While the overwhelming majority see racism as completely antithetical to the American ideal, this intolerance for anyone who is outside your ideological Tribe has sadly become as American as apple pie.
Some whiny activist demanded Merriam-Webster “redefine” the word “Racist” to reflect the new bizarro world definition that boils down to this: “Only people with power can be racist.” Personally, I don’t know why Merriam-Webster even bothered. “Racist” and “Racism” lost all meaning years ago. Probably about the time they decided milk was racist.
This is why I prefer the words “Bigot” and “Bigotry.”
Because when you get right down the ooey-gooey center, it is ideological bigotry, not racism, that is the systemic problem in our society.
The Merriam Webster definition of “bigot” (at least for now) is:
noun – One who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.
noun – A person who is obstinately and unreasonably wedded to a particular religious or other creed, opinion, practice, or ritual; a person who is illiberally attached to any opinion, system of belief, or party organization; an intolerant dogmatist.
While the overwhelming majority see racism as completely antithetical to the American ideal, this intolerance for anyone who is outside your ideological Tribe has sadly become as American as apple pie.
It is ideological bigotry that compels people to drive someone out of his job because he doesn’t think you should kneel for the national anthem. They are so completely intolerant of that viewpoint they will force someone out of acceptable society — not because he murdered someone or rapes children — but because he thinks you should stand proudly for the anthem and the flag.
If you actively seek to silence the voices of everyone who holds a different political viewpoint, or voted differently from you, you’re a bigot.
If you spend time on your cable news program laughing and mocking Americans who voted for Trump, guess what? You’re all bigots too.
Ideological bigotry fuels the Green Movement.
Only a bigot would embrace terms like “denialist” or “science denier” to define those who do not agree with the dogma of Climate Change.
Bigots assign nefarious motives to those outside of their specific tribe. And it rarely has anything to do with skin color.
Ideological bigotry runs rampant in the American news media. If you are white or Christian or Republican or a gun owner, or some combination of those, they have zero tolerance for you. You can be scoffed at, accused of heinous motives, ridiculed and attacked. Any scurrilous or slanderous things can be said about you. You can be marginalized, “deplatformed,” fired and driven from your home by an angry mob. And all of it is totally okay with the American news media.
What was behind the New York Times’ collectively losing its mind over Tom Cotton’s editorial on deploying the military to put down the rioting? Well, I’ll tell you; it was ideological bigotry.
The ideologically rigid children at the Times couldn’t stand the idea that anyone who was not a part of their Tribe was permitted to voice a different opinion.
Why do MSNBC and CNN air panels made up entirely of people that agree with each other? Ideological bigotry.
They will not permit anyone with a different viewpoint dirtying up their neat, tidy little bubble. And from that tiny bubble, they are free to vilify anyone who thinks differently from them. Just consider all the sneering attacks from people like Nicolle Wallace or Ana Navarro or Rick Wilson and his buddy Don Lemon. No slander is off the table if it is directed at someone outside of their Tribe.
Why does Brian Stelter obsess with every minute of Fox News airtime?
Ideological bigotry.
He can’t stand the idea that Americans are hearing anything that isn’t approved by his Tribe.
It’s also why Brian launched an attack against journalist Lara Logan yesterday.
“She used to be a distinguished correspondent for ’60 Minutes,’” he whined.
But, see, Lara is still a distinguished correspondent. She hasn’t changed one bit. What changed was the mainstream news media mainstreaming their own ideological bigotry.
Because Lara Logan is reporting on news everyone from Brian’s Tribe wants hidden, she must be marginalized and vilified in order to ensure that nobody listen to her.
But it isn’t just the news media that’s ideologically bigoted. Think of the intolerance we see on a regular basis coming from prominent politicians. You can be called “Deplorable,” “Irredeemable,” “Racist,” “Islamophobic,” “Homophobic,” “Stupid,” “Terrorist,” “White Supremacist” — the list is endless.
It’s exactly why Joe Biden believes if you don’t vote for him, “you ain’t black.” Because skin color doesn’t define your race anymore; Tribal ideology does. And if you are not a member of his Tribe, you aren’t black. Therefore, it is completely acceptable to be bigoted toward you.
If you don’t fall in lockstep with everything they believe, any attack against you is acceptable.
You can be compared to Nazis and Klansmen.
Your life, your job, your liberty can be forfeit.
And it isn’t limited to Conservatives.
Just look what’s happening right now to author J.K. Rowling. She is, for all intents and purposes, a member of the approved Tribe. But on one thing, she veers from accepted dogma – namely, she acknowledges that sex is immutable. And because she doesn’t believe men can turn into women or women turn into men, she is now under relentless, vicious attack.
It is her attackers, not Rowling, who are the bigots. They tolerate no variation or deviation from their strict ideology. Anyone who dares to step out of line will be destroyed. And that destruction is completely endorsed by virtually every institution in the country.
Consider the diametrically opposed positions over mass gatherings during a pandemic. That is entirely fueled by ideological bigotry.
When those who protested the mandatory lockdowns that stripped them of their jobs and their businesses, or prevented them from attending religious services, it was A-okay to attack them and slander them.
But when those who stormed the streets to protest and riot ostensibly for George Floyd, the same medical “experts” who decried the lockdown protesters wholeheartedly gave these protesters their imprimatur.
Not because one set of people posed a greater risk than the other. No. But because one set of people was from the correct ideological Tribe and the other set was not.
It’s why Nancy Pelosi asked God to bless the Occupy Wall Street movement yet wept in anger over the Tea Party protests while accusing them of being Nazis.
If you’re with the Tribe, you get a pass.
If you’re not, it’s open season.
This bigotry isn’t coming from a random group of guys holed up in a cabin with Confederate flags for curtains.
It is coming from academia, the media, Hollywood, unions, local governments, Federal bureaucracies, and the halls of Congress.
The objective is clear: You are either in ideological lockstep, or you are the enemy. And once deemed an enemy, you must be marginalized and destroyed.
As Kurt Schlichter puts it today in his column:
The left is seeking to define the scope of acceptable thought, and they do it by marginalizing the mainstream and mainstreaming the marginal.
It isn’t “systemic racism” that is fracturing our society; it is systemic ideological bigotry.
And I just don’t know if it’s possible to dig ourselves free of such pervasive, acceptable intolerance. We’ve permitted it to fester and grow for decades by surrendering culture, by abandoning public education, and by refusing to fight back for fear of being vilified and destroyed by the bigots.
Five years ago, I wrote a column titled “Irreconcilable Differences” in which I suggested it was time for Red States to file for divorce from Blue States.
Now, granted, the column was a bit tongue-in-cheek at the time that I wrote it. But over the last five years as the systemic ideological bigotry has reached such unsustainable levels, it seems less of an amusing mental exercise and more of an imperative.
There is very little that unites us anymore. The bigotry and tribalism, in my opinion, are now an insurmountable obstacle for a “United” States of America.
So maybe I was on to something five years ago. Maybe it’s better if we simply go our separate ways.