Posted on 01/12/2019 6:16:56 AM PST by Kaslin
My best friend (I’ll call him Bob) is a self-identified liberal. He was all in for Obama, went all in for Hillary, and considers Oprah Winfrey America’s only living and worthy patron saint. He’s a card-carrying Democrat and is up to speed on all the daily talking points of the party.
Years ago my family moved out to California from Indiana. We hated saying goodbye to Bob but soon a job opportunity brought him out this way as well. At first, Bob was excited to be in a true-blue state like California. These were his people! But soon the reality of day-to-day life under California legislation set in. Still, he was happy to do his part. Sure, taxes were high and infrastructure crumbling. Sure, water restrictions and energy rates were a pain but hey, that’s modern life. Then came the plastic bag ban. It appeared on a ballot one election cycle and like almost everything that ends up on a California ballot it passed and now we no longer have single-use plastic bags. You have to pay ten cents at the store for these thick, weirdly shaped “reusable” plastic bags that don’t even have the decency to fit properly into your wastebasket when you try to reuse it as a trash bag.
Bob had had enough. Shortly after the bag ban passed Bob declared, “This is so stupid! I don’t want this. I don’t know anyone who wanted it. I want to decide for myself what kind of bags I use and when. This state is determined to make conservatives out of perfectly fine liberals!”
As I observed the backlash aimed at Ellen DeGeneres after she defended Kevin Hart I couldn’t help but think of Bob’s declaration.
What we are witnessing now in our culture is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. The far-left has hijacked the liberal narrative and has figured out how to use social media as a bludgeon. That bludgeon was fine when it was just aimed at the likes of Roseanne Barr. Sure, maybe it was unfair to completely tank her entire life based on one controversial tweet (and literally nothing else) but sometimes some things have to be sacrificed in order to make a point. Lots of celebrities got on the “down with Roseanne” bandwagon, not necessarily because they believe she suddenly turned into a racist after 30 years in the business, but because it’s important to stand up for the “cause”. Fair enough.
Then suddenly those celebrities who were happy to dance on Roseanne’s digital grave found themselves caught in the same clutches and held to the same standards. Proudly left-wing comedians are being forced to apologize for jokes deemed offensive. Proud Democrat actors and actresses are being forced to apologize for years-old interviews and social media posts made long before any of us had the notion of “intersectionality” or “cisgender patriarchy” shoved down our throats on a daily basis.
Writer/actor Mark Duplass - an unabashed Hollywood liberal - was forced to apologize and backtrack for simply defending Ben Shapiro as a decent guy who was always respectful and pleasant. Twitter came down on Duplass like a ton of bricks and even his liberal bonafides couldn’t save him. After a day of protests (and most likely a call from his publicist) Duplass walked back his statements and apologized for suggesting that Shapiro wasn’t Literally Hitler™.
Ivanka Trump went to the White House with her father as a pretty solid, New York liberal. It’s part of why #NeverTrump conservatives hate Trump so much. She has been mercilessly verbally abused in public, had her fashion brand forcibly removed from stores and has had to endure horrible insults about her children and her religion.
And as for Ellen? She’s as lefty as they come. Her and wife Portia de Rossi are LGBT royalty and have been activists for decades. Even that wasn’t enough to shield her from the progressive mobs.
It wouldn’t be surprising if any of these liberals might be rethinking their politics. When your allies suddenly declare you an enemy it can make you think about a lot of things differently.
Day after day it seems we are watching happily progressive celebrities be swallowed up by the standards they themselves championed. No one ever thinks that they will run afoul of the progressive mobs, but that is the slippery slope of censorship. Once you make it okay for the truly “horrible” people, it’s not long before it becomes okay for the sort of horrible people, and then the maybe horrible people and then it’s just a free-for-all for anything that makes anyone feel sort of, kind of, maybe uncomfortable for a moment.
The progressive left should be very careful. Look to Dave Rubin for what can happen to a person’s mindset when they are constantly and unfairly admonished for having independent thoughts. The space to the right of center is filled with people just like Rubin. I am one of them.
Most of the Hollywood left think their activist status gives them immunity. Ellen is living proof that it does not.
It is my suspicion that the progressive mobs are so strongly pushing away their Hollywood allies that many of those allies might be heading for a change of heart, at least when it comes to free expression and tolerance of competing ideas. The liberal left may have won the battle to push conservative ideas out of the entertainment space, but progressive tyranny may very well be welcoming those ideas back simply because they’ve exhausted their allies.
If things keep going the way they are, the progressive left just may well make a lot of conservatives out of otherwise perfectly fine liberals.
Bob is one of those liberals that got mugged and became a Republican. Problem is that now Republicans are no better.
Which is exactly the NWO elites will find themselves in with their plan to destroy western civilization with unfettered immigration.
They somehow think they will ride it out and come out on top and be in charge.
If their plans go through, they only satisfaction we'll have is knowing that they got theirs along with the rest of us.
In minature, this is what happens in socialist countries. It is what happened in the Soviet Union, in China, in Cambodia.
As a leftist, your entire past is always available to show that you were not "leftist enough" and purged.
Most of it happens in leftist countries after the rule of law is overturned.
Not to worry.
The left has always used terror to keep weak-kneed Marxists in line.
This time will be no different.
Dennis Prager has published a great series of articles and videos explaining what he sees as the difference between liberals and offering that liberals today have much more in common with conservatives than with leftists. I haven’t decided whether I agree with him, but it’s worth watching and reading.
A fabulous ‘nutshell’ article!!
Follow the nuts and their lofty lifestyles and end up with a ‘mike left on’ accident and you are pounded by your like-minded brothers!! They have made American cities gross pools of criminals whose aim is to injure the ones trying to live godly lives. And, they are sending their ilk into smaller towns that appear less defensive....for now! Twisting the truth never wins forever and I hope that it begins imploding on them like they cannot believe!
<><> liberal celebrities who sap-happily danced on Roseanne’s digital grave now find themselves held to the same standards........
<><> left-wing comedians are being forced to apologize for innocent jokes now deemed "offensive;"
<><> celluloid stars are beaten down for ancient interviews and social media posts now deemed verboten measured against liberal newspeak;
<><> power players like Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey who led with their penises are being de****ed left and right.
I disagree. Most liberals will destroy themselves for the cause.
Becoming a Republican is not enough nowdays. I left the “party” long ago. I am a self-professed constitutional conservative. Perhaps when Bob starts to think about his fellow Americans, he will truly evolve into an American!
I think they pulled the socialism card a decade too early. Academia hadn’t indoctrinated the millennials fully yet and social media was just getting started.most millennials still had firm American values and reason.
People like “Bob” are hopelessly stupid and are a detriment to the country.
In all blue states, especially those with a dem super majority like CA and OR, the inmates are running the asylum.
It’s the nut house blues.
What passes for a present day "liberal" is actually someone who does not believe in tolerance, wants socialism forced on society, and is willing to utilize fascist means and methodology to make it happen.
“Bob had had enough. Shortly after the bag ban passed Bob declared, “This is so stupid! I don’t want this. I don’t know anyone who wanted it. I want to decide for myself what kind of bags I use and when. This state is determined to make conservatives out of perfectly fine liberals!””
Yeah? I bet he still voted for Newsom.
Yesterday morning the local breakfast show was discussing how the Seinfeld show was now considered by some snowflakes as racist and sexist.
Liberalism is a mental disorder. "Bob" doesn't have the capacity to think rationally. . not even about the cause of his bad friggen bags!!!
“And as for Ellen? She’s as lefty as they come. Her and wife Portia de Rossi are LGBT royalty and have been activists for decades. Even that wasn’t enough to shield her from the progressive mobs”
A lot of difference that made! From a recent article...
“Ellen DeGeneres dunks Trump in mocking border video”
Most of the people at FR are liberals who don’t know it.
Most of them when beaten down by the cultural Marxist mob will confess their sins, promise never to do it again, and go further left to prove to the mob that they still true believers.
Only a few, like Dave Ruben, have the courage and intellectual honesty to truly walk away.
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.