Tolerated To Death
Source: Marine Le Pen: How France Will Conquer the Enemies of Liberty | TIME
There’s a joke going around which goes, ” How many extremists will it take to destroy America? Answer, none; the liberals will do it from within”.
In the aftermath of the Paris terrorist incident, we observe the usual indignation of the public through the usual people. Journalists or politicians are always available to publicly express their defiance and indignation. It all looks familiar especially since this same show of defiance was demonstrated after the Charlie Hebdo shootings earlier this year. There’s hand holding, candlelight vigils and well meaning brave speeches about living life without fear as a rebuke to those that would curtail their freedoms. But it’s all self indulgent breast beating along with the expected bromides. What would really make a difference is a change in mindset to address how to minimize forever the probability of this kind of thing from happening again.
That there would be sad consequences to the carte blanche policy of ‘freedoms’ associated with an open and liberal society have been demonstrated again and again…and again. We have come to the point that people are so afraid to appear intolerant that conspicuously intolerant activities directed against them are acceptable. People have become so brainwashed to appear tolerant and accepting that they are obligated to accept even that which is brazenly and unapologetically harmful to them. It’s as if you welcome a guest to dinner even though they have clearly informed you that they will murder you sometime between the crème brulee and the coffee. There may as well be a suicide gene that has infected western society.
Though the tragedy in Paris carries the headlines, this same mindset that gave rise to the vulnerability of the French to the consequences of blind liberalism has taken seed in the U.S. The most recent manifestations ironically come from the campuses of American universities, the quintessential institutions of free speech, tolerance and liberalism. Except that they have morphed grotesquely into caricatures of themselves. Incidents such as those at Mizzou and others and here demonstrate the perverse twisting of the open hand of idealized freedom of expression into the heel of bullying oppression.
As is likely the case in France, the regular folk here are probably not ok with the perversion of what is acceptable behavior in the name of freedom and liberty. However, those that are in positions of influence insist that to raise a voice against anti social behavior is, well, anti social. The consequence of course is to encourage more anti social behavior as groups get emboldened and opposing voices get progressively meeker. (If this reminds anyone of the global warming charade, it’s not a coincidence). The enablers are the political and media class who sanctimoniously invoke tolerance and acceptance when really, they push stupidity. Come to think of it, that also describes Global warming.
There is a quote attributed to the French philosopher Voltaire which goes, ” I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. It all sounds good on paper, but personally, I doubt that he would have carried through with this statement of bravado, especially not these days when extremists vow to kill him at the first opportunity. To paraphrase another famous quote, “it’s all fun until someone loses an eye”.