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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

As Mr O’Toole says it doesn’t need a majority just enough people that are prepared to use intimidation, at which point I look at Antifa and their habit of turning up to peaceful events masked and almost in uniform to make sure that those events aren’t peaceful. To see who’s using intimidation to suppress opinion and freedom of association we need to point the camera in the opposite direction to where Mr O’Toole would have us look. We’re seeing that tricky step of people getting used to extreme cruelty and violence with the readiness that people took to “punch a Nazi”. Which rapidly became “punch anyone that looks a bit like a Nazi” and then “punch anyone we disagree with”. Which groups are being dehumanised and widely portrayed as a threat, depends on which reel you’re watchdog from the one side it’s numerous protected minorities particularly those of certain faith which cannot be criticised, from the other side the threat is the racist proles that votes for Brexit, like the football and are starting to become interested in politics.

Anonymong

13 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • George Atkisson

    There is one additional factor here in the US. The deplorables and other Trump voters who are being dehumanized and targeted in everyday life are the gun owners. Thus the never ending drum beat from the Left to disarm their intended serfs. It’s not to protect the children.

    The lack of pushback from local authorities and the Media against Antifa and those advocating public harassment of political enemies, only emboldens their actions. It guarantees more extreme behavior, which is the goal. “By any means necessary” has been resurrected from the 60’s as a philosophy. Things will get ‘kinetic’. All the proper people will be horrified and demand civility. They will be even more horrified when they don’t get it.

  • William H. Stoddard

    There is also the crucial additional step of “punch anyone who disagrees with me about who is a Nazi.” That’s the point at which ordinary authoritarianism is supercharged into self-devouring totalitarianism.

  • bobby b

    The left’s outrage over my speech has become accepted by many as proof of the outrageousness of my speech. Everyone on the left accepts that the fascism used to repress me is proof of my own fascism.

    They ought to pray that I do not begin to adopt their reasoning.

  • The linked article has a paragraph that interests me even more than the one quoted.

    Mr O’Toole does miss a couple of elements that one should expect to see, and again I suggest that’s because his camera is pointing the wrong way. There should be the take over of a legitimate party by entryists and extremists that demand the purging of the party for political purity – I’m looking at you momentum. There should be a cult of personality around a political leader, who is seen as above criticism and the saviour in waiting – step forward Mr Corbyn and your fan club. For the full cliché of course what you’d really need is a left-wing political party with a strong anti-Semitic tendency, yep got that as well though again not where Mr O’Toole is looking.

    The very people who call anyone who disagrees with them a nazi really do make very little effort not to look much more like nazis than those they accuse. They do seem to be very confident that no-one will point the camera the other way.

  • terence patrick hewett

    The sort of people that agree with Fintan in Ireland is remarkably small: they don’t call him Fintan O’Foole for nothing.

  • George Atkisson

    Niall,

    The Progressives own the cameras, the camera operators, the video editors, and the broadcast companies. Plus the social media to amplify the Narrative and shout down conflicting views. Any effective counter views are shut down by the authorities for “hate speech”, as defined by those proclaiming the Narrative. They know full well that the cameras will only be pointed one way.

  • Gongcult

    If the prog-Lefties are intent on fomenting a civil war against the so called Nazi-Fascist Right/Conservatives/Libertarians, then the main-stream media will pre-program the coverage… one thing they will fail to notice – if they want blood in the streets, there are more 2nd amendment supporters who have firearms and are knowldgeable and keen in their use… assuming the state does not impose martial law… Fuck with us, our families and the Constitution and you will get a bullet to the head… just sayin… here in parts of the US , you bring on the BS, expect to pay for it.

  • the other rob

    A leftie once told me that she believed in punching a Nazi. I replied “Knock yourself out”.

  • pete

    I’ve noticed that the people who claim President Trump is a fascist and just like Hitler are also making plans to get rid of him either by impeachment or at the next election.

    By doing so they undermine their own argument as we all know that fascist dictators are unlikely to be removed from office by legal procedures or election results.

  • CaptDMO

    “…masked, and almost in uniform…”?
    Make no mistake.
    But when the non-binary masked twig boy faces off against the ex highschool football lineman, guess who joins “their side’s” airborne division.
    SEE: BeverlyHills AntiFa…if you “do” that social media sort of thing.

  • Paul Marks

    Good post and good comments.

  • A different james

    @terence Patrick Hewett

    I wish it were so but I don’t agree.

    O’Toole has public intellectual status here and is at the heart of the social/ cultural establishment.

  • Phil B

    @Pete 23 July at 1.17PM

    I do love the delicious irony that “Trump is LITERALLY Hitler” and must OMG!!!! Be deposed by the Antifa/SJW’s/Dimocrats* and the firm conviction among the same useful idiots that guns MUST be removed from the hands of the population so that they can’t resist the Government.

    Which is being run by “LITERALLY Hitler” …

    Who frogmarched the undesirables into the extermination camps …

    But we don’t want guns to resist that.

    Is it just me that thinks they are clinically insane?

    *No, that isn’t a spelling mistake.