Programming note: Aside from Tucker tonight, I'll be here tomorrow, Tuesday, for another Clubland Q&A taking questions from Mark Steyn Club members live around the planet at 4pm North American Eastern Standard Time/9pm Greenwich Mean Time. For the hour of transmission in your neck of the woods, please check local listings.
~Guest-hosting for Rush on Friday, I mentioned the strange need of the right to virtue-signal to their detractors - as in the stampede of Congressional Republicans to distance themselves from their colleague Steve King over an infelicitous interview with The New York Times. Democrats never do this; Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam declare that the Jews are pushing defective marijuana on black men in order to turn them gay - which would appear to be a prima facie slur on at least four Democrat constituencies: blacks, gays, Jews and potheads. Yet Clinton, Obama et al speak not a word against Calypso Louie.
There was another conservative virtue-signaling stampede over the weekend. A short video from the Lincoln Memorial went "viral" (notwithstanding its ubiquity, I'm keeping the word in scare-quotes because, like any other virus, this one should be contained): it purported to show a group of Catholic schoolboys in MAGA hats harassing an elderly Native American drummer. The lads were instantly identified as students from Covington Catholic High School, which I'd never heard of but is clearly the kind of tony white-privilege joint where they book Brett Kavanaugh to spike the punch at the gang-rape prom. So naturally social media instantly convicted them and moved on to the usual doxing and death threats. The school itself leapt to dissociate itself from its own pupils and threatened to expel them.
Midst the present fevers, my advice and practice is that, when the media are in lockstep on a particular "narrative", proceed with caution and, if you must join the great thundering herd of independent minds, tag along at the tail end out of sight. A genuinely conservative temperament should be wary of crying "Me too!" and scampering after the media-Democrat-cultMarx bandwagon - if only because, regardless of the wrongs and rights, no true conservative should assist in furthering the nano-second due process of trial by social media, through which whole lives are destroyed by the reflex twitching drive-thru jury of Twitter. "Sentence first - verdict afterwards," said Alice's Queen. Hang him high - and we'll figure out later what, if anything, he's guilty of. That's about as deeply unconservative a proposition as one could find. The cure is worse than whatever disease (racism, sexism, transphobia, Islamophobia) it claims to be healing.
Yet, instead of a prudent skepticism, my former colleagues at National Review joined the stampede and decided to get way out in front of the story. My old friend Jay Nordlinger was anguished:
The images of those red-hat kids surrounding and mocking that old Indian are unbearable. Absolutely unbearable. An American disgrace.
Of course, the virtue-signaling availed him naught from fellow Tweeters. Alex Natt:
'Old Indian'?
Tracy Kennedy:
Yeah, 'Native American man' or 'Indigenous Man' or even 'Vietnam Vet'...
Etc.
National Review decided to up their game and published a piece by their deputy managing editor, Nicholas Frankovich (presumably the assistant to Jason Lee Steorts), with the arresting headline:
The Covington Students Might as Well Have Just Spit on the Cross
Unfortunately for the scolding schoolmarms of the right, the facts were not as they appeared to be from that brief clip. Over at Reason (with hindsight, a better name for a magazine than I used to think it was), Robby Soave watched the two hours of surrounding footage, and found - surprise, surprise! - that it told an entirely different story:
Far from engaging in racially motivated harassment, the group of mostly white, MAGA-hat-wearing male teenagers remained relatively calm and restrained despite being subjected to incessant racist, homophobic, and bigoted verbal abuse by members of the bizarre religious sect Black Hebrew Israelites...
They call them crackers, faggots, and pedophiles. At the 1:20 mark (which comes after the Phillips incident) they call one of the few black students the n-word and tell him that his friends are going to murder him and steal his organs. At the 1:25 mark, they complain that "you give faggots rights," which prompted booing from the students. Throughout the video they threaten the kids with violence, and attempt to goad them into attacking first. The students resisted these taunts admirably: They laughed at the hecklers, and they perform a few of their school's sports cheers.
Under sustained crude and obnoxious provocation, the boys were remarkably good-humored throughout - a credit to the school that threatens to expel them.
Halfway through, Jay's "old Indian" decided to insert himself in between the Black Hebrew Israelites and the MAGA cracker-faggot-paedo schoolboys, and start his "Native American drumming". A little ethnic drumming goes a long way with me. Have you ever heard that Japanese taiko drumming? It's not exactly Buddy Rich. So I wouldn't welcome someone doing it in my face, and needless to say, if a white male drummer (from the Edinburgh Tattoo, say) went up to some black kids and started drumming, it would be a hate crime.
Nathan Phillips, on the other hand, is a revered tribal elder - so revered he plays one in a "music" video that has 380 million hits (best to hit the mute button before pressing play):
Almost nothing about this story is as reported. Jay Nordlinger's "old Indian" isn't that old: he was born in 1955, which, not to be ungallant or anything, puts him in slightly-older-brother territory to Jay - who has known some seriously old men, like the recently departed Bernard Lewis, born 1916. Nathan Phillips seems to be some sort of Native American version of Quaker Oats pitchman Wilford Brimley, who's been playing old since Cocoon in 1985, when he was barely fifty yet was cast as a contemporary of Don Ameche, Hume Cronyn, Jack Gilford and other chaps three decades his senior. In fact, Steve Sailer wonders if Nathan Phillips is, in fact, a "Vietnam vet", at least in the quaint and possibly obsolescent sense of having been in the vicinity of Vietnam while wearing a military uniform. All US forces were withdrawn in March 1973, when Mr Phillips would have been either a few weeks past his eighteenth birthday, or still seventeen and in drum school.
Curious. But, as the appellate judges say (hey, welcome to my world), we need not reach the merits of Mr Phillips' antiquity, because long before that question arises the official media narrative turns out to be thoroughly bogus. This was just another fake hate crime - I believe you can do a Master's in them at Oberlin. My old boss at National Review, Rich Lowry, has deleted his Tweet, as has Jay Nordlinger (seconding Rich with a somewhat perfunctory "same here"), and the spit-on-the-Cross piece by their hysterical junior editor has disappeared from the website. By contrast, over at The New York Times, the in-house conservative, Ross Douthat, can rouse himself to no more than ecumenical scolding:
Good rules for life: Don't let your Catholic school's students wear MAGA hats on a field trip for the March for Life.
Don't *immediately* make a teenager a symbol of everything you hate about your political enemies based on a short video clip. Give it a day at least.
That doesn't quite do it for me. What's disturbing about this fake hate crime is not that the Twitter mob scented blood in its nostrils and went bounding after its prey, but that a big chunk of Conservative Inc piled on, as enthusiastically as the left. And Jay Nordlinger's finger-wagging about an "American disgrace" is absurd in its sanctimony: However you wish to characterize a professional tribal elder intervening in a showdown between upscale Catholic private-school pupils and "Black Hebrew Israelites", it isn't an "American" disgrace. An American disgrace is the declining life expectancy of white males due to addiction, or the collapse of the family in rural America, or a bipartisan political class admitting millions of unskilled illegal immigrants to the country so that MS-13 gangs are now a fact of life in suburban Long Island in order that the Dems can get voters and the GOP's donors can get cheap labor ...or any one of a ton of other "American disgraces" Conservative Inc doesn't talk about because it only takes to the field on the left's terms.
I talked on Rush last Friday about the folly, in philosophical terms, of always accepting your opponents' premises, even unto accepting and advancing the notion that "western civilization" is hate speech. How is that in the interest of even the most milquetoast and watery version of "conservatism"?
But accepting not just your opponents' framing of the argument but their most repulsive totalitarian rituals is even worse. The Orwellian Twitterstorm is something utterly disgusting: It reduces man to a cyber-jackal, feasting on whatever prey is tossed in his path. I have argued, at some length, that you cannot have truly conservative government in a liberal culture. Culture is like air - it's all around, and you don't even think about it. So we live in an age of social-media feeding frenzies that can vaporize a fellow's Oscar-hosting gig or drive an unfortunate porn actress to suicide. There is nothing in the least bit "conservative" about such a world: It's like the young student in Milan Kundera's great novel of Warsaw Pact totalitarianism, The Joke, facing the party committee and wondering why none of his friends will speak up for him - except that it's now at Spaceballs Ludicrous Speed, and the respectable right cannot even bring itself to forgo the pleasure of getting played for saps. Every time.
~We had a busy weekend at SteynOnline starting with a few Rush moments, a Pennsylvania radio appearance, and Howard Dean Canadianizing his "I have a scream" epic. Our Saturday movie date offered my two favorite Cate Blanchett film scenes, and our Sunday song selection bounced the buckboard with "Buttons and Bows". If you were too busy preparing for a hard Brexit, soft Brexit or adjustable-sleep-number Brexit all weekend long, I hope you'll want to catch up with one or three of the foregoing as a new week begins.
My appearance on WPHT was, of course, in service of Dennis Miller's and my impending arrival in the Keystone State together on stage for the first time. We'll be starting the tour next month in Reading, Pennsylvania and later hitting the pronunciation minefield of Wilkes-Barre. And remember that with VIP tickets you not only enjoy the best seats but you get to meet Dennis and me after the show.
Catch you on the telly tonight with Tucker - and live across the planet for Clubland Q&A at 4pm North American Eastern/9pm GMT on Tuesday.
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Just a wee thought to expand on "Conservative Inc. disgraces itself..." Can't disgrace itself for something it never was from the get-go. The moment 'Conservative' sprouted out of media mainstream, of claiming to be the voice of others, it should have been instantly suspect as not being what it loudly was posing to be. Those who wrap themselves in this 'robe' have been very consistent over time in reinforcing the impression that they sound exactly like students crammed for the all-night 'conservative' exam from the purchased study guide notes - all the 'right' answers. Plastic. Fake. This is what 'liberals' think about this subject, this is what 'conservatives think' about this subject yadda-yadda. Really? How long do we all go on having to endure this conflict-producing thesis-antithesis narrative pushed constantly on everyone? It's fake. It doesn't allow thoughtful discussions. Never.
Traditionally, the "elders' are 'conservative' in that they have always had the role in society to govern with the knowledge and wisdom of their life experience, to know what maintains the society, to hold in the youth from wrecking it before they understood how it was held together.
The "Elder" had to prove to the society that he or she could serve in that function. What primitive society didn't know what a 'loser' was? What primitive society gave authority on anything to a loser - it's always been a tough world out there, add in Mastodons and sabre-toothed tigers. Who gets the role of tribal agriculture wise woman or man? The one who was all talk, but no crops or the one with the 'green thumb?' Who had a thousand stories of the hugest caribou ever ever, that got away, or the one who brought a steady stream of average ones home to eat? Survival.
From the exact same crowd that pushed 'trust no one over thirty' is now ooh-ooh 'elders' should be recognized instantly as not to be trusted with anything important.
Bill Kristol's might have been the best. "Look how terrible Trump is. If that was a guy in a McCain hat, McCain would have already apologized." Indeed he would have, Bill, indeed he would have. You hit the nail on the head there, even if you subsequently deleted with no explanation.
Doing the work the media won't, the Omaha tribe is governed by a "tribal council". There appears to be no such position as "elder". It would appear to mean "old tribal member". There was a scandal about the tribal council misappropriating federal funds. Current tribal chairman is Michael Wolfe. Most links to tribe-related websites are broken.
It does not seem that he spent much of his life on the actual Omaha reservation. Obviously as of the 2000 article, he hadn't.
This is the 2000 article I meant:
https://www.omaha.com/news/nation/who-is-nathan-phillips-years-ago-omaha-tribe-member-said/article_6cc049c4-d6d8-5e3c-8ee6-939a203682af.html
I was initially misled because it was "updated" a couple days ago - but it's actually a profile of Phillips from 19 years ago.
Omaha tribe constitution
https://www.loc.gov/law/help/american-indian-consts/PDF/36026553.pdf
From 1936
Note accepted and signed off by Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior
As I'm sure you noticed, the word 'elder' doesn't appear.
Thank you for a brilliant column, Mark, but an even bigger thank you for waiting until you had all the facts and therefore, the truth, before you commented on this disgusting incident. You set an excellent example of true journalism. Some thing that is totally foreign to the radical leftist propaganda mongers of the main stream media.
I am bitterly disappointed in those conservative commentators who put the boot in straight away with no investigation of the facts. They showed no fairness and no regard for the young boys reputations they were trying to destroy. I would expect that irresponsible behaviour from the radical leftists, for they are truly evil, but not from conservatives. I suspect, then, that they are conservatives in name only. I was also disgusted with those school authorities, who did not support their own students, by finding out the truth and facts first before commenting.
I was very impressed with those young Covington boys, too. As the video evidence shows, they were clearly minding their own business when they were attacked from all sides. They showed great self-control, calmness, patience, good will and incredible maturity. A real credit to their parents.
This was clearly a racist and religious attack on these children. It can not get much more despicable than this. They were attacked because they represent every thing that the intolerant, violent leftists hate: European descent; Catholic-Christian; conservative; male; pro-life and supporting President Trump.
Right on Felicity, well-said.
Having a man walk up to you and beat a drumstick on a drum in your face is a provocative move, meant to arouse a response. The fact that he got just a tolerant smile, and no angry words or pushing back, shows great restraint. The only better response would be to break out into a song using the same beat as the drum, like "Smoke gets in your eyes."
Criticizing the boy for "smirking" is the most hypicritical part of the left wing media's criticism. John Stewart, Trevor Noah, et al, make their living from smirking about their superiority to their critics. Hillary Clinton is the smirking champ, getting off a smirk at Monica Lewinsky while denying her the entitlement of being a #MeToo victim because she was a "legal adult", which somehow did not disqualify the accusers of Weinstein, et al.
That actually is what the kids did, at first, because they didn't realize what a creepy weirdo they were dealing with. They were chanting, and the guy came up and starting drumming and chanting, so they chanted along with him. The deceptively edited video made it look like they were "mocking" him.
As he stood there, drumming in the one kid's face, and his entourage started yelling racist comments about going back to Europe, they started to realize what they were dealing with.
For fake news to be real, someone has to take one for the team to show that their cause is real. Just like they found some women for Kananaugh, they found some white guys to play the role of the villain for another virtue signaling announcement to remind everyone who's good and who's not. It doesn't make any difference if the boys are genuine haters or manufactured by the left, their base ate it up. Facts never mattered so long as they feel as if the world now knows that they're victims of something and deserve sympathy and compassion. These people represent the description of life told in a famous line from the play Macbeth.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
Oops! OK the students are real. My mistake. Still, doesn't take much these days to set off the left.
"Real" in the sense that they exist, not in the sense that anything vaguely resembling the Left's version of events happened.
I don't see this episode derailing the left's attack on America. But this could well be the beginning of the end for National Review as conservative magazine. What happened to NR?
Those of us in the pre-Alt Right...I'd put Steve Sailor and former NR Editor Peter Brimelow in that category, have been asking that question for a very long time. Conservatism Inc. seems you can preserve low marginal tax rates and even lower rates on capital gains while acquiescing to the demographic displacement of the only group that supports those ideas (and gun rights, and truly free speech). They seem to thing that if you disavow and denounce and dance salsa and genuflect before MLKJ enough, that poor folks aren't going to, eventually, start demanding a great deal of wealth transfer. They seem to think that if you go along with an H. Clinton or a T. Blair in all things cultural, that'll be the end of it.
No, neoliberal politics, like 'diversity', is just a transition phase.
I think there may be a serious psychological group dementia phenomenon here, you've heard of Munchausen-by-proxy where mothers would poison or injure their own children to gain sympathy and attention from others for having a terminally ill child. Is this any different, Victim-by-proxy? Yes, I WAS the victim of racism/white privilege just look! Just like the numerous examples of "Whole Foods wrote faggot on my cake" or "White customers write a racist note for black waitress" and they all turn out to be complete bull sheet. But the truth comes out and it matters not, I just don't know how we can possibly combat this
That's a great analogy/insight. One million soccer mom's in their 75% white, 12% Asian suburbs are denouncing via facebook and twitter kids that look like their own sons, 'saving' the poor Indian [black, Latino, Muslim...] by proxy...and far away from the actual article.
Thank you Mr. Young. I just don't know how to get around this. I mean really, if racism and bigotry are so pervasive and commonplace as the left claims, why the need to completely make this crap up and lie about it??? And worse, the people shoveling this BS never, ever get called out. I mean seriously, what kind of person would claim to have been surrounded by MAGA hat wearing white teenage boys who intimidated and threatened and were *this* close to beating my ass when nothing could be further from the truth and there's video to prove it??????? And this lying sack of sheet is still being revered in the media even though a little bit of digging would have revealed that he is very much an unsavory character...
GK Chesterton described Cardinal John Henry Newman's "theory of development":
"All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are.
"But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again; that is, you must be always having a revolution. Briefly, if you want the old white post you must have a new white post."
That was my understanding of what the "standard" stood for in The Weekly Standard, and I thought it served that purpose for many years. This article by Mark repaints the post white. As an ideology, where does conservatism live? It lives in people, who are fallible, error-prone, and who tend to continue on a trajectory of error under the property of inertia. It's an irritant like a grain of sand that an oyster coats for relief that produces the pearl, and this was a beauty (and white).
So. Time has passed. The main villains in the piece, the Black Hebrew Israelites, have become invisible. They are riding the wave of Black Privilege and are untouchable and unmentionable. Just saying.
What's funny is that NR used to be so pro-Catholic (see Katherine Jean Lopez and WFB) that not a day would pass on The Corner that you didn't get some homily on how wonderful Catholicism was. I guess that's another tradition that has bit the dust there.
Well, it also seems that many of the NR are not people of Christian (or any other) faith. This is the central weakness of atheist conservatives. They have no anchor. They have a gravitational attraction to the premises of the left.
Maybe, but the worst offender in this case, Nicholas Frankovich, is Catholic (and so am I).
So who told Ross D. what not to wear when he was a high school smart ass? Why doesn't it occur to Ross, as he typed that out, "wait a minute, catholic school-dress code-certainly bans vulgar obscene etc.- if it's within the dress code, why should high school nannies tell my kid what he/she can't wear?" That should be reflexive response for a conservative. Ordinarily, high school teachers LOVE political interest from students, unless it's the wrong kind. And none of these alarm bells went off for Ross?
Ah, well. I saw the "spit on the cross" column and Nordlinger's comment before the second shoe dropped and the story was still "maga boys mock elderly native american", and I was wondering then, "an indigenous peoples' march? On the same day as right-to-life march?" We know the Roe v. Wade anniversary march brings virulent choicers to the rope lines for some actual spitting, why are we jumping in by assuming the bona fides of Mr. Phillips? I can forgive them assuming the worst about the boys, I've had that same smirk for sixty years. Then the rest of the story hit, and so many commenters ON THE RIGHT were too busy walking back when they could have shut up for a couple hours and then given the horselaugh to NYT "complicated" blather. Just like Mark Steyn did! So some are calling for Nicholas to be fired, but I say no. It's not like he repeated a Bob Hope joke.
The Martin Latsis-ization of our society continues at breakneck speed.
Let us all pray it does not end with the actual breaking of necks.
Well, it turns out that "Vietnam vet" would have been a mistake. Funny how that works. On no evidence whatsoever, I would have given 50/50 odds that this guy wasn't a Vietnam vet, just because he's clearly exactly the type of guy who likes bludgeoning people with un-criticizable identities.
WaPo still says he "served in the Marines from 1972-1976". Over/under on THAT being false?
Looks like he did, as a refrigerator mechanic, which he described as a "recon ranger". Some wag called him a "freon ranger".
The Weekly Standard used to have these issues, and now they don't have as many. In fact they have none.
I'm going to have to have a word with the Elders of Zion at the next ZOG meeting to find out who was the massive big Jewish blabbermouth at the Defective Weed That Turns Black People Gay laboratory. Honestly, we finally come up with a strain of weed that can change the sexual orientation of racial minorities and what do these foolish Yids do?? Yap about it to Farakhan!
Clearly, Trump took the shipment that was destined for the Black Hebrew Israelites. Now he's gay and they're angry.
Sloppy, sloppy.
Finally some Hebrew Nationals in the Democrat Party. Hot dog!
I know, right?!??!?!
There was just something about the episode that seemed "off" to me from the git-go. I find myself less enamored with National Review with each passing day.
One item you may be able to answer is if Mr Phillips status as a tribal elder was bestowed on him by the press or if this is self bestowed or if in the Omaha tribe has an official position on 'tribal elder.'
Maybe if this is just age related then you could describe Nancy Pelosi as Democrat HR Elder, Bernie Sanders Senate Elder, Donald Trump , Presidential Elder.
I'd really like to know that, too. We already know he isn't really a "Vietnam veteran".
http://time.com/5511320/lesson-covington-high-school-conflict/
So I e-mailed Jeffrey Kluger who wrote the above article and asked him and he kindly promptly answered and wrote (this is entire response)
"Let's see: He belongs to a tribe (so we check the "tribal" box) and he's, um, old ( so we're good on "elder" too.) We talk about church elders and synagogue elders all the time. It is an informal designation of respect, nothing to see here."
EOM
So that is kind of a Q.E.D. Res Ipsa Loquitur kind of answer.
RM
OK so in other words, no, it pretty much means nothing.
I'm pretty sure "Elder" is an official position in at least some churches. Presbyterians, for instance:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyterian_polity
Putting "synagogue elder" into google turns up extremely few news articles, most of which are not actually about people in synagogues. You mostly get articles explaining what it meant in the Bible. I'd wonder if this guy could actually produce an instance of Time magazine using the phrase.
So false equivalence.
Mark replies:
A search of the Time archive reveals that the phrase has never appeared in the magazine in the course of its history. So Mister Nothing-to-See-Here was just shooting his mouth.
I don't think it means nothing. I think it in opposition to the youth of the students; to make the 'conflict' seem that much more disrespectful. That's what is funny about what is going on in Congress where the kids, the newbies, are giving the Elders what-for and believe me when the Elders came out to give a response to President Trump's address to the Nation they looked like they where one step from a LPN. The glib response of Mr Kluger means he does not get the power of words and he is just parroting in a NPC kind of way the common dictat from the central committee. Mr Phillips was born in 1955 so using his age is kind of like setting the Minnie Mendoza line for belonging to elderhood now.
You are right. I meant it has no objective meaning, like "an elder of the Presbyterian Church" would. He's a "tribal elder" like my dad is a "Wisconsin elder".
An interesting contrast is with the mobbing of Prof Christakis. Talk about kids disrespecting their elders. I think that's a parallel that would be worth pushing a bit.
Mark, appreciate your reading this, and why am I not surprised.
Mark, I quit National Review when you did.
Wow, 100+ comments! Is this a first here?
Probably not, but this column and the sickening story behind it have obviously touched a nerve, and rightly so. I wish I had something brilliant to add, but I can only say how impressed (and intimidated) I am by the quality of the posts here, a few of which come close to matching that of the column itself. Perhaps one day I'll contribute something as articulate and insightful as what passes for an average, throwaway comment around here, but I fear the chances I'll be the billionth monkey that produces Hamlet isn't high.
The MSC is really blossoming into something unique and wonderful, like a little orchestra set among the "thundering herd of independent minds". (I had to quote that line again. A self-contradictory and yet maddeningly perfect description of the reality of contemporary media, social and otherwise). For me, this place serves as a low-cost, reliable, one-a-day anti-depressant, but without any noticeable side-effects, save for a desire to learn how to express myself better.
The biggest stories seem to involve Catholics: Rush listener Terry Duerr's non sequitur on Mark last Jan for commending the King James Bible; Brett Kavanaugh; this one. And National Review is somewhat of a Catholic-leaning publication. Sen Kamala Harris, who just announced her presidential candidacy (obvious two weeks earlier with a new unreadable book out) recently conducted an anti-Catholic inquisition in the Senate, aimed at the Knights of Columbus(!). That followed on the heels of her fellow California Senator, Dianne Feinstein, saying the Force - no, the dogma - "lives loudly in you" to Amy Coney Barrett during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for her nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Huh, interesting. Well, I think Mark once said (dangerously) that Muslims were the new gays. Are Catholics the new Jews?
Anyhow, not surprised about Sen. Harris going after those K of C guys. They're a dodgy bunch. All those BBQs and bake sales. There's obviously some sort of conspiracy going on.
Catholics appear to be the mission field for the Church of State, judging by the crosshairs.
"Don't Leave Home Without Them"
The Swiss Army Knife of Truth
Steyn - Victor Davis Hanson - Andrew McCarthy
Truth - Justice and the American Way
The BarBarians are at the Gate, NR give VDH and McCarthy a platform and are saying to them "please save us", from where I'm standing "too late".
The latest attempt (so far) to smear the Covington youf is a picture of a high school basketball game where the Covington fans are dressed in black (the team's color), which a few of the boys take as far as blackening their skin. At least one appears to have added the white highlights associated with "blackface". They are heckling an opposing player (this is why home fans are often called "the sixth man"), an African American, trying to inbound the ball. It's an unflattering portrait as presented, but irrelevant to the boys in the MAGA hats. First, dousing yourself in the color of your team is common: look at the crowd shots of any televised college or pro sport (football and basketball primarily). Blackening (or reddening, or yellowing, or any color of the rainbow-ing) one's skin is a symbol of team pride, not racial mockery. Second, while the crowd is white and the player is black, there's no evidence that the heckling is filled with racist comments (no evidence against, either). Third, the picture seems to date from 2012, when the Rally for Life boys would have been in middle school, too young to be afflicted by "toxic masculinity". So, we are left with perhaps one racially insensitive young man from six or seven years ago, wholly unrelated to the MAGA lads in Washington, as evidence of their guilt of...well, whatever the crime special of the day is.
Oh, yes, one more. One Covington grad, now at college, is accused of raping a girl he was dating. (The case has been referred to a grand jury.) If rabid fans and one charge of sexual assault (after graduation) are enough evidence to declare the school a hotbed of racism and white privilege, I fear just about every high school will have to be shuttered along with Covington. Not a bad idea, if it keeps them from entering the debtor's prison masquerading as a college degree.
Getting a strong sense that Mr Phillips may be less than 1/1024 a USMC Vietnam veteran. I hope someone with knowledge of these things will investigate.
"Good rules for life: Don't let your Catholic school's students wear MAGA hats on a field trip for the March for Life."
So the accusations against the schoolboys have now been reduced to "I don't like these whippersnappers' clothes and opinions and attitude!" Sounds like a pretty solid old angry white man's complaint to me; the NYT just needs to add a "Get off my Lincoln Memorial's lawn!" while waving their collective cane.
Hi everybody. Just joined up to add to the accolades this column has received below. I have been disgusted with the false narrative on the Covington Catholic kids, and the unwillingness to acknowledge the rush to judgment assuming the worst possible motives, all weekend. Then, more disgustingly, NRO joined in the anvil chorus beating on these kids, only to memory-hole everything (as if such a thing were even possible) when the truth came out. Reading Mark's column and your comments about it, I know now that I'm far from alone in thinking this way, and that I'm among friends.
All Leftist narratives are false.
They all have elements of truth in them, but they are false nevertheless.
Unfortunately, much of what passes for history is polluted with Leftist narratives.
Granted, I only bothered to look up one article, but am I missing something on the Steve King thing? The 'list' of his wrongdoings included voting for bills to make English the official language...is this another case of trial by Twitter, where no one actually looks at the substance? It is the same with these young boys, doing wholesome things like school cheers after a pro-life rally, so many people did not even watch the video! But the saddest is truly those who have, and see what they want to anyway. I called out a guy on Twitter (that was my first mistake, taking to Twitter, I know) who said he wanted to punch the smirking kid in the face. When I said it was pretty sad a grown man wants to punch a child he said it was a figure of speech! For all their talk of 'dog whistles,' Leftists can hear so many things that aren't said, and yet can't hear what actually is said.
Fantastic column.
And too measured, even. I'm tired that the default position of the culture is my sons are bad for being White Christian boys. But without a doubt, I'm more mad at the smug, sanctimonious conservative white Christians willing to immolate my sons for their own sake than I am at my actual enemies.
6 years from now, who will defend Western Civilization? Mark Steyn, Tucker Carlson, Amy Wax, VDH, and a handful of others, but still only venal politicians will remain. I'd like the rest of the establishment to go bankrupt now.
This incident reminds me of the Battle of Beecher's island in 1868 where 50 U.S Army Scouts were attacked by 1000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors under Chief Roman Nose. The Scouts held out for 8 days on a sand bar in what was then called the North Fork of the Republican River in northeastern Colorado before being relieved. Meanwhile on the East Coast newspapers were running editorials bemoaning the plight of Lo the Red Man.
The Covington boys would have acquitted themselves well with the Scouts. They are made of the same stuff that made America great the first time.
Indeed.
I had to read this ("the strange need of the right to virtue-signal") three times before I realized that it was not something in the Bill of Rights, but Mark was referring to "the right".
Sadly, as the left heads into Maoist realms, "the right" increasingly includes a lot of leftists. Here in Texas, some RINO Rep called Will Hurd claimed that we have no border crisis.
He claims that because the illegals are voting illegally to get him out of office and get one of theirs in the House.
Half of our elected GOP politicians are liberals in drag. Another 25% are openly hostile to conservatives. Which leaves normal conservative Americans to inhabit the "far-Right" space of God, Church, Family and Self Reliance.
As for Catholics, it has long been my opinion that they are generally more liberal-minded than Protestants. In the USA, that takes some doing, so I pray at home. Amen.
You should check out some of the Traditionalist Catholic groups that are out there (sometimes jokingly referred to as "Trads"). The Church is certainly fighting it's own terrible cancer of leftists who don't believe in God but are all too happy to pretend they do in order to infiltrate and attack His Church. However, there are still many faithful Catholics out there and we are some of the most staunchly conservative folks you'll ever find when it comes to conserving "God, Church, Family, and Self-Reliance." The real battle, as Mark often talks about, is for the culture rather than just trying to get some guy with an R after his name elected. The Church is a big part of that fight and the post-modernist Left has been all too successful there so far. We are however starting to uncover more and more of the rot and take the fight directly to the people who've been enabling it. Church Militant is a great example of this as they have been doing yeoman's work on the subject. Truly, take a look. We'd love more help in the fight!
Another example of why I can't watch the news any more. Disgusting. And where's the loyalty to students (children), at least until there's a full investigation? Why does anyone give any credence to mob rule by the Left? Doesn't it always turn out to be a big fat lie? Aren't they always the instigators? Isn't it always overblown, distorted, manufactured and ruthless beyond the pale?
The urgent question, which no one seems to ask much less answer, is when and how will it get better? When will the insanity stop? Does America have to become ruled by an evil dictator who murders millions of citizens before half the country wakes up? By then it will be too late and no one will be free again. We will be reduced to murderous tribes and just how is that good for the concept of diversification, I ask? And I'm not a globalist by any stretch of the imagination.
America has started to eat its own. We don't have to wait for the government or the debt to do it. We're doing a pretty job of it all by ourselves every day.
Mark has been very restrained in avoiding any public battles with NR. When he evaporated, I had no idea why for years. NR's tone has indeed been changing, with an increase in sanctimony and screed. I was amazed at the #NeverTrump full issue back in 2016 -- rather condescending, risky, showing little awareness. For some months, half of their "The Week" paragraphs would be Trump whines, rather than the wide-ranging tidbits about the world.
This incident clearly baited NR's vulnerable sides -- the hope to be tough on bad kids, a latent anti-MAGA disposition, the obligation (or addiction) to immediate Twitter response, and that human love of preaching and blaming. Some good columnists have wilted into whiners (Goldberg, French, Charen), as they try to define and justify their discomfort with Trump, to the exclusion of thoughtfulness or any attempt to understand those who may disagree.
I fear that the profession of columnist may be, itself, a factor -- some of these good professional writers are removed from the Daily Grind of Americans in more common jobs. Just like our professional politicians. We will need more clear-eyed spokesmen like Mark, who know when not to apologize or pile on, and one is not enough.
It probably helps Mark Steyn out a that he lives in New Hampshire, rather than the beltway or New York - help in avoiding the temptation to try to say something to be in agreement with the rest of the beltway crowd.
Hi Joseph
Mark lives there now, however he has lived and worked in the bastions of elitism in the Western world since way back in the day. Not to mention driving around in combat zones in the Middle East. In my opinion that probably helped sharpen his incredible insights into their way of thinking (or knee-jerk reacting). His bona fides nowadays from the written word (best-selling author), music, singing (best selling cat album, we have two, one for each car), best selling obit writer (he knew many of his subjects-just a coincidence that they all died), fabulous interviewer, and the best guest host on any medium. He can go anywhere in the world, as long as he is not smuggling Kinder Eggs. And there is more; see Steynonline.
Regards.
Mark Steyn is a universe-class source of insights. Above, he resurfaces his point about the impossibility of conservative government in a liberal culture.
Hoover Institution scholar Shelby Steele (whose father was black and mother was white) is another source of universe-class insights. Something Steele wrote in August 2000 about the **invisibility of liberalism** is a good complement to Mark's above. It was in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, "A New Front in the Culture War" (in which Steele's crystal ball about George W. Bush was, unfortunately, pretty cloudy -- but you can't have everything!). I can't do better than simply to quote seven paragraphs from the middle of this essay by Steele:
"Since the 1960s the liberal ideology of engineered representation, double standards, cosmetic diversity and identity entitlements has been the American idea of social virtue. This means that liberalism controls our very terms of social decency. And no ideology can have a greater power than this, because at this level ideology becomes invisible. It becomes a propriety so obviously good and true that only the indecent would question it. Enemies of liberalism must conform to its ideological demands or be stigmatized as 'mean spirited' and therefore lacking the legitimacy to represent all Americans.
"This is why universities, public schools, government agencies, corporations, the media, foundations--all the important institutions in American life--live by the ideology of liberalism as if by virtue itself. This is why the majority of Americans quietly conform to the liberal policies in their schools and workplaces that they privately disagree with. Even if conformity brings them nothing more than benign anonymity, it spares them life-altering stigmatization as racist, sexist or homophobic.
"The infamous culture war--which some see (and I believe erroneously) as over--might be reasonably defined as a struggle between the left and right for control over the terms of social decency. Whoever wins this war wins the extraordinary power to have their ideology become invisible. Much is at stake--literally the public culture and institutions of our society, much more than any single political platform or campaign can encompass.
"That the right is so far losing this war is obvious in that conservatives are glaringly labeled as such in the media, so that they are not only made ideologically visible but are given a whiff of indecency. Liberals, as victors in the culture war, have enough ideological invisibility to be rarely labeled as such.
"The price conservatism pays for losing this war is to be made to function as a subversive, countercultural movement--one that must relentlessly and shrilly and futilely argue for itself. Even when conservatism has won elections, it has not won this war. Eight years of Ronald Reagan hardly slowed the advance of political correctness. He won the Cold War, but not the culture war.
"Of course the problem is not conservative principles--individual responsibility, merit, hard work, single standards, competition or initiative. These, after all, are the very tenets of classic liberalism, and few contemporary liberals truly disagree with them.
"The problem is rather that conservatism failed to shape these principles into a countervailing vision of social decency, failed to compete with liberalism. Conservatives seemed not to understand that their own moral authority required that they proselytize for their principles among the former victims of inequality. Among the doubters and the disbelievers is where conservatism will cross out of its stigmatization and into unimpeachable decency."
Really a great column. If any of you haven't, you should watch the videos of what actually happened. I can't even understand any of the commentary along the lines of "they're just high school students, yes they didn't handle it perfectly, but cut them some slack they're just kids". What did any of them do wrong? They handled it better than most adults would have. Oh but someone allegedly said "build the wall". You're kidding right? So what if they did? In the face of such obnoxious and aggressive behavior that's the worst they did? I don't know how I can even take National Review seriously any more.
Shocking, isn't it? The students showed amazing forbearance and good spirits, given the provocations (eg. that they were the "product of sodomy").
The NRO non-apology retractions by Nicholas Frankovich and Rich Lowry make for interesting reading, especially alongside columns by Mark and Victor Davis Hanson.
Like the Lindsay Shepherd case, it's alarming to think what might have transpired in the absence of further recorded evidence with which to exonerate the victim(s).
Even with the recorded evidence, it's a blot on these innocent kids forever, thanks to social media. And even with the evidence, and the deletion of Tweets and the "OH SHUCKS WE WERE WRONG" Tweets from the "right" and "conservatives" are inexcusable. Too many alleged conservatives bought the left's narrative hook, line and sinker. A pox on them and all their sh&tty publications, web sites and cocktail parties.
Absolutely, Laura. NRO is especially disgraceful. The so-called apologies are nothing more than evasive retractions, with no concern for the real-life consequences for those involved.
Without the additional footage (and even in spite of it) the impact could be far worse; coercive suicide via social media is an explicit Wokestapo strategy!
Overwhelmingly white (only 1 POC among more than 40 whites), all male, and Catholic/Christian to boot! The perfect setup for commie virtue-signaling.
One good thing about the conservative assault on the Covington kids is this: If those kids would like to maintain their Catholic faith, right reason, civilization, or even sanity, they need to understand the world they live in: The greatest danger they face is not from progressives but from faux conservatives who claim to oppose the progressives but actually live off the avails of pretending to oppose them. Faux conservatives are the intellectual equivalent of cops on the take.
The election of Donald Trump is correctly understood - making the fewest assumptions - as a desperate effort on the part of people who have something to gain from conservative government to elect someone who would probably try to do at least some conservative things.
One way you can know that Trump is at least trying to do some conservative things is the genuine, freaked-out loathing he excites among those with something to lose thereby. Mitt Romney and John McCain never excited that kind of loathing because everyone knew they would not really do conservative things. They would be more likely to lecture their base and lose.
For their own survival and well-being in an increasingly disordered world, the kids should never forget the fact that National Review and other "conservative" outlets simply and easily assumed that they lack honour and decency, that they are bigots, and that the people who report such things about them are telling the truth even though such people are not otherwise trusted.
That's what the conservative media today think of the young people they hope will one day be their readers. It's so perfect, it's the novel I wish I could write. But as it turns out I don't have to...
The young people should start life-affirming and traditional value-friendly media of their own and cut those fossil conservative media right out of their lives for good! There is no help from that direction.
Good comment.
"The greatest danger they face is not from progressives but from faux conservatives..."
Assuming the adults at their own Covington Catholic school that believed the deceitful liars and sold out their own students are "faux Conservatives."
Being hastily betrayed by the so called caring adults in your own school and your own religious organization is far worse than being betrayed by the unfamiliar strangers in the duplicitous media.
Dennis, I wondered whether decency forbade even mentioning those people. The boys will get a considerable spiritual workout learning to forgive their Covington admins - so that they can go on with their own lives - despite the possibility that the admins don't feel any sense of shame or guilt. But the good news is, the boys, and many other people, have seen down into what progressivism really is.
Absolutely outstanding piece, Mark - who would have thought a DJ could write so well?
Don't you mean world renowned jazz cat recording artist?
You should see him put together Kinder Egg surprises!
Mark leads the way once again on no holds barred honest reporting and analysis. I hope he gets more than 2 minutes on Tucker to discuss this defamation abomination.
This widespread (left and right) defamation of high school students is the most evil example of fake news I've ever seen and we've all seen many. Even the so called responsible adults at the Covington Catholic school threw their own students under the bus based on the knee jerk reaction to Lefty fake news. Gateway Pundit was the only major site I saw that defended the boys from the beginning via actual videos etc. Fox News was not impressive.
These boys are not adults and they weren't public officials when they were defamed. I hope the parents accept the pro bono offers from lawyers like Robert Barnes and sue for defamation. Their lives have been forever damaged by the lies, the threats and the doxing and I hope Kenton County Prosecutor Rob Sanders' threat to prosecute any violent acts is genuine.
This has become a serious fight for sanity and freedom in the USA and this defamation could be a turning point where the thugs are actually pushed back and even prosecuted if necessary. Otherwise, it will continue to be open season on any Trump supporter only much worse. The pro Dem anti Trump CBC defamed these kids across Canada last night and a condemnatory video of the so called "bully Trump supporters" is still online with a deceptive update added. To the most insane, the boys nervous smile is a criminal act which must be punished by mob action as many of the worst tweets indicate. Where is the Justice System?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/teen-defends-encounter-with-indigenous-veteran-at-rally-1.4986348
The video link above keeps changing and getting shorter at the CBC.but no retraction etc. I hope Americans can sue for defamation in Canada.
Initially in the general news, it was reported that a mob of Trump supporters saw a Native American ceremony and decided to gather around them and taunt them. But that location was the rally point for the boy's buses and they were there first. Native American Nathan Phillips showed up later and walked up to the boys and began banging his drum in the boy's face. (Proven by video) The kid is a hero for fighting back later with his own statement to the corrupt media rather than hiding.
The CBC video stated that "the boys eventually walked away"-----There buses had arrived.
The endless distortions in the MSM are mind boggling but these outlets continue to survive. This egregious fiasco is a validation that most journalism is officially dead. (As others have said.)
It's stunning how many people still don't believe it and were duped once again by the purveyors of fake news.
Yes, it will continue to be open season on any Trump supporter, Dennis, you said it correctly. The scary part to me was the big ganging up on the boys from all corners: all kinds of news media, social media, the boys own school, the big name has-been comedians, actors, politicians!! Ugh! What a crushing tsunami of hate and prejudgment piling on. Any association whatsoever with Trump is like blood in the water for the sharks. The punishment doesn't fit the crime. There was no crime even.
Hey RUDE BOI ( I mean you mark) a minute or so into the skrillax race hate track. Kid with the yellow t shirt :"I make up the rules as I go along "!
Who needs fiction?!
National Review 86ed Frankovich's exercise in imbecilic credulity & put up a bit by Kyle Smith entitled "Nathan Phillips Lied. The Media Bought It."
There's a sucker born every minute. Who knew so many would end up with editorial positions?
This NR stuff goes back a ways with me. I got real suspicious when Mark and NR went their separate ways a few lawsuits ago. Mark is much too polite to comment much on it. When NR pulled their "Never Trumpers" routine it was suspicions confirmed. In the past, when I was asked (rarely) what my political bent was I would reply that I was an "Independent Conservative". In our current political environment I have no idea what the accurate definition of a conservative is, or how big or small of a tent there is for "conservatism" in the current political chaos. I guess I could start to refer to myself as a "Western Culture and Civilizationist (my spelling)".
In threatening to expel the students Covington Catholic abandoned Jesus' teaching of forgiveness choosing instead the example of the high priests who used false testimony to condemn Jesus.
The one funny thing about it is that now I know about the "Black Hebrew Israelites", who almost have to be a parody. And thanks to them, I know that Trump is gay. Will that pick him up some votes in California?
Nordlinger's a huge disappointment. He's usually a bit more clear-eyed than that on the subject of race-based PC.
I once went to a lecture by Jay where he talked about relatives of history's monsters. These included relatives of Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jung Il, Mussolini and Franco. There may have been others. All of these monsters were treated as being somehow equivalent.
After the talk, I chided Jay about lumping Franco in with the others. I thought that given that he had worked out a way forward for Spain by turning it into a constitutional monarchy at least should have meant that he could have been compared to someone like Cromwell, rather than Hitler.
If Franco was that evil, then General Mannerheim should be lumped in as well. Yet he is beloved as the greatest ever Finn. He was dealt a rotten hand, but managed to save his country.
I think Jay sometimes misses the big picture.
As I'm sure you know he wrote a book on that subject. In it, he does say that "Honestly, I feel a little sheepish about including Franco in this book. He was a dictator, and you and I, being good democrats, would not have wanted to live under him. But in the dictator business, we sometimes grade on a curve. Franco was a lamb compared with our genocidal monsters: Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, et al."
His book inspired me to read the Payne/Palacios biography of Franco. It felt very sad. It basically felt like Francoism was about buying time for the traditional elements of Spain to die in peace.
People are already afraid to speak their mind for fear of catastrophic consequences from the Wokestapo.
In this latest fiasco, I think the overarching goal was for the left to take non-leftists fear of speaking out publicly to a next level-scaring people from exercising their democratic right to demonstrate. This mob scene is a direct assault on freedom of expression and association. The fear of being "exposed" as a whatever/hater/ by an online mob will dissuade many people from getting involved in anything political including peaceful assembly and protest.
At this point, I would not assume that this was a random unfolding of events. It's just stinks way too much of Eau Du Alinsky for me to chalk it up to spontaneous meetings of unrelated and targeted individuals or goals.
It puts me in mind of Mao's Cultural Revolution but more vicious.
Good one, Laura, and most likely it was all intended to be marketed to the mob media as the real "toilet" water.
Wokestapo. I'm so stealing that.
Wokestapo!! It's only January, but this should be voted the top word for 2019!!
Sure.
Was debating that or Twitterhadis.
I've been on only one NR cruise (unfortunately the one right after Mark's departure) and my impression was that the community consisted of Chamber of Commerce types, State and County level Pols, snooty Ivy League Republicans and a smattering of regular folks (some ex-military) who just wanted a good time and let their hair down. Since that time, the one surviving speaker who I've really retained respect for is Victor Davis Hanson. Greg Gutfeld gets a pass as he was sea-sick on a stationary ship. Boy those old NR subscribers could really drink!
I think that Mark and VDH are among the very few who can see the big picture and aren't impressed by the posing. They also see Orange Man Bad as more US Grant (he fights) than the left's caricature. Please keep holding Institutional Conservatism's (TM) feet to the fire.
That's a great screen name. Hahaha. I hope you have a bountiful crop this year.
Mark's brilliant piece to me illustrates why the left will surely win in the end. The Reason article sets the record straight but few will read it. Reason magazine prints very few letters from readers so I'm very proud to have been given the chance to correct the great economist Veronique de Rugy for a nonsensical claim she made about the S. S. Trust fund in the April '14 issue on page 5. Anyway, Democrats always will stay the course with the sacred goal of the socialist worker's paradise so close now. National Review very nearly derailed Trump in '16 and had they succeeded along with the likes of George Will and Charles Krauthammer (whom I still admire) and many other purists on the right it would have paved the way for 16 straight years of democratic rule and the end of America as we know it. What spineless republicans are doing to Steve King is nothing new. Obama, Clinton and most other democrats will criticize Farrakhan only if pressed which rarely occurs when interviewed by a leftest 'journalist'. Since they won't appear with tough conservatives like Tucker they can remain safely silent. Too bad for those Covington students now being demonized. Eternal shame for National Review in piling on with the MS media. Really, who cares about a few more innocent victims even if the're just kids. The ends will always justify the means.
Mark, have you ever considered teaming up with Conrad Black and others of similar competence to expand your online presence? Competition is the real answer to the Potemkin Villages that now populate the rest of the digital universe. You could even hire reporters who actually write their own material, instead of cut and pasting the narrative from the masters of the MSM. Assuming, of course, that creatures with this level of literacy still exist.
I subscribe to NRO only because Victor Davis Hanson publishes on that site, and I like to print off copies as a way of reaching my carbon sequestration target. I get their daily news feed and it generally disgusts me. To be so complacent and so ignorant while posing as conservatives can only be possible in a world where there are far too few knowledgeable conservatives.
Regarding the students, it is refreshing to see that despite the Catholic School system's "social justice curriculum" a few have managed to see through the propaganda. I think there is an innate BS meter in all of us, and there's probably nothing more effective in activating it than a prolonged attempt at indoctrination. Especially if the recipients of this therapy have an IQ somewhat above room temperature, and parents who've made an effort to provide their kids with an opportunity to earn their self respect.
You can get his articles sent directly to you by e-mail. Just sign up for them. No need to support NRO.
A far better option considering how far this once great organization has fallen. I cut them loose years ago.
I gave up on NRO long ago, around the time of Jason Steorts' full throated defense of gay marriage. Lucky for me that Victor Davis Hanson also publishes on outlets like American Greatness, which has replace NRO as the online bastion of what I consider conservatism.
I am not surprised by what happened at the March for Life since, as Mark has often pointed out, the goal of the Left is not to win the debate, but to end it. Whether or not the Black Hebrew Israelites or Nathan Phillips gets good press out of this is not the point to them. The point is to demonstrate to any would be conservative activist that if you should dare stick your neck out in any way to argue your point we will be sure to use whatever means necessary to create a twitter storm against you and whatever else we can conjure up from the sewer of social media.
As everyone seems to agree, the real tragedy is that the "conservative" intellectual class is all too eager to go along with the charade.
Dead to me after the way they treated Mark.
"full throated defense of gay marriage"
Did you do that on purpose? LOL.
It appears that toxic liberalism is now infecting (previously) conservative media.
Not only do we have to hold the MSM accountable, we must do the same with people who used to know better.
I cannot bear people who attack kids. If these boys did anything wrong, then as minors it should have been up to their parents and teachers to correct them, they should not have become prey for a bunch of virtue signaling adults. That is an unfair playing board for an kid to be on.
Of course the truth is that they did nothing wrong. They did not "spit on the cross," no they were crucified by a horde of over educated and self-indulgent bullies posing as adults.. Is there anything more sickening?
As one tweeter said in response to Nordlinger's casual "same here": "Don't beat yourself up over it, Jay. We all engage in vicious defamation of children from time to time."
What's disgraceful is that "us National Reviewers" (as a Rich Lowry puts it) can just delete and slink away. No consequences! Meanwhile, the family of the student who showed admirable restraint in diffusing the situation is being stalked and threatened.
A Hollywood tweeter calls for these children to be put into wood-chippers red hat first. The old rules no longer apply and we are now living under mob rule ginned up by the national media in partnership with the social media giants. I felt that the vile hatred directed at Brett Kavanaugh was a tipping point for America given the level of vitriol never seen before, not even in the horrible Thomas hearings. Even Glenn Greenwald, one of the few honest liberals left in the media piled on last night against these children on Laura Ingraham's show last evening. At least one child's name and address has been put out on social media and many more will likely follow. The vile and sickening vitriol directed at those innocent kids by that hate group Black Hebrew Israelites wasn't even mentioned in most reporting. This group of far left crackpots demeans Judaism and Liberal Jews should step up now and denounce them. I haven't seen much blow-back yet either from leftist Jews or the democratic party. Then again, many republicans and conservatives haven't stepped up either and more than a few have joined the mob in demonizing these children. Shame on all of them!
"I felt that the vile hatred directed at Brett Kavanaugh was a tipping point for America given the level of vitriol never seen before..."
I think you're right, Roy. As Mark said of the Brett Kavanaugh hearing at the time: "And then the human sacrifice himself entered the room." https://www.steynonline.com/8881/the-turning-point
Now a teenager with "the wrong facial expression" (as Mark put it) has been thrust forward as a human sacrifice, with so-called conservatives forming part of the mob.
It's all coming apart. And with everything transforming at an exponential rate - and no holds barred - it's become clear that Mark, Tucker and a handful of others are our last hope. (Unsurprisingly, it looks like NRO has it in for TC.)
As others will remark, the story is even worse as a quick read on the Black Hebrew Israelite confrontation shows it was a tactical and well practiced act of threat and intimidation, part and parcel of this sect of black suprmicist group. They have a repeated pattern of threats and intimidation of other groups, not only whites, they deem enemies. They intentionally provoke and threaten others in public as a demonstration of their power, according to reports. As for the Indian, it is impossible to be a member of the tribe practicing the war dance of an Island tribe, and two other disparate tribes of American "first peoples" as repeorted by the AP. All told the matter is even worse than you decribed, perhaps opportunistic counter attacks to the pro-life gathering of the 18th.
There once was a time when I had a great deal of respect for NR, because of the high quality of the writing. Come to think of it, my favourite columns were your 'Happy Warrior' pieces and I thought Rob Long was brilliant, as was Goldberg, et al. Not so much Nordlinger, as he's always seemed like a snooty New York gadfly whose self regard exceeded his abilities. Some years ago the whole organization began to see itself as God's gift to conservatism. The arrogance, the elitism, the insistence that theirs was the only path and their insistence on philosophical purity has turned me off. The idea that NR now represents the TRUE PATH to perfected conservatism is ludicrous and I'm guessing that there are gazillions of other readers turning elsewhere.
Newt Gingrich has been an exception in his didactic approach, making him, to my ears, one of the few good politician-follow-ons to Ronald Reagan, the great communicator. In my unrealistic imagination, after I and others made the mistake of giving an inch to the mob with Brett Kavanaugh, I thought perhaps some candidate for office might curate and at least re-purpose the Kavanaugh attempted takedown as a permanent case study; a vivid reminder of the dark side of human nature manifesting itself to destroy people. Instead, the leftist activist media machine is using it as a gravity slingshot with conservatives' help.
Not doing that shows, I would say, risk-aversion, timidness, lack of imagination, as well as just lethargy by elected officials. Low-energy with an exclamation point.
The "great thundering herd of independent minds".
I can only wonder at the satisfaction you must have derived from penning that, Mark. It's one of the best and saddest things I've read in a long time.
Indeed. As the other brilliant Mark advised: "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
For sure this entry stands among Mark's very best - but it's as ominous as it is sad for this country. It's hard to believe that things could get any worse from here, but they likely will and very soon.
I've lost all respect for the NRO crew. They've shown themselves to be more "Inc" than "Conservative" and seem to have the emotional maturity of twelve year-old girls. It's all feelings and no thinking. Precisely the kind of "masculinity" the Left wishes the rest of us would fall in line with.
Eunuchs!
Wittols!
Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handy:
Does Farrakhan hate the Black Hebrew Israelites too?
Rod Dreher at "The American Conservative" initially joined the Twitter mob. His subsequent "apology" on the AC Web site was carefully qualified, self-serving, virtue-signalling, and therefore meaningless. He brags that he saw the media's dishonesty years ago, then blames his initial reaction to the fake news story on his own gullibility. So he's wise in the ways of the mob, yet willing to join them. Then he blocks pointed (yet civil) challenges to his own contradictions posted to comments. And there you have it, "Conservative Inc" in all its principled glory. Pardon me if I stay home again when Romney runs in '24.
Well said!
Sorry to say I was a lapsed member. I remedied that situation thanks to this article. Thank you for being one of only a few to standup for some young teen age boys protesting the murder of now 60MM plus children. My son and wife went to the March for Life Rally and I would hate to see what would have happened to him if he was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time ... Also the lack of moral fiber (or do you say fibre) of the folks at National Review and too many others is telling. We are done no favors when the leaders of the movement sell out the youngest and most vulnerable. God Speed to those boys and lets hope Covington Catholic lives up to its responsibility to affirm life and the Gospel ... however don't bet the house on that .....
To your point: "I would hate to see what would have happened to him if he was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time..."
The left wants to make all places and all times "wrong" for us. We have ceded too much territory and need to make our own "safe spaces".
I was minded to go back to Mark's September 2 Article.
How many stanzas in "IF" by Kipling fit the Covington Kids?
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
The Covington students (and particularly Steve King who should know better)) should have realized the First Rule for Conservatives in the Media Age - Whenever you go out in public for a political purpose, where microphones, cell phones, digital cameras, and all sorts of recording equipment re omnipresent, YOU ARE IN ENEMY TERRITORY.! For reasons that escape me, the Left has the Right of the Final Cut on reality at least the reality brought to you by the above mentioned technology.Every time I see Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klaven and Mark Steyn making public appearances, all I can think is some John LeCarre' Circus spy trying to survive in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia or East Germany.
I know it's galling. A shrewish clown like Maxine Waters can spew hateful nonsense hither and yon and gets anything from polite applause to a crashing ovation. If a conservative makes public utterances then these will be dissected to the sub-atomic level to prove how repellent they are. I feel sorry for the good people at National Review - They seem to believe that by assuming a faux Olympian attitude that they will be spared. They are deluded. A lofty conservative Olympianism might work if there were a lofty liberal Olympianism with which to find common ground - And their isn't. That ship has sailed.
Conservatives might do well by adopting the position first attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, "Never Complain, Never Explain." Complaining makes you look weak and explaining merely cedes ground to your rhetorical opponent. Besides conservative explanations are simply going to be ridiculed and dismissed by our new powers-that-be regardless of merit. Churchill would have agreed with this. Besides the shrewd observation of Disraeli, conservatives should also remember this bit of Churchill wisdom - "Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts."
Thank you for refreshing us with these great quotes from Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli, John!
I read a recent interview with Scott Rasmussen who says that the word "conservative" is beginning to be viewed as politically poisonous as the word "liberal" was in the 80s. I would submit that this is because of the virtue signalling and knee jerk reactions evidenced by this episode and the Steve King kerfluffle. Conservative, Inc and never-trump have so bastardized the word "conservative" to the point that no one wants to be associated with it any longer. Any thoughts as to a new name for those of us who are trying to save the country?
What about "truth seekers," Holly?
In keeping with tradition, how about a law-firm sounding, "Stodgy, Boring, and Unimaginative"?
I've always been fond of 'federalist.'
The MSM produced plenty of coverage of the anti-Semitic Women's March that has mostly been abandoned but for the most part avoided any coverage of the March For Life, until this false incident seemed to provide a way to throw some shade on the character of some of the marchers. I'm willing to bet, as sure as Rachel Dolezal is white, that Nathan Phillips will not suffer any consequences or shaming at all, certainly not a social media condemnation firestorm for his bigotry and slanderous lies.
I did not log onto National Review Online over the weekend, and by this morning the site was running a piece by Kyle Smith that was very sympathetic to the students from the Catholic school and highly critical of the rush to judgement by the usual suspects in the news and social media. If it hadn't been for the comments from various readers about earlier NRO observations that had been pulled, I would not have known that - spurred on by the combination of never-Trumpism and Stockholm Syndrome that sometimes infects the publication - NRO had practically been elbowing leftists out of the way in its rush to judgement.
I randomly pulled up the Corner early in the morning and had my stomach basically turned by the Frankovich screed. At the time, I had no reason to think he was misstating the facts (other than that's my default assumption about wokeydoke little dramas) but I knew he was being wildly over the top, and he was trying to claim that it "tainted" the March for Life.
That argument I have simply had enough of. If it were true that only racist fascist Nazis cared about the rights of the unwanted, then in that respect, racist fascist Nazis would be the moral betters of the rest of us. Fortunately for us that is false. But the cringing, virtue-signalling, begging the aborters not to hate us just because we are trying to stop them from killing babies has to end.
Then I found out Frankovich was wrong on the facts - and then he posted a weaselly "apology" that apologizes only for being "preachy", not for viciously defaming innocent kids.
All in all not a good day for NR.
Talking with young 20's and 30 year olds. Amazing how obedient to the system they are...environmentalism, lack of children,
One of the biggest things that has happened in the past 30 years is the Internet Revolution. The MSM media outlets do not understand and continue to run stories that line up with their worldview and do not rigorously fact check. Before the revolution, they really didn't have to because who was going to dispute? And disputes back then involved courts and not much else. Today, if something is wrong...well there are many outlets to use to contest.
Also most news consumers bring 1960's skills to news watching. They accept everything. Today's news watcher has to be a proactive person who digs for what is true. A person who talks with others about what they found, who uses numerous venues, and who realizes that agendas frame the "Truth" One cannot be a receptacle the MSM, for truth is not found solely on FB or Twitter, or PBS, or BBC (why people trust government news sources eludes me) or the NBCABCCBSFOXCNN dictas. They are working their agendas for ratings and access.
That is very astute, chickensoup, "Also most news consumers bring 1960's skills to news watching. They accept everything. Today's news watcher has to be a proactive person who digs for what is true."
To be frank the targeting of these students by the media is plain anti-white racial animus. Reza Aslan thought that the student featured in the video who was subjected to the highly provocative drum routine had a "highly punchable" face. What does that even mean? He looked like an ordinary kid to me! Furthermore, this whole dignified surrender business is rather unmanly but since we now know that manliness is a pathological psychiatric disorder NRO has science on its side! I just request that NRO publish an op-ed: the Conservative Case for Firing All NRO Staff and replacing them with WomYn of Colour. For once maybe their virtue signalling should deprive them of their creature comforts rather than their dignity (which we all know is totally worthless to them).
Yes, what does that even mean, is right, Adam? We have to take comments like these on their very own "highly punchable" face, I guess. Ever since President Obama said, "we need to bring guns to the knife fights," you have to be prepared for anything when you go to public gatherings. Nobody is really safe in this self-centered identity charged-up atmosphere where people seem to want walls to protect their own little individual spaces and ideologies while out walking around in public, but they don't want to protect the country from unwanted intruders meaning to take advantage of us and maim and kill us.
"[...] the Conservative Case for Firing All NRO Staff and replacing them with WomYn of Colour."
Give them time.
This is nothing new, so-called conservatives ready to pile on when the going gets Twitter, and Twitter gets going. As you pointed out, Jason Steorts piled on you over at the lamented NRO a few years ago for transgressing the bounds of human decency, or something.
Methinks it has something to do with Trump, in that the uncouth and unapologetic directness of Trump's being discomfits the Sorta-Trumpers and Never-Trumpers, both of whom believe they need to maintain their ties to Conservatism, Inc. when Trump is gone and it's back to business as usual for conservatives...a lot of smoke, no fire, and retreat in the face of the enemy. So they pile on their side with glee when given the seemingly right optics to establish their cuck conservative credentials with the left, who will hopefully pat them on the head and say Good Boy once in awhile.
Steorts is an idiot, Frankovich an imbecile.
It does make you wonder though why an organisation so perpetually short of funds would continue to employ such deadwood.
Jessie is on to something here that I have puzzled about, too: what is it about Trump that so clearly gets under the skin of SOME Conservatives, and why can't they overlook their taste preferences for some analysis? My experiences in industry may make me more tolerant of loud mouths and show-offs, but Trump is nothing compared to some bigmouths I've known, and even some of those I respected for their abilities. Trump violates some unwritten protocol of style that some Conservative writers seem to quietly share. It may be simple bombast, or the casual small insult, or the flashiness. It's almost as if some of these writers have never had another job. And it cuts across diverse types - French, Goldberg, George Will, Mona Charen, Kristol. The smarter ones (e.g., Williamson) have attenuated their screeds.
So, yes, they start bleating about Trump's "character", and definitions of "real Conservative", totally abandoning evidence or clarity, loath to admit he accomplishes far more than 12 years in the Bushes. What many miss is the worry we have that the Left thought-control experiment has gone too far, and a bunch of us like to see someone unapologetically standing up to it; Trump is the only politician doing so with some wit. That doesn't mean we are brainwashed defenders, but it sure means we don't care that he likes hot women, or tried to build a hotel in Russia, or insults impudent reporters.
They're all Cockwombles!
HAHAHAHAHAHA
It's a class issue. They think they have the monopoly and think Trump has none.
I have learned one very important lesson during the time of Trump - whatever the initial story, whether it is a white cop shooting an innocent black person, a black professor who claims he found a noose on his office door or white school kids in MAGA hats harassing an Indian, wait a few days or a week and the story ends up being totally different than was first reported.
Not just totally different; more often than not, victim and perpetrator roles have reversed.
And for the left this incident was a jackpot:
1) White
2) Male
3) Catholic
4) Pro-life
5) Trump supporters (presumed)
6) Privileged private school
7) From a notoriously "red" and backward state
8) Victim was an Indigenous American whose lands had been stolen
They couldn't have choreographed it better if they had tried. And then it turned out to be one big lie ...
Very true Melissa, and I say the Trump effect has only exacerbated a pre-existing condition in the MSM. Often the headline is not even supported by the so called meagre facts contained in the story.
Waiting for the information, which requires the patience of a saint, is the only way to understand a story properly. Thanks to the people who run this internet site, I generally laugh at the media's childish attempts to explain anything, and wait patiently in the comfort of the Mark Steyn Club members' lounge, for Mark to produce the correct story.
From the strange new respect department it is interesting that in 2019 the idea that an alleged Viet Nam vet should not be maligned. When I came marching home in 1971 I kept a very low profile due to the anti Viet Nam zeitgeist of the time.
Too bad we don't have another Paul Harvey to tell us "the rest of the story". Mark has picked up on this need and performing it admirably.
There's not an audience for Paul Harvey any more. Fake news only works on the ignorant and those who need to follow the mob, which is what passes for education in today's schools. The "rest of the story" undermines that, so they don't want it.
Allow me to introduce you to http://mikerowe.com/podcast/
Love Mike. Mike for Pres! But if he ran, he'd get the 12 votes of all the people who listen to his podcast. The failing school system assures a decreasing demand for rational ideas, increasing fake hate crimes, and increasing liberal culture. It's a vicious cycle. There's only one path to our salvation -- fix the schools.
I'd like to see more scalpel action going through the cutaneous, subcutaneous, the adipose and into the guts of the matters at hand by conservatives. What the truth-teller and liar have in common is they both deal heavily in truth. Any good counterfeiter knows how to embed his lies deep within truth. The regular people busy living their lives don't understand the savvy. The best new thing I've heard in awhile was the co-host of "The Ashley Webster Experience", an earnest guy less than a year out of college, sharing his honest perspective and asking Mark good questions. That format, I think, is one that could be replicated for the knowledge to replace that which the schools gave up teaching.
Competent analysis requires competence, which schools also gave up teaching. What they do teach is totalitarian rituals, which they seem to have mastered, as Mark so effectively describes. Failed schools always lead to failed societies.
Fine points. And of course, this is not the first time a gaggle of self-styled Establishment "conservatives" have acted like the excitable, credulous, ultimately dangerous fools Edmund Burke began warning about 225 years ago.
People - especially those who enjoy imagining they're good conservatives - need to fully accept that as a general rule with hardly any known violations, *everything leftists say is a lie*.
Now, statistically, that seems impossible. And maybe it is. Maybe, every once in a great awhile, leftists will accidentally say something true.
But one could put oneself in no safer place than to assume that everything leftists say is a lie, until an exhaustive, critical investigation (shockingly) shows otherwise in some particular, anomalous case.
Amen.
Close to my mantra:
The left is always wrong. (Or almost always - who said even a stopped watch is correct twice a day?)
The left is always lying, including to themselves.
The left is always self-interested.
Good for those students from Convington! On the weekend when we celebrate MLK Jr. they stood in the face of bigotry and intolerance because they were judged by the color of their skin and not by the content of their character, which appears to be truly strong and solid. Congratulations to their school for helping to develop their character. And shame on their school for abandoning them in their time of need.
We really do need an upvote button. I'll just add mine: +1.
Robert, I think that I would be the last to say shame on someone or some institution because I've never been the saint who would die a martyr's death for my Faith, but that really irks me about the school. Catholic high school education is not free, and at a time when the very most loyal Catholics hanging on long and steadfastly enough to their faith, in spite of the rampant corruptions among church clergymen, are shamed and threatened to be ousted, that is pretty unforgivable. Life is full of land mines everywhere you go, and when people all over create land mines that aren't there, it absolutely helps nobody and no institution. Deep breathe, people. We have to get past this entire shaming and yanking everyone's chains until the lights of Western Civilization go out.
Thank you, Mark, for this. I am old and crotchety as hell - but I have no words for the behavior of ALL sides of the media on this, and what they have inflicted on this young man and his school mates. Shame on any so-called conservative who joined in the disgusting event. My heart hurts for the future of our country.
"The strange need of the right to virtue-signal to their detractors..." Yes.
I suspect it has something to do with the fact that the left confronts the right not with facts or reason or arguments but with emotional ad-hominems, such as, "you're hateful; you're bigoted; you're racist". It puts the right off-balance and on the defensive from the start.
Add to this the following: while progressives are free to indulge the fantasy of their own virtue, conservatives (especially Christian conservatives) are realistic about human nature, including their own. We all have dark, evil thoughts about others at times; prejudice and even hate comes easy, tolerance and self-giving love comes hard.
So, conservatives enter the fray on the defensive. They really should fight back. Yes, prejudices exist. And progressives are daily, endlessly, world-class exemplars of this fact.
Steyn had his Wheaties this morning! I usually try to add a haypenny or two to the discussion, but I just want to tip my hat and say thank you. Somebody had to say it; figured it'd be you.
"Steyn had his Wheaties this morning."
Har! That made me laugh but I don't want to see Mark's mug on a box of Wheaties. The last alpha male I remember on a box of Wheaties was Bruce...err...Kaitlyn Jenner and that didn't end well.
What a memory! Too much of anything, even Wheaties, could be harmful to one's health, I guess.
The BBC got in the act also. Fake news indeed.
Yes and some of the so called right leaning papers.
As you said, Twitter storms can completely ruin peoples lives. They should actually check first. the BBC for examples gets billions of pounds of our money and then tell lies. They take EU money so can't criticise them.
It is all pretty disgusting.