Thursday, September 11, 2008

We’ve Got Our Work Cut Out for Us

WTC planeIt’s hard to believe that it’s been seven years since that awful day when we all sat glued to the TV screen, watching the Twin Towers collapse into the streets of Manhattan.

Everything changed that day, or so we thought, but then somehow it mostly changed back. According to the conventional wisdom, 9-11 became an opportunity for jingoistic exploitation by the Republican Party and a pretext for “George Bush’s war”. With the help of the mainstream media, the national conversation shifted away from the Great Jihad and back to more important topics like health care, education, the minimum wage, gay marriage, etc.

The lights go dim and the music starts, and it’s easy to forget…

In previous years I’ve written memorial posts, and also about the other September 11th. This time I’d like to turn around and look ahead. I want to get an idea of where we’re going.

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Last weekend I had the privilege of traveling through the heart of Tropical Storm Hannah to visit my relatives in Delaware. On the way up I drove through the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland during the torrential downpour that preceded the main body of storm. On the way back the next day I retraced my route as the center of the storm passed a few miles west over the Chesapeake Bay.

On Saturday I hunkered down with my extended family out of the wind and the rain. Mostly we were glued to the Weather Channel, but from time to time the conversation switched to politics and the current election campaign.

A word about my kin: they’re of various political persuasions, some liberal, some conservative, some middle of the road. But none of them is a political junkie like I am, and they don’t pay much attention to the Jihad.

A male relative of my generation — I’ll call him Old Fart — doesn’t care for Barack Obama, and neither does his wife. Mrs. Old Fart mentioned that she’d seen the O-man him on television, and doesn’t believe a word he says.

“So you don’t think much of Barack Hussein Obama, huh?” I asked her.

“Is ‘Hussein’ really his middle name?” she asked in astonishment.
- - - - - - - - -
“Yes, indeed. Barack Hussein.”

“Is he named after his father?”

“Well, it’s from his father’s side. The Arab side of the family.”

“Are you serious?”

“Sure! You really didn’t know?”

“It’s the first I’ve heard about it.”

Old Fart joined the conversation at that point to talk about a Glenn Beck program he’d seen recently. He was scornful of what Beck had to say.

“The guy was saying something about Barack Obama being involved with Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground guy. But that’s crazy! All that stuff happened back in the sixties, when Obama was just a little kid. There’s no way he had anything to do with it.”

“Wait a minute,” I responded. “Glenn Beck is right. He’s not talking about what happened back in the sixties. Ayers was a radical back then, and he’s still a communist. He set off some bombs, went to prison, and when he came out he became a university professor like so many other commies did. That’s when Obama got to know him. They’re associated with one another; it’s well-documented.”

But Old Fart did not seem entirely convinced.

Mrs. O. F. mentioned that she had really been hoping that Hillary would get the nomination. “I’d have voted for her,” she said.

“No thank you!” I said. “She’s got the same Socialist nature as Obama; she just hides it better.”

But I seemed to lose Mrs. Old Fart at that point — I don’t think she’s familiar with the concept of Socialism, or with the Democratic Party’s devotion to it.

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The Weather Channel entered a commercial break, and a John McCain ad came on attacking Obama for his promise to raise taxes. Old Fart was dismissive: “Seems to me it was a member of the other party who was President the last time taxes were reduced.”

Not entirely true, but I let that one slide.

I said, “The Republicans say, ‘We’ll raise taxes, but not as much as the Democrats. We’ll increase government spending, but not as much as the Democrats.’”

A somewhat younger relative — an Army veteran — joined in when he heard this.

“I don’t think people would mind paying more taxes,” he said, “if only they could see the money being spent for a good reason. A health care system, for example, like they have in Europe.”

I spent a while talking to him about the fact that socialized health has been a dismal failure wherever it has been tried. I mentioned Mark Steyn’s quip that there’s a ten-month waiting period for a maternity ward bed in Canada. I talked about conditions under the National Health system in the UK. I said that as far as health care is concerned, the Europeans have been eating their seed corn for the last two generations, and have finally reached the bottom of the silo.

But my heart wasn’t really in it. I could see that I was dealing with people who had no idea what I was talking about.

Besides, the wind had finally died down, and it was time to head home.


My relatives are not stupid people. They’re regular folks, but they’re not dumb. Some are college-educated; some aren’t.

But they aren’t intellectuals, and they’re not voracious readers like Dymphna and I are. They get their political information from a quick glance at the front page of The Baltimore Sun, or from the TV — CNN and ABC News, maybe, but not from C-SPAN or the talking-head shows, and not from the internet.

Running a Counterjihad blog keeps me fairly well-informed. It also allows me to swim in an information pool with a lot of other fish that share the same environment. But it’s important to remember that this is a very small pool.

Most people have no idea about what you and I take for granted. The Koran, the hadith, the sunna, the Caliphate, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Project, the imminent Islamization of Europe, the extensive corruption of American governmental and academic institutions by Saudi money, the looming demographic disaster, the upcoming collapse of the welfare state in all Western societies — they have no idea what these issues are about. I might as well be speaking Patagonian when I bring such topics up.

The Left owns the means of communication in the West. This is why John McCain, David Cameron, Fredrik Reinfeldt, and Nicolas Sarkozy are the best we can hope for. The Gramscians control the media, so these pitiful lukewarm namby-pamby imitations of conservatives are our only choice. They’re the absolute limit when it comes to electable conservative leaders, and they fall laughably short of being good enough. The fact that they are better than Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Mona Sahlin, and Jacques Chirac is scant comfort. When the crunch comes, they’ll be scarcely more help than their leftist counterparts.

Seven years on, and nothing much has changed. Nothing can change as long as the media are in the hands of the enemy.

I first broached this theme two years ago, and there is still no way around it: without a significant Counterjihad voice in the mass media, there is almost no hope that anything substantial can be done. The entire system will simply have to collapse of its own weight. Only after it comes crashing down can change occur.

We’ve got our work cut out for us.

25 comments:

Mikael said...
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thll said...

Steady on Baron - things aren't quite that bad. The mass media always follows - even when it's trying to lead. What it says has got to bear some resemblance to reality otherwise nobody will take any notice of it. And of course the MMS can't afford to ignore the internet and blogs such as this which are leading the way in the argument.

The problem the (British) media is experiencing illustrates the situation - the horrible reality of Islam in Britain can't be ignored yet it's difficult to put a positive spin on it. Muslims are doing what Muslims do best - they think only of themselves. Their behaviour is so utterly self-centered and contemptuous of everyone else it's impossible to ignore. And the way they justify their grasping and conniving behaviour by reference to the racism and intolerance they allegedly suffer can't help but put people's backs up. Yet Muslims continue to behave without a second thought for the opinions or feelings of anyone else - as an illustration consider the brouhaha surrounding London's Metropolitan Police Force (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1054496/Lawyer-centre-Scotland-Yard-race-war-convicted-conman-suspect-legal-qualifications.html) where high ranking Muslim cops are seeking compensation from the force for racism.

The tide is turning - and much of it is down to the Muslims themselves.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

My relatives are not stupid people. They’re regular folks, but they’re not dumb. Some are college-educated; some aren’t.

There is no relationship between college attendance and wisdom. In fact, there is often an inverse relationship. Some of the strangest people you are ever going to meet have a 'PhD' behind their names - and you are paying a lot of money to allow them to fill your children's empty heads.

adler said...

i think i'm gonna cry... whole last week a was arguing people who believe 9/11 was an American Government conspiracy, and i was trying to debunk their retarted theories they saw somewhere on youtube... and today i found "debates" about 9/11 on all major internet services here in Poland, and they're all like "sure it was a conspiracy! the Americans tell lies! we will never find out the Truth, just like with JFK! and, oh, moon landing was a fake too!"...

in 2011 no one will believe that WTC ever existed.

GOD, WE'RE DOOMED.

eatyourbeans said...

Tomorrow I will drink the health of King Sobieski and Poland. Hope you all will too. If we surrender our memories, then we are indeed DOOMED.

spackle said...

Baron-

I too have relatives like this. And it is true. They are not dumb people. It is a combination of things. They are usually so wrapped up in their daily lives that they barely pay attention to the world around them. Or they are of the "Politics Schmolitics" school of thought. It sometimes drives me madd that they dont know basic current events. It is sad because they believe their daily lives will go on unchanged in perpetuity. But we all know a change is coming.

As to 9/11. I was living in Manhattan on that day. Far enough away to initially escape the dust storm but close enough to see the effects up close. From my roof I observed the smoke plumes, the fighter jets overhead. The cops, firemen and civilians covered in white powder. Thousands of people walking across the 59th street bridge. And the feeling of being a trapped rat as the city was locked down and sealed off. I got a small taste of what the Blitz must have been like. The chaos and uncertainty of what would happen next. Sadly to a lot of people it is just another date on the calendar. A "pretext to war" and a day where some Americans became aware that Islam was peace not a death cult bent on world domination. I for one will never forget that day. I felt personally under attack. Until one takes it personally I fear most will be happy to nod their heads once a year in silence and then go about in blissful ignorance.

Brazentide said...

When it comes to arguing with well meaning but ignorant people about nationalized health care, public schools, public transportation etc..I always say that I will support these programs only if legislators and all government employees are REQUIRED to use them.

What member of congress sends their children to public school? Perhaps they should be forced to so that the quality will improve. If the congress wants government health care they should be forbidden from receiving medical care from any non-government facility.

Bela said...

I browsed the French press on this sad day of remembrance and I found this observation in the leftist Liberation:

"«Ce qui nous paraît un crime aujourd'hui sera la morale de demain.»

"What appears to be a crime today will be the moral of tomorrow"

By Durkheim (1858- Fr. Jewish sociologist)

Unknown said...

“So you don’t think much of Barack Hussein Obama, huh?” I asked her.

“Is ‘Hussein’ really his middle name?” she asked in astonishment.
- - - - - - - - -
“Yes, indeed. Barack Hussein.”

“Well, it’s from his father’s side. The Arab side of the family.”


Next she'll be shocked at Latinos named "Castro" and Asians named "Kim."

Avery Bullard said...

But my heart wasn’t really in it. I could see that I was dealing with people who had no idea what I was talking about.


Been there, done that. Then there's the person I think I've got through to who then a month later has forgotten everything and gone back to spouting an MSM cliche.

I can recall two separate occasions when relatives of mine - one Down Under, the other in Canada - each told me about a specific murder of a white by non-whites in their respective countries. When I next saw each - about three years later in one case and about a year and a half later in the other - I asked both about the incidents and whether there'd been arrests or convictions and in both occasions neither relative could even remember the incidents in question - yet they were the ones who told me about them! Like Baron's relatives mine aren't stupid. One's an advanced design engineer the other started and built a successful business from scratch. For them I guess news is just another product that is occasionally consumed then quickly forgotten. Unfortunately they are the vast majority and we who post here are an obscure minority.

I'm a little tired of optimistic bloggers - the Pajamas Media kind - who talk about the end of the MSM and how blogs are so powerful. In real life I do not know a single person who gets news from blogs. I don't even think any of them get news from MSM sources online. Statistics bear this out. If a blog gets a 100,000 unique hits a day it is one of the biggest news blogs on the internet. If a TV news programme gets 100,000 viewers in the US or UK it would be taken off the air due to poor ratings. Nevertheless, we all have to plug away. Remember that history is made by minorities.

Anonymous said...

Their behaviour is so utterly self-centered and contemptuous of everyone else it's impossible to ignore.

Which is fortunate, because the more subtle efforts at Muslim domination would be unstoppable were they more circumspect.

Lombard1985 said...

I second spackle's comments. Most people are too focused on their daily lives and routine to see the bigger picture, particularly when it comes to politics.

For example: I've taken heat from both of my parents (mostly from my father) about not voting for either Obama or McCain. I point out that on too many important issues they're on the same page and that's usually never good. My tipping point is on immigration, and since both candidates want to ignore the law and the will of the people by opening the flood gates; neither of them will see a vote from me.

But to my parents, who both possess more than one PhD between them, while nowhere near kooks or ignoramuses, seem to only care about voting for the supposedly 'lesser evil' aka who will do the least damage in the short run and/or who will give you the most benefits (be it tax cuts, cheaper access health care etc.). In other words, who will do the least damage to you.

ɱØяñιηg$ʇðя ©™ said...

Reinfeldt is as much a dhimmi as is Sahlin.

Arius said...

At least we in the West are starting to wake up to the Islamic threat but keep falling back into old habits like Russophobia. The Islamic jihad is depending on the West being split against itself and will use one side against the other. They can’t believe their luck that the West has driven Russia away from the Western alliance and further into anti-West alliances.

The West must realize that without Russia the battle to defeat the Islamic jihad is already lost. You can’t win the fight against the Islamic jihad with your right hand while stabbing yourself in the back with your left hand.

Russia is a part of Western civilization. The Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots grew under the US/USSR divide. The West is redividing against itself. A house divided against itself will fail.

Anonymous said...

There aren't enough lovers of truth. Character flaws prevent the recognition of truth. The character flaw of Muslims is pride. Because of their arrogance of prideful superiority, anything that reflects badly on them can't possibly be true. Hence, the credibility given to loony conspiracy theories. As for Socialists and Leftists, both the Elitism of the haves and the envy of the have-nots prevent acknowledgement of the truth. As for ordinary people like our friends and relatives, you might say sloth is the culprit, since they can't bestir themselves to find out what is going on - it is really not that hard to find out if you really want to know. There just aren't enough lovers of truth in these modern times when truth is so relative. Everyone has their own truth these days and everyone must respect everyone else's "truths." So confusion reigns and the right course of action is debated interminably, without anything being accomplished. This may sound like an oversimplified resort to a partial listing of the seven deadly sins, but, really, if you aren't even allowed to define truth, how can you expect it to be recognized?

Marianne said...

The character flaw of Muslims is pride.

Close, but I see it as narcissism in the true Psychological meaning i.e. a grandiose view of themselves. If facts don't match this worldview, well then facts will be twisted until they do. I think this narcissism colors everything they see, do and think.

As for the rest of your comment remingtonquail, I don't think people are any different today. I think the nitty gritty functioning, the doers if you will, have always been in the minority since the beginning owing to human nature's fondness for indolence.

Whiskey said...

I am both optimistic and pessimistic at the same time.

It is true that the hard left dominates: Google/YouTube, the Universities, Hollywood, the News Media, Politics, and almost any other institution of note, including the Law and most NGOs.

This is the pessimistic side.

The optimistic side is the NATURE of the elites who dominate: sneering elitists who cannot hide their contempt for ordinary people and generate contempt besides. This includes Hollywood celebrities (ordinary people take joy in their misfortunes, which tells you something), News Media idiots, Judges/Lawyers putting criminal scum routinely over victims, Academics who endorse all sorts of lunacy repulsive to ordinary people, and particularly politicos who form the elite+minority coalitions explicitly organized against ordinary people.

The erosion of the media is due to ordinary people figuring out (it's not hard to do) that the media despises them and their lives. Same with all the other institutions, it's akin to 1789 and the French Revolution.

The pessimistic side of me says a major Western City (I would include Shanghai in that definition) will be nuked within ten years.

The pessimistic side of me also says that it will take that shattering event, of which 9/11, terrible as it was, signifies merely the shadow of the horror to come, to break the elites and their grip on power.

An elite that cannot prevent the nuking of a major Western city cannot hold power. This is the inherent contradiction of the technology as commodity world of today -- it gives nukes to nations like Pakistan and Iran without the stability and maturity of the French or English elites, which whatever else bad things you can say about them (which would take the space of 100 pages minimum), at least do not wish to nuke cities for the heck of it.

This then is the true tragedy of 9/11, as was the true tragedy of the 1993 WTC bombing: each foreshadowed a greater tragedy completely preventable, but only by rigorous measures and complete changes in how people conduct national security.

Anonymous said...

As for the rest of your comment remingtonquail, I don't think people are any different today. I think the nitty gritty functioning, the doers if you will, have always been in the minority since the beginning owing to human nature's fondness for indolence.

I would argue that most people are the "doers." That's precisely the problem with humanity as a whole: most of us act without thinking. The "thinkers" are the ones who are more rare: those who consider their actions and potential consequences before actually acting. I'm not sure if this is what you meant--perhaps I'm misinterpreting?

Anyway, interesting post, Baron. A bit depressing, but interesting. The left may have control of the media, but there's always the internet. Information can be disseminated effectively over this medium. Not that we shouldn't try to break the liberal hold on the media...

History Snark said...

I do worry about the ignorance of the masses. A lot of the people I meet get their news from Jon Stewart, 60 Minutes, and (in the case of my sister) Oprah. And they simply refuse to consider that what they "know" to be true might not be.

Plus, some are just ignorant. The aforementioned sister once told me that we need to pull out of the Mideast, so the Arabs will leave us along. I pointed out that Bin Laden stated that he will be at war with us until we as a culture embrace Islam. Her reply? "Well then let's do it."

Of course, she really didn't mean it. She just felt that if we told him we were accepting Sharia, he would shrug and go back into his cave.

Next, a young man I know noticed I was reading a book about Vietnam, and commented "they were just defending their way of life". I asked if fleeing their homeland after the Commies took over the South was another way of defending it. He started to reply, but was rendered speechless when another person in the room, a Vietnamese woman born after her parents fled, pointed out her stake in the argument. (As I knew she would. I lobbed that out there knowing she'd comment.)

And of course the other day a couple more people started with the whole "Palin is an awful choice, because she's too inexperienced". And just couldn't grasp the idea when I pointed out that The Messiah has even less experience, because after all, he's a senator.

Critical thinking and awareness of the realities of American life in the 21st century are gone the way of the dinosaur.

laine said...

The leftist ideologues and the ignorant sheep they herd definitely outnumber the informed now because it takes effort to become informed. You can't just flick on the television or pick up a newspaper. Not that anyone's picking up newspapers much anymore. They're all in trouble.

So it's the boob tube that most citizens rely on and they are completely unaware that they are watching leftist propaganda, not news.

Anyone who does do the work, finds out the facts, and rebuts the leftist memes in a public setting is as welcome as a skunk at a picnic. Because the absolute hallmark of a liberal indoctrinated mind is how CLOSED it is to anything that contradicts its ingrained beliefs. That's part of the indoctrination, that anyone saying anything different is stupid, mean or evil.

The second hallmark of the modern liberal mind is that their ideas are so wrapped up in their feelings that they construe contradictory information as a personal attack and are absolutely vicious when cornered by logic. It sounds as though the Baron got off relatively easy. It's usual to be outnumbered by liberals if you live in a city and common to be mauled by an entire pack so that you think twice about ever speaking up again.

There should be some kind of secret sign or handshake so a conservative knows there's another conservative in the room.

As for what can turn things around, I hate to say it, but I believe it's going to be either a financial attack that crashes the world economy or the destruction of a Western city with 6 figure loss of life.

It is only something of this magnitude that will break the mushy middle's trust in what they've been led to believe by their educators, the media and politicians. They are not suicidal like leftists, just too concentrated on the minutiae of their own lives. When they understand that those lives are threatened, they will then be on the lookout for someone different to lead them and ready to hear some unpalatable truths. Hopefully, a Winston Churchill will rise from somewhere at the moment that people are ready to listen.

Anonymous said...

The second hallmark of the modern liberal mind is that their ideas are so wrapped up in their feelings that they construe contradictory information as a personal attack and are absolutely vicious when cornered by logic

Why else do you think "the personal is political" was invented by the left? It gives license to psychotic overreaction, and shuts down debate by deeming any criticism ad hominem

Captain USpace said...

.
Very interesting tribute. The level of MSM brainwashing is truly frightening. At least McCain has identified the Jihad before. The Liberal disconnect must be continually chipped away with little tidbits, sound bites, and food for thought. All we can do is little by little help more and more people to eventually change their own minds about some things.

We must never let people forget, and we must never refuse to recognize evil.

:(
.
we will NOT forget
you 9/11 victims
will get justice
.
painful truth -
9/11 should be our
wakeup call
.
get Bin Laden -
we just need big SWAT team
and search warrant

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
there is no good or evil

every thing's relative
don't judge a terrorist

.
All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech there can be no real freedom.
.
Philosophy of Liberty Cartoon
.
Help Halt Terrorism Today!
.
We will NEVER forget!

:)
.

X said...

So I was back reading old GoV posts and came across The Other September 11th.

DocJim said...

If the read the Baltimore Sun, they are getting the old Maryland Democratic Party line regularly.
Consider sending them the Washington Times for 90 days. This might be a really good 90 days to do it.

Sometimes a change of reading material can have influence.

(I quit reading newspapers soon after moving to the Washington Suburbs in 1984, I caught the WaPo spreading front page lies. I took the WashTImes for a while and then the internet became available and I no longer get a newspaper but occasionally. I read Gates of Vienna much more often than all the newspapers I read.