Monday, March 4, 2019

Trump, free speech, colleges and the pretentious left


And how the heck is all that related?

If you have been reading the news you probably read about the so-called conservative conference and Trump speaking. He also said he was going to introduce an executive order or something to make free speech on college campuses mandatory. Or some similar verbiage. And we all know free speech is guaranteed by our Constitution, but it seems the alt right under the guise of conservatism isn’t getting much of a voice on campuses around the country because hate speech ain’t free speech.

And we know historically colleges and universities trend toward liberal ideas. Generally higher education is to prepare us for the future, both individually and for society. They push the envelope forward. The first concern is the pretentious left portion of liberalism has taken things a bit too far for most Americans. This has created a push back among regular conservatives, which in turn the alt right is taking advantage of regular conservatives’ anger. This leads to the second concern that the pretentious left has opened the door for someone like Trump to create a platform that conservatives are being denied their views of the world on campuses throughout the country. And this creates the problem that the alt right will blast through this door Trump is forcing open and drown out real conservative thinking for their madness, conspiracy theories and disguised hate speech. And quite frankly it will be hard to contain. The pretentious left dominated the liberal view point forcing a we know better than everyone else how society should look, and the blow back is going to be ugly. The pull from the extremes will only become stronger as both sides escalate their righteousness over the other and continue to tear the middle to shreds. Rational thoughts and true education are going to take a back seat on college campuses to more and more vitriol from the extremes.

Universities and colleges are here to educate us, to allow for rational discourse of competing views, and promote new ideas. When any element of society holds a perceived higher morality over another pushing the envelope farther and farther to their side eventually the pendulum will swing back. Trump is going to push hard on that pendulum to radicalize his base. The call for righteous indignation from the alt right will be loud. Unfortunately, they will push the middle or moderates to extremes because they can point to how they were treated and labeled by the pretentious left.

I have nothing against liberals or liberalism per se, I do have a problem with small groups dominating the conversation at the expense of others. This has happened in the liberal camp.

One alternative comparison irony is the donor class is pushing this country towards socialist ideas. Why you ask? The greedier they become and using lobbyists to push their self-serving agenda creates push back from the people who see their way of life shrinking.

So simultaneously we have two separate conflicts developing in this country. First the pretentious left, which is jumping on the democratic socialist bandwagon, is pushing the envelope on who defines what is right and wrong. The extreme social push by this group is now being countered by Trump’s alt right because many average Americans aren’t ready for many of the changes, nor do they like being looked down upon. Therefore, Trump still holds onto some of his base even though many are normally rational people. He is taking advantage of the people who feel they have been short changed (even though most of that is from the donor class policies) by Washington D. C and the liberal establishment. Since some of the pretentious left is in the media, no wonder the term fake news garners support.

And the second conflict comes from the donor class pushing their greed so far, they completely ignore the middle class, so the wealth gap widens every year. And this leads to a counter attack by people who see the widening wealth gap etc... as a problem and the solution becomes socialism because basic needs are being taken away directly and indirectly. We know socialism isn’t the answer, but until we improve the condition of the middle class this will grow as an alternative to what the donor class has done to this country economically.

The left will move further to the left, the right further to the right, true liberalism and conservatism will die a slow death along with the middle and working class, soon followed by the upper middle class until fascism and socialism compete for control of this country and most people in this country lose.

And people like me stare in complete bewilderment since fixing the situation is still possible yet dwindling every day.

Cheers

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