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Why Speak Up? Why Bother?
In the most recent Federalist Hour podcast, Tales from the Frontlines of the Woke Revolution, hostess Evita Duffy interviews Jason Hill, a DePaul University professor of Philosophy. Professor Hill has come under fire for stating the obvious truth in an unambiguous way, when he said that it was wrong and unfair to women to have male athletes competing against female athletes.
He’s right, and he’s unapologetic about it. That’s enough both to earn him the scorn of the Woke left and to make him a target for their speech suppression and cancelation efforts. I applaud the Professor for standing firm and exhibiting the spine almost wholly lacking in the invertebrate halls of academia. I know little of what he thinks on any other topic or issue, but am completely with him on his criticism of transgenderism (which I think to be absurd nonsense), and more importantly on his defense of both western civilization and free speech.
Regarding western civilization and the country into which he immigrated and became a citizen — that is, America — he says (beginning at about the 17-minute mark):
I think one of the biggest problems is that we have been condemned to silence and we have been condemned to be apologists for the greatness and the exceptionalism of western civilization and of America, American exceptionalism. We’ve been made to feel ashamed of American exceptionalism, of the superiority of western civilization. There’s a kind of cultural relativism I’ve written about, the stupidity, and I’ve been chastised by administrative leaders in my own university for claiming that not all cultures for example are equal. Some cultures are more secure than others.
So we know we’re not victims. We’re victimized at times, but we can’t adopt a victim identity. We must first of all stand up for the greatness of our unprecedented civilization, which is America, and we must extoll its virtues with complete intransigence and implacability, with no apology for the unprecedented rise in the standards of living that it has offered millions of immigrants and millions and millions of Americans within its ambit.
He then took a moment to answer the questions posed in the title of this post, which I very much appreciated (emphasis mine):
And then we must show, through our courage and through our fortitude and through our implacability and our intransigence, there are a lot of silent minorities — when I say minorities I don’t mean racial minorities, I mean conservative voices — who will rise up. All they’re waiting for is a sign from people such as myself, and you, and others who have that courage, to rise up and offer a rejoinder. There are many people I’ve met who are closeted rebels and defenders of our great republic and of our great civilization, but they’re scared because they think they’re alone.
Amen. Amen, amen, amen.
Don’t stop talking. Don’t stop defending the right to talk — to talk about anything and everything. And don’t believe it doesn’t matter, that your voice can’t make a difference.
Published in Culture
Wasn’t that an outstanding interview, Hank? And a very fine man? And he’s willing to risk his reputation and his job to speak up. I was so impressed. He’s my kind of guy!
RushBabe49.com, issuing rejoinders every day. Sometimes more than once per day.
An excellent example of how this is done is the way @ejhill uses Twitter. He doesn’t waste time preaching to the choir; he engages the wacko left. It also helps that he just doesn’t make stuff up, but that he knows stuff and makes arguments. He is not particularly gentle about it, but he is not outrageous for the sake of being outrageous. Those people who say Twitter is a cesspool and who cower behind closed doors on Ricochet should follow him and learn from him.
Here is his latest:
Ret, I don’t doubt that EJ is good on Twitter; he’s good here, too.
Twitter doesn’t fit my preferred style of writing.
I was on it for a year, in 2008, and gave it up because I wanted to engage in longer exchanges and it’s simply too fragmented for me. (News flash: I’m long-winded.)
The more people speaking, the better. We can speak in different places as suits our styles and preferences, our desired audiences, etc. I’m here, on Facebook, MeWe, Parler, CloutHub, and occasionally elsewhere.
Just keep talking.
Yes. And I’d add this:
Use your real name.
We all have to decloak.
Mark J. Boone; never been much of a secret.
When people can. You have to support your family.
I am a RushBabe and I am keeping my handle everywhere.
My real name has never been more than one click away, on any platform, although I’ve had people act as though it was a great work of detectiveship to figure it out. I’m not going to change those places where I’m now using an unreal name, but on some of the newer sites where I’ve signed up, such as MeWe, I’ve done so under my real name, probably because I couldn’t decide whether I should be The Reticulator or The Spokesrider. I’ve generally used The Reticulator for politics and Russian film, and The Spokesrider for bicycling and roadside history, but I’ve been doing more cross-over stuff lately. And on MeWe, I do both. On Twitter I’ve had two separate accounts, but I deleted The Spokesrider a few days ago because Twitter changed Tweetdeck so I couldn’t follow from two accounts simultaneously like I used to do. When Twitter does away with Tweetdeck altogether, which it has long wanted to do, that will be the end of Twitter for me. In the meantime I’ll continue to be The Reticulator there.
But Spokesrider is great.
Mmmmm……no.
For now I will stay cloaked. As much to protect people I know as myself. I am apt to share facts from people I know, some in government jobs. Did you know that state health departments falsify data? I know. Right? That there is a deep state? I’m shocked, I tell you! I know these, not from some third party, but because I know people who struggle with these realities/lies every day at work and who share some of their experiences with me.
There is a war for the hearts and minds of the American people. One side uses truth and justice. The other side uses my truth and social justice. One side has limits on what is acceptable. The other side has no limits. One side helps people in a crisis. The other side never lets a crisis go to waste. One side is trying to build a civilization. The other side is trying to destroy it. One side represents life in abundance. One side might as well be SMOD.