The decline of the American Left in 2 pictures
UC Berkeley has a proud tradition as centre of protest and speaking truth to power. In the early to mid sixties the campus was the site of a string of protests. Civil Rights marches supporting the Black Americans’ right to vote, anti-Vietnam and pro-peace protests, and the FSM. That’s the Free Speech Movement. Here is a photo of one of their protests:
And, in one of life’s tragic ironies, here is an anti-Trump protester at a campus clash with a pro-Trump rally yesterday:
These are people who, notionally, stand for “love not hate”, who “go high when they go low”. Are they truly the spiritual successors to MLK or RFK? Do they see themselves as such? This is how far the left, and political discourse in general, have fallen in America.
This article is published in our “questions of free speech” section. If you would like to submit an article on the subject of campus censorship please send it to [email protected] with the subject line “free speech:campus censorship”.
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Hi,
I think that the USA today exhibits far more National Socialism than socialism. Libertarians who support the constitution would not and should not describe the USA as a Judeo Christian country.
The USA places economic sanctions and embargoes and installs counter revolutionary groups in countries who do not toe the line. Then they say “see it does not work.”
You can’t trust the USA.
Free speech is a good concept. Conveyance through speaking of ideas while aimed at discovery of better ways of living which increase the health and well-being of the greatest number is better. Speaking one’s total truth is best.
I have never claimed to be an expert on Marx. My comment was on was is happening on our college campus’ in the US. Neither did I ever claim to be to be smarter than everyone else, although you seem to think you are.
If the OffG “lamented” Castro as a great ruler, it was pre my reading the OffG, and something I find reprehensible. Sorry, he was a tyrant. Love him all you want. I don’t. I’ve known too many people who fled Cuba.
You are entitled to your beliefs, and I am entitled to mine. That doesn’t make you smarter than me. See the world any way you wish, and allow me the same courtesy. There is no need to talk down to people you disagree with, which is exactly what you did, and I responded in kind. Have a nice day.
Dear Noreen, Permit me to apologize for my tone toward you. The point that I was trying to make is that: a) You imagine yourself beyond the influence of propaganda, but no more than anyone else, including myself, you are not. b) You have strong opinions about Marx and Castro, but to someone who is familiar with either, it is obvious that you know nothing about them, and you at least have the courage to admit as much about Marx, now that you’ve realized you have never read anything that he himself has written. It is likewise with Castro. Remember, you live in a country that since 1959 has spared no effort demonize and vilify the “Castro Regime” as being the incarnation of evil on earth, and that and only that is the basis of your antipathy for anything having to do with Castro and “socialist” Cuba. c) You claim… Read more »
OK, Norm, here goes. My original comment, as I have stated was in regard to what is happening to our youth on campus today. I have followed this closely for several years. The simple fact is, many of this generation is incapable of any kind of critical thinking or counter argument to any opinions or arguments which go against what they have been taught. It is a FACT that most academia in the US is to the left, many dangerously so. When confronted with with ideas they don’t like, the only response can be “bigot, racist, misogynist, Islamaphobe”. etc. Free speech exists for only those who agree with their world view, or it is shut down. They are being sold “globalism” as a Utopia, where all will be equal, everyone will have free healthcare, free education, etc., and all will be wonderful. It is not. Everyone vies for what group… Read more »
Well, after all of that, whatever could anyone add?
(Je suis tout simplement bouche bée. Et aux éclats je ris! Merci!)
Glad I was able to amuse you, Norm.
I propose that we change the inaccurate term “Free Speech” to the more apt “Cheap Speech”, meaning what we have access to, as Serfs: zero-authority platforms we can rant to our hearts’ content on… while public opinion is formed by “Expensive Speech” platforms (CNN, Hollywood, BBC, Sony ATV , Fox, NYer, NYT, HuffPo, et al) that are granted, regularly, to our ideological enemies who are supported by The System.
“Free Speech” is a nice oxymoron in a system in which some people have access to (or actually own) prohibitively expensive media platforms capable of reaching and persuading hundreds of millions of people… and others, with radically differing opinions, are “free” to be mocked/ marginalized/demonized by same. An ultra-famous idiot goes on “The Bobby Bucephalus Show” (or whatever) and says “Velveeta!” and the audience applauds and the stocks on Velveeta rise the next day; I write “Gruyere” on my blog and… crickets. It makes very little difference whether I’m banned from using the word “Gruyere” or not, in the end. The overall Apathy/Antipathy towards anything other than the Norm takes care of that in our Free Speech Utopia. “Free Speech” is a notional civil right that is granted and removed for each of us, every day, on a random basis and I’d be irritated to have mine removed permanently, on… Read more »
“The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings…Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe…no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of “clear and present danger,” then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent…For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources… Read more »
Are these people ‘the left’? I don’t class liberals as leftists.
In regards to banning anything we don’t like, here is a link to a different approach.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-film-accidental-courtesy-20161205-story.html
Reblogged this on Susanna Panevin.
Call me old fashioned but I don’t think people such as nazis should be allowed to talk anywhere , there are enough real nazis to ban instead of going after people who have a different but bona fide political opinion you don’t like .
If you remove the right to freedom of speech from one person you are effectively removing it from everyone. Once one section of society can be silenced any section can be silenced. And one day that will include you. We uphold freedom of speech by insisting on the right of everyone – including the wrong, insane, stupid and perverse – to be heard. After all there is a concomitant right you can exercise – not to listen.
“If you remove the right to freedom of speech from one person you are effectively removing it from everyone.”
On the other hand, I can think of dozens of things we dare not say, online or in meatspace-public… some being obviously nasty/offensive but others merely controversial. But you can NOT say them. So, it’s not really “Free Speech” we have, anyway. We were closer to having that 30 years ago, for better or worse, but speech of any kind is very closely policed now, across many platforms. The consequences for an infraction can be dire: remember the “dongle jokes” guys?
I second what Admin said, and would also add that if you ban that kind of speech, you may think you’ve solved a problem, but you haven’t. You’ve made it worse. Banning doesn’t mean eliminating. It means driving it underground, into the shadows, where it can feel persecuted. When it feels persecuted, it can become a movement, based on, say, resisting illiberal forces that ban free speech. Perversely, when you ban it, you put it on the side of freedom, and yourself on the side of oppression. You help it grow. You give it legitimacy.
We shouldn’t let these people feel persecuted. We shouldn’t hand them any rhetorical weapons. Let them out in the sunshine where they can enjoy the full force of the mockery and counter-argument that they deserve.
I would call Johnny Hacket an old-fashioned free-speech nazi because he doesn’t think certain people should be allowed to talk anywhere and also because he claims the implicit right to determine what is “bona fide political opinion” and what is “a real nazi”.
Speech as I see it is the conveyance of information. Information is used to articulate one’s position. The value of information is only valuable to and within a system of established values. Information outside the established value system is seen as alternative and condemned as not following the narrative. We have come to a place in polarized America where what once would have been obvious to an individual is now obscured by a collective fog of perception. All for the bottom lines of a web of indifferent entities? When will we as citizens take responsibility for our part in the bigger picture? We have condoned plowing through the lives of millions and dealing with the wake of carnage like sorting tomato’s. We seem content now in arguing about sorting methods. “We think it’s worth the price” is an established and acceptable position within the political body. We have already forgotten… Read more »
A photo of one person in Berkeley burning a sign that says “Free Speech” only means that one person in Berkeley is burning a sign that says “Free Speech.” First, that person could be a provocateur. Even if that person is a self-proclaimed leftist, it is a long stretch to say that he is representative of “the left in America.” The right to free speech is a right that we have against the state, not against other individuals. It is one thing (and the wrong thing) to ask the state to permit some speech and not permit other speech, because today it might be your opponent, but tomorrow it might be you who the state decides to shut up. In the Free Speech Movement of the 1960’s, the left and the right united against the University and the State. The person burning the free speech sign above was protesting against… Read more »
Then you are aware the burning of that one sign is not all that took place at Berkeley yesterday. So, are you saying Trump supporters shouldn’t be allowed to speak at Berkeley by equating them with neo-Nazis?
In the absence of information to the contrary, If that was one person burning a sign – and we know, better than we ever have in this era of color revolutions and hybrid warfare, that agents provocateurs are used all the time everwhere – then you have a point. But the people are being made stupid via propaganda (including Camelot nonsense) and the doctrinal system, and just because they are economic victims that doesn’t mean that they are automatically caring. There is, in fact, no 99% – in some respects. There’s 1% of the iconic 99% who pays attention and cares and fights for social justice for all. That may be what I call Left. I’m seeing a few who I do consider to be leftwing (James Corbett being one) declaring that the Left/Right categories are bogus. Which I find bogus. English speaking activists might as well declare English to… Read more »
“I’m seeing a few who I do consider to be leftwing (James Corbett being one) declaring that the Left/Right categories are bogus. Which I find bogus.”
Democrat/Republican is a bogus distinction (when it comes to professional politicians; especially in the US Congress), but the Left vs Right distinction is the enormous difference, for example, between Angela Davis and William F. Buckley. When Corbett makes totally-off assertions like that it’s… peculiar.
Yes, it’s pretty sad. The saddest part is that those doing the burning, etc, have no idea of the cognitive dissonance they are operating under. They have no true idea what free speech is, or even what they truly believe. All many of them can shout is pre-programmed terms like racism, misogyny, etc. While they scream fascism, they have no idea what it is. While they admire people like Marx and Castro, they haven’t a clue. They are the first truly, deeply brainwashed NWO generation. We can just be glad it didn’t affect all of them.
“While they admire people like Marx and Castro, they haven’t a clue…”
Are you kidding ? Do you think that Clinton and Obama , Robert Reich or Paul Krugman admire socialists?
If so they do it from a great distance- these people admire money, power, violence and exploitation.
They fear people like Castro above everything.
The left isn’t involved in this campus nonsense, after decades of supporting imperial adventures and backing corporate democrats the left has absented itself politically.
The good news is that a real left will emerge again because the crisis of capitalism demands one, the way that a stinking corpse creates a grave digger.
I’m speaking of the protesters and those on campus who admire Marx and Castro because that is the leftist indoctrination they are receiving in college. I guess you missed all those in academia and media who lamented the death of a “great leader of the people” in tribute to Castro upon his death.
The eitists don’t support socialism/communism for themselves, just for the masses. They are the “elite”, after all.
Are you saying that the protesters are taught to admire Marx and Castro by their teachers with the implication that neither the teachers nor the protesters have ever had a clue as to what Marx, Castro and the entire socialist project from the 19th century onwards was about?
I’m saying that the indoctrination in the American school system has become all about the state. Many of these kids have become programmed to accept the ideology of their far left professors, who are in abundance on college campus’ today, and profess great admiration for people like Mao, Marx, Che, and Castro, but no one of them have any idea what it would actually be like for the people living under such a regime. A lot of things sound good in theory, in practice the reality is quite different. Ask these kids about how people are faring in Venezuela, and most will give you a blank stare. Ask about Castro and they will laud him for the people having a nearly 100% literacy rate. It doesn’t cross their mind that being literate isn’t that great when you are told what you can read or write. Or that the average Cuban… Read more »
I assume you know that Venezuela’s economy took a nosedive in 2014 and remains in the doldrums as a result of Saudi Arabia’s decision to flood the global oil market with extra supplies so as to crash down world oil prices and wreck Russia’s economy. At about the same time, the US imposed economic sanctions on Venezuela. http://www.mintpressnews.com/us-led-economic-war-not-socialism-tearing-venezuela-apart/218335/ Before 2014, Venezuela’s economy had actually been doing fairly well and the country even was able to supply free heating oil to poor communities in the US. Likewise Cuba has also been subjected to an economic, trade and financial embargo by the US since the early 1960s. While theoretically Cuba is blockaded by the US only, in practice any country that trades with Cuba can be punished by the US. At present the embargo is not being enforced to the full but neither have past US governments (including the Obama government) considered… Read more »
Hi, Noreen, There is a lot that I’d like to say. But propriety forbids it. So I’ll be nice and only say what at a minimum absolutely needs to be said to you: no, Noreen, your elites do not want socialism or communism for the masses. If you believe that, you prove that you are capable of believing anything whatsoever. That is not a good thing, Noreen — just to be clear. But speaking hypothetically, if you were to spend a bit of time here, at OffG, maybe you would learn to limit the field of what you believe to what is actually believable and not believable. And that, Noreen, would be a good and much better thing. As for myself, I can just be glad that beyond the borders of America, where people are still not too much like Americans, not everyone has yet been “affected” in the way… Read more »
Well, Norm, don’t let propriety stop you. And don’t worry about being nice, either, since you have seemed to draw a lot of conclusions about how I have been “affected”, whatever the hell that means. I am making an observation on what I have seen in my country and educational system as it has evolved over the last 50 years. And no, it is not a long, long walk to Socialism in American. It is the direction it has been heading. Now it seems to be veering back. The last administration was full of political appointees with Communist and Socialist backgrounds. “But speaking hypothetically, if you were to spend a bit of time here, at OffG, maybe you would learn to limit the field of what you believe to what is actually believable and not believable. And that, Noreen, would be a good and much better thing.” I have no… Read more »
And my apologies for much that is badly garbled in my comment. Hopefully I’ll do a bit better on the next round.
I think we are done, Norm.
But we’ve only just begun, haven’t we?
Dear Noreen, You write: “. . .you have seemed to draw a lot of conclusions about how I have been “affected”, whatever the hell that means.” Well, Noreen, I took my cue from you, didn’t I? Surely you know what I hint at? Why, you yourself wrote: “They are the first truly, deeply brainwashed NWO generation. We can just be glad it didn’t affect all of them.” So, whatever the hell could you possibly have meant that we can just be glad “it” didn’t “affect” all of them? As for being “condescending,” are you sure that I wasn’t also taking my cue from you? Apparently, while you can see that “they” are brainwashed, apparently, you reserve for yourself the special status of somehow or other standing beyond the reach of a similar condition for yourself — no? And yet you can write something like, that the “. . .eitists don’t… Read more »