professional protester, who is a member of “Witness Against Torture” and “Western New York Peace Center”, and was on the receiving end of an attempt by two policemen from the Democrat controlled city of Buffalo to jump-start his brain, this is primarily a young crowd of rioters. But I digress.
One cannot help but notice the parallels to the Chinese Cultural Revolution where ritual public humiliation was the order of the day. Fast forward to today and we have the following.
Yes, it is real alright. Does anybody recall the pictures of Parisian women at the end of WWII? It is hard to believe that this is entirely voluntary.
Of course NYT is never far with this advice: “Texts: To your relatives and loved ones telling them you will not be visiting them or answering phone calls until they take significant action in supporting black lives either through protest or financial contributions.”
In this agitated state none of this will be ever enough with kneeling being another example. You might as well prostrate.
When a high-ranking Los Angeles Police Department commander kneeled with protesters outside of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s house earlier this week, it appeared to be a moment of solidarity. However, many protesters and organizers say they don’t want police officers to kneel, with some calling it a “PR stunt” that doesn’t contribute to the movement.
Then there is the obligatory white-bashing.
NPR Advises Readers to ’Decolonize” Their Bookshelves by Removing White Authors
Book burning can’t be far behind. You could read about the history of Cultural Revolution and notice the parallels with one significant difference. This is all voluntary. Nobody knocked on their door in the middle of the night to coerce them to do this. It is very similar to Havel’s greengrocer, who has been cowed into submission. This perspicacious article by Goldberg from way back in 2008 provides an interesting perspective on all these tirades.
A few other headlines that make you shake your head include this from BBC.
27 police officers injured during largely peaceful anti-racism protests in London
I would love to write more on this topic but I have to run and stock up on popcorn, especially with defunding of the police, before gun toting right-wingers show up at the stores and start stockpiling it.
It is strangely reassuring that other Barrelstrengthians are chiming in at the same frequency. [For those who don’t know us, we authors at BS are not in frequent communication]. This nonsense is the result of a generation of semi-educated kids being under-employed, and where every bad idea of the political Left is dominant.
Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen. I think she is a Council Member for the city of Minneapolis.
https://twitter.com/EddieZipperer/status/1269951088964370432