Tag Archives: Racism

Communism’s Fundamental Error – And It’s a Big One

By Anthony Trevlac

May 6, 2024
6-min read

If socialism ever officially ends up on the ash heap of history, where it certainly belongs, it will be because it is based at least one fundamental error. There is a fatal flaw in its basic approach that no amount of misdirection, finger-pointing, or excuse-making can overcome.

The problem is that socialism/Marxism/Democratic Socialism are all based on the assumption that groups are the dominant and fundamental operating units in a society. That notion is wrong. The embrace of it undermines everything on which it is based.

The individual is the building block of society, here and in every other nation. This has been true from the moment the first primordial sign of life appeared on the planet. This was billions of years ago, even before Keith Richards was born.

To recognize the primacy of the individual is not to say what government wants to be true: it is a statement about what is true. Opinions have no more impact on this than they do on determining the freezing temperature of water.

Putin or Xi or Biden can develop policies, tactics, and strategies that try to force groups to do something. But the people those policies affect react as individuals, not groups.

They may give an order to share food equally. But lots of people will disobey it given half a chance. They will care more about their own child than about another’s. They will care more about themselves than their neighbor. They may disobey any and every directive if they disagree with it, think ignoring it will help them, and are unlikely to be punished for their recalcitrance.

Lots of individuals will disobey an order if they can do it without getting shot or otherwise sanctioned. The fact that people don’t act in unison, without fail, every time, means that disparate outcomes are a certainty.

The exercise of executive fiat at the state and national levels led to disastrous policies during. Certainly, millions of people just said “ok” when told to wear a mask or stay home, but millions also told authorities to take a long walk on a short pier. This historical exercise should have told our government that trying to herd these cats is a pointless effort and doomed to fail.

One is astonished at time at how many people seem to just love to follow rules. They can’t want to be told what to do. And huge swaths of them don’t even give it a second thought. The feds say we have to wear yellow shirts, walk backwards, and yell “Spongebob rules” incessantly. Let’s do it! Don’t ask questions. Have they ever lied to us before?

Well, yes, they have.

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Racist Leaders Presume You Are, Too

By Rob Meyne

Feb. 4, 2024
3-min read

The names of many contemporary movements, organizations, and legislation are focused-grouped tested to ensure they sound as appealing as possible. Nomenclature has a lot to do with the ability to successfully market something.

Terms like Black Lives Matter, or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), or the Inflation Reduction Act are designed to generate support for policies that do not reflect what their name suggests.

No reasonable person questions that black lives matter. Nor do they oppose the ideas of inclusion or inflation reduction. Yet frequently a majority of reasonable people oppose the specific actions being taken in pursuit of those objections. The devil is always in the details.

Years ago, you may recall there was opposition to harvesting tuna, because marine mammals were often killed in the process. Accordingly, there was a suggestion that tuna operators should form an alliance and call it “Friends of the Dolphin.” No doubt you could have generated cash contributions to such a group from a lot of people who would have been horrified to find out what it really was.

If you’ve paid attention to the dumpster fire that is also known as the Biden Administration, you will remember they tried to enact components of the “Green New Deal” (AKA, the Green New Steal). These were radical revisions to the way we use and generate energy, manufacture and distribute products, and to whom we give huge taxpayer-funded subsidies. It was politically unpopular and economically devastating. The bill went nowhere. So, they just called it the Inflation Reduction Act. Members of Congress had only a few days to read the thousand page bill, and team Biden just put most of the elements of the Green New Steal into it.

The voters don’t like it? Simple: change its name and pass it anyway.

If you said you were opposed to the Inflation Reduction Act people thought you were in favor of inflation. Sadly, this kind of disingenuousness, and outright lying, drives much of the political process.

Monikers like DEI are crafted to sound like a commitment to a laudable goal but do nothing to tell you the nuts and bolts of the proposals. You can certainly favor the concepts of DEI without favoring the methods leftist elites use to make them happen. The left routinely disguises their true intentions – their actual policies – by labeling them in a misleading way.

It has often been said the left succeeds when the people are not informed but conservatives succeed when they are.

Consider this: any policy that treats people differently based on their skin color or national heritage is racist. That is the definition of racism; treating people differently because of the amount of melanin in their skin. Yet that is exactly what most DEI programs require.

Equity, in fact, is the polar opposite of equal opportunity. Equity requires the allocation of benefits and opportunities based on race. Management by equity requires that merit be a secondary consideration. That is an uncomfortable reality, but until we come to grips with it, we will continue to struggle to find answers to some of our most important problems.

For as long as I can remember, I have been astonished at how people on the left look at everything through the lens of race. Leftist leaders simply don’t believe race isn’t the first thing conservatives think about when they begin their day. Most Democratic leaders assume we are all obsessed with race because they are.

Perhaps more than anything, solutions to problems of race will elude us as long as half the nation assumes the other half shares their obsession with race. Saying that out loud is not likely to make you friends among Democratic leaders.

More to come.

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Harris and Company Lie About Florida and DeSantis

By Rob Meyne

July 29, 2023
2-min read

If you watch what they do rather than what they say, the leaders on the left will tell you who they fear most. Recent events suggest that person is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

You don’t hear anyone attacking Asa Hutchison or Nicki Haley, although they would both be improvements over the guy in the White House. (But then again, so would my Cocker Spaniel, Buddy.)

They attack Trump 24/7, of course, and they fear him as well. But there is more in play regarding Trump than just their dislike of him. More on that later.

For now, consider the latest major attack on DeSantis. He is accused of implementing education reforms in Florida that revise history and downplay the severity of the sin of slavery. It is a lie, pure and simple. It is, however, entirely predictable.

When attacks are based on truth, of course, they are fair game. However, when a political cohort must lie about their opponents, repeatedly and boldly, it is an indication of their intellectual and political impotence. If they had a winning message that had the support of clear majorities, they wouldn’t have to lie about the other side.

In Florida, Gov. DeSantis won passage of legislation to minimize the politically correct “woke” aspects of state institutions, primary educational. As part of this effort, a group of scholars and experts on African American history – many of these educators are black, by the way – developed a new set of standards for use in Florida schools. It replaced the curriculum developed by the AP College Board, called “Official course framework, project, and exam overview for AP African American studies.” This is the national document describing what ought to be taught to high-achieving students across the country.

The criticism of the Florida curriculum is based on lies and intended simply to hurt DeSantis and, by extension, other GOPs, and conservatives.

Both the AP College Board and the new Florida guidelines discuss the difficulty that faced former slaves as they adapted to freedom. As many historians have pointed out, some had skills that were useful and helped them find jobs. Some of these skills were developed here, others before they were brought here. That point is undeniable and, again, is in both documents. It does not mean slavery was “good” for anyone.

Yet, DeSantis is attacked and accused of saying slavery was good, even though the same thing is said on page 72 of the College Board AP document. Both curricula made the point about some slaves having useful skills. But they claim Florida is racist when they say it.

If anyone is interested, below is a link to the curriculum Harris, et al, supported. Hypocrisy does not get clearer or more offensive than this.

AP African American Studies Official Course Framework, Project, and Exam Overview – Effective 2023-2024: CollegeBoard.org

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CRT: Built On Falsehoods

By Rob Meyne

Feb. 3, 2022
2 min read

Critical Race Theory is a controversial topic. If you’ve been hearing from “both sides” of the debate, you might benefit from just looking at what its advocates say about it. As a conservative constitutionalist, I’d recommend you do just that.

Looking at what its supporters say gives you all the information you need to combat it. When the truth is this damaging, you don’t need to make things up.

There is no shortage of information out there about CRT. If you’re looking for a place to start, here is one option. Another piece takes an interesting look at the issue against the background of Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the governor’s race in Virginia. Youngkin won partially because of his opposition to CRT.

It is good to understand that CRT is a strategy with specific goals, not a body of knowledge. It is more about persuading, not facts.

This piece from the Heritage Foundation goes into the key tenets of CRT and touches on some of the activities being undertaken to push back on it. Many explanations of CRT list different concepts, but these are fairly consistent across-the-board:

CRT is a way to challenge and reform our government and economy, by viewing it all through the lens of race.
CRT asserts that racism is pervasive and unavoidable in America, embedded in our institutions and government. The belief is that our nation, as constituted, cannot combat racism because it is racist.
CRT puts a priority on examples and stories about racism conveyed by those who experienced it.
CRT proponents believe America has a class system where all white people are part of an oppressive elite, and benefit from white privilege, while all black people are victims and unable to succeed. (The fact that examples of the falsity of these premises are abundant doesn’t seem to discourage them. Nor do CRT advocates ever explain why, if we are so racist, the cohort with the highest average income and arguably greatest success, Asians, is non-white.)

That is a quick summary, and many would challenge some of these generalizations, but the overall message is clear: America is run by racists, through racist institutions, and oppressed groups cannot succeed unless we replace it with a new system.

It should not be hard to understand why parents, and others, have a problem with these theories being promoted in public schools. More to come on the arguments each side makes on CRT.

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Biden Thinks Racism Is OK

By Rob Meyne

Jan. 5, 2022
3-min read

A major change was announced by the new Biden Administration nearly a year ago. It represented a significant policy shift, a fundamental change in philosophy, but received relatively little notice. Team Biden, led by Susan Rice, said that, moving forward, the federal policy would be to administer laws and regulations with an intention to pursue racial equity rather than equality.

Equality means that every person is entitled to equal opportunity to pursue the education, employment, and support that allows us to succeed and reach our potential. If everyone gets equal opportunity, then we are only separated by our talent, intelligence, and ambition.

Biden has rejected that philosophy, committing instead to equality of results for groups identified by race, gender, and ethnicity. Equity insists that groups, divided by factors of importance to leftists, matter more than individuals. People are thus entitled to more governmental largesse, if they happen to be black or Hispanic, than they would be if they were white.

If that sounds like an indefensible policy in a free nation, it is. A commitment to equity means that groups should share resources, benefits, status, and wealth equally, regardless of their own talent, effort, or performance.

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Leftists Are Trying to Redefine Racism

Many on the left want to atone for past racism by expanding today’s racism

Rob Meyne

Sept. 30, 2021
2-min read

Part One

If you believe people should be treated the same regardless of race, you are not racist. Period. Racists treat people differently because of race. You may treat some better, others worse, but disparate treatment of others based on race is racism. It is that simple.
A familiar guideline is the Golden Rule, a nugget of wisdom that appears in many cultures. It is probably best known today as a biblical reference. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

If the above seems obvious, you are a reasonable person.

None of that suggests we are incapable of improving. No one acts impeccably. We make mistakes and often don’t live up to our own standards. But the suggestion that all white people are racist, that we can’t be “saved,” and our nation has to be fundamentally rebuilt is dangerous tripe.

[DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]

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Dems Object to Racism Only When It Benefits Them

Rob Meyne

July 4, 2020
3 min read

Although many voters would like to have more palatable choices November 3, we know how the field for this contest will be striped. But there are interesting wild cards that could make an already unpleasant year even worse. Or better. Let’s look at a few today, with more to come.

– Biden is weak and not up to the task. The campaign is following a “less is more” strategy. If he could hide in his basement for four more months, not even exiting long enough to see his shadow, they’d consider it ideal. The more voters learn about Biden the less they like him. Former VA Governor Terry MacAuliffe, one of the Clinton’s leading bag men, discussed it in a call with supporters.

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NEWSFEED THANKSGIVING: What Democrats are Unthankful For

J Robert Smith

Nov. 27, 2019
4 min read

My family, like many others in the US, has a Thanksgiving Day tradition of going around the dinner table and having each of us reveal one thing we are thankful for. The responses usually include such things as family, health, talents and abilities, and freedom.

— Ben Sharp, exploreGod, Undated

THE TAKE

It must be special to spend Thanksgiving at a gathering of Democrats. Imagine the table talk. It’s not centered on what to be grateful for, but, rather, what’s wrong with just about everything in America. Worse, no football is allowed on the tube. It’s far too masculine a sport – and violence, other than what Antifa produces, is a no-no.

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If Everyone Is Racist, No One Is

Rob Meyne

Sept. 15, 2019
3 min read

Updated: Sept. 24, 2019

One of the most interesting parts of our political system is that there are no rules or requirements regarding how a person can decide how to vote. One is free to vote for the candidate who is taller, more handsome, from their home state, plays tennis, went to A. S. U., or happens to sound the most like their cousin Ed.

A system where people were somehow required to base their decisions on facts and issues would sometimes yield a different result than does ours. But among our freedoms is the freedom to be stupid. We can be uninformed, unintelligent, and unconcerned, and still vote. That is a freedom that millions of people embrace on a quadrennial basis.
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NEWS FEED MONDAY: Why a Trade Deal with China Undercuts Democrats

J Robert Smith

Aug. 26, 2019
2 min read

China signaled on Monday it was now seeking a “calm” end to its ongoing trade war with the U.S., as Asian markets crumbled and China’s currency plummeted to an 11-year low following the latest tariffs on $550 billion in Chinese goods announced last Friday by the Trump administration.

— Fox News, August 25 2019

QUICK TAKE

The trade war with China isn’t over until an agreement is signed. Then it has to be enforced. But if Xi Jinping is serious about cutting a deal with President Trump, then he’ll also cut the legs out from under Democrat presidential aspirants. Not that Xi cares about Democrats’ political fortunes. Not when Trump’s very effective tariffs and his threatened actions are walloping the Chinese in their wallets.
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