lewrockwell--2020-08-01--New York, Trump, Physical Freaks

New York, Trump, Physical Freaks

Take a deep breath .
Ready ?
In today ’ s episode of the current president in the iron mask , and a 77-year-old physical freak , Biden , with a brain aneurysm ( and twelve doctors ) who won ’ t make it through the swearing-in ceremony if he ’ s elected , leaving the fate of the nation to one Kamala Harris ; and a country smoking in ruins , sold out by Fauci to the Chinese—hold your horses , no self-respecting B studio will green-light this mess , it could never happen , this is America , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with big guns ready to invade governors ’ offices alongside coiffed soccer moms who see their kiddies quarantined and locked down in schools after several snot-bubble sneezing third graders test positive on a viral assay geared to inflate case numbers… What do they have on President Trump ?
Is it his taxes ?
Something much worse ?
A night in a hotel room ?
I ’ m asking , because the US GDP has just dropped more than 30 percent this past quarter—the greatest collapse in US history .
Bar none .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is he doing ?
Besides wearing a black mask .
And talking about operation warp speed to develop a killer Gates vaccine .
And wondering whether the presidential election should be postponed .
Propaganda Edward Bernays Best Price : $ 6.42 Buy New $ 9.66 Recently , I wrote five consecutive pieces directed at Trump , urging him to use the full power of his office to force open the economy of the country , come hell or high water , deploying the military or the DOJ—because the economic wreckage was that bad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crossed months ago—and how much more evidence does the man need to convince himself this is an economic war being waged against The People , under the cover of a fake pandemic ?
Does he need Fauci to confess before a tribunal , Gates to admit he ’ s a Howdy Doody eugenicist on YouTube , the UN to issue a directive swearing allegiance to Mao and Stalin and Lenin and turning over its priceless piece of NYC real estate donated by Rockefeller to ANTIFA ?
Would that do it ?
Does he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans attacking the White House and being gunned down by troops ?
Would that do it ?
Does he need a spinning silver Saucer landing in the Rose Garden with gray men stepping out holding a communique from the Milky Way Council of Elders stating America is finished ?
Would that be enough ?
Or does the president just want to wear a black mask and not find his ass with both hands ?
In 1928 , Edward Bernays , the wretched father of modern propaganda , wrote : “ The conscious and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society .
Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country .
We are governed , our minds are molded , our tastes formed , our ideas suggested , largely by men we have never heard of… ” It ’ s obvious that the global virus fakery called COVID depends on The Individual conceived as a social construct .
He is now a carrier , infector , transmitter , vector of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personality makeover , he is now a socially conscious member of the community of share and care and collective goo .
“ Once we convince you that you ’ re an altruist down to your toes , we can manipulate you six ways from Sunday.
” That ’ s the synthetic part .
You take a direct ideal—humans helping other humans—and you twist it into papier mache and plastic and cartoons and deflating politeness and robothood and automatic reflex and stimulus response .
Everybody ’ s a good neighbor in Pleasantville .
Everybody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There is a new gloss over society .
Shiny .
Oh so shiny .
Mind Control In The Un ... Jacobson , Steven Best Price : $ 25.39 Buy New $ 15.99 This operation takes decades to perform .
It involves constant messaging on television , in classrooms—especially in classrooms—in the workplace , in homes , in churches .
And when the operation succeeds , guess what ?
The government can enlist untold numbers of people in self-immolating programs on behalf of Humanity .
Pull the trigger , obtain compliance .
“ Of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the masks and lockdowns .
Anything to serve a higher cause.
” A new identity has been glued to The Individual .
He is no longer just himself .
He ’ s been made “ better.
” Again , the trick is starting out with something genuine—and then twisting it into an artificial shape and imposing it on the mind .
Plotline : people were once strong , independent , resistant , and highly suspicious of all efforts to entrain them into cartoon versions of themselves .
But after enough messaging , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a time , pro athletes were highly difficult to control as “ citizens.
” But then came the concept of being role models .
Which meant : behaving .
Which meant doing good works in the community , for charity , for the less fortunate .
Nothing wrong with good works .
Certainly not .
But hidden in the background , there was a successful effort to make these men over into obedient members inside society ’ s structure , willing to follow orders on behalf of the greater good .
As defined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a reversal in their minds—along with very large amounts of money….have to protect that cash… Sports tough guys , billionaire team owners submit to COVID .
The Crowd : A Study of ...
Le Bon , Gustave Best Price : $ 6.98 Buy New $ 8.94 I stand in awe of their cowardice .
Not one of them will grow a pair and say NO to COVID .
They obey senseless and destructive government directives like abject weaklings .
The whole lot of them .
As the three major sports leagues in America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ athletes bend and bow before warnings : THE WHOLE YEAR COULD BE LOST IF ENOUGH PLAYERS TEST POSITIVE .
That little worm Fauci actually controls their every move , their dollars , their careers , their teams , their fortunes .
And they take it .
The team owners , rough and ready capitalists who do cutthroat business like pirates of old , meekly submit as well .
Yes , these sports heroes and their owners do exhibit all the signs of living in a state of hypnosis about “ the pandemic.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a final answer .
The athletes are supposed to have enormous reserves of adrenaline and courage .
They play through pain .
They endure injuries that would make ordinary civilians flee to Disability .
And yes , it ’ s about the money , just as it was about the money when the China-Nike scandal blew up and pro basketball stars kept their mouths shut about the horrific human rights abuses ( mass murders ) in China , in order to protect their shoe contracts .
Sure .
Money .
But again , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and independence , which these players are showing NONE of .
Some of the more famous athletes are acting as overt whores of the State .
They make little video vignettes for propaganda television .
They ’ re “ at home with the family , ” urging the public to go along with the hammer directives of the State lockdowns , which are destroying millions and millions of lives .
The Crowd : A Study of ...
Le Bon , Gustave Best Price : $ 6.98 Buy New $ 8.94 The athletes and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves into the weave of society at a level that is the ultimate choke .
Where is the team that says NO , WE WON ’ T GET TESTED , WE WON ’ T COOPERATE WITH CONTACT TRACING , WE ’ RE READY TO PLAY , WE ’ RE NOT BUYING THIS LOCKDOWN .
Where are the sons of bitches of days of yore who went out there and ran and hit and slid and tackled and blocked and fought and clawed for every advantage ?
These modern-day Sampsons have had haircuts .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to imagine what men like Ted Williams and John McGraw would have done and said in the face of a Fauci lockdown warning .
It would have been a sight to behold .
There was a time when the men who built cars at the Ford factory—who staged a massive sit-down strike at their work benches and wrestled the right to unionize away from Henry Ford himself—these men would have rushed INTO work , no matter what , if told they had to stay at home and lock themselves in because of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the athletes ’ unions fold up their tents and obey the governors ’ edicts .
Take all the coaches of all the sports in the country—not one of them is saying NO to the lockdowns and the insane directives about distancing and masks .
Not one coach among all these tough guys , most of whom are former players , is saying the whole vicious charade is insane and he ’ s not going to give in .
These athletes have been mind-controlled at a level that is astonishing , given how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ play their sports .
Their natural impulses to do good have been turned against them , through the magic of years and years of propaganda messaging .
—Now let ’ s turn from these bald Sampsons to the people of New York .
I was born there .
One of my early memories was looking across 2nd Avenue at a candy store .
This was 1943 .
The candy store no longer sold Fleer ’ s bubble gum—the best bubble gum—because the latex was needed for the War effort .
But the rumor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ counter for an exorbitant two cents a chunk , with the cartoon inside the wrapper .
When I was 22 , after growing up in the suburbs , I moved back to NY and for several years lived among some of the smartest asymmetric people in the world .
You could have an argument with the dumbest person in the city and it would be a smart argument .
Everyone had opinions , and they could back them up .
There was no such thing as political correctness , believe me .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one would have known what you were talking about .
New York was a great city .
The thing was , no one was proud to BE a New Yorker .
That false synthetic layer of goo came much later .
In the old days , there was no pose , no artificial front .
People had ideas , they had talent , they had survival instincts .
The best jazz musicians in the world lived and played in New York .
When a giant like Bud Powell was playing at Birdland , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and sit in a hard wooden chair and listen to him until two in the morning .
A buck for the greatest pianist in the world .
And now , the city is wrecked and boarded up , and the people are locked in .
Out on the street , the few aimless glazed pedestrians wear masks .
They ’ re not the same people .
They ’ re replacements .
Pods .
OVERNIGHT , the people of New York could throw off the whole phony pandemic , not only for themselves , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out of their apartments and go back to work , defying the petty little lunatics like Cuomo and De Blasio .
They could open up their restaurants and bars and stack in the customers .
They could start building again .
They could open wide the libraries and museums and fill the concert halls .
They could open up the little groceries to all comers .
They could laugh in the face of the public health authorities .
And it would be OVER .
In 1962 , that ’ s exactly what would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cause .
Not for the chance to do a little virtue signaling .
Not for the sake of “ being a New Yorker.
” For survival .
For continuing to live their lives , people would have shaken off that slimy fraud Fauci like a five-minute bad dream .
A joke played by an idiot .
They would have looked at the screaming lockdown headlines in the newspapers on the corner stand and shrugged and gone on their way .
“ You ’ re telling me I can ’ t walk down the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Jazz Gallery on a summer night ?
You ’ re out of your mind.
” And the Termini brothers , who owned the club , would have packed the place even tighter than usual , just to thumb their noses at the mayor and his con artists .
They would have put in a call to their contact at Democratic Machine headquarters .
And it would have been OVER .
No one would have obeyed .
Independent scholars would have walked into the 42nd St. library , as they did every day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and asked for manuscripts on ancient Roman law and the Walt Whitman papers and the early maps of the city .
The quiet upstairs macrobiotic restaurant on 2nd Avenue ( 1962 ) would have served supper as usual .
The Cedar Bar on University Place would have turned in another raucous night .
The Irish bars would have been jammed .
A chamber orchestra in Washington Square Park would have performed Vivaldi , with the sounds of traffic from 6th Avenue in the background .
Miles Davis would have played at the Apollo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he would have done a couple of stunning hours of ragas at the Asia Society and adjourned to an East Side apartment to continue on until dawn .
No one and nothing would have obeyed a lockdown .
That New York…where is it ?
Who are all these one-dimensional super-politicized puny goofs of the city swearing allegiance to the medical fakers ?
Are they waiting for gold stars on the blackboard from the teacher ?
In the old days , New York had DISDAIN .
You didn ’ t get by with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mouth Left or Right and get away with it .
The city was plugged into its own non-stop bullshit detector .
What did you have to OFFER ?
Aimless blabbermouths were consigned to a special circle of Hell .
There was no political PROGRAM .
Today ’ s “ New Yorkers ” would apparently be afraid to live in a landscape like that .
They wouldn ’ t know which way to turn .
They have a desperate need to become slaves to an IDEA .
In this case , an idea about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concealed by the Vietnam War , the city was undergoing a transformation into a cartoon of itself .
That ’ s when the synthetic notion of “ being a New Yorker ” —based on nothing—started to take hold .
There were many reasons .
Mind numbing leveling television .
The raising of children to be targets of advertising and fetish objects in a consumer society .
The new New Yorkers were taught that liberal politics were a necessary adjunct of their status .
Liberal equaled big government .
Messaging from every possible quarter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the city into servants of share and care as defined by government… Going to doctors and acquiring diagnoses of physical and mental conditions was starting to take off as a social trend .
It was part of “ good behavior ” and “ being good.
” The medicines and the vaccines were , of course , toxic .
Street drugs were also trending upward .
Although no one wanted to admit it , because “ being good for the greater good ” was paramount , the city was taking in more immigrants than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t enough jobs .
Desultory schools were steamrollered .
Even skyscraper architecture was moving away from unique structures like the Chrysler and the Empire State , into functional steel and glass boxes .
Signs of the minds .
“ We need more offices so more people can be good workers for good companies.
” With people dumbed down enough , they would fall for any con .
Any piece of shiny gloss .
And it was provided : New York media ( the greatest communication center in the world ) covered the rise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a perfumed cultural signal of a dawning epoch .
By the 1970s , intellectuals in the city were reading hyped chronicles of the emerging $ $ stars of Manhattan .
Painters , fashioneers , stock speculators .
And yes , Trump .
The content of these celebs ’ output was entirely irrelevant .
All that mattered was that it was ringing up extraordinary sales in inflated dollars .
To view how thin and vulnerable new New York had become , and how brainless—when , in 2020 , the fake pandemic hit , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ folded , and went into mask and social distance mode without a whisper of protest .
In short order , the city was made over into abject wreckage , shuttered , obedient , loyal to a psychotic delusion .
In a silly song he recorded long after its internal demise , Frank Sinatra said New York was the city that never sleeps .
Now that ’ s all it does .
CODA : If the September 11th attacks had happened in 1962 , there would have been no need for Billy Joel or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yorkers.
” The people of the city would have looked at the firemen and cops as human heroes risking everything for other humans .
Period .
That would have been enough .
More than enough .
That would have gone deeper into souls and minds .
Where it counts .
—Entraining minds .
The job of the super-State .
Reworking independence into devotion to a synthetic pose of altruism .
But in this phony pandemic , it ’ s good to be BAD… The Best of Jon Rappoport

Take a deep breath. Ready? In today’s episode of the current president in the iron mask, and a 77-year-old physical freak, Biden, with a brain aneurysm (and twelve doctors) who won’t make it through the swearing-in ceremony if he’s elected, leaving the fate of the nation to one Kamala Harris; and a country smoking in ruins, sold out by Fauci to the Chinese—hold your horses, no self-respecting B studio will green-light this mess, it could never happen, this is America, this is the land of the rednecks with big guns ready to invade governors’ offices alongside coiffed soccer moms who see their kiddies quarantined and locked down in schools after several snot-bubble sneezing third graders test positive on a viral assay geared to inflate case numbers…
What do they have on President Trump? Is it his taxes? Something much worse? A night in a hotel room? I’m asking, because the US GDP has just dropped more than 30 percent this past quarter—the greatest collapse in US history. Bar none. And what is the president saying, what is he doing? Besides wearing a black mask. And talking about operation warp speed to develop a killer Gates vaccine. And wondering whether the presidential election should be postponed.
Propaganda Edward Bernays Best Price: $6.42 Buy New $9.66 (as of 07:40 UTC - Details) Recently, I wrote five consecutive pieces directed at Trump, urging him to use the full power of his office to force open the economy of the country, come hell or high water, deploying the military or the DOJ—because the economic wreckage was that bad, and the danger line had been crossed months ago—and how much more evidence does the man need to convince himself this is an economic war being waged against The People, under the cover of a fake pandemic? Does he need Fauci to confess before a tribunal, Gates to admit he’s a Howdy Doody eugenicist on YouTube, the UN to issue a directive swearing allegiance to Mao and Stalin and Lenin and turning over its priceless piece of NYC real estate donated by Rockefeller to ANTIFA? Would that do it? Does he need raging mobs of dispossessed and evicted Americans attacking the White House and being gunned down by troops? Would that do it? Does he need a spinning silver Saucer landing in the Rose Garden with gray men stepping out holding a communique from the Milky Way Council of Elders stating America is finished? Would that be enough? Or does the president just want to wear a black mask and not find his ass with both hands?
In 1928, Edward Bernays, the wretched father of modern propaganda, wrote: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…”
It’s obvious that the global virus fakery called COVID depends on The Individual conceived as a social construct. He is now a carrier, infector, transmitter, vector of disease.
Even more important in this personality makeover, he is now a socially conscious member of the community of share and care and collective goo.
“Once we convince you that you’re an altruist down to your toes, we can manipulate you six ways from Sunday.”
That’s the synthetic part. You take a direct ideal—humans helping other humans—and you twist it into papier mache and plastic and cartoons and deflating politeness and robothood and automatic reflex and stimulus response. Everybody’s a good neighbor in Pleasantville. Everybody wants to “save the world.” There is a new gloss over society. Shiny. Oh so shiny. Mind Control In The Un... Jacobson, Steven Best Price: $25.39 Buy New $15.99 (as of 04:23 UTC - Details)
This operation takes decades to perform. It involves constant messaging on television, in classrooms—especially in classrooms—in the workplace, in homes, in churches.
And when the operation succeeds, guess what? The government can enlist untold numbers of people in self-immolating programs on behalf of Humanity. Pull the trigger, obtain compliance.
“Of course I’ll go along with the masks and lockdowns. Anything to serve a higher cause.”
Yes, indeed.
A new identity has been glued to The Individual. He is no longer just himself. He’s been made “better.”
Again, the trick is starting out with something genuine—and then twisting it into an artificial shape and imposing it on the mind.
Plotline: people were once strong, independent, resistant, and highly suspicious of all efforts to entrain them into cartoon versions of themselves. But after enough messaging, they became docile.
Thread: Once upon a time, pro athletes were highly difficult to control as “citizens.” But then came the concept of being role models. Which meant: behaving. Which meant doing good works in the community, for charity, for the less fortunate. Nothing wrong with good works. Certainly not. But hidden in the background, there was a successful effort to make these men over into obedient members inside society’s structure, willing to follow orders on behalf of the greater good. As defined by appointed anointed officials. There was a reversal in their minds—along with very large amounts of money….have to protect that cash…
Sports tough guys, billionaire team owners submit to COVID. The Crowd: A Study of ... Le Bon, Gustave Best Price: $6.98 Buy New $8.94 (as of 06:26 UTC - Details)
I stand in awe of their cowardice.
Not one of them will grow a pair and say NO to COVID. They obey senseless and destructive government directives like abject weaklings. The whole lot of them.
As the three major sports leagues in America try to open their seasons, the athletes bend and bow before warnings: THE WHOLE YEAR COULD BE LOST IF ENOUGH PLAYERS TEST POSITIVE. That little worm Fauci actually controls their every move, their dollars, their careers, their teams, their fortunes. And they take it.
The team owners, rough and ready capitalists who do cutthroat business like pirates of old, meekly submit as well.
Yes, these sports heroes and their owners do exhibit all the signs of living in a state of hypnosis about “the pandemic.” But that’s too easy as a final answer. The athletes are supposed to have enormous reserves of adrenaline and courage. They play through pain. They endure injuries that would make ordinary civilians flee to Disability.
And yes, it’s about the money, just as it was about the money when the China-Nike scandal blew up and pro basketball stars kept their mouths shut about the horrific human rights abuses (mass murders) in China, in order to protect their shoe contracts. Sure. Money.
But again, it goes beyond that to basic courage and independence, which these players are showing NONE of.
No guts, no glory.
Some of the more famous athletes are acting as overt whores of the State. They make little video vignettes for propaganda television. They’re “at home with the family,” urging the public to go along with the hammer directives of the State lockdowns, which are destroying millions and millions of lives. The Crowd: A Study of ... Le Bon, Gustave Best Price: $6.98 Buy New $8.94 (as of 06:26 UTC - Details)
The athletes and the owners and the coaches have fitted themselves into the weave of society at a level that is the ultimate choke.
Where is the team that says NO, WE WON’T GET TESTED, WE WON’T COOPERATE WITH CONTACT TRACING, WE’RE READY TO PLAY, WE’RE NOT BUYING THIS LOCKDOWN.
Where are the sons of bitches of days of yore who went out there and ran and hit and slid and tackled and blocked and fought and clawed for every advantage? These modern-day Sampsons have had haircuts. They’re bald.
I try to imagine what men like Ted Williams and John McGraw would have done and said in the face of a Fauci lockdown warning. It would have been a sight to behold.
There was a time when the men who built cars at the Ford factory—who staged a massive sit-down strike at their work benches and wrestled the right to unionize away from Henry Ford himself—these men would have rushed INTO work, no matter what, if told they had to stay at home and lock themselves in because of a GERM.
Now, like little lambs, the athletes’ unions fold up their tents and obey the governors’ edicts.
Take all the coaches of all the sports in the country—not one of them is saying NO to the lockdowns and the insane directives about distancing and masks. Not one coach among all these tough guys, most of whom are former players, is saying the whole vicious charade is insane and he’s not going to give in.
These athletes have been mind-controlled at a level that is astonishing, given how they used to think and live and play their sports. Their natural impulses to do good have been turned against them, through the magic of years and years of propaganda messaging.
—Now let’s turn from these bald Sampsons to the people of New York.
I was born there. One of my early memories was looking across 2nd Avenue at a candy store. This was 1943. The candy store no longer sold Fleer’s bubble gum—the best bubble gum—because the latex was needed for the War effort. But the rumor was, they peddled it under the counter for an exorbitant two cents a chunk, with the cartoon inside the wrapper.
When I was 22, after growing up in the suburbs, I moved back to NY and for several years lived among some of the smartest asymmetric people in the world. You could have an argument with the dumbest person in the city and it would be a smart argument. Everyone had opinions, and they could back them up. There was no such thing as political correctness, believe me. If you had uttered the phrase, no one would have known what you were talking about.
New York was a great city. The thing was, no one was proud to BE a New Yorker. That false synthetic layer of goo came much later. In the old days, there was no pose, no artificial front. People had ideas, they had talent, they had survival instincts.
The best jazz musicians in the world lived and played in New York. When a giant like Bud Powell was playing at Birdland, you could get in for a dollar and sit in a hard wooden chair and listen to him until two in the morning. A buck for the greatest pianist in the world.
And now, the city is wrecked and boarded up, and the people are locked in.
Out on the street, the few aimless glazed pedestrians wear masks. They’re not the same people. They’re replacements. Pods.
OVERNIGHT, the people of New York could throw off the whole phony pandemic, not only for themselves, but the world. They could come out of their apartments and go back to work, defying the petty little lunatics like Cuomo and De Blasio. They could open up their restaurants and bars and stack in the customers. They could start building again. They could open wide the libraries and museums and fill the concert halls. They could open up the little groceries to all comers. They could laugh in the face of the public health authorities.
And it would be OVER.
In 1962, that’s exactly what would have happened. And not for some cause. Not for the chance to do a little virtue signaling. Not for the sake of “being a New Yorker.” For survival. For continuing to live their lives, people would have shaken off that slimy fraud Fauci like a five-minute bad dream. A joke played by an idiot.
They would have looked at the screaming lockdown headlines in the newspapers on the corner stand and shrugged and gone on their way. “You’re telling me I can’t walk down the street and listen to John Coltrane at the Jazz Gallery on a summer night? You’re out of your mind.” And the Termini brothers, who owned the club, would have packed the place even tighter than usual, just to thumb their noses at the mayor and his con artists. They would have put in a call to their contact at Democratic Machine headquarters. And it would have been OVER.
No one would have obeyed. Independent scholars would have walked into the 42nd St. library, as they did every day, and gone to the reference desk and asked for manuscripts on ancient Roman law and the Walt Whitman papers and the early maps of the city. The quiet upstairs macrobiotic restaurant on 2nd Avenue (1962) would have served supper as usual. The Cedar Bar on University Place would have turned in another raucous night. The Irish bars would have been jammed. A chamber orchestra in Washington Square Park would have performed Vivaldi, with the sounds of traffic from 6th Avenue in the background. Miles Davis would have played at the Apollo. If Ravi Shankar was in town, he would have done a couple of stunning hours of ragas at the Asia Society and adjourned to an East Side apartment to continue on until dawn. No one and nothing would have obeyed a lockdown.
Pandemic? Virus? Get serious.
That New York…where is it? Who are all these one-dimensional super-politicized puny goofs of the city swearing allegiance to the medical fakers? Are they waiting for gold stars on the blackboard from the teacher?
In the old days, New York had DISDAIN. You didn’t get by with platitudes. You didn’t blithely mouth Left or Right and get away with it. The city was plugged into its own non-stop bullshit detector. What did you have to OFFER? Aimless blabbermouths were consigned to a special circle of Hell.
There was no political PROGRAM. Today’s “New Yorkers” would apparently be afraid to live in a landscape like that. They wouldn’t know which way to turn. They have a desperate need to become slaves to an IDEA. In this case, an idea about a virus.
In the 1960s, concealed by the Vietnam War, the city was undergoing a transformation into a cartoon of itself. That’s when the synthetic notion of “being a New Yorker”—based on nothing—started to take hold.
There were many reasons. Mind numbing leveling television. The raising of children to be targets of advertising and fetish objects in a consumer society. The new New Yorkers were taught that liberal politics were a necessary adjunct of their status. Liberal equaled big government. Messaging from every possible quarter was aimed at turning the people of the city into servants of share and care as defined by government…
Going to doctors and acquiring diagnoses of physical and mental conditions was starting to take off as a social trend. It was part of “good behavior” and “being good.” The medicines and the vaccines were, of course, toxic. Street drugs were also trending upward. Although no one wanted to admit it, because “being good for the greater good” was paramount, the city was taking in more immigrants than it could handle. There weren’t enough jobs. Desultory schools were steamrollered. Even skyscraper architecture was moving away from unique structures like the Chrysler and the Empire State, into functional steel and glass boxes. Signs of the minds. “We need more offices so more people can be good workers for good companies.”
With people dumbed down enough, they would fall for any con. Any piece of shiny gloss. And it was provided:
New York media (the greatest communication center in the world) covered the rise of New Money as if it were a perfumed cultural signal of a dawning epoch. By the 1970s, intellectuals in the city were reading hyped chronicles of the emerging $$ stars of Manhattan. Painters, fashioneers, stock speculators. And yes, Trump. The content of these celebs’ output was entirely irrelevant. All that mattered was that it was ringing up extraordinary sales in inflated dollars.
To view how thin and vulnerable new New York had become, and how brainless—when, in 2020, the fake pandemic hit, and lockdowns were announced, the population promptly folded, and went into mask and social distance mode without a whisper of protest.
In short order, the city was made over into abject wreckage, shuttered, obedient, loyal to a psychotic delusion.
In a silly song he recorded long after its internal demise, Frank Sinatra said New York was the city that never sleeps.
Now that’s all it does.
CODA: If the September 11th attacks had happened in 1962, there would have been no need for Billy Joel or the Yankees to rally “all New Yorkers.” The people of the city would have looked at the firemen and cops as human heroes risking everything for other humans. Period. That would have been enough. More than enough. That would have gone deeper into souls and minds. Where it counts.
—Entraining minds. The job of the super-State. Reworking independence into devotion to a synthetic pose of altruism.
But in this phony pandemic, it’s good to be BAD…
Reprinted with permission from Jon Rappoport’s blog.
The Best of Jon Rappoport


lewrockwell--2020-08-01--Neither Trump Nor Biden Really Matters to China or Russia

Well , according to the Trump campaign , Democrat rival Joe Biden is the candidate whom Chinese leaders are rooting for to win the presidential election in November .
“ Beijing Biden ” or “ Sleepy Joe ” would be a gift to China , so it goes .
In turn , trying to out-hawk the Republican incumbent , the Biden campaign paints Trump as being “ soft ” on China and having been “ played ” by Chinese counterparts over trade , the corona pandemic and allegations about human rights .
Biden , the former vice president in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impose more sanctions on China over allegations of rights violations .
He claims to be the one who will “ stand up ” to Beijing if he is elected to the White House in three months ’ time .
China : The Bubble that ... Orlik , Thomas Best Price : $ 22.20 Buy New $ 21.99 Last week , Biden declared he was “ giving notice to the Kremlin and others [ China ] ” that if elected to the presidency he would impose “ substantial and lasting costs ” on those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That ’ s war talk based on worthless intel propaganda .
Trump meanwhile asserts that no-one is tougher than him when it comes to dealing with China ( and Russia for that matter ) .
Given the Trump administration ’ s reckless policy of ramping up hostility towards China in recent months , that begs the question : how could a future Biden administration begin to be even more aggressive – short of going to war ?
Relations between Washington and Beijing have plummeted to their worst levels since the historic detente initiated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1970s .
The precipitous downward spiral has occurred under President Trump ’ s watch .
So , how exactly could a prospective President Biden make the relationship more adversarial ?
The truth is both Trump and Biden are equally vulnerable to domestic partisan criticism about their respective dealings with China .
The belated high-handed approach that both are trying to project is pockmarked with risible hypocrisy .
The Trump campaign scores a valid point when it recalls how former Vice President Biden smooched and feted Chinese leaders with economic opportunities in the American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of lavishing praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping while ignoring the impending coronavirus pandemic because Trump ’ s top priority was getting a trade deal with China .
The fact that both American politicians have U-turned with regard to China in such nasty terms must leave the authorities in Beijing with a deep sense of distrust in either of the would-be presidents .
Trade Wars Are Class W ... Pettis , Michael Best Price : $ 19.09 Buy New $ 19.36 Biden at one time waxed lyrical about his close relationship with Xi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ presidency heated up , Biden stuck the proverbial knife in the Chinese leader calling him a “ thug ” .
For his part , Trump previously referred to Xi as a “ dear friend ” while dining him with “ beautiful chocolate cake ” at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida , but his administration has since slammed the Chinese leader as “ authoritarian ” .
Trump ’ s racist slurs over the pandemic being “ Kung Flu ” and “ Chinese plague ” must give President Xi pause for disgust with the falseness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can either of these presidential candidates be trusted to pursue principled U.S.-China relations going forward ?
The toxic anti-China campaigning by both indicates a level of puerile treachery which foreshadows no possible return to any kind of normalcy .
One distinction perhaps between Trump and Biden is the latter is promising to repair relations with Western allies to form a united front against China .
To that end , a hawkish confrontational policy under Biden may have more impact on U.S.-China relations than under Trump .
Trump has managed to alienate European allies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NATO spending commitments .
Although Trump ’ s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has recently urged “ an alliance of democracies ” to confront China , that rallying call is likely to fall on deaf ears with European allies irked by Trump ’ s brash style .
Biden on the other hand could bring a more unified Western policy of hostility towards Beijing ( and Moscow ) by affecting a more appeasing attitude towards Europe .
In that way , Biden would be more preferred by the Pentagon and foreign policy establishment than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 2016 .
The Rape of the Mind : ... Joost A. M. Meerloo Best Price : $ 14.72 Buy New $ 2.99 However , it is doubtful that Beijing is paying too much attention to what either candidate is saying or posturing at .
If both of them can flip so much from talking softly to shouting loud anti-China profanities then their individual characters may be deemed malleable and unscrupulous .
Both have shown a shameless streak in stoking anti-China bashing for electioneering gain .
Trump pulled that trick last time out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for “ raping America ” only for him to discover “ deep friendship ” with Xi following that election .
Now he has reverted to hostility out of self-serving calculation to whip up anti-China sentiment among voters .
And Biden is apt to do the very same .
Forget about such fickle personalities when it comes to reading U.S. policy towards China .
Beijing will be looking at the longer trajectory of how U.S. policy turned towards a more militarized approach with the “ Pivot to Asia ” under the Obama-Biden administration in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transcends Democrat or Republican occupants of the White House , the next major indicator was in the Pentagon planning documents of 2017 and 2018 under Trump which labelled China and Russia as “ great power rivals ” .
The American “ ship of state ” , it may be concluded , is therefore set on a collision course with both Beijing and Moscow in terms of ramping up a confrontational agenda .
Who sits in the White House scarcely matters .
For Trump and Biden to trade barbs about which one is “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ irrelevant in the bigger picture of U.S. imperialist ambitions for global dominance .
The logic of a waning American empire and the concomitant inherent belligerence to compensate for the perceived loss of U.S. global power are the issues to follow , not whether Trump or Biden clinch the dog-and-pony race to the White House .
The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation .

Well, according to the Trump campaign, Democrat rival Joe Biden is the candidate whom Chinese leaders are rooting for to win the presidential election in November. “Beijing Biden” or “Sleepy Joe” would be a gift to China, so it goes.
In turn, trying to out-hawk the Republican incumbent, the Biden campaign paints Trump as being “soft” on China and having been “played” by Chinese counterparts over trade, the corona pandemic and allegations about human rights.
Biden, the former vice president in the previous Obama administrations, has vowed to impose more sanctions on China over allegations of rights violations. He claims to be the one who will “stand up” to Beijing if he is elected to the White House in three months’ time.
China: The Bubble that... Orlik, Thomas Best Price: $22.20 Buy New $21.99 (as of 04:15 UTC - Details) Last week, Biden declared he was “giving notice to the Kremlin and others [China]” that if elected to the presidency he would impose “substantial and lasting costs” on those who allegedly interfere in U.S. politics. That’s war talk based on worthless intel propaganda.
Trump meanwhile asserts that no-one is tougher than him when it comes to dealing with China (and Russia for that matter).
Given the Trump administration’s reckless policy of ramping up hostility towards China in recent months, that begs the question: how could a future Biden administration begin to be even more aggressive – short of going to war?
Relations between Washington and Beijing have plummeted to their worst levels since the historic detente initiated by President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s. The precipitous downward spiral has occurred under President Trump’s watch. So, how exactly could a prospective President Biden make the relationship more adversarial?
The truth is both Trump and Biden are equally vulnerable to domestic partisan criticism about their respective dealings with China. The belated high-handed approach that both are trying to project is pockmarked with risible hypocrisy.
The Trump campaign scores a valid point when it recalls how former Vice President Biden smooched and feted Chinese leaders with economic opportunities in the American economy.
Likewise, Trump stands accused of lavishing praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping while ignoring the impending coronavirus pandemic because Trump’s top priority was getting a trade deal with China.
The fact that both American politicians have U-turned with regard to China in such nasty terms must leave the authorities in Beijing with a deep sense of distrust in either of the would-be presidents. Trade Wars Are Class W... Pettis, Michael Best Price: $19.09 Buy New $19.36 (as of 04:24 UTC - Details)
Biden at one time waxed lyrical about his close relationship with Xi, but as his bid for the presidency heated up, Biden stuck the proverbial knife in the Chinese leader calling him a “thug”.
For his part, Trump previously referred to Xi as a “dear friend” while dining him with “beautiful chocolate cake” at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, but his administration has since slammed the Chinese leader as “authoritarian”. Trump’s racist slurs over the pandemic being “Kung Flu” and “Chinese plague” must give President Xi pause for disgust with the falseness.
At the end of day, can either of these presidential candidates be trusted to pursue principled U.S.-China relations going forward? The toxic anti-China campaigning by both indicates a level of puerile treachery which foreshadows no possible return to any kind of normalcy.
One distinction perhaps between Trump and Biden is the latter is promising to repair relations with Western allies to form a united front against China. To that end, a hawkish confrontational policy under Biden may have more impact on U.S.-China relations than under Trump. Trump has managed to alienate European allies with his broadsides over trade tariffs and NATO spending commitments. Although Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has recently urged “an alliance of democracies” to confront China, that rallying call is likely to fall on deaf ears with European allies irked by Trump’s brash style. Biden on the other hand could bring a more unified Western policy of hostility towards Beijing (and Moscow) by affecting a more appeasing attitude towards Europe. In that way, Biden would be more preferred by the Pentagon and foreign policy establishment than Trump, just as Hillary Clinton was in 2016.
The Rape of the Mind: ... Joost A. M. Meerloo Best Price: $14.72 Buy New $2.99 (as of 06:50 UTC - Details) However, it is doubtful that Beijing is paying too much attention to what either candidate is saying or posturing at. If both of them can flip so much from talking softly to shouting loud anti-China profanities then their individual characters may be deemed malleable and unscrupulous. Both have shown a shameless streak in stoking anti-China bashing for electioneering gain. Trump pulled that trick last time out in 2016 when he railed against China for “raping America” only for him to discover “deep friendship” with Xi following that election. Now he has reverted to hostility out of self-serving calculation to whip up anti-China sentiment among voters. And Biden is apt to do the very same.
Forget about such fickle personalities when it comes to reading U.S. policy towards China. Beijing will be looking at the longer trajectory of how U.S. policy turned towards a more militarized approach with the “Pivot to Asia” under the Obama-Biden administration in 2011. Indicating how Deep State continuity transcends Democrat or Republican occupants of the White House, the next major indicator was in the Pentagon planning documents of 2017 and 2018 under Trump which labelled China and Russia as “great power rivals”. The American “ship of state”, it may be concluded, is therefore set on a collision course with both Beijing and Moscow in terms of ramping up a confrontational agenda. Who sits in the White House scarcely matters.
For Trump and Biden to trade barbs about which one is “softer” on China or Russia is irrelevant in the bigger picture of U.S. imperialist ambitions for global dominance. The logic of a waning American empire and the concomitant inherent belligerence to compensate for the perceived loss of U.S. global power are the issues to follow, not whether Trump or Biden clinch the dog-and-pony race to the White House.
The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.


lewrockwell--2020-08-01--Has the Lockdown Dictatorship Only Started?

Clay Travis has written a piece : 66 % of Twitter Voters Believe Sports Media Is Rooting Against Sports Returning .
Sports media is rooting against the return of sports for the same reason that news media is rooting against the return of life : … .
if you asked the average member of the sports media to make this choice : sports return , but Donald Trump is reelected or no sports return , but Donald Trump is defeated , I think most sports media would choose to cancel sports if it meant canceling Trump .
Sports media – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ biased .
So , this is not surprising .
Sports offers a diversion ; right now , a diversion is not desired .
The reason why is tied to the election and tied to the riots – which are also tied to the election .
I commented on this earlier , based on a video by Jonathan Pageau .
The best thing that can happen to raise the heat : re-start a sport , then stop it .
This is now in the air for baseball : Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Clark on Friday that if the sport doesn ’ t do a better job of managing the coronavirus , it could shut down for the season… .
Baseball will be somewhat irrelevant in this regard – play or not , it doesn ’ t generate the passion .
But the tale will be told in two sports : professional basketball and football – in the case of the latter , two leagues will matter : the National Football League , and the SEC for college .
If some combination of these three leagues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we ain ’ t seen nothin ’ yet – neither in lockdown actions or riot actions .
I say one or more of these leagues will not finish what it starts .
At least one month before election day .
The Best of Bionic Mosquito

Clay Travis has written a piece: 66% of Twitter Voters Believe Sports Media Is Rooting Against Sports Returning. Sports media is rooting against the return of sports for the same reason that news media is rooting against the return of life:
…. if you asked the average member of the sports media to make this choice: sports return, but Donald Trump is reelected or no sports return, but Donald Trump is defeated, I think most sports media would choose to cancel sports if it meant canceling Trump.
Sports media – like the broader media – is left- biased. So, this is not surprising.
Sports offers a diversion; right now, a diversion is not desired. The reason why is tied to the election and tied to the riots – which are also tied to the election. I commented on this earlier, based on a video by Jonathan Pageau.
The best thing that can happen to raise the heat: re-start a sport, then stop it. This is now in the air for baseball:
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark on Friday that if the sport doesn’t do a better job of managing the coronavirus, it could shut down for the season….
Baseball will be somewhat irrelevant in this regard – play or not, it doesn’t generate the passion. But the tale will be told in two sports: professional basketball and football – in the case of the latter, two leagues will matter: the National Football League, and the SEC for college.
If some combination of these three leagues stops or cancels the season, know that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet – neither in lockdown actions or riot actions. I say one or more of these leagues will not finish what it starts.
At least one month before election day.
Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.
The Best of Bionic Mosquito


lewrockwell--2020-08-03--The Truth About the West: It’s the Only Non-Oppressive Civilization

“ Hey , hey , ho , ho , Western Civ has got to go.
” “ Western Civilization is not , for me , a curriculum of democracy and reason and greatness ; it is a history of inequality and oppression , ” writes Scott Ross , a teacher .
Mr. Ross is by no means a rare ideological outlier among his peers .
The view he holds has been taught and propagated at universities across the United States and Western Europe for decades .
The situation has become so dire that Yale University has recently cancelled its formerly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ History : Renaissance to the Present , ” because it was allegedly too Eurocentric .
Some among the shrinking number of universities that still offer such courses use them merely as a platform to attack the very culture whose achievements they are supposed to teach .
The alleged oppressiveness of the West is the leitmotif that dominates their critiques .
This view has boiled over into the larger society and is commonly held today by those on the political Left .
We have seen a disturbing display of this mindset during the recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attacking and destroying symbols of Western culture .
Civilization : The West ... Ferguson , Niall Best Price : $ 3.75 Buy New $ 10.40 Although it is true that various forms of oppression have been practiced in the West over time , oppression is by no means unique to the West .
Oppression has been , in fact , a feature of every civilization that has appeared on the face of this earth .
We could say that human history is – in one way – a history of oppression : It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exploit , trample upon and take advantage of their fellow human beings .
There is nothing particularly surprising about this , since selfishness and rapaciousness are prominent aspects of human nature .
What makes the West unique , however , is that it is the only civilization to reject oppression and deem it both wrong and immoral .
Western civilization stands as the only culture that has had the compassion and humanness to make a deliberate and systematic effort to eliminate oppression and tyranny not only from within its own territories but also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Central to this enterprise has been the concept of human rights .
It was Western thinkers who came up with the unprecedented and novel idea that all men ( and women ) are entitled to certain fundamental inalienable rights which they possess simply by virtue of being human .
This is how Encyclopedia Wikipedia sums up the evolution of this revolutionary concept : “ Ancient peoples did not have the same modern-day conception of universal human rights .
The true forerunner of human rights discourse was the concept of natural rights which appeared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tradition that became prominent during the European Enlightenment with such philosophers as John Locke , Francis Hutcheson and Jean-Jacques Burlamaquiand which featured prominently in the political discourse of the American Revolution and the French Revolution .
From this foundation , the modern human rights arguments emerged over the latter half of the 20th century possibly as a reaction to slavery , torture , genocide and war crimes , as a realisation of inherent human vulnerability and as being a precondition for the possibility of a just society.
” Please note carefully : The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wholly and exclusively within the Western Tradition .
Some of the landmark public declarations where this singularly western principle has been annunciated include the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights , The Declaration of the Rights of Man , and the United Nations ’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights .
No other civilization has had the inclination and generosity to extend such rights to the common man .
Most of them have , in fact , strongly resisted such efforts in the past , and they still do so today .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Price : $ 1.98 Buy New $ 10.56 Universal human rights are a quintessentially western project .
The idea that the king and the pauper , the great and the small , the rich and the poor have the same intrinsic worth and as such are entitled to the same considerations and privileges is not only uniquely western but also inimical to the mindset of every other civilizational streams .
Thankfully , Western civilization did not stay with theory only .
Over the centuries it has managed – with fits and starts – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ translated its lofty ideals into social reality .
This achievement has been effected through a form of government which is today known as Western democracy .
According to Encyclopedia Wikipedia , the characteristic feature of Western democracy is “ equal protection of human rights , civil rights , civil liberties and political freedoms for all people.
” This is a reasonably fair and accurate description of this distinctly Western form of government .
Notice especially the phrase “ all people , ” which means every person regardless of their social standing , gender @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Thanks to its highly evolved institutions based on respect for the inherent dignity of every individual , Western democracies today treat all people equally before the law and protect the rights of every person regardless of their status or accidents of birth .
To ensure maximum fairness , western societies take special care to protect the civil rights of those who belong to groups that have historically found themselves at increased risk of oppression .
By instituting the rule of law and guaranteeing the equality of rights , Western democracy has for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ common man from his long-standing legacy of oppression .
Having suffered millennia of domination and tyranny , ordinary people fortunate enough to live in Western style democracies can be free at last .
Not only has the West succeeded in eliminating oppression and extending equal rights to all , it is the only civilization that has seriously attempted to embark on such an enterprise .
In all other civilizations , human rights and privileges were the domain of only the privileged few .
And those privileged few were invariably black , brown and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ location of the civilization in question .
It apparently rarely occurred to these men that other classes of people in their societies may also be entitled to the same rights and considerations they themselves enjoyed .
Instead they treated the rest of the population as objects to be used and exploited for their own benefit and pleasure .
And more often than not , those powerful black , brown and yellow males exercised their power over their fellow men ( and women ) with considerable selfishness and ruthlessness .
That ’ s why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abuse , and discrimination have always been part and parcel of every civilization save for the sole bright exception of the West .
It seems that among all privileged male classes across racial groups , it was only white men who possessed the sufficient empathy and compassion to consider their fellow citizens worthy of the same human rights they themselves felt entitled to .
Perhaps the best way to quickly illustrate the immense difference between the West and other civilizational streams is to contrast the situation of some classes of people in Western @ @ @ @ @ @ @ societies based on nonwestern values .
In some Islamic countries , for example , women are still forced to wear hijabs and burqas and are known to be raped as punishment for refusing to cover themselves .
These women can not walk by themselves in the street , open a bank account or own property .
In Saudi Arabia women were only recently allowed to drive a car .
In certain Muslim countries women are not allowed to get proper education .
In contrast consider this telling statistic from the United States : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ degrees : 56 % Women , as a percentage of medical school students : 50.5 % Women , as a percentage of law school students : 51.3 % In a number of African countries where the influence of indigenous African civilization is still strong women are subjected to female circumcision .
There are no known health benefits to this practice which in many cases results in severe complications and side effects .
The primary purpose behind this procedure is apparently to deprive women of the possibility of experiencing sexual pleasure .
Thus , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being sexual objects for the pleasure of men and receptacles for their sperm as child bearers .
This , sadly , is only one of the cruel habits of traditional African culture which has been decidedly male-dominated and misogynic .
From the accounts we have , it is quite obvious that African civilization has for the most part treated women as chattel with females seen merely as objects to be bartered and used for the benefit and pleasure of men .
An account by a sympathetic 19th century explorer provides a painful insight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were treated in traditional African civilization : Western Democracy : The ... Charles River Editors Buy New $ 12.99 “ The females , and especially the young ones are kept principally among the old men , who barter away their daughters , sisters or nieces , in exchange for wives for themselves or their sons .
Wives are considered the absolute property of the husband , and can be given away , or exchanged , or lent , according to his caprice … Female children are betrothed usually from early infancy … little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wives , a young man values a wife principally for her services as a slave.
” The slave-like status of women in African culture contrasts sharply with the view of women held in the West .
Even as African women were being treated in the most degrading manner described in the account above , Madame de Stael was one of the most admired intellectual voices in Europe , writing books and and hosting literary salons in Paris .
Keep in mind the picture of the tyrannized African women as you read this description @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a witty and brilliant conversationalist , often dressed in daring outfits , she stimulated the political and intellectual life of her times .
Her works , whether novels , travel literature or polemics , emphasized individuality and passion made a lasting mark on European thought.
” One can not but feel a profound admiration for a civilization that would allow a woman to rise to this level of intellectual and social preeminence at the time when nearly all other cultures would view women as intrinsically useless save for their function as household @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fifteen hundred years before Madame de Stael , European women in ancient Rome were already allowed to inherit property , own assets , initiate a divorce and leave a will .
In contrast , many African societies to this day continue to treat their women in their characteristic misogynic fashion despite the West ’ s decades-long attempts to improve the situation .
Islamic and African civilizations , however , are not alone in their degrading and oppressive treatment of women .
Unfortunately , more often than not this has been the norm in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as sad as it is revealing that no non-western culture would of its accord extend full human , civil and political rights to their women .
The improvements that they have made on this front are almost wholly due to western pressure and influence .
Turning to another group , gay people face the most severe forms of persecution and oppression in non-western societies .
In Islamic Iran , for instance , homosexuals are routinely hanged .
In South Africa homosexual women are regularly subjected to “ corrective ” rape and often killed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appealing to the values of indigenous African culture .
Racism and ethnic hatred are to this day the common features of non-western frame of mind .
Not only that but most of them lack the moral framework to see that there is something fundamentally wrong with their intolerant attitudes toward people who do not look like them .
We see harrowing manifestations of this in African countries which still suffer from the unfortunate influence of the indigenous mindset .
The Rwandan genocide , for example , in which some eight hundred thousand people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by ethnic hatred of one group of black people against another .
Tellingly , the genocide was accompanied by gender violence .
According to a UN report , “ Rape was the rule and its absence was the exception… Rape was systematic and was used as a weapon.
” Experts estimate that between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during the Rwandan genocide .
This kind of cruelty has apparently been a common feature of African past .
The situation began to improve with the arrival of western values , but the deep-rooted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change .
Crises of the Republic ... Arendt , Hannah Best Price : $ 11.00 Buy New $ 13.58 We could go on , but these examples suffice .
Nearly all societies based on non-western values exhibit multiple forms of oppression often to a brutal degree .
Racist , intolerant , rights-denying , gay-hanging and misogynist though they may be , these cultures would treat its citizens even more oppressively had it not been for the beneficial influence and efforts of the West , which has gone to great lengths in its effort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people world over .
One of the steps in this effort has been the United Nation ’ s Universal Declaration of Human Rights .
Seen by many as one of the loftiest expressions of the human spirit , it seeks to ensure that all societies and cultures fully respect the rights and dignity of their people .
Would you like to guess the name of the only civilization whose values and ideas could give rise to this kind of document ?
The opening clause gives the game away : “ Whereas recognition of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom , justice and peace in the world… ” Where have we heard language like this before ?
“ The equal and inalienable rights , ” “ the inherent dignity , ” these are , of course , unmistakeably western concepts .
And so is the idea of freedom and justice for all .
Unfortunately , many non-western cultures still resist the spirit embodied in the Declaration .
Unlike Western democracies , their social systems are designed to protect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few so that they can continue in their oppression , chicanery and exploitation .
It is truly paradoxical that those who charge the West with being oppressive often in the same breath express admiration for non-western cultures , almost all of which grossly violate human rights of their people and often subject them to procedures that can only be rightfully described as barbaric .
This glaring contradiction betrays the critics ’ true motives and shows that their attack on the West – which is the only civilization willing and capable of producing free @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Rather than seeking justice for all people , their criticism is motivated by ideological reasons that has little to do with the reality of the situation on the ground .
The charge that Western culture is inherently oppressive is one of the most patently ludicrous and self-refuting absurdities of this woke era .
Contrary to what the leftist critics contend , the West is the only civilization that has managed to develop a system of laws , rules , customs and institutions that have made the elimination of oppression possible .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shown for the dignity and autonomy of ordinary human beings has no precedent or equal in world history .
While the histories of other civilizations are for the most part unashamed and unquestioned catalogues of chicanery and tyranny , the West is the only culture that bucked and reversed that trend .
Western civilization towers alone as the great rights-endowing liberator of humanity .
For that , the common man ( and the common woman ) owe the West an eternal debt of gratitude .
The Best of Vasko Kohlmayer

“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go.”
— Jesse Jackson
“Western Civilization is not, for me, a curriculum of democracy and reason and greatness; it is a history of inequality and oppression,” writes Scott Ross, a teacher. Mr. Ross is by no means a rare ideological outlier among his peers. The view he holds has been taught and propagated at universities across the United States and Western Europe for decades. The situation has become so dire that Yale University has recently cancelled its formerly excellent course called “Introduction to Art History: Renaissance to the Present,” because it was allegedly too Eurocentric. Some among the shrinking number of universities that still offer such courses use them merely as a platform to attack the very culture whose achievements they are supposed to teach. The alleged oppressiveness of the West is the leitmotif that dominates their critiques. This view has boiled over into the larger society and is commonly held today by those on the political Left. We have seen a disturbing display of this mindset during the recent riots when “protesters” kept methodically attacking and destroying symbols of Western culture. Civilization: The West... Ferguson, Niall Best Price: $3.75 Buy New $10.40 (as of 05:09 UTC - Details)
Although it is true that various forms of oppression have been practiced in the West over time, oppression is by no means unique to the West. Oppression has been, in fact, a feature of every civilization that has appeared on the face of this earth. We could say that human history is – in one way – a history of oppression: It has common for those with power to exploit, trample upon and take advantage of their fellow human beings. There is nothing particularly surprising about this, since selfishness and rapaciousness are prominent aspects of human nature.
What makes the West unique, however, is that it is the only civilization to reject oppression and deem it both wrong and immoral. Western civilization stands as the only culture that has had the compassion and humanness to make a deliberate and systematic effort to eliminate oppression and tyranny not only from within its own territories but also in other parts of the world. Central to this enterprise has been the concept of human rights. It was Western thinkers who came up with the unprecedented and novel idea that all men (and women) are entitled to certain fundamental inalienable rights which they possess simply by virtue of being human.
This is how Encyclopedia Wikipedia sums up the evolution of this revolutionary concept:
“Ancient peoples did not have the same modern-day conception of universal human rights. The true forerunner of human rights discourse was the concept of natural rights which appeared as part of the medieval natural law tradition that became prominent during the European Enlightenment with such philosophers as John Locke, Francis Hutcheson and Jean-Jacques Burlamaquiand which featured prominently in the political discourse of the American Revolution and the French Revolution. From this foundation, the modern human rights arguments emerged over the latter half of the 20th century possibly as a reaction to slavery, torture, genocide and war crimes, as a realisation of inherent human vulnerability and as being a precondition for the possibility of a just society.”
Please note carefully: The concept of universal human rights was developed wholly and exclusively within the Western Tradition. Some of the landmark public declarations where this singularly western principle has been annunciated include the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights, The Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. No other civilization has had the inclination and generosity to extend such rights to the common man. Most of them have, in fact, strongly resisted such efforts in the past, and they still do so today. The Great Degeneration... Ferguson, Niall Best Price: $1.98 Buy New $10.56 (as of 05:09 UTC - Details)
Universal human rights are a quintessentially western project. The idea that the king and the pauper, the great and the small, the rich and the poor have the same intrinsic worth and as such are entitled to the same considerations and privileges is not only uniquely western but also inimical to the mindset of every other civilizational streams. Thankfully, Western civilization did not stay with theory only. Over the centuries it has managed – with fits and starts – to evolve a system of governance which translated its lofty ideals into social reality. This achievement has been effected through a form of government which is today known as Western democracy.
According to Encyclopedia Wikipedia, the characteristic feature of Western democracy is “equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and political freedoms for all people.” This is a reasonably fair and accurate description of this distinctly Western form of government. Notice especially the phrase “all people,” which means every person regardless of their social standing, gender, race, creed or sexual orientation.
Thanks to its highly evolved institutions based on respect for the inherent dignity of every individual, Western democracies today treat all people equally before the law and protect the rights of every person regardless of their status or accidents of birth. To ensure maximum fairness, western societies take special care to protect the civil rights of those who belong to groups that have historically found themselves at increased risk of oppression. By instituting the rule of law and guaranteeing the equality of rights, Western democracy has for the first time in history relieved the common man from his long-standing legacy of oppression. Having suffered millennia of domination and tyranny, ordinary people fortunate enough to live in Western style democracies can be free at last.
Not only has the West succeeded in eliminating oppression and extending equal rights to all, it is the only civilization that has seriously attempted to embark on such an enterprise. In all other civilizations, human rights and privileges were the domain of only the privileged few. And those privileged few were invariably black, brown and yellow males, depending on the geographic location of the civilization in question. It apparently rarely occurred to these men that other classes of people in their societies may also be entitled to the same rights and considerations they themselves enjoyed. Instead they treated the rest of the population as objects to be used and exploited for their own benefit and pleasure. And more often than not, those powerful black, brown and yellow males exercised their power over their fellow men (and women) with considerable selfishness and ruthlessness. That’s why tyranny, systemic oppression, exploitation, abuse, and discrimination have always been part and parcel of every civilization save for the sole bright exception of the West. It seems that among all privileged male classes across racial groups, it was only white men who possessed the sufficient empathy and compassion to consider their fellow citizens worthy of the same human rights they themselves felt entitled to.
Perhaps the best way to quickly illustrate the immense difference between the West and other civilizational streams is to contrast the situation of some classes of people in Western democracies with their counterparts who live in societies based on nonwestern values.
Islamic civilization: Women in hijab, 21st century
In some Islamic countries, for example, women are still forced to wear hijabs and burqas and are known to be raped as punishment for refusing to cover themselves. These women cannot walk by themselves in the street, open a bank account or own property. In Saudi Arabia women were only recently allowed to drive a car. In certain Muslim countries women are not allowed to get proper education.
Oppressed? Young western females partying
In contrast consider this telling statistic from the United States:
Women, as a percentage of college degrees: 56%
Women, as a percentage of medical school students: 50.5%
Women, as a percentage of law school students: 51.3%
In a number of African countries where the influence of indigenous African civilization is still strong women are subjected to female circumcision. There are no known health benefits to this practice which in many cases results in severe complications and side effects. The primary purpose behind this procedure is apparently to deprive women of the possibility of experiencing sexual pleasure. Thus, these unfortunate African women are reduced to being sexual objects for the pleasure of men and receptacles for their sperm as child bearers.
African civilization: Young women forced to undergo circumcision, 21st century
This, sadly, is only one of the cruel habits of traditional African culture which has been decidedly male-dominated and misogynic. From the accounts we have, it is quite obvious that African civilization has for the most part treated women as chattel with females seen merely as objects to be bartered and used for the benefit and pleasure of men. An account by a sympathetic 19th century explorer provides a painful insight into the degrading manner in which women were treated in traditional African civilization: Western Democracy: The... Charles River Editors Buy New $12.99 (as of 05:09 UTC - Details)
“The females, and especially the young ones are kept principally among the old men, who barter away their daughters, sisters or nieces, in exchange for wives for themselves or their sons. Wives are considered the absolute property of the husband, and can be given away, or exchanged, or lent, according to his caprice … Female children are betrothed usually from early infancy … little real affection consequently exists between husbands and wives, a young man values a wife principally for her services as a slave.”
The slave-like status of women in African culture contrasts sharply with the view of women held in the West. Even as African women were being treated in the most degrading manner described in the account above, Madame de Stael was one of the most admired intellectual voices in Europe, writing books and and hosting literary salons in Paris. Keep in mind the picture of the tyrannized African women as you read this description of Madame de Stael: “Known as a witty and brilliant conversationalist, often dressed in daring outfits, she stimulated the political and intellectual life of her times. Her works, whether novels, travel literature or polemics, emphasized individuality and passion made a lasting mark on European thought.” One cannot but feel a profound admiration for a civilization that would allow a woman to rise to this level of intellectual and social preeminence at the time when nearly all other cultures would view women as intrinsically useless save for their function as household vassals and sex objects.
More than fifteen hundred years before Madame de Stael, European women in ancient Rome were already allowed to inherit property, own assets, initiate a divorce and leave a will. In contrast, many African societies to this day continue to treat their women in their characteristic misogynic fashion despite the West’s decades-long attempts to improve the situation. Islamic and African civilizations, however, are not alone in their degrading and oppressive treatment of women. Unfortunately, more often than not this has been the norm in almost every non-western culture. It is as sad as it is revealing that no non-western culture would of its accord extend full human, civil and political rights to their women. The improvements that they have made on this front are almost wholly due to western pressure and influence.
Turning to another group, gay people face the most severe forms of persecution and oppression in non-western societies. In Islamic Iran, for instance, homosexuals are routinely hanged.
Islamic culture: Gays hanging in Iran, 21st century
In South Africa homosexual women are regularly subjected to “corrective” rape and often killed by men who justify their actions by appealing to the values of indigenous African culture.
Oppressed? Public gay parade, Boston
Racism and ethnic hatred are to this day the common features of non-western frame of mind. Not only that but most of them lack the moral framework to see that there is something fundamentally wrong with their intolerant attitudes toward people who do not look like them. We see harrowing manifestations of this in African countries which still suffer from the unfortunate influence of the indigenous mindset. The Rwandan genocide, for example, in which some eight hundred thousand people were slaughtered in 100 days was driven by ethnic hatred of one group of black people against another. Tellingly, the genocide was accompanied by gender violence. According to a UN report, “Rape was the rule and its absence was the exception… Rape was systematic and was used as a weapon.” Experts estimate that between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during the Rwandan genocide. This kind of cruelty has apparently been a common feature of African past. The situation began to improve with the arrival of western values, but the deep-rooted tendencies of African cultures are slow to change. Crises of the Republic... Arendt, Hannah Best Price: $11.00 Buy New $13.58 (as of 03:21 UTC - Details)
We could go on, but these examples suffice. Nearly all societies based on non-western values exhibit multiple forms of oppression often to a brutal degree. Racist, intolerant, rights-denying, gay-hanging and misogynist though they may be, these cultures would treat its citizens even more oppressively had it not been for the beneficial influence and efforts of the West, which has gone to great lengths in its effort to extend the rights and dignity of people world over.
One of the steps in this effort has been the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Seen by many as one of the loftiest expressions of the human spirit, it seeks to ensure that all societies and cultures fully respect the rights and dignity of their people. Would you like to guess the name of the only civilization whose values and ideas could give rise to this kind of document? The opening clause gives the game away: “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…”
Where have we heard language like this before? “The equal and inalienable rights,” “the inherent dignity,” these are, of course, unmistakeably western concepts. And so is the idea of freedom and justice for all. Unfortunately, many non-western cultures still resist the spirit embodied in the Declaration. Unlike Western democracies, their social systems are designed to protect the rights and privileges of the powerful few so that they can continue in their oppression, chicanery and exploitation.
It is truly paradoxical that those who charge the West with being oppressive often in the same breath express admiration for non-western cultures, almost all of which grossly violate human rights of their people and often subject them to procedures that can only be rightfully described as barbaric. This glaring contradiction betrays the critics’ true motives and shows that their attack on the West – which is the only civilization willing and capable of producing free and non-oppressive societies – is completely disingenuous. Rather than seeking justice for all people, their criticism is motivated by ideological reasons that has little to do with the reality of the situation on the ground.
The charge that Western culture is inherently oppressive is one of the most patently ludicrous and self-refuting absurdities of this woke era. Contrary to what the leftist critics contend, the West is the only civilization that has managed to develop a system of laws, rules, customs and institutions that have made the elimination of oppression possible. The consideration and respect that the West has shown for the dignity and autonomy of ordinary human beings has no precedent or equal in world history. While the histories of other civilizations are for the most part unashamed and unquestioned catalogues of chicanery and tyranny, the West is the only culture that bucked and reversed that trend. Western civilization towers alone as the great rights-endowing liberator of humanity. For that, the common man (and the common woman) owe the West an eternal debt of gratitude.
The Best of Vasko Kohlmayer