About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

18 Replies to “The American campus”

  1. Last night I drove into a dead end. There was no way around the barrier confronting me and not enough room for a three-point turn. I had to back out carefully and leave.

    It was at a Christmas party my wife and I attended. Lovely middle-class and upper-middle class white crowd. Lawyers, PR people, academics–I was probably the least schooled by post-secondary education, other than maybe the servers. My wife and I go every year as our only real regular soiree.

    So I strike up a conversation with this fellow I spoke a little with last year. Very intellectual and with a very hesitant, measured manner of speaking as one is when one is in the habit of trying hard to communicate thoughts clearly. It doesn’t take long before I sense him steering the conversation gently toward deeper subjects. Why not, I think? It’s more fun than small talk. He tells me of his extensive education in behavioral psychology. Of how there are so many ways to explain people’s actions. He is the captain of our little chat boat, leading the way. I lean into him so I can hear every word he says. The cacophony of party voices tries to steal a word here and there and it is loud so I really try to listen to him. I realize he is sailing our conversation into Muslim migrant waters. Of course this makes things more interesting for me. In a glimmer I hope I’ve found a kindred needle in this Christmas haystack. Knowing he is Jewish will make the critical mass of his position a little more weighty–Saturday people being first, and all. He is very thoughtful and strategic in his delivery. I’m feeling a little challenged and I’m not yet sure where he’s coming from. He is comfortably and confidently in control. A social worker buddy at the party had said earlier how he thought the fellow was on the autistic spectrum, as in aspie, for his mannerisms and conspicuous intellect.

    Then he becomes less cagey and more direct. Maybe he finds me slow. So few Muslims pose a real problem, he says. The violent ones are a statistical anomaly. There are Jewish extremists too, he says. Sure, says I, but Jewish extremists are not the ones creating chaos and murder in western Europe. By now the wives have tuned in to our conversation. Maybe something about our body language said our small talk was over. When the IRA was wreaking havoc we didn’t condemn all the Irish, he says. The women nod agreement. I’m thinking yeah, but there aren’t 1.5 billion Irishmen spread all over the world. I don’t say it because he’s continuing on with his IRA metaphor. It’s a ridiculous grasp at a flimsy straw he is making but I sense the women have sided with him. Never mind that the IRA never threatened the whole world with the marriage of a Redgreen alliance so diabolical and effective that it is terrifying. It’s not about the IRA, I snap finally, not wanting to waste my breath on such a fatuous comparison.

    “What do you think when you see a woman in a hijab? I ask. I feel our discussion turning. I’ve grabbed the wheel to our ship–or else he’s let it go. For all of his searing intellect and fantastic education I’m seeing very familiar waters now. Over rationalization to maintain this weary narrative of empathy for muslims, and conveniently separating them from their cult by invoking the word Islamism, is supposed to work as a defense. Why don’t the moderates to which he refers reform and fix the damn problem? After all, by his reasoning there have got to be 1.4999 billion of those so we really shouldn’t be having a problem. Thinking on my feet–debating–has never been my strong suit. Oh sure, in retrospect I’m hell on wheels. Rarely in the moment when it counts, however. It is a weakness of mine. I always admire people who have it all right there on the tip of their tongue, ready to go.

    “Does the woman wearing the hijab not broadcast to you that she subscribes to Sharia first?” I ask. “Which means that she necessarily subordinates the laws of the land in which she resides to the the Koran first and foremost? With all of the negative connotations this implies? ”

    “There can be many reasons for this,” he starts. “She can be afraid of her peers. Maybe her husband will beat her if she doesn’t wear it…”

    “Then her husband is the Believer and she is a proxy. So what’s the difference? It makes it all worse,” I say.

    “Oh,” he replies, “I’m not going to fall into THAT trap.”

    And there I had it. I told him it wasn’t a trap of any sort–that I wanted to know where he was coming from. But our little chat boat had sunk like a holy (pun intended) hijrah boat in the Mediterranean. For all his erudite trees he could not see a single forest. How many calls to kill Jews does It take? As many as the Mayor of London would say It takes to make it the new normal? As many times as it takes to make it something we should all just get used to even if we know Sunday people come next? It was all sadly typical and disappointing, including the reaction of the women. And I, for all of my rhetorical deficiencies, was now accused by the truly strategic thinker of laying a rhetorical trap. To seal the deal I asked him what he thought about the U.S. finally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It was a horrible thing, he replied. The worst ever.

    Even with my stunted, autodidactic education I know I’m not supposed to mix metaphors. What began as a car ride ended with a sinking boat. Regardless, it’s more fun when you start to write one thing but it ends up being another. Either way, dead end or rickety boat, it really left me with a sinking feeling.

    • It isn’t any better when you win these debates. I do. It just pisses them off more. But I will not go down without fighting and when you win, or at least fight as you did, some of your audience will turn sooner as they hear things which match observable reality.

      Also some people there likely agreed and hearing someone say it helped. I bet there was a few arguments that night as couples got ready for bed.

      The #1 thing to remember is the doctrines and history. The Irish didn’t have an instruction to hate all non-Irish. it was a war to free themselves from outside control, not impose it.

      Also, a good rhetorical device is ask for moral equivalence. “what other nation’s capital” you can ask, “should the US not recognize?”

    • Those fine people at the party are not the critical thinkers they probably think they are and were told they are by the professors who handed them their degrees years ago, but what they really are is grade-A-sheeple. They know that in today’s climate, the moment they stray from the politically correct narrative is the moment their entire lives start to fall apart, both professionally and personally.

      And they are afraid. They may not even really know they are afraid, but it’s what they are. They are afraid of being excommunicated by the important people in their lives and hated as a racist and a Nazi if they dare to oppose moving millions of Muslims into their country as we send our climate change ransom to the UN.

      One of these days a conservative is going to hear himself called a Nazi one too many times and he’s going to roll his hands into fists and punch the guy right in the nose for saying it. If you walked up to a black guy and called him the “n”-word right to his face no judge would blame him for punching you. How is some Marxist calling you a “Nazi” any different?

      Make no mistake. This is war. Churchill and Hitler both wrote, independently of each other, that covert and psychological warfare was just as important as actual military warfare, and needed to be focused on if one were to hope for victory.

      Meanwhile, remember that red-pilling only goes one way and that even one person swayed in the right direction by your words is quite important. That’s a whole, voting, talking, buying, exponential-reaction-starting human being. That’s not nothing. Maybe Mark Stein sways thousands, but us “autodidactic” meatheads are important too. We who dare to speak despite lacking the official brainwashed certification stamp…

      • You’re right, Chris. In fact you’ve been making alot of good points lately. One of the points I wanted to make is that, time and again, it seems the more educated crowd just don’t get it.

        • … it seems the more educated crowd just don’t get it.

          One of my favorite bumper stickers:

          “Another brilliant mind ruined by higher education.”

          Yesterday, during a holiday tasting at my favorite local micro-winery, one (amazingly intelligent, as in non-partisan voter) woman—while discussing the whole Jerusalem meghillah—emphasized how she thought peace was imperative.

          I took the liberty of pointing out to her the conundrum of how—throughout the entire course of human history and with few exceptions—peace is only obtained through war.

          A (hopefully) thoughtful silence ensued.

          • ‘ Educated’ should be in quotes. More accurate would be schooled. Educated people all get it to a man. Even if they are on the other side, but the educated ones know what deceptions they promote.

            Its the heavily schooled ones that don’t get it. But they use the term ‘educated’ to make it look like wisdom instead of propagandized.

            There is some really great writing and thinking on this site today. Highly enjoyable to read.

          • Deep in enemy territory, I never engage in these conversations. I don’t socialize outside my safe spaces, don’t even make small talk with the plumber.

            I can hold my own with the highfalutin, but these aren’t arguments of substance. The people you describe are capable of acquiring the requisite knowledge, they just choose not to. They’re posturing and playing to each other with canned platitudes that reinforce status positions.

            Not worth my time.

            Public reticence might be a habit picked up from Russian friends. They’re exquisitely careful about what they reveal, when, and to whom. Water-cooler chats in the USSR?

            The Russian take on current events is hilarious. They consume media as pure entertainment. They believe only direct exchanges online from friends and family scattered over different countries.

            • Old Russian Proverb, when three set down to talk revolution 2 are fools and one is a police spy.

    • That is a fine bit of scribbling, Johnnyu. You certainly have a way with words.

      Please consider submitting some essays at this site. I’m confident that Eeyore would welcome them and there’s no doubt that you have insights worth sharing.

        • Coming from a wordsmith with your talents, NR, that’s high praise, indeed.

          Ahhh … praise from the praiseworthy [~shiver~]. Please forgive me whilst I tarry and bask (just for the nonce).

          Johnnyu, quite clearly, it’s long overdue for you to join the ranks of ink-stained wretches like this poor slob.

          Q: What’s a journalist’s breakfast?

          A: Whisky and smokes…

          … So glad to know that we see eye-to-eye.

          Again, it’s been many months since I’ve seen such colorful and articulate writing on the web. Should you feel the need to be utterly humbled, please read a few sentences by Hugh Fitzgerald.

          I’ve had a polyglot Oxford doctorate praise my command of the English language. All the same, I still would need an over-pressure helium enema to rise anywhere near the very worst scrawling that Fitzgerald ever made electrons obey.

          Just sayin’.

  2. So far the Universities are the only places where the restrictions on free speech are continuing. to gain ground. We are teaching the next generation of national leaders to create a nation that allows only one viewpoint in any discussion.

    • So far the Universities are the only places where the restrictions on free speech are continuing to gain ground.

      Ah, yes. “Free Speech for me but not for thee.”

      Some are more equal than others. And we all know where that leads.

      Handbasket -> Hell

      • You got that right, and as Yucki says in another thread once the shooting starts everything is going to be different.It will and how violent the early fighting is will determine how fast we change things to outlaw Islam and possibly Marxist.