tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35976150886392382322024-02-07T03:51:28.410-08:00Hercolano2Texts in English Language (main page)ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ ΓΕΩΡΓΙΑΔΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09229186936689072946noreply@blogger.comBlogger4047125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-11975609807596669092022-09-22T00:13:00.000-07:002022-09-22T00:13:37.723-07:00 The Real Crime Problem Doesn't Make Much News<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><h1 class="title"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
<span style="color: #ff00fe;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Real Crime Problem Doesn't Make Much News </span></span></span></span></h1><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="authors">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a class="author" href="https://www.manhattan-institute.org/expert/jason-l-riley"><span class="name">Jason L. Riley</span></a></span></span>
</div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
<span class="source"><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-real-crime-problem-doesnt-make-much-news-1484093102" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal</a></span>
<span class="date">January 11, 2017</span>
</span></span><div class="topics"><a href="https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/real-crime-problem-doesnt-make-much-news-9891.html"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/real-crime-problem-doesnt-make-much-news-9891.html</span></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>The media play up shootings by police. Last year in Chicago, they were less than 1% of the total.</strong></span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Chicago video that features four black suspects assaulting a
white man has sparked another discussion about “hate crimes,” but it
also highlights a phenomenon that has been underreported by a liberal
media more interested in political correctness.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Crime reporting these days seems more focused on the behavior of the
police than on the behavior of criminals. Police shootings of black men
are rare, for example, but they get far more media coverage than when
black civilians shoot one another, which is much more common. There were
4,368 shootings in Chicago last year, according to the Chicago
Tribune’s crime database. Almost all of the shooting victims were black,
and more than 99% of the shootings were carried out by civilians, not
cops. Obviously, young black men in Chicago don’t roam the streets in
fear of getting shot by police.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When the media aren’t indulging liberal activists by pretending that
police shootings drive black homicide rates, they’re playing down the
very real episodes of black criminality shown in the video. <span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><b>For years,
Asian students in public schools have complained of racially motivated
harassment and bullying by black students. Surveillance cameras have
caught young black men playing the “knockout game,” which involves
sucker-punching random white pedestrians. Cities from Los Angeles to
Philadelphia to Baltimore have experienced “wilding” incidents, which
involve flash mobs of black youths rampaging through a mall or park or
convenience store and physically attacking people in the process.</b></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Most violent crimes involve a perpetrator and victim of the same
race. But when they don’t, incidents of black-on-white crimes far exceed
the reverse scenario. “In 2012, blacks committed 560,600 acts of
violence against whites (excluding homicide), and whites committed
99,403 acts of violence (excluding homicide) against blacks,” writes the
Manhattan Institute’s Heather Mac Donald, citing federal Bureau of
Justice Statistics data. “Blacks, in other words, committed 85 percent
of the non-homicide interracial crimes of violence between blacks and
whites, even though they are less than 13 percent of the population.”</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When the mainstream media discuss relations between poor black
communities and law enforcement without including data on black crime
rates, readers and viewers aren’t getting the full picture. Racially
motivated attacks on blacks shouldn’t be ignored or played down, but
neither should racially motivated attacks perpetrated by blacks.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nationwide, crime is down from where it was in the 1990s, but it has
ticked up in recent years in some major cities. Chicago’s murder rate in
2016 was the highest in two decades. Violent crime in Los Angeles has
increased for three straight years. <b>Liberals are quick to blame poverty
or economic downturns or racial bias in policing, but those explanations
can’t withstand scrutiny.</b></span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Crime began spiking in the 1960s, when the U.S. economy was strong
and jobs were plentiful. The economic boom of the 1980s coincided with a
steady increase in crime. Police officials in Los Angeles have
attributed the higher crime rate to increased homelessness, among other
factors, but homelessness has also risen in New York City, where violent
crime has fallen.</span></span></b></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hiring more police officers to flood crime-ridden neighborhoods could
help. In 2015 the LAPD sent extra officers to South Los Angeles after
an increase in shootings. “By the time the emergency operation ended on
Oct. 1, the rate of violent crime had stabilized in South L.A.,” reports
the Los Angeles Times. “But with resources concentrated there, some
other parts of the city experienced upticks in crime.”</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Last fall, Chicago announced plans to hire 970 officers over the next
two years. Increasing police presence alone, however, may have limited
effect if cops feel they are being targeted by the press and scapegoated
by activist groups like Black Lives Matter.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Despite the national downward trend over the past two decades, people remain concerned for their safety. In a Gallup <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/190475/americans-concern-crime-climbs-year-high.aspx" target="_blank">poll</a> last
March, 53% of respondents said they worry “a great deal” about crime
and violence. That’s up from less than 40% in 2014 and a 15-year high.
Respondents who were low-income, nonwhite and less educated expressed by
far the most concern, which you would expect from the people who bear
the brunt of violent crime in the U.S., however it’s trending.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Donald Trump made clear throughout the campaign that his instinct
would be to support police in a way that they haven’t been supported
under the Obama administration, which made a habit of second-guessing
law enforcement and politicizing police investigations. Let’s hope the
incoming administration’s sympathies will be with the mostly law-abiding
residents of poor neighborhoods for a change. And let’s hope it doesn’t
take another group of criminals who are stupid enough to live stream
their offenses in order for the media to present a more accurate picture
of crime in America.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong><em>This piece originally appeared in <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-real-crime-problem-doesnt-make-much-news-1484093102" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal</a></em></strong></span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><em>______________________</em></span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/expert/jason-l-riley"><em>Jason L. Riley</em></a><em> is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator.</em></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-26799438876160376092022-09-21T23:13:00.002-07:002022-09-21T23:13:22.359-07:00100 Black Crime Statistics: Data, Trends & Predictions<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong></strong></span></span>
</p><div class="container container-single penci_sidebar penci-enable-lightbox" style="transform: none;">
<div class="penci-main-sticky-sidebar" id="main" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 1px; overflow: visible; position: relative;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">100 Black Crime Statistics: Data, Trends & Predictions</span></b></span></span>
<div class="theiaStickySidebar" style="padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><article class="post type-post status-publish hentry" id="post-44839"><div class="header-standard header-classic single-header"><div class="post-box-meta-single">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="author-post byline"><span class="author vcard">written by <a class="author-url url fn n" href="https://comparecamp.com/author/zuckerman/">Arthur Zuckerman</a></span></span>
<span><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2020-05-19T05:59:28+00:00">May 19, 2020</time></span></span></span></div><div class="post-box-meta-single"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2020-05-19T05:59:28+00:00"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/">https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/</a> </time></span></span></span>
</div>
</div>
<div class="post-entry blockquote-style-1">
<div class="inner-post-entry entry-content" id="penci-post-entry-inner">
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The relationship between race and
crime in the United States has been the subject of controversy and
countless investigative reports from respected publications. At the
center of those discussions are black crimes. On the one hand, their
correlation with racial disparity has influenced legislation to be
fairer to all ethnicities, which is still a work in progress. On the
other, arguments were made regarding certain ethnicities’ predisposition
to commit crimes. Whichever the case, the numbers suggest a racial
imbalance in terms of arrests and victim counts.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">However,
proportions, rather than populations, paint a clearer picture of what’s
really going on. More blacks than whites, for instance, were arrested
for manslaughter in 2017. Conversely, the same goes for the startling
percentage of African Americans stopped and frisked by the police in
various cities. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In viewing
the black crime statistics below, you will have an idea if reforms need
to be made to further protect every sector of our communities. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="black crime statistics" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45208" height="209" src="https://comparecamp.com/media/uploads/2020/05/black-crime.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></p><div class="fot-toc">
<div class="fot-toc__header">
<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Black Crime Statistics Table of Contents</span></span></h4>
</div>
<div class="fot-toc__list">
<ol class="fot-toc__ol col100"><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/#TOC1">General Information on Black Crimes</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/#TOC2">Violent and Serious Crimes Statistics</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/#TOC3">Juvenile Arrests Statistics</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/#TOC4">Black-on-Black Crimes Statistics</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/#TOC5">Interracial Killings Facts</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/#TOC6">Policing Black People Statistics</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/#TOC7">Incarceration of Blacks Facts</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/#TOC8">Drug Abuse Statistics</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/#TOC9">Hate Crime Statistics</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://comparecamp.com/black-crime-statistics/#TOC10">Black Views on Justice and Safety</a></span></span></li></ol>
</div>
</div><h3 class="bg-title" id="TOC1"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>General Information on Black Crimes</strong></span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Compared
to Caucasians, African Americans come in smaller numbers with regard to
arrest and victimization rates. But considering that there are nearly
200 million whites and only 42 million blacks in America, the population
percentage of African Americans tagged as criminal offenders is much
higher. There are also more black crime victims in terms of proportion.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
figures from 2019 onwards have yet to be released by the FBI and the
Department of Justice, but historical data conveys a vast disparity in
black and white arrests. And the trend is expected to continue as there
is no sharp downturn in black arrest and victimization rates.</span></span></p><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2018,
the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) listed down a
total of 5,625,156 known criminal offenders, 53.9% of whom were white
Americans, and 27.4% were black Americans. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In that same year, the FBI arrested 3,480,625 people, 69.6% of whom were white, and 24.7% were black. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2016, 27% of all arrested individuals in the US were composed of black Americans. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Crispus
Attucks, an African American, is the first person killed in the Boston
Massacre and the very first casualty of the American Revolution in
1770. </span></span></span></li></ul><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Crimes Committed</strong></span></span></span></h2><p><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Despite
the massive disparity in population, blacks felons outnumber the whites
in crimes like manslaughter, robbery, and illegal gambling. They also
take up large percentages of both serious and petty crimes. Tighter law
enforcement measures might be needed to improve the safety of
communities, provided that the suspects are judged based on their acts
and not their skin color. </span></b></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 2017, 53.1% of those arrested for manslaughter were black. </span></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Based on a 2017 FBI crime report, 54% of the people arrested for robbery were black. </span></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In that same year, blacks made up 51.9% of those charged with illegal gambling. </span></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">They also accounted for 33.5% of offenders charged with aggravated assault and 28.7% of rape arrests. </span></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In addition, blacks accounted for 29.8% of burglary arrests, and 43.9% of people caught carrying firearms. </span></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Out of the
429,000 sentenced black prisoners in 2015, 252,300 (58.8%) were
involved in violent crimes, 65,000 (15.2%) were charged with property
crimes, 61,600 (14.4%) were busted for drug-related incidents, 48,200
(11.2%) were nabbed for crimes against public order, and 1,900 (0.4%)
were charged with other crimes. </span></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">According to the FBI, in 2013, blacks accounted for 52.2% of all murder arrests, while whites made up 45.3%. </span></b></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Black Victim Statistics</strong></span></span></h4><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The
number of black gun violence victims is alarming, which adds to the
discussion of gun control in the US. Likewise, the high rate of African
American murder victims should be addressed, perhaps by increasing the
risks involved in committing a crime and better surveillance. </span></span></span></p></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the NIBRS, out of the 4,720,900 victims listed in 2018, 69.6% were white, and 21.6% were black. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Between 2008 and 2018, 49.95% of murder victims in the US were black, and 46.25% were white. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Between 2008 and 2018, 57.39% of gun violence victims were black, while 39.64% were white. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Between
2007 and 2016, there were 6.5 million white American non-fatal assault
victims, while black Americans accounted for 4.3 million. </span></span></span></li></ul><h3 class="bg-title" id="TOC2"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Violent and Serious Crime Statistics</strong></span></span></h3><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Violent
crimes are defined as acts where a victim is threatened or harmed with
the use of force. This includes murder, assault, rape, robbery,
burglary, and harassment. Serious crimes, on the other hand, are
completed or successful violent crimes. </span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">While
the stats suggest that Caucasians and African Americans figure in both
classifications at proportionate rates, there is a progressive rise in
the number of black violent crime victims from 2016 to 2018. This could
be caused by a multitude of reasons, from poverty and unemployment to
easy access to contrabands and firearms. </span></span></b></p><ul><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Violent
incidents involving white and black people in 2018 carry a similar
percentage of their population in the US, 62%, and 12%, respectively.</span></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 2018,
there were 1,115,670 crimes committed by African-Americans, excluding
Hispanic blacks and cases involving victims aged 12 and below. </span></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 2018,
there were 644,710 African-American victims of violent crimes, excluding
Hispanic blacks and cases involving victims aged 12 and below. </span></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
percentage of violent crimes committed by black criminals is 1.8 times
higher than that of the percentage of the black population in the US. </span></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The violent crimes committed against black people increased from 389,340 in 2017 to 416,850 in 2018. </span></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Out of the 4,636,730 serious crimes committed in 2018, 732,020 were committed by African Americans. </span></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The number of serious crimes committed by blacks increased from 639,140 in 2017 to 732,020 in 2018. </span></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> There was a 2:1 ratio between black violent crime offenders and black victims in 2018.</span></span></b></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><h3 class="bg-title" id="TOC3"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Juvenile Arrests Statistics</strong></span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A
disparity between black and white prisoners is more pronounced when
looking at the rate of juvenile arrests. Similar to the adults, there
were more black teens than white teens busted for manslaughter, robbery,
and illegal gambling in 2018. Moreover, their arrest rates for serious
crimes are significantly higher than those of their adult counterparts. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Besides
alleviating poverty and offering more jobs to the public, local
governments should find ways to make education more accessible. The
promise of a bright future could lead parents to dissuade kids from
joining gangs and participating in illicit affairs at an early age.
Schools, on the other hand, would benefit from better security measures,
with mass shootings being a huge concern in the country. </span></span></span></p></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2018,
young black males accounted for 35% of youth arrests in the US, even
though they only represent 15% of all US children. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2017,
the FBI recorded a total of 625,099 arrests of people below 18, which
included 218,048 (34.9%) blacks and 385,298 (61.6%) whites. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Black minors represented 60.6% of the people below 18 arrested for manslaughter in 2017. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">66.6% of all juvenile arrests for robbery involved blacks. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2017, a
majority of the youths nabbed for possessing stolen property (56.7%),
prostitution (52.5%), illegal gambling (76.4%), and vehicle theft
(51.5%) were black. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">16,167 black youths were also arrested for drug abuse violations in 2017. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Furthermore,
black youths accounted for 31% of youths arrested for rape, 42.5% for
aggravated assault, 41% for burglary, and 50.9% for arson as a violent
crime. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the
shootings, including school shootings, between 1982 and February 2020,
64 white shooters and 20 black shooters were arrested. </span></span></span></li></ul><h3 class="bg-title" id="TOC4"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Blacks-on-Black Crimes Statistics</strong></span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rather
than racial bias, two bigger factors in the staggering rates of
black-on-black violence have surfaced, familiarity and proximity.
According to the FBI’s annual crime report in 2018, </span><b>most murder victims are acquaintances of the suspects</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in cases where the relationship between both parties was identified. </span><b>Crimes committed by friends and family also exceed those perpetrated by strangers.</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">From
a risk management standpoint, there would be less of a struggle, and
the threat level is more or less calculated in harming people one is
familiar with. This doesn’t mean that strangers pose less of a threat
compared to friends and peers, which is certainly not the case. But what
the data really conveys is for us to be more vigilant, especially in
reading social cues. </span></span></span></p><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">According
to the 2018 National Crime Victimization Survey, 70.3% of the violent
incidents suffered by black victims were committed by black offenders. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of the
6,000 homicide cases in 2015 where the FBI had known the ethnicity of
the victim and the killer, 2,380 were black victims accosted by black
killers. 2,574, on the other hand, were whites killed by whites.</span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">This represents an 8% increase from 2014. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The
proportion of black-on-black homicides to the number of black people
killed was at 89.3% in 2015, the first time since the dawn of the 21</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">st</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> century that the rate fell below 90%. </span></span></span></li></ul><h3 class="bg-title" id="TOC5"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Interracial Killings Facts</strong></span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The
figures suggest that instances of same ethnicity killings are more
prevalent than interracial homicide. However, 12% of 6000 homicide cases
is still a significant amount and should be addressed accordingly. Most
of the numbers listed below reflect only cases in which the FBI was
able to identify the ethnicity of the victim and the killer. Should the
complete racial information in other homicide cases surface, the numbers
would certainly be higher. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Whether
the acts were racially motivated or if ethnicity was inconsequential to
the killings, interracial homicide deserves special attention from the
authorities. </span></span></span></p><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">According
to the 2018 National Crime Victimization Survey, 15.3% of the violent
incidents suffered by whites were committed by blacks. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">7.9% of the violent incidents suffered by Hispanics were committed by blacks. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">29.7% of the violent crimes suffered by blacks were committed by other races, 10.6% of which were by whites.</span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2015, the FBI reported 500 homicide cases involving blacks killing whites and 229 cases involving whites killing blacks. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Homicides involving blacks killing whites increased progressively from 2013 to 2015. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">There was an even larger increase, however, on the rate of homicides involving whites killing blacks from 2013 to 2015. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of the
6,000 homicides reported in 2015, in which the police had information on
the ethnicity of both the victim and the killer, 12% involved blacks
killing whites and whites killing blacks. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2015, 8.6% of black homicide victims were killed by whites, and 15.8% of white homicide victims were killed by blacks. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">13,455
homicide cases where the FBI had information on only the victim’s
ethnicity were submitted in 2015. 7,039 (52.3%) involved black victims
while 5,854 (43.5%) were white. </span></span></span></li></ul><h3 class="bg-title" id="TOC6"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Policing Black People Statistics</strong></span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Policing
in the US is every bit as controversial as the crimes that the
authorities have sworn to eradicate. The preferential treatment against
blacks and other people of color in favor of whites is glaring and has
been acknowledged in numerous reports from the government sector. Many
of the African Americans stopped by the police have turned out to be
innocent. But this has not dissuaded the authorities from detaining them
more than any other race in America. And the numbers aren’t close. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">With
this, the public’s perception of the police is anything but
encouraging. This goes for the majority of black and white citizens.
Even black officers share the same opinion, albeit
discreetly. </span></span></span></p><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In New
York City, between 2001 and 2013, blacks and Hispanics made up 82% of
those arrested for misdemeanors through Broken Windows Policing and 81%
of those summoned for violating New York City’s administrative code. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Eight out of 10 black adults believe that blacks are treated less fairly by the police than whites. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Six out of 10 white adults share the same view. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a 2016 survey, only 33% of black adults think that the police use the amount of force commensurate to the situation. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Only 35% of black adults say that the police treat racial groups fairly. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Only 31% of black adults think police officers are held liable for their actions when abuses occur. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">According
to a 2016 survey, 57% of black police officers believe that the deaths
of black people at the hands of the police point to a larger concern
rather than being isolated cases. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nearly 7
out of 10 black officers think that the protests from those deaths stem
from people wanting to hold the police accountable for their actions. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In
Ferguson, from 2012 – 2014, blacks accounted for 93% of police arrests,
and 85% of traffic stops. Blacks make up 67% of the city’s population. </span></span></span></li></ul><h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Stop and Frisk Statistics</strong></span></span></h4><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Based
on the numbers, the police have tagged black people as possible threats
to society while generally keeping whites from being inconvenienced by
the “Stop and Frisk” policy. The fact that African Americans make up a
vast majority of those stopped and frisked by the police underscores the
inherent bias not just in policing, but also, in part, the criminal
justice system. </span></span></span></p><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The NYPD
reported 13,459 police stops in 2019, in accordance with New York City’s
stop-and-frisk policy. 7,981 (59%) of the detainees were black, and
1,215 (9%) were white. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ever since
2003—a year after the stop-and-frisk policy’s inception—until 2019, the
rate of blacks detained stayed consistently above 50%. Whites, on the
other hand, never went beyond 12%. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Black
neighborhoods were subjected to 70% more frisks compared to non-black
areas, even though the investigations found fewer amounts of
contrabands. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">When
Philadelphia’s local government addressed the seeming racial disparity
through police training, the number of problematic stops dropped by
72%. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">According
to a 2016 report of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, blacks
accounted for 42% of non-consensual searches. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A 2016
report in Chicago states that black and Latino drivers were four times
more likely to be stopped by the police compared to their white
counterparts.</span></span></span></li></ul><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span><h3 class="bg-title" id="TOC7"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Incarceration of Blacks Facts</strong></span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another
area of great racial disparity is imprisonment, especially of
juveniles. People of color account for a majority of the prisoner
population in the US despite having a smaller collective population than
Caucasians. If they are incarcerated at the same rate as whites are,
the number of inmates would drastically decline. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">This
poses the question if people of color live in more violent communities
or if the local brand of justice is inherently selective. Experts have
long been debating this matter. </span><b> </b></span></span></p><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Around 2.5% of the US black male population was in prison by the end of 2016. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2,417 per 100,000 US black male residents were incarcerated by the end of 2016. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">There were
467,000 sentenced black male prisoners and 20,400 black female
prisoners in the US in 2016. These figures exclude blacks with Hispanic
origins and those with sentences that are one year or less. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2015, 59% of black prisoners sentenced to more than a year in prison were detained for a violent crime. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">18-19-year-old black males are 11.8 times more likely to be incarcerated than white males belonging to the same age group. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Black males 65 years and above are 4.4 times more likely to be incarcerated than white males belonging to the same age group. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2016, 34% of black inmates were doing time for public order offenses. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">While blacks and Hispanics comprise about 32% of the US population, they accounted for 56% of the US prison population in 2015. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Blacks are five times more likely to be incarcerated than whites. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">If blacks and Hispanics share the same incarceration rate of whites, the prison population will decrease by 40%. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">As of 2001, one in three black males born in the said year would likely face a prison sentence in his lifetime. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">As of 2016, 48.3% of prisoners serving life and virtual life sentences are black. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The number of whites and blacks charged with prison sentences of over 1 year declined in 2016. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">13% of the inmates belonging to the 18 to 24 age group are black. <br /></span></span></span><h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Black Women in Prison</strong></span></span></h4><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">While
there are far fewer black women than men in prison, the disparity in
the imprisonment rates between black and white women is striking. And
the gap is even wider if we are to zone in on just juvenile
incarceration. </span></span></span></p></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">There were
more white women (49,000 inmates) in prison than black women (20,400)
and Hispanic women (19,300) at the end of 2016. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">However,
the imprisonment rate of black females (97/100,000) is nearly 50% higher
than that of their white counterparts (49/100,000). </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">18-19-year-old black females are 3.1 times more likely to be incarcerated than white females belonging to the same age group. </span></span></span></li></ul><h3 class="bg-title" id="TOC8"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Drug Abuse Statistics</strong></span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">America’s
war on drugs has led to the arrest of numerous users and dealers
belonging to all ethnicities. A concern that stands out is the disparity
between arrests and the number of known users. It makes one wonder how
over a million drug users can roam free and what metrics are applied on
the streets to qualify for a drug-related arrest.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another
glaring statistic is the incarceration rate of blacks in relation to
illegal drugs compared to whites. This brings forth the need to delve
into the nature of drug cases involving whites and blacks further. There
is a possibility that the communities within which both races reside
play as big a factor in the crimes as ethnicity does. </span></span></span></p><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">According
to the FBI, in 2017, 342,513 black Americans were busted for drug abuse
violations, making up 27.1% of all those arrested. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">According
to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, around 4 million
African Americans were using illegal substances in December of that same
year. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Despite using illegal drugs at similar rates, blacks are six times more likely to face imprisonment than whites. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">More than one in four people busted for drug-related crimes in 2015 were black. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In an ALU
report, it was found that blacks were 3.7 times more likely to be
charged with marijuana possession than whites even though the usage
rates of both ethnicities are comparable. </span></span></span></li></ul><h3 class="bg-title" id="TOC9"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Hate Crime Statistics</strong></span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The
FBI defines a hate crime as a criminal offense motivated by bias, which
includes those that are racially motivated. Even though society has
thoroughly evolved from the prejudiced 60s era, racism is still present
in this day and age. And the high number of hate crimes ascertains this
fact. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">To counter this, the
Bureau has centered the efforts of its civil service program to crack
down on hate crimes and its causes. Besides conducting investigations,
it holds outreach programs that inform communities about their civil
rights and the laws that protect them. Training programs to combat hate
crimes are also offered to authorities and communities. </span></span></span></p><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the FBI in 2018, 59.6% of single-bias hate crimes were motivated by bias against race/ethnicity/ancestry. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2018, 53.6% of hate crime offenders were white, while 24% were black. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Out of the 6,266 reported offenders of hate crimes motivated by race in 2018, 3,359 were white while 1,506 were black. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of the
5,155 victims of single-bias hate crimes involving race in 2018, 2,426
(47.1%) were victims of anti-black bias, while 1,038 (20.1) were victims
of anti-white bias. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Out of the
5,556 hate crimes against persons, 46% came in the form of
intimidation, 34% were simple assault, 18.4% were aggravated assault,
and 0.8% resulted in rape or murder.</span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><h3 class="bg-title" id="TOC10"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Black Views on the Justice and Safety</strong></span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Due
to the racial disparity in policing, sentencing, and incarceration,
many people have cast doubts on the impartiality of the country’s
criminal justice system. In fact, a majority of Caucasians think that
local justice as a whole is skewed against African Americans. Blacks
were expectedly downcast on the state of race relations, and in the way
authorities treated them. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">If
we delve deeper into the stats, the views of African Americans are
reflective of the dangers that their communities pose. For them to
acknowledge acts like violent crimes and gun violence as serious
national concerns, criminal elements are likely to be more pervasive in
their communities. </span></span></span></p></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">According
to the Pew Research Center in 2018, 87% of black adults believe that
blacks are less favored by the criminal justice system compared to
whites. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The same view is shared by 61% of white adults. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">79% of
black adults think that the unfair treatment of the criminal justice
system of ethnic minorities is a huge concern in the US. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">32% of white adults think the same way. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">82% of blacks view gun violence as a serious problem in the country, while only 47% of whites share the same opinion. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">75% of blacks think that violent crime is a big problem in the country; only 46% of whites agree with this. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">38% of blacks believe that crime is a serious concern in their local community as opposed to only 13% thinking the same way. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A Pew
Research Center survey in 2017 reported that blacks are twice as likely
to admit that they live in a dangerous neighborhood compared to whites. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">71% of black Americans believe that race relations in the country aren’t good. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">84% of
blacks believe that their history of slavery has placed them at a
disadvantage in society, while 78% think that the country has failed to
do enough to give them equal rights with whites. </span></span></span></li></ul><h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Views on the Death Penalty</strong></span></span></h4><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The
negative view of blacks on the criminal justice system extends to the
death penalty. After all, if the authorities are quick to detain and
arrest African American suspects, they would likely believe that death
sentences are more easily meted out to them. This line of thought has
led a majority of blacks to oppose the death penalty. </span></span></span></p><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">According
to a 2015 survey, 52% of black Americans do not support the death
penalty, while 74% believe that capital punishment puts innocent people
at risk. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">77% of blacks think that minorities are more likely to be meted with a death sentence. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A majority of black (75%) and white people (60%) think that capital punishment does not effectively deter crime. </span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">46% of blacks think that capital punishment is morally justified. </span></span></span></li></ul><h3 class="bg-title"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Black Crimes Should be Better Addressed</strong></span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Racial
disparity is evident on most counts when one looks at incarceration
rates, arrests, victims, and police detainments, among others. Blacks,
on paper, really do figure more in crimes if we slice America’s
population down to ethnic proportion. The fact that 2.5% of the entire
black male population in America is behind bars speaks volumes of their
involvement in crimes. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">However,
this does not necessarily mean that African Americans are the most
threatening ethnicity on American shores. Based on the policing numbers,
many of them are detained and arrested even if they didn’t break any
law. Just search for these cases online, and you would find dozens, if
not hundreds, of documented cases on paper and video. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rather
than focus on the color of one’s skin, the authorities are better off
surveilling the communities where the perpetrators of violent crimes
came from. They would likely unearth systemic, instead of racial,
concerns plaguing the locales. Factors like poverty, unemployment,
limited access to basic needs and education, and astronomic healthcare
expenses are known to influence crime. Those have nothing to do with one
being born to black parents.</span></span></span></p><hr /><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>References:</strong></span></span></p><ol><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv18.pdf" target="_blank">Criminal Victimization, 2018</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/#majorities-of-black-and-white-adults-say-blacks-are-treated-less-fairly-than-whites-in-dealing-with-police-and-by-the-criminal-justice-system" target="_blank">Race in America 2019</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/21/from-police-to-parole-black-and-white-americans-differ-widely-in-their-views-of-criminal-justice-system/" target="_blank">From police to parole, black and white Americans differ wildly in their views of the criminal justice system</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/" target="_blank">Criminal Justice Fact Sheet</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-DetTabs-2015/NSDUH-DetTabs-2015/NSDUH-DetTabs-2015.pdf" target="_blank">2015 National Survey of Drug Use and Health</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/race-and-homicide-in-america-by-the-numbers" target="_blank">Race and Homicide in America, by the numbers</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Crispus-Attucks" target="_blank">Crispus Attucks American Leader</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.nyclu.org/en/stop-and-frisk-data" target="_blank">Stop-And-Frisk Data</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p16.pdf" target="_blank">Prisoners in 2016</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0032885511415227" target="_blank">Addressing Racial Disparities in Incarceration</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/topic-pages/persons-arrested" target="_blank">2016 Crime in the United States</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezapop" target="_blank">Easy Access to Juvenile Populations</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/tables/table-43" target="_blank">2015 Crime in the United States</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/1114413-mj-report-rfs-rel1.pdf" target="_blank">The War on Marijuana in Black and White</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/crime/stop-frisk-policing-philadelphia-racial-bias-lance-hannon-villanova-20171002.html?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=6a170eda-4358-4030-9b50-0039ec8090fc" target="_blank">Study: High rates of stop-and-frisk even in Philly’s lowest-crime back areas</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/files/web_images/10_28_14_TOCFINAL.pdf" target="_blank">Trends in Misdemeanor Arrests in New York</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Still-Life.pdf" target="_blank">Still Life: America’s Increasing Use of Life and Long Term Sentences</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2018/topic-pages/victims" target="_blank">2018 Hate Crime Statistics Victims</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2018/topic-pages/offenders" target="_blank">2018 Hate Crime Statistics Offenders</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2018/tables/table-9.xls" target="_blank">2018 Hate Crime Statistics Known Offenders</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2018/tables/table-1.xls" target="_blank">2018 Hate Crime Statistics Incidents, Offenses, Victims, and Known Offenders</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2018/topic-pages/incidents-and-offenses" target="_blank">2018 Hate Crime Statistics Incidents and Offenses</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2018/resource-pages/hate-crime-summary" target="_blank">2018 Hate Crime Statistics Hate Crime Summary</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/nibrs/2018/resource-pages/summary.pdf" target="_blank">Summary of </span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/nibrs/2018/resource-pages/victims-2018.pdf" target="_blank">NIBRS Victims</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-43" target="_blank">Crime in the United States 2013 Arrests</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="http://www.murderdata.org/p/victims.html" target="_blank">Victims</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates.html" target="_blank">WISQARS Nonfatal Injury Reports, 2000 – 2018</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/table-43" target="_blank">2017 Crime in the United States Table 43</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/03/04/the-12-key-highlights-from-the-dojs-scathing-ferguson-report/" target="_blank">The 12 key highlights from the DOJ’s scathing Ferguson report</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://sfdistrictattorney.org/sites/default/files/Document/BRP_report.pdf" target="_blank">Report of The Blue Ribbon Panel on Transparency, Accountability, and Fairness in Law Enforcement</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://chicagopatf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/PATF_Final_Report_Executive_Summary_4_13_16-1.pdf" target="_blank">Restoring Trust between the Chicago Police and the Communities They Serve</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/476456/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-shooter-s-race/" target="_blank">Number of mass shootings in the United States between 1982 and February 2020, by shooter’s race and ethnicity.</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-10.xls" target="_blank">Murder Circumstances by Relationship, 2018</span></span></span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="lnk" data-href="https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/civil-rights/hate-crimes" target="_blank">Hate Crimes</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> <br /></span></span></span></li></ol><ul></ul><div class="custom-chart" data-anim="true" data-export="true" data-home-url="https://comparecamp.com">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/willalexander/"><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/willalexander/">Will Alexander</a></span>
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<div class="contributor pull-left"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Posted: Apr 12, 2021 12:01 AM</span></div>
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<a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/willalexander/2021/04/12/black-crime-facing-down-the-elephant-in-the-room-n2587658"><em>https://townhall.com/columnists/willalexander/2021/04/12/black-crime-facing-down-the-elephant-in-the-room-n2587658</em></a></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/willalexander/2021/04/02/racism-is-not-the-problem-n2587262" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recently wrote</a>
about the mysterious killings of endangered white rhinos in South
Africa’s Pilanesberg Park years ago. The killers turned out to be gangs
of aggressive teen elephants who, raised without fathers or role models
to “curb their youthful exuberance,” grew up to be troublemakers. The
delinquents fell in line after park staff relocated adult male elephants
to the park who “kicked butt” with the compassion of a father and
established a new hierarchy. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The violence and killings of white rhinos stopped. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
compared the young elephants to young blacks in urban cities who were
raised without fathers or healthy role models and have grown up
extremely violent and extremely dysfunctional. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">That dysfunction is
passed down to succeeding generations because rather than making the
hard decisions to accurately define and solve the problem, leaders and
activists excuse the bad behavior by blaming all the mayhem on slavery
and Jim Crow. The message? “It’s not your fault.”</span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">How’s that working? </span></b> </span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Blacks
are a third of the population in Chicago but commit 80 percent of all
shootings, author Heather Mac Donald told Tucker Carlson on a recent
show. In Los Angeles, blacks commit 44 percent of all violent crime but
make up 9 percent of the population. In St. Louis, blacks are less
than a third of the population but commit 90 percent of all homicides.
In New York City, blacks commit about three quarters of all shootings
although they’re 23 percent of the population.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">On <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/4/6/22369491/chicago-shootings-april-5-gun-violence-crime-homicide">Monday</a> alone, 16 people were shot and two killed in Chicago, a city led by blacks. Two teenage <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/04/05/teens-accused-in-fatal-uber-carjacking-to-get-plea-deal-report/">black girls</a> killed an Uber Eats driver in D.C. during a foiled carjacking. A knife-wielding black man, 25, was shot dead after he <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/04/02/capitol-placed-on-lockdown-over-apparent-external-threat/">rammed</a> his car into a barricade at the Capitol, killing one policeman. A deranged <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2021/04/01/you-probably-wont-be-surprised-to-hear-what-man-arrested-for-attack-on-asian-woman-was-on-parole-for-n2587214" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">black man</a>
who had been released from prison after killing his mother was caught
on camera kicking, stomping, and beating a random 65-year-old Asian
woman, while others, including a security guard, watched.</span></b></p><p><span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">With all
the talk of structural racism, equity, and white supremacy, violence
has not only gotten more brash, but it’s becoming institutionalized. </span></b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yet, if the woke crowd were successful in transforming the country into
an “anti-racist” paradise, we would still be light years away from
fixing the dysfunction and disparities in urban cities. </span></p><div class="hlw"><div class="hl-wrapper">
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</div></div><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Blaming black crime on <em>slavery</em> and <em>Jim Crow</em> completely ignores the elephant in the room.</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“We
need to be courageous and come up with alternative explanations that
are difficult to articulate but they must be said,” McDonald told
Tucker.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Corey Brooks, pastor of <a href="https://www.nbcchicago.tv/">New Beginnings Church of Chicago</a>,
has spent the past few years getting his hands dirty with an
“alternative explanation” that is slowly transforming one of the most
violent neighborhoods in Chicago. Rather than blaming cops, he’s
laser-focused on tackling urban crime at its root: broken families. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the new documentary “<a href="https://whatkilledmichaelbrown.com/">What Killed Michael Brown?”</a>
Shelby Steele and his son, Eli, spoke with Pastor Brooks, who set up
his church in 2000 in the heart of Woodlawn, Illinois. It’s now a
congregation of 2,500.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“I believe the church is the hope of the
world,” said Brooks. “What greater place that needs that hope than a
place that’s experiencing high levels of crime [and] broken families?
We’ve seen a lot of young guys in the neighborhood who don’t value their
lives. A lot of it is a result of not having someone to encourage them
that ‘You can do better,’ … But if you don’t have those messages going
forward, it’s hard for you to value life when everybody is shooting and
killing.”</span></p><div class="aside-wrapper pr">
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</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">That was true for ex-<em>Black Disciples</em> gang leader <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-pastor-gangsters-compassion">Varney Voker</a>
who, as a child, watched his mother smoke weed and deal drugs. He
wanted to be like her. But he did better. Voker grew up to build a
crack-heroin business that brought in $60,000 a day. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Legendary
in Chicago as one of “The Bentley Twins” (he and his twin brother drove
Bentleys), Voker told Steele about how he returned from an 11-year
prison sentence to find his old neighborhood under new leadership. While
looking for old connections to rebuild his empire, Voker’s friend told
him he had to go to the church.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“I’m like, who am I meeting?” he
said, recounting the story. “Guy (said), ‘You meeting the pastor.’ I
said, ‘I don’t want to talk to no pastor, bro, I just came home. He
goes, ‘No, you have to talk to him because he runs the neighborhood
now.’”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When they finally met, the pastor said to the ex-gang
leader: “OK, um, I know who you are; I heard a lot about you – glad to
see you home, but I’m the new sheriff in town.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">By making himself the “biggest elephant in the room,” Brooks
established a new hierarchy in Woodlawn where young blacks saw him as a
father figure. Over the years, Brooks has created an environment where
young people can learn a trade, become self-sufficient, and be role
models for others. It is this painstaking cycle of creating and
reproducing role models that Brooks believes will transform the
neighborhood. In fact, he wants Woodlawn to be the petri dish that will
offer proof that urban areas nationwide can grow themselves out of
dysfunction and close crippling disparities. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>“It’s easy to say,
‘the white man, the white man’ when in reality we need to take a closer
look at ourselves,” </b>he told Steele. “We’re telling them educationally –
you’ve got to get it together. Economically, you’ve got to get it
together. Family and spiritually, you have to get it together. And
you have to take responsibility.”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is the Corey Brooks of the
world – not the Cory Bookers – who will do for troubled urban cities
what trillions of government dollars, angry protesters, and pampered TV
pundits have failed to do. They ignore the elephant in the room, then
make books and monuments to themselves about the problems they created
and pretended to solve. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">But men like Pastor Brooks stare the
elephant in the eye, hammer stakes in the ground, and commit to the
dirty, back-breaking labor of changing the destiny of generations of
broken human beings.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">If America is lucky, Brooks and people like him, just may be replicating an army of men and women in their own images.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Author's note: <em>Pastor Corey Brooks’ outreach arm, Project H.O.O.D. (Helping Others Obtain Destiny), is </em><a href="https://chronicleillinois.com/news/cook-county-news/pastor-works-to-turn-around-woodlawn-neighborhood/"><em>raising private funds</em></a><em> to build a </em><a href="https://www.projecthood.org/"><em>community center</em></a><em> that
will house a charter school, skills training, and recreational
opportunities. For more information, go to www.projecthood.org. <br /></em></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-2339057200591241262022-09-21T22:20:00.004-07:002022-09-21T22:20:44.116-07:00My Black Crime Problem, and Ours <h2 class="title"> <span style="font-family: verdana;">My Black Crime Problem, and Ours </span></h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">
<span class="subtitle">Why are so many blacks in prison? Is the criminal justice system racist? The answer is disquieting.</span>
</span><div class="authors">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><a class="author" href="https://www.city-journal.org/contributor/john-j-diiulio-jr_51"><span class="name">John J. DiIulio, Jr.</span></a></span>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
<span class="magazine"><a class="source-link" href="https://www.city-journal.org/magazine?issue=32">Spring 1996</a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="magazine"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.city-journal.org/html/my-black-crime-problem-and-ours-11773.html">https://www.city-journal.org/html/my-black-crime-problem-and-ours-11773.html</a></span> </b><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">iolent crime is down in New York and many other cities, but there are
two big reasons to keep the champagne corked. One is that murder, rape,
robbery, and assault remain at historic highs: the streets of
Manhattan, like those of Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, and
Los Angeles, remain much less safe today than in the 1950s and 1960s.
Worse, though policing and prison policies matter, nothing affects crime
rates more than the number of young males in the population—and by the
year 2010, there will be about 4.5 million more males age 17 or under
than there were in 1990: 8 percent more whites and 26 percent more
blacks. Since around 6 percent of young males turn out to be career
criminals, according to the historical data, this increase will put an
estimated 270,000 more young predators on the streets than in 1990,
coming at us in waves over the next two decades. Numerous studies show
that each succeeding generation of young male criminals commits about
three times as much serious crime as the one before it: the occasional
fatal knife fight of 1950s street gangs has given way to the frequent
drive-by shootings of 1990s gangs.</span>
</p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The second reason to keep the champagne corked is that not only is
the number of young black criminals likely to surge, but also the black
crime rate, both black-on-black and black-on-white, is increasing, so
that as many as half of these juvenile super-predators could be young
black males. But just when we need to think most earnestly about black
crime, the space for honest discourse about race and crime is shrinking.
The evidence of that shrinkage is everywhere: in the lickety-split O.J.
verdict and its racially polarized aftermath, in the utter certitude of
many blacks that the justice system is rigged against them, in the
belief of many whites that violent crime is synonymous with black crime
and the fear they feel of every young black male passerby not wearing a
tie or handcuffs.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">What has made our views on race and crime so polarized—and often so out of touch with reality? What <i>are</i> the facts about race and crime? And what are Americans, blacks and whites together, to do about it?</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Many blacks, and some whites, believe that the justice system is
biased against blacks, at worst purposefully racist or even “genocidal.”
Take a recent <i>New Yorker</i> article, in which Henry Louis Gates
Jr., leader of Harvard University’s black studies program, chronicled
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man,” namely, the acquitted O.J.
Simpson. Gates writes: “Perhaps you didn’t know that Liz Claiborne
appeared on <i>Oprah</i> and said she didn’t design her clothes for
black women—that their hips were too wide. Perhaps you didn’t know that
the soft drink Tropical Fantasy is manufactured by the Ku Klux Klan and
contains a special ingredient to sterilize black men. . . . Perhaps you
didn’t know these things but a good many black Americans think they do. .
. . Never mind that Liz Claiborne has never appeared on <i>Oprah</i>,
[or] that the beleaguered Brooklyn [soft drink] company has gone as far
as to make an FDA assay of its ingredients. . . . If you wonder why
blacks seem particularly susceptible to rumors and conspiracy theories,
you might take a look at a history in which the official story was a
poor guide to anything that mattered much, and in which rumor sometimes
verged on the truth. Heard the one about the L.A. cop who hated
interracial couples, fantasized about making a bonfire of black bodies,
and boasted of planting evidence?”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gates, like the renowned sociologist William Julius Wilson, one of
the prominent black Americans whose views of the O.J. verdict he cites,
was convinced that O.J. was guilty. But he recounts a story Wilson told
him about once being stopped near a small New England town by a
policeman who wanted to know what he was doing in those parts: “There’s a
moving violation that many African-Americans know as DWB: Driving While
Black,” notes Gates. As “older blacks like to repeat,” when “white
folks say ‘justice,’ they mean ‘just us.’” In other words, blacks really
do experience enough casual, reflexive racism from law enforcement
officers to make them understandably fearful that racism permeates the
criminal justice system.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A point well taken. But then Gates’s article goes astray: it never
makes plain that, in spite of these reasonable anxieties and
resentments, some ways of “looking at a black man”—at any man—are right
and reasonable while others are wrong and malicious. Some of the people
who burst into jubilation over the O.J. verdict were celebrating the
release of a man whom they believed to be innocent. With due regard for
the fact that two families have lost loved ones, that’s okay. But other
blacks partied to a he-killed-the-blonde-and-got-away-with-it tune. For
example, a sign held by a woman whose picture appeared in the <i>New York Times Magazine</i>
read: “Guilty or Not We Love You O.J.” Gates quotes film director Spike
Lee as follows: “A lot of black folks said, ‘Man, O.J. is <i>bad</i>,
you know. This is the first brother in the history of the world who got
away with murder of white folks, and a blonde, blue-eyed woman at
that.’” Lee, Gates reports, “wasn’t happy” at the verdict. But some
black folks were thrilled—and for morally indefensible reasons that
Gates needs to condemn, not artfully explain.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nevertheless, the ambivalence and mistrust that many blacks feel
toward the justice system is a social reality that whites can’t ignore. <i>The</i> <i>Weekly Standard’s</i>
deputy editor, John Podhoretz, wrote in the magazine about the O.J.
verdict and race relations under the double-meaning heading “Yes, We Do
Understand”: “How can most black Americans believe (or say they believe)
that O.J. Simpson is innocent of a crime science tells us there is a
one-in-a-billion chance he did not commit? . . . We—that is, we
upper-middle-class whites—must, by a process of study and observation,
come to <i>understand</i>. And it will be ‘white’ institutions, from the Ford Foundation to the <i>New York Times</i> to America’s corporations, that will insist on fostering this <i>understanding</i>.
. . . For the American liberal establishment, this has become the stock
response after a public outrage that divides Americans by color. . . .
Is black America so lost in its own resentment . . . that they feel
closer kinship to a killer because of his skin color than to the
killer’s victims? I can understand how this has happened, but it makes
me sick.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Like Gates, Podhoretz never arrives at the right moral point. The point is that to <i>understand</i>
is neither to forgive any criminal his crime nor to sit still when
“racism” is used as an all-purpose excuse for morally abhorrent or
socially pathological behavior. Like Podhoretz, I have little patience
with liberal elites of whatever color who are nothing better than
well-funded nihilists. I could not care less about understanding what
they have to say, and I would not be the least bit concerned—if they
were the only ones saying it.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">But they aren’t. All of us, “upper-middle-class whites” included, are
morally required to understand and ponder what so many black folks have
to say—not only the knee-jerk liberal pundits and politicians, but also
world-class professors (like Wilson), plumbers, postal workers,
paramedics, prosecutors, preachers, and (in my case) former students.
Many of them are saying that they feel the justice system is as much a
foe as a friend. As I will summarize below, I find almost nothing in the
empirical research literature on racial disparities in sentencing to
justify their fears and frustrations. But that does not mean their fears
and frustrations are without any sort of empirical basis, including the
kind that, for most of us, counts more than any other—our own lived
experiences and those of our family and friends.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As Gates recalls, Norman Podhoretz, the father of John Podhoretz and until recently the editor of <i>Commentary</i>,
wrote a famous soul-searching 1963 essay, “My Negro Problem, and Ours.”
Gates describes the essay as “one of the frankest accounts we have of
liberalism and race resentment,” a plainspoken tale of “a Brooklyn
boyhood spent under the shadow of carefree, cruel Negro assailants, and
of the author’s residual unease when he passes groups of blacks in his
Upper West Side neighborhood.” In one key passage, the elder Podhoretz
noted: “I know now, as I did not know when I was a child, that power is
on my side, that the police are working for me and not for them.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">But I knew. Growing up in rough-edged, white-ethnic, working-class
neighborhoods of Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s, I knew—as all the
kids I grew up with knew—that when push literally came to shove, the
police would be “working for me and not for them.” Each morning on my
way to high school, I stood by myself at a bus stop, surrounded mainly
by black teenagers from adjacent neighborhoods. I was by myself, but I
was not alone. I knew that the cop in the cruiser was looking out for me
in case “they” started trouble that I could not handle.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">My old neighborhood had its biracial, but strictly segregated, parks
and playgrounds. When interracial fights did break out, everyone ran
when the cops came. But we white boys knew that if we got caught and
showed due deference to the officers (<i>never</i> mouth off to a
panting cop), we’d get lectured, get our hair pulled, or (at most) get
our fathers called. We also knew the black boys would get that and
worse—slapped, clubbed, and maybe arrested.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Once when I was unloading 100-pound flour bags at a downtown pizzeria
where I worked, the cops came zooming up the sidewalk, got out of their
cruiser, and pushed my pal and co-worker, Willie Brown, against the
wall. They did not touch me. Willie, an illiterate black man then in his
forties, had done nothing. I protested, and the cops sped off as
quickly as they had come: “Sorry, kid, we got a call that somebody was
stealing.” But the only “somebody” they grabbed was the black man, and
the only apology they issued was to the white boy.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I recall the second time my father, a retired deputy sheriff, ran a
citywide race for sheriff and appointed me his manager (mainly to teach
me something about politics before I “bought whatever they think they
know about it at Harvard”). He ran on a real rainbow-coalition ticket
with former deputy mayor Charles Bowser, Philly’s first major black
mayoral candidate. We lost the election (no surprise) as well as good
relations with some neighbors (sad surprise), one of whom loudly scolded
me that “we’ll never be safe from crime if <i>they’re</i> in charge of it.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Even though I am now a card-carrying elite professor and
“upper-middle-class white,” I have stayed close to home. I hang out with
the same white working-class relatives and friends I’ve known all my
life. I live a few minutes by car from some of Philadelphia’s worst
black neighborhoods. So I have a very different perspective from that of
most white intellectuals, both on the white ethnics who turn into the
cops blacks fear and on the everyday reality of life in black
communities. And as little as the white policy elites, liberal or
conservative, know about “the black experience,” believe me, they know
less about what race means in the lives of those Italian-American
bricklayers, Irish-American gas pumpers, and Polish-American salesclerks
whom the U.S. Census bureaucrats have baptized “non-Hispanic whites.”
We need to understand these folks, too—and especially how their
experience of black-white relations leaves a tangle of powerful
contradictions and ambivalences, as I know vividly from my own
experience.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I indelibly remember taking a jump shot on the playground when I was
ten. As the ball left my hand, instead of invoking, for luck, the name
of a white star (as was customary), I unthinkingly shouted the name of a
black star. “Nigger lover!” snapped a scandalized playmate. But the
following week, the same kid punched out a white schoolyard bully for
bothering a black girl who wandered by. I’ll never forget how much, when
my frail grandmother got kicked, punched, and robbed in broad daylight
for the third time (on her way to church, no less), the fact that her
assailants were (once again) black boys got under my white skin. The
memory of the anger is still there—along with the image of her in her
hospital bed, imploring her strapping grandsons, some of us cops, to
“love all God’s people.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">So it’s no mystery to me that blacks tense when they see a white cop
coming: they know the Willie Brown experience well enough, and how could
they possibly know the sense of justice regardless of race, even the
Christian <i>caritas</i> transcending race, that can lie beneath the
blue uniform and the white skin? Just that white ambivalence is as
familiar territory to me as it was to Norman Podhoretz. I grew up with
it; I know that casual racism is there; I know the anger and shame you
feel at seeing it all around you—and I know the competing anger, no less
familiar: the anger at the knowledge that when real violence erupts,
all too often the assailants are (once again) black.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Honest blacks know this, too. In a recent issue of <i>The New Republic</i>,
Boston University economist Glenn Loury writes of inner-city black
communities: “‘What manner of people are you who live like this?’ The
question is unavoidable. . . . It does no good to say that these are a
minority of black persons; that there are good and sufficient reasons
for their troubling behaviors; that others, who are not black, have also
fallen short.” Of middle-class blacks, he admits: “We are afraid to go
into these communities. We do not recognize these kids as us; the
distance is great and difficult to bridge.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">My black crime problem, and ours, is that for most Americans,
especially for average white Americans, the distance is not merely great
but almost unfathomable, the fear is enormous and largely justifiable,
and the black kids who inspire the fear seem not merely unrecognizable
but alien. Not that we can’t understand where they come from, when we
stop to consider. After all, the child is father to the man: and think
how many inner-city black children are without parents, relatives,
neighbors, teachers, coaches, or clergymen to teach them right from
wrong, give them loving and consistent discipline, show them the moral
and material value of hard work and study, and bring them to cherish the
self-respect that comes only from respecting the life, liberty, and
property of others. Think how many black children grow up where parents
neglect and abuse them, where other adults and teenagers harass and harm
them, where drug dealers exploit them. Not surprisingly, in return for
the favor, some of these children kill, rape, maim, and steal without
remorse. And around goes the negative feedback loop: reasonable fear
feeds unreasonable white race hostility, whose reality in turn feeds
unreasonable black paranoia about the justice system.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Is there anything social science research can do to help dispel all
the ambivalence and confusion crowding around the subject of race and
crime? At least it can tell the truth, as the data disclose it, about
the reality of black crime and black punishment. The bottom line of most
of the best research is that America’s justice system is not racist,
not anymore, not as it undoubtedly was only a generation ago—in spite of
the Driving While Black experience. If blacks are overrepresented in
the ranks of the imprisoned, it is because blacks are overrepresented in
the criminal ranks—and the violent criminal ranks, at that. Yes, there
are ways in which the justice system is failing all Americans, including
black Americans. But to the extent that the justice system hurts,
rather than helps, blacks more than it does whites, it is not by
incarcerating a “disproportionate” number of young black men. Rather, it
is by ignoring poor black victims and letting convicted violent and
repeat black criminals, both adult and juvenile, continue to victimize
and demoralize the black communities that suffer most of their
depredations.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Consider the data. A 1993 study of the racial impact of federal
sentencing guidelines found that the imposition between 1986 and 1990 of
stiffer penalties for drug offenders, especially cocaine traffickers,
did not result in racially disparate sentences. The amount of the drug
sold, the seriousness of the offender’s prior criminal history, whether
weapons were involved, and other such valid characteristics of criminals
and their crimes accounted for <i>all</i> the observed interracial variations in prison sentences.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Similarly, a 1991 RAND Corporation study of adult robbery and
burglary defendants in 14 large U.S. cities found that a defendant’s
race or ethnic group bore almost no relation to conviction rates,
sentencing severity, or other key measures. In 1995, federal government
statistician Patrick A. Langan analyzed data on 42,500 defendants in the
nation’s 75 largest counties and found “no evidence that, in the places
where blacks in the United States have most of their contacts with the
justice system, that system treats them more harshly than whites.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A 1985 study by Langan of black-white differentials in imprisonment
rates demonstrated that “even if racism exists, it might explain only a
small part of the gap between the 11 percent black representation in the
United States adult population and the now nearly 50 percent black
representation among persons entering state prisons each year in the
United States.” An otherwise typically liberal-leaning 1993 National
Academy of Sciences study voiced the same basic conclusion.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is often asserted that the 1980s war on drugs resulted in a more
racially “disproportionate” prison population. The data tell a different
story. In 1980, 46.6 percent of state prisoners and 34.4 percent of
federal prisoners were black; by 1990, 48.9 percent of state prisoners
and 31.4 percent of federal prisoners were black. In 1988, the median
time served in confinement by black violent offenders was 25 months,
versus 24 months for their white counterparts. The mean sentence lengths
were 116 months for blacks and 110 for whites, while the mean times
actually served in confinement were 37 months for blacks, 33 months for
whites. These small differences are explained by the fact that black
violent crimes are generally more serious than white ones (aggravated
rather than simple assaults, weapon-related crimes rather than
weaponless ones).</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Indeed, the evidence on the race-neutrality of incarceration
decisions is now so compelling that even topflight criminologists who
rail against the anti-drug regime, mandatory sentencing laws,
three-strikes laws, and other policies with which they disagree are
nonetheless careful to contend that racial biases are “built into the
law,” are “America’s dirty little secret,” or constitute “malign
neglect.” In other words, they do everything but challenge the
proposition that blacks and whites who do the same crimes and have
similar criminal records are now handled by the system in the same ways.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In this vein, liberal experts contend that the penalties for crack
cocaine possession and sale are excessive compared with powder cocaine
penalties. I concur. And liberals are also right that blacks are far
more likely than whites to use and sell crack instead of powder cocaine.
But they go badly wrong on two key counts. First, they feed the
conspiratorial myth that federal anti-crack penalties were born of a
white conspiracy led by right-wing Republicans. Go check the <i>Congressional Record:</i>
in 1986, when the federal crack law was debated, the Congressional
Black Caucus (CBC) supported it, and some CBC members pressed for even
harsher penalties. A few years earlier it was CBC members and other
Democrats in Congress who pushed President Reagan, against his
considered judgment, to create the Office of National Drug Control
Policy (better known as the drug czar’s office). And it was President
Clinton who recently refused in no uncertain terms to change the federal
penalty structure for drug crimes.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Second, liberal experts and advocates of drug legalization cloud the
facts about who really goes to prison for drug crimes. As I and several
other researchers have concluded, society gets little return on its
investment in locking up low-level offenders who possess or even traffic
in small amounts of drugs and commit no other crimes. But most drug
offenders, both those behind bars and those who have served their time,
do not fit that description.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As a recent study funded by the National Institute of Justice and
other federal agencies acknowledged, in “an important sense the label
‘drug offender’ is a misnomer.” Few “drug offenders” are in prison for
mere possession. In 1991, for example, only 2 percent of the 36,648
persons admitted to federal prisons were in for drug possession.
Moreover, as for imprisoned drug <i>traffickers</i>, most have long and
diversified criminal records—only their latest and most serious
conviction offense is a drug-trafficking offense. Even in the
much-maligned federal system, few convicted drug traffickers, whether
they handle crack, powder cocaine, or pot, are black college kids or
white white-collar types arrested on the interstate by a state trooper
who found a small stash under the driver’s seat. The average quantity of
drugs involved in federal cocaine trafficking cases is 183 pounds,
while the average for marijuana traffickers is 3.5 tons.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In an ongoing study of who really goes to prison in Wisconsin, George
Mitchell and I are examining the complete criminal records, adult and
juvenile, of a randomly selected sample of imprisoned felons from
Milwaukee County. We are finding that the imprisoned “drug offenders,”
black and white, like most of the rest of the sample, have committed
many times more property, drug, and violent crimes than the latest
entries on their prison rap sheets would indicate. This is not to
mention all the crimes swept completely under the official-records rug
by plea bargaining, or all the wholly undetected, unprosecuted, and
unpunished crimes the prisoners have committed while free.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course, there are cases of truly petty drug dealers, black and
white, being hit with long, hard time. But such cases are the exception
that proves the rule, and the rule is that the system is neither harsh
nor racist in dealing with “drug offenders” or other criminals.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some experts will come <i>almost</i> to the point of agreement with
all that, but still will insist that the system is anything but
color-blind when it comes to two important tasks: punishing juveniles
and dishing out death sentences. But here, too, the evidence does more
to exonerate than to indict the system.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Out of hundreds of post-1969 studies of minorities in the juvenile
justice system, barely two dozen offer evidence of any pattern of racial
discrimination. Even so, liberal strongholds like the federal Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)—which made a
cavalierly fragmentary and outdated examination of only 46 of the 250
relevant studies—continue to purvey the myth that young black offenders
are treated more severely than young white ones. Notwithstanding OJJDP
and its race-baiting minions, the truth is not that the juvenile system
is racist, or that the states incarcerate too many minority juvenile
offenders—or, indeed, too many juvenile offenders of whatever
background.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rather, as the National District Attorneys Association and other law
enforcement officials have said for years, the juvenile system is an
even worse revolving door than the adult system. For example, in 1991
fewer than 20,000 male juvenile violent offenders were in public
juvenile facilities—but in 1992 alone there were more than 110,000
juvenile arrests for violent crimes, and more than 1.6 million juvenile
arrests for other crimes. In most states, police, prosecutors, and
judges do not even have complete access to juvenile records, and some
states still forbid fingerprinting juveniles, including kids charged
with weapons offenses that would be grade-A felonies if committed by
adults.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Over the coming decade, juvenile arrests in California and many other
states are projected to increase by some 25 percent, even more for
minority juveniles. By the year 2005 we will probably have 200,000
convicted juvenile criminals, half of them black males, in secure
confinement, including adult prisons and jails—over three times more
than the number of incarcerated juveniles today. The reason for this
will not be racism or what OJJDP calls “disproportionate minority
confinement.” The reason will be that more black boys grew up without
adults who were willing and able to save them—and their victims—from
tragedy.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">What should be done with cold-blooded killers of whatever race? Like
most other Americans, the majority of black Americans favor the death
penalty. Yet around that punishment swirls the most acrimonious of all
racial disparity controversies. Here too, though, the data disclose no
trace of racism.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Reviewing the evidence in 1994, Professors Stanley Rothman and
Stephen Powers concluded that after controlling for all relevant
variables, one finds simply no evidence of racial disparities in
post-1972 capital sentencing. The crucial variable is the severity of
the crime. Though the vast majority of murders are committed by someone
of the same race as the victim, black-on-white murders are more likely
than black-on-black murders to be cases of strangers killing strangers
and to “involve kidnapping and rape, mutilations, execution-style
murders, tortures, and beatings,” according to Rothman and Powers.
“These are all aggravating circumstances that increase the likelihood of
a death sentence.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Even the raw statistics don’t show much sign of racism. From the day
the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 through the
end of 1993, more than 400,000 Americans were murdered. Over the same
period, only 226 killers were executed, 38 percent of them black. In
1993, blacks were 40 percent of the 2,716 prisoners on death row and 36
percent of the 38 convicted murderers executed. The scandalous truth is,
most of the thousands of murderers behind bars don’t face too harsh but
too lenient a punishment. Most get out of prison. Murderers released
from state prisons in 1992 served an average of only 5.9 years. There is
no evidence that black murderers get out any less quickly than
comparable white ones.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yet, as with juvenile justice, anti-death penalty partisans,
including congressmen, promote racially charged falsehoods like those
that flew during the 1994 debate in Congress over the so-called Racial
Justice Act (RJA). Though this disgraceful bill, which would have
established a de facto racial quota system in murder cases, was
defeated, it got very serious consideration. It was based on the
shoddiest possible research, purporting to show that because of racism,
more blacks than whites are executed for similar crimes, and that the
law values white victims’ lives more than black victims’ lives. But in
fact, contrary to the fevered fantasies of the RJA’s supporters that we
have hardly progressed beyond the days of racist lynchings, we actually
have arrived at a day when in murder cases generally, and in
black-on-white murder cases in particular, “going for the death penalty”
has become such a political, judicial, and media nightmare for big-city
prosecutors that many urban DAs do not even try. Many, like L.A.
District Attorney Gil Garcetti—the man who spared O.J. a death sentence
even faster than the jury spared him any sentence at all—not only avoid
the death penalty but seem more concerned with preempting any
possibility of false but damaging accusations of racism than in
following the rule of law, protecting the public, doing the work, and
taking the heat.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Recently a page-one story in the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> tackled
the question of “jury nullification” in cases involving black
defendants. It is increasingly common for black jurors to “side with
African-American defendants against a mostly white-dominated justice
system,” even to the point of acquitting black defendants whom the
jurors know to be guilty on the legal merits—and even when the victims
are black. More black jurors “are choosing to disregard the evidence,
however powerful, because they seek to protest racial injustice and to
refrain from adding to the already large number of blacks behind bars.”
The story noted that in the Bronx, where juries are more than 80 percent
black and Hispanic, black defendants are acquitted in felony cases 47.6
percent of the time—three times the national acquittal rate of 17
percent for all races. In Washington, D.C., where virtually all
defendants and 70 percent of jurors are black, 28.7 percent of all
felony trials end in acquittals. Similar patterns hold in Detroit and
several other cities where black jurors predominate. Paul Butler, a
black criminal-law professor at George Washington University, was quoted
as arguing that in cases involving black defendants charged with
nonviolent crimes, black jurors should “presume in favor of
nullification.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A response to racism? Something more is at issue, for this isn’t
happening just in cases where black jurors are hearing white cops
testify against black criminals. Black jurors’ resistance to police
witnesses has grown even as virtually every big city has increased the
percentage of blacks on its police force, moved the force ever nearer to
mirroring the racial composition of its citizenry, and seen blacks
become precinct captains, deputy chiefs, commissioners, and mayors.
Between 1983 and 1992, the percentage of blacks on big-city police
forces increased in each and every one of the nation’s ten biggest
police departments—rising 50 percent to 67.8 percent in Washington,
D.C., to take one example, where blacks were 65.8 percent of the local
population.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Most whites and blacks now accept living, working, shopping, playing,
side by side—every interracial interaction save marriage. And yet on
crime, America seems closer than ever to becoming two nations separated
by race rather than one nation under God. Why? At least part of the
reason is that we are inundated with statistics about race, crime, and
punishment that needlessly fan black concerns about white racism.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1993 the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA),
an advocacy group that opposes mandatory sentencing and favors making a
greater use of probation, parole, and rehabilitation programs,
publicized its finding that “43 percent of all young black men in
Washington, D.C.—and 56 percent in Baltimore—are firmly in the grip of
the justice system.” The press broadcast the numbers far and wide. As
was later revealed in an analysis by the American Alliance for Rights
and Responsibilities, the statistics were a bit inflated, but even after
appropriate correction, the NCIA study would still have found about 35
percent of Washington’s young black men in prison, in jail, on
probation, or on parole. Indeed, in a highly publicized 1995 report, the
Sentencing Project, a Washington-based counterpart of NCIA, found that
nationwide about one in three black males age 20 to 29 was under some
form of correctional supervision. As the Sentencing Project reported, in
1989 about 610,000 black males in their twenties—23 percent of the
cohort—were in custody. But by 1995 that number had risen to over
827,000—32.2 percent of the nation’s twenty-something black males. One
could quibble with the estimates, but the finding is valid; in fact, my
own estimates would indicate that the number is already closer to 50
percent in some places, and that nationally it will be nearer to a half
than a third by the year 2000.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As the Sentencing Project boasts, “the report has had a major impact
in the media and among policymakers.” Oddly, however, its “major impact”
has been to divert attention from the big truth that one in three young
black males is under correctional supervision because young black male
rates of serious crime are so high. Instead it has focused attention on
the half-truths and outright distortions long purveyed by the Sentencing
Project, other anti-incarceration advocacy groups, and their funders
and allies in the drug legalization movement, the liberal foundations,
the politically correct universities, and the elite media. The mantra
goes like this: how shameful to America that one in three young black
males is in custody . . . most of those in custody are in for petty drug
crimes . . . revolving-door justice is a right-wing myth . . . the
justice system is racist . . . America has been on an imprisonment binge
. . . prisons don’t cut crime in the least . . . imprisonment is not
only an ineffective response to crime but a racist one.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Predictably, the Sentencing Project and its turn-’em-loose
comrades-in-arms have now begun to dig for more such racially polarizing
pay dirt. For example, the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice in
San Francisco recently “found” that 40 percent of black men in their
twenties in California were under some form of correctional supervision.
Representative Maxine Waters held a news conference in which she
declared the study proof that in California the color of your skin
dictates whether you will be arrested or not, prosecuted harshly or less
harshly, or receive a stiff sentence or gain probation or entry into
treatment. The report itself called for a moratorium on prison
construction in California until the state’s penal code is “overhauled.”
It also called for mandating “racial impact statements” in all new
crime legislation, and for a state commission to study black
“overrepresentation.” Except for a very few dissenting voices, including
the nation’s leading crime-policy scholar, UCLA’s James Q. Wilson,
virtually all the published and broadcast “expert” commentary on this
report followed the radical-liberal party line.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Sentencing Project and its supporters can pretend all they want
that racism and the “war on drugs” have put too many harmless young
black males in prison. But are racist drug laws responsible for the fact
that <i>weapons arrest rates</i> during 1993 were five times greater
for blacks than for whites? Do they explain the fact that 47 percent of
all black men in prison in 1995 were in for a <i>violent crime</i>, and
that most black state prisoners, like most state prisoners, have
committed one or more violent crimes in the past? Do they explain the
fact that the black men in prison for a drug crime were, like virtually
all prisoners, <i>repeat offenders</i> with non-drug crimes on their rap sheets?</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">There are Washington monument-sized fallacies and contradictions in
what the Sentencing Project and its allied spin doctors have argued
about “1 in 3.” For example, the system is supposedly “racist” because
it hammers black drug dealers. But who wants them hammered? Look at the
survey data on decriminalizing or legalizing drugs. Without fail, blacks
are every bit as opposed to weakening anti-drug enforcement efforts as
whites. Only 30 percent of blacks would even consider legalizing
marijuana; virtually none will even debate legalizing harder drugs. My
dear friend and former colleague Ethan Nadelmann is director of the
Lindesmith Center and the country’s leading proponent of turning down
the volume on the drug war. His most vehement, unyielding critics are
not middle-class whites led by right-wing Republicans. Rather, they are
poor and working-class blacks led by folks like New York’s black
Democratic Representative Charles Rangel.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">What if, for argument’s sake, one swallows the notion that the system
now “over-punishes” black drug dealers, and that most of these “drug
dealers” are not, in fact, plea bargain–gorged persons with long adult
and juvenile records of criminal mischief against persons and property?
What then? Which drug-crime 911 calls from black neighborhoods are the
police to ignore? Which black drug dealers should be released back to
their communities tomorrow morning?</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">You can’t have it both ways—protesting that police are less
responsive to black crime victims than to white ones in one breath,
charging that “too many” black victimizers get caught, convicted, and
sentenced, in the next; spinning out conspiratorial theories of white
acquiescence in letting drugs flow into black communities in the
morning, complaining that efforts to crack down on the drug trade are
motivated by racism in the afternoon.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Take a look at the chart on page 27. Based on its latest crime
victimization surveys, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates
that in 1993 alone blacks committed 1.29 million violent crimes against
other blacks—80 percent of all violent crimes against blacks. Blacks
also committed 1.54 million violent crimes against whites—18 percent of
all violent crimes against whites.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As a number of analysts have begun to notice, blacks are about 50
times more likely to commit violent crimes against whites than whites
are to commit violent crimes against blacks. Like the Sentencing
Project’s “1 in 3” number, this “50 to 1” statistic is technically
correct. If you divide the total number of black-on-white violent crimes
in 1993 (1.29 million) by the number of black males age 20 to 29 in the
population in 1993 (3.94 million), you get a ratio equal to 1,013
violent crimes against whites per 10,000 young black males. If you do
the same calculation for the total number of white-on-black crimes
(186,000) divided by the total number of twenty-something white males
(22.9 million), you get a ratio of 17.6 violent crimes committed by
whites against blacks for every 10,000 young white males. Thus, the
incidence of interracial black-on-white violent crime by young black
males (1,013) is 57.5 times the incidence of interracial white-on-black
crime by young white males (17.6). Using different denominators (for
example, white versus black males age 15 to 29) moves the statistic down
a bit (in the example given, to 48 to 1). But it clusters around “50 to
1.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In his recent essay in <i>The New Republic</i>, Glenn Loury explains
that “there are roughly eight times as many whites as blacks; and there
are about six times as many violent criminals per capita among blacks as
among whites. So, if criminals chose their victims at random, without
regard to race, one would expect the black-on-white victimization rate
per black person to be 48 times as large as the white-on-black rate per
white person. Thus, it does not appear that black criminals take
affirmative action to find white victims.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Loury is absolutely right, and he or I or any other competent analyst
could fashion a half-dozen fancier ways of minimizing the “50 to 1”
statistic. In the end, however, nothing we could produce would be other
than cold comfort to white victims of black criminals. For every such
“explanation” merely underlines the reality behind <i>both</i> “1 in 3” and “50 to 1”: namely, that young black males <i>do</i>
commit serious crimes at a much higher rate than whites. Worse, where
the growing problems of black juvenile and “wolf pack” crimes are
concerned, it may well be that young black criminals really are
targeting white victims. For example, as even OJJDP has noted, while
about 95 percent of all violent crimes committed by white juveniles in
1991 were against whites, 57 percent of all violent crimes committed by
black juveniles also were against whites.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The simple if unpalatable truth, therefore, is that even if we
decriminalized black drug-dealing, there would still be racial
“disproportionalities” in the justice system. Even if we also
decriminalized all black crime save black-on-black violent crime, racial
“disproportionalities” would persist.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here’s a suggestive calculation. In 1991, 372,200 black men were in
prison, along with 363,600 white men. About 60 percent of all prisoners
in 1991 had committed one or more violent crimes in the past. Suppose
that we released 40 percent of the black prisoners—the 40 percent, say,
with either no official history of violence or the least severe records
of it. That would leave 223,320 black men behind bars. Then, because
slightly more than half of the violent crimes committed by blacks are
committed against whites, let’s release, say, 55 percent of the
remaining black violent male offenders. That would leave 100,494 black
males in prison, 27 percent of 1991ís actual total. They would be doing
time with 3.6 times as many white males. But since whites in the general
population still would outnumber blacks by roughly 8 to 1, the racial
“disproportionality” would persist. To make it disappear completely—to
get an 8-to-1 white-black ratio in prison—we would have to release all
but 45,450 of the 372,200 black men in prison in 1991.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Similarly, 605,062 black adults were on probation in 1993, compared
with 1,132,092 white adults, and 240,767 black adults were on parole,
compared with 236,083 white adults. Thus, the total black adult
community-based corrections population (probation plus parole) numbered
845,829, compared with 1.36 million whites. Let’s say we believed that
fully 70 percent of all black probationers and parolees, but none of the
white ones, were innocent victims of a racist “war on drugs” and should
never have been arrested. That would leave 253,749 black adults on
probation and parole. We would still have only 5.3, not eight, times as
many white adults as blacks “in custody” in the community. To eliminate
entirely the racial “disproportionalities” in probation and parole, all
but about 170,000 of the more than 800,000 black adults under
community-based supervision in 1993 would have to be expunged from the
rolls.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Even if, therefore, the justice system punished only those blacks who
commit violent crimes—indeed, even if it punished only black violent
criminals whose victims were themselves black—blacks would still be
“overrepresented” in prison, in jail, on probation, and on parole. Thus,
instead of all the ideological nonsense about “1 in 3” and the like, we
should begin to focus in common on how revolving-door justice harms all
Americans, most especially blacks. As the bipartisan Council on Crime
in America has reported: “America’s violent crime problem, especially
the rage of homicidal and near-homicidal violence, is extremely
concentrated among young urban minority males. . . . A study of murders
committed in the nation’s 75 most populous counties found that blacks
were 52 percent of all murder victims and 62 percent of all murder
defendants,” but “they were only 20 percent of the general population in
these metropolitan jurisdictions. . . . Between 1985 and 1992 the rate
at which males ages 14 through 17 committed murder increased by about 50
percent for whites and over 300 percent for blacks. Between 1973 and
1992 the rate of violent victimizations of black males ages 12 to 24
increased about 25 percent; for example, black males ages 16 to 19
sustained one violent crime for 11 persons in 1973 versus one for every
six in 1992.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">For God’s sake, let’s be truthful. Especially in urban America, white
fears of black crime—like black fears of black crime—are rational far
more than reactionary or racist. If Americans are to learn how to deal
in common with black crime as a problem of “sin, not skin,” as Glenn
Loury puts it—as a correctable moral defect of individuals, not some
ineradicable racial fate—then we must hear and heed those leaders, black
and white, liberal and conservative, who are speaking and doing
something about it.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hear Robert L. Woodson Sr., leader of the National Center for
Neighborhood Enterprise. A veteran of the civil rights movement and an
organizer of community- and faith-based groups that reach poor blacks
and their children, Woodson speaks not of white racism but of “moral
vagrants” in the black community who prey upon their disadvantaged
neighbors.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hear John W. Gillis, another prominent black, who heads California’s
parole board and is a member of the Council on Crime in America. On the
day the council’s first report was released to the press, Gillis stared
into the cameras and implored responsible journalists to remember who
normally puts black convicted criminals where they are, and why: black
victims, black witnesses, and black communities—in order to do justice
and to protect themselves from murder, mayhem, and deadly drug dealing.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hear the grief-stricken family of Philadelphia police officer
Lauretha Vaird, the city’s first female cop—and first black woman—to be
killed in the line of duty. Officer Vaird was murdered in cold blood,
execution-style. Two of her three alleged killers are 26-year-old local
black “gangsta” rappers who apparently practice the hate they sing.
Vaird’s family members are calling for justice—life in prison or the
electric chair for the killers.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hear Debra Dickerson, the self-described liberal black sister of a
young black man paralyzed from the waist down in a drive-by shooting.
Read her intensely gripping, highly personal essay published in <i>The New Republic</i>,
“Who Shot Johnny?” Therein she rages at the black assailant who shot
her brother and left him for dead. His “crime”? Waving hello at a car
full of boys whom he mistakenly thought he knew. The assailant stood
over his bleeding, barely conscious body and said, “Betch’ou won’t be
doin’ nomo’ wavin’, motha’fucker.” The vicious attacker was never
caught.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hear Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy, who in a 1994 <i>Wall Street Journal</i>
op-ed described as “dangerous” the response “that cries ‘racism’ as
part of an all-out defense of any black accused of wrongdoing by ‘white’
authorities, regardless of the facts of the case,” and as “troubling”
the “position of some blacks that they will refuse to help send any
black person to prison.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hear the Reverend Jesse Jackson. For over a decade, no national black
leader has argued more eloquently against policies that offer blacks
jails instead of jobs—and none was quicker to make hay of the Sentencing
Project’s “1 in 3” finding. But recall Jackson’s own tortured words on
November 27, 1993: “There is nothing more painful for me at this stage
of my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start to
think about robbery and then look around and see it’s somebody white and
feel relieved. How humiliating.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Above all, hear the Reverend Eugene Rivers of Boston. In the 1960s,
Rivers was a member of one of Philadelphia’s most violent black street
gangs. Then the Reverend Ben Smith, a legend in the City of Brotherly
Love, set him on the right path. As the Harvard-educated Rivers
preaches: “For the people of God, every crisis, no matter how grim,
presents a unique opportunity that can only be seen with the eyes of
faith. For example, in racially war-torn Boston, black, Roman Catholic,
and Jewish clergy have come together by faith to develop concrete
strategies” for reducing crime and violence among black youth. In
particular, under Rivers’s leadership, dozens of black churches have
begun moving together to look after abused or neglected inner-city black
children, to stand up to drug dealers and gangsters, to spark local
business development, and to reclaim the streets and end the terrors.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rivers, his wife, and his two young children live in the Four Corners
section of Dorchester, one of Boston’s most violent black
neighborhoods, where in 1991 three bullets from a gang shoot-out flew
into Rivers’s three-year-old son’s bedroom. In 1993, Rivers grabbed a
local crack merchant by the collar and told him not to deal at the local
playground. “I told him, brother, I’ll get you a job, I’ll get you up
for college—the whole nine yards,” he says. “He told me to kiss his ass.
So I did like I promised: I busted him—called the cops and probation
and said, come get him now. They did.” A week later, back on the streets
and out for revenge, the kid drove by Rivers’s house at 2 am and pumped
it with gunfire. No one was hurt.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As Rivers recalled: “The question from all the hoodlums in the
neighborhood after that was, ‘Is the minister going to cut and run?’” He
stayed. He reformed the kid who shot up his home. He branched out,
developing alliances with other churches, setting up neighborhood
crime-watch programs, and developing a host of practical, tough-love
programs, including “adopting a gang” for evangelistic outreach, and
commissioning “missionaries” to go to court with juveniles, to make sure
both that they get a fair shake and that they comply with the court’s
requirements. Rivers and his small group of talented volunteers work
closely with city officials, the local police, the Catholic Church and
schools, and just about everyone else who might make a positive
difference in the lives of the kids he’s trying to save.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rivers styles himself a “Christian black nationalist.” No one in
America is less romantic about the record of inner-city black churches;
no one is more realistic about their dwindling congregations, often
near-empty coffers, and negative attraction to today’s angry young black
males. At the same time, no one understands better that when you get
right down to it, a resurrection of the inner-city black churches is the
one and only key to the resurrection of civil society in
crime-and-drugs-ravaged black inner-city neighborhoods. A moral
problem—a deficit of conscience, of values, of connectedness—requires a
moral solution, and only a moral institution that comes out of the black
community, such as the black church, can bring to bear the moral
authority to solve it. “It’s barbed wire and more black juvenile
super-predators,” observes Rivers, “or civil society and stronger black
churches. It’s that simple.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Since November 1994, conservatives have been talking lots about civil
society. Now, however, comes the test. Rivers, Smith, and others aren’t
out there talking; they’re out there doing. In Smith’s case, he’s been
doing it for 50 years, a textbook example of the self-reliant,
family-centered, church-based, community-strengthening,
not-a-penny-from-government approach today’s conservative theorists
applaud. Conservative elites who are pushing welfare cuts should be
putting their own money and influence into supporting the Riverses and
the Smiths of inner-city America.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As Rivers exhorts, we must “together embrace the youth, disciplining
our young people.” In particular, he implores Christians to remember
that “whatever you do for the least of these brothers and sisters, you
do for Jesus.” Amen.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
<span style="font-size: 15px;"><em>City Journal</em> is a
publication of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MI), a
leading free-market think tank. Are you interested in supporting the
magazine? As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations in support of MI and <em>City Journal</em> are fully tax-deductible as provided by law (EIN #13-2912529).</span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-13656548140462763442022-09-21T21:02:00.000-07:002022-09-21T21:02:08.092-07:00Exposing transgenderism for what it is: A lie<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Exposing transgenderism for what it is: A lie</span></span></b></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="ArticlePage-authors">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="ArticlePage-authorBy">By</span></span></span>
<div class="ArticlePage-authorTitle">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a class="Link" href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/author/kara-dansky">Kara Dansky</a></span></span>
</div>
</div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="ArticlePage-datePublished"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">September 21, 2022 06:00 AM</span></span></div><div class="ArticlePage-datePublished"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/equality-not-elitism/exposing-transgenderism-for-what-it-is-a-lie">https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/equality-not-elitism/exposing-transgenderism-for-what-it-is-a-lie</a> <br /></span></span></div><figure class="Figure"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="Gender blend" class="Image" data-image-size="fallbackImageSize" height="249" src="https://mediadc.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4b42f36/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3992x2481+0+0/resize/800x497!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmediadc-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc4%2F9e%2Fc6d8c2294fee8d08a10a0ee4323d%2Fistock-860939718.jpg" width="400" /></span></span><figcaption>
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<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="ArticlePage-articleBody-firstLetter">T</span>here is a lot of talk in America today about “transgender rights.” News outlets talk about “transgender <u>
<a class="Link " href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/25-transgender-athletes-you-should-know/">athletes</a>
</u>,” “transgender <u>
<a class="Link " href="https://cayman.loopnews.com/content/transgender-prisoner-gets-two-inmates-pregnant-womens-prison">prisoners</a>
</u>,” and “transgender <u>
<a class="Link " href="https://www.nea.org/resource-library/legal-guidance-transgender-students-rights">students</a>
</u>.” Our society is steeped in debate about so-called transgenderism.
<b>However, I see very few people asking the question, “What does
‘transgender’ mean?” or “What exactly is ‘trans?’”
</b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The crux of the matter is this: People across the political spectrum
have been persuaded to accept that there is a coherent category of
people for whom sex is irrelevant and that this category of people is
called “transgender” (or simply “trans”). Democrats on the whole support
“rights for ‘transgender people,’” and Republicans on the whole oppose
allowing sex-confused people to hijack sex-specific spaces. <b>But
regardless of whether or not a person supports or opposes “rights for
‘transgender people,’” that person probably believes that there is such a
category of people.
</b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But
there isn’t. “Trans” is a lie. It is a lie as big as the lie that the
emperor is wearing clothes. He isn’t wearing clothes. He’s naked. He’s
just too arrogant to acknowledge it, and everyone around him is too
cowed to say so.
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">To understand how transgenderism became so entrenched in our society
despite its obvious distortions, one must first understand the
philosophy from which it began. Starting in the 1970s, a group of people
in academia started talking about postmodernism — a new philosophical
and political movement that dismissed claims to objective fact and
reason.<b> It objected to the idea that anything could be grounded in
material reality.</b> One of its main proponents was Michel Foucault, a
French philosopher who taught for a while at the University of
California, Berkeley. Foucault was also, incidentally, a known pedophile
who advocated the abolition of age-of-consent laws. For Foucault, age
was just a construct, which meant that adults should be permitted to
have sexual relationships with children.
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Out of postmodernism came “queer theory,” the idea that biological
sex is a social construct.</b> Queer theorists in the 1990s argued from
their ivory towers that the material reality of sex doesn’t exist and
that it is a social construction meant to oppress. However, the “queer”
theorists understood that if they tried to persuade ordinary people that
sex isn’t real, they would have been (rightly) ridiculed and ignored.
So they invented a new term: “transgender.” This term does exactly what
it was intended to do — it persuades ordinary people that the material
reality of biological sex isn’t real or, at least, that it doesn’t
matter.
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There
very well may be people who sincerely suffer from what the DSM refers
to as “gender dysphoria.” But it does not follow that it makes sense or
is healthy for a society to allow people to “identify as” a gender
different from their sex. In fact, doing so will only create more
confusion and anxiety in those who are very often mentally vulnerable to
begin with.
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And before anyone asks, I am not a political conservative. I have
always been a staunch leftist and, for as long as I can remember, a
feminist. I registered as a Democrat the day I turned 18 years old, and I
am still a registered Democrat (though I spent a short time as a
registered member of the Green Party).
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some have pointed the blame at feminists for the rise of gender
ideology. But that’s not a fair accusation. Actual feminists fight for
the liberation of women and girls, by which we mean female human beings.
Feminists aren’t confused about the category of human beings for whose
liberation we fight. We are not confused about the category of people
whose voting rights suffragists fought for (at great peril to their own
safety). We are not confused about the category of people who are
subjected to the horrific offense of female genital mutilation. (The
word is right there.) When feminists complain about male violence
against women, we aren’t confused about what the words “male” and
“women” mean. Feminists didn’t create this “trans” monster. And we are
more than willing to work with anyone, even those with whom we might
generally disagree, to protect the sex-based rights of women.
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The U.S. <u>
<a class="Link " href="https://womensdeclarationusa.com/">chapter</a>
</u> of Women’s Declaration International, for example, of which I serve as president, works to advance the <u>
<a class="Link " href="https://www.womensdeclaration.com/en/">Declaration</a>
</u> on Women’s Sex-Based Rights throughout U.S. law and society. We are
nonpartisan and work with women across the political spectrum who agree
with the principles outlined in the declaration. (We are also not shy
about our <u>
<a class="Link " href="https://womensdeclarationusa.com/how-the-supreme-court-got-it-wrong/">support</a>
</u> for abortion as a sex-based right for women and girls.)
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because
of our opposition to gender ideology and the harms that it is doing to
women, we are often smeared by the Left as traitors to progressivism.
However, we are not the ones who abandoned progressive values. That
crime belongs to the gender ideologues who are pushing an ideology that
is politically regressive in every way. Indeed, “transgenderism”
destroys the equality that women have achieved and actually enshrines
harmful sex stereotypes in law, medicine, academia, and throughout all
of society.
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>But that is exactly the goal of gender ideology: to take over our
institutions and destroy from within any truth that grounds us to
material reality, including biological sex.</b> The entire edifice of
“trans” is being driven by a vicious industry whose aim is to literally
obliterate the reality of sex. This industry is a loose conglomeration
of Big Tech, Big Pharma, medical supply companies, legacy media, and
government agencies. I realize this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but
it isn’t. This industry operates out in the open, from renowned
children’s hospitals to legacy newsrooms to the White House itself.
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thankfully, more and more people are willing to speak up about this
ideology and the damage it is doing to our society. But the only way we
win this battle is if we push back as boldly and aggressively as the
gender activists who pushed this on us in the first place. We have to
tell the truth: “Transgenderism” isn’t real. “Gender identity” is a fake
concept. The “transgender” emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.
</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Kara Dansky is the president of the U.S.
<a class="Link " href="https://womensdeclarationusa.com/">chapter</a>
of Women's Declaration International and the author of the
<a class="Link " href="https://www.amazon.com/Abolition-Sex-Transgender-Agenda-Harms/dp/1637582293">book</a>
"The Abolition of Sex: How the 'Transgender' Agenda Harms Women and
Girls." She has a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School
and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University. Follow her on
<a class="Link " href="https://twitter.com/KDansky?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Twitter</a>
and
<a class="Link " href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069544705234">Facebook</a>
and subscribe to her
<a class="Link " href="https://karadansky.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F85951144-kara-dansky&utm_medium=reader2">Substack</a>
.</i></span></span></p></div>
</div>
</div>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-5252820582326575342022-09-21T20:47:00.000-07:002022-09-21T20:47:00.314-07:00DC student proficiency in math and English plunges, especially for minorities <h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">DC student proficiency in math and English plunges, especially for minorities </span></span></span></h1><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="ArticlePage-authors">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="ArticlePage-authorBy">By</span></span></span>
<div class="ArticlePage-authorTitle">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a class="Link" href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/author/jeremiah-poff">Jeremiah Poff, Education Reporter</a></span></span>
</div>
</div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="ArticlePage-datePublished"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">September 06, 2022 04:47 PM</span></span></div><div class="ArticlePage-datePublished"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/dc-student-proficiency-math">https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/dc-student-proficiency-math</a> <br /></span></span></div><figure class="Figure"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="Virus Outbreak Schools" class="Image" data-image-size="fallbackImageSize" height="267" src="https://mediadc.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/98586b1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/800x533!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmediadc-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F0f%2Fdc%2F8b7b2b7c422aab851333561840e7%2Fap21216656748505.jpg" width="400" /></span></span><figcaption>
<div class="Figure-content">
</div>
</figcaption></figure><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="ArticlePage-articleBody-firstLetter">W</span>ashington, D.C.,
<a class="Link " href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/public-schools" target="_blank">public school</a>
students' test scores plummeted following
<a class="Link " href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_blank">coronavirus</a>
-related school closures and the racial achievement gap widened,
according to education scores released with the start of the new
academic year.
</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The district's proficiency rate in
<a class="Link " href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/math" target="_blank">math</a>
for students in grades three to 12 dropped from an already dismal 31%
in 2019 all the way to 19% in 2022. The results in English language arts
were not much better, dropping from 37% to 31% between 2019 and 2022 in
<a class="Link " href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/washington-dc" target="_blank">Washington</a>
. </span></span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The district's proficiency rate in
<a class="Link " href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/math" target="_blank">math</a>
for students in grades three to 12 dropped from an already dismal 31%
in 2019 all the way to 19% in 2022. The results in English language arts
were not much better, dropping from 37% to 31% between 2019 and 2022 in
<a class="Link " href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/washington-dc" target="_blank">Washington</a>
.
</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>
<a class="Link " href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/students-suffer-largest-learning-loss-in-30-years-after-pandemic-school-closures" target="_blank">STUDENTS SUFFER LARGEST LEARNING LOSS IN 30 YEARS AFTER PANDEMIC SCHOOL CLOSURES</a>
</b></span></span><b>
</b></p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span></b><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The most pronounced decline in math was among minority students, with
black students declining from 21% to 9% proficiency and Hispanic
students dropping from 31% to 17%. In contrast, white students declined
from 79% to 70% proficiency.
</span></span></b></p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span></b><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Black students had the largest decline in language arts, falling from
28% proficiency to 20%, while Hispanic students declined from 37% to
31%, Asian students from 74% to 72%, and white students from 85% to 79%
proficiency.
</span></span></b></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Washington
public schools were among the school districts that remained closed the
longest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Full-time in-person instruction
for all students did not resume until the 2021-22 school year after
schools closed in March 2020.
</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The results mirror national academic statistics
<a class="Link " href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/students-suffer-largest-learning-loss-in-30-years-after-pandemic-school-closures" target="_blank">released last week</a>
, which saw math scores for 9-year-olds decline for the first time since
tracking began and the largest drop in reading scores in 30 years.
</span></span></b></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In a statement to the <i>Washington Examiner</i>, Nicki Neily, the
president of the parent activist organization Parents Defending
Education, said it was "heartbreaking that the same people who've
weaponized the term 'equity' have disproportionately hurt those students
most in need."
</span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Keeping schools closed hurt children, period — and the people
who fought tooth and nail to keep them closed should be held accountable
for those decisions," Neily said.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-12678594275274081802022-09-21T03:17:00.004-07:002022-09-21T09:19:47.043-07:00The Great Awokening<div class="c-entry-hero__content l-segment l-feature">
<h1 class="c-page-title"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Great Awokening</span></span></span></h1>
<p class="c-entry-summary p-dek"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A hidden shift is revolutionizing American racial politics — and could transform the future of the Democratic Party.</span></p>
<div class="c-byline">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="c-byline-wrapper">
By
<span class="c-byline__item">
<a data-analytics-link="author-name" href="https://www.vox.com/authors/matthew-yglesias"><span class="c-byline__author-name">Matthew Yglesias</span></a><span class="c-byline__item"><a class="c-byline__twitter-handle" href="https://www.twitter.com/mattyglesias">@mattyglesias</a></span><span class="c-byline__item"><a href="mailto:matt@vox.com" title="">matt@vox.com</a></span>
</span>
<span class="c-byline__item">
Updated
<time class="c-byline__item" data-ui="timestamp" datetime="2019-04-01T13:25:59">
Apr 1, 2019, 9:25am EDT
</time>
</span>
</span></span>
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="c-byline__gear">
</span></span>
</div>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
<a aria-expanded="false" class="c-social-buttons__item c-social-buttons__more" href="https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/18259865/great-awokening-white-liberals-race-polling-trump-2020#" role="button"><span class="sr-only"></span>
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</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="c-entry-content">
<div class="c-float-left"> <figure class="e-image">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="e-image__inner">
<span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15986155/Vox_The_Highlight_Logo_wide.jpg">
<source type="image/webp"></source><a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/18259865/great-awokening-white-liberals-race-polling-trump-2020" target="_blank">https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/18259865/great-awokening-white-liberals-race-polling-trump-2020 </a>
</span>
</span></span>
</figure>
</div>
<p id="Zx931G"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For all the attention paid to the politics of the far
right in the Trump era, the biggest shift in American politics is
happening somewhere else entirely. </span></p>
<p id="mPK42s"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the past five years, white liberals have moved so far
to the left on questions of race and racism that they are now, on these
issues, to the left of even the typical black voter. </span></b></span></p>
<p id="FLpthK"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This change amounts to a “Great Awokening” — comparable in some ways to the enormous religious foment<b> </b>in
the white North in the years before the American Civil War. It began
roughly with the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, when activists
took advantage of ubiquitous digital video and routine use of social
media to expose a national audience in a visceral way to what otherwise
might have been a routine local news story. </span></p>
<p id="6QOqA0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“If there had been no Twitter or Facebook,” Columbia University’s <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/antiracism-our-flawed-new-religion">John McWhorter, an early and somewhat skeptical observer of the Awokening</a>, tells me, “Trayvon [Martin] and Mike Brown would have had about as much impact on white thought as, say, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/05/nyregion/officers-in-bronx-fire-41-shots-and-an-unarmed-man-is-killed.html">Amadou Diallo</a> did.” </span></p>
<div class="c-wide-block"> <figure class="e-image">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="e-image__inner">
<span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15977495/GettyImages_600003136t.jpg">
<source type="image/webp"></source>
<img alt="" data-upload-width="4805" height="213" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yZMURni4sC2PX6LYFulGKrAUEFo=/0x0:4805x3203/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:4805x3203):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15977495/GettyImages_600003136t.jpg" width="320" />
</span>
</span>
<span class="e-image__meta">
<figcaption>During protests after the death of Mike Brown in
Ferguson, Missouri, marchers hold a banner listing the names of people
killed by law enforcement since 1990.</figcaption>
<cite>Orjan F. Ellingvag/Corbis via Getty Images</cite>
</span></span>
</figure>
</div>
<p id="V1AinW"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Pollsters began to see a rapid, sustained change. White
Democrats suddenly started expressing dramatically higher levels of
concern about racial inequality and discrimination, while showing
greater enthusiasm for racial diversity and immigration. (While
political disputes around race are often found under the same umbrella
as gender and sexual orientation, where attitudes are also shifting, the
relatively recent, relatively sudden change that constitutes the Great
Awokening is fundamentally about race and its relationship to national
identity.)</span></b></p>
<p id="HlioEW"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There’s also a certain paradox to the Awokening. As white
liberals became more vocal about racial inequality, more racially
conservative Democrats left the party and helped power Donald Trump’s
electoral victory. This backlash gives the impression that there’s a
surging tide of white racism in America.</span></p>
<p id="ubF7u6"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But just as slavery was not new during the pre-Civil War
period, there’s absolutely nothing new about white racism as a force in
American politics.<b> </b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/opinion/campaign-stops/the-upside-to-overt-racism.html">Jenée Desmond-Harris wrote in 2016 that Trump was “refreshing”</a> not just “to people who share his views” but “to people who have always known that views like this exist.” </span></p>
<p id="P5whZ1"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Trump has made white racial resentment more visible than
it was before, but at the same time, white liberals have become much
more attuned to racism — seeing more of it not necessarily because the
world has changed but because their own attitudes toward longstanding
features of it have changed.</span></b></p>
<div class="c-wide-block"> <figure class="e-image">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="e-image__inner">
<span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15975995/GettyImages_459792542t.jpg">
<source type="image/webp"></source>
<img alt="" data-upload-width="3000" height="267" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iPTmOd7OHHdhXd9BrhsfQ_4xczI=/0x0:3000x2000/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15975995/GettyImages_459792542t.jpg" width="400" />
</span>
</span>
<span class="e-image__meta">
<figcaption>Students at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, protest to draw attention to police abuse on December 1, 2014.</figcaption>
<cite>Scott Olson/Getty Images</cite><b>
</b></span></span><b>
</b></figure><b>
</b></div><b>
</b><p id="E5Kglo"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>The exact implications of this for short-term electoral
politics are dicey — older, more rural, less educated whites who are
relatively untouched by the Awokening exert disproportionate influence
in the political system. But the fundamental reality is that the
Awokening has inspired a large minority of white Americans to begin
regarding systemic racial discrimination as a fundamental problem in
American life — opening up the prospects of sweeping policy change when
the newly invigorated anti-racist coalition does come to power. </b></span></p>
<h3 id="bnCnvg"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Public opinion on race is shifting </span></h3>
<p id="Jq3tzL"><span style="font-family: verdana;">While opinion on LGBTQ issues has been evolving in a
broad, steady manner for years,<b> the shift on racial thinking that
constitutes the Great Awokening is of more recent vintage. </b>Trump’s
presidency itself is probably a driver of this, since there is a
tendency well-known to political scientists for public opinion to move
in the <a href="http://themonkeycage.org/2010/06/the_public_is_a_thermostat/">opposite direction of the person who occupies the White House</a>.</span></p>
<p id="c5s6qS"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The change, however, appears to predate Trump and, in
fact, to have relatively little to do with the calendar of presidential
politics. Instead, <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2017/10/05/4-race-immigration-and-discrimination/4_1-10/">polling from the Pew Center shows that as late as 2014</a>,
most Americans believed there was no longer any need for the country to
make changes to address black-white inequality. Consequently, few
people believed discrimination was the main barrier to black upward
mobility. These numbers then started to change rapidly, with the shift
driven overwhelmingly by a change in the views of self-identified
Democrats.</span></p>
<figure class="e-image">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="e-image__inner">
<span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15980945/awokening_chart1_equality.jpg">
<source type="image/webp"></source>
<img alt="" data-upload-width="1800" height="640" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zFlF-sYyJByHou4Pd1yCKHoI4cE=/0x0:1800x1800/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x1800):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15980945/awokening_chart1_equality.jpg" width="640" />
</span>
</span></span>
</figure>
<figure class="e-image">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="e-image__inner">
<span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15978537/awokening_chart2_equality_parties.jpg">
<source type="image/webp"></source>
<img alt="" data-upload-width="1800" height="640" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fSQCb17NrAbo4UVEIVRUCSvVLV4=/0x0:1800x1800/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x1800):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15978537/awokening_chart2_equality_parties.jpg" width="640" />
</span>
</span></span>
</figure>
<p id="Cem58Z"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The timing of this change suggests that the Ferguson
protests were a key flashpoint in changing thinking about the
discrimination issue. But Brian Schaffner, a Tufts University political
scientist, says the beginnings of the shift were visible even during
Barack Obama’s first term. </span></p>
<p id="UJLAgb"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">“I don’t think it’s just a reaction to events,” Schaffner
says. Rather, “even prior to Ferguson, people take cues from elites,”
and Democratic elites were beginning to signal to the rank and file that
they should take systemic racism concerns more seriously. </span></b></p>
<p id="Iy03hs"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Obama’s 2012 observation that <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2012/03/obama-if-i-had-a-son-hed-look-like-trayvon-118439">“if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon”</a>
is just one small example of how elite actors have helped push a shift
in whites’ perception of race. And the shift, once underway, became
mutually reinforcing. Liberal white audiences became increasingly
interested in black intellectuals’ conceptions of race and racism in
America. Back in April 2015, the social justice group <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/4/23/8482799/systemic-racism-explained-examples">Race Forward produced a series of videos starring Jay Smooth trying to explain the concept of “systemic racism”</a> to a mass audience. <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/2/16/11026408/hillary-clinton-race-speech">Hillary Clinton used the term in a February 2016 speech</a>. </span></p>
<p id="yShdnh"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Trump, of course, responded to this with his own racial
discourse bringing white identity politics into play in a more explicit
way than had been seen in a generation or two. But that evolution was
two-sided. </span></p>
<p id="C5MKNb"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Schaffner observes that “Clinton talked a lot more about
racial justice issues during the 2016 campaign than Obama did during his
campaigns” — further priming the minority of white Americans who
supported her to adopt a more sweeping view of racial justice. Key to
this view, as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-nationalists-delusion/546356/">Adam Serwer wrote in the Atlantic in November 2017</a>,
is that we should see racism as a question of “institutional and
political power” rather than being “about name-calling or rudeness.” </span></p>
<p id="m3bRZz"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>The extent to which that model has become mainstream among Democratic Party leaders is now evident. </b>Just this March, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/15/beto-orourke-capitalist-economy-racist-1223475">Beto O’Rourke told an overwhelmingly white audience in Iowa</a> that American capitalism is “racist.” The previous summer, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/04/elizabeth-warren-2020-criminal-justice-system-racist-762428">Elizabeth Warren called the criminal justice system</a>
“racist.” Even Joe Biden — who in the mid-1970s was a leading political
opponent of aggressive school integration measures — in a January 2019
speech called on white America <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/joe-biden-white-america-admit-systemic-racism/story?id=60524966">“to admit there’s still a systemic racism”</a>
in American life. Mainstream Democratic Party politicians, in other
words, are beginning to take for granted that their constituents will
embrace the more institutional understanding of racism.</span></p>
<p id="DCQ7bP"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">At roughly the same time, there has been a large increase
in the number of Americans who express positive attitudes about
immigration — driven almost entirely by shifting views of Democrats.</span></b></p>
<figure class="e-image">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="e-image__inner">
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<img alt="" data-upload-width="1800" height="640" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WEQypRCpsfm-zzcV2HwjViymdT8=/0x0:1800x1798/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x1798):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15980115/awokening_chart3_immigrants.jpg" width="640" />
</span>
</span></span>
</figure>
<p id="PfPHHD"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The sheer scale of this change is far too large to have
been caused by the much-discussed rising Latino share of the electorate.
</span></p>
<h3 id="ckTKik"><span style="font-family: verdana;">White Democrats have become much more racially liberal</span></h3>
<p id="tO6dF5"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The biggest change in attitudes on race has been most pronounced among white Democrats.</span></p>
<p id="lFRwHZ"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Opinion leaders often miss the scale and recency of these
changes because progressive elites have espoused racial liberalism for a
long time. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/opinion/democrats-race.html">Sean McElwee, of the left-wing policy organization Data for Progress,<b> </b>did an analysis of General Social Survey data</a>,
which shows that throughout the 1980s, ’90s, and 2000s, most white
Democrats thought African Americans’ lack of individual initiative was
the main source of racial inequality in America.</span></p>
<figure class="e-image">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="e-image__inner">
<span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15978544/awokening_chart4_Democrats_inequality.jpg">
<source type="image/webp"></source>
<img alt="" data-upload-width="1800" height="640" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SSHqS5d0piAdZAj-8ivXGabz-NA=/0x0:1800x1802/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x1802):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15978544/awokening_chart4_Democrats_inequality.jpg" width="640" />
</span>
</span></span>
</figure>
<p id="hdZg7l"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The notion that Obama’s ascension to the presidency would
usher in a “post-racial” era of American life, of course, proved false.
And not just because of a white backlash to his administration or to
the growing diversity of the American population, but because white
Democrats dramatically shifted their views of the centrality of racial
discrimination in American life <i>after</i> the election of a black man to the highest office in the land. </span></p>
<p id="4cMPcM"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some of this is a compositional effect. As Obama pushed
racially conservative whites out of the Democratic Party, the remaining
Democrats are more racially liberal. But using Voter Study Group data,
McElwee is able to show that people who consistently self-identified as
Democrats changed their views between 2011 and 2016. </span></p>
<figure class="e-image">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="e-image__inner">
<span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15978549/awokening_chart5_Democrats_liberal.jpg">
<source type="image/webp"></source>
<img alt="" data-upload-width="1081" height="640" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pf7y4y4vQXXUY0L-3SM2EO_CSaU=/0x0:1081x1081/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1081x1081):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15978549/awokening_chart5_Democrats_liberal.jpg" width="640" />
</span>
</span></span>
</figure>
<p id="TVdp3b"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Zach Goldberg, a doctoral candidate at Georgia State
University, observes that on key measures of racial attitudes, white
liberals’ opinion has moved to the left of where black and Latino
opinions are. <b>White liberals are now <a href="https://twitter.com/ZachG932/status/1100472601179230208"><i>less</i> likely than African Americans to say that black people should be able to get ahead without any special help</a>. </b></span></p><p id="TVdp3b"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmlDA7E4_y2J72szGuoed0U4MkGs9EvkRL95uUtD5PobnGKGlZlZ3spDY6fsf0LEkKz2kP7KybFPvC1ve1T9nKbwFxmrPGKJC9s8HbJCdP5lFDLfnGW79In5XtNQccPbtehThz-WWJ8PGF1_IgYdEROPS5Pw0AUrK44wULa334xE1sWS_rCKz_Ye64/s1800/awokening_chart6_liberalsv1_left.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1800" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmlDA7E4_y2J72szGuoed0U4MkGs9EvkRL95uUtD5PobnGKGlZlZ3spDY6fsf0LEkKz2kP7KybFPvC1ve1T9nKbwFxmrPGKJC9s8HbJCdP5lFDLfnGW79In5XtNQccPbtehThz-WWJ8PGF1_IgYdEROPS5Pw0AUrK44wULa334xE1sWS_rCKz_Ye64/w640-h640/awokening_chart6_liberalsv1_left.jpg" width="640" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span><p></p>
<figure class="e-image">
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</span>
</span></span>
</figure>
<p id="iOwcC6"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://twitter.com/ZachG932/status/1100504927070228487">White liberals also have warmer feelings about immigrants</a> than Hispanics do.</span></b></p>
<p id="txizaP"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">And, critically, <a href="https://twitter.com/ZachG932/status/1100481541493407744">white liberals are much more enthusiastic</a>
about the idea that diversity makes the United States a better place to
live than are blacks or Latinos. Non-liberal whites are least
enthusiastic of all, which is not enormously surprising, but Latino
views of this are closer to those of non-liberal whites than to white
liberals. </span></b></p>
<figure class="e-image">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="e-image__inner">
<span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15978553/awokening_chart7_liberals_diversity.jpg">
<source type="image/webp"></source>
<img alt="" data-upload-width="1800" height="640" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WCQ4QfC9btoufq3o3uxZcoy1tYQ=/0x0:1800x1800/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x1800):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15978553/awokening_chart7_liberals_diversity.jpg" width="640" />
</span>
</span></span>
</figure>
<p id="BIrfKk"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the same time, between 2001 and 2018, the share of Democrats who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/opinion/democrat-electorate-left-turn.html">describe themselves as liberal in Gallup polls has risen from 30 percent to 50 percent</a>.
The upshot is that white liberals — a group whose views on race are
generally to the left of nonwhites — are now about 40 percent of the
overall Democratic Party, making them the largest bloc in the party and
the critical driver of Democratic politicians’ leftward shift on race
and identity issues. </span></b></p>
<h3 id="lMoYs2"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Awokening has driven big platform shifts<b> </b></span>
</h3>
<p id="Q7pORK"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Back in 1996, the Democratic Party platform read like
something out of a Trump campaign ad. “In 1992, our borders might as
well not have existed,” the document states. “Drugs flowed freely.
Illegal immigration was rampant. Criminal immigrants, deported after
committing crimes in America, returned the very next day to commit
crimes again.” Bill Clinton went on to run for reelection boasting about
his crackdown at the border. </span></p>
<p id="Wy7Uov"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Even by <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/people/other/democratic-party-platforms">2008, when Democrats substantively supported a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants</a>,
the platform was still framed around enforcement-first themes, intoning
that “we cannot continue to allow people to enter the United States
undetected, undocumented, and unchecked.”</span></p>
<p id="TTufah"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On criminal justice, the 2008 platform led with a promise
to be “tough on violent crime,” while by 2016, it opened by committing
the party to “ending mass incarceration” and explicitly denounced the
war on drugs while calling out “the discriminatory treatment of African
Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and American
Indians.”</span></p><p id="AnSvDd"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Perhaps the clearest sign of the shift, however, is the
completely upturned politics of reparations. Ten years ago, reparations
were a total nonstarter in Democratic Party circles. Instead, someone
like Rush Limbaugh would try to secure political advantage by <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/rush-and-reparations/">characterizing Obama administration economic policies as a form of reparations</a>. Ta-Nehisi Coates’s 2014 article <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/">making the case for reparations</a>
was obviously enormously influential on the specifics of that question,
but also more broadly in the larger Awokening — such that references to
<a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/6/6/11852640/cartoon-poor-neighborhoods">redlining</a>
and other discriminatory aspects of the post-World War II real estate
market are now commonplace throughout progressive circles.</span></p>
<p id="aB8yd7"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Coates said that <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-essential-ta-nehisi-coates-we-were-eight-years-in-power/">“initially I was very surprised”</a>
by the size of the white audience for his work — an audience whose
existence is both a cause and a consequence of the Awokening — but he’s
palpably changed the conversation. Now it’s Democrats<i> </i>themselves who embrace the term even when their actual policy proposal is race-blind. <a href="https://thegrio.com/2019/02/25/sen-kamala-harris-gets-backlash-over-question-about-reparations-for-african-americans/">Kamala Harris, for example, mentioned</a> her <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/10/19/17995374/kamala-harris-lift-act-basic-income-cash-eitc">LIFT Act</a>,
which would boost incomes throughout the bottom 60 percent of the
income distribution, as a form of “reparations” even though most of the
beneficiaries would not be black.</span></p>
<p id="0A0uHh"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">The leftward shifts on immigration, criminal justice, and
reparations are often described as reflecting the electoral clout of
nonwhite voters. But while that is surely part of the story, the
underlying demographics simply haven’t changed rapidly enough to account
for the pace of the change. The key difference is that white liberals
have changed their minds very rapidly, thus altering the political space
in which Democratic Party politicians operate. </span></b></p>
<h3 id="paIB2o"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Racial realignment keeps reshaping politics</span></h3>
<p id="JkLZKH"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ever since the 2016 election, analysts have been stuck in a tedious argument between the observation that <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/16/17980820/trump-obama-2016-race-racism-class-economy-2018-midterm">racial resentment was a key predictor</a> of which voters flipped to Trump’s camp and those who prefer to ascribe Trump’s ascension to some form of “economic anxiety.” </span></p>
<p id="6wPziV"><span style="font-family: verdana;">After all, say the racial resentment skeptics, the
Obama-to-Trump flippers were, by definition, willing to vote for Barack
Obama — so how racist could they possibly be? A key point to
understanding this is that “racial resentment,” as used by political
scientists, is a term of art that largely measures political views<i> </i>rather than any kind of interpersonal animosity. </span></p>
<p id="hsLxoK"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One traditional factor that goes into the racial
resentment mix, for example, is the General Social Survey question that
asks whether you agree or disagree with the statement “Irish, Italians,
Jewish, and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their
way up; blacks should do the same without special favors.”</span></p>
<p id="CqS2QE"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is, in fact, a very revealing query in terms of your
understanding of the history of race and ethnicity in the United
States. About a third of African Americans disagree with it, which is
more than the share of the overall white public but substantially less
than the 45 percent of white liberals who say they disagree. </span></p>
<p id="KbhVnH"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A big part of what Trump did in the 2016 campaign was
simply increase the salience of racial conflict themes, thus boosting
his appeal to white voters who may have previously backed Democrats on
other grounds. But it’s crucial to understand that, in large part
because of the Awokening, Trump is not to blame: Democrats themselves
have moved the goalposts in terms of what kind of racial views one is
expected to affirm as a good liberal. </span></p>
<p id="rbXBSE"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The growing racial liberalism of rank-and-file white Democrats <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/29/12320118/hillary-clinton-speech-systemic-racism">now has party leaders talking about “systemic racism”</a> and sending strong signals to the party’s base about what kinds of attitudes are appropriate for Democrats to hold.</span></p>
<h3 id="I828N7"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The irony of the Great Awokening </span></h3>
<p id="0dNeC4"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the signature consequences of the Great Awokening
is the sense that Trump is a uniquely loathsome figure in American
politics. </span></b></p>
<p id="2kaDzm"><span style="font-family: verdana;">To the extent that white liberals now see racism as an
enormous looming challenge for the country in a way they did not in the
relatively recent past, Trump is very much the personification of that
challenge. And thus, given the perfect enemy, it’s perhaps not
surprising that much of the newly woke attitude is, in crucial respects,
a bit vague in its precise policy implications. Everyone is talking
about reparations and “institutional racism,” but nobody has a precise
policy program for tackling either of those things. Congress passed the
prison reform bill, the First Step Act, but there’s little consensus on
what the next step is. </span></p>
<p id="oMMY8u"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">But it’s clear that getting rid of Trump is a key part of
the story, and a key argument in the 2020 primary is over who is best
suited to do that — a flashback candidate like Biden, someone like
Harris or O’Rourke who’s more evocative of the future, or a leftist like
Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. </span></b></p>
<p id="CNDc9w"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And yet to the extent that one believes — as, in fact,
the evidence seems to say — that racial polarization of the electorate
was a boon to Trump’s fortunes, it seems plausible that Democrats’ new
post-Awokening political style will only help him win. But since
anti-racism really is a central motivating force for the anti-Trump
coalition, it hardly seems realistic or reasonable to expect it to hide
that fact. </span></p>
<p id="9PY3SA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Social upheavals simply do not abide by the dictates of
partisan politics. The increased moral fervor unleashed by the Great
Awakening of the 1840s and 1850s broke the Whig Party and temporarily
entrenched the South’s hold on political power. But abolitionist
sentiment carried the day in the end. <b>And by the same token, while the
Great Awokening might drive some Democrats into Trump’s arms now, the
sustained phenomenon is forcing the Democratic Party to confront the
legacy of America’s racial caste system squarely. The next Democratic
president will have to do the same. </b></span></p></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-28731442459403150482022-09-21T02:55:00.003-07:002022-09-21T09:23:20.702-07:00The Triumph of Media Power<h1><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amren.com/commentary/2022/09/the-triumph-of-media-power/" target="_blank">The Triumph of Media Power</a></span></h1><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="source"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, September 8, 2022</span></p><p class="source"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amren.com/commentary/2022/09/the-triumph-of-media-power/">https://www.amren.com/commentary/2022/09/the-triumph-of-media-power/</a> <br /></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="the-content"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Democrats and their allied media are increasingly worried about “fascism.” One might think fascism, <a href="https://www.amren.com/features/2022/07/understanding-our-oppressors/">if it means anything</a>,
is the combined use of state, media, and corporate power to incite a
never-ending campaign against invented enemies. At the risk of making
the “Democrats are the real fascists” argument, it seems leftists are
projecting. They’ve even got the optics figured out.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZW5tkh5a86LOVrbKtEK6QoeND3f0W8vrtuLkrE9docSKovNYYytiNcJWHhpQA9cj-KrMeM-crNLJqtKHu43iAYwieyrs-91wt53qvz0AdsG_Fzdw17-K8lMUD4C6o3cX3fmVdTNziYwSuyCS5VryvHDIqI57HU3FC-an2x9l4m2jkQFI6QLe6Xeu/s1218/22222.tiff" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1218" data-original-width="595" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZW5tkh5a86LOVrbKtEK6QoeND3f0W8vrtuLkrE9docSKovNYYytiNcJWHhpQA9cj-KrMeM-crNLJqtKHu43iAYwieyrs-91wt53qvz0AdsG_Fzdw17-K8lMUD4C6o3cX3fmVdTNziYwSuyCS5VryvHDIqI57HU3FC-an2x9l4m2jkQFI6QLe6Xeu/w195-h400/22222.tiff" width="195" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Tech companies censor information that challenges official orthodoxy
on health, race, sex-change, and other questions. The government <a href="https://www.amren.com/news/2022/09/white-house-big-tech-colluded-to-censor-misinformation-lawsuit/">asks</a> <a href="https://www.amren.com/videos/2019/09/feds-cant-censor-ask-big-tech-to-do-it-for-them/">them</a> to do this. Republican opposition <a href="https://www.amren.com/news/2022/05/republicans-fear-new-dhs-disinformation-panel-will-be-ministry-of-truth/">stopped</a>
the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed “Disinformation” panel,
but that was a minor victory, since progressives already control the
information people can see and hear.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Democracy and self-government need a population that gets accurate
information. If you aren’t allowed to make up your own mind, you’re not
free. You can’t make up your own mind if you can’t hear all sides. Do we
really have democracy or self-government? Did we ever? There is no
“marketplace of ideas” when censorship smothers competition.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Elections outcomes may be downstream from culture, but culture is
downstream from media control. The process is as crude and effective as a
besieging army controlling the defender’s food supply. We may tell
ourselves that hiding the truth won’t work, but with enough power, it
can work. A defending army may be courageous, but it will die if
supplies run out.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Race realists and white advocates <a href="https://www.amren.com/blog/2022/08/we-are-realists-not-racists/">believe</a>
the truth is on our side. Race is biological, there are race
differences, and differences have consequences. However, “truth” is
elusive in a democratic, media-dominated society. (Apparently, so are
the concepts of male and female.) Racial differences in IQ are some of
the most consistent findings in all of social science, but our rulers <a href="https://www.amren.com/videos/2022/08/our-rulers-want-us-ignorant/">conceal</a>
them. Some may know they are hiding the truth; others may think they
are hiding “disinformation.” The consequences are the same.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #ffd966;">The most “woke” people in our society are white liberals. </span>New
findings indicate that they believe things that are obviously false.
However, unlike <a href="https://www.amren.com/features/2021/07/why-people-dont-trust-the-science/">dissidents</a>, they don’t fear censorship. They know their sources of (dis)information will remain.</span></b></span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/americas-white-saviors">Zach Goldberg</a>, perhaps the leading scholar of absurd American beliefs, reported years ago that white liberals <a href="https://www.amren.com/commentary/2019/07/a-post-american-fourth-of-july/">prefer</a>
non-whites to whites. This attitude is unique among all people in the
world, and perhaps in all history.<span style="background-color: #ffd966;"> It means white liberals may support
policies <i>because </i>they makes things worse for whites.</span> “Perhaps
this is why white support for increasing immigration coincides with more
negative feelings towards whites,” wrote Mr. Goldberg in 2019 in <i>Tablet. </i></span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mr. Goldberg recently reported that by 2020, white liberals had begun to believe that whites are <i>more</i> violent, lazier, and <i>less</i> intelligent than blacks.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6E76Cfifhl4ZwoGDc26vmhxh9Bmd0Uu1xoyQxS-XSBzz8lcqqyw3UeHRtfrkgMXbwDQGmukM9kLdX8xvlKLs-iwrH4JFJ4nZi-rBQgiiYP7FteZWS74Pbcwc-ikWU_mEhD6hrSGLWYuqTd785P1YC1y-h-ODLidh7zGFU-niPoHjqpE95B2RD31Vd/s691/12.tiff" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="691" data-original-width="627" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6E76Cfifhl4ZwoGDc26vmhxh9Bmd0Uu1xoyQxS-XSBzz8lcqqyw3UeHRtfrkgMXbwDQGmukM9kLdX8xvlKLs-iwrH4JFJ4nZi-rBQgiiYP7FteZWS74Pbcwc-ikWU_mEhD6hrSGLWYuqTd785P1YC1y-h-ODLidh7zGFU-niPoHjqpE95B2RD31Vd/s320/12.tiff" width="290" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbYheuvgIb9Y0ow91HzOyiPyRPtQcd35ASAxgmMfzJIg7CEq826MWgztThqzXDTbzcKP0BX6kDBwDCMPzEJ96q7RXEsmgcaGXSKlKQ8WTYiqYo3A7CwDSol4eEkqDdbWA5JJCnIfqkVFM0KW1E1CtT1ODa-EjfrSIF_b8x_hml_UdCh5qrPw0L6N6t/s980/14.tiff" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="980" data-original-width="643" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbYheuvgIb9Y0ow91HzOyiPyRPtQcd35ASAxgmMfzJIg7CEq826MWgztThqzXDTbzcKP0BX6kDBwDCMPzEJ96q7RXEsmgcaGXSKlKQ8WTYiqYo3A7CwDSol4eEkqDdbWA5JJCnIfqkVFM0KW1E1CtT1ODa-EjfrSIF_b8x_hml_UdCh5qrPw0L6N6t/w263-h400/14.tiff" width="263" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9GUYuFUGdjNr0hIoZfFIenOWXp18a1NfRho3vokpNxd2J87pLQZecVreVBQ-Nr6cCbcCAy55mPl7v3EHtrm_nmycEMRBkYFeopccV8cA04ZjZMeA2xYFn2w_PcMleg4JVFXskaItY5j39G7bzEjejqzHlmWVmBKyzdaG14I0mt-oBhXBFLY-WKm93/s878/13.tiff" style="margin-left: 1em; 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</b></span></span><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">He notes that this goes beyond egalitarianism and suggests anti-white animus.</span></b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">One <i>could</i> argue that “intelligence,” “violence,” and “laziness,” can’t really be measured. However, <i>if</i>
we accept the relationship between IQ and intelligence, crime rates and
violence, and income and laziness, white liberals believe things that
are provably wrong. Why shouldn’t they? They get little information
telling them otherwise. It would be fascinating to see how white
liberals justify their anti-white beliefs.</span></b></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some white advocates may comfort themselves by saying that while the
“woke” are getting crazier, white conservatives are “waking up.” Not so.
The data above show that white independents and conservatives are on
the same path.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Propaganda works. Even absurdity works. If our rulers can persuade
people to say things that would have been considered ridiculous even a
year ago, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se5PUqyqGhM">they can</a>
persuade activists to do just about anything. “Wokeness” will not die
because it’s wrong. It’s a political force. Truth has nothing to do with
it.</span></b></span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mr. Goldberg <a href="https://twitter.com/ZachG932/status/1565815535744475136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1565815535744475136%7Ctwgr%5E9b50ff96a83bc7efc94cbcf0ea3cc5615d4e16c2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.informationliberation.com%2F%3Fid%3D63315">suggests</a>
that woke attitudes may be part of “an attempt to proclaim their
[liberals’] anti-racist bona fides — which, interestingly, now seems to
require expressions of anti-whiteness.” If all whites are racist <a href="https://www.amren.com/commentary/2018/10/anti-racism-the-church-of-the-damned/">no matter what we do</a>, whites are the problem, and racism cannot be eliminated. Elites don’t expand their power by solving problems, but by <a href="https://www.amren.com/features/2016/08/sam-francis-on-the-roots-of-liberal-hegemony/">inventing new ones that last forever</a>. What would the civil rights industry do if we ever achieved the “post-racial” society we’ve long been promised?</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">John Robb of Global Guerillas writes that once people are in a
“pattern matching network,” it is almost impossible to change their
minds. Most people interpret new information to fit pre-existing mental
frameworks in what is called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/opinion/sunday/youre-not-going-to-change-your-mind.html">confirmation bias</a>.*</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">What Mr. Robb has called “<a href="https://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2017/09/the-long-night-ahead.html">The Long Night</a>”
could finally be upon us. In 2017, he said the danger is “an all
encompassing online orthodoxy,” a “sameness of thought and approach
enforced by hundreds of millions of socially internetworked adherents.”</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/06/tech/kiwi-farms-clara-sorrenti-keffals/index.html">CNN</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/sep/07/techscape-kiwi-farms-cloudflare">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2022/09/kiwi-farms-cloudlfare-anti-trans-speech.html">Slate</a>,
and countless other powerful outlets celebrated the takedown of the
site “Kiwi Farms.” It was a controversial forum that hosted what could
be considered “hate speech” against “transgenders.” Cloudflare, which
just a week ago said it would not pull its protection, reversed its
decision after a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/sep/04/cloudflare-reverses-decision-and-drops-trans-trolling-website-kiwi-farms">few days of pressure</a>.
Cloudflare prevents distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. They
are felonies. <b>The pressure on Cloudflare for protecting Kiwi Farms was
like persuading the police to look the other way while you ransack the
house of someone you don’t like.</b></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I don’t know much about Kiwi Farms, but critics accused it of
obscenity, hateful speech, threats, and doxing. All that is fine, of
course, if the victims are “racists.” Those with power respect no
principles of free speech, legal norms, or what defines “hate.” <b>We live
in a world of arbitrary power. Our government’s boasts about democracy
and a “Free World” are <a href="https://www.amren.com/features/2020/11/americas-social-credit-system-is-worse-than-chinas/">hollow</a>.</b></span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">At this point, it’s tempting to say that we will win because truth is
on our side, but lies — at least for a time — can strengthen. It’s true
that people usually make sensible choices in their own lives, when they
buy houses in certain neighborhoods or send their children to “good
schools.” But these choices don’t change policy.</span></b></p><b>
</b><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">If democracy is to mean anything, all legal speech should be
permitted and protected by private industry and government. Today, when
information is <a href="https://www.amren.com/videos/2022/08/our-rulers-want-us-ignorant/">deliberately concealed</a>,
people must find the narrow, rocky path to the truth. Not even
conservatives fight for free speech; they benefit when the competition
is censored.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Free speech is nonnegotiable. Whites who demand a country of our own
are far more realistic than anyone who thinks the government will stop
discriminating against us when we become a minority. Working for a White
Republic is more sensible than thinking our rulers will defend what
every other generation of Americans took for granted. The hour is later
than you think.</span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">=================</span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">* NEW YORK TIMES</span></b></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">May 27, 2017</span></b></span></p><div class="css-1vkm6nb ehdk2mb0"><h1 class="css-1qxijs e1h9rw200" data-testid="headline" id="link-4b578970">You’re Not Going to Change Your Mind</h1></div><div class="css-xt80pu eakwutd0" data-testid="byline-timestamp"><div class="css-sklrp3"><div class="css-1e2jphy epjyd6m1"><div class="css-233int epjyd6m0"><p class="css-4anu6l e1jsehar1"><span class="byline-prefix">By </span><span class="css-1baulvz" itemprop="name">Ben Tappin, </span><span class="css-1baulvz" itemprop="name">Leslie Van Der Leer</span> and <span class="css-1baulvz last-byline" itemprop="name">Ryan Mckay</span></p><p class="css-4anu6l e1jsehar1"><span class="css-1baulvz last-byline" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/opinion/sunday/youre-not-going-to-change-your-mind.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/opinion/sunday/youre-not-going-to-change-your-mind.html </a><br /></span></p><section class="meteredContent css-1r7ky0e" name="articleBody"><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A
troubling feature of political disagreement in the United States today
is that many issues on which liberals and conservatives hold divergent
views are questions not of value but of fact. Is human activity
responsible for global warming? Do guns make society safer? Is
immigration harmful to the economy? Though undoubtedly complicated,
these questions turn on empirical evidence. As new information emerges,
we ought to move, however fitfully, toward consensus.</span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">But
we don’t. Unfortunately, people do not always revise their beliefs in
light of new information. On the contrary, they often stubbornly
maintain their views. Certain disagreements stay entrenched and
polarized.</span></b></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Why? <b>A common explanation
is<span style="background-color: #ffd966;"> confirmation bias.</span></b><span style="background-color: #ffd966;"> </span><b>This is the psychological tendency to favor
information that confirms our beliefs and to disfavor information that
counters them — a tendency manifested in the echo chambers and “filter
bubbles” of the online world.</b></span></p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If
this explanation is right, then there is a relatively straightforward
solution to political polarization: We need to consciously expose
ourselves to evidence that challenges our beliefs to compensate for our
inclination to discount it.</span></p></div></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But
what if confirmation bias isn’t the only culprit? It recently struck us
that confirmation bias is often conflated with “telling people what
they want to hear,” which is actually a distinct phenomenon known as
<b>desirability bias,</b> or the tendency to credit information you want to
believe. Though there is a clear difference between what you believe and
what you want to believe — a pessimist may expect the worst but hope
for the best — when it comes to political beliefs, they are frequently
aligned.</span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For example, gun-control
advocates who believe stricter firearms laws will reduce gun-related
homicides usually also want to believe that such laws will reduce
gun-related homicides. If those advocates decline to revise their
beliefs in the face of evidence to the contrary, it can be hard to tell
which bias is at work.</span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So we decided
to conduct an experiment that would isolate these biases. This way, we
could see whether a reluctance to revise political beliefs was a result
of confirmation bias or desirability bias (or both). Our experiment
capitalized on the fact that one month before the 2016 presidential
election there was a profusion of close polling results concerning
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.</span></p></div></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We
asked 900 United States residents which candidate they wanted to win
the election, and which candidate they believed was most likely to win.
Respondents fell into two groups. In one group were those who believed
the candidate they wanted to win was also most likely to win (for
example, the Clinton supporter who believed Mrs. Clinton would win). In
the other group were those who believed the candidate they wanted to win
was not the candidate most likely to win (for example, the Trump
supporter who believed Mrs. Clinton would win). Each person in the study
then read about recent polling results emphasizing either that Mrs.
Clinton or Mr. Trump was more likely to win.</span></p></div></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Roughly
half of our participants believed their preferred candidate was the one
less likely to win the election. For those people, the desirability of
the polling evidence was decoupled from its value in confirming their
beliefs.</span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">After reading about the
recent polling numbers, all the participants once again indicated which
candidate they believed was most likely to win. The results, which we
report in <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/the-heart-trumps-the-head(0d031a99-d2aa-4bc0-b106-e74da9611d66).html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General</a>,
were clear and robust. Those people who received desirable evidence —
polls suggesting that their preferred candidate was going to win — took
note and incorporated the information into their subsequent belief about
which candidate was most likely to win the election. In contrast, those
people who received undesirable evidence barely changed their belief
about which candidate was most likely to win.</span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Importantly,
this bias in favor of the desirable evidence emerged irrespective of
whether the polls confirmed or disconfirmed peoples’ prior belief about
which candidate would win. In other words, we observed a general bias
toward the desirable evidence.</span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What
about confirmation bias? To our surprise, those people who received
confirming evidence — polls supporting their prior belief about which
candidate was most likely to win — showed no bias in favor of this
information. They tended to incorporate this evidence into their
subsequent belief to the same extent as those people who had their prior
belief disconfirmed. In other words, we observed little to no bias
toward the confirming evidence.</span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We
also explored which supporters showed the greatest bias in favor of the
desirable evidence. The results were bipartisan: Supporters of Mr. Trump
and supporters of Mrs. Clinton showed a similar-size bias in favor of
the desirable evidence.</span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Our study
suggests that political belief polarization may emerge because of
peoples’ conflicting desires, not their conflicting beliefs per se. This
is rather troubling, as it implies that even if we were to escape from
our political echo chambers, it wouldn’t help much. Short of changing
what people want to believe, we must find other ways to unify our
perceptions of reality.</span></p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div></section><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ben
Tappin is a graduate student, and Ryan McKay is a reader in psychology
at Royal Holloway, University of London. Leslie van der Leer is a
lecturer in psychology at Regent’s University London.</span></p></div></div></div></div><article class="css-1vxca1d e1lmdhsb0" id="story"><li class="css-1xlo06v save-button"><br /></li></article><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></span></p>
</div>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-79961000781758580782022-09-21T01:46:00.003-07:002022-09-21T02:05:27.031-07:00How Blatant Anti-White Racism Won Acceptance in Elite America<div class="article-long-hero">
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<h1><span style="font-family: verdana;">How Blatant Anti-White Racism Won Acceptance in Elite America</span></h1>
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By
<a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/authors/john_murawski/">John Murawski</a>, RealClearInvestigations
<br /><span class="byline-date">September 07, 2022</span></span></div><div class="auth-byline"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/09/07/how_blatant_anti-white_racism_won_acceptance_in_elite_america_850879.html" target="_blank"><span class="byline-date">https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/09/07/how_blatant_anti-white_racism_won_acceptance_in_elite_america_850879.html </span></a></span>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><a class="attribution_url" href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00030651211008507" target="_blank">
Journal of the American Psycholanalytic Association
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</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/nyregion/yale-psychiatrist-aruna-khilanani.html">2021 lecture at Yale University</a>
titled “The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind,” psychiatrist Aruna
Khilanani described her “fantasies of unloading a revolver into the
head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body and
wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a
bounce in my step, like I did the world a favor.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<div class="body-photo"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="apsa.org" border="0" class="body-photo-left lazyload" data-height="600" data-width="502" height="320" src="https://assets.realclear.com/images/58/586392_5_.png" title="Donald Moss" width="268" /></span></div>
<div class="body-photo-title"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Donald Moss: His scholarly article said whiteness is “a malignant, parasitic-like condition." No cure, either.</span></div>
<div class="body-photo-byline"><span style="font-family: verdana;">apsa.org</span></div>
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</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Around the same time, a scholarly article in a peer-reviewed <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00030651211008507">academic journal</a>
described “whiteness” as “a malignant, parasitic-like condition to
which ‘white’ people have a particular susceptibility.” The author,
Donald Moss, had also <a href="https://nypsi.org/events/on-having-whiteness/">presented his paper</a> as a <a href="https://www.cmps.edu/On-Having-Whiteness">continuing education course</a>
for licensed therapists who would presumably treat patients with this
condition. The paper advises: “There is not yet a permanent cure.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is a sampling of the new racism that is gaining purchase in
American society even as its advocates relentlessly punish speech they
deem harmful and threatening to people of color. It parallels the
acceptance of anti-male rhetoric that casts masculinity as “predatory”
and “toxic,” or just casually demeans males as oafish and clueless,
which allows the Washington Post to give a megaphone to Northeastern
University professor Suzanna Danuta Walters to ask: <a href="https://archive.ph/QBo8c">“Why can’t we hate men?”</a> (Her conclusion: We can and we should.)</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The escalation of this inflammatory rhetoric is reaching the highest
levels of American society, as when President Biden insinuated in a
fiery campaign speech last week that Donald Trump supporters are “<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://americanfaith.com/bidens-full-speech-watch/&source=gmail&ust=1662237998217000&usg=AOvVaw2psaC89hhdvu8ynw-GLaVb" href="https://americanfaith.com/bidens-full-speech-watch/" rel="noopener" target="_blank" title="https://americanfaith.com/bidens-full-speech-watch/">white supremacists</a>” and when he maligned conservative mask skeptics last year for “<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1367195124527214602&source=gmail&ust=1662237998217000&usg=AOvVaw0nhvHVQk9NpPmJjRilYcrt" href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1367195124527214602" rel="noopener" target="_blank" title="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1367195124527214602">Neanderthal thinking</a>." </span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<div class="body-photo"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="Twitter" border="0" class="body-photo-right lazyload" data-height="600" data-width="688" height="279" src="https://assets.realclear.com/images/58/586460_5_.png" title="Aruna Khilanani" width="320" /></span></div>
<div class="body-photo-title"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Aruna Khilanani: Spoke at Yale on “fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way."</span></div>
<div class="body-photo-byline"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Twitter</span></div>
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</span><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">What strikes a casual observer is that such language would be
instantly denounced if it targeted racial minorities or other protected
groups. Just as remarkable is that this new rhetoric is not coming from
dropouts and loners at society’s margins; it is being advanced by
successful professionals who have scaled the heights of respectability
and are given a platform on social media and in prestigious cultural
outlets.</span></b></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">And though each of those examples generated a public furor, such inflammatory rhetoric is <a href="https://rutgersaaup.org/rutgers-aaup-aft-statement-in-solidarity-with-brittney-cooper/">defended</a> or downplayed by <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10145969/Public-furious-Rutgers-professor-Brittney-Coopers-history-anti-white-comments.html">cultural gatekeepers</a>.
The incidents have been piling up especially in the past few years,
especially since the election of Donald Trump to the White House during
the ascent of Black Lives Matter in the age of social media, and <b>even
include cases of people calling for the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/books/pauline-harmange-i-hate-men.html">hate of privileged groups</a> and insisting <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-scholar-asked-why-cant-we-hate-men-now-she-responds-to-the-deluge-of-criticism/">it’s not hate speech</a>.</b></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<div class="body-photo"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="Northwestern University" border="0" class="body-photo-left lazyload" data-height="600" data-width="555" height="320" src="https://assets.realclear.com/images/58/586461_5_.png" title="Suzanna Danuta Walters" width="296" /></span></div>
<div class="body-photo-title"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Suzanna Danuta Walters: Asked <a href="https://archive.ph/QBo8c">“Why can’t we hate men?”</a> in the Washington Post. Her answer: We can and we should.</span></div>
<div class="body-photo-byline"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Northeastern University</span></div>
<div class="inline-social" data-feed-caption="Northwestern University" data-feed-name="Suzanna Danuta Walters" data-feed-photo="https://assets.realclear.com/images/58/586461_5_.png">
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</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In its ultimate sign of success, this messaging has taken hold in <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/03/10/how_california_is_embracing_mandatory_racial-injustice_instruction_for_all_its_17_million_high_schoolers_767044.html">public schools</a>, <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/10/20/top-down_white_penitence_is_shaking_up_the_workplace_125684.html">corporate workplaces</a>, <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/08/11/medicine_is_getting_major_injections_of_woke_ideology_that_will_likely_affect_your_health_care_789077.html">medical journals</a>, <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/11/11/medical_research_seizes_on_systemic_racism_as_undisputed_truth_its_scientific_credibility_on_the_line_802820.html">scientific research</a> and even diversity training in <a href="https://christopherrufo.com/obscene-federal-diversity-training-scam-prospers-even-under-trump/">federal agencies</a>. It’s not limited to any single race but endorsed by whites, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/30/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race">blacks</a>, Asians and others, and <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/07/16/african-american-history-museums-whiteness-exhibit-raising-eyebrows/">disseminated</a> in diversity materials and workplace-recommended readings that characterize white people as flawed, <a href="https://www.edpost.com/stories/if-you-really-want-to-make-a-difference-in-black-lives-change-how-you-teach-white-kids">predatory and dangerous</a>
to society. Its sudden spread has caused a sense of culture shock and
given rise to acrimonious school board meetings and employee <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/04/27/critical_race_theory_is_about_to_face_its_days_in_court_774290.html">lawsuits</a> over
hostile work environments <b>as legions of teachers, students and workers
have been educated about white privilege, white fragility, white
complicity, and the moral imperative to de-center “whiteness” so as not
to “<a href="https://sph.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/112/2021/09/Anti-Racist-Planning-Guide-for-Public-Health-Pedagogy.pdf">normalize white domination</a>.”</b></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This new take on speech produces a moral paradox, particularly among
academics and journalists: Those who are most militant about policing
what they deem to be hate speech against minorities, women, gays and
trans communities are often the most tolerant of demeaning depictions,
incendiary rhetoric and violent imagery against whites and men.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">To those who see a double standard, such routine disparagement of
masculinity and whiteness is a case study in hypocrisy that upends
longstanding norms against stereotyping entire social groups. It’s a
manifestation of what Columbia University linguist and social
commentator John McWhorter dubbed “woke racism” in a 2021 book of the
same name that warns of the dangerous spread of “the kinds of language,
policies, and actions that Orwell wrote of as fiction.”</span></b></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<div class="body-photo"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="Rutgers" border="0" class="body-photo-right lazyload" data-height="600" data-width="396" height="320" src="https://assets.realclear.com/images/58/586397_5_.png" title="James Livingston" width="211" /></span></div>
<div class="body-photo-title"><span style="font-family: verdana;">James Livingston, Rutgers historian:
Derided "little Caucasian assholes who know their parents will approve
of anything they do."</span></div>
<div class="body-photo-byline"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rutgers</span></div>
<div class="inline-social" data-feed-caption="Rutgers" data-feed-name="James Livingston" data-feed-photo="https://assets.realclear.com/images/58/586397_5_.png">
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</span><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">But its advocates insist there is no double standard; they argue they are simply speaking truth to power, which <i>should</i>
cause discomfort. In this belief system, reverse discrimination can’t
exist because social justice demands tipping the scales to favor
marginalized groups to correct for centuries of injustice.</span></b></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">They include Rutgers University historian James Livingston who, in a
Facebook critique of gentrification, described a Harlem burger joint as
being “overrun with little Caucasian assholes who know their parents
will approve of anything they do. Slide around the floor, you little
shithead, sing loudly you unlikely moron. Do what you want, nobody here
is gonna restrict your right to be white.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The post concluded: “I hereby resign from my race. Fuck these people.
Yeah, I know, it’s about access to my dinner. Fuck you, too.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In a phone call, Livingston, who is white, said his Facebook post was
a joke targeted at white people who are privileged and therefore
require less protection than marginalized groups.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“White males have been the norm of our culture and our politics and
our society and our economy for so long that unearthing the unstated
assumptions that go into that is pretty hard work, and it reveals things
that make us uncomfortable,” Livingston said. “So do they need to be
protected? I suppose. Everybody needs some protection. But I’m not too
worried about people telling me that I have no right to speak on the
issue of transgender individuals.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Although Livingston was initially <a href="https://www.thefire.org/rutgers-investigation-report/">found in violation</a> of Rutgers’ discrimination and harassment policy, <a href="https://www.thefire.org/victory-rutgers-reverses-punishment-of-professor-who-posted-about-resigning-from-the-white-race-on-facebook/">Rutgers later reversed its decision</a>, accepting his claim that his Facebook post was satire protected by academic freedom.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Festering for Decades</span></h3><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It can seem that such putdowns and trash talk have burst out of
nowhere in the last few years. But the underlying justifications have
been percolating for decades, and they are seen by skeptics as a modern
repackaging of ancient us-versus-them tribal reflexes. Telltale signs of
role-reversal have been described by serious thinkers, such as 19<sup>th</sup> century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote that “He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">More recently, author Douglas Murray has warned of the tendency for
social justice movements to “behave – in victory – as its opponents once
did” – which is to say: meanly – and which ultimately results in “the
normalization of vengefulness.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<div class="body-photo"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="Wikipedia" border="0" class="body-photo-left lazyload" data-height="513" data-width="750" height="219" src="https://assets.realclear.com/images/58/586400_5_.png" title="Herbert Marcuse" width="320" /></span></div>
<div class="body-photo-title"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Herbert Marcuse, Marxist scholar and
precursor of woke intolerance: He argued the oppressor class and the
oppressed cannot be held to the same standard.</span></div>
<div class="body-photo-byline"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wikipedia</span></div>
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</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The idea that stereotyping and denigrating entire groups has no place
in a society that strives for equality is one of the signature
achievements of the Civil Rights era. By the 1970s, openly expressing
racist slurs and jokes against black people was seen as a distasteful
holdover from the Jim Crow era, an Archie Bunker-ism signifying low
education and low intelligence.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The prohibition against racist speech rapidly became generalized to
all identity groups. Ethnic slurs against Poles, Italians, Asians, and
others became verboten as did mockery of gays and the disabled. Many
words once commonly used to describe women, such as “dame” and “broad”
became unacceptable, while terms that were once seen as neutral or
descriptive, such as “colored,” “Oriental,” and “Negro,” suddenly took
on negative connotations, and became unutterable in public <b>(creating a
replacement term, “people of color”).</b></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">But at the same time that these language taboos against expressing
prejudice were becoming widely accepted across the political spectrum as
a matter of civility, a far-more radical effort to regulate speech was
percolating on the left.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">This movement sought to limit speech on the rationale that language
was a form of social control and therefore the source of oppression and
violence. The assumption that hurtful language leads to harmful policies
ultimately produced today’s cancel culture phenomenon, where otherwise
well-regarded professionals are investigated, suspended, canned, or
booted from social media for simply <a href="https://kriegman.substack.com/p/post-leading-to-termination-blm-falsehoods">questioning the factual claims of Black Lives Matter</a>, for affirming <a href="https://quillette.com/2022/06/23/i-got-thrown-off-etsy-and-paypal-for-expressing-my-belief-in-biological-reality/">biological sex differences</a>, for <a href="https://www.commonsense.news/p/he-made-a-joke-about-land-acknowledgements?r=7wjmc&utm_medium=ios">satirizing ritual land acknowledgements</a>, and even for publicly <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/scared-to-death-to-teach-internal-report-cites-chilling-effect-at-southern-cal-after-business-professors-removal?cid2=gen_login_refresh&cid=gen_sign_in">saying the Mandarin word</a> “nei-ge” (because it supposedly resembles a racial epithet in English).</span></b></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The core proposition of this mindset can be traced to philosophers
like Michel Foucault, who developed theories of language as a form of
societal power and domination, and Herbert Marcuse, the Marxist scholar
whose now-classic <a href="http://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEEMarcuseToleranceTable.pdf">1960s essay, “Repressive Tolerance,”</a>
argues that the oppressor class and the oppressed cannot be held to the
same standard. Marcuse proposed that the classical liberal doctrine of
free speech is a mechanism that benefits capitalists and others who
wield power, that the struggle for “a real democracy” paradoxically
necessitates “the fight against an ideology of tolerance.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<div class="body-photo"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="YouTube/Friction" border="0" class="body-photo-left lazyload" data-height="600" data-width="559" height="320" src="https://assets.realclear.com/images/58/587005_5_.png" title="Stanley Fish: New York Times contributor wrote" width="298" /></span></div>
<div class="body-photo-title"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Stanley Fish: New York Times contributor wrote <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/the-harm-in-free-speech/">"The Harm in Free Speech."</a></span></div>
<div class="body-photo-byline"><span style="font-family: verdana;">YouTube/Friction</span></div>
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</span><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">The subversive intellectuals of the 1960s and 1970s passed on the
torch to Critical Race Theorists and radical feminists, and in the 1990s
the critique of bourgeoisie liberalism was taken up by Stanley Fish, a
post-modernist literary critic and critical legal scholar who ridiculed
the idea of “free speech” and “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/politics/race/fish.htm">reverse racism</a>,” giving wider exposure to these esoteric scholarly arguments.</span></b></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“By insisting that <i>from now on </i>there shall be no
discrimination, they leave in place the effects of the discrimination
that had been practiced for generations,” Fish wrote. “What is usually
meant by perfect neutrality is a policy that leaves in place the effects
of the discrimination you now officially repudiate. Neutrality thus
perpetuates discrimination, rather than reversing it, for you can only
fight discrimination with discrimination.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">During the Obama era, Fish was a celebrity public intellectual publishing pieces in the New York Times titled “<a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/two-cheers-for-double-standards/">Two Cheers for Double Standards</a>” and “<a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/the-harm-in-free-speech/">The Harm in Free Speech</a>.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thus it came to be accepted that creating a just society will require
controlling speech to disempower the historically privileged and
empower aggrieved groups, and to undo sex, gender, and racial
disparities in society.</span></b></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At Georgetown University, for example, it means that academic freedom is balanced against an <a href="https://www.law.georgetown.edu/deans-statement-re-ilya-shapiro/">“equally important”</a> competing goal – diversity and “equity,” the latter vaguely defined – which puts the two policies on a collision course.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<div class="body-photo"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="Cato Institute" border="0" class="body-photo-right lazyload" data-height="600" data-width="507" height="320" src="https://assets.realclear.com/images/58/586401_5_.png" title="Ilya Shapiro" width="270" /></span></div>
<div class="body-photo-title"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ilya Shapiro: Georgetown Law denounced his
"demeaning" tweet criticizing Biden's "black woman" litmus test for the
Supreme Court. </span></div>
<div class="body-photo-byline"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Cato Institute</span></div>
<div class="inline-social" data-feed-caption="Cato Institute" data-feed-name="Ilya Shapiro" data-feed-photo="https://assets.realclear.com/images/58/586401_5_.png">
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</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Just this year, constitutional legal scholar <a href="https://ilyashapiro.substack.com/p/what-its-like-when-an-online-mob?r=7wjmc&utm_medium=ios">Ilya Shapiro resigned from a plum job</a> at Georgetown’s law school over <a href="https://www.thefire.org/ilya-shapiro-tweets-about-biden-supreme-court-nominee/">a tweet</a>
in which Shapiro voiced his frustration that President Biden had
promised to name a black woman to the Supreme Court. Shapiro recommended
Indian-born federal jurist Sri Srinivasan and lamented that Biden’s
racial litmus test meant he would instead nominate a “lesser black
woman.” That phrase – which Shapiro subsequently described as “inartful”
and for which he apologized, taking down the tweet – prompted an
internal investigation by the university’s Office of Institutional
Diversity, Equity & Affirmative Action.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Georgetown’s law dean denounced Shapiro’s January tweet as “demeaning” and “appalling,” but <a href="https://www.thefire.org/ilya-shapiro-resignation-letter-to-georgetown-university-law-center-june-6-2022/">in his subsequent resignation letter</a> Shapiro noted that <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/georgetown-condemns-disrespectful-discourse-professor-154051029.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall">Georgetown defended the academic freedom of a feminist professor</a> when sent this tweet during Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 Supreme Court confirmation hearings:</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“Look at this chorus of entitled white men justifying a serial
rapist’s arrogated entitlement. All of them deserve miserable deaths
while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps. Bonus: we castrate
their corpses and feed them to swine? Yes.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In a phone conversation, Shapiro said his experience serves as a
reminder why free speech standards should apply uniformly to all
citizens, rather than trying to compensate political identity groups
based on theories of intersectional oppression. Such attempts end up
being arbitrary, ideological, and political.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“Those kinds of theories are laughable,” said Shapiro, who is now
director of constitutional studies at the conservative Manhattan
Institute. “This idea of punching up and punching down, it all depends
on definitions.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<div class="body-photo-title"><span style="font-family: verdana;">C. Christine Fair: Georgetown Law defended
the academic freedom of this feminist professor who advocated
castrating white men's corpses and feeding them to swine. </span></div>
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</span><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Shapiro said that definitions can be rigged, so that the term
marginalized or underrepresented in the academic context never refers to
conservatives or libertarians who constitute ideological minorities on
campus and have been documented as being reluctant to express their
opinions <a href="https://heterodoxacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CES-Report-2022-FINAL.pdf">for fear of cancel culture</a>.</span></b></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“If you define it in ways that privileges your ideology, well then
you’re going to get the output that you’re looking for in the first
place,” Shapiro said. “It’s arguing that you’re rectifying a structural
power dynamic when what you’re doing is shifting the power to favor your
preferred group.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It may come as a surprise that <a href="https://twitter.com/CChristineFair/status/1488226632099786755">one of Shapiro’s defenders</a>
was Christine Fair, the Georgetown security studies professor who in
2018 had tweeted about castrating male corpses and feeding them to
swine.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">For starters, Fair said Shapiro’s tweet wasn’t offensive. But even if
it was, she said, that shouldn’t matter: “We have no right not to be
offended.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Fair thrives on controversy and provocation. She has a blog called <a href="https://shortbustoparadise.wordpress.com/about/">Tenacious Hellpussy</a>, subtitled “A nasty woman posting from the frontlines of fuckery.” She publicly defended her 2018 tweet <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/twitter-suspends-georgetown-professor-kavanaugh-supporters-deserve-miserable-1148829">at the time, tweeting</a>:
“I will not use civil words to describe mass incivility. … I will use
words that make you as uncomfortable as I am with this regime.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“I detest cancel culture,” Fair said in a phone interview. “I don’t
think they fundamentally understand freedom of speech. They think there
is a right to freedom <i>from</i> speech.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">But what was her motive at the time to use such gratuitously graphic
language that was guaranteed to blow up in her face? She summarized her
motives as giving her political enemies a taste of their own medicine:
“Let me show you what structural violence sounds like.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Fair said that her 2018 tweet was not without grievous consequences.
After receiving death threats and rape threats, her teaching duties were
suspended for a year out of concerns for her physical safety. Even as
she publicly defended her free speech rights to be provocative and
outrageous, Fair “lugubriously apologized” to staff and faculty members
who were subjected to online threats and “terrorized” by trolls because
of Fair’s intemperate tweeting.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<div class="body-photo-title"><span style="font-family: verdana;">George Ciccariello-Maher, Drexel U.: “All I want for Christmas is white genocide.”</span></div>
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</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Speech codes have been a staple of college campuses for decades but
the stakes intensified after Donald Trump was elected president and the
nation underwent a social transformation that some call the Great
Awokening. Seemingly overnight the bar for permissible speech rose for
the oppressor and dropped for the oppressed. And now it was overtly
about politicizing and weaponizing speech to save humanity from itself.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">On Christmas Eve in 2016, just weeks before Trump took office, a
Drexel University political science professor, George Ciccariello-Maher,
<a href="https://reason.com/2016/12/26/drexel-professor-tweets-all-i-want-for-c/">pulled an attention-getting stunt</a> on Twitter: “All I want for Christmas is white genocide.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next day, the provocative professor pushed the nuclear buttons
again: “To clarify: when the whites were massacred during the Haitian
revolution, that was a good thing indeed.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Drexel officials denounced the professor’s comments as “utterly
reprehensible” and “utterly disturbing,” and subsequently put him on
administrative leave (for his own safety). The professor denounced
Drexel’s response as “chilling” to his academic freedom.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ciccariello-Maher was just <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/10/10/conservatives-are-the-real-campus-thought-police-squashing-academic-freedom/">getting started</a>. He <a href="https://itsgoingdown.org/igdcast-george-ciccariello-maher-free-speech-white-supremacy/">went on the offensive</a>
in 2017 against free speech advocacy and took pride in being involved
in a campaign to shout down conservative speaker Charles Murray.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“We’re actually fighting a battle,” Ciccariello-Maher said on <a href="https://itsgoingdown.org/igdcast-george-ciccariello-maher-free-speech-white-supremacy/">a 2017 podcast</a>, “and for that battle we need to use weapons, and we need to fight against the enemies that we have.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">He proclaimed: “We make a mistake from the beginning when we assume
that speech is and has been free instead of a terrain for hegemonic
struggle.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A year after his controversial tweets, Ciccariello-Maher <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/01/02/controversial-drexel-professor-resigns">resigned</a> from Drexel, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/28/us/drexel-university-professor-resigns/index.html">citing</a> nonstop harassment and threats from right-wing, white supremacist media outlets and internet mobs.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The changing dynamic played out in public view at the New York Times in 2018, when the media organization <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/business/media/quinn-norton-new-york-times.html">hired and then quickly un-hired</a> opinion writer Quinn Norton for several gaffes, including retweeting a <a href="https://twitter.com/JPBarlow/status/3760544030">tweet with the N-word</a> and fraternizing with an alleged neo-Nazi.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<div class="body-photo"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="MSNBC" border="0" class="body-photo-left lazyload" data-height="562" data-width="750" height="240" src="https://assets.realclear.com/images/50/503315_5_.jpg" title="Ezra Klein: Biden Wants To Lead The Democratic Party As It Exists Right Now" width="320" /></span></div>
<div class="body-photo-title"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ezra Klein, New York Times podcaster: The
meme #KillAllMen really just means “it would be nice if the world sucked
less for women.”</span></div>
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</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Just six months after tossing Norton, the New York Times <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45052534">stood by another opinion writer</a>,
Sarah Jeong, a Korean-born graduate of U Cal Berkeley and Harvard law
school whose Twitter oeuvre trafficked in crude racial stereotypes.
Jeong, who was fond of the hashtag #CancelWhitePeople, tweeted out such
sentiments as: “White people have stopped breeding. you’ll all go
extinct soon. that was my plan all along.” And: “Dumbass fucking white
people marking up the internet with their opinions like dogs pissing on
fire hydrants.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As the New York Times was pilloried for its double standard, progressive <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/3/17648566/sarah-jeong-new-york-times-twitter-andrew-sullivan">digital pundits at Vox</a>
came to Jeong’s defense, patiently explaining for the umpteenth time
that Jeong was to be exempt from censure because “there’s no such thing
as ‘reverse racism.’”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ezra Klein, the former editor of Vox who’s now an influential podcaster at the Times, accused Jeong’s critics of “<a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2018/8/8/17661368/sarah-jeong-twitter-new-york-times-andrew-sullivan">an absurd form of literalism</a>.”
He said the public misguidedly interpreted the online meme #KillAllMen
literally, when Twitter habitués who are in on the joke understood that
it really meant nothing more than “it would be nice if the world sucked
less for women.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Another Vox writer dismissed the idea that we should all play by the
same rules and spelled out how the “social justice left” approaches the
world: “What makes these quasi-satirical generalizations about ‘white
people’ different from actual racism is, yes, the underlying power
structure in American society.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“There is no sense of threat associated with Jeong making a joke
about how white people have dog-like opinions,” the Vox piece said. “But
when white people have said the same about minorities, it has
historically been a pretext for violence or justification for
exclusionary politics.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Many Americans are still trying to figure out the boundaries of
acceptable speech at a time when striving for colorblindness and equal
treatment mark a person as part of the problem. However sensible it
might have seemed a half-century ago as a corrective measure or to
alleviate pangs of guilt, the creation of separate standards for
different groups now strikes some as profoundly regressive.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">“The development of two separate language codes, one for whites and
one for blacks, was ominous,” the conservative writer Christopher
Caldwell observed in his 2020 book, “The Age of Entitlement.”</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“</i>The rules of American public decorum now resembled medieval
strictures that permitted only noblemen to carry weapons or ride
horses, or laws that forbade certain classes of citizens to address
others by a certain name.”</span></b></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Email: <a href="mailto:jmurawski@realclearinvestigations.com">jmurawski@realclearinvestigations.com</a><br /></i><i>Twitter: @johnmurawski</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-31991543715626835462022-09-21T01:34:00.001-07:002022-09-21T01:34:59.780-07:00The toxic self-hatred of white Democrats<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><h1 class="entry-title">The toxic self-hatred of white Democrats</h1> <h4>White liberals have been so radicalised on race that they've left the rest of the country — minorities included — far behind</h4>
<h5 class="author">BY <span style="color: #1b1b1b;"><a class="author url fn" href="https://unherd.com/author/justinwebb/" rel="author" title="Posts by Justin Webb">Justin Webb</a></span></h5><h5 class="author"><span style="color: #1b1b1b;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://unherd.com/2019/10/who-elects-self-hating-white-liberals/">https://unherd.com/2019/10/who-elects-self-hating-white-liberals/</a></span> </span>
</h5>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm0-IMUjD9G3IWp6TnRVZPpKPZDGbAFmsOHwUWBsDPWO5zDaNJHO-JnqESxnuVWEFm8Va46OZpO1pN1e9XwBWY1psZ6Iz7BXri99WmZvMruIdqpypLwzYN6MDvMN0-UDqKBconOV3gYOYgiaIgxFR7et9soS1bJ70gw-yocRy-h6Uar65iNlpLL5EH/s876/11111.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="876" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm0-IMUjD9G3IWp6TnRVZPpKPZDGbAFmsOHwUWBsDPWO5zDaNJHO-JnqESxnuVWEFm8Va46OZpO1pN1e9XwBWY1psZ6Iz7BXri99WmZvMruIdqpypLwzYN6MDvMN0-UDqKBconOV3gYOYgiaIgxFR7et9soS1bJ70gw-yocRy-h6Uar65iNlpLL5EH/w400-h234/11111.tiff" width="400" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A new fear stalks white American Democrats. While those who describe
themselves as “liberal” — i.e. Left-wing — are horrified by Donald
Trump, by inequality, by restrictions on abortion rights, they are
horrified too, it seems, by themselves: by the colour of their skin; by
the wrongs done by white people and by the system they set up.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This horror is something that simply did not exist 10 years ago.
According to painstaking research by Zach Goldberg of Georgia State
University, there have been a series of <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/284875/americas-white-saviors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“seismic attitudinal shifts”</a>
among white liberals in recent years. Using data from the most
reputable non-partisan sources available, Goldberg <b>shows how attitudes
have shifted in a short space of time, a phenomenon commonly known as
“the Great Awokening”.</b></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">So, for example, in 2016 more than 60% of white liberals thought the
black-white achievement gap was caused by discrimination, a figure that
was 42% in 2012. There is a similar change in answers to the question,
“is the US justice system biased against black people?” White liberals
were evenly split on the subject until around 2012 but now,
overwhelmingly, think the system is biased.</span></p><div class="code-block code-block-6" style="clear: both; margin: 8px 0;">
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">And on the positives of a multi-racial society white Democrats have
leapfrogged black party members: in 2016, 78% of them thought a greater
racial mix made the nation a “better” place to live. The figure for
black Democrats was 57%.</span></b></span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Is there a practical impact of this new white racial radicalism? Very
much so, and we are seeing it already. It is hurting Joe Biden, the
“white-est” of all the candidates in the race to become the Democrats’
2020 candidate. This is the man who has talked openly of how he used to
do deals with the racist senators who still strutted their stuff back
when he started his political career in the early 1970s — and seen now
by many Left-wing white Democrats as toxic.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Oh the irony! Because Joe Biden is easily, comfortably, unquestionably, the most favoured candidate among… black Democrats.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In South Carolina — the first primary where black voters will have a
significant impact on the Democratic race for the 2020 nomination —
Biden is hugely favoured by African-American electors, around 40% of
whom back him. The other candidates, including the people of colour,
are, at best, in low double digits.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">But back in (nearly) all-white Iowa, where the first caucus is held
in frigid snow-white January, the white folks are openly hostile to poor
Joe and much more in love with candidates who properly embrace the
horror of white oppression.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This may in part account for the recent surge in Iowa polling of the
young and highly polished mayor of South Bend Indiana, Pete Buttigieg,
who has a plan to consider reparations for slavery — a policy which many
believe would tear the country apart however fundamentally justified it
might be. If Buttigieg were to win in Iowa and Bernie Sanders in New
Hampshire (which borders his home state of Vermont, thus giving him a
natural advantage) it would leave Biden needing a huge win in the third
contest in South Carolina to get back on track. It might be too late for
him.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is a real and growing chance that white liberal Democrats will
effectively veto the choice of black Democrats because they think he’s
not properly conscious of racial issues. White privilege, anyone? To
complain about it and to use it all at the same time: so 2019.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">That’s the electoral impact on the Democratic primary, but is there a
deeper psychological cringe that the Democratic party ignores at its
peril? Self-awareness is a universally acknowledged good; so is a
healthy measure of self-criticism. But the level of dislike white
liberal Democrats seem to have for themselves is quite something. Could
it play with their heads and those of their supporters? How positive
about America will they feel they can be before coming up against the
mental stumbling block that they have decided race is a massive
unresolved scar on the face of their nation?</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This matters hugely in 2020 because a sunny disposition and a stable
calm outlook on the world might well (for obvious reasons) be enough to
win it. “And …. breathe!” could well be a winning slogan. John Kerry
suggested as much to me on <em>The Today Programme</em> a year ago: all
that would be required would be for the Democratic candidate to be
moderate and competent, he suggested. That’ll do it.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the time I thought this a foolishly complacent approach, but now,
after another year of Trump? After the Kurds? Ukraine? Not for the first
time, I think Senator Kerry displayed a better grasp of American
politics than me.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">But if the white liberals in his party have their way, this relaxed,
genial route to power is going to be blocked by racial tensions that
they themselves stoke. Who cares, they might respond: we have lost the
redneck vote and frankly we don’t want it back. We can win with the
suburbs, with educated women, with people of colour whose caution in
these matters will be seen to have been an understandable
mistake. Maybe: but these groups like sunshine too. Indeed, post -Trump,
they crave it.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">And it remains the case that although lefty Democrats have “found
race”, most Americans have not. 41% of voters think that white people
are advantaged in modern society, according to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/08/the-2018-midterm-vote-divisions-by-race-gender-education/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an exit poll</a> conducted last year after the mid-terms by the respected company Pew Research.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s an impressive number in many respects — but it’s not a majority,
and 19% (of a nation of 300 million) actually think the opposite: that
white Americans are at a disadvantage to racial minorities.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Even among the 41% I wonder if there are plenty who want to
acknowledge what they see as perfectly obvious injustices but not to
beat themselves up quite as enthusiastically as some liberal Democrats
would like.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">By concentrating on these issues Democrats would be picking a fight
with majority opinion, and being less sunny about their country than
many Americans want them to be. They would also be doing it on their
own, racially speaking, because a striking feature of this fashion is
how much it seems to be all about white people. The books that inform
it, like the <em>New York Times</em> bestseller <a href="https://www.npr.org/books/titles/659967551/white-fragility-why-its-so-hard-for-white-people-to-talk-about-racism" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>White Fragility</em>, <em>Why it’s so hard for White People to talk about Racism</em></a>, are overwhelmingly written by whites.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In fact, the non-partisan pressure group <a href="https://www.moreincommon.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">More in Common</a>
has suggested that those who believe America was “established by
socially dominant groups like straight white men, for their own
benefit,” are the most racially homogenous political group in the
country.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">White people telling others how to live. Is this really the 2020 look
the Democrats want to embrace? At least Barack Obama would enjoy the
joke.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-47821301979757396232022-09-19T01:49:00.002-07:002022-09-19T01:49:15.712-07:00Why Putin Must Be Defeated<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NzhsIf_3RjQH621AC_iBJkyDcRvYlZ7PGAwDx3Yabu1QOdmMa0l78M81MzklEle5VVreALBJRHcpQ4ZPma0s8AIFVP82ALHm_uRnrXMSGfk_jzs8a7x5_OTGrg9ZP6Xww_xeWOohBmeSRQxqCo_4uyjg4pmWoVamKJXx21aG3OVz07l-EcCvqjD3/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NzhsIf_3RjQH621AC_iBJkyDcRvYlZ7PGAwDx3Yabu1QOdmMa0l78M81MzklEle5VVreALBJRHcpQ4ZPma0s8AIFVP82ALHm_uRnrXMSGfk_jzs8a7x5_OTGrg9ZP6Xww_xeWOohBmeSRQxqCo_4uyjg4pmWoVamKJXx21aG3OVz07l-EcCvqjD3/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">Why Putin Must Be Defeated</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Guy+Milli%C3%A8re"><span itemprop="author">Guy Millière</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-07-24T05:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">July 24, 2022 at 5:00 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18740/putin-must-be-defeated">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18740/putin-must-be-defeated</a> <br /></span></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Ukrainian military urgently needs long-range air defenses and longer-range artillery. It does not have them.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">[Zelensky] said he wanted the war over before Russia could
rebuild its forces, and that each additional day of war meant more death
and destruction. Above all, he said, not only Ukraine is at stake, but
the security and values of the West.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"History teaches that prolonged conflicts bleed both sides, but
dictatorships have an advantage over democracies. They are not
accountable to their societies and can pay the price of blood, even with
opposition from their citizens.... Does the transatlantic free world
still want to occupy a position of leadership? Do we still believe in
the universality of values such as freedom and the right of national
self-determination?" — Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki,
Politico, June 27, 2022.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The almost total destruction of entire cities... has no precedent
in Europe since the end of the Second World War. Neither do the
horrific war crimes committed in Bucha and other towns on the outskirts
of Kyiv and Kharkiv. Nearly two million Ukrainians have been deported
and sent to Russia, with some in detention camps in Siberia.... The
invasion of Ukraine without a declaration of war is itself a war crime.</span></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Baltic states, Finland, Sweden and Poland have every reason
to feel threatened: if Putin is not defeated, he will not stop at
Ukraine.</span></b></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Russia, in 1994, signed the Budapest Memorandum, committing
itself to respect the borders of Ukraine. Twenty years later, in 2014,
Russia annexed Crimea and created secessionist militia in the Donbass.
In 2022, Putin showed that the Budapest Memorandum had absolutely no
meaning for him.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Putin is leading a campaign of annihilating Ukraine's
infrastructure and industrial base. He appears to want Ukraine to become
a ruined, non-viable country, virtually impossible to rebuild because
the costs would be too high. The more time passes, the higher the costs.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">To achieve his ends, Putin is apparently perfectly willing to
hold hundreds of millions of innocent people hostage, and even sentence
them to death by starvation. Meanwhile, his propaganda services
cynically claim to the countries concerned that the risk of famine
results from the Western sanctions against Russia.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Failing to give Ukraine every means to win... or letting a
stalemate set in -- or even worse -- rewarding Russian aggression by
ceding Ukraine's Donbass and declaring that Russia had "won", would
effectively be announcing to China and all the enemies of the Western
world that the power of the West and its ability to command respect
belong in the past. Such an outcome would also be telling them that the
rules of international law established after the Second World War, and
the values that the Western world claims to embody, are now rules and
values that the West is incapable of defending.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A war only ends when there is a winner and a loser. In the
present situation, Putin is the ruthless aggressor who tramples all the
rules and values of the West. He must be defeated. If he is not, the
consequences will not be limited to Ukraine. They will be devastating.</span></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Russian military is not invincible. On the contrary, it has
shown itself to be extremely deficient and vulnerable. It is the army of
a weak state: Russia's GDP is lower than that of Italy. The Russian
army can be crushed and the murderous destruction inflicted on Ukraine
can end. What is missing is the clear and concrete will from the West.
The United States must lead.</span></b></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In Madrid, Biden said, "We are going to stick with Ukraine, and
all of the alliance is going to stick with Ukraine as long as it takes
to, in fact, make sure that they are not defeated". He did not say what
he should have said, had he wanted to show some strength: Ukraine must
win. If it receives the required armaments, Ukraine will win.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Only an American president has the political and military means
to show strength in a credible way. It is tragic that the United States
has a weak president just when the future of the world is threatened by
so many predatory regimes -- all doubtless aware of the small but
irresistible window they have at this time.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"We must aid Ukraine, for to do so in part is our first duty to
America and to Americans.... By supporting Ukraine, we prevent larger
European conflict. A war that would almost certainly involve America's
military because we have a deep commitment to the NATO treaty and
Article Five therein." — Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Putin will not stop, unless he is stopped... if the West is
aware of what is at stake and sees this war as its own, then this price
is not too high. After all, Ukrainians are paying a much higher price.
Ukrainians have no choice, since they are defending their country. But
the West has no choice either—it is about its future as a community,
driven by values and the ability to project these values globally." —
Iryna Solonenko, Senior Fellow at the Zentrum Liberale Moderne
(LibMod), Berlin, <i>Internationale Politik Quarterly</i>, April 13, 2022.</span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; max-width: 600px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/3394.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></span><p style="font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
almost total destruction of entire cities in Ukraine has no precedent
in Europe since the end of the Second World War. The Ukrainian military
urgently needs long-range air defenses and longer-range artillery. It
does not have them. Pictured: A Ukrainian soldier passes by a destroyed
building in the Ukrainian town of Siversk, Donetsk region on July 22,
2022. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)</span></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">May 9, Moscow. The annual military Victory Day Parade was held in Red
Square, but with fewer soldiers and military vehicles than in other
years. The parade had been <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighooper/2022/05/02/russian-victory-day-parade-cut-by-35-emphasizing-ukraines-battlefield-prowess/" target="_blank">cut</a> by 35%. Russian President Vladimir Putin's short, sober speech tried to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/05/09/putin-russia-victory-day-parade-speech" target="_blank">justify</a> the war of aggression he had launched against Ukraine on February 24.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Putin seemed on the verge of defeat. A month earlier, in an apparent debacle, the Russian Army had hastily <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/04/06/pentagon-russia-withdraws-kyiv-chernihiv/" target="_blank">left</a> the Kyiv area. Countless Russian soldiers had been wounded and killed; the loss of military equipment was unimaginable. A <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/britain-says-russias-donbas-offensive-has-lost-momentum-2022-05-15/" target="_blank">report</a>
from the UK Ministry of Defence on May 15 said that Russia had lost a
third of its combat forces and much of its heavy equipment.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">On May 14, Russian troops <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/14/russians-withdraw-ukraine-kharkiv-00032532" target="_blank">withdrew</a> from Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city; they had been <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-forces-in-kharkiv-push-through-to-russian-border-as-it-happened/a-61808824" target="_blank">pushed back</a> by Ukrainian forces to the Russian border. Russia's only "victory" was the <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/mariupol-destroyed-completely-says-zelensky-101651855634952.html" target="_blank">total destruction</a> of the city of Mariupol, by the Sea of Azov. Communications intercepted by American intelligence services <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/90421972-2f1e-4871-a4c6-0a9e9257e9b0" target="_blank">showed</a>
that the Russian military had a low morale and that cases of
insubordination, mutiny, and refusal to obey orders had multiplied.
Russian generals had been <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/russia-suffered-loss-extraordinary-number-generals/story?id=84545931" target="_blank">killed</a> at the front.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Russian forces then began <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-25/russia-says-ukraine-operation-focused-on-donbas-interfax" target="_blank">concentrating</a> their efforts on the Donbass and has been waging a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-war-of-attrition-begun/" target="_blank">war of attrition</a> ever since. Much of Russia's modern military equipment has been <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-war-military-equipment-losses/31847839.html" target="_blank">destroyed</a>; its older equipment <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oubk1vLWJjI" target="_blank">dates</a>
from the 1960s, but Putin has lots of bombs. Russia has now been
bombing Ukrainian positions for weeks. It advances just a little but
destroys everything in its path. It has razed not only much of Mariupol,
but also <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/ukraine-destruction-last-bridge-severodonetsk-necessitates-immediate-access-aid-and-safe-routes-out-trapped-civilians" target="_blank">Severodonetsk</a> and <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/russian-troops-shell-lysychansk-killing-053311279.html" target="_blank">Lysychansk</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Ukrainian Army courageously <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-forces-resist-russian-bombardment-in-frontline-town-of-avdiyivka/31905971.html" target="_blank">resists</a>, but does not have <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/despite-an-influx-of-western-arms-ukraine-is-outgunned-in-the-east" target="_blank">enough</a> heavy weapons to end the destruction, stop Russia's offensive or carry out an effective counter-offensive.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Putin seems to be counting on time; he seems betting that the Western world will <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/02/europe/putin-ukraine-invasion-100-days-analysis-intl-cmd/index.html" target="_blank">lose interest</a> in Ukraine and turn to other matters.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Biden administration at first seemed ready endorse regime change in Kyiv, and US officials even <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/zelensky-rejects-us-evacuation-offer-from-ukraine-i-need-ammunition-not-a-ride/" target="_blank">offered</a> Zelensky safe passage out of the country. Zelensky famously <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/26/europe/ukraine-zelensky-evacuation-intl/index.html" target="_blank">answered</a>, "I need ammunition, not a ride."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When it appeared that the Russian Army was <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/04/06/russias-failure-take-down-kyiv-was-defeat-ages.html" target="_blank">failing</a> and that Zelensky had succeeded in <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/zelenskys-virtual-world-tour-history-lessons-and-pleas-for-weapons-210256471.html" target="_blank">mobilizing</a>
the opinion of the Western world, Biden finally supported Ukraine --
but certain categories of American weapons that Ukraine had asked for
were supplied late or not at all. Ukraine, for instance, had <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2022/05/19/here-are-the-high-end-weapons-zelenskyy-hopes-the-new-ukraine-aid-bill-will-provide/" target="_blank">requested</a>
HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) -- essential to
countering Russian artillery -- as early as March. Biden sent four
units, but before sending them <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/31/ukraine-russia-war-hmars-mlrs-rockets-biden/" target="_blank">asked</a>
that their range be limited to 50 miles. Recently, four additional
HIMARS units were sent, and four more are reportedly to be sent soon.
That makes <a href="https://breakingdefense.com/2022/07/more-himars-new-155-mm-artillery-system-heading-to-ukraine/" target="_blank">12 units</a> in all -- far too few to reverse the balance of power on the battlefield. The Ukrainian military <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2022/04/what-artillery-and-air-defense-does-ukraine-need-now/" target="_blank">urgently needs</a> long-range air defenses and longer-range artillery. It does not have them.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">European NATO member countries also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/world/europe/nato-weapons-ukraine-russia.html" target="_blank">supported</a>
Ukraine and sent weapons, but no European country has a sufficiently
powerful military or a significant amount of materiel. While the
countries of Central Europe, the Baltic states and the United Kingdom
took a firm stand from the start and <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/why-putin-must-be-defeated/" target="_blank">said</a> that Putin had to be defeated, the large countries of Western Europe -- France, Germany and Italy -- initially sought to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/17/macron-scholz-draghi-kyiv-ukraine-russia-appeasement/" target="_blank">appease Putin</a>.
They gave Ukraine only part of the materiel and with extreme
reluctance. French President Emmanuel Macron opined that Putin should
not be "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/04/russia-must-not-be-humiliated-ukraine-emmanuel-macron" target="_blank">humiliated</a>," although Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-15/scholz-macron-draghi-plan-joint-visit-to-kyiv-on-thursday#xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank">traveled to Kyiv</a> on June 16 supposedly to show support.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Two international meetings recently took place. The leaders of the
Group of Seven (G7) -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United
Kingdom and the United States -- meeting in Germany on June 27, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/g7-we-will-stand-with-ukraine-for-long-it-takes-2022-06-27/" target="_blank">reaffirmed</a>
their support for Ukraine "for as long as it takes". A NATO summit was
held two days later in Madrid, Spain, where the summit's <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_196951.htm" target="_blank">Final Communiqué</a> stated:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"We condemn Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine in
the strongest possible terms. It gravely undermines international
security and stability. It is a blatant violation of international
law... Russia must immediately stop this war and withdraw from
Ukraine... We reiterate our unwavering support for Ukraine's
independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity within its
internationally recognised borders extending to its territorial
waters... The Russian Federation is the most significant and direct
threat to Allies' security and to peace and stability in the
Euro-Atlantic area."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Communiqué also defined Ukraine as a "close partner" of NATO.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">An international conference was organized on July 4 in Lugano, Switzerland to envision the <a href="https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/fdfa/fdfa/aktuell/dossiers/alle-dossiers/urc2022-lugano.html" target="_blank">reconstruction</a> of Ukraine. The destruction perpetrated by Russia has so far been <a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/971543-ukraine-reconstruction-estimated-to-cost-750-billion-pm" target="_blank">valued</a>
at $750 billion. Discussing reconstruction when the war is not even
over is, to say the least, a bit premature. The destruction continues.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The statements made in Germany and Spain, albeit important, will
remain just statements if they do not lead to acts fully consistent with
their words.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke at both the G7 and NATO summits. He said he wanted the <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/war-should-end-before-winter-sets-in-ukrainian-president-zelensky-tells-g7-122062700622_1.html" target="_blank">war over</a>
before Russia could rebuild its forces, and that each additional day of
war meant more death and destruction. Above all, he said, not only
Ukraine is at stake, but the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic58EhZcS_s" target="_blank">security and values</a> of the West.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Similar ideas were recently <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/06/27/future-west-morawiecki-ukraine-00042564" target="_blank">expressed</a> in a June 27 column written by Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Without more forceful intervention in Ukraine's war, the consequences for the U.S. and Europe could be devastating....</span></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"History teaches that prolonged conflicts bleed both
sides, but dictatorships have an advantage over democracies. They are
not accountable to their societies and can pay the price of blood, even
with opposition from their citizens...</span></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The war in Ukraine puts before us one crucial question:
Does the transatlantic free world still want to occupy a position of
leadership? Do we still believe in the universality of values such as
freedom and the right of national self-determination?"</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The security and values of the Western world are unquestionably <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/world/principles-that-underpin-peace-security-across-world-are-at-stake-cautions-eu-chief-10598321.html" target="_blank">at stake</a>,
as are the leadership of the transatlantic free world and values such
as freedom and the right of national self-determination. If they are
not defended with force and conviction in Ukraine, they may well not
survive.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60854503" target="_blank">near total destruction</a>
of entire cities, along with civilian homes, has no precedent in Europe
since the end of the Second World War. Neither do the horrific <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-brings-first-war-crimes-charges-against-russian-soldiers-in-bucha-11651148489" target="_blank">war crimes</a> committed in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-war-crimes-7791e247ce7087dddf64a2bbdcc5b888" target="_blank">Bucha</a> and other towns on the outskirts of <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/05/24/echoes-of-war-crimes-a-journey-into-the-horrors-of-bucha" target="_blank">Kyiv</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/amnesty-says-russia-guilty-war-crimes-kharkiv-shelling-2022-06-13/" target="_blank">Kharkiv</a>. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/Ukraine-Russia-refugees-Mariupol-war-investigation-31880d51ae29818b6c3b04156aae38d5" target="_blank">Nearly two million Ukrainians</a> have been <a href="https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-society/3485634-over-13m-ukrainians-already-deported-to-russia-ombudsperson.html" target="_blank">deported</a> and sent to Russia, with some in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/reports-russians-deporting-ukrainians-camps-troubles-stalin-survivors-rcna21456" target="_blank">detention camps</a>
in Siberia, thousands of miles from their homes and country. The
accumulation of crimes committed by Russia since February 24 has led
legal scholars to say that Russia is <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-committing-genocide-in-ukraine-says-holocaust-expert/ar-AAVSp1j" target="_blank">committing genocide</a>, and the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in America and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights in Canada <a href="https://www.raoulwallenbergcentre.org/en/press-releases/2022-05-26-pr" target="_blank">published</a> a damning report on the subject. The <a href="https://www.cfr.org/article/how-russias-invasion-ukraine-violates-international-law" target="_blank">invasion of Ukraine</a> without a declaration of war is itself a war crime.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Putin, in a recent speech, <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/06/10/vladimir-putin-compares-himself-to-peter-the-great/" target="_blank">compared himself</a>
to Tsar Peter the Great and equated Russia's invasion of Ukraine with
Peter's expansionist wars three centuries ago. The Baltic states,
Finland, Sweden and Poland have every reason to <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/05/putins-war-backfires-finland-sweden-seek-join-nato" target="_blank">feel threatened</a>: if Putin is not defeated, he will not stop at Ukraine.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/wild-kremlin-tv-hosts-threaten-the-us-with-nuclear-strikes-unless-sanctions-end-and-reparations-are-paid" target="_blank">statements</a> made by propagandists of the Putin regime on Russian state television daily, in a hateful tone, evoke extremely <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/03/how-russian-tv-portrays-war-ukraine/627010/" target="_blank">bad associations</a>
-- as, to deter the West, they are doubtless intended to do. They imply
the destruction and enslavement of the whole of Europe, as well as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/russia-sarmat-moscow-ukraine-britain-1702086" target="_blank">nuclear attacks</a> against France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev went so far as to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10987209/Russian-ex-president-warns-end-existence-mankind-Moscow-punished-war-crimes.html" target="_blank">say</a> that Russia can end the existence of mankind.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Russia, in 1994, signed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-what-is-the-budapest-memorandum-and-why-has-russias-invasion-torn-it-up-178184" target="_blank">Budapest Memorandum</a>, committing itself to respect the borders of Ukraine. Twenty years later, in 2014, Russia <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/27/how-russia-invaded-ukraine-in-2014-and-how-the-markets-tanked.html" target="_blank">annexed Crimea</a> and created <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/4/ukraine-crisis-who-are-the-russia-backed-separatists" target="_blank">secessionist militia</a> in the Donbass. In 2022, Putin showed that the Budapest Memorandum had absolutely no meaning for him.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Putin is leading a campaign of <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/putin-war-on-ukraine-historical-psychological-roots-by-jacek-rostowski-2022-04?barrier=accesspaylog" target="_blank">annihilating</a> Ukraine's infrastructure and industrial base. He appears to want Ukraine to become a <a href="https://www.gpb.org/news/2022/03/03/putins-war-nightmare-for-the-ukrainian-people-and-for-russia-expert-warns" target="_blank">ruined, non-viable country</a>, virtually impossible to rebuild because the costs would be too high. The more time passes, the higher the costs.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Putin is <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/05/20/mountains-grain-left-rot-vladimir-putin-blackmails-world/" target="_blank">preventing</a> the export of Ukrainian wheat and is threatening to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/putin-aims-starve-poor-nations-blocking-ukraine-grain-stoyanova-1708845" target="_blank">create widespread famine</a>
and major unrest in many of the poorest countries in the Arab world,
sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. He is exercising unprecedented <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/08/russia-is-weaponizing-food-supplies-to-blackmail-the-world.html" target="_blank">blackmail</a>,
telling Western countries that he will allow the delivery of wheat only
if the sanctions on Russia are lifted. To achieve his ends, Putin is
apparently perfectly willing to hold hundreds of millions of innocent
people hostage, and even sentence them to <a href="https://unherd.com/2022/05/putins-plan-to-starve-the-world/" target="_blank">death by starvation</a>. Meanwhile, his propaganda services cynically <a href="https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-check-russia-falsely-blames-sanctions-not-its-war-in-ukraine-for-global-food-crisis/31911873.html" target="_blank">claim</a> to the countries concerned that the risk of famine results from the Western sanctions against Russia.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China did not and will not intervene militarily in Ukraine, yet it remains Russia's <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-14/why-increasing-russia-china-ties-worry-democracies-quicktake#xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank">helpful ally</a>. Chinese President Xi Jinping does not hide his ambitions of <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1626506/China-third-world-war-superpower-COVID-19-xi-jinping-Taiwan-straits-war-USA-Biden" target="_blank">world domination</a> and servitude for the rest of us. The <a href="https://china.usc.edu/russia-china-joint-statement-international-relations-february-4-2022" target="_blank">agreement</a>
signed by Putin and Xi on February 4 in Beijing, three weeks before
Putin attacked Ukraine, draws the contours of a new world order within
which the notions of freedom, democracy and rule of law would no longer
have any meaning. The enemies of the Western world are watching. Several
of them -- <a href="https://www.38north.org/2022/03/north-korea-is-joining-china-and-russia-in-confronting-the-us/" target="_blank">North Korea</a>, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220301-russia-receives-venezuela-s-strong-support" target="_blank">Venezuela</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuba-deepen-ties-with-russia-ukraine-tensions-mount-2022-02-19/" target="_blank">Cuba</a> and <a href="https://www.mei.edu/publications/25-year-iran-china-agreement-endangering-2500-years-heritage" target="_blank">Iran</a> – have allied with Russia and China.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Biden administration, since coming to power, has shown little but <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jun/16/its-official-biden-is-the-worst-president-of-the-2/" target="_blank">weakness</a>; America's spectacular <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/02/the-afghanistan-debacle-looks-worse-and-worse/" target="_blank">debacle</a> in Afghanistan revealed extreme weakness. The Western world is losing ground. In 1975, when the G7 was created, its members <a href="https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/1271205342198800385" target="_blank">accounted for 70%</a> of the world's GDP. Today, they represent just over 40% of it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The words spoken in Germany and Spain were filled with strength. <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/why-putin-must-be-defeated/" target="_blank">Failing</a>
to give Ukraine every means to win, however, or letting a stalemate set
in -- or even worse -- rewarding Russian aggression by ceding Ukraine's
Donbass and declaring that Russia had "won", would effectively be <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/how-democracy-can-win-ukraine/627125/" target="_blank">announcing</a> to China and all the enemies of the Western world that the <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/04/16/what-is-at-stake-in-ukraine" target="_blank">power of the West</a>
and its ability to command respect belong in the past. Such an outcome
would also be telling them that the rules of international law
established after the Second World War, and the values that the
Western world claims to embody, are now rules and values that the West
is incapable of defending.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A war only ends when there is a winner and a loser. In the present situation, Putin is the ruthless aggressor who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/05/11/putins-violence-undermines-centuries-international-law-norms/" target="_blank">tramples all the rules</a>
and values of the West. He must be defeated. If he is not, the
consequences will not be limited to Ukraine. They will be devastating.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Russian military is <a href="https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/06/putin-has-a-problem-the-russian-military-is-bleeding-out-in-ukraine/" target="_blank">not invincible</a>. On the contrary, it has shown itself to be extremely <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/how-deep-does-the-rot-in-the-russian-army-go/21808989" target="_blank">deficient</a> and vulnerable. It is the army of a weak state: Russia's GDP is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/26/economy/russia-economic-power-sanctions/index.html" target="_blank">lower</a> than that of Italy. The Russian army can be <a href="https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/06/could-the-war-in-ukraine-destroy-the-russian-military/" target="_blank">crushed</a>
and the murderous destruction inflicted on Ukraine can end. What is
missing is the clear and concrete will from the West. The United States
must lead.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In Madrid, Biden <a href="https://scheerpost.com/2022/07/03/biden-says-us-will-support-ukraine-for-as-long-as-it-takes-to-win-war/" target="_blank">said</a>,
"We are going to stick with Ukraine, and all of the alliance is going
to stick with Ukraine as long as it takes to, in fact, make sure that
they are not defeated". He did not say what he should have said, had he
wanted to show some strength: Ukraine must win. If it receives the
required armaments, Ukraine will win.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">That Biden could show some strength is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fPaoLuXlPk" target="_blank">far from certain</a>. Only an American president has the political and military means to show strength in a credible way. It is <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/as-with-obama-bidens-weakness-invites-russian-aggression" target="_blank">tragic</a>
that the United States has a weak president just when the future of the
world is threatened by so many predatory regimes -- all doubtless aware
of the small but irresistible window they have at this time.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Russia's invasion of Ukraine is an inflection point in the post-Cold
War politics", former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently <a href="https://www.hudson.org/research/17914-transcript-of-pompeo-speech-on-ukraine-and-a-global-alliance-for-freedom" target="_blank">said</a>.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Vladimir Putin's utter lack of basic humanity ensures
that as long as he remains in power, Russia will be virtual prison and
no nation that borders its expanse will ever be safe... We can do what
President Zelenskyy has asked. We must aid Ukraine, for to do so in part
is our first duty to America and to Americans.... By supporting
Ukraine, we prevent larger European conflict. A war that would almost
certainly involve America's military because we have a deep commitment
to the NATO treaty and Article Five therein. By helping Ukraine, we
prevent Russia's reconstitution of the Soviet Empire... In 2005, Putin
declared the demise of the Soviet Union as one of the greatest tragedies
in history. In 2007, he enunciated his rationale for conquest in terms
that would be familiar to dictators who ruled Europe almost 90 years
ago. Putin's been consistent. He's been consistent in his revanchist
objectives. In Grozny in 1999. In Georgia in 2008. And in Ukraine in
2014... A mass murderer is someone who kills a large number of people at
one time. A serial killer murders sequentially. Only in war therefore
can a man be both a mass murderer and a serial killer. Putin is that. I
pray that Russia will reclaim its soul, its country's soul. But it
cannot do so as long it is led by a man who does not evince any concern
for the horrific carnage he has wrought, or any concern for his own
people."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Ukraine's fight is also a fight for the West's future...", <a href="https://ip-quarterly.com/en/ukraines-fight-also-fight-wests-future" target="_blank">wrote</a> Iryna Solonenko, Senior Fellow at the Zentrum Liberale Moderne (LibMod) in Berlin.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Putin will not stop, unless he is stopped... Economic
inconvenience and stress, resulting from the need to go beyond the usual
bureaucratic procedures, are part of the price that needs to be paid.
Yet, if the West is aware of what is at stake and sees this war as its
own, then this price is not too high. After all, Ukrainians are paying a
much higher price. Ukrainians have no choice, since they are defending
their country. But the West has no choice either—it is about its future
as a community, driven by values and the ability to project these
values globally."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.</i></span></p>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-36312913694062640192022-09-19T01:40:00.000-07:002022-09-19T01:40:42.541-07:00Is the Jewish Democratic Council Really Jewish - or Just Democrats?<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjMb2eJ3Q3VhmaodldZykp0yGJYb3-XJHhk20UI8yjzXpizjdQkt50quTC1osvJtcpXnPgZqj9uCZxyuRjwDI-tvoJpB52jUOjujqs7R4JJyCQkXL-gPqIYE9eEPcP5Z7XBCM7ubQNBAxn8ORJc_9DY37guGNiUd0H4CWKW1NANdCkS5zaGraBi7I/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjMb2eJ3Q3VhmaodldZykp0yGJYb3-XJHhk20UI8yjzXpizjdQkt50quTC1osvJtcpXnPgZqj9uCZxyuRjwDI-tvoJpB52jUOjujqs7R4JJyCQkXL-gPqIYE9eEPcP5Z7XBCM7ubQNBAxn8ORJc_9DY37guGNiUd0H4CWKW1NANdCkS5zaGraBi7I/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">Is the Jewish Democratic Council Really Jewish - or Just Democrats?</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Alan+M.+Dershowitz"><span itemprop="author">Alan M. Dershowitz</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-08-03T09:30:00" itemprop="datePublished">August 3, 2022 at 9:30 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18772/jewish-democratic-council">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18772/jewish-democratic-council</a> <b><br /></b></span></p><div itemprop="description"><b>
</b><ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">This organization -- the
Jewish Democratic Council -- is misnamed. It recruits members and
solicits money based on false advertising. It promotes itself as
comprised of pro-Israel Jews. But the reality is that its leadership
consists mainly of progressive Democrats who just happen to be Jewish.
For them Israel, Iran and anti-Semitism are peripheral issues.</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">That is increasingly true of many Democratic Jewish voters who
prioritize other concerns over Israel, over the growing threat of
anti-Semitism from the hard left and hard right, and over other issues
that directly affect the Jewish people.</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">[T]hey obviously do not want to hear the perspective of this
Jewish Democrat, because the organization is more united behind social
policy issues -- abortion, gun control, the environment and the Supreme
Court -- than they are about Israel. I was told by two people who
attended the event that the word "Israel" was never even mentioned....</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">I shake my head in frustration at why so many left-wing Jewish
Democrats are willing to abandon Israel and continue to vote blindly for
their grandparents' Democratic Party without demanding that it
marginalize its anti-Israel extremists.</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">We have no loyalty to the current Democrat Party, just as many of
its most prominent officials seem to have no loyalty to so many of
their Jewish supporters. We certainly should have no loyalty to
organizations such as the Jewish Democratic Council that hides its true
priorities behind the misleading label "Jewish." There is nothing Jewish
about their agenda, which is to elect Democrats regardless of their
views on issues of direct concern to the Jewish community and Israel.</span></b></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; max-width: 600px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/3525.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></span><p style="font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
Jewish Democratic Council is misnamed. It recruits members and solicits
money based on false advertising. It promotes itself as comprised of
pro-Israel Jews. But the reality is that its leadership consists mainly
of progressive Democrats who just happen to be Jewish. For them Israel,
Iran and anti-Semitism are peripheral issues. (Logo source: Jewish
Democratic Council of America/<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jewish_Dems_Logo.png" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>, CC-BY-SA 4.0 with modifications)</span></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As President Joe Biden was returning from his productive trip to the
Middle East, the Jewish Democratic Council was holding a fundraiser on
Martha's Vineyard to support Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterm
elections and to help elect a Democratic president in 2024. Former
President Bill Clinton and former Senator Hillary Clinton were the
guests of honor and speakers, thus suggesting that this organization
purports to represent mainstream Jewish Democrats.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">But it does not. It represents the left wing of the Democratic Party.
It certainly does not represent mainstream Jewish voters who care about
Israel and the growing threat of anti-Semitism.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At this so-called "Jewish" event, there was no discussion of Israel,
or the existential threat it faces as Iran comes closer to constructing a
nuclear arsenal. Nor was there any discussion of the increasing
anti-Semitism within the so-called "progressive" wing of the Democratic
Party, or of the decreasing support for Israel among some younger
Democrats and among some Democratic office holders.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>New York Times</i> columnist Tom Friedman recently predicted that
Biden might be the last pro-Israel Democratic presidential candidate.
Among those being considered to replace Biden either in 2024 or 2028 are
several who are stridently anti-Israel and some who are lukewarm.
Current Democratic Members of the House include some who wrongly regard
Israel as an apartheid state akin to South Africa until 1993, and others
who would cut off military assistance to the nation state of the Jewish
people. Still others, including some Democratic Senators, are
hyper-critical of Israel and want to see a reassessment of United States
policy toward our strongest ally in the Middle East.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Had I attended the Martha's Vineyard event, I would have expressed my
concerns about the growing abandonment of Israel by the left wing of
the Democratic Party. But they obviously do not want to hear the
perspective of this Jewish Democrat, because the organization is more
united behind social policy issues -- abortion, gun control, the
environment and the Supreme Court -- than they are about Israel. I was
told by two people who attended the event that the word "Israel" was
never even mentioned, although Biden's recent visit to Israel was
headline news. The omission of Israel was confirmed by the
organization's own website.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is difficult to imagine any other ethnic or other group of
Democrats -- Blacks, Arabs, gays -- that would not even mention the
issues of direct concern to that group at a large fundraiser. Why are
Jewish Democrats different?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This organization -- the Jewish Democratic Council -- is misnamed. It
recruits members and solicits money based on false advertising. It
promotes itself as comprised of pro-Israel Jews. But the reality is that
its leadership consists mainly of progressive Democrats who just happen
to be Jewish. For them Israel, Iran and anti-Semitism are peripheral
issues. That is increasingly true of many Democratic Jewish voters who
prioritize other concerns over Israel, over the growing threat of
anti-Semitism from the hard left and hard right, and over other issues
that directly affect the Jewish people.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I shake my head in frustration at why so many left-wing Jewish
Democrats are willing to abandon Israel and continue to vote blindly for
their grandparents' Democratic Party without demanding that it
marginalize its anti-Israel extremists. I understand the reluctance of
some traditional Jewish Democrats to vote for Republicans who oppose
liberal social policies. I share that reluctance. Hence my frustration.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">More and more Jews are expressing this frustration by voting for
candidates who support Israel without regard to their party
identification. To paraphrase President Ronald Reagan: they do not
believe they have left the Democratic Party; they believe the Democratic
Party is leaving the millions of Jews who think more like moderate
Republicans such as Mitt Romney than radical Democrats such as Bernie
Sanders.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Many, like me, will continue to vote for and contribute to the
candidates who we think are best (or least worse) for our country, for
the world and for Israel. We expect that these candidates will generally
be Democrats. But if they are not, then we will vote for their
opponent. We have no loyalty to the current Democrat Party, just as many
of its most prominent officials seem to have no loyalty to so many of
their Jewish supporters. We certainly should have no loyalty to
organizations such as the Jewish Democratic Council that hides its true
priorities behind the misleading label "Jewish." There is nothing Jewish
about their agenda, which is to elect Democrats regardless of their
views on issues of direct concern to the Jewish community and Israel.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School, and the author most recently of</i> The Price of Principles: Why Integrity Is Worth Its Consequences<i>. He is the Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at Gatestone Institute, and is also the host of "The Dershow," podcast.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
<span class="no_print"><ul style="font-style: italic;"><li>Follow Alan M. Dershowitz on <a href="https://twitter.com/AlanDersh">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AlanMDershowitz/">Facebook</a></li></ul>
</span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-25391221002176236082022-09-19T01:27:00.005-07:002022-09-19T01:27:54.771-07:00The US Must Ditch Its Incoherent Policy on Taiwan<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMVMVhANKllF3t6uraTARoPNsZDgG3TMQEyqOZtnh6TVpauFp68HaK71pt8EAbzGypVvdpOlknAWdXI0i3OvAADwVPg0ZSMKTbmgTHGnZO9wXfaKnHQI-d_5HqaQ2I_xLCHjKq3C_8Fsg21irKhy3wLm_zM2HBFNUPM03fnzVYuuHbs0vg-Va7QGLg/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMVMVhANKllF3t6uraTARoPNsZDgG3TMQEyqOZtnh6TVpauFp68HaK71pt8EAbzGypVvdpOlknAWdXI0i3OvAADwVPg0ZSMKTbmgTHGnZO9wXfaKnHQI-d_5HqaQ2I_xLCHjKq3C_8Fsg21irKhy3wLm_zM2HBFNUPM03fnzVYuuHbs0vg-Va7QGLg/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">The US Must Ditch Its Incoherent Policy on Taiwan</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Con+Coughlin"><span itemprop="author">Con Coughlin</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-08-11T07:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">August 11, 2022 at 7:00 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18791/us-policy-taiwan">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18791/us-policy-taiwan</a> <br /></span></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Russia's invasion of Ukraine,
moreover, provides a timely illustration of what can happen when the
West does not take sufficient action to safeguard the security of its
allies.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In February, for example, the US approved a $100 million support
package to improve the island's missile defences, which were designed to
improve its Patriot missile defence system. But bureaucratic wrangling
in Washington means Taipei has still to receive the support it needs.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Consequently, now that Beijing has provided the West with its
military template for intimidating Taiwan, this has provided the US and
its allies with an indication of the military defences, such as
anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-warship missiles, to thwart any
future Chinese attack.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">So if Washington, as the Biden administration keeps insisting, is
really serious about defending Taiwan from Chinese aggression, then it
should get off the fence and abandon its confused policy of "strategic
ambiguity" in favour of one that will deter future acts of Chinese
aggression against this freedom-loving island state.</span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; max-width: 600px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/3702.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></span><p style="font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">China's
extreme military response to Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan sends an
unequivocal message to the US that it can no longer sustain its policy
of "strategic ambiguity." Pictured: A Communist Chinese military jet
flies over Pingtan island, one of China's closest points to Taiwan, in
Fujian province on August 6, 2022. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP via
Getty Images)</span></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China's extreme military response to Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan
sends an unequivocal message to the US that it can no longer sustain its
policy of "strategic ambiguity."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At a time when the very existence of the democratic island state is
under threat from China's communist rulers, what Taipei badly needs is
unconditional declarations of support from its Western allies, not the
diplomatic equivalent of sitting on the fence, which essentially sums up
the Biden administration's inadequate response to date.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Although the Chinese military committed numerous <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-simulates-attack-on-taiwan-as-chinese-exercises-extend-into-third-day-11659784913" target="_blank">violations</a>
to Taiwan's territorial integrity in the days immediately following
Pelosi's visit, the Biden administration shows no sign of abandoning the
policy of "strategic ambiguity" that has defined Washington's approach
to the Taiwan issue for decades.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The origins of this policy date back to US President Richard Nixon's
infamous visit to China in 1972, which eventually led Washington
officially recognising the communist regime in Beijing. By doing so the
US abrogated the mutual defence pact it had signed with Taiwan in 1954.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Even though Congress tried to repair the damage by passing the Taiwan
Relations Act in 1979, Washington technically remains under no
obligation to come to Taiwan's defence, despite its having agreed to
provide Taiwan with "arms of a defensive character". That is pretty much
how the arrangement has stood ever since, with the US offering vague
offers of military support for Taiwan without making any concrete
commitments that might upset China's communist rulers.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The obvious shortcomings of this policy were highlighted in May when
President Joe Biden, during a visit to Japan, caused confusion by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/24/biden-says-his-taiwan-comments-dont-reflect-a-change-in-us-policy.html" target="_blank">claiming</a> that the US would use military force to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Within 24 hours the president's remarks had been "<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-23/biden-says-us-military-will-defend-taiwan-from-any-china-attack" target="_blank">clarified</a>"
by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who insisted that there had
been no change from America's commitment to the "One China" policy,
which holds that the People's Republic of China is the sole legal
government of China while acknowledging that Washington maintains
unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan, the complicated
diplomatic formula first conceived by the Nixon administration.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The extreme nature of China's military response to the Pelosi visit,
though, means that, if the US really is serious about safeguarding
Taiwan's independence, it must ditch its incoherent policy of strategic
ambiguity, and instead concentrate its efforts on providing Taipei with
the military support it needs to defend itself against future acts of
Chinese aggression -- and deterrence, deterrence, deterrence. That was
the main ingredient missing in the run-up to Russia's invasion of
Ukraine, and precisely what invited Putin's aggression.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Pelosi may stand <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1221fae6-c5d0-4cc0-8e6b-227a041098d9" target="_blank">accused</a> of grandstanding over her visit to Taiwan, but no one should deny her right to visit Taiwan.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the free world, people should be able to come and go as they please without fear of intimidation by freedom-hating despots.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Russia's invasion of Ukraine, moreover, provides a timely
illustration of what can happen when the West does not take sufficient
action to safeguard the security of its allies.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In February, for example, the US <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/8/us-approves-support-deal-for-taiwan-patriot-missiles" target="_blank">approved</a>
a $100 million support package to improve the island's missile
defences, which were designed to improve its Patriot missile defence
system. But bureaucratic wrangling in Washington means Taipei has still
to receive the support it needs.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This type of administrative prevarication must change if Taiwan is to
receive the military support it requires to defy Chinese aggression.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">From America's perspective, one of the advantages of China's recent
demonstration of military strength against Taiwan is that it provides an
indication of how Beijing would set about isolating Taiwan if it came
to open conflict. It is well-known in Western military circles that
China, despite the enormous investment it has made in recent years in
its military, simply <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/reality-check/reality-check-10-china-will-not-invade-taiwan/" target="_blank">does not have the ability</a> to launch a military invasion to seize control of the island.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China's experience, moreover, of the challenges posed by modern-day
warfare is extremely limited compared with the US and its allies. The
last time China was directly involved in military conflict was the
Korean war in the 1950s; its military badly lacks the combat experience
to conduct a successful invasion of another country, especially one
surrounded by sea.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The fact, therefore, that China's military <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/suspected-drones-over-taiwan-cyber-attacks-after-pelosi-visit-2022-08-04/" target="_blank">intimidation</a>
of Taiwan this month essentially consisted of deploying warplanes and
warships and firing missiles indicates that, in the event of Beijing
launching military action against the island, it would mainly consist of
seeking to blockade Taiwan, rather than launching an amphibious landing
operation, which would be an enormous undertaking and one that would
most likely end in disaster for China.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Consequently, now that Beijing has provided the West with its
military template for intimidating Taiwan, this has provided the US and
its allies with an indication of the military defences, such as
anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-warship missiles, to thwart any
future Chinese attack.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">So if Washington, as the Biden administration keeps insisting, is
really serious about defending Taiwan from Chinese aggression, then it
should get off the fence and abandon its confused policy of "strategic
ambiguity" in favour of one that will deter future acts of Chinese
aggression against this freedom-loving island state.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Con Coughlin is the</i> Telegraph<i>'s Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-2103152588038770032022-09-19T01:22:00.002-07:002022-09-19T01:29:29.600-07:00Forget Free Speech: Rushdie's Fatwa Is Winning<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinK-tEMYLG8SqNp0JPbeDCm9ov_O5teGxP0PhNWoZ1ftBg6sZhD41ZE2nGZLLntxqzTzD5lNr3sVL00aS4UpLkYWyD1pWbw-XaT2PYZigfDdZcQK1z61-Q3ZIzp7k6fJ212E4DejYVk79T9TjiBZF-S5pFrDi5LweSWTBzhtNn40PnB-AFcAH2yU_D/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinK-tEMYLG8SqNp0JPbeDCm9ov_O5teGxP0PhNWoZ1ftBg6sZhD41ZE2nGZLLntxqzTzD5lNr3sVL00aS4UpLkYWyD1pWbw-XaT2PYZigfDdZcQK1z61-Q3ZIzp7k6fJ212E4DejYVk79T9TjiBZF-S5pFrDi5LweSWTBzhtNn40PnB-AFcAH2yU_D/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><br /><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">Forget Free Speech: Rushdie's Fatwa Is Winning</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Giulio+Meotti"><span itemprop="author">Giulio Meotti</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-08-21T05:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">August 21, 2022 at 5:00 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18815/free-speech-rushdie-fatwa">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18815/free-speech-rushdie-fatwa</a></span></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"If only more people could
follow his example, instead of taking the path of appeasement in the
name of cultural sensitivity, the long years of murder and mayhem
wrought by the Islamists on the West might come to an end." — Ayaan
Hirsi Ali, <i>Unherd</i>, August 7, 2022.</span></b></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">[A] terrible and different reality: the fatwa is gaining ground...</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Islamic extremists in 2012 published a terrifying "most wanted
list", like those of the FBI. Title: "Yes we can. A bullet a day keeps
the infidel away.... " What happened to the faces and names on that
list? They have been killed, left the public arena to protect
themselves, or died under police protection.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We do not even know they exist: our fearful conformist press
never tells their amazing stories. They live among us, in Paris, London,
Oslo, Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam and all the other European
capitals. They live according to a strict security protocol: they have
to tell the police in advance what they will do during the day, who they
will see and where they will go and, if any place is not considered
safe, these victims are forced to change plans.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Anyone who criticizes Islamism must expect to be violently
attacked in this country and without anyone being offended." — Jan
Aleksander Karon, journalist, <i>Tichys Einblick</i>, August 20, 2022.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Give us his head," Islamists shouted outside a British school in
Batley. They wanted to murder a teacher whose name we do not even know
and who was forced to leave the school after heavy death threats. What
was he guilty of? Having shown in class some of the Mohammed cartoons
during a lesson on freedom of expression.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">All decent people should stand with Salman Rushdie and against
his persecutors. Is it now a little bit clearer that radical Islam is
today one of the biggest threats to Western culture and that we are not
winning, but instead becoming like turkeys celebrating Thanksgiving?</span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; max-width: 800px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/1974.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></span><p style="font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Salman
Rushdie is a champion of free speech, bravely standing up for Western
ideals when so many shy away from the fight. If only more people could
follow his example, instead of taking the path of appeasement in the
name of cultural sensitivity, the long years of murder and mayhem
wrought by the Islamists on the West might come to an end." — Ayaan
Hirsi Ali (pictured). Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images</span></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Salman Rushdie is a champion of free speech, bravely
standing up for Western ideals when so many shy away from the fight. If
only more people could follow his example, instead of taking the path of
appeasement in the name of cultural sensitivity, the long years of
murder and mayhem wrought by the Islamists on the West might come to an
end... I know all too well the threat Islamism poses. After I came out
as an apostate, I was forced into a bubble of protection that still
surrounds me to this day. I have 24-hour security. I still receive death
threats. My friend, the sweet, vulgar, brilliant Theo Van Gogh was
murdered simply for making a film with me. His attacker used a knife to
stab a letter into Theo's chest: it said that I would be next".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">That is how <a href="https://unherd.com/2022/08/the-infidels-will-not-be-silenced/" target="_blank">Ayaan Hirsi Ali</a> reacted to the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie in Chautauqua, New York.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Many of the slogans, paraphrases on "free speech" and demonstrations of solidarity to the author of <i>The Satanic Verses</i> hide a terrible and different reality: the <i>fatwa</i>
is gaining ground, and more and more people have to live under
protection due to criticism of Islam. In the words of the Algerian
writer Boualem Sansal writing for <a href="https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/idees-et-debats/boualem-sansal-une-progression-vertigineuse-des-personnes-menacees-au-nom-de-l-islam_2178636.html" target="_blank"><i>L'Express</i></a> last week:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"[T]o speak only of France, the police will soon no
longer be enough, it will be necessary to recruit battalions or form a
new body of bodyguards, who know Islam and can recognize under which
dress it is presented."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Islamic extremists in 2012 <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2015/01/who-are-inspires-10-other-most-wanted.html" target="_blank">published</a>
a terrifying "most wanted list", like those of the FBI. Title: "Yes we
can. A bullet a day keeps the infidel away..." What happened to the
faces and names on that list? They have been killed, left the public
arena to protect themselves, or died under police protection.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Swedish cartoonist <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58783998" target="_blank">Lars Vilks</a> died with his police guards in a terrible car accident. As journalist <a href="https://twitter.com/DouglasKMurray/status/1444865240034942976" target="_blank">Douglas Murray</a> explained:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Lars Vilks was a man and artist of enormous courage. He
should never have been in this situation, and if other artists and
others across Europe hadn't been so cowardly then he never would have
been".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/feb/10/race.pressandpublishing" target="_blank">Carsten Juste</a>, who as editor of the Danish newspaper <i>Jyllands Posten</i> published the cartoons on Muhammad in 2005, apologized and left journalism. Flemming Rose, the editor of the <i>Jyllands Posten</i> who commissioned the cartoons (the Taliban put a <a href="https://books.google.it/books?id=lHUIuy2Y5AQC&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=flemming+rose+bounty&source=bl&ots=oSE5H2Ndzb&sig=ACfU3U1t0hfh8myMXsekmfSMiTadUxLHAQ&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwigrKSAm7XzAhUehf0HHdsxDAoQ6AF6BAgiEAM#v=onepage&q=flemming%20rose%20bounty&f=false" target="_blank">bounty</a> on his head), resigned and published a book with the eloquent title <i>The Tyranny of Silence</i>. "The drama and the tragedy is that the only ones to win are the jihadists," Rose <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/danish-editor-behind-mohammed-cartoons-clashes-paper-145415468.html" target="_blank">told</a> the Danish newspaper <i>Weekendavisen</i>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57883392" target="_blank">Kurt Westergaard</a>,
the cartoonist of the most famous of the Danish cartoons, passed away
in his "bunker house" where Islamists had tried to assassinate him.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/13/us/cartoonist-still-in-hiding/index.html" target="_blank">Molly Norris</a>, a <i>Seattle Post</i>
cartoonist, became a "ghost". She changed name and disappeared. Nothing
is known about her after the FBI put her in the witness protection
program.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/geert-wilders-protected-by-special-military-police-unit/" target="_blank">Geert Wilders</a>
is alive only because he is protected by a military unit of the Dutch
army generally assigned to ensure the security of the embassy in
Afghanistan. Wilders still lives in safe houses and must <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2017/03/15/geert-wilders-bullet-proof-vest-debate/" target="_blank">wear</a> a bulletproof vest during televised debates.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Stéphane Charbonnier, editor-in-chief of the French satirical magazine <i>Charlie Hebdo</i>, was murdered along with eight of his colleagues.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ayaan Hirsi Ali left the Netherlands and sought asylum in the United States, where she is under around-the-clock protection.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now there was the attempt to assassinate Salman Rushdie. "The lesson
of this story is atrocious: Rushdie is alive, but the camp of the
killers has not completely lost, it has even won a little", wrote
Etienne Gernelle, the editor of French weekly <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/editos-du-point/etienne-gernelle/le-couloir-de-la-mort-islamiste-18-08-2022-2486657_782.php" target="_blank"><i>Le Point</i></a>. British columnist Kenan Malik <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/arts/salman-rushdie-free-speech.html" target="_blank">told</a> the <i>BBC</i> that if Salman Rushdie's critics "lost the battle", they "won the war".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Egyptian-German scholar Hamed Abdel-Samad just <a href="https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/es-gibt-unzaehlige-rushdies-in-der-welt-sie-leben-gefaehrlich-ld.1697890?reduced=true" target="_blank">recalled</a> his meeting with Rushdie:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"'So, you are the Egyptian Salman Rushdie everyone is
talking about?', Salman Rushdie said with a smile during our first and
only meeting in Berlin three years ago. It was a celebration of the
thirty-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and coincided
with the 30th anniversary of the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini
against Rushdie. 'Thirty years ago, there was a single Salman Rushdie in
the world, today there is at least one Salman Rushdie in every Islamic
country not to mention those in the western countries. That should
please you', I replied".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We do not even know they exist: our fearful conformist media never
tell their amazing stories. They live among us, in Paris, London, Oslo,
Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam and all the other European capitals. They
live according to a strict security protocol: they have to tell the
police in advance what they will do during the day, who they will see
and where they will go, and if any place is not considered safe, these
captives are forced to change plans. Often, if there is a not a new
threat, they change homes, and disappear for a while to be protected by
anonymity. They are not "repentants of the Mafia", mobsters turned into
witnesses for the state prosecution. No, they are academics, activists,
writers, journalists, intellectuals. We are talking about more than a
hundred personalities in Europe. Their "fault"? They criticized Islam.
Their precautions to protect themselves are never too many. Rushdie had
ceased to be protected for many years.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A professor of Iranian origin and a critic of Islam, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/10/AR2005111002046.html" target="_blank">Afshin Ellian</a>,
works at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, where he is
protected by bodyguards. On the second floor of the Law Department,
where he teaches, Ellian can be reached through a corridor with
electronic access and armored glass. The place looks more like a bank
vault than a normal law department.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In Denmark, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/world/europe/lars-hedegaard-anti-islamic-provocateur-receives-support-from-danish-muslims.html" target="_blank">Lars Hedegaard</a>,
director of the International Free Press Society, who miraculously
survived an attack at his home, is under police protection. An assassin
dressed as a postman came to Hedegaard's front door in Copenhagen and
shot at his head, missing him only narrowly.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Turkish writer <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2021/05/12/lale-gul-ou-les-failles-de-l-integration-a-la-neerlandaise_6079913_3210.html" target="_blank">Lale Gül</a> is under protection for having denounced Koranic schools in the Netherlands.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">French journalist <a href="https://www.parismatch.com/Actu/Societe/Zineb-El-Rhazoui-une-femme-en-danger-939881" target="_blank">Zineb El Rhazoui</a> has more bodyguards than many Macron ministers. "Zineb El Rhazoui must be killed to avenge the Prophet," <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-staff-member-says-prophet-mohamed-cover-opens-door-to-forgiveness-of-terrorists-who-gunned-down-her-colleagues-9974063.html" target="_blank">reads</a> a fatwa.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The new address of the <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/l-equipe-de-charlie-hebdo-protegee-par-85-policiers-on-est-des-cibles-des-gibiers-raconte-l-un-d-eux-25-09-2020-8391348.php" target="_blank"><i>Charlie Hebdo</i></a>
newspaper offices is secret and it has six armored doors and a safe
room that the journalists can enter in case of attack. The entire
editorial office of <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> is now protected by <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/l-equipe-de-charlie-hebdo-protegee-par-85-policiers-on-est-des-cibles-des-gibiers-raconte-l-un-d-eux-25-09-2020-8391348.php" target="_blank">85 police officers</a>. Former <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> director <a href="https://www.bfmtv.com/societe/menace-par-les-islamistes-depuis-plus-de-15-ans-philippe-val-vit-sous-haute-protection_VN-202103270111.html" target="_blank">Philippe Val</a>
lives in a house with bulletproof windows, police officers and an
armored safe room where there is a special telephone line to call for
help. Each <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> employee is always accompanied by a car
with two policemen. If the need arises, another police motorcycle or
armored car should arrive.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/islam-cant-be-reformed-says-founder-of-ex-muslim-group/a-2370278" target="_blank">Mina Ahadi</a>, who founded the Council of Former Muslims in Germany, does not move without an escort, and like the novelist <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/reading-under-police-protection-advocates-for-muslim-women-face-constant-danger-a-436820.html" target="_blank">Fatma Bläser</a>, who was the victim of a forced marriage, is protected by the police.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Turkish-born lawyer Syran Ates, in Berlin, is protected by six police
officers. "She receives three thousand threats," her lawyer <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/liberal-mosque-founder-ibn-rushdgoethe-fatwa-berlin-seyran-ates-death-threats-egypt-turkey-islam-muslims-a7808106.html" target="_blank">said.</a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When <a href="https://cpj.org/2019/07/for-turkish-journalists-in-berlin-exile-threats-re/" target="_blank">Can Dündar</a>, the bravest Turkish journalist, who as the director of the newspaper <i>Cumhuriyet</i> expressed solidarity with <i>Charlie Hebdo</i>,
left Turkey for Germany, he would never have imagined that he would
need the police protection. The biggest difference is that in Turkey,
policemen searched his house looking for items to compromise him, while
in Berlin they are guarding his home.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Critics of Islam must fear for their lives: death threats and attacks," <a href="https://www.tichyseinblick.de/meinungen/islam-kritiker/" target="_blank">notes</a> the German website Tichys Einblick.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Anyone who criticizes Islamism must expect to be violently attacked in this country and without anyone being offended," <a href="https://www.tichyseinblick.de/meinungen/islam-kritiker/" target="_blank">said</a> journalist Jan Aleksander Karon. "In Germany it is increasingly dangerous to criticize Islam".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In Denmark, the editorial office of <i>Jyllands Posten</i> today
resembles a military bunker. With a razor wire barrier, bars, metal
plates and cameras that surround the newspaper for a kilometer, the
office is now protected by the same mechanism as river locks. A door
opens, a car enters, the door closes and the one opposite opens.
Journalists enter one at a time, typing in a personal code (a measure
that did not protect <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> reporters). The <i>Jyllands Posten</i> cartoonists have escaped numerous attacks, including at home. Even after the January 7, 2015 <a href="https://www.thelocal.dk/20150107/charlie-hebdo-stood-shoulder-to-shoulder-with-jyllands-posten" target="_blank">massacre</a> in Paris at the <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> office, which was targeted partly because it had republished the Danish Mohammed cartoons, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-shooting-denmark-idUSKBN0KI0WD20150109" target="_blank"><i>Jyllands-Posten</i> announced</a> that, out of fear, it would not republish its own cartoons, saying:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"We have lived with the fear of a terrorist attack for
nine years, and yes, that is the explanation why we do not reprint the
cartoons, whether it be our own or Charlie Hebdo's. We are also aware
that we therefore bow to violence and intimidation."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Also under protection is the French-Algerian journalist <a href="https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/salman-rushdie-poignarde-ces-personnalites-toujours-sous-la-menace-du-fondamentalisme-islamiste_2178643.html" target="_blank">Mohammed Sifaoui</a>.
His photograph and name are published on jihadist websites next to the
word "apostate". Many people under protection are women, such as <a href="https://www.bfmtv.com/police-justice/c-est-tres-violent-la-drh-de-charlie-hebdo-exfiltree-de-son-domicile-apres-des-menaces_AD-202009220009.html" target="_blank">Marika Bret</a>, a <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> employee who was "exfiltrated" from home, and the French television presenter originally from Turkey, <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/claire-koc-une-journaliste-harcelee-parce-qu-elle-aime-trop-la-france-20210321" target="_blank">Claire Koc</a>. Or the journalist <a href="https://www.ladepeche.fr/2022/01/29/zone-interdite-ophelie-meunier-placee-sous-protection-policiere-apres-lemission-sur-lislam-radical-10076559.php" target="_blank">Ophélie Meunier</a>, the reporter from Zone Interdite who reported on the Islamization of Roubaix in prime time with the French politician <a href="https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/1132538/article/2022-01-26/roubaix-apres-son-passage-dans-zone-interdite-amine-elbahi-menace-de-mort" target="_blank">Amine Elbahi</a>, of the Républicains Party, who received threats of beheading.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Threats and intimidation demonstrate the tenacity of the journalistic
work done by these courageous people. They demonstrate a commitment to
show the Islamization by force and terror of sectors of French society,
while the Islamists answer them: Do you disagree with me? Do you
criticize me? I will kill you, slit your throat, behead you.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Meanwhile, the states and institutions, which find themselves trying
to protect dozens of people, prove to be paper tigers. Terrorism works.
Nobody wants to live between two cops or see his name on the internet.
Meanwhile, the journalistic class goes looking somewhere less hazardous.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The French state has to protect simple teachers such as <a href="https://www.tf1info.fr/education/hommage-a-samuel-paty-vers-une-protection-fonctionnelle-pour-une-enseignante-de-toulouse-2175107.html" target="_blank">Fatiha Agag-Boudjahlat</a>,
who reproached some students for not respecting the minute of silence
during the homage to Samuel Paty, a high school teacher who was beheaded
by an Islamist.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Imams such as <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2010/06/28/97001-20100628FILWWW00622-l-imam-de-drancy-protege-par-le-sphp.php" target="_blank">Hassen Chalghoumi</a>
are included in "Uclat 2", the protection program enjoyed by the
ambassadors of the United States and Israel in Paris. Chalghoumi,
protagonist of many battles in favor of the French Republic and against
Islamic fundamentalists, told <a href="https://www.bfmtv.com/societe/jamais-je-ne-parle-de-ca-ca-fait-des-annees-que-je-le-porte-l-imam-hassen-chalghoumi-doit-porter-un-gilet-anti-couteau-pour-pouvoir-prier-dans-sa-mosquee_VN-202103290464.html" target="_blank">BFMTV</a> that he has not slept more than three nights in the same place and that he wears a bulletproof vest during prayer:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"I never talk about it, but I have been wearing it for
years. I take care of my life. I have responsibilities towards my family
and myself. I continue to fight at a very high price. I cannot be at my
mosque every day, it is impossible".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Professor Didier Lemaire <a href="https://www.valeursactuelles.com/clubvaleurs/societe/didier-lemaire-je-ne-peux-plus-me-rendre-a-trappes/" target="_blank">recounted</a> his last visit to Trappes for a TV documentary:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"I was only allowed a five-minute filming in front of the
police station, surrounded by a dozen officers. The rest of the time I
had to stay hidden in the car. One of the policemen told me: 'If they
bring out the Kalashnikovs, we have nothing to answer with, so we won't
stay long.' The reporter wanted me to say a few words in front of the
school, but the police refused for security reasons. I was allowed to
pass by without stopping. I was escorted to a hotel, whose entrance was
guarded by four police officers, to conduct the interview".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Give us his head," Islamists <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/grammar-school-teacher-suspended-for-showing-class-image-of-muhammad-8508tqtfm?ilc=timesradio:morefromthetimes" target="_blank">shouted</a>
outside a British school in Batley. They wanted to murder a teacher
whose name we do not even know and who was forced to leave the school
after heavy death threats. What was he guilty of? Having shown in class
some of the Muhammad cartoons during a lesson on freedom of expression.
He now lives in a <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9557737/Yorkshire-teacher-Mohammed-blasphemy-row-safe-house.html" target="_blank">safe house</a>
with his wife and children, out of fear of being killed. The threat is
deemed so serious that not even the family's relatives know where they
live. "The windows of the house where the teacher lived for more than
eight years are covered with white sheets".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">All decent people should stand with Salman Rushdie and against his
persecutors. Is it now a little bit clearer that radical Islam is today
one of the biggest threats to Western culture and that we are not
winning, but instead becoming like turkeys celebrating Thanksgiving?</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for</i> Il Foglio,<i> is an Italian journalist and author.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-62753976595088915332022-09-19T01:16:00.001-07:002022-09-19T01:16:13.147-07:00The "Great Reset": A Blueprint for Destroying Freedom, Innovation, and Prosperity<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn2oFFmBWCfpE-x54SJUZdlYBBhgNCj8kbZ8q4bT2i6JuCmlQw_hyBxws9V7cYQdN-EwG7lGVDyZYEBHDb0nq3KIaumZ9fZdpuIu7RC_JfzcB6Tstcw7AQnr-WGb4oa1XlvAvSCwH0HPbppZ-bsCksbvvnnHTdxTzUWS1HGtvdgecGkkCsDrOmfkbM/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn2oFFmBWCfpE-x54SJUZdlYBBhgNCj8kbZ8q4bT2i6JuCmlQw_hyBxws9V7cYQdN-EwG7lGVDyZYEBHDb0nq3KIaumZ9fZdpuIu7RC_JfzcB6Tstcw7AQnr-WGb4oa1XlvAvSCwH0HPbppZ-bsCksbvvnnHTdxTzUWS1HGtvdgecGkkCsDrOmfkbM/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">The "Great Reset": A Blueprint for Destroying Freedom, Innovation, and Prosperity</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/J.B.+Shurk"><span itemprop="author">J.B. Shurk</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-08-26T05:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">August 26, 2022 at 5:00 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18825/great-reset-wef">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18825/great-reset-wef</a></span></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Notice that no nation has
managed merely to print money and tax its citizens on the path to
prosperity. Real wealth cannot simply be conjured from thin air. There
must be recognized value in what a nation and its citizens possess.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">More than any other source for national wealth, however, one towers above the rest: <i>innovation</i>.
The ability of the human mind to create something new and valuable
provides society with endless wealth creation.... Innovation is the
magic sauce for generating wealth.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Humans struggling merely to survive in the world do not waste
time, labor, or resources on projects that offer no prospect for future
reward. Humans working as servants to the state under centrally
controlled economies have no incentive to innovate. <b>Only when private
ownership and personal liberty combine can human innovation flourish.</b>
Freedom is the secret ingredient to innovation's magic sauce for
increasing wealth.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A country whose institutions do not respect property rights or
whose customs do not value freedom will remain a barren desert for human
innovation. In this way, nations have a great incentive to liberalize
over time. Should they not, they quickly become financially and
militarily vulnerable to more innovative and wealthier nations.
Observing this simple truth, classical liberals have always understood
free markets as the gateway to human emancipation. Economic
self-interest, in other words, ultimately leads to expansive human
rights and liberties across the planet.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nothing about Western politicians' embrace of the World Economic
Forum's "Great Reset" or "Build Back Better" paradigms protects property
rights or liberty in the slightest. The WEF's agenda promotes radically
anti-liberal programs... [that] will smother human innovation by first
depriving Westerners of their freedoms.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wealthy free nations are a threat to the WEF's New World Order.
If censorship must be embraced to control the "narrative," then so be
it. If citizens must be denied freedom of movement under the guise of a
"health emergency," no big deal. If private bank accounts must be seized
to intimidate protesters, then such threats are the price for ensuring
compliance. In this way, the WEF's plans for a controlled economy
intentionally reverse centuries of liberal progress. Political leaders
today are dragging the West into the past.</span></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">First, individual liberties will continue disappearing. Then, the
greatest economic engine of all, innovation, will dry up. Finally,
wealth will return solely to the hands of a small "ruling class"
minority. <i>This</i> is the future the World Economic Forum hails as "progress." It is not. It is a recipe for human bondage.</span></b></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; max-width: 600px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/4393.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></span><p style="font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Notice
that no nation has managed merely to print money and tax its citizens
on the path to prosperity. Real wealth cannot simply be conjured from
thin air. A country whose institutions do not respect property rights or
whose customs do not value freedom will remain a barren desert for
human innovation. The World Economic Forum's agenda promotes radically
anti-liberal programs that will smother human innovation by first
depriving Westerners of their freedoms. Pictured: WEF founder and
executive chairman Klaus Schwab in Davos on May 23, 2022. (Photo by
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)</span></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">How do nations become wealthy? Many are blessed with abundant natural
resources. Others conquer foreign lands. Some specialize in unique
trade skills and crafts. Timber, mining, fishing, sugar, rum, narcotics,
cotton, silk, agriculture, conquest, human slavery, manufacturing, oil,
industry, banking, and so on — depending on the century and the region,
nations have attained tremendous wealth in myriad ways. Notice that no
nation has managed merely to print money and tax its citizens on the
path to prosperity. Real wealth cannot simply be conjured from thin air.
There must be recognized value in what a nation and its citizens
possess.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">More than any other source for national wealth, however, one towers above the rest: <i>innovation</i>. The ability of the human mind to <a href="https://www.nist.gov/speech-testimony/innovation-key-driver-economic-growth-competitiveness" target="_blank">create something new</a>
and valuable provides society with endless wealth creation. Unlike
central bank quantitative easing and other monetary tools (or tricks?),
the brain really is a money-printing machine. Whether an innovator
alters existing farming, mining, or manufacturing techniques to make
production cheaper and more efficient, or an inventor designs something
entirely unique, value that did not exist yesterday materializes the
next. Innovation is the magic sauce for generating wealth.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">If <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/how-innovation-drives-economic-growth" target="_blank">innovation</a>
produces wealth, why aren't all nations wealthy? Because too many
nations fail to value innovators or encourage innovation. Without
fundamental property rights, strong social institutions, and a
dependable legal system, potential inventors have few incentives to
build anything new. Humans struggling merely to survive in the world do
not waste time, labor, or resources on projects that offer no prospect
for future reward. Humans working as servants to the state under
centrally controlled economies have no incentive to innovate. Only when
private ownership and personal liberty combine can human innovation
flourish. Freedom is the secret ingredient to innovation's magic sauce
for increasing wealth.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When economists crunch gross domestic product numbers to see whether a
nation's economy is rising or sinking, a measure of innovation becomes
quantifiable. Embedded within that number is something that encapsulates
human ingenuity, personal freedom, and property ownership. In this way,
economic innovation directly reflects the human condition at any point
in time. It provides a measurement of a nation's freedom.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now "liberalism" as it is classically understood — as a political
philosophy embracing natural rights, limited government, free markets,
political and religious freedoms, and freedom of speech, all promoted
and protected by an impartial and just rule of law — has always grasped
this fundamental truth. Liberty and property rights spawn creativity.
Where both are soundly valued, great writers, artists, and inventors
produce novelties that would not otherwise exist. It is why medieval
Florence birthed at once both modern-day banking and the European
Renaissance. The personal freedom to create, build, invest, and own
property generates tremendous innovation and national wealth.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Conversely, when today's central planners argue for socialized
control over markets and the substitution of "collective rights" in
place of "individual rights" while calling their agenda "progressive
liberalism," they co-opt and subvert liberalism's historic meaning.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">From this recognition that a nation's freedom directly affects a
nation's wealth arises an even more remarkable truth: any nation that
fails to embrace and protect human liberty will be the poorer for it. A
country whose institutions do not respect property rights or whose
customs do not value freedom will remain a barren desert for human
innovation. In this way, nations have a great incentive to liberalize
over time. Should they not, they quickly become financially and
militarily vulnerable to more innovative and wealthier nations.
Observing this simple truth, classical liberals have always understood
free markets as the gateway to human emancipation. Economic
self-interest, in other words, ultimately leads to expansive human
rights and liberties across the planet.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now with all that as a bit of rudimentary background, how is it that
today we have entities such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) pushing
for a radical "<a href="https://www.weforum.org/great-reset" target="_blank">Great Reset</a>" of Western society that <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/504499-introducing-the-great-reset-world-leaders-radical-plan-to/" target="_blank">promises</a>
to handcuff free markets with economic regulation while concentrating
power into the hands of a small international coalition of central
economic planners — most notably their own? How could promising a future
where people will "<a href="https://thenewamerican.com/youll-own-nothing-un-backed-great-reset-is-feudalism/" target="_blank">own nothing and be happy</a>"
possibly be conducive to a free and productive society — or even a
happy one? How can a future in which all energy is controlled by
international governing bodies and multinational corporations possibly
provide individuals with the institutional building blocks for endless
innovation? How can farmers sustain larger and more prosperous
populations when Western governments continue to <a href="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/tyrant-trudeau-moves-forward-plan-reduce-fertilizer-use-bankrupt-farmers-global-food-shortage-emergency/" target="_blank">stifle agricultural production</a> through <a href="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/going-ireland-joins-canada-netherlands-targets-farmers-carbon-emissions-cuts-endangering-global-food-shortages/" target="_blank">regulation and eminent domain</a>?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The questions answer themselves. The WEF's <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/world-economic-forum-publishes-article-calling-for-global-censorship-using-ai-and-human-intelligence_4660694.html" target="_blank">agenda</a> promotes radically anti-liberal programs such as the use of <a href="https://summit.news/2022/08/12/world-economic-forum-calls-for-merging-of-human-and-ai-intel-to-censor-hate-speech-misinformation/" target="_blank">artificial intelligence</a> to <a href="https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2022/08/01/watch-british-police-arrest-man-for-the-crime-of-causing-anxiety-by-posting-lgbtq-flag-meme-on-social-media/" target="_blank">censor dissent</a>, <a href="https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2022/08/16/if-its-regulated-it-aint-free-the-guardian-dragged-for-claiming-free-speech-needs-regulating-now-more-than-ever/" target="_blank">regulate free speech</a>, and even <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/wefs-global-intelligence-collecting-ai-erase-ideas-internet" target="_blank">erase ideas</a> from the Internet. Its repressive efforts to control all <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/08/21/great-reset-french-govt-to-recruit-3000-green-police-over-climate-change/" target="_blank">hydrocarbon energy</a> and cattle and crop <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/08/03/watch-police-beat-down-dutch-farmer-protesters-with-batons/" target="_blank">farm production</a>
will smother human innovation by first depriving Westerners of their
ability to create, invent, and grow food. Its policies betray millennia
of Western civilizational advancement by replacing respect for
individual choice and free will with top-down management of human
activity through the blunt instruments of force and coercion. Its
motivations are indisputably anti-human at their core because each
individual human life is treated as nothing more than a cog or input
that can be manipulated as part of a centrally-controlled social
machine. When Westerners are reduced to ones and zeroes that are sorted
and shifted by the WEF's social programming codes for a "better future,"
builders obey but no longer create.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Whereas personal liberty has unleashed the human mind and generated
tremendous Western prosperity, the World Economic Forum's push for a
centrally controlled economic system will <a href="https://canadafreepress.com/article/dutch-protests-are-growing-theyre-certainly-not-stopping-at-this-moment" target="_blank">crush rights</a>, stifle creativity, and mass-produce poverty and servitude. Its proponents, in fact, seem mostly committed to using a <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/08/05/michael-yon-globalists-driving-pandemic-famine-war/" target="_blank">combination</a> of pandemic, famine, and fear to centralize dominance for themselves.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In order to persuade Westerners to give up more and make do with
less, the WEF and its globalist allies promise Westerners a future
Utopia. As with every similar lie ever told to justify the extraordinary
acquisition of power, though, they will fail to deliver. No society,
after all, was ever promised more than in Stalin's <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1936/12/05.htm" target="_blank">1936 Constitution of the USSR</a>
— or subsequently treated more abysmally. Despite its claims to the
contrary, the WEF's mission directives intentionally reverse Western
trends toward greater human freedom, social mobility, and more broadly
obtainable wealth — or what, in another era, would have been rightly
regarded as true, liberal progress.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Although the WEF and its sister organizations claim to be "<a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/big-green-lie-almost-everyone-claims-believe" target="_blank">saving the planet</a>," their efforts seem primarily an ignoble design to <i>control</i> the planet. <a href="https://canadafreepress.com/article/granholm-accelerating-our-movement-to-clean-energy" target="_blank">"Clean" energy</a>, after all, is <i>controlled</i>
energy; and the more that energy is controlled by centralized
governments, the more completely once-free markets become centrally
controlled. If every potential entrepreneur must first receive
permission to use electricity before producing anything new, then no
entrepreneur can thrive without the central authorities' blessing. If
all manufacturing is viewed as a "threat to the planet," then no
independent upstart can innovate or build wealth without first seeking
and obtaining government approval. If consumers are forbidden from
buying anything unless it is first pre-approved, then free markets are
transformed into <i>controlled</i> markets.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Taking this trend to its logical yet <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/hungarian-prime-minister-warns-the-west-against-a-communist-takeover_4644936.html" target="_blank">communist conclusion</a>,
private property becomes antithetical to the state's goals. </b>We already
see the ominous subversion of private ownership today with so-called ESG
(Environmental, Social, Governance) standards used to strong-arm
industry goals and <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/political/what-esg-its-leveraging-tool-woke-communist-takeover" target="_blank">manipulate free markets</a>.
Because control over information makes control over markets more
manageable, the more economic uncertainty that results from market
manipulation, the more censorship we'll continue to see. Recently, even a
senior economist who correctly stated that the American economy had
entered into a recession found his research "<a href="https://summit.news/2022/08/01/senior-economist-fact-checked-by-facebook-for-saying-u-s-is-in-recession/" target="_blank">fact checked</a>"
and "corrected" by the U.S. government's friends at Facebook. Where
free markets are under attack, free speech is inevitably under attack,
too. The individual blessings of liberalism are not easily dissected
from the body politic without inevitably rendering liberalism's death,
as a whole.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The issue today may be "<a href="https://canadafreepress.com/article/what-is-science" target="_blank">climate change</a>" or <a href="https://summit.news/2022/08/08/head-of-the-lancets-covid-19-investigation-is-convinced-it-came-out-of-a-lab/" target="_blank">COVID-19</a> or "<a href="https://canadafreepress.com/article/banning-modern-agriculture-and-high-crop-yields" target="_blank">sustainable food supplies</a>," but the stated issue never seems anything more than a public relations campaign for <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/big-green-lie-almost-everyone-claims-believe" target="_blank">fooling the masses</a>.
It always appears to be merely a disposable excuse designed to seduce
Westerners into handing a small cabal of "elites" power and control over
everyone else. Convincing mankind to believe that free markets will
inevitably lead to some kind of <a href="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/08/global-warming-myth-1995-new-york-times-said-beaches-east-coast-will-gone-25-years/" target="_blank">apocalypse</a> increasingly looks like the only policy goal that matters. It may well be the most <a href="https://canadafreepress.com/article/what-part-of-agenda-21-didnt-you-get" target="_blank">diabolical trick</a>
those with power have ever played against those with no power at all.
Fear is used expertly as a torturer's tool to convince Westerners to
forsake willingly their own freedom. The innocent mantra whispered into
their ears is simple: <i>Trust us, humanity, we will save you</i>. The implication, however, is far more sinister: <i>For your own good, you must be made to enjoy your new chains</i>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Notice that for the World Economic Forum to succeed in its mission to
control all human activity, it must first destroy the sovereignty of
nation states. Why? Because, as noted above, liberal nations that
embrace freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and free market
entrepreneurship foster innovation and great wealth. Any nation not
encumbered by the WEF's market proscriptions will most likely continue
to prosper, while those shackled to the "Great Reset" will most likely
languish. This is why Western politicians have worked so hard together
to push their "Build Back Better" proposals irrespective of the wishes
of any one nation's voting citizens.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wealthy free nations are a threat to the WEF's New World Order. If <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2022/04/29/big-tech-censors-are-pivoting-from-covid-to-climate-change/" target="_blank">censorship</a> must be embraced to control the "narrative," then so be it. If citizens must be denied <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/covid-canadian-pastor-criminally-charged-protest" target="_blank">freedom of movement</a> under the guise of a "health emergency," no big deal. If private <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trudeau-announces-unprecedented-action-freezing-bank-accounts-of-freedom-convoy-protesters" target="_blank">bank accounts</a>
must be seized to intimidate protesters, then such threats are the
price for ensuring compliance. In this way, the WEF's plans for a
controlled economy intentionally reverse centuries of liberal progress.
Political leaders today are dragging the West into the past.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">First, individual liberties will continue disappearing. Then, the greatest economic engine of all, <a href="https://upscbuddy.com/innovation-is-key-determinant-of-economic-growth/" target="_blank">innovation</a>, will dry up. Finally, wealth will return solely to the hands of a small "ruling class" minority. <i>This</i> is the future the World Economic Forum hails as "progress." It is not. It is a recipe for human bondage.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>JB Shurk writes about politics and society.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-6661206870277947432022-09-19T00:51:00.001-07:002022-09-19T00:51:27.837-07:00Europe's Twilight: Christianity Declines, Islam Rises<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisb7rTovpq4k9GQKQWGjcynr5Py-kmn4AZFzANdp23kHufUqgQrHzUzSmzUI_1EDaNNPlI3VQc7pWLjjQ0AQfus0O5TiCeWQtfnj4lmcpYyLKH1U2Ry-_ZQ53FYQ6whgWP-aoYt7qhiOeQa-Y-4ueXuqFD_Lpu95Vp7WRrGz3q7MdlI70IpQ1nKDoI/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisb7rTovpq4k9GQKQWGjcynr5Py-kmn4AZFzANdp23kHufUqgQrHzUzSmzUI_1EDaNNPlI3VQc7pWLjjQ0AQfus0O5TiCeWQtfnj4lmcpYyLKH1U2Ry-_ZQ53FYQ6whgWP-aoYt7qhiOeQa-Y-4ueXuqFD_Lpu95Vp7WRrGz3q7MdlI70IpQ1nKDoI/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">Europe's Twilight: Christianity Declines, Islam Rises</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Giulio+Meotti"><span itemprop="author">Giulio Meotti</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-08-28T05:30:00" itemprop="datePublished">August 28, 2022 at 5:30 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18786/europe-christianity-islam">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18786/europe-christianity-islam</a> <br /></span></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Comparing only the weekly
frequency of Friday prayers in the mosque and Sunday Mass in the church,
the future is clear: 65% of practicing Catholics [in France] are over
50 years old. By contrast, 73% of practicing Muslims are under the age
of 50.</span></b></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In an essay on <i>L'Incorrect</i> Frédéric Saint Clair, political
scientist and analyst, explains that "the milestone of 10,000 mosques,
at the current rate, will be reached around 2100". Will we have 10,000
full mosques and 10,000 practically empty churches?</span></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"[A] mosque is erected every fortnight in France, while a
Christian building is being destroyed at the same rate." — Edouard de
Lamaze, president of the Observatory of Religious Heritage in Paris;
Catholic News Agency, May 4, 2021.</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"During my first trips to the Middle East, in the early 1980s, I
did not see veiled women and gradually the veil spread everywhere. It is
the sign of the re-Islamization of Muslim societies and, in this sense,
it takes on a political and geopolitical dimension. It is part of a
conquest strategy. France is in a state of self-dhimmitude.... a legal
and political status applicable to non-Muslim citizens in a state
governed by Islam according to a prescription of the Koran (9:29).
[Dhimmis] do not enjoy equal citizenship with the 'true believers,' who
are Muslims." — Annie Laurent, essayist and scholar author of several
books on Islam, <i>Boulevard Voltaire</i>, May 19, 2022.</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"...France, due to a colonial complex and a sense of guilt,
anticipates a legal and political situation that is not (yet) imposed on
it but which could be a day in which Islam it will be a majority and
therefore able to govern our country.... [T]he situation is really
worrying. Before it becomes dramatic, it is urgent to put an end to the
concessions we are multiplying to Islamism by hiding behind our values.
Because by doing so we erase our own civilization". — Annie Laurent, <i>Boulevard Voltaire</i>, May 19, 2022.</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Christianity in Germany "seems stable, but in reality it is on
the verge of collapse. Pastors and bishops, but also many actively
involved lay people, see landscapes in bloom where in reality there is
nothing but the desert ". — Markus Günther, essayist, <i>Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung</i>, December 29, 2014.</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Muslims, the winners of demographic change," headlined <i>Die Welt</i>.
"US researchers predict that for the first time in history there will
be more Muslims than Christians. Societies change. Even Germany's".</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In Trier, Germany, where Karl Marx was born, the diocese
announced an unprecedented cut in the number of parishes which, in the
next few years, will be reduced from 900 to 35.</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>L'Echo</i>, the main Belgian economic newspaper, says:
"Brussels was at the forefront of secularization before confronting an
active Muslim minority. The first religion in Brussels today is
Islam".... Belgian anthropologist Olivier Servais confirmed a Muslim
presence in Brussels at 33.5 percent, predicting a majority in 2030.</span></b></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; max-width: 600px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/3858.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></span><p style="font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"A
civilization is everything that gathers around a religion," said André
Malraux. And when one religion declines, another takes its place.
Comparing only the weekly frequency of Friday prayers in the mosque and
Sunday Mass in the church, the future is clear: 65% of practicing
Catholics in France are over 50 years old. By contrast, 73% of
practicing Muslims are under the age of 50. Pictured: Fire consumes
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, on April 15, 2019. (Photo by Veronique de
Viguerie/Getty Images)</span></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">French writer <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/societe/plus-jamais-la-france-ne-doit-cultiver-la-hantise-d-etre-detestee-20201105" target="_blank">André Malraux</a>
said it: "A civilization is everything that gathers around a religion".
And when one religion declines, another takes its place.</span></b></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sarcelles, Saint-Denis, Mulhouse, Nantes, Chambéry, Strasbourg, La Rochelle... The impressive <a href="https://twitter.com/domes_minarets/status/1546600566381494276" target="_blank">images</a>
of stadiums full of Muslim faithful, who arrived from all over France
for the feast of Eid Al Kabir, seventy days after the end of Ramadan. In
Saint-Denis, the city where the kings of France rest; in Nantes, the
city of the Dukes of Brittany; in Strasbourg, the city of the cathedral
and seat of the European Parliament, in Mulhouse, in the heart of
Alsace.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"In forty years, France has become the Western European nation where
the population of Muslim origin is the most important," wrote <a href="http://www.archivioradiovaticana.va/storico/2011/09/07/francia_in_dieci_anni_raddoppiato_il_numero_delle_moschee/it1-518597" target="_blank">Vatican Radio</a>.
"It is not difficult to hypothesize that we are now close to Islam
overtaking Catholicism." What if the overtaking has already taken place?</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"France is no longer a Catholic country", writes <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1539093/France-no-longer-a-Catholic-country.html" target="_blank">Frederic Lenoir</a>, editor of the magazine L<i>e Monde des Religions</i>. <a href="http://premium.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2012/10/24/01016-20121024ARTFIG00633-islam-premiere-religion-en-france.php" target="_blank"><i>Le Figaro</i></a> wondered if Islam can already be considered "the first religion in France." We are in the country where up to <a href="https://www.valeursactuelles.com/societe/patrimoine-entre-2-500-et-3-000-eglises-menacees-de-disparition-dici-a-2030" target="_blank">5,000 churches</a> are at risk of demolition by 2030, <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/patrimoine/comment-sauver-le-patrimoine-religieux-20220707?origine=VWT16001&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter" target="_blank"><i>Le Figaro</i></a>
noted last month. Five thousand churches are at risk of disappearing
within eight years, in a country lacking the political, religious and
cultural will to keep alive a millennial heritage that represents
France's deepest soul. Perhaps the imam of the Grand Mosque of Paris
understood what was evolving when he <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/dalil-boubakeur-propose-d-utiliser-des-eglises-vides-pour-servir-le-culte-musulman-15-06-2015-1936538_23.php" target="_blank">suggested</a> using abandoned churches as mosques.</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">German writer <a href="https://www.welt.de/kultur/plus235830700/Mosebach-ueber-den-Streit-der-Paepste-Hier-kam-ein-Element-persoenlicher-Rache-ins-Spiel.html" target="_blank">Martin Mosebach</a>
observed that the "the loss of religion destabilizes a country". When a
society no longer knows how to give itself a reason to exist, others
find one and the void left by Christianity is soon filled. Even an
atheist like <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/outcry-after-dawkins-criticises-call-to-prayer-tml9hms9v" target="_blank">Richard Dawkins</a> acknowledged that "the sound of the [church] bells is better than the song of the [mosque] muezzin".</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Islam is taking over Europe's post-Christian ruins. It is <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2012/10/24/01016-20121024ARTFIG00633-islam-premiere-religion-en-france.php?redirect_premium" target="_blank">estimated</a>
that today in France, for each practicing Muslim, there are three
practicing Catholics. But if you dig deeper into this analysis, that
relationship is about to be reversed. Comparing only the weekly
frequency of Friday prayers in the mosque and Sunday Mass in the church,
the future is clear: 65% of practicing Catholics are over 50 years old.
By contrast, 73% of practicing Muslims are under the age of 50.</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hakim El Karoui, President Emmanuel Macron's advisor on Islam and a researcher at the Montaigne Institute, <a href="https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/religion/les-islamistes-ont-gagne-la-bataille-des-idees_1976480.html" target="_blank">states</a>
that Islam is now the most practiced religion in France. "There are
more practicing Muslims, between 2.5 and 3 million, than practicing
Catholics, 1.65 million".</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">The same applies to the construction of new religious sites. Today,
in France, there are 2,400 mosques, compared to 1,500 in 2003: "This is
the most visible sign of the rapid growth of Islam in France," notes the
weekly <a href="http://www.valeursactuelles.com/societe/mosquees-en-france-linquietante-invasion-45541" target="_blank"><i>Valeurs Actuelles</i></a>.</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In an essay on <a href="https://email.mg1.substack.com/c/eJxFkctu7CAMhp9m2CXimsuCRTfnNSICTsYqgRwurfL2ZTKVKiFsGfv_4cOaAntMlz5jLuS1LeU6QQf4zh5KgURqhrSg01wOQg50IE7TkdtxJZiXLQEcBr0mZ109WlMwhrtbTVxS8tRWTqC2WWzOMAFCzHZ0jBoFK8zTJNa3qakOIVjQMfhrOQ064vWzlDM_xMeD_2vLY7AxJbClj2l_FUy3JdOGOge5O2L-X6ElNXRr09oMls7Vzj6jvRssfqHHfN8wd39qTYmg5pQzquhEJzUq0bMeqBilE6y9A5yaN6XUrJSgo1CScT48JD121ue65mLsZ2_jQZI-IJaCO1aPsXXsLzb3UcOztHjUgOVaIJjVg9MlVSDlDf_muOwQILVPcYspmg2cykHysUX2BtXQioFN8lVo3i62qfBr-wN_eJtt" target="_blank"><i>L'Incorrect</i></a>
Frédéric Saint Clair, political scientist and analyst, explains that
"the milestone of 10,000 mosques, at the current rate, will be reached
around 2100". Will we have 10,000 full mosques and 10,000 practically
empty churches?</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Not only has the Catholic Church built merely 20 new churches in France in the past decade, according to research conducted by <a href="https://email.mg1.substack.com/c/eJwtUcuO4yAQ_Jpww-KNc-Awl93Lag8zH4AwtD1oMVgYNpO_H5KMhLqLolF1V3vXYCv1bo5yNvQItt0PMBluZ4LWoKJ-QrUxGCYUF4ooFAzRzOsFxdOuFWB3MRl09CVF71os-VktZyYI-jTBs3mV3lExa-eCBho4Y1zMHmBV1-Ul6nqIkD2YktPdHi4GlMxna8d54W8X9muc2-02JYd9LfFr8mUf1DukuA3BAT9wzGupO9RxefOtuxQbDPzH4Vz6f0gJsHe1AQ5w4hShfw2EfU-Dsn9_W8wIUZgSzCSWVDMlUDSMMEokmcksteQTnYBwLQKnYzwI8rpKKa9ScqK5FJQxdRFk3-h09uVszv97NIqq2aG0NlrtKZZRsT0sez4N1-zIe8-x3S1ktyQIptUOqL128rTXbpChjl0F65qhihGhBNMj05d_w3Gu6CwexNAOZfzKP7LfplmfOw" target="_blank"><i>La Croix</i></a>.
Edouard de Lamaze, president of the Observatory of Religious Heritage
in Paris, the most important organization that monitors the state of
places of worship in the country, <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247514/why-france-is-losing-one-religious-building-every-two-weeks" target="_blank">revealed</a>:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Although Catholic monuments are still ahead, one mosque
is erected every 15 days in France, while one Christian building is
destroyed at the same pace... It creates a tipping point on the
territory that should be taken into account."</span></b></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Annie Laurent, essayist and scholar author of several books on Islam, and whom <a href="https://www.cath.ch/newsf/17-membres-nommes-par-benoit-xvi-et-70-experts-et-auditeurs/" target="_blank">Pope Benedict XVI</a> wanted as an expert for the synod on the Middle East, recently said in an interview published in <a href="https://www.bvoltaire.fr/annie-laurent-il-est-urgent-den-finir-avec-les-concessions-que-nous-multiplions-a-lislamisme-en-nous-cachant-derriere-nos-valeurs/" target="_blank"><i>Boulevard Voltaire</i></a>:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Despite the repeated assurances of firmness of the state
towards Islamism and its rejection of every separatism, the opposite is
happening: the advance of Muslim culture in different forms. A progress
that seems to find no more limits and obstacles. There is the cowardice
of public authorities who give in to electoral calculations or clients,
and also the complacency of a part of our elites whose militancy is
steeped in progressive ideology...</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"During my first trips to the Middle East, in the early 1980s, I did
not see veiled women and gradually the veil spread everywhere. It is the
sign of the re-Islamization of Muslim societies and, in this sense, it
takes on a political and geopolitical dimension. It is part of a
conquest strategy...</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"France is in a state of self-dhimmitude. What is dhimmitude? It is a
legal and political status applicable to non-Muslim citizens in a state
governed by Islam according to a prescription of the Koran (9:29).
[Dhimmis] do not enjoy equal citizenship with the 'true believers,' who
are Muslims. The dhimmi can maintain his religious identity but must
undergo a series of discriminatory measures that can affect all aspects
of life, public, social and private. Not all Muslim states apply all of
these provisions today, but they are in force in some countries. However
that may be, the principle remains as it is based on a 'divine' order.</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Muslims translate 'dhimmitude' with protection, which tends to
reassure us, but the most appropriate translation is
'protection-submission': in exchange for the freedoms of worship or
other freedoms more or less granted to them, they may be subject to
special provisions, including Sharia, with the aim of making them aware
of their inferiority.</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"If I speak of self-dhimmitude, it is to express the idea that
France, due to a colonial complex and a sense of guilt, anticipates a
legal and political situation that is not (yet) imposed on it but which
could be a day in which Islam it will be a majority and therefore able
to govern our country. It should also be noted that Islam lives off the
weakness of the societies in which it settles".</span></b></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">How far will we go? "I don't know, but the situation is really worrying," concludes Laurent.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Before it becomes dramatic, it is urgent to put an end
to the concessions we are multiplying to Islamism by hiding behind our
values. Because by doing so we erase our own civilization".</span></b></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Just two months ago, we had seen the same scenes for the end of Ramadan. <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/seine-saint-denis-93/ces-retrouvailles-etaient-tres-attendues-6000-croyants-celebrent-la-fin-du-ramadan-au-stade-delaune-a-saint-denis-02-05-2022-ZJNMO447KZD5HADXUTZV3XZJKE.php" target="_blank">Six thousand</a>
of the faithful celebrated at the Delaune Stadium in Saint-Denis,
outside Paris. "Allahu Akbar" resounded from the loudspeakers placed in
the four corners of the stadium. The same scenes could be seen in dozens
of other stadiums throughout France, and in small and medium-sized
cities: in <a href="https://twitter.com/Nesrinemaamzel/status/1521047688007102464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1521047688007102464%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fdesouche.com%2F2022%2F05%2F02%2Fallah-akbar-dans-les-villes-dile-de-france-la-fin-du-ramadan-remplit-des-stades%2F" target="_blank">Garges</a>; in <a href="https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/occitanie/herault/montpellier/fin-du-ramadan-a-montpellier-la-fete-de-l-aid-el-fitr-a-debute-ce-lundi-2-mai-par-une-grande-priere-avec-10-000-fideles-2534884.html" target="_blank">Montpellier</a> (10,000 of the faithful in prayer); in <a href="https://www.estrepublicain.fr/societe/2022/05/02/la-fin-du-ramadan-celebree-par-des-centaines-de-fideles" target="_blank">Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy</a>, a town of 30,000 inhabitants, 5,000 gathered in prayer at the stadium. The celebration also took place in <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/hauts-de-seine-92/cela-nous-a-manque-a-gennevilliers-5000-fideles-celebrent-la-fin-du-ramadan-sur-le-terrain-de-rugby-02-05-2022-RMR6DBO4MBFZVP4DLQCITSICF4.php" target="_blank">Gennevilliers</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">You can see the same advance of de-Christianization and the growth of Islam, with different intensities, everywhere in Europe.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In a dramatic article in the <a href="https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/krise-der-kirche-ist-deutschland-noch-ein-christliches-land-13342759.html" target="_blank"><i>Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung</i></a>,
essayist Markus Günther explains that Christianity in Germany "seems
stable, but in reality it is on the verge of collapse. Pastors and
bishops, but also many actively involved lay people, see landscapes in
bloom where in reality there is nothing but the desert".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"We are turning our backs on our culture" writes Volkert Resing in the latest issue of the magazine <a href="https://www.cicero.de/innenpolitik/kirchenaustritt-missbrauch-katholische-evangelische-kirche-gesellschaft" target="_blank"><i>Cicero</i></a>, speaking of the end of Christianity in Germany.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"In 2021, an average of 390 children were baptized every
day in Germany. Ten years ago there were 800 baptisms a day. Last year,
359,338 people left the Catholic Church and 280,000 people left the
Protestant Church. In both cases it is a new record. Last year 21.6
million people belonged to the Catholic Church and 19.7 million were
Protestants. The number of Christians in Germany who are members of one
of the two largest churches fell below the 50 percent mark for the first
time. The fall of the Christian West? And who cares".</span></b></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"For the first time in centuries," according to the German magazine <a href="https://www.stern.de/gesellschaft/erstmals-sind-weniger-als-die-haelfte-der-deutschen-mitglied-in-einer-christlichen-kirche-31775068.html" target="_blank"><i>Stern</i></a>, "most of the people in Germany are no longer in the two great churches. A <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-churches-sharp-drop-membership-2060-62775130" target="_blank">projection</a>
assumes that in 2060 only 30 percent will be Catholic or Protestant".
For that date, all Christian denominations will have lost half of their
current members. And if in 1950 one in two Catholics participated in
Sunday services, notes the largest German weekly <a href="https://www.zeit.de/news/2022-06/27/immer-weniger-katholiken-in-sachsen-rueckgang-um-ueber-2200" target="_blank"><i>Die Zeit</i></a>, today only one in ten people who say they are Christians participate in religious services.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The importance of Islam in Germany will increase and that of
Christianity will decrease, explains Detlef Pollack, professor of
sociology of religion at Münster University and the country's foremost
expert on religious trends, in the <a href="https://www.nzz.ch/international/weihnachten-2021-das-christentum-ist-auf-dem-rueckzug-ld.1661792" target="_blank"><i>Neue Zürcher Zeitung</i></a>.</span></b></p><b>
</b><blockquote><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"In 2022, for the first time, less than half of the
Germans will belong to one of the great churches. There is a
liquefaction. Muslim communities in Germany are undoubtedly vital
compared to most Christian communities. By contrast Islam is a highly
dynamic religion that aims at visibility".</span></b></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">For some time now, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/world/europe/germany-adds-lessons-in-islam-to-better-blend-its-melting-pot.html" target="_blank">German public schools</a> have been offering classes on Islam.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-apr-22-fg-churches22-story.html" target="_blank">Dresdner Bank</a>
study in 2007 predicted that "half of the churches in the country will
close" and another that half of all Christians in the country will <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-churches-sharp-drop-membership-2060-62775130" target="_blank">disappear</a>. Within thirty years, <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/29/europes-growing-muslim-population/" target="_blank">according</a> to the Pew Forum, there will be 17 million Muslims in Germany, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-churches-sharp-drop-membership-2060-62775130" target="_blank">compared</a> to 22 million Christians between Catholics and Protestants, many of whom are only nominal (already today <a href="https://angelusnews.com/news/world/survey-one-in-three-catholics-in-germany-thinking-of-leaving-church/" target="_blank">one-third</a>
of all Catholics are thinking of leaving the church) . The Muslim
faithful settled in Germany will equal the total number of Catholics and
Protestants.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is a trend across the West. "Muslims, the winners of demographic change," headlined <a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article142756110/Muslime-Die-Gewinner-des-demografischen-Wandels.html" target="_blank"><i>Die Welt</i></a>.
"US researchers predict that for the first time in history there will
be more Muslims than Christians. Societies change. Even Germany's".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Between 1996 and 2016, Germany <a href="https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=32179" target="_blank">lost</a> more than 3,000 parishes, down from 13,329 to 10,280. In Trier, Germany, where Karl Marx was born, the diocese <a href="https://www.praytellblog.com/index.php/2019/10/26/largest-parish-in-germany-founded/" target="_blank">announced</a>
an unprecedented cut in the number of parishes which, in the next few
years, will be reduced from 900 to 35. Compared to their Christian
counterparts, Islamic places of worship are growing; in the last 40
years, they went from non-existent to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mosques-in-germany-statistics-hard-to-come-by/a-45806004" target="_blank">between 2,600 and 2,700</a>. We realize how our world has changed only at the end of an epochal transformation.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Practically every day in the German press there are articles like this in the <a href="https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/trotz-kirchenverkauf-bleibt-die-christliche-botschaft-17817251.html" target="_blank"><i>Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung</i></a>:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Generations of believers got married in the Kreuzkirche
in the Lamboy area of Hanau, they had their children baptized and
there they mourned the dead. But the days when the rows of chairs were
occupied even during the classic Sunday functions are long gone. The
upcoming sale is a bitter new experience for Hanau. The culprit is the
continuing decline in membership. This is due to demographic change and
the numerous Muslim residents no longer provide a basis for a Christian
community".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">538 abandoned churches and 49 newly built: this is the sad <a href="https://www.kirche-und-leben.de/artikel/katholische-kirchen-in-deutschland-538-aufgegeben-49-neu-gebaut" target="_blank">balance</a> of Catholic churches in Germany in the last 20 years.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In <a href="https://www.katholisch.de/artikel/33785-so-wollen-die-bistuemer-ihren-immobilienbestand-reduzieren" target="_blank">Bonn</a>, 270 churches will be abandoned, some of which can already be purchased on the diocesan online service.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The Ruhr diocese wants to keep only 84 churches and 160
will have to be used for a new purpose... Mainz and Hildesheim want to
halve their churches. Aachen has started a process of reducing buildings
by 30 percent. The archdiocese of Berlin has also decided to reduce the
number of churches by a quarter".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">From the diocese of <a href="https://www.kirche-und-leben.de/artikel/im-bistum-muenster-bisher-87-kirchen-profaniert-viele-umnutzungen" target="_blank">Münster</a> this month:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"87 churches have been deconsecrated. In various
locations, churches are used as retirement and nursing homes for the
elderly. Two churches in Marl alone are used as urn burial places.
Apartments are being built in the St. Mariä Himmelfahrt church in
Greven. Similar projects already exist, for instance, in Dülmen, Gescher
and Herten-Bertlich. The former church of Sant'Elisabetta now serves as
a sports hall".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the entire archdiocese of <a href="https://www.corrispondenzaromana.it/international-news/cardinal-marx-seminary-received-only-one-new-seminarian-in-2016/" target="_blank">Munich</a>,
the hometown of former Pope Benedict XVI, there are today just 37
seminarians in the various stages of formation compared to about 1.7
million Catholics. By comparison, the American diocese of Lincoln,
Nebraska currently has 49 seminarians for about 100,000 Catholics.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">You can see the same disintegration happening in Spain. "Spain is the
third country with the greatest abandonment of Christianity in Europe,"
reported Spain's major newspaper, <a href="https://elpais.com/sociedad/2018/12/26/actualidad/1545833978_509115.html" target="_blank"><i>El Pais</i></a>.
Cardinal Juan José Omella, archbishop of Barcelona, has sent to all
parishes a message announcing the suppression of 160 parishes in
Barcelona, so that each can make its own contribution before the plan is
implemented. A <a href="https://www.elmundo.es/la-lectura/2022/03/15/6228ccfe21efa04d268b4580.html" target="_blank">headline</a> in <i>El Mundo</i> reads: "Barcelona closes parishes due to the loss of faithful... The archbishopric will leave only 48 of the 208".</span></b></p><b>
</b><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 2015, there were <a href="https://elpais.com/politica/2016/04/10/actualidad/1460313231_421587.html" target="_blank">1,334 mosques</a>
in Spain -- 21% of the total number of all places of worship in the
country. During a six months period in 2018, 46 new mosques were built,
bringing the number to <a href="https://religion.elconfidencialdigital.com/articulo/otras_religiones/creadas-46-nuevas-mezquitas-meses/20181227192508026804.html" target="_blank">1,632 mosques</a> for that year. Mosque numbers are growing at a rate of <a href="https://parstoday.com/es/news/spain-i5407-construcción_de_mezquitas_tiene_crecimiento_de_20_en_españa" target="_blank">20 percent</a> each year. In 2004, there were 139 mosques in Catalonia and in 2020 there were 284, or 104% more, <a href="https://www.verificat.cat/es/fact-check/los-datos-y-la-ley-no-avalan-la-supuesta-islamizacion-de-que-habla-vox" target="_blank">according</a> to the Catalonia Department of Justice.</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In Andalusia the number of mosques in one decade <a href="https://books.google.it/books?id=1pboCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT35&lpg=PT35&dq=espana+población+musulmana+aumentará&source=bl&ots=9egcia6_5I&sig=ACfU3U1i3MuOcr2b9g8EWgb1Kg1oEia39A&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjunK-XyKD3AhUpSvEDHVGPCH84ChDoAXoECBUQAw#v=onepage&q=espana%20población%20musulmana%20aumentará&f=false" target="_blank">increased</a>
from 27 to 201; in Valencia, from 15 to 201 and in Madrid, from 40 to
116. Demography is the engine of cultural change. "By 2030," according
to <a href="https://elpais.com/diario/2011/01/28/sociedad/1296169203_850215.html" target="_blank"><i>El Pais</i></a>, "the Muslim population in Spain will increase by 82 percent".</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The same situation exists in Austria. <a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article167377478/Wie-Oesterreichs-Gesellschaft-in-30-Jahren-aussieht.html" target="_blank">According</a> to <i>Die Welt</i>:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"In Austria, the Catholic faith is in decline, Islam is
on the rise. There will be far fewer Catholics in the future, while the
number of Muslims and non-denominational people will increase
significantly, experts predict. In 2046, one in five Austrians will
profess Islam. In Vienna, Islam will be the strongest religion: in 30
years, one in three Viennese will be Muslim. The percentage of Catholics
will be only 42 percent in the country, dropping to 22 percent in
Vienna". In 1971, Catholics represented 78.6% of the population of
Vienna; in 2001, just over half; in 2011, 41.3% and in thirty years
Catholics will be only one third of the total."</span></b></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">If the churches are empty, 3,000 people gather for Friday prayers in <a href="https://www.diepresse.com/325489/der-muezzin-von-floridsdorf" target="_blank">Floridsdorf</a>,
the first mosque in Vienna. The mosque was officially erected in 1979
in the presence of the then President Rudolf Kirchschläger, Chancellor
Bruno Kreisky and Cardinal Franz König. Today the <a href="https://www.vienna.at/floridsdorf-3-000-menschen-in-moschee/1662381" target="_blank">muezzin</a> can call to prayer three times a day.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Christianity is no longer the first religion; Islam has taken its
place. This shift should be grounds for discussion, not to say of
concern -- certainly not of cheerful indifference.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.lecho.be/economie-politique/belgique/bruxelles/a-bruxelles-des-elus-sous-influence-religieuse/10398229.html" target="_blank"><i>L'Echo</i></a>,
the main Belgian economic newspaper, says: "Brussels was at the
forefront of secularization before confronting an active Muslim
minority. The first religion in Brussels today is Islam".</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The monthly <a href="https://www.causeur.fr/bruxelles-islam-islamisme-immigration-renovation-148619/" target="_blank"><i>Causeur</i></a> reminds us that <i>Le Vif-L'Express</i>
(the main French-language newspaper) published a provocative front page
entitled "Muslim Brussels in 2030". Belgian anthropologist Olivier
Servais confirmed a Muslim presence in Brussels at 33.5 percent,
predicting a majority in 2030.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In <a href="https://artofuss.blog/2022/06/28/tribune-a-saint-chamond-les-cloches-de-notre-dame-se-tairont-pour-toujours/" target="_blank">Saint-Chamond</a>,
a French town of 35,000, the town hall recently ordered the disposal of
the main church of the city, Notre-Dame, built in the 19th century.
Closed for worship since 2004, deprived of the crosses that proudly
towered over its spiers, this church, in view of its transformation into
a cultural project, has just been condemned to deconsecration.
Meanwhile, last week, near what remains of Notre-Dame, the <a href="https://twitter.com/IsabelleSurply/status/1546524171156570113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1546524171156570113%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fripostelaique.com%2Fsaint-chamond-les-cloches-se-sont-tues-place-au-muezzin.html" target="_blank">muezzin</a> called over the loudspeakers for the Muslim faithful to come to prayers.</span></b></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for</i> Il Foglio,<i> is an Italian journalist and author.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-66374330684154219582022-09-19T00:33:00.005-07:002022-09-19T00:33:47.643-07:00Macron's Pessimistic Moment<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_z06JzQRSncxpw8cWTUBPiNgkg1i3v3vqoswj5hqLVnXCd-0xg8G6tDXhwt8avX0DkepmR6ZIgnqoQ_5JuA4prMhoMxqsfp6HtSdqg6nH0P9pqVEkITjDSS521GP7Noai-EIQJAsJvvDYny9F-78ta0J8Yc39BMe0X1rurmqpqtKebho_7SFTsvNo/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_z06JzQRSncxpw8cWTUBPiNgkg1i3v3vqoswj5hqLVnXCd-0xg8G6tDXhwt8avX0DkepmR6ZIgnqoQ_5JuA4prMhoMxqsfp6HtSdqg6nH0P9pqVEkITjDSS521GP7Noai-EIQJAsJvvDYny9F-78ta0J8Yc39BMe0X1rurmqpqtKebho_7SFTsvNo/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">Macron's Pessimistic Moment</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Amir+Taheri"><span itemprop="author">Amir Taheri</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-09-04T04:30:00" itemprop="datePublished">September 4, 2022 at 4:30 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18853/macron-pessimistic-moment">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18853/macron-pessimistic-moment</a></span></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Prepare for the end of
abundance!" This is the message that French President Emmanuel Macron
offered in his first post-holiday pronouncement last month. Though
supposedly addressed at the French people, Macron's lamentation seemed
to have the entire "Western world" in mind.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In its current version, the nomos [organizing principle] trying
to seize control in almost all Western societies could be described as<span style="background-color: #ffa400;"><b>
"victimism".</b></span></span></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In victimism the state is seen as a cash machine distributing
money among the victims, while apologizing to them. In the past few
years. Western states, both in Europe and North America, have
distributed countless trillions...</span></b></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some philosophers, among them the German Jürgen Habermas, have
tried to give victimism a Christian varnish. In their reading, the
Western world, long after having adopted "secularism", remembers
Christianity as a school of frugality, empathy for the downtrodden and
atonement of sins symbolized by Christ as the ultimate victim.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The trouble with that reading is that it is closer to the Greek
concept of the scapegoat, than to the Christian concept of redeemer.</span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<figure class="image-captioned image-center">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="" height="267" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/4400.jpg" width="400" />
</span><figcaption><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Prepare for the end of abundance!" This is the message that
French President Emmanuel Macron offered in his first post-holiday
pronouncement last week. (Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images)</span></figcaption>
</figure><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Prepare for the end of abundance!" This is the message that
French President Emmanuel Macron offered in his first post-holiday
pronouncement last month. Though supposedly addressed at the French
people, Macron's lamentation seemed to have the entire "Western world"
in mind.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">According to him the era of easily available capital and seemingly
endless natural resources, notably oil and natural gas, is already over.
The "Western world" must learn to live in a different way.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Though Macron did not use the old cliché about "consumerism"
depleting the planet's resources and causing climate change, it was
clear that he had half an eye on the ecologist hymn-sheet.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Why would the leader of a democracy encourage pessimism, not to say
anguish, exactly at a time that, according to his fanciful analysis, we
are heading for dire straits?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">One answer may be found in the setback that Macron's party, a
hodgepodge of groups from across the political spectrum, suffered in the
recent general election, winning only a plurality.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Six years ago, Macron built his surprise success by trying to
de-ideologize French politics and bridging the classical 200-year-old
left-right divide.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">What happened in the first five years of Macron's presidency seemed
to confirm his assumption that France was prepared to free itself of
ideology. In that period reds, Communists and socialists of various
shades, became pink while blues, traditional rightist and Gaullist
parties, became turquoise, and blacks, hard right and neo-fascist groups
became grey.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">However, the change caused by Macron's "revolution" opened the way
for a new ideology in a society that seems unable to do without an
ideological panoptic. That ideology had been lurking on the sidelines
for decades under different labels, notably environmentalism, ecologysm,
declinism and political correctness or its American version, wokeism.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">According to German political theorist Carl Schmidt, every society
needs what he calls a "nomos" the ancient Greek word for the organizing
principle of a society's material and cultural life. That "nomos" could
have a dynamic, even an aggressive, attitude. But it could also reflect
lethargy and even fear of losing freedoms or material means of
subsistence.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In its current version, the nomos trying to seize control in almost all Western societies could be described as<b> "victimism".</b></span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">According to it, the planet is the victim of mankind's insatiable
appetite for consumption. Mankind itself is the victim of greed which is
bred by capitalism, itself a victim of capricious markets. Women are
victims of men while the youths, forming the majority of the
"underprivileged", are victims of the rich old.</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Descendants of former slaves are victims of descendants of former
slave-owners. Those with "alternative life-styles" are victims of those
who stay straitlaced and favor the parson's position.</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">The search for new religious, social, economic, ethnic and other
victims is endless. Society must be divided into countless slices, each
equal to but at the same time different from all others.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Schmidt's "nomos" was abused by the German Nazis and "Third Way"
advocates as a means of dissolving civil society while the state
devoured the nation before spitting it out in a war.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">The new "nomos", on the other hand, seems designed to emasculate the
state into a court jester for a society defined as a coalition of
victims.</span></b></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gone are the days when Frederic Bastiat told the French parliament in
the 19th century that a "desacralized state" could become a danger to
freedom. Today, Francois Guizot, who advised the French to "go and get
rich" both materially and culturally, would feel out of place in Paris.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We hear echoes of Adolphe Thier, the man who crushed the Paris
Commune, who told the Parliament that "Easy life isn't good for
everyone!"</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Recently on French state TV, there were two journalists boasting
about how they refused to wear neckties and formal suits to interview
Macron and how they refrained from addressing him as "Mr. President,"
supposedly to avenge an older generation of TV reporters who, now cast
as post-factum victims, had to kowtow to presidents De Gaulle,
Mitterrand or Chirac.</span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Spreading a paradoxical salad-bar, victimist ideology challenges the
concept of individual and equal citizenship in the name of "the people",
an abstraction capable of being misunderstood and misused. Remember the
Nazis' slogan: "You are nothing! Your People is all!" (Du bist nichts,
dein Volk ist alles!)</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Saying the same thing, albeit in a pseudo-philosophical formula,
August Comte asserted that "The citizen has only the right to consent,
no other rights!"</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In victimism, the state is seen as a cash machine distributing money
among the victims, while apologizing to them. In the past few years.
Western states, both in Europe and North America, have distributed
countless trillions to bolster their shaken legitimacy.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some philosophers, among them the German Jürgen Habermas, have tried
to give victimism a Christian varnish. In their reading, the Western
world, long after having adopted "secularism", remembers Christianity as
a school of frugality, empathy for the downtrodden and atonement of
sins symbolized by Christ as the ultimate victim.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The trouble with that reading is that it is closer to the Greek
concept of the scapegoat, than to the Christian concept of redeemer.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Greek concept, the scapegoat is truly sinful and its sacrifice
cleanses the society. In the Christian concept the redeemer is
innocent, symbolizing his sacrifice as a sign of divine grace.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Victimism is a witches' brew of misunderstood Christianity, a zombie
version of Marxism, eco-fanaticism and bleeding-heart liberalism
espoused by mostly well-intentioned, well-to-do but pessimistic people.
With the mantra "less is better than more", they warn that economic
growth leads to Thanatos or collective suicide.</span></b></p><b>
</b><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">From now on, perhaps until the end of time, we ought to opt for "no
more growth". The advice is "desire what you have" and "recycle what you
don't want."</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #ffa400;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Amazingly, civilizations that feared growth, shunned innovation,
favored recycling, and curbed desires, as we see in that great book
"Gilgamesh", were doomed to decline and die.</span></b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The good news is that victimism, though stronger than ever in Western
societies, has not succeeded in killing the Western civilization's
fundamental optimism, craving for individual freedom, innovation and
growth.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Macron's real or feigned pessimism could turn out to be a passing cloud.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily</i> Kayhan <i>in
Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable
publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist fo</i>r Asharq Al-Awsat <i>since 1987.</i></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>This article was originally published by</i> Asharq al-Awsat<i> and is reprinted by kind permission of the author.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-55341520698667159482022-09-19T00:19:00.003-07:002022-09-19T00:19:26.747-07:00Turkey: What Is the Real Terrorist Threat?<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA01UUG8c-JETV43ovugmkO7Yi8Dj_rEcrkkM65kFGra8av2wjQzONrj85QYtTt4klMJw4nyQ9DfnO0pgi5r0LuTZfZNK876yv6cMn92DoUoboFwqXsdma7oNYisGW0iJwT9VoDbFYfefi2I-PeTKpjVNWWN6kWrHIxWbOEa9wNBsbQ1wHJigG2MnD/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA01UUG8c-JETV43ovugmkO7Yi8Dj_rEcrkkM65kFGra8av2wjQzONrj85QYtTt4klMJw4nyQ9DfnO0pgi5r0LuTZfZNK876yv6cMn92DoUoboFwqXsdma7oNYisGW0iJwT9VoDbFYfefi2I-PeTKpjVNWWN6kWrHIxWbOEa9wNBsbQ1wHJigG2MnD/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">Turkey: What Is the Real Terrorist Threat?</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Burak+Bekdil"><span itemprop="author">Burak Bekdil</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-09-05T05:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">September 5, 2022 at 5:00 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18742/turkey-terrorist-threat">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18742/turkey-terrorist-threat</a></span></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Erdoğan said that Turkey
would freeze Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids if the Nordic
countries do not come into line with Turkey's "fight against terrorist
organizations."</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">That might be a tough task for Finland and Sweden. In 2019,
Erdoğan notoriously called half of Turks (those who do not vote for him)
terrorists. The same year, Erdoğan declared the pro-Kurdish People's
Democracy Party a terrorist entity. In parliamentary elections in June
2015, that party won 13% of the national vote and 80 seats in the
Turkish parliament. Nevertheless, in 2021, Erdoğan stated that the
students who peacefully protested his appointment of a rector to
Boğaziçi University were "terrorists."</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">If Sweden and Finland do not fight wholeheartedly everyone
Erdoğan deems a terrorist, does that mean he will veto their membership?</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kavala was acquitted on all charges but, as Erdoğan publicly
insists that he is a "traitor," he was not released from prison. Upon
his acquittal, a prosecutor instantly produced a new indictment against
him.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The West should tell Erdoğan it is ISIS, not men like Kavala, that is the terror threat to civilization.</span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<figure class="image-captioned image-center">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="" height="267" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/3695.jpg" width="400" />
</span><figcaption><span style="font-family: verdana;">Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Turkey
would freeze Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids if the Nordic
countries do not come into line with Turkey's "fight against terrorist
organizations." That might be a tough task for Finland and Sweden. In
2019, Erdoğan notoriously called half of Turks (those who do not vote
for him) terrorists. (Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images)</span></figcaption>
</figure><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ideological family
tree is inherently anti-Western-- hence, anti-US and anti-NATO. This
author's most recent <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18667/nato-family-blackmail" target="_blank">article</a>,
"NATO Family Picture in Madrid: This Will Not Be Erdoğan's Last
Blackmail," was posted on July 7. Only 11 days later, on July 18,
Erdoğan <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/erdogan-says-turkey-will-freeze-finland-swedens-nato-bids-if-promises-not-kept-2022-07-18/" target="_blank">said</a>
that Turkey would freeze Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids if
the Nordic countries do not come into line with Turkey's "fight against
terrorist organizations."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">That might be a tough task for Finland and Sweden. In 2019, Erdoğan notoriously <a href="https://kronos35.news/tr/erdogan-boldu-toplumun-yarisini-terorist-ilan-etti/" target="_blank">called</a> half of Turks (those who do not vote for him) terrorists. The same year, Erdoğan <a href="https://www.ntv.com.tr/turkiye/cumhurbaskani-erdoganhdpyi-yonetenlere-terorist-diyorum,S4UseafH8kOtAkeRmJljzw" target="_blank">declared</a>
the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party a terrorist entity. In
parliamentary elections in June 2015, that party won 13% of the national
vote and 80 seats in the Turkish parliament. Nevertheless, in 2021,
Erdoğan <a href="https://www.dw.com/tr/erdoğandan-boğaziçili-gençlere-öğrenci-misiz-terörist-misiniz/a-56442021" target="_blank">stated</a>
that the students who peacefully protested his appointment of a rector
to Boğaziçi University were "terrorists." The Nordics may find it
somewhat difficult to cooperate with Erdoğan and chase 40 million-plus
Turkish terrorists in addition to tens of millions of Kurds living in
Turkey, Iraq, Syria -- and Europe.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">On May 17, Erdoğan <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-erdogan-threatens-veto-finland-and-sweden-nato-bid" target="_blank">announced</a>
that Turkey would veto Sweden and Finland's bids for NATO membership,
and accused them of hosting Kurdish (and other) terrorists. Under
pressure from NATO allies, he conditionally removed his veto at the June
29 NATO Summit in Madrid . If Sweden and Finland do not wholeheartedly
fight everyone Erdoğan deems a terrorist<s>s</s>, does that mean he will veto their membership?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Take, for instance, the notorious case of Osman Kavala, a millionaire
philanthropist and human rights activist who has been in prison for the
past five years on flimsy charges of sponsoring terrorism and riots
against Erdoğan's government, espionage, and a rich fictional catalogue
of other crimes.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">On July 11, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/osman-kavala-echr-rules-turkey-violated-ruling/a-62431548" target="_blank">published</a> its decision regarding Turkey's rigid failure to release Kavala, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/osman-kavala-germany-summons-turkish-envoy-over-verdict/a-61640487" target="_blank">sentenced to life</a>
in prison in May. The court ruled that Turkey had violated a previous
judgment from the ECHR in the case of Kavala vs Turkey from December
2019 that called for Kavala's release. It is rare for the court to
explicitly <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-turkeys-judiciary-does-governments-bidding-in-osman-kavala-trial/a-61601406" target="_blank">reprimand a state</a> for failing to abide by a decision. As it was ministers from the Council of Europe (CoE) who <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/osman-kavala-case-council-of-europe-launches-proceedings-against-turkey/a-60645377" target="_blank">referred the case</a> back to the court in February, the ECHR's decision is seen as moving the CoE a step closer to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/turkeys-osman-kavala-case-a-break-with-europe/a-59596299" target="_blank">suspending Turkey as a member</a>, or expelling it as they did Russia after it invaded Ukraine.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kavala was acquitted on all charges but, as Erdoğan publicly insists
that he is a "traitor," he was not released from prison. Upon his
acquittal, a prosecutor instantly produced a new indictment against him.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">If, in this case, Kavala would have escaped the Turkish dungeons and
appeared in Sweden or Finland, Erdoğan would probably insist on his
extradition before he gives the green light to the Nordics joining NATO.
This can be what will happen to anyone Erdoğan might view as a
terrorist who, in fact, is just someone who opposes the Sultan's
Islamist rule.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Erdoğan's calculus has no limits. He refers to the PKK when he is
talking about "Kurdish terrorists." He is right that the PKK's violent
separatist campaign since 1984 has claimed more than 40,000 lives in
Turkey; the victims were both Turks and Kurds. Turkey, the U.S. and
European Union -- including Finland and Sweden -- have officially banned
the PKK for being a terrorist entity. Where is the PKK is legal? In
Erdoğan's "strategic ally," Russia. Any objections to Putin? Not on your
life.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kavala is not a terrorist. If Erdoğan wants to fight terrorism, he
should not torture a liberal philanthropist by keeping him in solitary
confinement despite his acquittal. Instead, Erdoğan should rethink,
specifically drop, his plans for a new military incursion into Syria --
and not add to Turkey's military build-up in Syria– just to win a
handful more of nationalistic votes in elections next year, on the
assumption that a new military campaign in Syria would earn him critical
votes from nationalist Turks.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">There are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/isis-stands-gain-potential-turkish-offensive-syria-pentagon-warns-rcna38353" target="_blank">reports</a>
that Pentagon officials are increasingly concerned about a new Turkish
military invasion in northern Syria and have begun planning for how it
could impact the U.S. fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist
group. The main concern, is that any Turkish military movement into
Syria would draw the U.S. partner, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF), away from the battle against ISIS, the officials said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"We strongly oppose any Turkish operation into northern Syria and have made clear our objections to Turkey," <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/isis-stands-gain-potential-turkish-offensive-syria-pentagon-warns-rcna38353" target="_blank">said</a>
Dana Stroul, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East.
"Such an operation puts at risk U.S. forces' coalition campaign against
ISIS and will introduce more violence into Syria."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The West should tell Erdoğan it is ISIS, not men like Kavala, that is the terror threat to civilization.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was
recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years,
for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow
at the Middle East Forum.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-2611625366041310142022-09-19T00:13:00.000-07:002022-09-19T00:13:01.113-07:00When German Environmentalists and Putin's Government Had a Burning Love Affair<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtDDjwdC6ddiYERyZS5Me9BRJnxHivVdt_INhlTG7AhNWmG-mfl6FrA0gUFAphHYTR7vYku4eZ-UzlOu44Ho4nK6gU2h7mPLaycREMi3QFTqlwKCtcxhkGc-RdexhmtW_q1SSBkl8M3MpBRqkl4LfebS827S3o4Iv81_77HK9XJNsgpq5lXgdFl92H/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtDDjwdC6ddiYERyZS5Me9BRJnxHivVdt_INhlTG7AhNWmG-mfl6FrA0gUFAphHYTR7vYku4eZ-UzlOu44Ho4nK6gU2h7mPLaycREMi3QFTqlwKCtcxhkGc-RdexhmtW_q1SSBkl8M3MpBRqkl4LfebS827S3o4Iv81_77HK9XJNsgpq5lXgdFl92H/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">When German Environmentalists and Putin's Government Had a Burning Love Affair</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Drieu+Godefridi"><span itemprop="author">Drieu Godefridi</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-09-08T04:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">September 8, 2022 at 4:00 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18829/german-environmentalists-gazprom-putin">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18829/german-environmentalists-gazprom-putin</a> <br /></span></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 2011, the German Baltic
Sea Nature Conservation Foundation was established as a result of an
agreement between three of Germany's leading environmental organizations
- WWF, BUND and NABU - and the company Nord Stream, which is a
subsidiary of the government of Vladimir Putin.</span></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">These environmental organizations were, moreover, at the same
time fiercely opposed to German civil nuclear power, to the exploitation
of shale gas in Europe and to the import of American gas via the
construction of liquefied petroleum gas terminals in Germany.</span></b></p></li><li><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Those were three issues where the views of the environmental
organizations were totally congruent with those of the Russian
Federation. This meant betting everything on "red" -- as in a casino --
but in this instance, on Russian gas.</span></b></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Right after these contractual commitments by Nord Stream AG, the
environmental organizations withdrew the lawsuit they had initiated
against Nord Stream...</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The German press reported last month that, inspired by the
success of the first foundation, the same State of Mecklenberg-Western
Pomerania was setting up a new foundation as recently as January 2021,
the Mecklenberg-<b>Western Pomerania Foundation for Climate and
Environmental Protection, this time endowed with 192 million euros from
the Russian government.</b></span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="image-center"><figure class="image-captioned">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="" height="267" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/4407.jpg" width="400" />
</span><figcaption><span style="font-family: verdana;">Those were... issues where the views of the environmental
organizations were totally congruent with those of the Russian
Federation. This meant betting everything on 'red' -- as in a casino –
but in this instance, on Russian gas. Pictured: The corporate
headquarters of Gazprom Germania, the German unit of Russian natural gas
company Gazprom, photographed on March 30, 2022 in Berlin, Germany.
(Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)</span></figcaption>
</figure></div>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 2011, the German Baltic Sea Nature Conservation Foundation (<i>Naturschutzstiftung Deutsche Ostsee</i>) was created as a result of an <a href="http://archiv.bund-mecklenburg-vorpommern.de/themen_und_projekte/ostseeschutz/" target="_blank">agreement</a>
between Nord-Stream, the three main environmental organisations in
Germany — WWF, BUND ("Friends of the Earth"), NABU — and the state of
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. This foundation was immediately provided
with a lucrative budget of ten million euros by Nord Stream.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Based in Zug, Switzerland, Nord Stream AG is an international
consortium of five major companies established in 2005 for the planning,
construction and subsequent operation of two 1,224-kilometres long gas
pipelines across the Baltic Sea. The five shareholders of the consortium
are Gazprom International Projects LLC, Wintershall Dea AG, PEG
Infrastruktur AG, N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie and ENGIE. Gazprom
International Projects LLC holds a 51% stake in the project.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gazprom International Projects LLC is wholly owned by Gazprom, the
world's largest publicly listed natural gas company, which is
majority-owned and fully controlled by the Russian government.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The top management positions at the German Baltic Sea Nature
Conservation Foundation were offered to the CEOs of these three largest
German environmental organizations who were <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamBlazowski/status/1559657940721754118" target="_blank">quick to accept</a>, which is hardly surprising, given that this was part of the original agreement with the Moscow Bear.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">These environmental organizations are trying to escape their overwhelming historical responsibilities by arguing, as BUND <a href="http://archiv.bund-mecklenburg-vorpommern.de/themen_und_projekte/ostseeschutz/ostseepipeline/erklaerung/" target="_blank">explained</a>,
that the agreement with Nord Stream on the creation of the German
Baltic Sea Nature Conservation Foundation was only intended to "promote
the implementation of complex nature conservation measures":</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"In order to implement the complex measures as
effectively as possible for nature and to secure them permanently, Nord
Stream made the agreed compensation funds available in March 2011 for
the establishment of the German Baltic Sea Nature Conservation
Foundation... With the Baltic Sea Foundation, it is possible to develop,
support and implement suitable projects in a professionally sound
manner and with great expertise, and thus also to effectively compensate
for the damage caused by the Baltic Sea pipeline. The non-profit Baltic
Sea Foundation acts independently of the founder and is solely
committed to its statutory objectives of promoting practical nature
conservation and environmental protection measures at the Baltic Sea. <b>To
ensure that these funds are actually used to implement meaningful
nature conservation work, WWF, NABU and BUND participate in the
foundation's committees</b>."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Let us try to see it clearly.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The reality of this agreement was <a href="https://www.nord-stream.com/de/presse-info/pressemitteilungen/naturschutzstiftung-deutsche-ostsee-gegruendet-315/" target="_blank">stated by Nord Stream</a> at the time of the foundation's creation in 2011:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">"From today, the environmental organizations WWF, BUND
and NABU will work closely together with the State of
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Nord Stream AG in the German Baltic
Sea Nature Conservation Foundation (...) Jochen Lamp from WWF Germany
will chair the board. The first deputy is Corinna Cwielag from BUND
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania."</span></b></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The website of the German Baltic Sea Nature Conservation Foundation <a href="https://www.ostseestiftung.de/stiftung/" target="_blank">states:</a></span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The German Baltic Sea Nature Conservation Foundation...
was established in 2011 following an agreement between Nord Stream AG
and the environmental organizations BUND Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
and WWF Germany."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Finally, the official statement from the state government concerned, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, <a href="http://archiv.bund-mecklenburg-vorpommern.de/themen_und_projekte/ostseeschutz/" target="_blank">reads</a>:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The creation of the foundation is the consistent
realisation of the agreements for more nature conservation that the
environmental organizations BUND and WWF Germany concluded with the
company Nord Stream last year. In the foundation, representatives of
BUND and WWF form the board of directors together with the State
Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Consumer
Protection. (...) WWF CEO Jochen Lamp regards the establishment of the
foundation as a great success for the protection of the marine
environment (...) Representatives of NABU, the State Chancellery of
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the founder also work together in the
'curatorium', the strategic supervisory body of the new foundation."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">To sum up, it is therefore a matter of fact and established law that
in 2011, the German Baltic Sea Nature Conservation Foundation was
established as a <b>result of an agreement between three of Germany's
leading environmental organizations - WWF, BUND and NABU - and the
company Nord Stream,</b> which is a subsidiary of the government of Vladimir Putin. Fact.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">These environmental organizations were, moreover, at the same time
fiercely opposed to German civil nuclear power, to the exploitation of
shale gas in Europe and to the import of American gas via the
construction of liquefied petroleum gas terminals in Germany.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Those were three issues where the views of the environmental
organizations were totally congruent with those of the Russian
Federation. This meant betting everything on "red" -- as in a casino --
but in this instance, on Russian gas.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Right after these contractual commitments by Nord Stream AG, the
environmental organizations withdrew the lawsuit they had initiated
against Nord Stream, as <a href="http://archiv.bund-mecklenburg-vorpommern.de/themen_und_projekte/ostseeschutz/ostseepipeline/erklaerung/" target="_blank">stated</a> by BUND at the time. Quid pro quo, anyone?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Finally, the German press reported last month that, inspired by the
success of the first foundation, the same State of Mecklenberg-Western
Pomerania was <a href="https://klimastiftung-mv.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Antrag-der-Landesregierung.pdf" target="_blank">setting up</a>
a new foundation as recently as January 2021, the Mecklenberg-Western
Pomerania Foundation for Climate and Environmental Protection (<i>Stiftung Klima- und Umweltschutz Mecklenburg-Vorpommern</i>), this time endowed with 192 million euros from the Russian government. To quote the centre-left German daily <i><a href="https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2022-08/nord-stream-2-klimastiftung-mecklenburg-vorpommern-200-millionen-euro-gazprom" target="_blank">Die Zeit</a></i>:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The Foundation for Climate and Environmental Protection
was established at the beginning of 2021 by the government of
[Mecklenberg-Western Pomerania's] Minister-President Manuela Schwesig
(SPD). Officially, it was to promote environmental protection projects
in the country... [and] received a total of 192 million euros from Nord
Stream 2 AG, a subsidiary of Gazprom. The money was paid out between
February and November 2021."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The German newspaper <i>Die Welt</i> <a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article240429049/Nord-Stream-2-Fast-200-Millionen-Euro-so-ueppig-stattete-Gazprom-die-Klimastiftung-aus.html" target="_blank">wrote</a>
that the 192 million euros "benefited 80 service providers, who
received 119 orders worth 165 million euros from the business enterprise
set up within the environmental foundation." In its <a href="https://klimastiftung-mv.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021-08-11_Foerdergrundsaetze.pdf" target="_blank">principles</a>,
this new foundation states that "the Foundation is interested in
cooperating with the numerous initiatives, associations and foundations
in climate protection... with a great deal of expertise." In Russian
money?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The case is currently being examined by a commission of inquiry of
the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament, which was scheduled
to begin its work at the end of August 2022. It is <a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article240429049/Nord-Stream-2-Fast-200-Millionen-Euro-so-ueppig-stattete-Gazprom-die-Klimastiftung-aus.html" target="_blank">likely</a>
that, considering the seriousness of the facts, Germany's Chancellor
Olaf Scholz and his predecessor, Angela Merkel, will be questioned.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The members of state parliament, <i><a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article240429049/Nord-Stream-2-Fast-200-Millionen-Euro-so-ueppig-stattete-Gazprom-die-Klimastiftung-aus.html" target="_blank">Die Welt</a></i>
continues, also want to shed light on the role that the Russian secret
services have played in the background. The current Interior Minister of
Mecklenberg-Western Pomerania state, Christian Pegel (SPD), is
particularly targeted:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"As Minister of Energy, this lawyer had once been
instrumental in drawing up the foundation's statutes. In order to do
this, Pegel met with representatives of the Russian-dominated Nord
Stream 2 AG in circumstances that seem suspicious, without keeping any
records. It is therefore not possible to know what agreements and
arrangements were made on this occasion. For its part, Pegel claims that
he no longer knows exactly what happened at the time. Through a
spokeswoman, the minister told this newspaper: 'Insofar as he was
involved in informal or formal discussions, he has no concrete
recollection due to the passage of time."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">A real short-term memory problem: the foundation was created <a href="https://klimastiftung-mv.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021-08-11_Foerdergrundsaetze.pdf" target="_blank">last year.</a></span></b></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Drieu Godefridi is a jurist (Saint-Louis University of
Louvain), a philosopher (Saint-Louis University of Louvain) and a
doctor in legal theory (Paris IV-Sorbonne).</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-16206288001042721212022-09-18T23:11:00.004-07:002022-09-18T23:11:35.401-07:00National Security Threat: China's Eyes in America<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVf33pOOA-UKtjiNTABkzH7MEoaxPF6l6EAZ0X7ECXnhsBGgzEl5Z7TmCcTckIUdP-mSCzL6XN2wNa6Kdud4sC8trnVL3BXc1S7Np9t1ORi7IP01Z5wwDhKneyR1bbHj9uPsstNlnJ3V5G_NtWhVPwfTXAjG4KnnVjWzAtcVJ3_L-rmzSuJVaSC1-d/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVf33pOOA-UKtjiNTABkzH7MEoaxPF6l6EAZ0X7ECXnhsBGgzEl5Z7TmCcTckIUdP-mSCzL6XN2wNa6Kdud4sC8trnVL3BXc1S7Np9t1ORi7IP01Z5wwDhKneyR1bbHj9uPsstNlnJ3V5G_NtWhVPwfTXAjG4KnnVjWzAtcVJ3_L-rmzSuJVaSC1-d/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">National Security Threat: China's Eyes in America</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Peter+Schweizer"><span itemprop="author">Peter Schweizer</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-09-12T05:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">September 12, 2022 at 5:00 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18885/china-drones-dji-spying">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18885/china-drones-dji-spying</a></span></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Chinese company DJI controls nearly 90% of the world market for consumer and commercial grade drones.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The excellent reporting on DJI by Kitchen tracks efforts by the
company to lobby against passage of a bill called the American Security
Drone Act (ASDA), now before Congress, to outlaw federal government use
of DJI products entirely. What is the risk? Not only the data gathered
by the drones themselves, but everything collected by the mobile app
with which users control their drones and manage their DJI accounts.
Like many other mobile applications, this includes a user's contacts,
photos, GPS location, and online activities.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Every DJI drone in the skies above America is as good as a hovering Chinese spy.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">DJI is engaged in a fierce lobbying effort to prevent passage of
the ASDA bill. So fierce that they have enlisted police officers from
local jurisdictions to come to Washington and lobby congressional
staffers about how great DJI drones are for their cash-strapped local
forces.... DJI lobbyists from firms like Squire Patton Boggs, Cassidy
& Associates, and CLS Strategies are taking no chances. The company
spent $2.2 million in lobbying efforts in 2020 and $1.4 million last
year on lobbying activities, according to OpenSecrets.org.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Much as they are doing with products such as solar panels, the
Chinese realize that cornering the market in an area where reach equals
access is critical to their long-term plans to dominate. Their pattern
includes stealing technology they cannot create themselves and using any
means available to aid in that theft. Therefore, every bit of access to
information they can scour is of more value to them than the product
used to get it.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Understanding these patterns is central to recognizing that the
Chinese do this to their own people as well.... [through] many different
forms of what we may baldly call blackmail.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Wilson Center, a bipartisan think tank in Washington,
reported in 2017 that a small community of PRC students and diplomats
have engaged in intimidation tactics ranging from intelligence gathering
to financial retaliation... It was just those sorts of concerns that
led the Trump administration to create the "China Initiative" within the
Justice Department in 2018. This effort generated plenty of convictions
of Chinese nationals in the US for technology theft and other forms of
industrial espionage. The Biden administration ended the program this
year....</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China's strategy has for years hinged on infiltration by some
Chinese scientists and researchers working abroad in the US and other
western nations, with threats against their Chinese relatives as
leverage for them to do so.</span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="image-center"><figure class="image-captioned">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="" height="267" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/4410.jpg" width="400" />
</span><figcaption><span style="font-family: verdana;">The consumer and commercial grade drones made by the Chinese
company DJI account for nearly 90% of the market. These popular
products are cost-effective, easy to fly and operate, and send every
byte of data they gather to servers in China. Every DJI drone in the sky
is as good as a hovering Chinese spy. Pictured: A police sergeant in
Exeter, England pilots a DJI drone on May 25, 2021, as part of security
preparations for the G7 Summit that was attended by US President Joe
Biden and leaders of the other G7 countries. (Photo by Geoff Caddick/AFP
via Getty Images)</span></figcaption>
</figure></div>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Chinese intelligence gathering in the US takes many forms and has
different purposes. Most Americans are familiar with some of their means
and tactics, but not with how widespread and persistent they are.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Americans may know about the <a href="https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2022/07/tiktok-is-unacceptable-security-risk-and-should-be-removed-from-app-stores-says-fcc" target="_blank">malware</a>
contained in that infernal TikTok app that their children use. They may
know the Chinese military's cyber-intelligence service was likely <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/04/politics/china-hackers-economic-espionage-manufacturing/index.html" target="_blank">behind</a> many of the largest <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/china-hacked-least-six-us-state-governments-report-says-rcna19255" target="_blank">hacks</a>
of Americans' personal data that have ever occurred. They may know from
the news how US defense and intelligence policy have sanctioned Chinese
telecom giant Huawei, and counseled America's allies to reject
Chinese-architected implementations of 5G networking, due to evidence
that China has planted backdoors in commercial networking equipment
designed to allow the Communist regime in Beijing to conduct
surveillance and cyber-espionage anywhere in the world.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Do they know it extends to consumer-level drones?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Cybersecurity expert Klon Kitchen, writing for <i>The Dispatch</i>, <a href="https://current.thedispatch.com/p/red-china-backs-the-blue?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">recently detailed</a>
the problem with DJI, the Chinese company whose consumer and commercial
grade drones control nearly 90% of the market. These popular products
are cost-effective, easy to fly and operate, and <a href="https://www.dji.com/policy#8" target="_blank">send</a>
every byte of data they gather to servers in China. For this reason,
they are banned by the US military and Department of Homeland Security,
though still used by the FBI and increasingly by local police as "eyes
in the sky" during crime events. FBI use of DJI drones is especially
ironic considering bureau director Christopher Wray has warned often of
the dangers to western commerce posed by the Chinese, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-07/china-is-trying-to-ransack-western-companies-fbi-head-warns" target="_blank">most recently</a> in London.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The excellent reporting on DJI by Kitchen tracks efforts by the
company to lobby against passage of a bill called the American Security
Drone Act (ASDA), now before Congress, to outlaw federal government use
of DJI products entirely. What is the risk? Not only the data gathered
by the drones themselves, but everything collected by the mobile app
with which users control their drones and manage their DJI accounts.
Like many other mobile applications, this includes a user's contacts,
photos, GPS location, and online activities.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">To repeat: Every DJI drone in the skies above America is as good as a hovering Chinese spy.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Like other Chinese government-controlled companies such as Huawei and
Hikvision, makers of the artificial intelligence systems used in facial
recognition and in the repression of China's Uyghur minority, DJI is
adept at playing the Washington game. The company is engaged in a fierce
lobbying effort to prevent passage of the ASDA bill. So fierce that
they have enlisted police officers from local jurisdictions to come to
Washington and lobby congressional staffers about how great DJI drones
are for their cash-strapped local forces. As Kitchen points out, the
ASDA bill is directed only towards a federal ban on these drones, but
DJI lobbyists from firms like Squire Patton Boggs, Cassidy &
Associates, and CLS Strategies are taking no chances. The company spent
$2.2 million in lobbying efforts in 2020 and $1.4 million last year on
lobbying activities, according to <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/Lobby/clientlbs.php?id=D000069779&year=2020" target="_blank">OpenSecrets.org</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">These lobbyists are using the classic argument that it would be wrong
to ban the federal government's use of our product because <i>so many other people are using it</i>.
This is doubtless the dilemma currently facing the app stores of Apple
and Google regarding the TikTok app, another Chinese product. The TikTok
app has been <a href="https://www.techspot.com/news/95688-tiktok-app-browser-found-recording-keystrokes.html" target="_blank">identified</a> by cybersecurity professionals as containing a keystroke logger, and both Apple and Google have been <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/tech/fcc-google-apple-tiktok-block/index.html" target="_blank">pressured</a>
by the Federal Communications Commission to remove it from their app
stores. "Can we really ban something that so many people are happily
using?" they must be asking themselves.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Therein lies the heart of the Chinese approach. TikTok was a mobile device application that <i>no one</i>
was asking for, yet it became an overnight sensation in most western
countries. We really must acknowledge, and grudgingly admire, the
brilliant insight shown by the app's creator company,
Chinese-government-controlled ByteDance, into the psyche of large
numbers of young, western people. The TikTok app, pitched initially as a
way to share and watch silly dance video clips, has been adopted by
younger "woke" schoolteachers to "out" themselves as scheming,
haranguing social justice warriors intent on smuggling sexual ideology
into their classrooms and bragging about it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This adds some context to Republican Sen. Rob Portman's (R-OH)
exasperation at a Senate hearing about the ASDA legislation, where he <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/minority-media/government-officials-confirm-to-portman-that-biden-administration-is-purchasing-chinese-made-drones" target="_blank">said</a>:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Again, given what the FBI has told us, what the Commerce
Department has told us, what we know from reports, I can't believe we
have to write legislation to force US agencies to ban the use of
Chinese-made drones, particularly where the servers are in China, where
the Chinese government is a part owner and a supporter of this
particular company."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Chinese approach is to "capture" elite institutions and
individuals in the US: politicians, leading universities, large pension
funds, social media, and Hollywood among them. My latest book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Red-Handed-American-Elites-Helping-China/dp/0063061147/ref=sr_1_1?crid=29GRGB1XPXMXA&keywords=red+handed+peter+schweizer&qid=1642014224&sprefix=red+handed+schweizer%2Caps%2C435&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><i>Red Handed</i></a>,
documents this capture in the areas of politics, diplomatic and
business consulting, Big Tech, academia, and on Wall Street. There is
insight in the Soviet-era statement, attributed to Lenin, about
capitalists "selling us the rope with which to hang them." Yet, it is
the Chinese that understood how to sell the rope at a good price.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Much as they are doing with products such as solar panels, the
Chinese realize that cornering the market in an area where reach equals
access is critical to their long-term plans to dominate. Their pattern
includes stealing technology they cannot create themselves and using any
means available to aid in that theft. Therefore, every bit of access to
information they can scour is of more value to them than the product
used to get it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Understanding these patterns is crucial to recognizing that the Chinese do this to their own people as well. As Gordon Chang's <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18819/china-chinese-support" target="_blank">recent piece</a>
for the Gatestone Institute discusses, the Chinese Communist Party
maintains tight control of Chinese people overseas through many
different forms of what we may baldly call blackmail. The many stories
of intimidation of Chinese students and academics in the US who speak up
about human rights abuses by China, or in support for democracy in Hong
Kong and Taiwanese independence, all demonstrate this.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Universities have put up with this in exchange for foreign funds for
decades. They are only recently being confronted by the costs of this
indulgence. For example, the former chairman of Harvard University's
Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-convicted-making-false-statements-and-tax-offenses" target="_blank">convicted</a>
by a federal jury for lying to federal authorities about his
affiliation with the People's Republic of China's Thousand Talents
Program and the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in Wuhan, China, as
well as failing to report income he received from WUT.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Wilson Center, a bipartisan think tank in Washington, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/student-union_chinese-students-say-free-speech-us-chilled-china/6182548.html" target="_blank">reported</a>
in 2017 that a small community of PRC students and diplomats have
engaged in intimidation tactics ranging from intelligence gathering to
financial retaliation. "<a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/preliminary-study-prc-political-influence-and-interference-activities-american-higher" target="_blank">A Preliminary Study of PRC Political Influence and Interference Activities in American Higher Education</a>" examines PRC influence in American universities.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It was just those sorts of concerns that led the Trump administration to create the "<a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/nsd/information-about-department-justice-s-china-initiative-and-compilation-china-related" target="_blank">China Initiative</a>"
within the Justice Department in 2018. This effort generated plenty of
convictions of Chinese nationals in the US for technology theft and
other forms of industrial espionage. The Biden administration ended the
program this year, citing concerns that a broader approach was needed
and in response to <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/02/23/1046460/us-government-china-initiative-over/" target="_blank">lobbying</a>
by Asian American groups that it unfairly targeted scientists with
connections to China. Further, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen
also said he heard concerns from the academic community that
prosecutions of researchers for grant fraud and other charges was having
a "chilling effect."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Be that as it may, China's strategy has for years hinged on
infiltration by some Chinese scientists and researchers working abroad
in the US and other western nations, with threats against their Chinese
relatives as leverage for them to do so. This will remain a
counter-intelligence problem regardless of what the effort to expose it
is called.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is all part of the pattern. Call it sabotage by remote control.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Peter Schweizer, President of the Governmental
Accountability Institute, is a Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior
Fellow and author of the new book,</i> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Red-Handed-American-Elites-Helping-China/dp/0063061147?tag=governmacco01-20" target="_blank">Red Handed: How American Elites are Helping China Win</a>.</span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-49439634011440155652022-09-18T23:07:00.002-07:002022-09-18T23:07:21.142-07:00Iran and Russia: The New Alliance<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwEbR7DPblZAG4RP0yaTYYYOcQ-RRiIFj9vyXIW3QIGP5umkAYhDKqA3IYLgVKSLM1mPSbg-svP5GwL6r0H2jRJ7uhH2VWH4P4G5cRqS4-CoGgMtq4-4Hg0LePEy4z90SwNiBZR8XIRNyOl4G-6YStuA0mztoUE92g-xpAUzP3nVKo--xu-dJoTXc/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwEbR7DPblZAG4RP0yaTYYYOcQ-RRiIFj9vyXIW3QIGP5umkAYhDKqA3IYLgVKSLM1mPSbg-svP5GwL6r0H2jRJ7uhH2VWH4P4G5cRqS4-CoGgMtq4-4Hg0LePEy4z90SwNiBZR8XIRNyOl4G-6YStuA0mztoUE92g-xpAUzP3nVKo--xu-dJoTXc/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><br /><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">Iran and Russia: The New Alliance</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Judith+Bergman"><span itemprop="author">Judith Bergman</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-09-14T04:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">September 14, 2022 at 4:00 am</time></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18903/iran-russia-alliance">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18903/iran-russia-alliance</a> <br /></span></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Significantly, Russia and
Iran's cooperation extends to the military and space fields, with Russia
recently helping Iran to launch a new satellite into space.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Iran's Khayyam satellite "will greatly enhance Tehran's ability
to spy on military targets across the Middle East... [and give] Tehran
"unprecedented capabilities, including near-continuous monitoring of
sensitive facilities in Israel and the Persian Gulf." — <i>The Washington Post</i>, August 4, 2022.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Iran could share the imagery with pro-Iranian militia groups
across the region, from the Houthi rebels battling Saudi-backed
government forces in Yemen to Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon and
Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria." — Unnamed Middle Eastern official, <i>The Washington Post</i>, June 10, 2021.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"As Iran perfects its missile arsenal... alongside its growing
UAV capability throughout the Middle East –being able to sync those
capabilities with satellite capabilities and surveillance will only
increase the lethality of the Iranian threat." — Richard Goldberg,
former Iran analyst in the Trump administration's National Security
Council, <i>The Washington Post</i>, August 4, 2022.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Iran has also become a major developer and producer of drones....
Most recently, Iran claimed that it had developed a long-range suicide
drone "designed to hit Israel's Tel Aviv, Haifa."</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Despite this acknowledged "profound threat" emanating from the
mutually beneficial alliance between Russia and Iran, the Biden
administration nevertheless has been making dangerous concessions to
revive the nuclear deal, which would only deepen the threat and benefit
not only Iran, but also Russia.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Let us hope that the new "Iran nuclear deal," reportedly "off the table for the time being" is off the table for good.</span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="image-center"><figure class="image-captioned">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" height="239" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/3430.jpg" width="400" />
</span><figcaption><span style="font-family: verdana;">Russia and Iran's cooperation extends to the military and
space fields, with Russia recently helping Iran to launch a new
satellite into space. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi hold a meeting in Tehran on July 19,
2022. (Photo by Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)</span></figcaption>
</figure></div>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Iran and Russia have been strengthening their alliance recently, growing it gradually to such an extent that the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-and-russia-are-cementing-an-alliance-with-grain-drones-and-satellites-11661605200" target="_blank">wrote</a>
on August 27 that the two countries were "forging tighter ties than
ever," as both countries face continued international isolation.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In recent months, Russia and Iran have signed a multitude of
agreements, especially in trade, oil and gas, and military cooperation.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In June, an agreement on the establishment of mutual trade centers in St. Petersburg and Tehran was <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/06/iran-russia-establish-trade-centers" target="_blank">signed</a>,
to generate further trade between the two countries in the sectors of
energy, transportation, electronics, agriculture, food, pharmaceuticals
and construction, by helping Iranian and Russian businessmen establish
contacts and conduct financial transactions.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In May, Russia and Iran <a href="https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2022/05/26/2717165/iran-russia-sign-energy-banking-mous" target="_blank">signed</a>
agreements on settling their trade and energy payments in their
national currencies instead of the US dollar. In addition, they agreed
to continue talks to connect their electronic payment systems as well as
their financial messaging systems. Since then, Russia and Iran have <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2022/07/29/russia-and-iran-experiment-with-stripping-dollars-from-their-bilateral-trade/?sh=2ccdf56d81c1" target="_blank">gradually begun trading</a> in their national currencies.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 2021, the volume of bilateral trade between Russia and Iran <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-25/russia-iran-tighten-trade-ties-amid-us-sanctions-interfax-says" target="_blank">increased</a>
by 81% from the previous year, rising to $3.3 billion. In January,
after a two-day visit to Moscow, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi <a href="https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/469285/Tehran-Moscow-eyeing-10b-trade-target" target="_blank">said</a> that the two countries would increase trade even further.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"We agreed to remove trade barriers and boost the
economic exchanges between the two countries. Currently, the level of
mutual trade is not acceptable, so the two countries agreed to increase
trade to $10 billion a year. The two countries can take steps to break
the dominance of the dollar over monetary and banking relations and
trade with the national currency."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">During Raisi's visit, the two countries also signed agreements to deepen energy cooperation and in July, Russia <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/07/russia-invest-40-billion-irans-oil-sector" target="_blank">announced</a>
that it would invest $40 billion in Iran's oil industry, Russia's
largest ever investment in Iran. Russia announced the investment deal as
Russian President Vladimir Putin was visiting Iran for talks.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://en.irna.ir/news/84826127/Supreme-Leader-receives-Russian-president" target="_blank">According</a>
to Iranian state news outlet IRNA, Putin and Raisi "discussed ways for
expansion of bilateral relations in different areas, including energy,
transit, trade exchanges and regional developments as well."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Significantly, Russia and Iran's cooperation extends to the military
and space fields, with Russia recently helping Iran to launch a new
satellite into space: On August 9, Russia <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-launches-iranian-satellite-into-space-under-shadow-western-concerns-2022-08-09/" target="_blank">launched</a> Iran's new Khayyam surveillance satellite from the Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The launch of the satellite is a telling example of the kind of
dangers that a strengthened Russian-Iranian alliance poses to US
interests.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Iran's Khayyam satellite "will greatly enhance Tehran's ability to spy on military targets across the Middle East," <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/04/russia-iran-spy-satellite/" target="_blank">according to</a> unnamed Western and Middle Eastern officials quoted by the <i>Washington Post</i>.
The satellite's high-resolution camera apparently gives Tehran
"unprecedented capabilities, including near-continuous monitoring of
sensitive facilities in Israel and the Persian Gulf."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Iran will also be able to "task" the new satellite to spy on
locations of its choosing, as often as it wishes, according to the
officials.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"It's not the best in the world, but it's high resolution and very
good for military aims," a Middle Eastern official familiar with the
hardware of the satellite <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/iran-russia-satellite/2021/06/10/d28978f0-c9ab-11eb-81b1-34796c7393af_story.html" target="_blank">told</a> the <i>Washington Post</i> in June 2021.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Iran could share the imagery with pro-Iranian militia
groups across the region, from the Houthi rebels battling Saudi-backed
government forces in Yemen to Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon and
Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"This is obviously a clear and present danger to the United States and our allies in the Middle East and abroad," <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/04/russia-iran-spy-satellite/" target="_blank">said</a> Richard Goldberg, a former Iran analyst in the Trump administration's National Security Council.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"As Iran perfects its missile arsenal – from short-,
medium- to longer-range missiles, alongside its growing UAV capability
throughout the Middle East –being able to sync those capabilities with
satellite capabilities and surveillance will only increase the lethality
of the Iranian threat."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">For the time being, however, the Iranian satellite is meant to be
helping Russia's war effort in Ukraine, another example of the mutual
benefits accruing to both Russia and Iran from their alliance.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Russia, which has struggled to achieve its military objectives
during its five-month-old assault on Ukraine, told Tehran that it plans
to use the satellite for several months, or longer, to enhance its
surveillance of military targets in that conflict," the <i>Washington Post</i> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/04/russia-iran-spy-satellite/" target="_blank">wrote</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Equally significantly, Iran is now actively helping Russia with its
war effort in Ukraine, which puts on display the extremely negative
effects of the new Russian-Iranian alliance.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Russia has ordered hundreds of Iranian military drones as Russia
suffers from a severe lack of attack drones that are precision-capable.
Russia has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/29/iran-drones-russia-ukraine-war/" target="_blank">bought</a> at least two kinds of drones from Iran, the Mohajer-6 and the Shahed-series drones. The first batch of drones, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/29/iran-drones-russia-ukraine-war/" target="_blank">according</a> to the <i>Washington Post</i>, was picked up by Russian cargo flights in late August. Iran <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-has-begun-training-russia-to-use-its-advanced-drones-u-s-says-11660135921?mod=article_inline" target="_blank">reportedly</a> has been training Russian soldiers in using them in Russia's war in Ukraine. On September 13, Ukraine <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/ukraine-military-claims-downing-iran-drone-russia-89801492" target="_blank">said</a> that it had shot down an Iranian-produced Shahed drone.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Iran has become a major developer and producer of drones. In October 2021, the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/irans-armed-drone-prowess-reshapes-security-in-middle-east-11633530266?mod=article_inline" target="_blank">reported</a>
the concern of defense officials from the United States, Israel and
Europe that Iran's progress in developing, building and deploying drones
was changing the security situation in the Middle East region.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The drones themselves are often made with widely available
components used in the ever-growing commercial drone market and by
hobbyists, the officials say," the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/irans-armed-drone-prowess-reshapes-security-in-middle-east-11633530266?mod=article_inline" target="_blank">reported</a>.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Some mimic the designs of Israeli and American military
drones... Tehran's engineers rely on imported components to create
aerial vehicles that can accurately strike targets at long distance and
rapidly change direction to avoid air defenses and radar, say European
and Middle Eastern security officials who have studied wreckages of the
drones."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Most recently, Iran <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-says-it-has-developed-drone-designed-hit-israels-tel-aviv-haifa-mehr-news-2022-09-12/" target="_blank">claimed</a> that it had developed a long-range suicide drone "designed to hit Israel's Tel Aviv, Haifa."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In July, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan <a href="https://editorials.voa.gov/a/russia-and-iran-deepening-their-relationship/6687303.html" target="_blank">denounced</a> the new cooperation between Russia and Iran:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Russia deepening an alliance with Iran to kill
Ukrainians is something that the whole world should look at and see as a
profound threat."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Despite this acknowledged "profound threat" emanating from the
mutually beneficial alliance between Russia and Iran, the Biden
administration nevertheless has been making dangerous concessions to
revive the nuclear deal, which would only deepen the threat and benefit
not only Iran, but also Russia.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Several of Russia's top state-controlled nuclear companies stand to
gain billions of dollars in revenue as part of a new nuclear accord with
Iran that will waive sanctions on these firms so that they can build up
Tehran's nuclear infrastructure," the Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/exposed-the-russian-companies-that-will-get-billions-from-new-iran-nuclear-deal/" target="_blank">reported</a> in April.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Russia's state-controlled Rosatom energy firm and at
least four of its major subsidiaries will receive sanctions waivers
under a new accord so that they can complete nuclear projects in Iran
worth more than $10 billion, according to the 2019 document, which
details all the Russian entities involved in these projects. With a new
nuclear accord being finalized, the Biden administration has repeatedly
guaranteed Russia that it will not face sanctions for its work on
Iranian nuclear sites, even as Moscow faces a barrage of international
penalties for its unprovoked war in Ukraine. The Biden administration
renewed a series of sanctions waivers to permit Russia's nuclear work in
Iran as part of a package of concessions meant to entice both countries
into signing a new accord."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Let us hope that the new "Iran nuclear deal," <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/nuclear-deal-with-iran-off-the-table-for-time-being-us-has-indicated-to-israel/" target="_blank">reportedly</a> "off the table for the time being" is off the table for good.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
<span class="no_print"><ul style="font-style: italic;"><li>Follow Judith Bergman on <a href="https://twitter.com/judithbergman">Twitter</a></li></ul>
</span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-89432792563591969292022-09-18T22:58:00.001-07:002022-09-18T22:58:17.033-07:00Europe's Energy Crisis<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW9PvusR0Hek5FpUqpQg_YZXCf9t8DutOFZ11eFAYo20Ft253s-fVgMzaeEKbFiB0Zom1OkG4GdMM5MVduokx5nU_8-AOFf8Z2rSEuaordAeVbPipRVg4-_gSPGAaIgn9qmsiQKf4Z3Ikjxr0rO3clFTLVsYWQfGxJHUHsddMvHD74v-dMTGbshiF4/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW9PvusR0Hek5FpUqpQg_YZXCf9t8DutOFZ11eFAYo20Ft253s-fVgMzaeEKbFiB0Zom1OkG4GdMM5MVduokx5nU_8-AOFf8Z2rSEuaordAeVbPipRVg4-_gSPGAaIgn9qmsiQKf4Z3Ikjxr0rO3clFTLVsYWQfGxJHUHsddMvHD74v-dMTGbshiF4/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div> <br /><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">Europe's Energy Crisis</h1>
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Pete+Hoekstra"><span itemprop="author">Pete Hoekstra</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-09-16T05:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">September 16, 2022 at 5:00 am</time></b></p><p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18907/europe-energy-crisis"><time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-09-16T05:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18907/europe-energy-crisis</time></a><b><time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-09-16T05:00:00" itemprop="datePublished"> <br /></time></b></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In response to Russia
severely restricting or cutting off gas supplies, EU governments will
take dramatic actions over the coming months. Germany recently announced
it would keep two of the nuclear plants it was shuttering as backups,
just in case. EU leaders will then go back to the voters and describe
the amazing job they did while failing to mention they were the ones who
made the decisions that put their countries in this crisis in the first
place.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The entire current crisis was avoidable if the EU had developed a
rational plan instead of one based on a daydream, no matter how
enticing.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The U.S. needs urgently to examine what is happening in Europe
and develop a rational energy transition plan. Any long-term solution
must include strategies for <i>reliable</i> power production, affordable sustainable energy and a massively strengthened electrical grid.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Europe's plan was built on the hope that consumers would accept
higher prices, that Russia and Putin would be reliable, and that battery
storage technology would be robust enough to cover the times when "the
wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine."</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This strategy, sadly always doomed to failure, provides a cautionary tale for "solutions" based solely on hope.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The U.S. should not repeat the same mistakes as the EU by
continuing down a path that cuts domestic fossil fuel production, bans
gasoline-powered vehicles, and ignores that the power generation
capacity and energy infrastructure are not in place to achieve an
unrealistic and unfortunately unsustainable green agenda.</span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="image-center"><figure class="image-captioned">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="" height="267" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/4413.jpg" width="400" />
</span><figcaption><span style="font-family: verdana;">In response to Russia severely restricting or cutting off
gas supplies, EU governments will take dramatic actions over the coming
months. Germany recently announced it would keep two of the nuclear
plants it was shuttering as<u> </u>backups, just in case. Pictured: The
Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant, one of two that the German
government plans to allow to continue running as a backup. (Photo by
Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images)</span></figcaption>
</figure></div>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Europe is facing a growing energy crisis. Individuals and industries
are being battered by rising energy costs. On August 31, Russia shut
down the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Germany for initially what was
supposed to be 72 hours, but followed by an announcement of "<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gazprom-siemens-energy-ready-fix-nord-stream-1-faults-no-worksite-available-2022-09-03/" target="_blank">technical difficulties</a>" that would prevent a resumption. Russian energy giant Gazprom also <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-30/engie-says-gazprom-to-reduce-gas-deliveries-starting-tuesday" target="_blank">announced</a>
that natural gas supplies to French energy company Engie SA would be
immediately reduced. These actions have created significant uncertainty
and the threat of much higher energy prices in Europe as the cold winter
season approaches.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Netherlands last month, I had the opportunity to discuss the
skyrocketing energy costs. Monthly utility bills of 400 to 600 euros are
not unusual. One company said it was spending four times the amount for
natural gas than a year ago. The company indicated because of these
higher costs, it would be cutting its production by 50% this winter.
Most European Union countries are experiencing an <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/pressure-for-eu-level-intervention-in-energy-market-mounts-amid-soaring-prices/" target="_blank">eight-fold increase</a> in energy prices.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Both Germany and the Netherlands have been seeing extreme energy price spikes. Germany's prices surged to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/29/energy/europe-power-prices/index.html" target="_blank">1,050 euros</a> per megawatt hour (MWh) before falling to 610 euros in August. Last year, the approximate cost was only <a href="https://ebonyst.net/from-85-to-1000-euros-per-megawatt-hour-electricity-prices-in-france-and-germany-break-new-records" target="_blank">85 euros</a> per MWh.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This dramatic inflation in energy costs is resulting in predictable
actions with unpredictable outcomes. The Dutch have reported demand
destruction. This means that when the price for a product increases, the
demand for it decreases. What we are seeing in Europe is significant
decrease in demand for energy because of the huge price increases. An
example is the business that will cut production by 50% because energy
costs have significantly increased the costs of their end product,
resulting in a 50% cut in demand for their product.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Dutch used <a href="https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2022/08/gas-usage-dropped-by-a-quarter-in-first-half-of-2022/" target="_blank">25% less natural gas</a>
in the first six months of 2022 than they did in the comparable period
in 2021 — primarily due to customers' responses to the higher prices and
mercifully somewhat milder than expected temperatures.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The EU has already <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/eu-plans-emergency-intervention-to-halt-energy-price-rise/" target="_blank">asked</a>
member states to cut energy use by 15% this winter. When it comes to
Russian gas supplies, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
<a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/von-der-leyen-eu-prepare-for-worst-russian-gas-supplies/31969177.html" target="_blank">warned</a> Europe to prepare for the "worst situation." Meanwhile, the Norwegian energy company Equinor <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/wide-demand-reduction-only-feasible-solution-europe-energy-crisis-equinor-2022-09-06/" target="_blank">estimates</a>
that European power companies will need to find 1.5 trillion euros to
cover the costs of margin calls related to soaring energy prices. Europe
and the West look as if they will be in for a rough, expensive winter.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Predictably, EU government leaders believe that the EU and its member states "must act." <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europes-efforts-shield-households-soaring-energy-costs-2022-08-26/" target="_blank">Several countries</a>
have already unilaterally implemented measures -- from imposing price
caps to direct government handouts to deal with the immediate costs of
the crisis. At the EU level, there now appears to be a consensus that
the entire energy market structure must be <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/pressure-for-eu-level-intervention-in-energy-market-mounts-amid-soaring-prices/" target="_blank">redesigned</a>,
and quickly. They seem to be hoping that this might be completed by
early 2023, but none of these actions is laying the foundation for a
long-term, workable energy solution.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The reality, however, is that this situation did not develop
overnight and will not be fixed overnight. Despite European politicians
blaming all this on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's
invasion of Ukraine, the root causes go deeper.<b> The EU made a commitment
to sustainability and so-called green energy years ago. </b>Germany,
Austria, Italy and the Netherlands are now reportedly going back to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/germany-coal-renewable-energy-climate-russia-1.6500354" target="_blank">coal-fired</a> plants to save on natural gas usage. Experts in Germany <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/germany-coal-renewable-energy-climate-russia-1.6500354" target="_blank">say</a> the coalition government is "trying to buy time with coal so that it can come up with a more sustainable long-term solution."</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">In January, Germany <a href="https://catalyst.independent.org/2022/01/28/germany-shutters-nuclear/" target="_blank">closed half</a>
of its six remaining nuclear power plants despite rising energy costs.
Germany's lofty sustainable climate goals did not include plans on how
to replace the energy that was being provided by its safe, clean and
reliable nuclear power plants.</span></b></span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Instead, to achieve its climate utopia, Germany decided that it would
become more dependent on Russian gas, that consumers willingly would
pay higher prices, and that it could turn to power from far <a href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nuclear-power-most-reliable-energy-source-and-its-not-even-close" target="_blank">less reliable</a> wind and solar energy. This fantasy became the model across the EU, and the EU has no one else to blame for the results.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The frustrating outcome is that businesses, families and individuals
will be forced to shoulder the burden caused by unwise policy decisions
by their leaders. As one Dutch farmer said, their governments are run by
a bunch of bureaucrats who sit in chairs and have no real-world
experience. It might be worth adding they also have no accountability.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In response to Russia severely restricting or cutting off gas
supplies, EU governments will take dramatic actions over the coming
months. Germany recently <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/06/germany-to-keep-two-nuclear-plants-available-as-a-backup-burn-coal-.html" target="_blank">announced</a>
it would keep two of the nuclear plants it was shuttering as backups,
just in case. EU leaders will then go back to the voters and describe
the amazing job they did while failing to mention they were the ones who
made the decisions that put their countries in this crisis in the first
place.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The entire current crisis was avoidable if the EU had developed a
rational plan instead of one based on a daydream, no matter how
enticing.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The U.S. needs urgently to examine what is happening in Europe and
develop a rational energy transition plan. Any long-term solution must
include strategies for <i>reliable</i> power production, sustainable energy and a massively strengthened electrical grid.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Europe's plan was built on the hope that consumers would accept
higher prices, that Russia and Putin would be reliable, and that <a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/why-we-need-to-tackle-renewable-energys-storage-problem/" target="_blank">battery storage technology</a> would be robust enough to cover the times when "the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine."</span></b></p><b>
</b><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">This strategy, sadly always doomed to failure, provides a cautionary tale for "solutions" based solely on hope.</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The U.S. should not repeat the same mistakes as the EU by continuing
down a path that cuts domestic fossil fuel production, bans
gasoline-powered vehicles, and ignores that the power generation
capacity and energy infrastructure are not in place to achieve an
unrealistic and unfortunately unsustainable green agenda.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Peter Hoekstra was US Ambassador to the Netherlands
during the Trump administration. He served 18 years in the U.S. House of
Representatives representing the second district of Michigan and served
as Chairman and Ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. He
is currently Chairman of the Center for Security Policy Board of
Advisors, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-35738656310293745252022-09-18T22:48:00.005-07:002022-09-18T22:48:54.980-07:00China's Commentary on Mistakes of Gorbachev to Make Sure the Chinese Communist Party Endures<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggldLifB6bBlZu4NRk8kZVW3teoyJ_KZi4sWw-GERiC_orHfSC-7Hn9z3D9eNfqKOLcBDgjIAZ87bv0xwK8VKEjg71UnRSRjGWmbR-1l7x0bUe3bOSsnOPG1011H_2w7YvAPmppOIAULYF89SXLFSmjWexCI_A5H7FNHRWS-NrRXSuYQ6BE7VxP4ed/s291/GATESTONE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggldLifB6bBlZu4NRk8kZVW3teoyJ_KZi4sWw-GERiC_orHfSC-7Hn9z3D9eNfqKOLcBDgjIAZ87bv0xwK8VKEjg71UnRSRjGWmbR-1l7x0bUe3bOSsnOPG1011H_2w7YvAPmppOIAULYF89SXLFSmjWexCI_A5H7FNHRWS-NrRXSuYQ6BE7VxP4ed/s1600/GATESTONE.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><br /><p></p><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;">China's Commentary on Mistakes of Gorbachev to Make Sure the Chinese Communist Party Endures</h1>
<b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Lawrence+A.+Franklin"><span itemprop="author">Lawrence A. Franklin</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-09-15T04:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">September 15, 2022</time></b><p> <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18899/communist-china-gorbachev">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18899/communist-china-gorbachev</a></p><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Social commentary by Chinese
Communist Party organs continue to urge members to be vigilant against
the West's strategy of "peaceful evolution," meaning the eventual
adoption by the Party of reforms that might sap it of its revolutionary
aggressive stance against liberal democracies.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Under Xi's tutelage, the CCP strengthened its role in the life of
the ordinary Chinese citizen. President Xi galvanized CCP bureaucrats
to accelerate a mass migration of China's rural peasantry to urbanized
environments. Consequently, tens of millions of Chinese were forced to
learn new skills in manufacturing jobs. This transformation helped lift
many out of abject poverty, thereby expanding China's middle class as
well as the domestic market for Chinese goods. The urbanization process
also helped the CCP to better control China's huge population by
concentrating people in cities.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The USSR had failed to improve the quality of life of the Soviet
citizenry. CCP leaders possibly reasoned that, because of this failure,
Soviet citizens began to challenge Communist rule.... As openness became
the norm, people in the USSR quickly saw that citizens in Western
countries had freer and more comfortable lives.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Instead of imitating Gorbachev's "Glasnost" (political openness)
China constructed the "Great Firewall" which filters all traffic on the
Chinese Internet. Chinese authorities also ban the citizenry access to
Facebook and Wikipedia.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China conducts its diplomatic relations even with foreign
countries strictly on a transactional business basis. The CCP did not
seek to export its revolution violently, as did Iran. Beijing also
refused to allow its few allies, such as Pakistan, to drain its national
resources. That was another self-inflicted burden that Moscow
shouldered: its burden of bankrupt colonies in Eastern Europe.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China, instead, is offering its own model of governance -- a
one-party system, tight control, a controlled economy, social stability
rather than individual freedoms, internet control, and "to protect the
dominant role of the CPC" -- to the world as a viable alternative to the
American system.... China remains resolute in its campaigns against any
movement that might possess the energy to compete with the CCP, whether
the Falun Gong movement or Christianity.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China's leaders apparently still worry, otherwise they would not
be investing such enormous resources in domestic espionage and
repressing their own people.</span></p></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="image-center"><figure class="image-captioned">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" height="266" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/1466.jpg" width="400" />
</span><figcaption><span style="font-family: verdana;">China remains resolute in its campaigns against any movement
that might possess the energy to compete with the Chinese Communist
Party. China's leaders invest enormous resources in domestic espionage
and repressing their own people. Pictured: China's President Xi Jinping
(standing in vehicle) inspects People's Liberation Army soldiers at a
military base in Hong Kong on June 30, 2017. (Photo by Dale de la
Rey/AFP via Getty Images)</span></figcaption>
</figure></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Chinese Communist Party (CCP) commentators reacting to the death of
Mikhail Gorbachev blamed the former Soviet leader for the demise of the
Soviet Union. Hu Xijin, former editor of the CCP's <i>Global Times</i>, <a href="https://twitter.com/huxijin_gt/status/1564822170190000128" target="_blank">wrote</a>
that Gorbachev garnered praise in the West "by selling out the
interests of his homeland." Xiang Ligang, a hardline journalist on
international relations, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/31/china-gorbachev-death-soviet-union-communism/" target="_blank">claimed</a>
that Gorbachev was responsible for the war in Ukraine and unspecified
disasters to follow. State controlled academia echoed similar themes.
Beijing-based Renmin University Political Science Professor <a href="https://usa.ant777.club/china-reacts-to-gorbachevs-death-denouncing-the-fall-of-the-soviet-union/" target="_blank">Shi Yinhong</a> said: "The Chinese Communist Party is very critical of [Gorbachev], believing that he betrayed the Soviet Union."</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Although more than 30 years have passed since the collapse of the
Soviet Union, the CCP remains deeply troubled by the sudden
disappearance of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Just
this past July, the CCP re-issued a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-spins-new-lesson-from-soviet-union8217s-fall-1386732800" target="_blank">six part documentary</a> detailing ideological "lessons learned" from the failure of the CPSU. The film, entitled "<a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/825489.shtml" target="_blank">Silent Contest</a><u>,</u>"
is mandatory viewing for CCP members. Political training courses on
"The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union" are part of the curriculum in
all <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/20/1018501211/how-chinas-communist-party-schools-are-keeping-its-revolutionary-spirit-alive" target="_blank">Party schools</a>.
During President Xi Jinping's tenure as CCP leader, countless articles
and Party-sponsored study groups on CPSU failures continue.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Xi, almost immediately upon his installment as CCP General Secretary in 2012, <a href="https://www.the-american-interest.com/2013/02/15/xi-jinping-is-no-reformist/" target="_blank">warned</a> that "Our Party must never find itself afflicted with the poisonous mix of ideological heresy, military disloyalty<u>,</u> and corruption." Xi has repeatedly <a href="https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/xi-warns-of-soviet-style-collapse-if-faced-with-dissent" target="_blank">lectured</a>
CCP members that the Party "will never permit subversive heresies on
fundamental issues." Social commentary by CCP organs continue to urge
members to be vigilant against the West's strategy of "<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-spins-new-lesson-from-soviet-union8217s-fall-1386732800" target="_blank">peaceful evolution</a>,"
meaning the eventual adoption by the Party of reforms that might sap it
of its revolutionary aggressive stance against liberal democracies. Xi
seems to have expressed his personal regret at the expungement of the
CPSU when he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/world/europe/china-xi-gorbachev-russia.html" target="_blank">remarked</a>, "In the end, nobody was a real man, nobody came out to resist."</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">CCP leaders painfully remember that <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/china-looks-at-gorbachev-s-legacy-as-a-lesson-101661916509580.html" target="_blank">Gorbachev's visit</a>
to China in 1989 coincided with about a million Chinese demonstrators
protesting in the streets of China's capital, Beijing. These protests
were embarrassing to the regime, as protestors forced Gorbachev's
motorcade to use the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-05-16-fi-191-story.html" target="_blank">back entrance</a>
of the Great Hall of the People and made Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping
alter his plans for celebrating the restoration of friendly party
relations between the CCP and the CPSU. Two weeks later, on June 4,
1989, CCP leaders ordered a bloody <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45305304" target="_blank">crackdown</a>
by dispatching the Peoples' Liberation Army to fire on student
demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. The CCP clearly believes it made the
correct decision to save both the Party and the Chinese state, an
opinion <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-security-tiananmen/chinese-defense-minister-says-tiananmen-crackdown-was-justified" target="_blank">echoed</a> by China's Defense Minister Wei Fenghe during a 2019 visit to Singapore on the 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the crackdown.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China, in its opening to the global market in the 1980s under Deng,
unlike Gorbachev's "Perestroika" (economic restructuring), continued to
protect <a href="https://www.bruegel.org/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/PC-05-2021.pdf" target="_blank">state-owned enterprises</a> with financial support. China established an economic model that Beijing calls "<a href="https://www.qiaocollective.com/education/socialism-with-chinese-characteristics" target="_blank">Socialism with Chinese Characteristics</a>."</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Beijing demanded a high price from Western companies investing in the Chinese domestic market. Foreign firms were <a href="https://www.piie.com/blogs/china-economic-watch/does-china-force-foreign-firms-surrender-their-sensitive-technology" target="_blank">forced</a>
to surrender trade and technological secrets, and no Western company
was permitted to own a majority of stock in a Chinese company.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Under Xi's tutelage, the CCP strengthened its role in the life of the
ordinary Chinese citizen. Xi galvanized CCP bureaucrats to accelerate a
mass <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-urbanisation/china-says-to-ensure-orderly-rural-urban-migration-idUKKBN0FZ0GI20140730" target="_blank">migration</a>
of China's rural peasantry to urbanized environments. Consequently,
tens of millions of Chinese were forced to learn new skills in
manufacturing jobs. This transformation helped lift many out of abject
poverty, thereby expanding China's <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/fp_20201012_china_middle_class_kharas_dooley.pdf" target="_blank">middle class</a>
as well as the domestic market for Chinese goods. The urbanization
process also helped the CCP to better control China's huge population by
concentrating people in cities.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Xi's <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/can-xi-jinpings-governing-strategy-succeed/" target="_blank">governing strategy</a>
gamble is that by raising the individual's standard of living and
quality of life, the Chinese people will continue to permit the Party to
maintain its monopoly on political affairs. The USSR had failed to
improve the quality of life of the Soviet citizenry. CCP leaders
possibly reasoned that, because of this failure, Soviet citizens began
to challenge Communist rule. The Chinese regime blamed Gorbachev's
policy of "<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-26/ussr-collapsed-30-years-ago-china-tries-to-avoid-same-fate/100705112" target="_blank">Glasnost</a>"
(political openness) for making matters in the Soviet Union even more
unstable for the government. As openness became the norm, people in the
USSR quickly realized that citizens in Western countries had freer and
more comfortable lives.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China's Communist regime implemented several specific measures to
guarantee that the People's Republic and the CCP did not suffer a
similar fate as did the Soviet Union and the CPSU. Instead of imitating
Gorbachev's "Glasnost," China constructed the "<a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-06-23/china-great-firewall-foreign-domestic-virtual-censorship" target="_blank">Great Firewall</a>," which filters all traffic on the Chinese internet. Chinese authorities also ban the citizenry access to Facebook and <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/05/wikipedia-china-block-censorship-tiananmen-square.html" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">For decades, China's "Consensus policy" decision makers avoided
expensive foreign adventures like Moscow's 1979-1989 occupation of
Afghanistan. The Chinese also steered clear of entanglements in proxy
conflicts, as opposed to the Soviet Union in Africa, Asia, and Latin
America during the Cold War.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China conducts its diplomatic relations even with foreign countries
strictly on a transactional business basis. The CCP did not seek to
export its revolution violently, as did Iran. Beijing also refused to
allow its few allies, such as Pakistan, to drain its national resources.
That was another self-inflicted burden that Moscow shouldered: its
burden of bankrupt colonies in Eastern Europe.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China, instead, is offering its own <a href="https://russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/made-in-china-why-would-china-export-its-governance-model/" target="_blank">model of governance</a>
-- a one-party system, tight control, a controlled economy, social
stability rather than individual freedoms, internet control, and "to
protect the dominant role of the CPC" -- to the world as a viable
alternative to the American system. The Chinese Communist Party
continues to study intensely the reasons for the Soviet Union's passage
to oblivion, and seems to be implementing what it evidently believes to
be a foolproof surveillance system that will prevent a similar collapse.
China remains resolute in its campaigns against any movement that might
possess the energy to compete with the CCP, whether the <a href="https://faluninfo.net/why-is-falun-gong-is-persecuted-in-china/" target="_blank">Falun Gong</a> movement or Christianity.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">China's leaders apparently still worry, otherwise they would not be
investing such enormous resources in domestic espionage and repressing
their own people.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the
U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
</div><p> </p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-17930423579602402372022-07-10T02:22:00.001-07:002022-07-10T02:23:47.708-07:00Giulio Meotti, Brussels: Capital of Europe or Eurabia?<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFGQwY_bcyTAELZHMhyUZDmieyuUU5BrTXUdxkEydBH5exdvHxBYHHBIKG39RVDWiOxzoZsa_HiA9-QsPp1UP08zdqdAb-k64niCTVYekJkkuOc_T12DT_G2oGwNf_fW7UMwk6LXewLRl-KQ9qsxCTjX6h1x80-fU-uBDjgrziVUNst14Stk_P3mMO/s291/GATESTONE.tiff" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="291" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFGQwY_bcyTAELZHMhyUZDmieyuUU5BrTXUdxkEydBH5exdvHxBYHHBIKG39RVDWiOxzoZsa_HiA9-QsPp1UP08zdqdAb-k64niCTVYekJkkuOc_T12DT_G2oGwNf_fW7UMwk6LXewLRl-KQ9qsxCTjX6h1x80-fU-uBDjgrziVUNst14Stk_P3mMO/s1600/GATESTONE.tiff" width="291" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div id="print_content"><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Brussels: Capital of Europe or Eurabia?</span></h1>
<div class="byline">
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Giulio+Meotti"><span itemprop="author">Giulio Meotti</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-07-10T05:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">July 10, 2022 at 5:00 am</time></b></span></p>
</div>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="no_print nocontent" id="links" style="border-bottom: 1px solid gray; margin: 10px 0px 5px;">
<tbody><tr><td style="color: #525252; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 3px 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></td>
<td style="color: #525252; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 3px 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></td>
</tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div itemprop="description">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Molenbeek would love to be
forgotten, because it is the very example of the failure of the
multicultural society, which remains an untouchable dogma in Belgium".
-- Alain Destexhe, former Belgian senator and general secretary of
Doctors Without Borders, <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/societe/molenbeek-quand-un-depute-socialiste-n-y-reconnait-plus-la-belgique-20220503"><i>Le Figaro</i></a>, May 3, 2022</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"[I]n the Brussels region as a whole only a quarter of Belgians
are of Belgian origin.... Molenbeek is in fact only the tip of the
iceberg of the progressive Islamization in all the major Belgian cities.
Islam is increasingly visible in the public space of Molenbeek, and in
the month of Ramadan almost all the shops and restaurants in the city
are closed during the day. In many neighborhoods, women are no longer
able to dress however they want or go out at night, and homosexuals have
no right of citizenship. There are, however, hardly any voices to worry
about this development, as if French-speaking Belgium, anesthetized in
unison by the multicultural media, had resigned itself". – Alain
Destexhe, former Belgian senator and general secretary of Doctors
Without Borders, <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/societe/molenbeek-quand-un-depute-socialiste-n-y-reconnait-plus-la-belgique-20220503"><i>Le Figaro</i></a>, May 3, 2022</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Today the Muslim Brotherhood... continues its lobbying and blame
games with its imaginary Trojan horse: Islamophobia". -- Assita Kanko,
Belgian MEP, who fled Burkina Faso to look for freedom in Europe;
cofoe.euractive.com, December 20, 2021</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"<span style="background-color: #fcff01;">The aim is clear: normalise radical Islamic codes and ways of
life in order gradually to transform our Western societies instead of
adapting to our European way of life.</span> As a black woman and a secular
Muslim, I know what it is to live under Islamic pressure and I know what
it takes to emancipate oneself in order to finally live in dignity....
Europe must urgently pull itself together and reaffirm its commitment to
its own values...." -- Assita Kanko, Belgian MEP, who fled Burkina Faso
to look for freedom in Europe; cofoe.euractive.com, December 20, 2021</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Where will we be in 50 years? All of Europe - inshallah - will
be Muslim. So, have children!" – Brahim Laytouss, president of the
Islamic Cultural Center of Belgium, dhnet.be, March 5, 2019</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The greatest form of cultural racism in Europe today is that of
EU elites who censor or support this spectacular change of civilization.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Of all the European capitals, Brussels is the one through which
the Islamist project intends to spread to Europe. Their lobbies are
powerful there, so it is much easier for Islamists to break into the
system and gradually transform it". -- Djemila Benhabi, Camadian
journalist, lecho.com</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"[I]n exchange [for oil], the Saudi king asked the Belgian king
Baudouin to grant Arabia a monopoly on representing Islam and appointing
imams in Belgium". The Belgian government officially recognized the
Islamic religion. It was the first European country to do so. There
followed the inclusion of the Islamic religion in the school curriculum.
-- Alain Chouet, former "number two" of the DGSE, the French
counterintelligence service, from his new book: "<a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/le-salafisme-voila-l-ennemi-un-ancien-responsable-de-la-dgse-brise-le-silence-20220204">Sept pas vers l'enfer</a>" ["Seven Steps to Hell"]</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Eurabia" was born in those years, the years of an energy crisis, European weakness and the great rise of Islam. Sound familiar?</span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; max-width: 600px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/3106.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" /></span><p style="font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Riot
police guard a road in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, after raids
in which several people, including Salah Abdeslam, one of the
perpetrators of the November 2015 Paris attacks, were arrested on March
18, 2016. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)</span></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">While <a href="https://www.7sur7.be/belgique/bruxelles-conquise-par-les-nouveaux-arrivants-les-propos-dun-journaliste-de-la-vrt-ne-passent-pas~a31454aa/" target="_blank">Lieven Verstraete</a>,
an acclaimed Belgian journalist who hosts the program, "De Zevende Dag"
("The Seventh Day"), was recently interviewing two members of the Green
Party, he raised the issue of immigration and called Brussels "the
perfect example of a city whose neighborhoods are conquered one by one
by newcomers".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Newcomers? Conquered?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"How?" replied Nadia Naji, a politician of Molenbeek's Green party.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Well," Verstraete, visibly uncomfortable, tried to explain, "more
and more people with immigrant origins come to live there and claim
their place. Do you feel Belgian in Molenbeek?"</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A few hours after the broadcast, he apologized.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"In twenty years", the French newspaper <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2008/03/21/01003-20080321ARTFIG00068-l-islam-premiere-religiona-bruxelles-dans-vingt-ans.php" target="_blank"><i>Le Figaro</i></a> predicted about Brussels, "the European capital will be Muslim".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Almost a third of the population of Brussels already is Muslim", <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2008/03/21/01003-20080321ARTFIG00068-l-islam-premiere-religiona-bruxelles-dans-vingt-ans.php" target="_blank">stated</a>
Olivier Servais, a sociologist at the University of Louvain.
"Practitioners of Islam, due to their high birth rate, should be the
majority 'in fifteen-twenty years'. Since 2001, Mohamed has been the
most popular name among babies in Brussels".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Verstraete had told the truth -- but, as is said, in the time of universal deception, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Molenbeek would love to be forgotten, because it is the very example
of the failure of the multicultural society, which remains an
untouchable dogma in Belgium", <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/societe/molenbeek-quand-un-depute-socialiste-n-y-reconnait-plus-la-belgique-20220503" target="_blank">wrote</a>
Alain Destexhe, an honorary Senator in Belgium and former Secretary
General of Doctors Without Borders. He was talking about the case of <a href="https://www.brusselstimes.com/219614/conner-rousseau-socialist-leader-criticised-for-remarks-about-not-feeling-in-belgium-in-molenbeek-brussels" target="_blank">Conner Rousseau</a>, president of Vooruit, the Flemish socialist party, who recently told <i>Humo</i> magazine, "When I drive around Molenbeek, I do not feel [as if I am] in Belgium".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"I no longer dare to walk hand in hand with a man in Molenbeek", <a href="https://www.rtbf.be/article/gilles-verstraeten-je-nose-plus-me-balader-main-dans-la-main-avec-un-homme-a-molenbeek-10982774" target="_blank">Gilles Verstraeten</a>, a gay parliamentarian, confessed.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"[I]n the Brussels region as a whole", Destexhe <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/societe/molenbeek-quand-un-depute-socialiste-n-y-reconnait-plus-la-belgique-20220503" target="_blank">noted</a>,
"only a quarter of Belgians are of Belgian origin, 39 per cent of
Belgians are of foreign origin and 35 per cent are foreigners."</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Molenbeek is in fact only the tip of the iceberg of the
progressive Islamization in all the major Belgian cities. Islam is
increasingly visible in the public space of Molenbeek, and in the month
of Ramadan almost all the shops and restaurants in the city are closed
during the day. In many neighborhoods, women are no longer able to dress
however they want or go out at night, and homosexuals have no right of
citizenship. There are, however, hardly any voices to worry about this
development, as if French-speaking Belgium, anesthetized in unison by
the multicultural media, had resigned itself".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is true not just Brussels. <a href="https://katehon.com/en/article/antwerp-vlaams-belang-leader-denounces-islam-rooftops" target="_blank">Antwerp</a>, the country's second-largest city, is now 25% Muslim. Another parliamentarian, <a href="https://www.rtl.be/info/belgique/politique/-j-avais-prevu-de-ne-pas-sieger-au-parlement-flamand-mais-j-ai-change-d-avis-herman-de-croo-s-explique-1129631.aspx" target="_blank">Herman de Croo</a> , revealed that 78% of Antwerp's children aged 1-6 are foreigners.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The former Brussels Secretary of State <a href="https://www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/49612/too-many-no-go-areas-in-brussels-for-women-and-lgbt-says-minister/" target="_blank">Bianca Debaets</a> recently said, "there are too many areas where it is difficult for women and homosexuals to walk".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Chief Rabbi of Brussels, <a href="https://www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/49612/too-many-no-go-areas-in-brussels-for-women-and-lgbt-says-minister/" target="_blank">Albert Guigui</a>,
was attacked by a group of Arabs. They insulted him, spat on him and
kicked him. Since then, Guigui has not worn his skullcap in public.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">No Jew lives in the Gare du Nord district anymore. "There are hardly any Jews left in this neighborhood," remarked <a href="https://daardaar.be/rubriques/les-juifs-delaissent-la-commune-bruxelloise-de-schaerbeek/" target="_blank">Michel Laub</a>,
founder of the Museum of Deportation in Malines. "Yet this part of
Schaerbeek near the Gare du Nord was once an important Jewish quarter."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">For women, too, Brussels has become dangerous. "The Belgian
political-media elites have surrendered in the face of the spread of
Islamic fundamentalism", Fadila Maaroufi, a Belgian-Moroccan social
worker and founder of the Observatory of Fundamentalisms in Brussels,
told the French magazine <a href="https://www.marianne.net/societe/laicite-et-religions/entretien-aujourdhui-il-est-devenu-dangereux-de-parler-dislamisme-en-belgique" target="_blank"><i>Marianne</i></a>.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"I grew up in a Moroccan family in a neighborhood near
Molenbeek. In the 1980s, it was still quite cosmopolitan. Then, little
by little, we saw the native Belgians leaving. I witnessed the rise of
Islam, my sisters veiled while my parents wore flared pants. I myself
have come under pressure, including from my family. It had become
inconceivable that I did not veil myself .... When I tried to alert
public authorities and associations, I found myself facing a wall. There
have been attacks in Paris and attacks in Brussels, yet I had the
feeling that we still did not grasp the extent of the problem".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In such an environment, freedom of expression also finds itself in dramatic retreat.</span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Belgian student associations <a href="https://www.valeursactuelles.com/societe/bruxelles-des-etudiants-boycottent-la-venue-de-charlie-hebdo-journal-reactionnaire/" target="_blank">protested</a> the arrival in the capital of the publisher of satirical weekly newspaper <i>Charlie Hebdo</i>, "Riss", who survived a 2015 massacre in the paper's office.*</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Filigranes bookshop in Brussels, the largest in the country, <a href="https://www.lecho.be/economie-politique/belgique/general/filigranes-decommande-zemmour/9584087.html" target="_blank">canceled</a> a meeting with the journalist Éric Zemmour for "security reasons".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Demonstrations against the author had been planned and a group,
"Collective Against Islamophobia", had filed a complaint. <b><span style="background-color: #ffa400;">The Hergé
Museum took back <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/bd/2015/01/22/03014-20150122ARTFIG00177-le-musee-herge-annule-l-exposition-hommage-a-charlie-hebdo.php" target="_blank">deserted</a> its tribute to <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> by censoring itself.</span> </b>An exhibition that had been planned was canceled "for security reasons".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Today the Muslim Brotherhood, spearhead of political Islam and of
the insidious soft Islamisation of Western societies, continues its
lobbying and blame games with its imaginary Trojan horse: <b>Islamophobia</b>",
<a href="https://www.cofoe.euractiv.com/post/europe-must-fight-to-defend-its-identity" target="_blank">wrote</a>
a Belgian MEP, Assita Kanko, who fled Burkina Faso to look for freedom
in Europe. "The aim is clear: normalise radical Islamic codes and ways
of life in order gradually to transform our Western societies instead of
adapting to our European way of life. As a black woman and a secular
Muslim, I know what it is to live under Islamic pressure and I know what
it takes to emancipate oneself in order to finally live in dignity. The
fight to preserve European civilisation is a fight to preserve humanism
.... Two stones support the European temple: the Judeo-Christian
heritage with the idea of human dignity and the Enlightenment, with the
intellectual effervescence that accompanied it. It is from this subtle
alchemy that European culture was born. European Judeo-Christian
civilisation has created for itself over the centuries the conditions
for its intellectual emancipation, and it can be proud of this ....
Europe must urgently pull itself together and reaffirm its commitment to
its own values...."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Destexhe, in his book "<a href="https://www.causeur.fr/immigration-belgique-alain-destexhe-159212" target="_blank">Immigration et Intégration: avant qu'il ne soit trop tard</a>"
["Immigration and Integration: before it will be too late"] , recalled
that from 2000 to 2010, Belgium welcomed more than a million migrants
into a population of eleven million. It was a demographic tsunami that
would forever change the face of Belgian society.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Belgium was the first to recognize and subsidize Islam; it also
elected the first veiled parliamentarian". Canadian journalist Djemal
Benhabi told <a href="https://www.lecho.be/dossier/apero-de-l-echo/djemila-benhabib-collectif-laicite-yallah-l-islamisme-est-plus-fort-en-belgique-car-c-est-un-pays-aux-multiples-fractures/10386508.html" target="_blank"><i>L'Echo</i></a>,
"Of all the European capitals, Brussels is the one through which the
Islamist project intends to spread to Europe. Their lobbies are powerful
there, so it is much easier for Islamists to break into the system and
gradually transform it".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Journalist Marie-Cécile Royen also described the same collaboration in an <a href="https://www.levif.be/magazine/comment-les-freres-musulmans-ont-pris-la-belgique-en-otage/" target="_blank">article</a>, "How the Muslim Brotherhood took Belgium hostage".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We recently saw what the "left's" alliance with Islam means in
Brussels. Socialists and Greens just voted in the Brussels Parliament
not to ban the ritual slaughter of animals. <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2022/06/21/in-brussels-ritual-slaughter-preserved-under-pressure-from-religious-practices_5987516_114.html" target="_blank"><i>Le Monde</i></a>
called it the "community phenomenon": Brussels elects representatives
who benefit from the support of one community or another in this highly
multicultural region and are sometimes forced to abandon some of their
convictions, or a facet of their identity, in order not to alienate
voters.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Djemila Benhabib, in <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/invites-du-point/serait-on-plus-musulman-a-bruxelles-que-dans-certains-pays-musulmans-24-05-2022-2476923_420.php" target="_blank"><i>Le Point</i></a>, noted that "in Brussels half of the Socialist electorate is Muslim." "[I]n Brussels now", she <a href="https://www.lalibre.be/debats/opinions/2022/06/01/a-bruxelles-les-politiques-ont-mise-sur-des-musulmans-conservateurs-5ZNXE6WM2FA4BEM5GZKEIE5QCU/" target="_blank">reported,</a> "politics is in the hands of conservative Muslims".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As they say: It's the demography, stupid.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">According to French demographer <a href="http://www.micheletribalat.fr/448383449" target="_blank">Michéle Tribalat</a>,
in the Brussels region (1.2 million inhabitants), 57% of those under 18
are of non-European origin; in the city of Brussels 68.4% of those
under 18 are of non-European origin and in Antwerp (529,000
inhabitants), 51.3% of those under 18 are of non-European origin.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">De-Christianization accompanies Islamization. 36 out of 110 churches in Brussels are <a href="https://www.lalibre.be/archives-journal/2016/03/21/leglise-de-bruxelles-pense-fermer-des-lieux-de-culte-mais-apres-consultation-6EDI3SNH35AO5GKZHGWD2TQYKI/" target="_blank">destined</a> to change their use in the face of the dramatic decline of the faithful. According to a <a href="https://www.rtbf.be/article/patrimoine-logements-musees-hotels-murs-descalade-que-faire-de-nos-eglises-desacralisees-10920342" target="_blank"><i>Rtbf</i></a> dossier, this is the <a href="https://www.theeponymousflower.com/2016/04/after-50-years-of-liberal-church.html" target="_blank">plan</a> of the archbishop of Brussels: "Homes, museums, hotels, climbing walls... What to do with our deconsecrated churches?"</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Jean-Pierre Martin and Christophe Lamfalussy in their book "<a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-politique-etrangere-2017-2-page-192.htm" target="_blank">Molenbeek-sur-djihadr</a>"
disclosed that "in Molenbeek, in an area of just six square
kilometers, there are 25 mosques". What is that, if not Islamization?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Professor <a href="https://lactualite.com/monde/bruxelles-est-aussi-une-ville-musulmane/" target="_blank">Felice Dassetto</a>
, in his book, "L'iris et le croissant", wrote that with more than 200
associations that explicitly refer to Islam, it, after football, is the
most mobilizing organized reality in Brussels -- more than more than
political parties, more than trade unions, more than the Catholic
Church. "41 percent of public school students," noted <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/monde/2015/01/16/31002-20150116ARTFIG00101-pourquoi-la-belgique-est-aussi-en-guerre.php" target="_blank"><i>Le Figaro</i></a><i>,</i> "take the Muslim religion course".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Welcome to the "<a href="https://global-watch-analysis.com/belgique-bruxelles-capitale-islamiste-europeenne/?lang=fr" target="_blank">European capital ... of the Muslim Brotherhood</a>"
-- and the Muslim Brotherhood know it. "Where will we be in 50 years?"
the president of the Islamic Cultural Center of Belgium felt free to <a href="https://www.dhnet.be/actu/faits/les-occidentaux-accuses-de-s-habiller-comme-des-chiens-les-casseroles-des-probables-futurs-president-et-vice-president-du-centre-culturel-islamique-de-belgique-5c7d6a549978e2710e90c59e" target="_blank">declare</a>. "All of Europe - inshallah - will be Muslim. So, have children!".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The greatest form of cultural racism in Europe today is that of EU
elites who censor or support this spectacular change of civilization.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Meanwhile, Islam has become a "taboo" in the European capital,
Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, CNRS researcher and anthropologist, told <a href="https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/idees-et-debats/florence-bergeaud-blackler-l-islamisme-est-un-sujet-tabou-en-belgique_2152050.html" target="_blank">L'Express</a>. Certain districts of Brussels have become "a kind of sanctuary of Islam in Europe".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The <a href="https://www.unia.be/fr/articles/les-interviews-de-lete-felice-dassetto" target="_blank">answer</a>
is in Professor Felice Dassetto's book: in the mid-1970s there were
only 6 mosques and Koranic schools in Brussels, in the early 1980s there
were 38, now they are 80. And so, headlines <a href="https://www.levif.be/actualite/belgique/les-projets-de-mosquees-fleurissent-a-bruxelles-quels-sont-les-enjeux/article-normal-1277461.html" target="_blank"><i>Le Vif</i></a>, "mosque projects are flourishing in Brussels".</span></p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">How did we get here?</span></h3>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the midst of the 1973 oil crisis, <a href="https://books.google.it/books?id=E-riDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT92&lpg=PT92&dq=roi+belgique+saoudien+Fayçal+1974&source=bl&ots=rfHv8WTS9x&sig=ACfU3U2Bj_nmUIYkKYMGlMoAoNLwLwsRzQ&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjglf3SoaX3AhXlSvEDHRqcA-MQ6AF6BAgDEAM#v=onepage&q=roi%20belgique%20saoudien%20Fayçal%201974&f=false" target="_blank">Belgium</a>
turned to look for supplies to Saudi Arabia. Muslims in Belgium were of
the first generation: they worked in the mines and wanted spaces to
pray. The Belgian king Baudouin, in exchange for oil contracts, offered
the Saudis the Pavillon du Cinquantenaire in Brussels, along with a
99-year lease. The building stands two hundred meters from the Schuman
Palace and the headquarters of the European Union. Saudi Arabia soon
transformed it into the Grand Mosque of Brussels, which has since been
the de facto Islamic authority of Belgium.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As Alain Chouet, the former "number two" of the DGSE, the French
counterintelligence service, recounted in his newly published book "<a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/le-salafisme-voila-l-ennemi-un-ancien-responsable-de-la-dgse-brise-le-silence-20220204" target="_blank">Sept pas vers l'enfer</a>"
["Seven Steps toward Hell"], "in exchange, the Saudi king asked the
Belgian king Baudouin to grant Arabia a monopoly on representing Islam
and appointing imams in Belgium". The Belgian government officially
recognized the Islamic religion. It was the first European country to do
so. There followed the inclusion of the Islamic religion in the school
curriculum.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Eurabia" was born in those years, the years of an energy crisis, European weakness and the great rise of Islam. Sound familiar?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">=========</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">*</span></p><div class="post__header__metas">
<h1 class="post__title h1"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bruxelles : des étudiants boycottent la venue de Charlie Hebdo, journal “réactionnaire”</span></h1><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="post__excerpt gutenberg">
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Deux associations
d’étudiants se sont opposées à la venue du rédacteur en chef et de la
DRH de l’hebdomadaire satirique qu’ils jugent “islamophobe” et
“réactionnaire”. </span></p>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="post__metas">
<div class="post__author"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
Par
<a href="https://www.valeursactuelles.com/historique/valeursactuelles-com">valeursactuelles.com</a></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><time class="post__date" datetime="2020-02-13 19:02:09">
Publié le 13 février
2020 à 19h02
</time></span>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><div class="post__thumbnail-container">
<div class="post__thumbnail"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="SIPA_AP21731131_000001" class="attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" height="209" src="https://www.valeursactuelles.com/assets/uploads/2020/02/SIPA_AP21731131_000001-1200x782.jpg" width="320" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><small><i>Image d'illustration © Lionel Cironneau/AP/SIPA</i></small></span>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ils
ne sont plus « Charlie ». Ce jeudi 13 février au soir, l’Université
Libre de Bruxelles organise un débat sur la liberté d’expression
intitulé <i>« Charlie Hebdo : cinq ans après, la liberté d’expression c’est fini ? »</i>.
Pour l’occasion le rédacteur en chef de l’hebdomadaire Gérard Biard et
sa DRH Marika Bret sont invités, rapporte notamment le quotidien belge <a href="https://www.sudinfo.be/id167273/article/2020-02-13/charlie-hebdo-invite-lulb-des-etudiants-sy-opposent-estimant-lhebdomadaire">Sudinfo</a>. Des intervenants que n’ont pas cautionné deux associations étudiantes de l’université. </span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><h2><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>« Charlie Hebdo a rejoint les rangs des réactionnaires »</i></span></h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ainsi, l’Union syndicale étudiante et le Cercle Féministe se sont
opposés à la venue des deux représentants du journal satirique. Dans un
communiqué commun, les deux associations dénoncent une invitation <i>« qui permettra une fois de plus à la parole réactionnaire de se faire entendre sur notre campus »</i>, estimant que <i>«
Charlie Hebdo a rejoint depuis longtemps les rangs des réactionnaires
de tout poil dans leur dénonciation des nouveaux censeurs »</i>. Si cet
adjectif ne colle pourtant pas vraiment à l’idéologie de Charlie Hebdo,
c’est un édito de Riss que visent particulièrement les étudiants. Il y
écrivait : <i>« Hier, on disait merde à Dieu, à l’armée, à l’Eglise, à
l’Etat. Aujourd’hui, il faut apprendre à dire merde aux associations
tyranniques, aux minorités nombrilistes, aux blogueurs et blogueuses qui
nous tapent sur les doigts comme des petits maîtres d’école »</i>. Les récentes déclarations de Gérard Biart sont également ciblées, précise le quotidien <a href="https://www.lesoir.be/279606/article/2020-02-13/polemique-lulb-des-etudiants-sopposent-la-venue-de-membres-de-charlie-hebdo"><i>Le Soir</i></a>. Le rédacteur en chef a en effet dénoncé la <i>« censure moderne »</i> des <i>« groupuscules refusant le débat »</i> et exigeant <i>« que l’on abandonne tout universalisme »</i>.</span> <br /></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>
</div><p> </p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3597615088639238232.post-62233892016481904402022-06-18T01:15:00.000-07:002022-06-18T01:15:24.190-07:00Judith Bergman : China's New Way of War<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div id="print_content"><h1 itemprop="name headline" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-top: 0;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">China's New Way of War</span></h1>
<div class="byline">
<p class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>
by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Judith+Bergman"><span itemprop="author">Judith Bergman</span></a><br />
<time class="nocontent" datetime="2022-06-17T05:00:00" itemprop="datePublished">June 17, 2022 at 5:00 am</time></b></span></p>
</div>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<ul class="content_preface_bullets"><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Chinese thinkers have
clearly stated that the core operational concept of intelligentized
warfare is to directly control the enemy's will. The idea is to use AI
to directly control the will of the highest decision-makers, including
the president, members of Congress, and combatant commanders, as well as
citizens." — Colonel Koichiro Takagi, senior fellow of Training
Evaluation Research and Development Command, Japan Ground Self-Defense
Force, <i>War on the Rocks,</i> April 13, 2022.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"War has started to shift from the pursuit of destroying bodies
to paralyzing and controlling the opponent. The focus is to attack the
enemy's will to resist, not physical destruction" and to cause "the
brain to become the main target of offense and defense of new concept
weapons... To win without fighting is no longer far-fetched." — Bill
Gertz, describing a report written in 2019 by China's People's
Liberation Army, in the <i>Washington Times</i>, December 29, 2021.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The PLA plans to employ all available tools to the overarching
objective of reducing an enemy's will to resist." — Ben Noon, research
assistant at the American Enterprise Institute and Dr. Chris Bassler,
senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, <i>Defense One</i>, September 17, 2021.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Influencing human cognition requires a large amount of detailed
personal information to identify influential individuals or to conduct
influential operations according to the characteristics of subgroups of
people. China has already collected a massive amount of personal
information on government officials and ordinary U.S. citizens.... China
has even succeeded in identifying CIA agents operating in foreign
countries using such data. These activities are particularly aggressive
and coercive in Taiwan and Hong Kong, which the Chinese government
considers its territory. Attempts to use digital means to influence
elections have also been seen in Taiwan's recent presidential election."
— Colonel Koichiro Takagi, <i>War on the Rocks,</i> April 13, 2022.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">While cognitive warfare may sound like science fiction to most
people, experts have cautioned that the US needs to take the threat
seriously.</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"They should also designate the cognitive arena as a new
operational arena, along with land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace, to
raise awareness and invest resources. Furthermore, it is necessary to
consider how to win the 'battle of narratives' to counter the
manipulation of public opinion in wartime." — Colonel Koichiro Takagi, <i>War on the Rocks,</i> April 13, 2022.</span></p></li></ul>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<td style="border: 1px solid black; max-width: 600px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/2988.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" /></span><p style="font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Since
2019, China has been pursuing a new concept of war, known as
"intelligentized warfare." The idea is to operationalize artificial
intelligence and the use of unmanned platforms in a way that subdues the
enemy, ultimately without having to resort to conventional "hot"
warfare. (Image source: iStock)</span></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Since 2019, China has been pursuing a new concept of war, known as
"intelligentized warfare." The idea is to operationalize artificial
intelligence (AI) and the use of unmanned platforms (such as drones) in a
way that subdues the enemy, ultimately without having to resort to
conventional "hot" warfare. According to the 2019 Annual Report to
Congress, "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's
Republic of China," written by the Office of the Secretary of Defense:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The PLA is ... exploring next-generation operational
concepts for intelligentized warfare, such as attrition warfare by
intelligent swarms<a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" target="_blank">[1]</a>, cross-domain mobile warfare<a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" target="_blank">[2]</a>, AI-based space confrontation<a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" target="_blank">[3]</a> and <b>cognitive control operations</b><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" target="_blank">[4]</a>.
The PLA considers unmanned systems to be critical intelligentized
technologies, and is pursuing greater autonomy for unmanned aerial,
surface, and underwater vehicles to enable manned and unmanned hybrid
formations<a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" target="_blank">[5]</a>, swarm attacks<a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" target="_blank">[6]</a>, optimized logistic support<a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" target="_blank">[7]</a> and disaggregated ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] among other capabilities." [Emphasis added.]</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">What sets China apart in its pursuit of "intelligentized warfare" is
not its focus on AI and drone swarming – the US Army, Air Force, and the
Navy are all <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2021/03/01/what-are-drone-swarms-and-why-does-everyone-suddenly-want-one/?sh=5a75ff4e2f5c" target="_blank">pursuing</a> drone swarm projects and the U.S. Marine Corps is working on so-called <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/military-tech/marine-corps-drone-swarms/" target="_blank">kamikaze drone swarms</a> - but the <i>cognitive aspects</i>
of intelligentized warfare. According to Colonel Koichiro Takagi is a
senior fellow of Training Evaluation Research and Development Command,
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Chinese thinkers have <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E8%BB%8D%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%8C%E8%A6%B3%E3%82%8B%E3%80%8C%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%AB%E5%84%AA%E3%81%97%E3%81%84%E3%80%8D%E6%96%B0%E3%81%9F%E3%81%AA%E6%88%A6%E4%BA%89-%E7%9F%A5%E8%83%BD%E5%8C%96%E6%88%A6%E4%BA%89-%E9%BE%90%E5%AE%8F%E4%BA%AE/dp/4909542337" target="_blank">clearly stated</a> that the core operational concept of intelligentized warfare is to directly <a href="http://www.nids.mod.go.jp/publication/chinareport/pdf/china_report_EN_web_2021_A01.pdf" target="_blank">control the enemy's will</a>.
The idea is to use AI to directly control the will of the highest
decision-makers, including the president, members of Congress, and
combatant commanders, as well as citizens. 'Intelligence dominance' or
'control of the brain' will become new areas of the struggle for control
in intelligentized warfare, putting AI to a very different use than
most American and allied discussions have envisioned.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://warontherocks.com/2022/04/new-tech-new-concepts-chinas-plans-for-ai-and-cognitive-warfare/" target="_blank">According</a> to Takagi, Chinese military theorists believe that war as we know it is about to change.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Chinese theorists, however, are looking further ahead.
They believe that the development of information technology has reached
its limits, and that future wars will occur in the cognitive domain. The
Ardennes Forest of future wars that the Chinese People's Liberation
Army intends to exploit is a pathway of direct attack against human
cognition, using AI and unmanned weapons. The French builders of the
Maginot Line could not imagine the assault of German armored forces from
the Ardennes Forest. Likewise, to those of us who have been accustomed
to almost three decades of information-age warfare since the Gulf War,
intelligentized or cognitive warfare seems a strange and unrealistic way
of thinking."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ben Noon, a research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute,
and Dr. Chris Bassler, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and
Budgetary Assessments, <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/09/how-chinese-strategists-think-ai-will-power-military-leap-ahead/185409/" target="_blank">wrote</a> in September 2021:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"PLA theorists argue that intelligentization will center upon a '<a href="http://www.qstheory.cn/defense/2019-06/12/c_1124611640.htm" target="_blank">cognitive space</a>'
that privileges complex thinking and effective decision-making. On
battlefields where advanced AI technology enables better decisions, they
write, the side that can better integrate human creativity and robotic
calculating capacity will hold the crucial edge...</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Above all, intelligentization will aim to <a href="http://www.81.cn/theory/2020-01/28/content_9726644.htm" target="_blank">achieve</a>
advantages in psychological warfare. Theorists describe a 'cognitive
confrontation,' in which PLA leaders will psychologically dominate
opposing commanders through better and faster decisions. The PLA plans
to employ all available tools to the overarching objective of reducing
an enemy's will to resist."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In December 2021, the US Commerce Department imposed sanctions on 12
Chinese research institutes and 22 Chinese technology firms, chief among
them China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences and its 11 research
institutes. The reason for this was that they "use biotechnology
processes to support Chinese military end uses and end users, to include
purported brain-control weaponry," the Commerce Department <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-accuses-chinese-tech-firms-research-institutes-weaponizing/story?id=81793798" target="_blank">said</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/dec/29/pla-brain-control-warfare-work-revealed/" target="_blank">According</a> to three reports written in 2019 by the People's Liberation Army and obtained by the <i>Washington Times</i>,
China has been doing brain-control or brain warfare research for
several years as part of its work on developing intelligentized warfare.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"War has started to shift from the pursuit of destroying bodies to
paralyzing and controlling the opponent", one of the Chinese reports,
which was published in the official military newspaper <i>PLA Daily</i> said, <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/dec/29/pla-brain-control-warfare-work-revealed/" target="_blank">according</a> to the <i>Washington Times</i>.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The focus is to attack the enemy's will to resist, not
physical destruction" and to cause "the brain to become the main target
of offense and defense of new concept weapons... To win without fighting
is no longer far-fetched."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The PLA reports revealed that China is also working on integrating
humans and machines to create enhanced human physiological and cognitive
capacities.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Future human-machine merging will revolve around the contest for the brain," one of the PLA reports said.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The two combatant sides will use various kinds of brain
control technologies and effective designs to focus on taking over the
enemy's way of thinking and his awareness, and even directly intervene
in the thinking of the enemy leaders and staff, and with that produce
war to control awareness and thinking."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">According to the Washington Times:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Among its various research focuses are 'brain control
technologies, such as measuring neuronal activity in the brain and
translating neuro-signals into computer signals, establishing
uni-directional or bi-directional signal transmission between the brain
and external equipment' and 'neuro-defense technology such as
'leveraging electromagnetic, biophysical, and material technologies to
enhance human brain's defense towards brain-control attacks'".</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Takagi has <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2022/04/new-tech-new-concepts-chinas-plans-for-ai-and-cognitive-warfare/" target="_blank">pointed out</a> that cognitive warfare requires vast amounts of information, but that China already has access to such amounts.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Influencing human cognition requires a large amount of
detailed personal information to identify influential individuals or to
conduct influential operations according to the characteristics of
subgroups of people. China has already collected a massive amount of
personal information on government officials and ordinary U.S. citizens,
ensuring a foundation for influencing people's cognition. This includes
the confidential data of 21.5 million people from the U.S. Office of
Personnel Management, the personal information of 383 million people
from a major hotel, and sensitive data on more than 100,000 U.S. Navy
personnel. The Chinese government has then <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/23/china-tech-giants-process-stolen-data-spy-agencies/" target="_blank">allowed</a>
Chinese IT giants to process this large amount of data, making it
useful for intelligence activities. In this way, China has accumulated
an enormous amount of data over the years, which could be <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/22/china-us-data-intelligence-cybersecurity-xi-jinping/" target="_blank">weaponized</a> in the future. China has even <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/21/china-stolen-us-data-exposed-cia-operatives-spy-networks/" target="_blank">succeeded</a> in identifying CIA agents operating in foreign countries using such data. <a href="https://go.recordedfuture.com/hubfs/reports/cta-2020-0429.pdf" target="_blank">These activities</a>
are particularly aggressive and coercive in Taiwan and Hong Kong, which
the Chinese government considers its territory. Attempts to use digital
means to influence elections have also been seen in Taiwan's recent <a href="https://go.recordedfuture.com/hubfs/reports/cta-2020-0429.pdf" target="_blank">presidential election</a>."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">While cognitive warfare may sound like science fiction to most
people, experts have cautioned that the US needs to take the threat
seriously.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The United States and its allies should analyze intelligentized warfare more to avoid surprise attacks in future wars," Takagi <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2022/04/new-tech-new-concepts-chinas-plans-for-ai-and-cognitive-warfare/" target="_blank">warned</a>.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"They should also designate the cognitive arena as a <a href="https://www.innovationhub-act.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/20210113_CW%20Final%20v2%20.pdf" target="_blank">new operational arena</a>,
along with land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace, to raise awareness
and invest resources. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider how to
win the 'battle of narratives' to counter the manipulation of public
opinion in wartime."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Takagi is not the only one to take China's research in cognitive warfare seriously. <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/09/how-chinese-strategists-think-ai-will-power-military-leap-ahead/185409/" target="_blank">According</a> to Noon and Bassler:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The United States military should work to better
understand Chinese conceptions of intelligentization and the PLA's
efforts to integrate it into its model of future warfare. Taking
advantage of some of the possible weaknesses of the PLA's approach
should be a top priority and would also help the United States military
to shore up some of the weaknesses in its own vision and efforts."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Among other things, Bassler and Noon <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/09/how-chinese-strategists-think-ai-will-power-military-leap-ahead/185409/" target="_blank">suggest</a>
that the US military should not repeat past mistakes, when the US sat
on its hands while China accumulated threatening capabilities, often by
stealing massive amounts of whatever it could, for instance <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/china-technology-theft-fbi-biggest-threat" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1d13ab71-bffd-4d63-a0bf-9e9bdfc33c39" target="_blank">here</a> , <a href="https://www.agweb.com/news/business/technology/while-america-slept-china-stole-farm" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://sociable.co/technology/american-adult-china-stolen-personal-data-fbi-director/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://www.aei.org/articles/the-rising-risk-of-chinas-intellectual-property-theft/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The United States military should be more public in its discussions
about the PLA's intelligentization efforts," Bassler and Noon <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/09/how-chinese-strategists-think-ai-will-power-military-leap-ahead/185409/" target="_blank">wrote</a>.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">"With other notable PLA efforts, the United States
military has been content with sitting on classified awareness while
losing valuable time for mobilizing a response. Several years were lost
during the South China Sea island building campaign. Most recently, U.S.
Strategic Command's vague and <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2020/Sep/01/2002488689/-1/-1/1/2020-DOD-CHINA-MILITARY-POWER-REPORT-FINAL.PDF" target="_blank">scant</a>
public details about the rapid growth of the Chinese nuclear program
did little, only for open-source investigators to finally sufficiently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/us/politics/china-nuclear-weapons.html" target="_blank">expose</a>
the efforts several years later. In the case of intelligentization, the
U.S. military should not repeat this mistake yet again. Instead, it
should more clearly highlight the nature of the PLA's efforts as they
continue to develop."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.</i></span></p>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" target="_blank">[1]</a> <a href="http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Swarm_intelligence" target="_blank">Such as</a>
"collective behaviors that result from the local interactions of the
individuals with each other and with their environment. Examples of
systems studied by swarm intelligence are colonies of ants and termites,
schools of fish, flocks of birds, herds..."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" target="_blank">[2]</a> <a href="https://www.baesystems.com/en-us/definition/what-is-cross-domain-electronic-warfare" target="_blank">Such as</a>
"the ability of electronic warfare (EW) devices and systems to
contribute to, enhance, and work seamlessly across all six domains in
which military organizations operate – air, land, space, sea (maritime),
human (cyber), and the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS)".</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" target="_blank">[3]</a> Such as target selection, satellite communication, collision avoidance.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" target="_blank">[4]</a> <a href="https://study.com/academy/lesson/cognitive-control-definition-processes.html" target="_blank">Such as</a> "neurons [nerve cells] communicat[ing] with your brain by altering... the connections that lead from your body to your brain."]</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" target="_blank">[5]</a> Combining AI capabilities with human ones, such as <a href="https://www.designboom.com/technology/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-chip-will-end-language-10-years-02-06-2021/" target="_blank">inserting a chip to learn a language</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" target="_blank">[6]</a> Such as using <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452414X18300086" target="_blank">swarms of drones</a> to overwhelm security systems.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18612/china-new-way-of-war#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" target="_blank">[7]</a> <a href="https://afry.com/en/service/integrated-logistics-support-ils" target="_blank">Such as</a> planning and developing <a href="https://afry.com/en/service/integrated-logistics-support-ils" target="_blank">the best support</a> for the system throughout its life-cycle.</span></p>
</div><span style="font-family: verdana;">
<span class="no_print"><ul style="font-style: italic;"><li>Follow Judith Bergman on <a href="https://twitter.com/judithbergman">Twitter</a></li></ul>
</span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05704141690266937856noreply@blogger.com0