Turnabout is Fair Play
“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” – T.S. Eliot
A great deal of societal harm is done by the ways in which some self-declared “well-meaning” people treat others with whom they merely disagree, politically, culturally and/or socially.
In order to “think well of themselves,” certain generally-unaccomplished people overcompensate by posing as “virtuous,” intellectually and morally-superior “progressives.” They tend to place ideological narratives above truth, and generally attempt to boost their self-image and somehow “elevate’ themselves by denigrating ordinary Americans and traditional American values.
Media, entertainment sources, corporations, public and higher education – even professional sports – constantly bombard America with left-wing doctrine. Accordingly, conservatives are very familiar with liberal orthodoxy.
But, exposed primarily to like-minded people, information and entertainment outlets, the left becomes highly-invested in shared assumptions. Liberals preach “diversity” and “inclusion,” but, illiberally, demand conformity and obedience.
Hive-minded progressives simply do not understand conservatives. Convinced that no reasonable person could possibly disagree with them, liberals are unsettled by conservative “apostasy.”
It’s human nature to fear or distrust poorly understood or unknown things. While attentive conservatives easily recognize and can confidently express opposition to liberal positions, uninformed liberals instinctively fear conservative views, fears frequently expressed in defensive anger, contempt and efforts to silence – cancel – conservative voices.
But, progressives’ “cancel culture” mindset merely reveals their ignorance, intolerance, self-absorption and insecurities.
Rather, progressives should embrace Nobel Prize-winner Marie Curie’s philosophy: “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
In 1989, author Tom Wolfe wrote, presciently: “We live in an age in which it is no longer possible to be funny. There is nothing you can imagine, no matter how ludicrous, that will not promptly be enacted before your very eyes, probably by someone well known.”
Today, left-liberal political correctness, or “wokeness,” is expressed in silly, inauthentic, stereotypical, nearly-impossible-to-parody pet narratives that are as or more ridiculous than satire, among them “micro-aggressions,” “cultural appropriation,” “epistemic oppression,” “gender identity,” “environmental justice,” and “critical race theory.”
The Urban Dictionary defines “wokeness” as “Self-righteousness masquerading as enlightenment,” and “woke,” a common self-assumed left-liberal “intellectual” state of being, especially on campuses, is defined as “Deluded or fake awareness.”
“Wokeness” and the stridently-vocal, politically-ambitious minority known as “wokesters” are target-rich. The left’s virtual monopoly of media, entertainment and education discredits their affectations of “marginalization.”
Although it receives lots of attention, relatively few Americans suffer from “wokeness.” Most practical, hard-working, productive Americans lack the neediness motivating “wokesters” to constantly search out new excuses to be “offended.”
Indeed, “woke” progressives are among the least self-aware people on the planet.
Amusingly, aggressive, self-absorbed “wokesters” are unwittingly inviting backlash from people they cannot leave, but who would rather be left alone, the normal American majority progressives target with gratuitous insults, slanders, imperious lectures and condescension.
Because “woke” progressives aren’t exactly “polite,” when it comes, the backlash probably won’t be, either.
The most benign reaction the left can hope for is laughter and/or mockery. More than indifference or inattention, more than anything, self-important, non-introspective liberals hate being ridiculed, no matter how well-deserved.
Ironically, the principle of politicized ridicule was institutionalized in rules numbers four and five of Saul Alinsky’s book, “Rules for Radicals.” Hillary Clinton wrote her senior college thesis on, corresponded with Alinsky and applied his radical philosophy, as did Alinsky-acolyte, erstwhile “community organizer” Barack Obama.
Alinsky: “The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this… The fourth rule carries within it the fifth rule: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”
Alinsky works for conservatives, too. At minimum, “woke” progressives who are trying to bully, insult, whine and lecture Americans into submission will be paid back in their own currency.
Progressives’ outrage at conservatives who exploit this key vulnerability already is – will continue to be – both entertaining and highly satisfying. After all, turnabout is fair play. And the left is all about “fairness,” right?
Rule Number 4.
https://www.pottsmerc.com/2021/10/18/jerry-shenk-turnabout-is-fair-play/
