By An Old Friend
Thu, Jul 23, 2020 5:06 p.m. JULY 23, 2020
OUR ORWELLIAN NIGHTMARE COME TRUE
The Cato Institute has released a poll on self-censorship conducted by the highly respected YouGov survey unit that finds 62 percent of Americans say they have political opinions they are afraid to speak because they fear giving offense or losing their jobs. Moreover, as the reports notes, this represents an increase from the last such poll taken in 2017: "The share of Americans who self‐censor has risen several points since 2017 when 58% of Americans agreed with this statement."
The internals of this poll are more striking than the headline 62% number, as this first chart reveals. Notice that it is only "strong liberals" (these would be college faculty and far-left activists and young media types) who say they do not fear giving offense from their views:
Significant that even a majority of liberals now say they practice self-censorship. And as indicated, even "strong liberals" have seen an increase in self-censorship since 2017, as this chart shows:
One error of the construction of this survey is obvious from the categories here. It is clearly wrong to think of liberalism as a continuum: the people described here as "strong liberals" are not liberal at all, but are profoundly ill-liberal. This is what weak-minded "moderate" liberals either don't understand or are too cowardly to admit or do anything about.
A number of people the last few weeks and months have been drawing our attention not only to Orwell's 1984, but specifically Lionel Trilling's perceptive review of the book in The New Yorker back in 1949 (when The New Yorker was worth reading). This passage is worth putting down in your copybook:
Orwell tells us that the final oligarchical revolution of the future, which, once established, could never be escaped of [sic] countered, will be made not of men who have property to defend but by men of will and intellect, by "the new aristocracy . . . of bureaucrats, scientists, trade-union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists, and professional politicians."[N.S.: That was Burnham's 1940 insight.]
Then Trilling quotes directly from 1984:
These people [says the authoritative Goldstein, in his account of the revolution], whose origins lay in the salaried middle class and the upper grades of the working class, had been shaped and brought together by the barren world of monopoly industry and centralized government. As compared with their opposite numbers in past ages, they were less avaricious, less tempted by luxury, hungrier for pure power, and, above all, more conscious of what they were doing and more intent on crushing opposition. The last difference was cardinal.
Today "monopoly industry" would be our increasingly censorious tech oligarchs and the major media along with our uniform universities.
4 comments:
All true,that last paragraph--now what's a country to do?That this has taken 55 years to put into place,a reversal would seem to require an event of some tumult to eliminate those influences.There is isn't enough time to wait for a mind shift by liberals.Is that event coming between now and election day--or shortly after?
--GRA
GOODBYE,COLUMBUS.LIGHTFOOT ORDERS STATUE REMOVED
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park and Little Italy have been removed Friday morning.
The Grant Park statue started to come down at around 3:15 a.m. After that, it didn't take long to remove it completely.
A crane had been stationed near the statue for hours near Columbus and Roosevelt and then it was carefully removed, it was loaded onto a truck and taken to an unknown location.
WATCH: Crews remove Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park
Crews remove a statue of Christopher Columbus in Grant Park Friday morning.
The Christopher Columbus statue had been covered in tarp and protected by a ring of protective fencing. A police presence remains there Friday morning.
Later Friday morning around 5:30 a.m. the Columbus statue in Arrigo Park in Little Italy was also taken down.
In a statement, Mayor Lori Lightfoot's office released a statement saying, "This action was taken after consultation with various stakeholders. It comes in response to demonstrations that became unsafe for both protesters and police, as well as efforts by individuals to independently pull the Grant Park statue down in an extremely dangerous manner. This step is about an effort to protect public safety and to preserve a safe space for an inclusive and democratic public dialogue about our city's symbols. In addition, our public safety resources must be concentrated where they are most needed throughout the city, and particularly in our South and West Side communities."
Lightfoot's office said they will be announcing a formal process to evaluate each monument, memorial and mural across Chicago.
"As the Mayor has stated previously, this is not about a single statue or mural, but how we create a platform to channel our city's dynamic civic energy to collaboratively, purposefully and peacefully reflect our values as Chicagoans and uplift the stories of all of our diverse city's residents, particularly when it comes to the permanent memorialization of our shared heritage," the statement continued.
GRA:How many statues of blacks--that offend whites--will be removed?If all it takes is opposition to something as mild as a STATUE of a white person,to have it taken away,why not the same process for MLK,Rosa Parks etc.? Because blacks are in office,calling the shots(with zero protests by whites--which allows this to continue).
--GRA
"the people described here as 'strong liberals' are not liberal at all, but are profoundly ill-liberal. "
Dennis Prager describes the liberal as OK and the left as not so. I disagree. Two faces of the same coin. Liberal condones the violent left but will not participate themselves.
"demonstrations that became unsafe for both protesters and police,"
A riot is not a protest. The rioters had more or less impunity to do what they did. There was no danger to them.
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