Posted on 03/17/2018 8:20:50 AM PDT by Mafe
In a recent article, David Brooks (New York Times “conservative” columnist who — surprise — writes as a “progressive”) suggests that “the culture war” is over or close to over: progressives have already won. Their opponents, “the … less educated ... tribalists” have “self-marginalized over the past two years.”
In addition, progressives “are getting better and more aggressive at silencing dissenting behavior. ...” As a result, they could now “be on the verge of delegitimizing their foes, on guns but also much else, rendering them untouchable for anybody who wants to stay in polite society … [avoid being] morally illegitimate or socially unacceptable … [or just avoid having] your career … end[ed].”
How then does Brooks account for the Trump election, the dominance of Republicans in national and state legislatures, and the millions who are fed up with elite if not polite society? He calls this politics and tries to separate it from culture. He says that: “Conservatives … [representing 40% of the country] have zero cultural power, but they have immense political power.” The idea seems to be that this is just temporary, that cultural losses will eventually turn the tide politically as well.
Hmm. Are progressives really waging war against atavistically tribal conservatives? What could be more tribal than the group identifying with politics progressives espouse? Moreover, human thought and action do not fit neatly into categories such as culture and politics, and even if they did, one cannot omit economics. The most plausible explanation for the Trump victory is that Barrack Obama and the Democrats badly miscalculated on immigration. They thought they could sew up millions of present and future Hispanic voters without creating a backlash among other voters. They may have been right initially, but went too far, and a massive backlash resulted.
Immigration is indeed a political issue, but also a cultural issue, and an economic issue, and one cannot pretend to understand it without looking at it from all these and other angles. It is especially easy to overlook economics, as Brooks does, because on many economic issues (trade and immigration notably excepted), Trumponomics is no different than Obamonomics. This is not surprising, since similar Wall Street figures have dominated both administrations. In monetary policy in particular, there is absolutely no difference between Trump and Obama.
Are opponents of immigration simply “cultural" racists, as most progressives seem to assert? Joseph Epstein, distinguished essayist writing in the Weekly Standard about the dire situation of blacks living in Chicago, a city run for decades by progressives, offers one possible rebuttal of this charge. He writes: “it could be argued that the left generally has contributed as heavily to the condition of contemporary blacks as lingering racism. In fact, encouragement in the belief that all black problems are at root owing to racism is certain to keep blacks in their place, and might itself just be the ultimate racism.”
With their sycophants in the media, they have the biggest bullhorn.
Typical leftist drivel. They always tell you that you already lost the battle so you should just give up.
Hmm, I sense some disrespect going on here.
Brooks is an ignorant, arrogant a-hole who spews meaningless drivel. He’s the biggest know-nothing on planet Earth.
Society collapsed during our lifetime.
Civilization is collapsing as we watch.
They’re winning by being ruthless and inflexible; the traits they accuse the opposition of having.
It is no longer "permissible" to say, or even think, certain things - many of them "self-evident truths."
Although it could appear we are losing, look at some recent incidents. The founder of Chick-fil-a publicly states marriage is between a man and a woman, homosexuals attack him, and America responds by overwhelming his business locations with support. BLM NFL players disrespect America on the field, one player takes the field and honors the anthem and the next day his jersey is a best seller. And you can’t overlook that unknown singer who wore a trump dress and rocketed to the top of the charts.
I don’t think we have lost this war at all, we just don’t have any leadership.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlSlnqlNYV8&t=36s
Dennis Prager at Berkeley. We CAN win if we believe in and strengthen our values.
My teenage daughter self-rescued from liberalism simply by means of intellectual curiosity.
In the course of exploring YouTube for political material, she came across Ben Shapiro, and that was it. She’s a full-in conservative now.
I had nothing to do with the process, except that when she started to talk to me about things she learned from Shapiro, I took the opportunity to introduce her to Jordan Peterson. That was like adding liquid oxygen to an already-burning fire.
Nope. The less educated collectivists, criminals, conmen, creeps, dirtbags, d-rats,
morons, marxist, pinheads, punks, scumbags, socialists, tyrants, totalitarians, etc., etc., have overplayed their hand. They always do.
Time marches on...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-EBbYKA-uU
Well, certain battles are lost. For example, the liberals won the battle over homosexual marriage.
Other issues are not so clear cut.
All they’ve “won” is a flourishing of idiocy.
The entire Left would self destruct, murder all of their own posterity, and be unable to know which gender they are if they “won” any more.
The Cultural Marxist have indeed been busy.
It must be true!! Everyone David Brooks knows agrees with the left and the few conservatives he hears about have all been marginalized! (/sarc)
Pure BIAS, as Bernie Goldberg described in his book. These lefties think they’re centrists (and conservative!?) because everyone around them is more liberal than they are. So unprofessional and thoughtless.
We still have our Bibles, our guns, our mouths, our example and our breath.
There is a more beautiful history to tell people about.
Do not be afraid. Don’t give up.
Drop little verbal seeds of knowledge , history and truth every where you go. Just one sentence from every deplorable, every day can change the picture. We do not need a column in the NYT to spread the word.
Republican political power doesn’t outweigh progressives’ cultural power, because Republican leaders go along with the progressives on cultural issues. Planned Parenthood is still getting funded, right? Ditto for sanctuary cities. And GOP has no intention of funding Trump’s wall
David Brooks calls himself a conservative and would like to pretend he is intellectual, The New William F Buckley Jr...
Brooks is a poser not worthy of Intellectual thought.
Unlike Buckley, the man has no spine or teeth.
He represents the worst among us, An elite socialite who knows nothing of the common man.
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