To suppress a truth is to give it force beyond endurance. – Originator unknown
The attempts by the Democrats and their media handmaidens to render unspeakable any suggestion that the presidential election was stolen, or that Joe Biden is deep into senile dementia, or that the Usurper Regime is working hand in glove with Communist China to fasten a totalitarian state upon us, are having consequences the Left apparently did not foresee. Perhaps they were unaware that censorship is unable to kill an idea, though given the history of the practice it’s not terribly plausible. Or perhaps they believed that their control of the media, including the major social media, was sufficiently firm that “this time we can make it work.” In either case, we should regard the garrisoning of Festung Washington as a sign of their nervousness and uncertainty. One doesn’t surround oneself with armed men, fences, and barbed wire out of a sense of security.
There’s also this: an unsuccessful attempt to suppress a proposition weakens one’s barriers against other propositions that had been rendered unspeakable de facto. Increasing numbers of Americans are willing to voice ideas that, only a few years ago, would have gotten them ostracized. Not only are they being heard, they’re persuading others. A few of those ideas:
- There are significant differences between the races that can be important in particular contexts.
- There are significant differences between men and women that have resulted in modern American women being considerably less happy and secure than their grandmothers.
- There are significant negative consequences to the homosexual lifestyle.
- Transgender activism is approaching the sexual abuse of children.
- Islam is anything but a “religion of peace.”
And my personal favorite, Number One with a bullet on the hit parade of any freedom advocate:
- Government is not your friend.
As long as the Powers That Be managed to confine those ideas to the darkness, and to anathematize those who accept them, it was possible to discourage the examination of the factual evidence for them. But factual evidence has a peculiar quality: a man who’s noticed and acknowledged it cannot thereafter be persuaded that “it was never there.” And of course, once the ideas the evidence supports are rendered speakable, the State will have a very hard time shoving them back into the closet.
Ignorance is of a peculiar nature; once dispelled, it is impossible to reestablish it. It is not originally a thing of itself, but is only the absence of knowledge; and though man may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant. – Thomas Paine
Some years ago I wrote an essay about the unspeakable that generated some very dramatic reactions. As is usually the case when one dares to contradict a society’s pieties, I was roundly denounced for my cheek. In the charming idiom of a friend, I was called everything but white. Yet a greater number of my correspondents expressed agreement and gratitude.
My sense for our American moment is that a qualitatively similar sense of liberation is on our doorstep. The bulleted ideas in the previous segment are breaking out of their closet. In the process they’re freeing us to speak our minds more freely and openly than at any time this century past.
The Left is not helping its cause by shrieking imprecations upon those of us who maintain that the presidency was stolen, or that Joe Biden is mentally unfit for its duties. The evidence is too plain, and too copious. Neither is it doing itself any favors by tacitly blessing black orgies of violence, vandalism, and looting in our cities, nor by attempting to shout down anyone who condemns them. The same is true for the obvious delusions of such as HHS Undersecretary nominee “Rachel” Levine.
Perhaps they thought their control of our educational and communication systems had reached a strength sufficient to allow them a victory parade. If so, it seems they were wrong. Their attempt to nullify the First Amendment through their corporate allies is powerful evidence to that effect, as is the rapid proliferation of alternative outlets that guarantee free-expression rights to those who choose them. The national discourse over the next several months must receive close scrutiny, both macro and micro. Stay tuned.
