American Holidays

The two most American of holidays are Independence Day, and Thanksgiving. Traditionally, they have been days, when we Yanks celebrated and expressed our gratitude, for being blessed to live in the freest, strongest, most prosperous nation in world history. But, in recent years, I’ve been noticing a trend. As the Social Justice movement has been gaining traction, I’ve been seeing more and more posts in forums such as this, excoriating America, for her two greatest sins. Slavery, and the conquest of the American Indian.

These posts have two components. One, that horrible acts like these are unique to Western Civilization, particularly, the USA, and that somehow, those living now, are responsible for events that took place, more than a century before we were born. I’m not going to excuse America’s past, but rather, try to offer some perspective. No ethnic group or race is better, nobler, or purer than any other. We’re all human, and heirs to mankind’s bloody legacy. The Indian nations were warring with, and conquering one another, long before the first European set foot on this continent. And, yes, white men bought black slaves, but those slaves were sold by African and Arab slave traders. We all have shameful pasts.

It’s interesting that the Social Justice Left will howl like scalded cats over the latest “outrage” from the CisHeteronormative White Patriarchy, but they’re silent, when groups like ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood, or Boko Haram, deal actual oppression and death. Apparently, rape, murder, conquest and slavery are acceptable to SJWs, if the perpetrators are brown enough.

How did it come to this, that seemingly, an entire generation of Americans can’t see one good thing about their country? Political correctness, Feminist Studies, Gender Studies, Queer Studies, and all the rest, are outgrowths of a rhetorical tactic known as Critical Theory. It was developed in the 1920s and 30s, by a Marxist thinktank, known as the Frankfort School, and it’s brilliant, in it’s simplicity.

The idea behind Critical Theory is that you criticize. That’s it. You criticize, find fault, malign and impugn. Anything. Everything. You criticize Western/American culture, values, morality, economics, traditions, institutions, art, and science. You criticize the Founders, the Founding Documents, our system of government. Nothing is spared. And never, ever, acknowledge that despite her past sins, on balance, the existence of America has been a net positive in world history. It’s a constant, unrelenting negative drumbeat of negativity and despair.   

But, the real genius of Critical Theory is, that you don’t have to offer anything positive. You don’t even need to have a rational argument. Just call your opposition racist/sexist/bigot/homophobe/transphobe/Islamophobe/xenophobe/whateverphobe, and you win. Practitioners of Critical Theory, even impressionable children like Social Justice Weenies and Antifa thugs (who don’t know any better), get to feel intellectually and morally superior to us knuckledraggers, who believe in freedom, personal responsibility, limited government and founding principles, despite not having an original thought in their heads.

We hear a lot about diversity, these days. Cultural, ethnic, sexual, and religious,  but never about the one kind that is the most important. Intellectual diversity. The free exchange of differing thoughts and viewpoints in the arena of ideas. The right to disagree, and speak our minds without fear of reprisal. The right to not be forced to participate in an activity you object to.

My friends, we are approaching the flashpoint of history. If the Republic is to survive, we have to put aside our artificial tribalism and learn to be Americans, again.