Totschweigetaktik "Death by Silence"

Our reader and commenter Law Wells sent a link yesterday to an opinion essay in the Sydney Morning Herald. The author, Miranda Devine, makes a cogent case against the tactics and attitude of progressives in Oz; her arguments could be applied equally well to deracinated elitists anywhere, but especially do they ring true for the members of the Political Class in our Western culture:

Again and again, smugly, arrogantly, patronisingly, progressives declare themselves to be moderates, claiming to represent a reasonable ideological middle ground, while showering the real moderates, who they dub ‘‘right-wing’’, ‘‘conservative’’ or ‘‘extremist’’, with abuse — subtle and not so subtle.

Ms. Devine mentions the Austro-German word totschweigetaktik, one for which we do not seem to have an equivalent in English (though we sorely need a neologism for this one since it’s such a prevalent maneuver in the MSM):

…’’death by silence’’ is… ‘‘an astonishingly effective tactic for killing off creative work or fresh ideas or even news stories. You don’t criticise or engage with what’s being said or produced or expressed; instead you deprive someone and their work or opinion of the oxygen of attention’’.

Conservatives know totschweigetaktik all too well. It has become common to ask if a particularly egregious move by the progressives will make its way past the increasingly p.c. media threshold into the light of day. Often these stories die in the dark. The portal seems to shrink even as their tactics become more odiously obvious.

Ms. Devine explains why:

Progressives keep trying to redefine the centre in their own image, instead of adjusting their expectations and accepting the reality of a public far more entrenched in conservatism and commonsense than they can imagine.

Their attitude, based as it is on a fundamental dishonesty, leads them to all sorts of self-delusion, fakery and spin that works — because it’s done well — but only temporarily.

Progressives really believe that by willing something into being, by talking it up and writing about it and employing their combined brilliance they can somehow engineer a mass change in social sentiment. It is a core belief. But more and more the arguments run away from them.

And when those arguments “run away” (or more often, when the lid is lifted on a particular can of worms) do the elites undergo any fundamental change in their thinking? Heavens, no. Look at the eroding evidence on one of their principal orthodoxies: global warming. The more the evidence fails them, the more frantically do they patch the leaks with new “evidence”.

There is a whole laundry list of “everybody knows”, from the laughable “Food Pyramid” of the Food and Drug Administration (laughable that is, if you’re not dying from their advice) to the flimflam of their holy dogma about recycling.[pdf]

Ms. Devine continues:

They can belittle and shun people who refuse to accept the genius of their world view but they just make their enemies stronger because all the energy they expend on maintaining the charade that they represent the reasonable middle ground means they fail competently to perform their day jobs — say, running a democratic country.

Or perhaps “failing” to reflect competently and fully the reality they see and refuse to report?

This hubris was in full evidence last week when black members and supporters of the Tea Parties held a news conference at the Press Club in Washington. They gathered in front of an audience of journalists in an attempt to challenge the received — and repeated to the point of tendentiousness — wisdom of the chattering MSM. This “wisdom” they proclaim is their persistent belief, in spite of reality, that the Tea Party phenomenon is racist, specifically that it is anti-black.

This video shows the question-and-answer period at the end, after all the speeches:


Lloyd Marcus (the guy in the black hat), is one of the most public of the Tea Party Express members. He had this notice about the press conference up on his website:
- - - - - - - - -
INVITED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

• Ambassador Alan Keyes, Chairman of Conservative Majority PAC
  
• Star Parker, President, Center for Urban Renewal and Education
  
• Lloyd Marcus,Tea Party Express/ NAACPC, author of Confessions of a Black Conservative
  
• Kevin Jackson, author of Amazon best-selling book, The BIG Black Lie, President of the Black Conservative Coalition and The Black Sphere, LLC
  
• Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President of BOND Action
  
• Ted Hayes, NABS (National America’s Black Shield)
  
• William & Selena Owens, Higher Standard Publishers
  
• Mychal S. Massie, Chairman Project 21-The Nation Leadership Network of Black Conservatives
  
• Frantz Kebreau, National Director, NAACPC (National Assoc. For the Advancement of Conservative People of ALL Colors),
  
• Timothy F. Johnson, Ph.D., The Frederick Douglass Foundation,
  
• Lloyd Marcus,Tea Party Express/ NAACPC,
  
• Michael Steele, RNC Chairman,
  
• Ron Miller, president of Regular Folks United and author of SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch
  
• C. Mason Weaver, President Mason Media Company Author of It’s Ok to Leave the Plantation
  
• Emery W. McClendon, Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day,
  
• Ruth Bryant White, Editor-in-Chief of BreakingNewsJournal.Net, Leader on Conservative Moms For America and author of “Life Through The Eyes Of An Interracial Couple”
  
• John Felix, President/CEO/founder of the Caribbean-American Cultural Association, Inc. of North America
  
• Bob Parks, Member, National Advisory Council, Project 21; Video Producer, Media Research Center
  
• Bishop Harry Jackson, Pastor of Hope Christian Church and Chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition

I recognized some of the faces on the stage.

Bob Parks has a blog, and back when we were rich (i.e., employed) we contributed to his political campaign. Kevin Jackson has a blog, and I’d hoped to buy his book but by the time it came out our book budget had disappeared. I’ve had email conversations with both of them, and with Lloyd Marcus and his wife.

Since she is mentioned on the guest list above, the woman who spoke in that first video may or may not be Star Parker, a columnist at Townhall. She could also be Ruth Bryant White. I’ve never seen either woman, so it's a guess.

However, I have read Ms. Parker’s columns. She has the peculiar distinction of being banned from giving a college speech because the school authorities found Anne Coulter inflammatory. No, I’m not making that up. You know how it is: all conservatives are alike, can’t tell ’em apart, better to ban in haste than repent in cramped fury after the unpleasant experience of being exposed to conservative thought. Protect the children.

I forgot to mention another hallmark of progressives, one you can’t have failed to notice: a frightened, angry lemming-like quality that makes them actively avoid these occasions of exposure to conservative thought. Or, once exposed to the evil, they must perforce exorcise it by ridicule, banishment, and the assignment of fraudulent motives to conservative thinkers in order to diminish them in the eyes of the public.

Ms. Parker had planned to talk to the students about the impact of abortion on minorities, and the early history of Planned Parenthood’s links with eugenics. Which may be the real reason she was uninvited by this Catholic school. Can’t let the children know the ugly beginnings of Planned Parenthood or PP’s less-than-saintly patron saint, Margaret Sanger.

The big surprise (for me) was Niger Innis, from CORE. He’s not on Lloyd Marcus’ invitation list, but he sure made his presence known. My, oh my, things have changed. Watch out, NAACP: your irrelevance is starting to show.

This is a four minute video from Bob Park’s site, showing his speech during the first section of that Press Club conference:


I wish all the speeches given at that conference were available.

There is one on YouTube of Alan Keyes, here.

Another partial speech, by Niger Innis, put up by CNN, can’t be downloaded. View it here (you have to wade through the commerical).


Here is the report from CNS:

Black conservative leaders from around the country gathered in Washington on Wednesday to denounce the NAACP for its resolution charging that elements of the Tea Party movement are racist.

“The accusation by the NAACP is just another example of playing the race card because of failed policies,” conservative talk show host Herman Cain said at the event, which was organized by the Tea Party Express and held at the National Press Club.

“And it’s being used as a distraction from what really ought to be happening and what the NAACP, in particular, ought to be doing -- and that is focusing on many of the problems in the black community.”

Cain said in his opinion, “the NAACP has lost its relevance and they are looking for relevance in all the wrong places.”

Niger Innis, spokesperson for the Congress of Racial Equality, said the NAACP has betrayed its own legacy by adopting the same tactic it was formed to fight in the first place. “The same racial terror that was employed by whites in hoods is now being employed by blacks and whites in suits,” Innis said. “The victims now are Americans who just want to exercise their First Amendment rights,” namely members and leaders of the Tea Party movement, he said.

…Innis and others at the event also blamed the Black Congressional [Caucus] for injecting racism into politics and using it as a weapon against the Tea Party movement.

They noted that the first racism charge against the Tea Party movement followed rallies on Capitol Hill against the Democrats’ health care. “And it was the fraudulent and phony charge issued by the Congressional Black Caucus, or some clueless members of the Congressional Black Caucus, that alleged that the ‘N’ word was dropped and that people were purposefully spit upon,” Innis recalled.

Innis mentioned that one of the Tea Party factions wrote a letter to the Caucus, stating they “take very seriously any charge of racism within our ranks” and asking the caucus to join them in investigating the matter. “The Congressional Black Caucus has yet to respond to this letter,” Innis said.

Kevin Jackson, president of the Black Conservative Coalition, said the Congressional Black Caucus makes race an issue to further its liberal agenda and keep its members in office.

Americans of different nationalities, creeds, colors, and religions mingle at grocery stores and sporting events without “a hint of racism,” Jackson said. “Yet as soon as a piece of legislation comes up, the Democrats roll out [the Congressional Black Caucus] as their intimidation group,” similar to what used to happen with the KKK.

Speaker after speaker at the event said that the Tea Party isn’t about race or racism but about all Americans who value the free market, limited government and the Constitution.

“We have an obligation to defend what made us great,” Mychal Massie, chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network, said. “This is the greatest country in the world, and it will continue to be only as long as Americans stand up and fight to keep it that way.”

Mr. Massie is correct, though standing up for America is becoming harder since the malignant growth of Political Class leaves the space in which we have to stand much smaller with each passing election.

I guess we'll just have to stand closer together...and refuse to capitulate to their totschweigetaktik.

Louder, please.


Amended on August 8th 2010: correction for the spelling for "totschweigtaktik" to totschweigetaktik.

Thanks to Liz for the heads-up.