The Progressive Left’s Revised Rules For Hate Speech: It’s Wrong As Long As You Don’t Piss Us Off

While making a speech in North Carolina, conservative presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson made a statement concerning the use of the Confederate flag, saying that its display on private property was not a problem for him. This led Ivy League professor Anthea Butler to tweet that Carson deserved the “Coon Of  The Year Award” for taking such a stand. I find it curious that a prominent member of Ivy League academia would use the word Coon to refer to a black man while the hottest concept on college campuses today is enforcement of the new discourse rules called “Micro Aggression”


Micro Aggression was originally intended to describe implied or loosely veiled insults used to marginalize people in a minority group, particularly those of African descent.  It has now grown into an Orwellian Newspeak used to coerce and control a student’s thoughts and what they can actually say to one another while on campus.


Here are some phrases that students are being told not to use due to their micro aggressive nature:
“America is a melting pot.”
“I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”
“Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough.”


These are true statements that should offend no one, but the loss of common sense in our progressive educational culture has become epidemic. Colleges that were once intended to educate, provoke thought, and build character now seem to be centers for sensitivity training and indoctrination.  To further promote a culture of victimhood some of these bastions of higher learning are also providing Safe Rooms where students can go if they have heard or experienced anything that has been troubling or traumatic to them. Here the student is supplied with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, play-doh, or video of frolicking puppies to soothe their bruised sensibilities. So much for character building. 

So how is it that the “Coon Of The Year” comment did not cause a massive outrage. Why are we not seeing a tearful apology like that of Paula Deen before she lost her cooking show or a resignation like that of Brendan Eich when he was forced out as CEO of Mozilla?  Anthea Butler is a member of the progressive establishment and for them it’s ok to use hate speech. That’s because they are the ones making the rules. It is a double standard but it cannot be argued with. If you are part of the progressive elite in education, media, entertainment or politics, you are riding the wave of these new enlightened rules and if you decide to break them in order to get one of the rest of us in line, well that’s ok. See? 


Let’s look at a few examples, shall we…


Dr. Carson stepped in it again when he suggested that Hitler would have had much more difficulty with his program to exterminate the Jews had he not first confiscated their guns. Carson went on to say that in mass shooting situations people should not cower and hide but rush their attacker before he has a chance to control the situation. The implication of these comments violates progressive doctrine in two very important ways. First, in suggesting that the confiscation of guns is bad because it can lead to tyranny and holocaust (an absolute truth: see Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin etc.) he violates the doctrine that guns are always the problem and the average citizen is not worthy of their possession – at least not without the blessing of The State. His second statement implies that when one’s life is threatened it is better to fight back as an empowered individual. This is wrong headed and goes against the accepted recommendation to ‘shelter in place’ while waiting for authorities of The State to come and rescue you. Dr. Ben Carson needed to be put in his place for making these outrageous statements. The response was swift and eloquent. 


Movie star Seth Rogen expressed his anger by tweeting out “Fuck You @realBenCarson” and Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine, aka GQ, featured an article by word smith Drew Magary that was not gentlemanly at all. It was titled simply “Fuck Ben Carson”. You may notice a theme here.  Mr. Magary also wrote that Carson, and anyone that would vote for him, was indeed “stupid”. So much for intellectual political discourse on the field of ideas.


Earlier in the year after Dr. Carson made some controversial remarks about homosexuality he was invited by columnist Dan Savage – a man repeatedly hired by educational institutions to talk to our children about bullying – to “ Suck my dick and see if you turn gay”.  As attractive as that invitation may have seemed at the time I believed that the good doctor turned it down.


I think that at this point under our new rules for Micro Aggression Dr. Carson has suffered enough to declare an “Ouchy” and crawl off the stage, but isn’t that really what these people want? So you see, with ends justifying the means, once again hateful and offensive speech for those on the progressive left is ok.


Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, another conservative, when commenting on the Oregon community college shooting suggested that broken family structures contribute to such tragic incidents and that more present and stronger male role models would help solve this problem. Unfortunately that is not the accepted progressive solution. The correct answer here is for government to support unwed mothers and broken families and to care for the broken children that come from them.  Thus fostering more votes for more and bigger government.  Further, as mentioned earlier, they believe in confiscation of firearms from the general population.  That particular solution is not yet a popular one so, using NewSpeak it has been code named , “common sense gun control reforms” and if you do not embrace it you must be attacked.


So we should not be surprised when Esquire magazine published an article by the enlightened intellectual Charles Pierce entitled “Please Punch This Man InThe Dick”.  The article does not seem to focus on any specifics or debate Jindal’s premise but goes on to say “There is no national tragedy that this charlatan cannot make worse.”  This to me would seem to pass right through the boundaries of Micro Aggression speech and moves on toward full blown attack. Perhaps if Governor Jindal were a college student he would need to spend an entire week in the Quite Room staring at puppies.


As a libertarian I do not in fact have a problem with any of these incidents, in fact I condone them as part of the social discourse guaranteed to us in this country under the Second Amendment. It is dangerously wrong, however, that the elite progressive left will not let anyone that disagrees with them enjoy the same freedom of expression.  Right now, these are the people who appear to be calling all the shots. That IS my problem, and I strongly advise that more U.S. Citizens should make it their problem as well.  Before all of us lose our liberty.
Buddy Walker

www.buddysays.net