Saturday, June 3, 2017

Patrich West: The myth of ‘caring liberals’

I agree with the points raised here by its Patrick West even though I don't agree with his overall premise. Liberals are caring and more emphatic, but this can sometimes lead to big mistakes as Patrick West points out here. Both left and right have valid points about society.


The ‘caring liberals’ myth was exposed once again in the aftermath of the Manchester bombing. The bien pensants were on hand to issue clamorous declarations of peace, love, hashtags and sympathy, but few from the liberal media or in the Labour Party dared to speak out unequivocally against the obvious evil afoot: Islamism, an extreme variant of a creed that now deliberately kills children.  
The thing that metropolitan liberals fear most is to be accused of racism and being ‘right-wing’. They are utterly terrified of losing face this way. Hence in times of terror, they stick to pacifist platitudes and evasive, deceitful words. Far better, and far safer, to direct their anger instead against people like Katie Hopkins and other non-U vulgarians. For the liberal left, the abiding concern is always: how do I make myself look good out of this situation? 
According to research from the University of Bath, immigrants to this country from eastern and central Europe stop working harder than Britons after two years in the country. As The Times put it, ‘East Europeans work harder then become lazy like the British’. 
Such a snide headline rests on a myth so beloved of smug, wealthy liberals who magically dress-up hating their own countrymen and exploiting cheap foreign labour as international cosmopolitanism. Never has prole-hating had such a respectable veneer.
But the British aren’t inherently lazy.....
The myth of ‘caring liberals’

34 comments:

Ryan Harris said...

He forgot shining flag colored lights on skyscrapers. Such a boost. Can just feel the solidarity that terrorism builds after each attack.

Matt Franko said...

"Progressive’ politics today is about feeling good first, making yourself look good second, and doing good third"

They are incompetent at the third.... never trained.... they are well trained at the first and second.....

Noah Way said...

Blanket classifications are very useful in dividing people against each other. Left/right conservative/liberal etc. Many of these terms have been redefined with derogatory meanings.

Matt Franko said...

"9 For it must be that there are sects also among you, that those also who are qualified may be becoming apparent among you" 1 Cor 11

It's just the way it works Noah... the issue here is material systems qualification/competence that is all... it's not complicated...

Ryan Harris said...

Matt, Polling on Gen Z looks like a massive disgust reaction to this self-centered progressivism of Millenials. Most conservative Gen EVER. In two years they start voting. Maybe we will get Priest or some type of Cleric elected as President.

Matt Franko said...

Noah, Everything works this way:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foster–Seeley_discriminator

Matt Franko said...

Ryan maybe Trump had perfect timing then?

Kaivey said...

I hope not.

Kaivey said...

As I re-read the article I agree with it less. But there is a valid point about militant Islam taken hold in our societ which is why I posted it. I think liberals need to discuss this more. How much multiculturalism do we allow before we find our liberal society gone? It's okay while all cultures are liberal, blending into the melting pot.

David Malone of the British Green Party was brave enough to bring this up recently.

Culture Matters:

http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2016/11/culture-matters/

The second two paragraphs from the article is really from a left prospective as the right wing establishment tends to see the British worker as lazy. Patrick West takes this view because of the amount of East Europeans allowed into the UK which he doesn't like. I think this was a mistake too as there wasn't enough housing here. This turned millions towards UKIP and they now support the Conservatives. This could have been Corbyn's election.

Peter Pan said...

Islamism ~ Toxic Masculinity

Spiked magazine is not to be taken seriously.

Ryan Harris said...

Basic human rights like Free speech, Free Association, Freedom of Press, Freedom of religion, etc are the usual constraints we practice to prevent out of control ideologues.

Liberalism of the type being practiced by Millennials on campuses around the nation and imposing on society clearly violates basic constitutional and human rights and principles.

A distinction between rudeness, impoliteness or hurt feelings and actual harmful behavior is difficult to distinguish on paper, but you know it when you see it.

A lynch mob like we saw at Evergreen college or Berkley recently where people are physically preventing others from living their lives looks alot like the Klansmen who terrorised Black people and desegregationists through intimidation (California broadly, Evergreen in particular), battery (Eric Clanton) and killing (seth rich). When we'd find people hanging from trees in the south, the crimes were often "unsolvable," in a similar way that people who go against Dems wind up stuck in embassies, shot in the back, stuck in gitmo or maybe droned.


Kaivey said...

I don't know much about Spiked magazine. Maybe it's a populist right wing rag. I will have to be more careful in future. It has lots of articles I quite like, but then some far right sites do as well. I have been caught out a few times by right wing sites: they are anti elite, anti banker, and anti war, but then I discover that anti banker means anti jew, and then I find out that they are white supremacists - yikes!

Peter Pan said...

Spiked was founded by ex-Trotskyists who decided that pushing Humanism was more fun. They are trolls.

Peter Pan said...

Ryan, the 'type' you are looking for are called authoritarians. They wear many hats.

Ryan Harris said...

Kaivey,
I think that is the point. You shouldn't be caught out by not following strict ideology, you should be OK with opposing injustice in the name of your ideology whether it is "far-right" or "far-left."

That IS the BIGGEST problem that prevents Dems and Progressives from returning to power.

Ryan Harris said...

If you label a people authoritarian, fascist or extremist, sort of a badge of honor, best to focus on the dead bodies and common values and leave the labels at home.

Penguin pop said...

Ryan, this is why I stressed how I call out bullshit from different people, even those who on paper I'm supposed to be on their side because they are in so and so party like that moron Hillary. I have also recognized how this PCness is getting out of control and how more people are getting deplatformed.

Tom Hickey said...

For it must be that there are sects also among you, that those also who are qualified may be becoming apparent among you" 1 Cor 11

The roots of catholic (Gk katholikos) are kata, meaning completely, and holos meaning complete or whole. The phrase ekklesia kath holos, literally the "completely whole assembly," appears in Act 9:31.

The Early Church was diverse. When the Greek term katholikos was interpreted as uniform instead of universal, beginning in the 2nd c by those claiming to be "orthodox" wrt to the apostolic teaching, then diversity was forcibly rejected.

Uniformity began to be imposed strictly in 4th c. AD, when orthodoxy was declared the state religion. Then heretics were persecuted by the power of the state, and heretical books were destroyed. In fact, having heretical literature in one's possession was declared a capital offense by the state. Very little of those works survived, and history was written by the victors.

Subsequently Christianity became an increasingly violent religion, especially when religion was mixed with politics.

Who were the qualified. The winners?

Tom Hickey said...

"Progressive’ politics today is about feeling good first, making yourself look good second, and doing good third"

They are incompetent at the third.... never trained.... they are well trained at the first and second.....


Politics is about power, and power is about winning. The problem is that there is not necessarily a connection between being competent at winning political contests and governing competently. The types of competence are different.

This indicates a problem with the selection process.

Tom Hickey said...

If you label a people authoritarian, fascist or extremist, sort of a badge of honor, best to focus on the dead bodies and common values and leave the labels at home.|


"By their fruits shall you know them." Matthew 7:13-20

Ignacio said...

All politics and ideologies are about those 3 things. The only difference between each sect is their definition of "good".

Matt Franko said...

"Who are the qualified? Winners?"

No Tom I think we are supposed to know the qualified by the results/outcomes.. we have to discriminate ...

So with the orthodox theories not working out, we should look at that and at least know that those are not qualified/competent... then look to see if there is another group making better analysis...( hint: MMT....)

Paul was talking to specific cohort on faith matters but I think what he is saying here is a universal concept..

Ryan Harris said...

I'm trying to convince Dr. K to throw her hat in the ring. Words of encouragement, not discouragement here, plz.

Tom Hickey said...

I'm trying to convince Dr. K to throw her hat in the ring. Words of encouragement, not discouragement here, plz.

Agree completely.

John said...

Ryan, don't forget the flag lapels, my favourite piece of dimwitted "patriotism" and a sure sign that you have flushed your cognitive abilities down the toilet. Or worse still, something I used to see quite often in London, a flag lapel of the British flag intertwined with the US flag. Never fails to make me laugh and feel pity for the deluded soul who has become nothing more than some sort of automaton who has concluded that patriotism is jumping when told to jump by the state apparatus who are up to no end of villainy. As that great philosopher B.A. Baracus pithily put it: "I pity the fool!"

Peter Pan said...

Put away the Islamist label, shall we?

Ryan Harris said...

Ohh, well, lets keep that one, shall we?

Peter Pan said...

Keeping the Islamist label means keeping the bigot label.

Peter Pan said...

Elephant in the room: bomber was a Manchester United fan

Six said...

"If you label a people authoritarian, fascist or extremist, sort of a badge of honor, best to focus on the dead bodies and common values and leave the labels at home."

Ryan, you constantly label and generalize about your political opponents. It seems to be a key feature of your personality. Are you familiar with the concept of projection?

Ryan Harris said...

This guy must be an attorney. They hate it when we say show me the body.

Ignacio said...

You guys shouldn't celebrate too much that "Gen Z" is turning more 'conservative'. This has nothing to do with millennials and all to do under the circumstances those kids were raised IMO from my (very direct) experience: a context of economic crisis. Guess what, under such circumstances people turns more conservative, and often more reactionary too. (And there are also some worrying trends in this generation too, like violence against women increasing substantially).

They are children of the crisis, put simply. This means that the typical economic conservative mantras resonate very well within them: "live within your means", "save, don't spend" and above every thing: the government as household analogy.

So if your juices were going up fore something like MMT going mainstream, expect them to turn it down as a lightning strike if indeed this is the trend. As they say, be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

Matt Franko said...

" constantly label and generalize about your political opponents. It seems to be a key feature of your personality. "

This is textbook STEM 101... Ryan (I assume) is STEM trained...

What if you are examining plant cell biology and you see concentration changes across the membrane and you think "on this side has the higher concentration..." What are you lefties going to say "hey! you cant say the one side has higher concentration that's concentrationist!"

In electrical theory you have resistance, inductance, capacitance... what are you guys going to say "hey! you cant categorize components!.. that's componentist!"...

This is not even complicated look Tom posted this scripture:

""By their fruits shall you know them." Matthew 7:13-20

We have to discriminate based on results... failure has to be acknowledged and corrective action taken... this is not being done right now as far as economic policy...

You have to identify the moron cohort and get them out of positions of authority...

Tom Hickey said...

You have to identify the moron cohort and get them out of positions of authority..

Get them out of positions of authority is the kicker. They are not morons concerning getting and keeping power. They are very effective at it relative to challengers.