Tag: progressives

Leftist Vocabulary & Euphemisms

Morality, Society & Culture, Values

I’m so fed up with the Left redefining terms and creating euphemisms. “Progressives”?? Hardly! How about “Socialists” or “Leftists” which is what they really are! They so bastardized the term “Liberal” they had to come up with something else. (Ironically, it’s now Conservatives/Traditionalists who are Liberal!)

“Gay”? How about “Homosexual”?

“Undocumented Immigrant”? How about “Illegal Alien”?

“Immigration Reform”? Nonsense! It’s really “Amnesty”!

“Equity”? This is a particularly devious bastardization of “Equality”. It goes to the heart of socialism versus meritocracy, to the issue of equality of opportunity versus equality of outcome.

“Fair Share”? More like “Disproportionate Taxation of the Wealthy” and the underpinning of obscene redistribution.

“Cognitive Decline” (particularly as used in connection with Joe Biden). Really, it’s “Dementia”

“Abortion”, “Euthanasia” or “Assisted Suicide”. How about simply “Murder”, the immoral taking of a human life.

“Pro-Choice”…not really. It’s really “Pro-Abortion”.

“Investments” = “Government Spending”

“Fetus”? How about an “Unborn Child”

“Gender Reassignment”. Really, a sex change.

“Economically Disadvantaged Area”? How about, simply, “Ghetto”?

“Hate Speech”? Anything the Left disagrees with.

“Homophobia” – what the Left ascribes to anyone who disagrees with the LBGTXXX agenda.

“Rainforest” = “Jungle”

“Substance Abuse” = “Drug Addiction”

“Unpaid Sex Worker” = a “Wife” or “Girlfriend”

“Wetlands” – what the Left call “Swamps”

“World Community” – a euphemism for the “New World Order” of “Globalism”.

“Community” = “Government”

“Climate Change” (aka “Global Warming”) which really is a rallying cry for rabid environmentalism.

 “Thought Crime” – anything the Left doesn’t like.

The secularization of language by the Left in an attempt to banish all references to God is another thing that really angers me. There are dozens of examples, but one that particularly galls me is the change of B.C./A.D. which means “Before Christ” and Anno Domini (In the Year of Our Lord) to the godless “B.C.E. and C.E.” which mean “Before the Common Era” and “Common Era.”

I’m getting angrier and angrier just writing this! Truly, the Left seek to “fundamentally transform” our God blessed Nation into a communist/socialist/totalitarian/atheistic hellhole. They think secularization is the foundation for Utopia. Anyone with half a usable brain and a basic knowledge of history knows that every time Leftist policies have been enacted or practiced they have only succeeded in necrotizing society.

I say we reject accepting their alternative definitions, their euphemistic terms and revert back to the words and terms that accurately describe the cancer they’re trying to spread!

As We Start a New Decade

America, Economy, Entertainment, Family, Finance and Investments, Government, Politics, Science, Society & Culture, Technology

Where to begin? The last couple of months has been marked by a series of headlines that even Hollywood couldn’t invent. You’d have to be living under a rock not to see or hear what’s been happening in the economy, politics, society, media, technology, defense, even the environment.

In the economy. Forget the statistics – they’re useless in depicting what’s really going on in your wallet. The old adage “Figures lie and liars figure” has never been more true. Depending on how the pundits and so-called “experts” spin them, the only thing that really matters is how we and our families are doing. It’s a good time to ask the question, “Are you better off now than you were three years ago?”

For the vast majority of Americans, the answer is an unequivocal “Yes.” Rising wages, low inflation, increasing productivity, greater convenience and utility provided in part by technology, in part by innovation, systems and processes…all have improved our lives. The stock market at all time highs doesn’t just impact the wealthy. It impacts everyone. Whether or not you have an investment portfolio, economic GROWTH, which the stock market reflects, increases demand for goods and services, including the things made by the companies we work for and the services WE render. That all translates to improvements in our lifestyle.

In politics. The cataclysmic impact of the 2016 election on the status quo, what some call the “Deep State” or the legions of government minions many of whom work hard but produce little of value, has slowed the slide down the slippery slope the Left has had us on for so long. It is a long slog back up, but the shrill, childish and petulant voice and actions of the so-called but misnamed “progressives” have been fully exposed. The cancer has been identified and bit by bit it is being eradicated such that the greatness and “can do” spirit of America has begun to re-emerge.

In society. Some are content to let the next couple of generations have the world they’re making. I am not. I believe it is still my duty as a parent and as a concerned citizen to impart traditional values and traditional norms to my children and grandchildren. Basics like manners, virtues such as thrift and hard work, meritocracy, courage, self-reliance, communication and interpersonal relation skills in the face of technological isolation (a subject for another time), the importance of family, charity, trustworthiness, and on and on. These are things that I’m afraid the next two generations don’t fully understand, appreciate or possess as much as they should.

In media. As I have stated often, the impact of the “one-to-many” amplification provided by the Internet has allowed the most fringe-lunatic, caustic voices to reach and influence many. We used to say that PowerPoint made everyone a graphic artist. Similarly, Social Media has made everyone and anyone a journalist or pundit (present company included). The firehose of data not all of which is actual information but all of which is biased and deceptive in one form or another has created a distorted reality…in fact, it has changed reality and societal norms, not always for the better. Character assassination, taunting and hazing, for example, are facilitated and empowered with the new media. And like the accident by the side of the road, it is the macabre, shocking and emotion and nerve-tingling input we receive that we pay the most attention to and are most influenced by. Never has the need for critical thinking been greater. And never has it been found more wanting.

In technology. Rapid advances in technology are proving to be be both good and bad. This is a subject which we’ll touch on more and more as robotics, artificial intelligence and quantum computing impact our society and livelihood more and more, and at an accelerating rate. My wife received an umbrella from the firm she works for recently. Nice umbrella, but would you believe it came with an APP!!!! Yes, an umbrella with an App! For those of you who are blissfully unaware of what an APP is…it’s just a software program dedicated to doing a limited set of tasks on your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone like report the weather or control your whole house! I mean really…an umbrella with an APP???!!!!

In defense. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins for a reason. It spawns evil leaders and causes even whole nations (or quasi-nations) to seek power and dominance at the expense of others. Rodney King had it right when he said, “Can we all get along?” The answer is “no”, not until a perfect, benevolent leader (e.g. Jesus Christ) comes along who can inspire men with free will to follow Him so as to eschew and eliminate evil. In the meantime, the United States, despite all its imperfections, is still the best surrogate or substitute because our form of government vests power (nominally) in the people, i.e. spread across everyone rather than a single benevolent, charismatic leader. Our constitutional republic or representative democracy has been the greatest catalyst to human advancement in the history of the world, despite its faults. It is not just worth defending…it MUST be defended against those who seek to destroy it out of envy and a thirst for power. Wilsonian appeasement of evil cannot and must not be tolerated. Might doesn’t make Right, but adults (the U.S. at its best) must stop and modify the aberrant behavior of petulant and in some cases violently misbehaving children (Iran, NOKO, Venezuela, Russia, China). As arrogant as that sounds, it is, in my opinion, an apt characterization of the current world stage and depiction of our responsibility as a nation.

In the environment. I’m not running for office so I’ll state it plainly. Climate change is real – it changes all the time. And man has little to nothing to do with it. The famous George Carlin routine says it best where he humorously but acerbically rants at environmentalists while pointing out how insignificant mankind is when compared to the history of the earth and concludes, “The planet is fine. The people are f****d!” The wildfires in Australia? No, not global warming…man-kindled by a bunch of malcontent Leftists as it turns out. Bears floating on minuscule ice packs? Nonsense…they swam several miles out there to hang out and fish! Follow the money! If there’s a tree-hugging environmentalist/alarmist out there, there are grant dollars nearby. “Please pass the offering plate…”

Are there Rightist sins? Of course! But in the grand scheme of things, the principles of the Right are, in fact, RIGHT! Evil exists over here as well – crony capitalism comes to mind. But for my money, Winston Churchill was also right (.sic): “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms which have been tried…” and by extension…conservative/Right principles are the worst form of societal norms except for all those other forms (socialism, communism, democratic socialism, etc.) that have been tried.

And America still stands as the light shining on the hill. God Bless Her! Happy New Year and Happy New Decade.

The Mall Rat Syndrome

Family, Society & Culture

We’ve all seen them, a group of fluorescent-haired, usually disheveled, radio-antenna-adorned teenagers standing around the entrance to a shopping mall, sometimes huddled and quietly mumbling to each other, sometimes overtly eyeing and loudly denigrating the more normal looking patrons going in and out of the wide doors.

But that was then. This is now.

There’s a more contemporary version of this gathering of “mall-rats”, these to-be-pitied, “other-directed” underachievers desperate for attention and each others’ approval because they can’t get it from individual accomplishments. It exists online, in social media.

Misery does indeed love company. Here, behind a wall of anonymity, the same teenagers band together to cast aspersions on, or worse, mount character assassination campaigns against others whom they secretly envy, or abhor, usually due to the praise heaped upon them for their successes or simply because, they’re what we’d call “normal”.

And here, in social media, the mall rats are joined by supposed adults, who carry on in the same way.

Except they’re not adults. Regrettably, our society is filled with people who chronologically should be adults, but who exhibit all the dysfunctional behavior, or worse, of the mall rats. Raised in an “everyone gets a trophy for showing up” society, where “just do it” (with impunity) is the norm, far too many adults today behave like children. Somewhat surprisingly, there’s evidence that there are some children today who, frankly, behave increasingly like adults, but that phenomenon is still rare and not always healthy. That’s a topic for a different discussion.

Social media was supposed to increase social adhesion, broaden relationships, improve community. Instead, it’s brought isolation, depression, social paraplegia and a veritable explosion of mall rats fearful of missing out (FOMO), all seeking attention and sharing their misery. It’s given a megaphone to those who in other times might have been more sheepish but who can now lash out and shout their frustrations with impunity. And it has amplified the lemming effect as demagogues, both adolescent and adult, lead their followers over the edge of the cliff.

One of my sons, who frequently exhibits far more wisdom at his age than I certainly ever did, recently stated what’s going on quite succinctly: “We have rewired the human condition to subsist on personal validation through social media channels.”

And that has given the mall rats undue power and influence.

To be fair, not all of our generation’s behavior is as bad as that of mall rats. But in small ways the diminution of standards and morals continues to eat away at our societal fabric. For example, I sat at a restaurant just last night and couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between two parents and their college-age son. The topic was adult enough…the son was describing the content of the exams he had recently completed. But the number of “likes” that punctuated each sentence, or more like half-sentences, was nauseating. The parents were, appallingly, every bit as inarticulate as the son, despite between fashionably dressed and ostensibly well-educated and well-to-do.

How are we ever going to remain a light shining on a hill if our people can’t string two grammatically correct sentences together? Yes, yes, I know. This problem exists at the highest levels of our culture and society and in our most visible politics.

But it’s Leftist progressivism, infecting as it has our discourse and society like some noxious gas or metastasized cancer that has given license to adult mall-rat behavior. It’s way past time for adults to start behaving like adults and stop acting like mall rats, or tolerating mall rats for that matter. It’s way past time for parents to start acting like parents, instead of trying to be their children’s best friends. We certainly know better. We just need to grow up.

Traditionalists vs. Progressives

Politics, Society & Culture

by Treadstone (Contributor)

The battle for the soul of our country is not between Republicans and Democrats, not between Conservatives and Liberals, but between Traditionalists and so-called Progressives; in broad terms, the “Right” and the “Left”.

First of all, Progressives aren’t progressive. Just listen to any of the Democrat presidential candidates for 2020, all of whom wrap themselves in the “Progressive” label, and you’ll hear a mish-mash of old, tired, recycled Marxist/Socialist drivel dressed in inflammatory and headline-grabbing, 7 second soundbites and catchy phrases. It’s lipstick on a pig. It’s regressive, not progressive.

Look up “Traditionalists” and you’ll see a variety of definitions and descriptions. Some equate Traditionalists with religious conservatives, some with people born before 1945, some call Traditionalists the “silent generation”.

We characterize Traditionalists as those who espouse many or most of the Core Values listed in our About Page. In shorthand, we us the term “The Right” even though that term itself has many connotations. We use The Left as the opposing side in the culture war.

We Traditionals on The Right look around us and are appalled, perhaps even frightened by what we see happening before our eyes. We know we live in the greatest country in the world, but we see the light-shining-on-the-hill dimming, perhaps not precipitously, but as in a death by a thousand cuts, slowly but surely.

At its core, our society is still more traditional than not, but the megaphones the Internet and social media have put in the hands of Progressives: “victims”, takers, losers, indolent, faithless and statists gives them undue influence and exposure.

We recently came across a really good essay by John Hawkins on Town Hall that nails what’s happening to our culture.  We suggest reading the whole article, but here are the bullet points:

  • We treat success as an accident or a cheat while defending people who make bad decisions, who won’t educate themselves or who won’t work.
  • We’ve allowed pornography to become so accessible that it’s practically universally viewed, even among teenagers.
  • We love victims so much that people actually fake hate crimes to claim victim status.
  • We celebrate losers and deviants by giving them their own reality shows. Meanwhile, Hollywood regularly portrays businessmen, Christians and soldiers as the worst people on earth.
  • More children have died because of Roe v. Wade than were killed during the Holocaust.
  • Marriage is falling apart and we’re encouraging that by pushing gay marriage.
  • Our universities reward Communists, terrorists and blatant anti-American sentiment with professorships. Those are the last people who should be teaching impressionable young Americans.
  • There’s a whole grievance industry full of people who make a living claiming to be “offended” by things.
  • Religion and morality are denigrated while nihilism and immorality are considered cool.
  • Legalism has superseded morality and what’s “right” and “wrong” has become secondary to what’s “legal” and “illegal.”
  • We’re the greatest, most powerful, most prosperous and most virtuous nation that has ever existed and despite all of that, we obsess over our nations faults instead of our achievements.
  • Americans across the spectrum are being encouraged to separate themselves off from the larger culture and nurse grievances that barely would have been given a thought a few decades ago.
  • In practice, our society focuses almost exclusively on the short term without thinking about the long-term consequences of our actions.
  • We have a higher moral standard for the NFL than we do for our own leaders in Washington.
  • We have a political party dedicated to the idea taking things from people who’ve worked for it and giving it to people who haven’t.
  • We make little effort to assimilate immigrants into our society and instead, encourage them to embrace the culture they fled for the United States.
  • We’ve stopped acting as if we have to pay back the money we borrow.
  • We treat the rule of law as optional, depending on who’s impacted by it.
  • We believe our children can grow up in a moral sewer and still turn out to be fine, upstanding citizens regardless.

Hawkins’ conclusion is both devastating as well as prescriptive:

“ We’ve become so divided, so antagonistic, so morally separated that for the first time in over a century there are people asking hard questions about how much we really have in common with other Americans. If you’re comparing let’s say a conservative from South Carolina to a liberal from California, the honest answer is “not much that matters.” Perhaps not even enough to hold a country together over the long haul if one group or the other ever became politically dominant.

There’s only one way to change that and it’s to address the real sickness at the heart of American culture. That sickness is our newfound reluctance to address the moral health of our society. Over the long haul, we can’t thrive and we may not even be able to survive as a divided, degenerate society full of people who reward failure, resent success and live for the moment. Morality matters and if we forget that, our nation is doomed to descend into decadence, decay and perhaps one day, even dissolution.”

Quite simply, we agree. In other articles we attempt to answer the question, “So how do we revive basic morality in our country?” Stay tuned.

Copyright © 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 - All rights reserved - Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy