Your Other Left: Freedom is Gross and Racist

(Originally published in April 2016)
It came and went without notice.April 6th was the tenth anniversary of the Euston Manifesto, the declaration of left liberal principles by British academics, journalists and intellectuals spearheaded by the late Norman Geras and co-written, signed and promoted by a coterie of principled lefties, Marxists and liberals.The most vocal proponent and signatory besides Geras was the original first principles left opposition writer, Nick Cohen.Now, after a decade of regressive masochism spreading through the left like termites on PCP, it is impossible and inexcusable for liberals and anti-totalitarian leftists to ignore the mass felones de se of the anti-West reactionaries commonly mistaken for the liberal left these days.

The Euston Manifesto is an excellent statement and I hope it is rediscovered over time since it, sadly, made few waves in 2006.There is another document which is more widely known and available to every person in any somewhat free society.In fact: your country is probably a signatory of it.The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December of 1948. This Declaration is an excellent guide for deciding where you stand as a human.If we distill it just a bit, we can make these complicated political and ideological questions simple for folks.

If you believe that tolerance of different cultures, regardless of how brutal and oppressive they might be, is more important than recognizing equal rights, equal protection under the law, inherent dignity and inalienable rights of each and every member of the human family, then there is no need to read on.You can proceed to the Intercept, the alt right message board, the ISIS twitter feeds, or join whichever orthodox collection of paranoiac righties, regressive lefties or Putin blog trolls you engage in victim group therapy and rage boner Saturnalia with this month.

If you are willing to tolerate theocratic fascism, female genital mutilation, antisemitism, racism and genocide in the name of political correctness, moral relativism and your anti-capitalist fantasy, then grab your Cliche Guevara t-shirt and your issue of adbusters.That'll be $50.

If you really believe that barbarism is subjective, that freedom of speech and belief are not paramount to justice, that the collective interest of identity groups trumps individual liberty, then grab a number and wait to receive your privilege score.Be prepared to apologize to people you've never met.

If you believe that all geopolitical, ethnic and religious conflicts are always to be blamed on colonialism, western imperialism and/or Israel, that acts of terror can be only attributed to the foreign policy of the United States despite the assertions of the terrorists themselves, then pass along your resume. I hear the chief British lobbyist for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jeremy Corbyn is hiring a new Minister of Truth.

If you believe that we need to maintain separate standards of ethics based on culture, race, religion and nationality, and that freedom of speech is a scourge that only serves to hurt fee-fees, if you embrace moral equivalence rather than distinguish orders of magnitude when peering through the lens of history, if you can no longer pretend to support fundamental rights and freedoms, if you place a higher value on aesthetic frippery and ideological orthodoxy than on intellectual honesty and objective truth, if you are ready to sever any commitment to common standards of freedom and equality and abandon the notion that truth is sacred and noble, or that all people are created equal and derive inherent and inalienable rights, if you are ambivalent or hostile to the preservation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness........

You are not alone.There are millions of these masochistic regressive cuckolds out there.You can join them in the bacchanalia of cultural self loathing at your nearest University or wherever regressive leftists, antisemites, Chomskyites and social justice worriers congregate near you.

Your Other Left: You Call Yourself A Liberal? Resist Left Wing L'appel Du Vide

Liberalism has long been conflated with the left in American politics. Ever since the civil rights era, the Democratic Party, traditionally home to southern white racists, has been the home of most left of center politicians. Before the sixties, the Republican Party was the party of civil rights. Both parties had social liberals and social conservatives in their ranks until the landscape shifted in the tumultuous decade the baby boomers won't allow us to forget. Over the next few decades the political migration of liberals and minorities to the Democrats and conservatives and southern whites to the Republicans settled into a status quo. The conflation of Democrat with left wing and Republican with right wing has made for a confused glossary of political terms.

Ideological orthodoxy is enforced along the lines of 'left vs right' and we no longer expect liberals to uphold liberal principles and conservatives to uphold conservative principles. In fact many liberals prefer the term 'progressive' nowadays, even though it is increasingly clear that these terms are not synonymous. Tribal identity politics has become the dominant force in much of western society, and the classic dichotomy of liberal vs reactionary has been shredded. So let's talk about liberalism and determine if that is what you are, shall we?

Liberals believe in the principles of individual liberty, gender equality, freedom of expression, secular government, and a right to life, liberty, and due process under the law. It can be said that "the rule of law" or the concept of "freedom under law" which was perhaps the most crucial phrase in the proto-enlightenment document: Magna Carta. From there we can trace the advances of civilization and culture to the radical liberals who fought for freedom of expression, equal and civil rights, secular values, and the establishment of democracy in place of monarchy and totalitarian rule. To be conservative was to be reactionary and support the status quo whether it was serfdom or somewhat more advanced. To be liberal was to be radical and change the status quo to remove power from the few and expand individual liberty.

Liberals tend to value science, education, and creative expression. They take a laissez faire or 'live and let live' attitude toward other peoples and cultures, a notion which, in theory, makes very good sense. While monarchs, tyrants, theocratic despots and later communists and fascists promised utopia, paradise, perfection and purity, radicals, enlightenment thinkers and Magna Carta liberals were fighting for and demanding liberty and functionality.

The status quo is always going to be imperfect for somebody because there is no perfect. By the time the enlightenment liberal revolution reached critical mass with the American and French revolutions, liberalism had a manifesto in Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, a declaration of principles in the Declaration of Independence, and an updated Magna Carta in the American Bill of Rights. Later in the twentieth century, representatives from nations who had benefited most from these liberal concepts drafted a document to be upheld as the liberal's grandest aspirational document: the universal declaration of human rights.

The liberal's greatest achievements include the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, the defeat of fascism in Europe, and more recently, the civil rights and women’s equal rights movements. Liberals believe that rights are universal and inalienable. They believe in gender equality, and standing up for women, homosexuals, minorities, and the physically or mentally challenged. If you actively support or apologize for people or ideologies that reject these rights, you are not a liberal. If you apply different standards to different people and societies for any reason, you are probably not a liberal.

Liberals believe that all people are entitled to dignity, fairness, and equal treatment under the law. If you believe people with different skin color, beliefs, or nationalities should be treated differently, infantilized, or held to lower moral standards, you are not a liberal. Principles are more important to liberals than identity. We cannot be equal if we are not equally free and accountable.

Liberals believe in secular democratic representative government, regardless of their own personal philosophical or religious beliefs. Yet many support or ignore those who actively and unapologetically espouse tyranny, theocracy, or even genocide. If you fail to see the hypocrisy in such behavior, you are not a liberal.

Liberals do not support aggression, violence, murder or ethnic cleansing. If you sympathize with those who espouse violence and terror as legitimate political weapons, particularly against innocents and children, you are not a liberal.

Liberals believe in freedom of speech and expression. Yet many who call themselves liberals support silencing those with differing opinions and beliefs simply because they disagree with them or are not partial to their nationality, ethnic background or religion. They very often denounce and smear their interlocutors as racists and bigots, without feeling any need to explain or justify such accusations, much less concern themselves with their consequences. These are not liberal, serious or ethical people.

Liberals believe in science, reason, art, music and education. If you support or enable those who wish to proscribe others from such pursuits or pleasures, you are not a liberal.

Liberals believe in the rule of law and that all people are innocent until proven guilty. If you support or sympathize with those who administer medieval justice, torture, or execute people in the public square without a fair trial, you are not a liberal.

Liberals come from a tradition of enlightenment principles which, above all, value the importance of the individual and his or her quest for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you believe more in the rights of groups than individuals, or that identity politics and political correctness are more valuable to the human experience than individual rights, you are not a liberal.

Granted, liberalism, by definition, will forever be an imperfect paradox, nebulous and in constant flux, expanding, contracting, and even collapsing in on itself. Lest we forget, from liberal we also get the word libertine, or one who lacks a sense of moral restraint. But for all its blemishes and imperfections, when it comes to fulfilling equality, human rights, and the aspirations of the common people, it’s the only game in town.

(Written by Rufus Chicolini and Keith Carbone, two liberals)

HUMAN SOLIDARITY NOW

For more than five thousand consecutive days we have been attacked by an enemy that can never achieve their theocratic goals, but can and have contributed to our weakened condition. By "we" of course I am referring to civil society and the ordinary decent people in every nation and culture who want to live life free of the menace of barbaric suicide cults, theocratic bastards and ideological tribal bloodsport.  Civil society was viciously disrupted by the Bin Ladenist suicide cult on September 11th of 2001 and ever since then there has been confusion as to what is even happening.

 The unpleasant realities some people refuse to face is that we have enemies with which coexistence is impossible: the global jihadist insurgency, their booster club of Islamists, psychotic sectarian tribes, colluding criminal compatriots and the excrement that is the enabling reactionary regressive anti-western ideologues form the foundation of the totalitarian resurgence.  We need international human solidarity now.  We need to remember what binds us.  Destroy the bastards.