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Old 12-31-2013, 06:35 PM
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Jeanfromfillmore Jeanfromfillmore is offline
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Default Coercing Conformity

Coercing Conformity

A government that creates the climate for bullying is the worst of the bullies.
In “protecting the rights of all people to worship the way they choose,” then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton vowed ”to use some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming, so that people don’t feel that they have the support to do what we abhor.”

Mrs. Clinton required translation into the language of truth, as she generally does when her lips are moving. By the “rights” of “all people” to “worship” as “they choose,” she meant the sharia-based desire of Muslim supremacists to foreclose critical examination of Islam. Madame Secretary, you see, was speechifying before her friends at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – the bloc of 56 Muslim countries plus the Palestinian territories.

At that very moment in July 2011, Christians were under siege in Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, and Iran – being gradually purged from those Islamic countries just as they’d been purged from Turkey, which hosted Mrs. Clinton’s speech. As Christians from the Middle East to West Monroe, La., can tell you, the Left and its Obama vanguard are not remotely interested in their ”rights . . . to worship the way they choose.”

What they choose, after all, is to honor Christian tenets about sexuality, freedom of conscience, and the sanctity of life. Those tenets, just like honest criticism of Islam, are consigned to the category Clinton calls “what we abhor.” And if progressives abhor something, it somehow always becomes everyone’s duty to make certain that those who embrace that something “don’t feel that they have . . . support.”

Of course, they do have support . . . at least on paper. The First Amendment protects all of us against government suppression of speech. But the amendment is just a parchment promise if the government against which it is a safeguard actively undermines it. That is today’s United States government: rendering free expression an illusory right by inciting the mob, by extortionate lawfare tactics that exhaust the resources and energy of the citizen.

That brings us to the most compelling of all the points Mark Steyn made this week in his trenchant defense of free expression: When it comes to stifling speech, and thus suppressing thought, it is increasingly frivolous to distinguish between “state coercion” and “cultural coercion.”

Yes, it is textbook true that the First Amendment applies only against the government – indeed, only against the federal government as originally understood. The constitutional free-speech guarantee is literally irrelevant against private actors, including bullies like GLAAD, the gay-rights agitators who intimidated A&E into suspending Phil Robertson from a show about his family – which, I suppose, is the absurd reality when you’re producing a “reality” program (Duck Dynasty) about a family business.

But as long as we’re talking about reality, what if the “private” actors are really the deadly point of a coercive government’s spear? Mrs. Clinton proclaimed that the Obama administration would unleash “old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming” to squelch speech it disapproved of. We call these “techniques” extortion and intimidation when they are used by mafia families and other like-minded racketeering enterprises.

A corrupt government has some direct ways of undermining our rights. It can bring vexatious lawsuits, knowingly enact unconstitutional laws, or sign international agreements transparently intended to erode constitutional liberties. Theoretically, we can fight these tactics in the courts and by lobbying our lethargic lawmakers; as a practical matter, though, it takes years of anxiety at prohibitive expense. Few will be up to the task.

Secretary Clinton’s collaboration with the OIC is a good example: They jointly came up with a resolution that would make it unlawful to engage in speech that incites “discrimination” and “hostility” toward “religion.” More translation: “Religion” here does not mean religion; it means Islam. The Obama administration, itself no stranger to incitements against traditional Christianity, is not worried about that kind of hostility.

But put aside the hypocrisy of bashing Christians for merely holding beliefs while turning a blind eye to Muslims who kill over theirs. The point here is: It is pluperfectly palpable that the resolution negotiated by the Obama State Department and the OIC violates the First Amendment.

Free speech cannot work if the government it is designed to restrain does not respect it. A lawful American government – one that takes seriously its sworn obligation to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution – would not only enforce the First Amendment; it would refrain from engaging in unconstitutional schemes in the first place.

When it instead leads the pack in assaulting the Constitution – when, to take another example, the government repeatedly, publicly, and mendaciously blames a jihadist mass murder in Benghazi on an obscure movie; when, under the guise of a “supervised release” violation, it then trumps up a prosecution against the filmmaker precisely to sell the “Muslim world” on its commitment to imposing anti-constitutional sharia blasphemy standards – it is implicitly endorsing and obviously encouraging mob suppression of speech.

That is how this government indirectly assaults the First Amendment, in tandem with its “private”-actor allies. The GLAADs and CAIRs of the world are the government’s partners in “peer pressure and shaming,” the cultural coercion that is every bit as insidious as the administration’s official lawlessness. A government that creates the climate for bullying is one of the bullies – the most culpable one.

The radical shock troops seeking to “fundamentally transform the United States of America,” as their pied piper puts it, make up a distinct minority of the country. To advance their transformative program, they need the mob – and a president who knows how to use the mob’s “peer pressure,” who knows that telling a room full of jittery bankers that “my administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks” is akin to Don Corleone making them an offer they can’t refuse.

Consequently, we are not in ordinary times – times when speech competes with speech in Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s “marketplace of ideas,” and when we are simply trying to arrive at the best policies within an agreed-upon constitutional framework. We are in an us-versus-them time when the radicals are out to annihilate traditional culture and constitutional principles.
There are no Marquess of Queensbury Rules for confronting such a threat, since a fair fight is not what the mob has in mind. The threat and the aggressors making it need to be exposed, debated, mocked, and otherwise discredited whenever the opportunities present themselves. Nothing else will do, for the mob is immune to peer pressure and it has no shame.
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Old 01-01-2014, 07:41 AM
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ilbegone ilbegone is offline
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To some, freedom of religion means the freedom to persecute people who don't agree with them, and further degenerates into persecuting targets which are easier to nail. IE: politically correctness.

I don't watch Duck Dynasty, but it's obvious that the wrong target was selected - the corporate bottom line (advertisement revenue) speaks loud and clear as to what's acceptable by the viewership of individuals (who watch the program) who are tired of having agendas forced down their throats. However, if it were the mid size business owner down the street...

It worked in the 60's with Frito Lay and the Frito Bandito and has worked until now, but maybe that form of of coercion is losing its ability for the perpetually offended to bludgeon others over inconsequential bullshit.
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Last edited by ilbegone; 01-01-2014 at 07:49 AM.
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Old 01-01-2014, 12:40 PM
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Jeanfromfillmore Jeanfromfillmore is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ilbegone View Post
To some, freedom of religion means the freedom to persecute people who don't agree with them, and further degenerates into persecuting targets which are easier to nail. IE: politically correctness.

I don't watch Duck Dynasty, but it's obvious that the wrong target was selected - the corporate bottom line (advertisement revenue) speaks loud and clear as to what's acceptable by the viewership of individuals (who watch the program) who are tired of having agendas forced down their throats. However, if it were the mid size business owner down the street...

It worked in the 60's with Frito Lay and the Frito Bandito and has worked until now, but maybe that form of of coercion is losing its ability for the perpetually offended to bludgeon others over inconsequential bullshit.
I also do not watch Duck Dynasty; I don't get A&E in my cable package. And most people know I have no religious affiliation, and no one has forced me to attach to one. But this attack on Christians not only here but throughout the world is horrible. Christians have been a moral compass for mankind and we as a country have profited greatly because of their beliefs and guidance. Not all of the Christian undertakings have been good, but the overall guidance Christianity provides so many has had, and continues to have a positive impact on society. I hope Christians throughout this country stand up to the attacks being thrown at them. I can't imagine what this country would be like for so many without its guidance. I sure wouldn't want to live in a country that wasn't Christian based.
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Old 01-01-2014, 04:40 PM
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ilbegone ilbegone is offline
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Originally Posted by Jeanfromfillmore View Post
I also do not watch Duck Dynasty; I don't get A&E in my cable package. And most people know I have no religious affiliation, and no one has forced me to attach to one. But this attack on Christians not only here but throughout the world is horrible. Christians have been a moral compass for mankind and we as a country have profited greatly because of their beliefs and guidance. Not all of the Christian undertakings have been good, but the overall guidance Christianity provides so many has had, and continues to have a positive impact on society. I hope Christians throughout this country stand up to the attacks being thrown at them. I can't imagine what this country would be like for so many without its guidance. I sure wouldn't want to live in a country that wasn't Christian based.
Intolerance can take many forms, from latent ostracism to deadly persecution. Like racism, intolerance is indiscriminate just who is the intolerant one in the name of any cause.

It is undeniably true that oceans of blood have been spilled in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace - and a majority of that blood has been spilled between different factions of Christianity. Muslims are doing the same thing to each other in other countries.

Here in the US, self described atheists and their politically correct lackeys are trying to ban Christianity and all symbols of, and (yes, I'll use the pejorative) fudge packers have gone way beyond seeking acceptance within society to forcing their lifestyle on others who have no desire to have any part of it.

It seems that the biggest bigots and racists in our society come from the protected classes who can also get a free pass to the head of the line regardless of merit, if they so choose to take it.

There is way too much of the pot calling the kettle black.
__________________
Freibier gab's gestern

Hay burros en el maiz

RAP IS TO MUSIC WHAT ETCH-A-SKETCH IS TO ART

Don't drink and post.

"A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat." - Old New York Yiddish Saying

"You can observe a lot just by watching." Yogi Berra

Old journeyman commenting on young apprentices - "Think about it, these are their old days"

SOMETIMES IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.

Never, ever, wear a bright colored shirt to a stand up comedy show.

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