Every good capitalist is on the look out for imbalances in the market, opportunities to earn a profit off of a thing that either the market lacks completely, or current businesses do very inefficiently and ineffectively. You can consider it a form of arbitrage.
Today’s politicians, media talking heads, celebrities and the like are moral capitalists, even though they are economic collectivists. That is to say their morality is a form of arbitrage, always for sale to the highest bidder, where each statement they issue is calculated to profit them personally.
Take Marco Rubio, who today issued a series of tweets condemning Donald Trump for suggesting that the Charlottesville attack, and other similar incidents between Antifa and White Supremacists, was equally the fault of both parties. Donald Trump’s position is that both are hate groups, and both are quick to resort to violence to further their political goals, and that putting them together like that was surely going to stir up violence.
Personally, I think Trump is somewhat understating the case. White supremacists are exceedingly rare, even if they’ve received a shot in the arm from SJWs harping on white people all the time (hint: that tends to manufacture more supremacists, not less). What happened in Virginia may very well represent peak white supremacism, the very most such groups are capable of. Antifa and militant Marxists, meanwhile, enjoy far greater support from media, financiers (oh, the irony), and society-at-large. Antifa dwarfs Klansman and Neo-Nazis. Militant Marxists are, by far, the greater threat currently.
But that being said, Trump did put his finger on the central point: both groups espouse violent ideologies that are incompatible with freedom.
Marco, meanwhile, in his own words, pins 100% of the blame onto the supremacists.
This argument is remarkably similar to Antifa and other Marxist groups saying that mean words justifies violence, that speech they don’t like justifies burning down cities and attacking people. It is okay for them to violently shut down anybody right-of-center on college campuses around the country, but it is not okay for anyone right-of-center to speak.
Marco is on a continuum with the SJWs on this matter. He concedes the central point, that violence is an acceptable response to speech deemed offensive. Yes, in the case of Neo-Nazis and Klansmen, the speech actually is offensive. But it is still speech. Until it isn’t, anyway.
But if you’re a regular reader of The Declination, you already know my position on freedom of speech, and how speech alone does not justify violence.
To be fair, a lot of people are saying this, though, so let’s analyze this a little differently. Why does Marco denounce the white supremacists so readily, yet lets militant Marxists off the hook? As a man of Cuban ancestry, he ought to be very familiar with the depredations and dangers of Marxists. Why is he so willing to assign them 0% of the blame?
There is moral arbitrage here. When some politician or celebrity denounces Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and other assorted white supremacists, he is cheered. He is called stunning and brave. He is bashing the fash, taking a brave stand against the most evil ideology of man. In other words, he gets a huge moral bonus in the eyes of the media. It is easy to denounce white supremacists, who probably represent less than a tenth of a percent of the population. And it is profitable to do so, as well.
If it’s cheap and profitable, expect everyone to jump on the bandwagon. The explosion of Nazi denunciations is like the proliferation of those little fidget spinners that cost 10 cents to make and sell for $7.99 in every convenience store from here to Seattle. Everybody wants a slice of that action.
Meanwhile, taking a similar stand against Marxism is expensive. If a politician or celebrity stands up and denounces Marxism as a hateful, murderous ideology that is at least as evil as Nazism, he is often shot down. Real Marxism, of course, has never been tried. Real Marxism is a good theory, a good idea that maybe just hasn’t been implemented quite right. It’s morally true and righteous, and even if it has some problems, surely bashing the fash has to take precedence, right?
Except Marxism has a much higher share of the population. Marxism is celebrated openly on college campuses around the country. Marxists trash cities, riot, commit acts of violence with frightening regularity, and Marco assigns them 0% of the blame, because somewhere, there is an inbred Neo-Nazi off his meds tweeting from his mother’s basement.
Marco obtains a moral profit from denouncing white supremacism. He incurs a moral cost from denouncing Marxism. Playing the moral arbitrage for profit thus demands he pin the blame for political violence on only one participant. Then he is “stunning and brave” in the eyes of the body politic.
Marxists have been doing this as long as I’ve been alive. It is correctly seen as stupid and disgusting to wear an Adolf Hitler t-shirt. Yet somehow Che Guevara t-shirts are absurdly common. The Nazi swastika is correctly seen as a hate symbol, yet the Soviet hammer & sickle is given a pass. It is a historical tragedy that Communism was not discredited with the same vigor as Nazism was.
It is socially cheap to oppose Nazism. It is socially expensive to oppose Communism.
Donald Trump, whatever his other faults, possesses enough moral courage to speak the truth: both groups are hateful. And he paid the price for speaking that truth. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, lacks the stones, even though as descendant of Cubans, he ought to know better than most.
I’m very disappointed in him. I expect this from Democrats who have lacked moral courage as long as I’ve been alive, I even expect it from Republicans who have no history with Marxism. But I do not expect it from a Cuban Republican. Of all people, Marco, YOU should know better. Stop playing the moral arbitrage and speak honestly.
After all, even Donald Trump is showing more honesty and integrity than you are, right now.
A really vicious person would point out that Marco Rubio is the kind of Cuban who is held up as a white supremacist by other Hispanics. However, I’M not such a person.
Do white supremacists even have a bone to pick with fair Cubans of Spanish ancestry? I’m asking seriously here, because I have to imagine a guy like Rubio would be very low on their totem pole of potential targets of hate.
who knows what white supremacist want. To start with Race is a social construct and white supremacists are stupid to believe otherwise.
At the same time, the kinds of responses we’ve seen to these supposed denunciations if anything proves the futility of apologizing to the enemy. Just this morning NPR had some Princeton scholar explaining away how President Trump’s “both sides” terminology is crypto-racism due to how similar language was used by segregationists in the Civil Rights Era. News media is firmly in the Antifa camp, and not even unconditional surrender to their ideology will satisfy them. Why then, make any sort of concession at all? They’ll go right back to calling you a Nazi anyway as soon as they feel like it.
A more shrewd approach would have been to reframe the Nazi accusation around the commonalities between Nazis and leftists. Nazis after all, tend to be quite supportive of state control of the economy, single payer healthcare, subsidized education, and other leftist talking points. Throw in a common accusation of anti-semitism, and the question you might as well be asking is how come more Democrats aren’t Nazis already. Aside from not having to go on the defensive anymore (because in our debased public discourse, going on the defensive means you’ve immediately lost), it divides up the white supremacist camp between those who wholeheartedly embrace the socialism part of National Socialism and other, less socialist white supremacy groups, as to neutralize their organization further.
I’m generally not one for memorials to the Confederacy, for my own reasons rather than those stated by SJWs, but what I’m against even more strongly than that is conceding so much as an inch of ground to enemy narratives. Until these ideological threats are dealt with soundly, there should be no apology or surrender of any kind.
Until and unless the Progressives start denouncing the behavior from their own side they are denouncing in the ‘white supremacists’ then they need to be told to shut the f*ck-up. All this outrage is not sincere. It’s a rather blatant attempt at social-engineering their way into a ‘morally’ dominant position so they can take even more power.
They want to act is if their is some sort of moral superiority in punishing people who have ideas that differ from them. This is just a starting case and they’ll keep pushing it. They’ve lost in the market of ideas because they came off as the unhinged delusional idiots they are. This is the next step. No longer compete in the market of ideas and just go directly to ‘evil racists’ *PUNCH.
Antifa is entirely to stupid and predictable to be able to keep doing what they are doing. Either they will pull this crap in the wrong city and end up (rightly) in prison or if law enforcement keeps ignoring their actions it’ll be handled in another and far more permanent way.
The Antifa (Anti First Amendment) needs to get “tuned up” by some people not waving confederate or nazi flags. I’d like to see a group of just ordinary Americans not decked out in political costumes opposing the hooded and masked antifas. That would make for a lot better optics and send a powerful message.
I’d tend to agree but the problem that will be run into is that in areas where them getting ‘tuned-up’ will be possible the police won’t interfere until that’s the obvious outcome. In not insane Leftist leaning areas the police will actually do their jobs so there would be minimal contact.
Not to mention in areas where it can happen the police will be on Antifa’s side. Even if they aren’t the rest of the powers that be in the area will.
Not to mention the inevitable media backlash about ‘mostly peaceful’ Antifa demonstrators being assault by ‘white nationalists’ since ‘white nationalist’ can be used to cover a lot of areas that don’t include the racist fringe. (I’m proud of my country, I’m proud to have served my country, and I think traditional American values are one of the many things that contribute to this country’s greatness. . .so am I a ‘white nationalist’?)
As I have said before, these people are going to get worse. They cannot lose for if they do just oince they are done. There will never be an acceptable scenario to them except the removal by death of their opponents real and imagined. This is the US version of the cultural revolution in China along with the Red Guards. It will end similar to how it ended in China.
@Sennacherib, slayer of Babylonians – Wow! I’m reading up on the Cultural Revolution right now. Your comment is extraordinarily prescient. It seems as if the ideological masters of the democratic party, their MSM minions and associated groups of thugs like Antifa and BLM are following Maoist doctrine and strategy quite closely in academia, politics and public forums, as well as in economic matters. This is DISTURBING.
TSW,
I’m not very prescient, I’ve just seen it before. These people are very much alike (Red Guards, Antifas) The reason they’ll never be satisfied is that the subject of outrage is not the point, it is power that is the real end, raw, naked, and absolute power. Even given that though in the end as with the Red Guards, they will fail and it won’t be pretty. They have no real foundation (law, monarchy, deism, constitutionalism, etc) to base their bid for power but power itself and that has no staying power, it is empty. Statues torn down can be re-erected.
By the way slaying of Babylonians is fun, but not nearly as fulfilling as slaying Chaldeans, a disreputable bunch if there ever was one.
Little Marco is respected among Republicans, which says all that needs to be said about him, or the Republican Party, for that matter. He has been and apparently will remain, a complete clown, and a whore to his desire for power through public office.
I just checked his Facebook page, we Floridians are royally pi$$ed at the little guy. He’s a political whore for sure.
The next 5 days will be critical, I think.
There is a Right Wing demonstration scheduled for the weekend in San Francisco. The demonstrators have a permit. Also, President Trump is having a rally in Phoenix next Tuesday.
I suspect Antifa and/or BLM will show up in force and try to start trouble. For the SF event, I’m hoping the SFPD prevents problems. There is some reason for hoping this – every October in SF there is a Fleet Week celebration, where the 7th Fleet comes rolling into San Francisco Bay. There are ship tours available and there is an air show on the weekend. For many years, Bay Area leftists have threatened to disrupt and shut down the event, but the SFPD has been very successful in preventing the leftie idiots from doing anything at all. Hopefully this will happen over the weekend as well.
In Phoenix, however, the democratic Mayor has already issued a carefully worded statement expressing his opposition to the rally. If he orders the police to stand down and they obey the order, it could be an ugly event. Antifa and BLM shut down Trump rallies in Chicago and elsewhere during last year’s campaign. I suspect they’ll want to do much, much more this time.
About that right wing SF demonstration:
According to the organizer, Nancy Pelosi’s accusation of their being ‘white supremacists’ isn’t correct. The “Patriot Prayer” spokesman for the rally said that there were 9 speakers, all but one of whom were either latino or black, and one of the speakers even a transgender person.
Let’s see what happens and, above all, how the media portrays this event.
They’ll be Uncle Toms, or have internalized racism, or some other thing. These people could rationalize the flood away as a minor sprinkle.
If the Phoenix Mayor should be stupid enough to issue a stand down order, not even congressional Dems will be able to avoid condemning that act. (except for Maxine of course)
But I wouldn’t put it past him or the democrats in general to issue such an order.
I’ve been noticing over the last two days that the more leftist elements of the MSM have been publishing propagandistic articles of a particular bent. I’ve noticed more than one article that claims Trump has lost support of the military and that generals across the armed services were condemning him for his ‘support’ of the ‘nazis’ in Charlottesville. When reading the articles, it becomes obvious that they did nothing of the sort, and interpreting the statements of military leaders in that light was quite obviously wishful thinking if not downright facetious. I have seen other articles in a similar vein proclaiming that right wing media outlets and multiple republicans were doing the same thing.
It left me with the impression that a media ‘dialogue’ was being developed that proclaimed Trump was losing the support of the entire country.
It made me wonder:
Are they planning something?
Feel free to ridicule and mock me for even thinking along these lines. Time will almost certainly prove that I deserve it.
“not even congressional Dems will be able to avoid condemning that act.”
Why? They’ve never had any compunction about accepting such derelictions of duty, as long as the “wrong” side bears the brunt of it. Shoot, most of the times, they feel quite ennobled by their righteousness, even if it requires some broken eggs to make their noble omelet.
Oleaginous Outrager,
You are absolutely right, if they think it’s to their advantage they will say (and do) anything. With the MSM being their propaganda arm they will think that what they do IS to their advantage. They don’t/can’t know any better.
Yeah… I’m on the edge of my seat right now, Wombat. The next few days will tell a lot about where we’re headed.
Everyone should note that these “events” are taking place on home ground of the Left. This I believe is no accident. It is unmasking what the “Left” is and not just the in street Antifas, but the political establishment behind them in the area. The “Left” may win in the short term, but they are damaging to the point that when they do fall and they will, they will take a very long time to recover, if ever.
I repeat this will not be won or lost quickly, but regardless of appearances the Left is losing.
I hope you’re right. But I’m just not sure. I know I’d feel better about the whole affair if we could wrest media and education back from them. They have turned both into agitprop people farms.
“They have turned both into agitprop people farms.” Yes they have, but in the process they have become the “Man”, the very thing they’ve run against all these years and made so much political progress. In their minds the taking of these institutions was a primary step for taking the political establishment and in their minds, ultimate power. It didn’t dawn on them that they could become liabilities. They will become so absorbed in defending their hold on these institutions that they will lose sight of their original successful formula.
“I know I’d feel better about the whole affair if we could wrest media and education back from them.”
I think you and many many conservatives have this desire and I believe it is not only wrong, but very self damaging. These are lifeless carcasses that the left holds and they are not what they were (at least in the minds of conservatives) when they came into being. Instead of retaking them the right needs to recreate them as they should be. Bah, I’ve become confusing here and disorganized, but I think I’ve got my message across.
should read “damaging themselves”
The creaking decrepit ship Libquod, has searched so long, so far and so wide for the “great white perpetrator of right wing violence” that now that it has a flopping example on board, it must mine it for every ounce of Rightous Indignation (TM) Brand Lamp Oil possible.
This was a well coordinated setup.
A pack of what, 500? unpleasant Neo-Nazi types march in a legal protest: had their opposites (actually conjoined twins) on the left stayed away, the whole thing would have been over and done with by the end of the day. Instead, the Antifa-etcetera lot pile in with their own flavors of cultural venom, and somebody ends up dead.
What makes the “progressives” foam at the mouth is that Donald Trump didn’t play politics and issue some kind of smarmy tall-tale: rather, he saw the truth and he told the truth.
I don’t even think it was 500, TBH. I’ve heard more like 100. Another outlet said 400. I didn’t hear anything higher than that. A pretty pathetic showing for peak Klan.
“It is socially cheap to oppose Nazism. It is socially expensive to oppose Communism.”
Which is why “a pox on both their houses” isn’t as wishy-washy as some would insist.
It takes a degree of moral courage to condemn both. But it’s the truth.
Can everyone stop calling these losers Nazis?? They’re Nazis like the town t-ball team called the Red Sox is the Red Sox
They are Nazi LARPers.