The Rise of American Totalitarianism

Frontpage ^ | 4/9/2014 | Ben Shapiro

[markomalley]

Last Thursday, Mozilla, the company that’s home to the web browser Firefox, forced the resignation of CEO Brendan Eich. What, precisely, had Eich done wrong? Back in 2008, Eich had donated $1,000 to the Proposition 8 effort backing traditional marriage in California. Dating website OKCupid posted a ban on Firefox traffic, issuing a message to Firefox users instead: “Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame, and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure.” That ban reportedly prompted the action at Mozilla.

Of course, it was the people pushing for Eich’s ouster who were enforcing “misery, shame, and frustration.” Eich had never brought his politics into the workplace. Mozilla had no history of treating homosexuals differently, and no single instance of Eich doing so could be documented. Nonetheless, he had violated the dictates of the Thought Police. And thus he was ousted.

It’s a disturbing story, to be sure. But it’s also just the tip of the iceberg: Unfortunately, the same folks administering the private Thought Police would love to extend their control into the realm of government. These are not libertarians arguing for the right to hire and fire as you see fit in the private market. These are power brokers seeking to use whatever means necessary to quash opposition.

That’s why gay couples have sued photographers, bakeries and florist shops, attempting to shut them down if they refuse to cater to same-sex weddings. That’s why the Obama administration has attempted to fine businesses that do not wish to pay for health coverage they deem sinful. The underlying idea: If the left dislikes what you do, the left can compel you not to do it. As Kevin Williamson of National Review writes, American society is quickly morphing into a system governed by T.H. White’s totalitarian principle: “Everything not forbidden is compulsory.”

Freedom is secondary to the yays and nays of the governing few in this vision. Freedom is merely that which the government allows — and the government should only allow you to do the bidding of the left. If you, recognizing that sometimes people will take action with which you disagree, believe that government should stay out of people’s business, you must therefore be an advocate for discrimination and brutality. To allow Eich to work is to discriminate against gays. To allow religious businesses to reject contraceptive mandates is to push women into back alley abortions. Forget the notion of disagreeing with your opinion, but defending your right to say it — in the view of the leftist totalitarians, such a notion is inherently unworkable.

When fascism comes, it will come not with jackboots but with promises of a better world. The jackboots come later, when we’ve all been shamed into silence — when we’ve been taught that to allow that with which we disagree is to agree with it, and when we’ve accepted that the best method of preventing such disagreement is government power. We’re on the verge. All it will take is the silence of good people — people on all sides of the political aisle — who fall prey to the ultimate temptation in a republic: the temptation to force their values on others utilizing the machinery of government. We’re already more than halfway there.

[the anti-mahdi]

Not more than halfway, we are there already.

[alloysteel]

Political Correctness is one of the more evil tools in the kit every Progressive carries around. Apparently representing some high moral position, the admonitions, gentle at first, but growing ever more strident, take on the rigid righteousness of the True Believer. No argument, philosophical or on the basis of facts, can successfully be mounted that will turn aside the zealous pursuit of that immaculate goal at the end of the One True and Right Path.

Trouble is, there is only one “right path” for each individual. Attempts to impose the “right path” on others is doomed to the natural resistance everybody has to authoritarian directives that do not come square with the individual’s internal moral compass. That is, assuming there IS a moral compass of some kind.

Indoctrination of the young is the first step in either resetting the moral compass each of us is born with, or smashing it so badly as to make it unusable later on. We have all seen the effects of the broken or badly skewed moral compasses in others, and sometimes, even in ourselves. The good news is, that sometimes, these internal guidance systems can be reset or sufficiently repaired to be functional once more. But this is a game of inches, one individual at a time.

Saving of souls is hard work, complicated all the more if the souls are being subverted almost as quickly by others as they are saved by the individual illumination.

[stockpirate]

Fascism is on the rise, but wait we have a new term for it to mislead the people, “low information voter”, me I like socialist or fascist better.

[ballplayer]

Halfway? Have you.heard of Lois Lerner? Have you heard of Fast and Furious? Have you heard the Attorney General of the United States speak in testimony,you haven’t missed anything,that’s because there is an ongoing investigation on just about everything these communists are doing so you will hear nothing except the crashing of all your so called God Given rights

[EricT.]

“Everything not forbidden is compulsory.”

Hello, new tagline.

[EricT.]

Let me try this again.

[ripley]

“Not more than hafway, we are there already.”

...by way of a larger and larger part of the electorate that loves it.

IMHO

[Hostage]

> “The underlying idea: If the left dislikes what you do, the left can compel you not to do it.”

Also, if the left dislikes what you don’t do, the left can compel you to do it.

[Robert Teesdale]

Be honest.

The left will murder you and your entire family without any compulsion other than convenience.

[DaveMSmith]

In an interesting twist of karmic irony, there's an exploit on the internet... and at last check, okCupid is vulnerable (along with 46 other sites).

From the docs "We have tested some of our own services from attacker's perspective. We attacked ourselves from outside, without leaving a trace. Without using any privileged information or credentials we were able steal from ourselves the secret keys used for our X.509 certificates, user names and passwords, instant messages, emails and business critical documents and communication."

Now wouldn't it be delicious if okCupid's client data was compromised without them knowing? Things like sexual orientation and hook-ups? Time for Sam Yagan to step down, me thinks!

For more info: Heartbleed OpenSSL Bug Github site

[DaveMSmith]

Oh, the scan results are Apr 8 scan - Top 1000