The controversy over racism and the Oscar nominations continues on. Steven Spielberg was the latest to weigh in, recently trying to defend the Oscars against charges of racism.
Hollywood is dominated by self-conscious leftist-progressive-socialists. They want redistribution of wealth, high taxes, more government spending on welfare and less government spending on the military. They want humility in the face of ISIS and Iran. They got everything they wanted, and more, from the Obama presidency and the compliant Congress. Yet they’re still not happy. But on whom can they take out their unhappiness? The desperate-for-power-to-the-point-of-pleading Hillary Clinton? Only so much. So they turn inward, and take it out on themselves.
These are the ones who most fervently promoted Barack Obama for president. In their magical thinking, the fact that he is black (actually half-black, but that’s not the point) was supposed to cure America of the racism they still feel convinced exists, once and for all. Remember the image of Oprah, in that Chicago park, right after Obama’s election, looking heavenward to the dawn of a new age for humankind via the election of the sainted Barack. At the end of the day, we still have government-subsidized slums consisting of mostly black families, many of whom have been dependent on the government for income in a stagnant or declining economy for generations. Now those slums struggle in a semi-capitalist society with the new normal of an even less economically robust economy than ever before.
The middle class is shrinking, while the rich remain rich and the poor remain poor, because that’s what government intervention into the economy does. Socialism will not solve this; it will only make everyone poor. These poor progressives, who got everything they want, have to blame someone or something. They can no longer blame George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, nor any other hapless Republican punching bag, because they’re either out of power, totally discredited or, like the Republicans in Congress, bow to Obama’s every wish. It’s kind of hard to blame Donald Trump because, as those who hate and love him will likely agree, he’s not really a Republican. So what do they blame? Racism.
There’s a logical reason why these self-flagellating progressives in Hollywood keep apologizing for their racism, or defensively feeling a need to claim they are not racist. It’s called circular reasoning. For decades, anyone who is not in favor of the policies and ideas advocated by Obama and most Hollywood celebrities, it went like this. “You don’t support such-and-such? Why, what are you, some kind of Republican? Only a racist could be against health care for all [or fill-in-the-blank with any other progressive idea here.]” Ayn Rand called it the argument from intimidation. Leftists and progressives are really good at it, because their victims (the conservatives) are such willing and humble subjects.
At this point, the accused party feels the need to prove him- or herself not a racist. But the moment you try to prove a negative, you make a fool of yourself. That’s what conservatives have done for years. “I am not a racist. I want health care for all. I just don’t want Obamacare!” Their error is allowing themselves to be taken in by circular reasoning. In logic, it’s the person accusing you of racism who must (1) define his term, and (2) prove that you are racist, by that definition. Otherwise, it’s child-like name-calling. The more you protest that you’re NOT a racist, the more the accuser of racism can say, “See? You protest so hard. You are racist.” Conservatives, for decades, missed opportunity after opportunity to put their opponents on the defensive. Instead of demanding that their opponents prove their racism, they kept up the cycle of blame, followed by defensiveness, followed by more blame. Conservatives are losers because they have made themselves this way.
Now the leftists and progressives, particularly the prominent ones in Hollywood, seem to be doing it to each other, and to themselves. It’s almost as if they need a platform for victimization. They have no more enemies. Their goals have been so successfully implemented and achieved that the only credible candidate their party appears to have for president is an out-and-out socialist. There’s nothing left to socialize or nationalize, in the name of fighting racism, and Bernie Sanders is merely the voice of finishing the job.
The Republican Party appears to be imploding. It’s turning in on itself due to an unfocused rage. The rage is valid, but nobody seems willing or able to name its cause. It’s kind of like a person with anger management issues. “I don’t know why I’m so angry.” The reasonable person will reply, “You might not be expressing your anger well. But there must be some valid reasons for it. Let’s find out what those might be.” The valid reasons, in the case of the Republicans, is that they have never stood for anything. They have never stood up to the progressive leftists who try to make them feel guilty and ashamed for wanting a free society, including an economically free society. In their current rage, expressed by Donald Trump and others, still left unsaid are the things the Republicans should really be talking about: What they are for, and why. How to make America great again, with the restoration of economic liberty and freedom not seen for over a century. The problem with most of these Republicans might be that they really don’t stand for all that much; that’s why all they’re left with is anger.
Much is made in the mostly left-leaning media about the implosion of the Republican Party. But the psychological and ideological state of the Democratic Party movement is just as fascinating to me. Bernie Sanders is one symptom. The other is Hollywood. These poor progressives are lost without a victim to nourish their need to rescue, and to feel a phony sense of importance in the process. Leftist progressives exist not to care so much as to show to others that they care. They have destroyed many of the remnants of capitalism, individualism, free markets, private property and all the things conservatives claimed to hold dear, but never defended on principle, and still will not to this day. It’s hard to complain about capitalism when you’ve undermined all of its underpinnings, as Obama in particular has so successfully done. And it’s even harder to complain about capitalism when one of the primary candidates running for office as a Democrat is a complete, self-described socialist. The socialists have, in some respects, won the war. So why are the leftist-progressives still so unhappy? Because they have no more victims. They have victimized everyone, including themselves, most of all. The pinched, strained, haggard and self-loathing/other-loathing face of Hillary Clinton embodies the spirit of progressivism all too well. They are stuck with her, and they deserve each other.
One day, human beings will discover and grasp that individualism and freedom, grounded in science and reason, are the real answers. Those answers were there all along. These are the things which will lift our spirits and lift our bodies, including entire civilizations, to heights not yet dreamed of. It happened once—with the rise of the United States, to its peak (and now its sad decline, which does not have to be permanent). We all still want to live in the United States, even today, because of those very things that made it rise, and (for a time anyway), will keep it going.
It can certainly happen again. All we have to do is allow it, and insist upon it.
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