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Will the Last One To Leave Turn Off the Light?
The most dangerous act of defiance is the spread of objective truth beyond the censorship of the oppressors. For the gatekeepers of information, there is no greater sin than betraying a narrow view of society. Any dissent must be met with a full throated assault on free speech and individual liberty. The latest casualty of this war is Bari Weiss and to a greater extent the space in which America can debate ideas.
I think Ms. Weiss is a fair-minded, talented editor and writer who made a habit out of promoting people and debates that didn’t necessarily conform to any particular narrative or political agenda. More importantly, she isn’t afraid to express skepticism toward having a media social stratum who self-proclaim their worldview as the only morally acceptable one. Her acts of dissent – exercising her right to voice her opinions as the New York Times OPINION Editor, was met with ridicule, bullying, and smearing by her colleagues and peers. She refused to submit to the illiberal culture found in the media class and resigned. Her resignation letter is here.
The circumstances around Ms. Weiss’ resignation exposes the poisonous mix of naked sanctimony and close-mindedness rampant in those institutions that unwaveringly hold themselves out as champions of free speech and the arbiters of truth, even though the exact opposite is true.
The march to the conformity of thought was set in motion in university classrooms and on college campuses decades ago. And with time, the boundaries of allowable thought and ideas became increasingly narrowed and moved farther left. When it was decided that conservative ideas carried with them the power to morally offend, the risk of allowing them to exist in the public sphere was too great. Showing a complete lack of self-awareness, perceived ‘words-as-violence’ was such a threat to the New York Times’ woke safe space, employees bullied and threatened Ms. Weiss for the crime of allowing such free expression. They claimed Senator Tom Cotton’s Op-Ed put black Times staffers in danger, and the paper apologized for running it. But somehow slandering an editor, calling her a bigot and liar, and posting an ax emoji’s next to her name is met with silence. This is the product of a larger culture of mindless devotion to a political agenda from which there can be no dissent, no debate, and no apologies.
We have a front-row seat to the willful shutdown of institutional skepticism because the ideas held by leftist progressives are sacrosanct. Conservatives are more apt to engage in and promote a national discourse about the issues that arise through political, social, and cultural changes. We generally believe in an objective truth while welcoming debate on how to forge a path to a more perfect Union and the advancement of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We let the marketplace if ideas bring to the fore the best and most tangible ideas. Progressives on the other hand, adhere unbendingly to a political agenda centered on power and control. They retract from debate. Contrarian ideas are dangerous weapons; a threat to their power.
This monolithic thought is the enemy at the gates of liberty. The people who hold the keys to the dispersal of information see their one-sided views as morally superior, and take it upon themselves to ‘save’ us from what they see as problematic policies. In her resignation letter, Ms. Weiss states, “But the lessons that ought to have followed the election – lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society – have not been learned.” It’s not that they have not been learned, but that those in the media and the progressive left didn’t think there was any lesson to learn. The 2016 election revealed just how much politics dictated morality, instead of the other way around. It’s how we get to a situation where Governor Cuomo achieves hero status even though he oversaw the deaths of tens of thousands on New Yorkers during the COVID crisis. It’s how we have a double standard in reporting and condemning violence against the Jewish community versus other minority groups. When Hillary Clinton lost it proved to the left the racism and bigotry and sexism of America generally and Trump voters specifically, while they also claimed to be the side of wokeness, women’s empowerment, and minority rights. They breathlessly claimed hate-filled Trump voters denied Hillary her coronation as the first woman President! But even as most doubled-down on Trump Derangement Syndrome, some like Van Jones, who after the election claimed there was a “white-lash” saw the opportunity to work with the administration to make forward strides – such as with prison reform. But for his bipartisanship, he was harshly criticized by those in his own party. I wonder if anyone will have the courage to make that ‘mistake’ again?
America is lacking a consequential conversation about honest public discourse, objective truth, and the free exchange of ideas. What we are getting from the media is fear-based sensationalism brought about by a stunning lack of courage from those who know better to stand against it. It’s a societal tragedy when one side of any conversation is painted with such broad strokes- that conservatives are morally reprehensible just because of the ideas they hold- it becomes an indictment. It opens the door to the tyranny of the mob. It stunts any conversation to enact change and it sows the seeds of resentment.
Courage to break free from the media cult won’t come from committed leftists. They carefully built a three-ring circus to indulge their radical views. We had the parade of clowns like Michael Avenatti, Omarosa, and Michael Wolff; promises of a Russiagate bombshell; and conspiracy theories about a President Trump’s mental abilities. The dishonest media only see themselves standing in the spotlight of moral superiority, and they control the light. They stand at the riverbank, throwing stones at conservatives in the rapids, falsely thinking the raging river won’t eventually sweep them away.
Bari Weiss is antithetical to the echo-chambered media culture. When they seek refuge in the faceless, unthinking gotcha mob – more intent on furthering a political agenda than the obvious pursuit of the truth, she defied them. The horde is at the mercy of its own riptide. I’m thankful she stood against it. The tagline of the Washington Post, another leftist-conforming, sanctimonious media outlet is ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness.’
Will the last one out please turn off the light?
Published in General
First of all, Bari Weiss is a superstar on the rise and will do very well indeed. I look forward to seeing where she lands because they will become a serious informational asset if they aren’t already. She will improve any organization she joins.
I humbly suggest that correctives are already in the marketplace of ideas for the rot in our institutions, and that they are having an affect. I note that some assume when they hear the voice of BLM they are hearing an authentic black or minority voice, and most of the media are too ignorant or too terrified to map the organizational underpinnings that tie BLM and Antifa to Communist puppet masters and to insurgency playbooks like The Red Book of Guerrilla Warfare by Mao. Or that the approach to improving things is to shame the Times and the Post to return to publishing journalism rather than their current line of bilge.
Corrective one, subscribe to other, better, more useful news sources. (Not visit, not add yourself to an email list, put a couple of hundred into subscriptions if you have it.) Why read Noam Chomsky and Paul Krugman when one can see Tucker Carlson and read Thomas Sowell. If we cannot succeed without turning them then we cannot succeed. We did not defeat the Soviets by convincing Pravda to be fairer to market economies, we crushed them in the marketplace for decades until they crumbled.
Corrective two, BLM and Antifa and their many, many supporting organizations networked around the world to sow insurgency and avoid prosecution, like the thousand ACORNS a decade ago, want you submissive or dead. When Amazon and FaceBook and Twitter and Apple and Google line up with them rather than the decent, organic, reform oriented groups currently being obsessively ignored, stop doing business with them and start doing business with their competitors! Even if the competitor is also flawed political, it is better than supporting the bigger bully.
We are the ultimate cancellers. Amazon et. al. only have employees to fire because we support them with our business. Dumping Google and Apple can be very difficult propositions for the nontechnical consumer, but Amazon is easy. FaceBook and Twitter, no problem. TikTok? Seriously? Just go straight to the CCP for your social app and shove your data at them? Just say no!
Yes, Democracy dies in darkness. It is time to turn to the light, embrace the light, and shop for the light. We are the best consumers ever, and China has nothing that we can’t buy or develop somewhere else.
Six months ago Boris Johnson was on board with using Huawei 5G equipment for the UK’s infrastructure. He killed the deal given the CCP’s murderous conduct. It’s a good example to follow.
And teach your children well. Their freedom depends on it.
And thank you Jenna for the excellent post.
Thank you for the thoughtful response! Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with you that we can harness our collective strength and cut ties with these institutions that distort the truth. The trouble is that even if a person isn’t an active subscriber/user, the stories they cover drive the conversations and we are all the end-consumers.
But to keep exposing the hypocrisy and lies does help erode their power, I hope. It’s the uninformed voter that concerns me in that situation. The answer, my friend, is really as you say in teaching our children well. This is an issue that didn’t crop up overnight, and so it can’t be broken overnight. We must engage in the war with the same voracity the other side does. We have been playing by the rules while they run along playing Calvinball, running up the score. Time for new rules, perhaps…
Corporate America,
Please read Ms. Weiss’ open letter. You too can enjoy the toxic work environment she describes! You too can watch your top talent head for the doors! Just keep hiring grievance-study graduates and placing them in your HR departments.
🔥🔥🔥. Oof!!
Time to channel our inner Breitbarts. But the way to subvert “the Conversation” is to engage in real conversations that reveal the fundamental dishonesty of theirs. I’m going to dig up Andrew and put roller blades on him, but even if that doesn’t work out we need to change the rules. Early and often.
And outward shows of faith drive the other side crazy. Just saying.
Trump won because of their idiocy and slanders, not in spite of them. Their monolithic world view is as fragile as it is bogus. My inner Irish says it’s time to find a sledge.
I’m in!!!!
I’m pretty sure James O’Keefe has footage for you on that somewhere.
“America is lacking a consequential conversation about honest public discourse, objective truth, and the free exchange of ideas. What we are getting from the media is fear-based sensationalism brought about by a stunning lack of courage from those who know better to stand against it. It’s a societal tragedy when one side of any conversation is painted with such broad strokes- that conservatives are morally reprehensible just because of the ideas they hold- it becomes an indictment. It opens the door to the tyranny of the mob. It stunts any conversation to enact change and it sows the seeds of resentment.
Courage to break free from the media cult won’t come from committed leftists. They carefully built a three-ring circus to indulge their radical views.”
It’s time to take on the Woke Reign of Terror.
Many so-called “Liberals” have gone along with the this Reign of Terror for years because it was much more covert before and because it was too much of a hassle not to. But now people are losing their jobs. I live in Hollywood. There are rumors that many white middle aged Studio and Network Execs are all losing their jobs. I know for a fact that many white agents and people in film production young and old are losing their jobs. And this in just the Media; Corporate America is often is just as Woke as Hollywood.
When people start to lose their jobs, all of a sudden they tend to get a major attitude adjustment in their thinking. So the “courage to break fee from the media cult” may be building. Big time.
That’s a great point. Maybe we’re getting close to a precipice where people submit to the current of liberal groupthink, weak in their beliefs and defeated by lack of support and leadership – or we stop playing the game. It’s complete nonsense and a lot of those in positions of influence go along with it like groveling to the emperor with no clothes. When it starts really affecting livelihoods, it could be too late.
Three random thoughts because I’m too tired to organize and shorten them:
I have bright “friends” that after 4 years still don’t like Trump’s style. “Hey dummies, you haven’t learned that Trump doesn’t play by any rules because as the saying goes – this is war and all is fair…” Tonya Harding proved that style doesn’t matter if you can hit the triple axel.
One of the pillars of hatred for The Donald is the wokeness of the silent majority to the fact that there are no rules. As in the scene from the matrix where where the child savant teaches Keanu Reeves to bend a spoon with his mind by saying to him “there is no spoon.” Breitbart taught us this, and was a great pioneer of brash, unapologetic truth.
Although the book is strange, “Listen Up, Little Man” cautions the “Marshall Medal Chest and Prince Blowhard” we elect as our leaders. I hope we don’t go back to that class of phonies after The Very Stable Genius, I am getting used to my peace and prosperity painted orange.
Thanks for the awesome post Jenna!
Nonsense. She’s as much of a dissembler as the rest and a lightweight to boot, who regurgitates the standard narrative without understanding it. Just because she wrote one letter criticizing he insane former colleagues is no reason to fall in love.
Since it’s Jimmy Dore, there’s language, albeit hilarious.
Andrew Kalven (oops, Klavan – sorry!) spoke highly of her in spite of her political leanings . . .