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2018-03-10 Home Front: Culture Wars

[National Review] America’s two great ideological tribes are in the midst of a similar conflict. It’s the battle over civility, and all too often reason, compassion, and grace are on the losing side. On the left, aggressive social-justice activists scorn engagement and dialogue as "respectability politics" and instead favor the shout-down, the boycott, and the online shame campaign.

On the right, online pugilists mock more mainstream or "establishment" conservatives as unwilling to do what it takes to win. They mock conservatives who refuse to make Trump-style attacks and decry Trump-style rhetoric as obsessed with "muh principles." In the face of a ferocious Left, we just don’t have what it takes ‐ or, as Milo Yiannopoulos said earlier this week in a long piece calling me "the most reliably frustrating person in conservative media," we’re more prepared to "lose gracefully" than to "be seen as lacking in manners."

First, let’s acknowledge that there’s more than a kernel of truth in these critiques. Civility isn’t always a virtue. There are times when injustice demands a dramatic response. The modern image of Jesus Christ as essentially the nicest person who ever lived is laughably one-dimensional. He compared the Pharisees to "whitewashed tombs." Jesus cleansed the Temple "with a whip made out of cords." He modeled grace and compassion. He also modeled righteous anger.

Moreover, it’s also true that calls for civility are often one-sided, manipulative, and made in bad faith. It turns out that each ideological tribe is often quite tolerant of the vicious voices on its own side and positively repulsed by anger in response. You see the double standard all the time. The same people who lament the angry voices on Fox News or talk radio will positively thrill to the latest Michael Moore documentary or make excuses for Democratic leaders who just can’t quite bring themselves to condemn Louis Farrakhan.

Posted by Besoeker 2018-03-10 01:53|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ] Top

#1 just don't forget to carry a big stick.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2018-03-10 02:18|| 2018-03-10 02:18|| Front Page Top

#2 French is still not getting it.

For three election cycles now tens of millions of Americans voted for a presidential candidate who called Christians, gun owners, business owners, and people who believe in limited government and intact borders SUBHUMANS. And they voted that way primarily because they are government funded, want the party most likely to keep their government funding intact in power, and are willing to go down the path of treating other human beings as untermensch in order to keep their magic paychecks. In other words, they value their happy metric-free and anxiety-free status quo more than the businesses, liberties, and lives of their neighbors in the private sector.

The people who did this cannot be handled by civility. At best they can be defanged and kept from the levers of power and outed as sociopaths. At worst........

Posted by no mo uro 2018-03-10 08:00|| 2018-03-10 08:00|| Front Page Top

#3 Too bad NR went to shit once WFB passed away.

Posted by Raj 2018-03-10 08:34|| 2018-03-10 08:34|| Front Page Top

#4 Without even looking, I could guess that the author was David French.

No, David, the time for civility is long past; surely, if you have a brain you should know that the civility will be one-sided.

We are in a fight for our very survival. It's time to start acting like it.

Posted by Dave D. 2018-03-10 09:02|| 2018-03-10 09:02|| Front Page Top

#5 No different than the colonists here who whined that 'yeah the king did this and did that and violated our natural rights of Englishmen' but in the end he's our king.

Posted by Procopius2k 2018-03-10 09:30|| 2018-03-10 09:30|| Front Page Top

#6 For the D French types of the world, civility = "bipartisanship" = bend over.

Posted by M. Murcek 2018-03-10 09:37|| 2018-03-10 09:37|| Front Page Top

00:22 Anguper Hupomosing9418