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‘Does Your Blood Not Run Cold?’
Watching the Super Bowl last night, I was reminded of a brilliant insight I learned a few weeks ago from a public intellectual. Well, actually, it was my barber. But whatever. I went to Sport Clips to get a haircut, and my usual girl wasn’t there. There was a 30ish-year-old white lady with an Eastern European accent. Turns out she’s Ukrainian, and moved to the states with her Mom when she was 15 years old. Her uncle was accused of being critical of the communists, and he ‘disappeared’ soon thereafter. Her mother got them out soon after that. As you might imagine, she is not a fan of Putin.
Anyway, she cuts my hair poorly, but rapidly. Which is fine with me. With a face like mine, you tend to lose interest in appearances. But I like speed. She takes maybe five minutes to cut my hair, which then looks like I cut it myself with a weed whacker. But whatever.
She never stops talking. Very rapidly, like she cuts hair. She is extremely critical of “soft, stupid Americans” who don’t understand the threat of leftism they’re faced with. She said that no one who had grown up in Ukraine would ever vote Democrat. Then she said that wasn’t true – that even there they had fools who would willingly surrender their freedom to whoever promises to take care of them. Even if they know they’re lying. She then described her view of these people with language that I will leave out of this post. She sounds angry and disgusted. Maybe that’s why my hair looks like this now. But whatever.
Anyway, what had her all riled up was the blatant cooperation of the American big government party (Democrats) with big corporations, the media, the entertainment industry, the educational establishment, social media billionaires, and the FBI and other federal bureaucracies. She said that such unified, cooperative efforts at gaining control, followed by distribution of a share of the resulting power and wealth, looked very familiar to her Ukrainian eyes.
I explained that for a typical person, who’s not all that interested in politics, all they ever see is leftism, so they start to view it as the ‘normal.’ If all you ever see favors Democrats, of course, it’s only natural to vote Democrat, right?
She was unconvinced by this argument. She corrected me. Forcefully:
“Who can view the array of such powerful forces forming an all-powerful coalition, and not feel fear? Does your blood not run cold? They build a coalition with the openly expressed goal of taking your freedoms, and whatever else they want, and they have all the powerful organizations on their side – and you then vote for them? DOES YOUR BLOOD NOT RUN COLD?”
She then proceeded to describe her view of such gullible Americans using language that I will leave out of this post. At this point, she sounded exasperated. And furious. To her, this is no joke.
That was a few weeks ago. Her manic fury has faded in my mind somewhat and my hair is starting to look a little better.
And then last night, I was watching the Super Bowl. Attempting to watch a bit of football between the endless barrage of social justice leftism from the announcers, the players, the public service announcements, the pregame show, the ads, the NFL public statements, and essentially everyone else on the TV for the entire evening.
Absolutely everyone else on TV. Biden called for unity. And they were united. Like a precision drill team, they were united. Against me. And they made that perfectly crystal clear. Over and over and over again.
And my blood ran cold.
She has a point.
Once I got to Bruce Springsteen discussing the RE-United States of America, I saw her point very clearly. This is no joke. The American left is very open about their goals, and they’re terrifying, and they will not be easily undone. Even if we have fair elections in the future, which is by no means a given.
I can see why she’s so angry.
For me, the future is uncertain and scary. For her, the past is certain and horrifying. She’s seen this before and escaped it. She does not want to see it again.
As our future gets closer to her past, her blood runs cold.
Published in General
I want to see the results of the haircut… or whatever.
One with God is a majority.
This is me after my haircut. I like a bit more taken off the sides. Oh well…
Aha! Another one who comments before finishing the article!
Avoid the razor cut if you remind her that the Biden’s had a financial deal with a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarch. Obama sent MRE’s and blankets to Ukrainian forces. Whether some American’s wish to admit it, or not Russia and Ukraine are at war. At least President Trump made Javelin’s available to Ukraine to fight Russian invaders, and their armor.
Those who have experienced the tender mercies of communism know. It is foolish not to heed them.
Holy cats, you look just like me! Blue Steel!
We need more Americans like her.
Two hundred and thirty three years after Ben Franklin said “A Republic, if you can keep it”, America has fallen to the point where a ruling cabal has selected a feeble geriatric to be their figurehead and puppet president. The Soviets propped up Chernenko for 13 months, long past the point where he not only had no idea what he was signing, he was no longer even capable of signing anything. At least the Soviets had Gorby waiting in the wings. Americans have Kamala.
The names change but the formulas never do.
If this were fifty years ago, some of this yielding to the Left might make some sense. Today it does not.
Well, they are more equivalent than might first appear: Gorby presided over the end of the USSR, and Kamala is poised to preside over the end of the USA. Two historical world figures, ya might say.
(Rush used to refer to the media’s “Gorbasm” . . . what does that portend? ->find links to recent Vogue Kamala cover/gusher and the newly installed ‘portrait in glass’ on the Mall)
That’s probably why Jen Psaki is always mentioning how she meets with “the team.” Meeting with Joe might not elicit much information.
Repeat after me:
No. That’s Magnum.
I don’t think that there is anything funny to say about this article. I’d rather not read any efforts in that vein: the author has a sublime sense of humor and has already used it to make his point, which is not at all funny.
I think that there has never been a more important article posted on Ricochet. If someone doesn’t think so, please read it again. The barber is not someone to ignore because she’s only a barber, or because she is not a great barber. She knows what you don’t know, a truth that is blood-curdling about what has happened to others who are not less important or inferior to you. It is happening right now to you.
The author is striving to pass her message on to you.
I didn’t watch the Super Bowl. Because I don’t care about Sports on TV. However, I did read an article about that commercial with Bruce Springsteen pretending to be some farm guy from Kansas. And then I watched the ad. I wish that I could slap him. Like he gives a flying cow pie about farmers from Kansas. Gag. Gag. Oh, so NOW it’s fine to be united? I thought he was moving to some other continent because of Orange Man Bad.
That is probably the most obnoxious commercial ever aired in the history of Super Bowls.
“Once I got to Bruce Springsteen discussing the RE-United States of America, I saw her point very clearly. This is no joke. The American left is very open about their goals, and they’re terrifying, and they will not be easily undone. Even if we have fair elections in the future, which is by no means a given.
I can see why she’s so angry.
For me, the future is uncertain and scary. For her, the past is certain and horrifying. She’s seen this before and escaped it. She does not want to see it again.”
Okay…I’ll stop now.
Thank you, Dr. Bastiat.
New member. Thanks to Dr. B. This guy writes so well I bet his patients can read his prescriptions. Paul Rahe referred me here a few years ago. Leave reading stuff from Susan, Beth and the RushBabe. And the vets and cops. The Blood Runs Cold hit home. 2 clients, husband my architect, Jewish “refusenik” from Leningrad 1980. Thank you Senator Jackson! Wife a Ukrainian physician. Also Jewish came in 1989. My architect says now is it worse than in the old Soviet Union. And thinks U.S. will be done in less than 10 years. Having survived Viet Nam, I tend to be more optomistic. But scary times for sure.
Btw, the armed forces are literally about to enact a purge within the ranks.
Nothing to see here, move along,…..
Apparently “McCarthyism” is only bad when Republicans do it.
“Love reading stuff, etc.” Can’t proof read worth a damn. Guess that’s why they made me a litigator instead of a securities lawyer.
Hold my beer.
There is no amount of wealth that cant be squandered and we have had the greatest of fortunes passed to us at great cost. And the lady says, those taking it from us are blatantly doing it to our face.
Yeah, the Ukes. I learned a lot from them in college. Buddy of mine was a 2nd generation, his father was a DP, taught all the kids about the perils of the Reds. My friend was crazy enough to do pro-Uke activism in Europe in the early 80s and get detained by the KGB, but that’s another story. So it’s 1983, and a Uke dissident kicked out of the Worker’s Paradise is making the Uke social-club circuit in the US and Canada. Comes in, talks about the home country, gets some hot food from the old ladies, pats on the back and firm handshakes from the menfolk. My friend gets an idea: how about we tell the local media that he’s here to talk about the Nuclear Freeze Movement in the USSR?
Well. Local media perks right up. This they gotta hear! My friend books a big hall at the Mayo building at the U of Minnesota. Dissident flies in, we pick him up at the airport. Skinny kid, physique like a thermometer, mop of unruly hair, fish-belly pale, the product of Soviet psychiatric torture hospitals. Whisk him off to a press conference, TV and newspapers. His English is serviceable. My friend makes sure he teases the speech without giving it away.
Six hours later. The hall is packed. Half Ukes – DP immigrants and their kids – and half earnest progressives eager to hear what their counterparts in the USSR are saying about the need for a Nuclear Freeze. Dissident guy stands up and says:
“There is no nuclear freeze movement in the USSR, and there will never be until the people are free. I have only one thing to say and that is ‘Better dead than Red.'”
Well.
That was a saucy evening. I remember people asking earnest passionate questions, to which Victor would give a short answer in Uke, and my friend would translate for about six minutes.
A memorable time. I learned a lot I wouldn’t realize for years. And almost four decades later, there I am watching the Super Bowl with my old Uke friend, toasting the day, laughing, arguing. So yeah. The Ukes.
I see a Polish NP when I go to my local Urgent Care. She is just like the Doc’s barber and she is a citizen. When I’ve see her we take our masks off.
My favorite math professor in college was from the Ukraine. He mocked our American schools, told us our math skills were like children compared to his schools. He usually came to class drunk.
But, boy could he teach. He would belt out his lesson in a loud boisterous commanding voice with clarity and precision.
And don’t you dare say he was Russian. Someone accidentally said he was Russian and nearly got thrown out of the class.
This was in about 1982, and he was very proud to be Ukrainian, and very happy to be in America with all us dullard Americans, and he would remind us of how free we were, and how we didn’t appreciate it.
I eventually took a class in Russian history, which was about Soviet politics, and a class in Soviet politics which was about Russian history. I think those were some of the best classes I took in college because I learned why our nation was so wonderful after learning what the wretched Russians had to live with during centuries of brutal oppression.
Dr. Bastiat, I think your Ukrainian friend is right in her assessment. The democrat party is acting very obviously in ways that are consistent with Soviet tactics of controlling populations.
I don’t know how we are going to stop this take over. Too many people won’t see, refuse to see, what is plainly obvious.
The insults to the first amendment alone are bad enough. My own brother, who had the same parents and went to the same schools that I did, told me about a year ago that the first amendment doesn’t protect “hate” speech. How does this happen? It happens because communists have gained control of our culture.
One of my German teachers as an undergraduate was an escapee from both the Nazis and the Soviets and was by a good mile the most vocally anti-communist among my professors. There were a couple of others. But dang, Silins was tough as nails on the C-word. It was refreshing.
Welcome!
Why I for only about the 2nd time in my life did not watch 1 second of the Stuper Bowl.
I don’t consider an endless lecture on how bad I am entertainment.
I’m of Ukrainian American descent. So is my wife.
My parents had the “pleasure” of living in both the Soviet Union and the 3rd Reich.
I was raised on the idea that the Left and America’s Democratic Party are tools of Communism.
(edit) So were the vast majority of my friends growing up who were also Ukrainian.
I’m glad my parents aren’t alive to see what has become of their adopted country.