Posted on 04/21/2014 4:32:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
Honest liberals are having their Andrew Breitbart moment. Andrew started out as a liberal, except he was the kind of liberal thats exceedingly rare today. He was a liberal who actually believed in the things liberals say they believe in, like free expression and personal autonomy.
But they dont.
Andrews change began when he watched the Clarence Thomas hearings. He saw a high-tech lynching, as racist Democrats intent on stamping out dissent among black Americans channeled their former Majority Leader/KKK Exalted Cyclops Robert Byrd in attacking the black jurist for refusing to toe the liberal line.
Andrewss views didn't change. What changed was his understanding of who actually stands for freedom. And it isnt liberals.
Which brings us to the recent kerfuffle involving popular comic Patton Oswalt. He is known as a sarcastic, snarky, underdog with genuine stand-up chops. Hes also an occasional movie and television star who recently had a memorable role on Justified, a conservative favorite due to its general awesomeness and the presence of right wing acting legend Nick Searcy.
By all accounts a funny, decent guy, Oswalt thinks of himself as a liberal, and he frequently bickers with conservatives on Twitter. That's fine. Many conservatives died to give him that right. Conservatives don't resent him for doing so even as they disagree with what he says. But that's not true of his allies on the left. They want to shut him up. You see, Oswalt pulled a Clarence Thomas and left the reservation without the chiefs permission.
What was Oswalts crime? He tweeted approvingly about a Mark Steyn column in which the conservative raconteur took on the global progressive assault on free expression. He made the mistake of characterizing Steyns forceful advocacy of free speech as hitting it out of the park.
That, the Left cannot forgive.
You see, Mark Steyn is evil. He has ideas liberals dont approve of. So to cite him as he took on the lefts Ball Gag Caucus was simply unacceptable to the progressive conformity enforcers. Soon Oswalt found himself swamped by a tsunami of Twitter outrage.
Oswalt, stunned but so-far uncowed, tweeted back that his erstwhile allies were proving Steyns point. And he was right.
The challenge for honest liberals is to get their collective heads around the fact that the liberalism they think they subscribe to is being advocated and defended only by the very conservatives their prejudices and ignorance have led them to believe are undermining it. The real enemy of free expression isn't the conservative John Lithgow in Footloose banning dancing because of some idiosyncratic take on Jesuss teachings. The real threat is the pseudo-enlightened schoolteacher on Glee enforcing his rigid progressive vision of diversity. And his vision of diversity is a diverse collection of those ideas he approves of and no others.
So is Oswalt going to stand up for freedom and take his lumps, or is he going to take the easy path of submission and obedience to the politically correct commands of the gatekeepers of liberalism?
It's a lot easier to submit, to not fight, to not make a fuss. What happens when you make a fuss? Remember John Lovitz? Hes another liberal who stood up to political correctness on social media. Do you see John Lovitz in a lot of movies these days?
Did Lovitz suddenly become unmarketable about the same time he became uncontrollable, or are people just afraid to be seen with him lest his new reputation for heresy rub off?
The temptation for someone like Oswalt, when faced with the braying mob of radical feminists, crypto-fascist academics, and assorted other progressive weirdoes, losers and mutations, must be overwhelming. It's so easy to surrender, to redouble your attacks on conservatives to prove youre still one of the gang. All you have to do is hand over your autonomy and they'll give you a pass. Sure, it's humiliating, but who needs self-respect when you can guest star on Two and a Half Men?
Oswalt can submit, or he can face the fact, as must other honest liberals, that the side they think they are on doesnt remotely believe in free expression. It doesnt believe in free thought. It doesnt believe in diversity. It believes in a crushing conformity enforced by a creepy Red Guard of politically correct goose-steppers with gender studies degrees, Twitter accounts and the burning need to bend others to their will.
We don't have to agree with what Patton Oswalt says, but the difference is that we conservatives arent the ones trying to silence him. We will argue with him. We will fight with him. But we wont try to stick a rag in his pie hole. That's what his friends are trying to do.
Oswalt and other honest liberals need to decide who their friends really are.
Unfortunately, they already have.
I believe liberals dont view it this way. That is, they dont see it as a need for them to make any choices. Making a choice is for the rest of us. They get freedom while the ideologically impure get fascism and ultimately prison or death. Either you get with their program or get marginalized/liquidated.
“Liberals Must Choose Between Freedom And Fascism”....
They made that choice by BEING liberals and pushing their agenda will only get them to Fascism that much faster.
This question isn't directed at you, but to all, and I ask how elections can possibly reverse these tyrannical precedents? Are we a free people? No. Okay, so what should be done?
Liberals want to be free to have the government make other people do what the liberals want them to do and believe what the liberals want them to believe.
That is how liberals view freedom.
Don’t call them “Liberals” or “Progressives”....call them “Regressives”, because they want to regress back to the days of Feudal Lords, where they are the “nobility” and we’re the “Peasants” and “serfs”.
Liberals will always choose wrong. Always.
What should be done? As Shakespeare had it, “First, we kill all the lawyers.”
That’s a good start, but probably not workable ;)
Elections CAN change things, and I would suggest that we already have the means to effect change in the TEA Party movement.
Find out where the nearest chapter is and get in touch. Then get to work.
It was a personal experience in 1971 of the left suppressing free expression that started me on my journey away from them, and ultimately against them. Reading Robert Ringer and Milton Friedman throughout the 1970’s ‘splained it to me.
I was taking pictures at the Revolutionary Peoples’ Constitutional Convention when a Black Panther “official” demanded that I give up my camera. He said “we authorize all pictures.”
I was not about to give up a camera that had been a gift from my parents, so I satisfied him by giving up the film. Later in the day, a pickpocket got the camera.
I had bought the obigatory VW bus by working twelve hours a day at a job. One of the Panthers told me that the people were going to need that vehicle. Well, the “people” were not making the loan payments.
It’s worse,
they advocate the use of force to, as you said, force others to do and believe what the libs want them to,
deny that they are authoritarians,
and feel good about themselves for their advocacy.
Bloomberg just expressed what most libs think of themselves -
“due to the policies I’ve advocated for, I’m waltzing into heaven, skipping the interview”
if only that was true. Back then serfs pay less than 5% tax. Didn’t US revolt against the Crown over 3% tax? These days we pay 50%+ taxes if you include everything. We’re more like slaves to government
Oswalt played a character on last week’s “Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D” episode. Will probably be in tomorrow’s episode too.
Patton has never said anything even remotely funny. He is a hack riding on Kevin James’ coattails.
Liberals have chosen, and consummated themselves with treason.
An “honest liberal”?
Puleeeze!
Andrew Breitbart obviously was one. Otherwise he wouldn’t have seen the light. Think about it.
Many start out that way, but it makes for an unstable compound. Eventually they either wise up or the mask falls and they go full-bore Stalinist. That’s when they become so revolting normal people can’t stand to be around them, and they become divorced from polite society.
Liberals are inherently dishonest, especially with themselves.
It’s like the old joke about the Democrat puppies and Bill Clinton. Once they open their eyes they become Republicans.
Liberalism is founded on false principles, false premises. It is inherently dishonest. And so are all liberals.
Once they wake up, open their eyes, they’re no longer liberals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.