Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Conservatism

Michael Lumish

One of the primary ways of thinking among twentieth-century American conservatives was a close-mindedness. Even a religious close-mindedness.

In the 1950s and 1960s, when conservatives held some power in American politics, they were widely mocked by the growing counterculture and the Beats and Kerouac and Ginsberg and Kesey -- and all that jazz -- led to the rise of The Movement. 

The Movement.

It was the 1960s. It was anti-war. It was second wave feminism. It was the rise of the New Left and people like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party. It was also the rise of environmentalism and the movement to protect the planet, not to mention space exploration and people like recently passed Apollo 11 astronaut, Michael Collins.

These were people, whatever their political affiliation, who refused to be close-minded.

The Republican Party of the 1950s, with perhaps the exception of people like William F. Buckley, was rigid and close-minded and represented just the kind of people that liberals are pushing back against today.

The contemporary-left in the US today is just as close-minded and rigid and boring and authoritarian as were many Republican in the 1950s.

We will stand up against them today, just as we did yesterday.

21 comments:

  1. "These were people, whatever their political affiliation, who refused to be close-minded."

    Plenty closed minded, actually, and no less uncertain and absolute than wokesters of today who think they have the ONLY answer.

    Was just about to send a RIP to the site.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll be in and out and you are always a friend to this blog.

      Delete
    2. And as for "plenty close-minded," if we are talking about liberalism and the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, I will partially agree. Certainly the American Left at the time saw itself as fighting against the authoritarianism and closed-mindedness of the old racist American right-wing.

      Anyway, please do not write a "RIP" to Israel Thrives... not yet.

      I am actually pretty amazed that you guys kept it going this long.

      We've seen many blogs just disappear into the aether, but somehow not this one.

      This blog was born, along with a few others, from Maryscott O'Connor's "My Left Wing" which, itself, was born out of Daily Kos... but you know that.

      I will always remember our meet-up in SF, right at the gates of Chinatown.

      Delete
    3. Yes, really Mike, keep this thing going. As you have seen yourself, the possibilities for free speech at joints like FB are rather limited and controlled by those who are willing to subvert democracy and step all over our G_d given rights.

      Delete
    4. Jeff, I am on a thirty-day FB ban for writing "White Men Are Bad." It's pretty hysterical because the comment was meant to be ironic. In the meantime, 350 rockets shot into Israel from Gaza. Were I Netanyahu I would eliminate Hamas.

      Delete
  2. In Lod and elsewhere we see the REALITY of the notion of Israeli/Arab co-existence. It is like a wisp of smoke.

    "The sight of the pogrom in Lod and the disturbances across the country by an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob, injuring people, damaging property and even attacking sacred Jewish spaces is unforgivable." Rivlin

    They are waiting to kill Jews in their sleep, first real chance they get. And that's beyond Hamas; that's everyday next door Arabs. Some Jewish leaders are upset that some "Jewish extremists," are fighting back and attacking Arabs. Pfffttttt. Bloodthirsty Arabs calls for bloodthirsty Jews at some point.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If it's unforgivable, what is Rivlin going to do about it?
      I say, if they believe they are really "Palestinians", even though historically that's bullshit, then perhaps Israel should arrange for them to live amongst their own outside of Israel, a 1st rate country. Let them see what Mahmoud Abbas or Hamas has to offer them in terms of freedom and a good life. "Palestine" is about as old and rock solid a colonial name as exists in history.

      Delete
  3. From Australia about the war and the anti-Israel/antisemitic Left:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=SgIGNTiCo9c&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1pIrl7ZTu3C6bSZK103AwzkE3-9mFx1FwzMi-2-GXQGfT27Gp1-OjR42k

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ceasefire. Hamas lives to fight another day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Can't argue with any of those Jacob. Countries around the world should bar entry to antisemites and deport any that show their true colors after obtaining entry.

    ReplyDelete
  6. They are fakes and liars. The "anti-Zionist" left has been pushing antisemitism for a long time. This is no different from the countries of the eastern bloc during the Cold War. California is already becoming a one party, eastern bloc type state. The Dems want to do the same to the rest of the United States, and they have the power and are dead serious. The Left can taste Socialist power.
    Here is someone who has been sounding the alarm for a long time:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7MasSwNIwM&list=PLEbhOtC9klbBR3q4AO9AdVjeC9r5RyZFP&index=2

    ReplyDelete
  7. And an hour interview with Ben Shapiro. There are enough nuggets to make it worth the watch:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jx1ENR2lNI&list=TLPQMjQwNTIwMjEEcWjZLf5kDg&index=3

    ReplyDelete
  8. Kapow!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=AZffBpuXOsM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1XhVcoK3sHls1iXZixN2N-87mNc1gzMJaXUokwnVZNDccYqvpB_vOMaIA

    ReplyDelete
  9. Have you read the comments to this video?
    This is what millenials believe. Within a decade, next Dem administration will "unrecognize" Israel and start military aid to "Palestine". Hopefully by then patriotic Americans will be cancelled out of the woke and transgendered US Army.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Jacob,
    You might be right, but I wouldn't take that on a sample of youtube BTL commenters. Those people are motivated. How many ordinary and uninvolved people are looking at that video? Our task is to simply keep putting out the right information, facts, and appealing to people's capacity for reason and morality. And the PNM is awash with lies. Lies can be debunked, although that is the reactive stuff being done now. It's alright, but not enough. A good offense is needed, and we have one - the truth. Get it out there early and often. That's the true path forward.
    I saw a comment from an "anti-Zionist" this morning in which he stated how "Jewish human rights groups" agree with his take, and you know, UN Resolution 2334. Our work is cut out for us, for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  11. CRT 101

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCkx_x9FLJ8

    ReplyDelete
  12. More fun with Balestine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=satmE0RNN2Y&list=TLPQMTAwNjIwMjFlAeB0eymW6w&index=1

    ReplyDelete
  13. On the virulently antisemitic muslim supremacist, Ilhan Omar:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSWU3EKLI4I&list=TLPQMTMwNzIwMjEZPOCdAGzf4w&index=4

    It's a hoot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not surprised that she got elected given her district, I am disgusted with Nancy Pelosi, tho.

      Delete
    2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7WQiCp15k

      Very hard to be a Dem after seeing this vid.

      Delete