Thursday, December 10, 2015

The problem with liberalism in a nutshell

Is best demonstrated in this story, in which hundreds of thousands of British citizens have signed a petition to ban Donald Trump.  I know.  Tit for tat.  Serves him right.  Sew the wind and whirlwind and all.  And besides, do we really know if all who signed this petition are, in fact, liberal?

That final one isn't the point.  Liberalism has clearly won the hearts and minds of the Dying West for some time.  Decades probably.  In fact, as has been pointed out to several I know who have worked in the government here in the States, you'd be a fool to think Conservatism is represented in our government.  A few elected officials might be conservative in some manner.  But the majority of those who work in the trenches are usually decidedly to the Left of center.

So it isn't that all signers of the petition are dictionary liberal.  But they are operating within the framework of a liberal dominated culture.  One that sees banning people as bad - until it's the right person.  So looking back at Kim Davis; why were so many happy to see her go to jail?  Because, she represents part of the ideals and beliefs that liberalism finds repugnant.  For the same reason people who see Islam as repugnant have no problem saying they should be barred from entering our country.

But here is the difference.  The big difference.  The huge difference.  The difference where Conservatives come out looking better, if only somewhat, than their liberal counterparts.  Because Conservatives never said all religions are the same, all morals are equal, all values are opinions, live and let live and respect differences and tolerate all things and yada yada yada.  Conservatives have had no problem saying sometimes there is evil and you have to take measures to defeat it. And the evil isn't always us.

For liberals, however, those lofty goals of absolute relativity and tolerance have proven easier to live in the breach than in the keeping.  So a movement that abhorred censorship finds itself backing the same.  The movement that has no problem sending someone to jail because they won't convert to a new moral absolute is appalled at the thought that some religions might see their beliefs as superior.  And those horrified at the thought of banning anyone suddenly call for a ban against those who suggest the same.

Again, I realize it is likely a symbolic gesture more than a real call to legally ban a person.  Though England, like most non-US countries, has no beef with such things.  In the US, where banning and censoring were once in the same tent as Nazis and death camps, it's once again telling to see the changes in liberalism and just how the things liberalism once condemned are becoming the very tactics and approaches our liberal culture endorses.

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