In fact, the white-nationalist movement had been so effectively de-platformed and delegitimized, and become so frightened of drawing protesters like the ones who turned out to mock Spencer from the audience at the University of Florida, that NPI’s executive director, Evan McLaren, refused to tell reporters the conference’s new location until half an hour after the meetup was scheduled to start on November 19.The rest of the article is kind of interesting, as it points out that their agenda is not particularly right-wing at all: it sounds a lot like socialism. It's just "National" socialism, rather than international socialism.
When I finally arrived at the organic winery and cow-and-hog farm in Poolesville, Maryland, an hour outside of DC, I learned that NPI had not even trusted its own attendees with the conference location. Instead of allowing its followers to drive to the winery themselves or even learn its name, NPI made its adherents leave their cars behind and hand in their cell phones so they could not see where they were going and inform others. Instead, NPI monitors drove them in 10-person vans to Rocklands Farm, which turned out not to have known that the white supremacists were coming, either....
When the farm’s owners discovered they were hosting a white-power group, they immediately asked NPI to leave. Though Spencer told the media afterward that the cancellation had come halfway through the event, in fact NPI was far less lucky.... There was only time for one conference session.... Spencer himself gave no major speech. Swedish fascist megapublisher Daniel Friberg, who’d been announced as a headliner along with MacDonald and Spencer, couldn’t appear because the United States had barred him from the country following Charlottesville.
Freedom of Speech & Assembly
Legally protected, but culturally under assault. The "White Nationalists" being discussed here are odious, but that is where we often first see signs of the suppression of rights.
The lynch mob mentality of attacking disapproved-of speech is of a piece with the lynch mob mentality of guilt by woman's accusation that's moving through our nation. It's a general breakdown of law and of due process. And while the one deprecates the ability of fringe extremists to disarm themselves with their own foolishness, the other cheapens the legitimate charges that should be investigated.
ReplyDeleteEric Hines
I don't object at all to social shunning of abhorrent philosophies. The First Amendment binds the state only.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Texan. Let them rally peacefully, and ignore speakers and groups you disagree with. Pretend they are not there. Peacefully request that local and national media to ignore them.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
Of course I understand that the First Amendment only prohibits government interference with speech or assembly. There's no private duty to give aid or comfort to these odious types, and I don't blame the winery for not wanting to be in any way associated with them. It could only hurt them as a business, even apart from moral considerations.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the government isn't protecting them either. When they rallied in Charlottesville, the government denied their permit at the last minute and then used the police to drive them into the arms of the protests. Then the government came after them every way it could, e.g., as mentioned in the article by banning one of the guys from the country. This is supported by the culture, which hates these views (for good reasons that I share).
So the cultural hatred for these viewpoints is enabling the government to get away with sliding off its duty. Probably other viewpoints are safe that are not so much detested, but... well, but. The slippery slope is a logical fallacy in that there's no guarantee you'll go down it, but we've seen our culture and government sliding right on down it every time it's come up recently.
The Alt Right is odious. White nationalists haven't been a problem in the US ever since the Demoncrats stopped backing them.
ReplyDeleteHumans, as the ancient Hebrews, always needed an Azarael escape goat. Put all the sins on the goat, chase it out of the holy place tent/ark, and drive it over a cliff so that it dies and will never come back contaminating the people. Even Japan has a similar legendary ritual.
The ancients had witches, christians, cathars, heretics, and minorities. Americans had blacks, Mormons, other minorities, and women to look down on. Modern Americans have white people... shrugs.
Humanity is the problem. Maybe when humanity gets killed, then the problem goes away.
The feds and the gov, have been ordered by the Deep State to create the conditions for a Red vs Blue, white vs black, man vs woman, race war.