Briefs

A Clarification

In my last full post, I expressed some anger that regular joes are getting short shrift in our popular fiction. Thanks to an ensuing Facebook conversation, it has come to my attention that such a polemic could easily be misinterpreted as leftist-style special pleading. Be assured that this is not the case.

Fiction is not a zero-sum game. That's actually what the SJB identitarians get so horrifically wrong in their various representation crusades. Depicting queer lives or black lives or Asian lives or whatever does not actually require that "straight, white cis-men" "get out of the way." Thanks to Amazon and the indie scene in general, literally anyone can write a story about literally anything and sell it on the open market. The only catch is that this requires work. First, you must sit your butt down in front of a screen and actually start typing something. Then you must put in the effort to connect with your likely audience and persuade them to part with their beer money -- which, generally speaking, demands you skip the hectoring lectures and actually craft three-dimensional characters and strong, sensible plots that speak to universal human concerns. Tough, I know, but everyone faces that same standard, and I think that's what true fairness entails.

So no: I'm not a Marxist, and I'm not asking for affirmative action for yet another so-called victim class. Read that last post as a general cri du coeur against any ideology that seeks the erasure of the American average from modern American books and from modern American screens. Yes, there are stories that can still be told about the derisively-termed "Podunk USA" and its working-class citizens, and I hope that other writers will agree and subsequently get down to business.

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That Being Said...

I think it's a mistake to outright deny that we have class issues here in the US -- or to poo-poo any of the subsequent resentments. There's a lot of solid scholarship out there that shows the growing reproductive, geographic, and cultural isolation of the managerial class, and this phenomenon is having a deleterious impact on our national solidarity. It's not good that the people who are, for the moment, in charge of our mainstream media, our universities, and our bureaucracies all seem to come from the same incestuous milieu. It's not good that, as a consequence, the working class is hardly ever portrayed positively - or even accurately - by the same.

Mike Rowe has it right: If you see a guy on TV with a working class job, the probability approaches one that he will be unattractive and/or flashing butt-crack. And that has knock-on effects down the line. Suddenly, we can't fill perfectly decent jobs because welders are just not our kind, dear. Suddenly, kids are taking on student loan debt to pursue credentials they may not even need.

Am I upset that this is happening? Yes. Do I understand and sympathize with the grumbling about "those out-of-touch elites and globalists"? Actually, I'm guilty of such grumbling myself. Does this mean I hate rich people? Not at all. I'm not bothered by the relative material wealth of the managerial class; I'm bothered by their blindness to the legitimate concerns of the folks they seek to rule.

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Speaking of Which...

We can add Manchester to the long list of reasons why I don't trust the ruling class in the West. Once again, these fools failed to protect their constituents and are now trotting out the same tired, patronizing rhetoric in response:

"Don't let this change us!" But you see, you are letting it change us; our Western societies used to be bastions of free speech, but now we're increasingly being told to stuff our feelings and keep our mouths shut because Muslims might get offended.

"#NotAll!" Yes, we know that. We also know that those who are terrorists make up a minority that is far from insignificant, and that many more hold beliefs that are antithetical to Western liberalism -- which makes circumspection on immigration from the Muslim world a wholly reasonable course of action.

"Combat hate with love!" Are you twelve? That's not how it worked when Hitler was gassing the Jews or the Japanese were perpetrating equally atrocious crimes in China. ISIS and other Islamic terror outfits have essentially declared war on us; the proper way to respond is to declare war right back. Pacifism has never, ever worked against totalitarian ideologies; retribution has.

Sigh. I don't know what it's going to take to get these numbskulls to accept the truth. But I hope it happens before a dirty bomb goes off in one of our cities.

Never Forget

15 years ago, I was fresh out of college and working as a research assistant at Johns Hopkins. Then this happened -- and I woke up.

Orlando and Three Things I'm Sick of Hearing

Over the weekend, yet another Islamic terrorist opened fire on a crowd of unarmed Americans -- and yet again, members of the sheepfold are bleating out their approved stock phrases in response. It's so wearisome - so predictable - that I could just scream. Realizing, however, that this would be less than constructive, I've decided to post my replies to typical gems of leftist pseudo-thought instead.

• Not all Muslims! 

Yes, we know this. I have several students right now who are observant enough to be fasting for Ramadan, and none of them would ever dream of attacking their American neighbors. Indeed, one of my Iranian seniors wrote a college admissions essay expressing her horror over ISIS and religious extremism in general. The thing is, when you continually deny that a substantial proportion of the world's Muslim population holds views that are fundamentally incompatible with liberal Western democracy, you're not helping the moderates who want to reform their religion from the inside.

Look at it this way: I'm Catholic, but I happen to think Martin Luther was one of the best things that ever happened to the Church. Why? Because Luther's 95 Theses forced Catholic leaders to grapple with corruption in their ranks and inspired our theologians to clarify and deepen our doctrine. Similarly, when the papacy lost its chunk of Italy (save Vatican City), it freed our Holy Fathers to confront the modern world and incorporate its best aspects into our catechism. This is what inside and outside challenges can do for Islam too -- provided we don't shield our Muslim brothers and sisters from critique on the misguided - and frankly bigoted - belief that they are in special need of defending.

In short: Stop being condescending. You're making things worse. 

• We need more gun control!

As a disabled soon-to-be gun owner, I invite you to fuck the hell off. Criminals don't care about your laws. That's why they are criminals. Adding more prohibitions and regulations won't stop them; indeed, it didn't stop Mateen, who was fully licensed. The only thing that will stop an active shooter is a public policy respecting our God-given and Constitutional right to defend ourselves. As a press release from the Pink Pistols put it:

“This is exactly the kind of heinous act that justifies our existence. At such a time of tragedy, let us not reach for the low-hanging fruit of blaming the killer’s guns. Let us stay focused on the fact that someone hated gay people so much they were ready to kill or injure so many. A human being did this. The human being’s tools are unimportant when compared to the bleakness of that person’s soul. I say again, GUNS did not do this. A human being did this, a dead human being. Our job now is not to demonize the man’s tools, but to condemn his acts and work to prevent such acts in the future.”

Patton’s concerns are that knee-jerk gun-control efforts may make preventing future events harder rather than easier, as only the law-abiding potential victims will be affected by such laws. “It is difficult, if not impossible, to foresee such an event,” continues Patton, “But if they cannot be prevented, then they must be stopped as fast as someone tries to start them.”

• This is the fault of Christian conservatives!

Nope. There's an objective qualitative difference between raising doubts about the gay lifestyle and killing fifty people in a nightclub. Indeed, even picketing a funeral sporting signs that proclaim that "God Hates Fags" - while a shitty and theologically incorrect thing to do - doesn't rise to that level.

We Christians, by and large, simply want our rights to free speech and free association respected. We don't want to be forced to celebrate something that violates our religious beliefs. But that doesn't mean we want our gay neighbors to be punished and/or executed; in fact, Catholic teaching condemns violence and discrimination against those with same-sex attraction. In paragraph 2358, the catechism states outright that homosexuals "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity." It's no wonder, then, that Pope Francis released a statement immediately denouncing Mateen's actions!

Bottom line? Blaming anyone or anything other than Omar Mateen and his vicious, satanic ideology for what happened in Orlando is disgusting, dishonest, and borderline racist. Quit covering for him. Recognize that Mateen had agency and stop treating him like an infant.

Yes. This.

I wholly endorse this message.