More Than Ever, It’s Time to Unleash the Power of 'No'

Article by Kurt Schlichter in "Townhall":

For way too long, too many conservatives and other normal people have failed to deploy our most potent weapon in the defense of free thought and expression – the utter refusal to go along with the demands of the carnivorous left. As has been said before by me and others, we need to introduce these spoiled brats to the concept of “no.”

This is a critical moment, and how we react now will determine if our future is citizenship or serfdom. The Democrats’ kinetic operation that was the rioting has failed, the violent thuggery egged-on and enabled by half-wit MSNBCNN talk-holes, feckless lefty pols, and the blue check jerk-stapo ended up appalling the voters, and not just Republicans. The grave strategic error of sending the masked marauders of Marxism marching into limo lib enclaves like Beverly Hills convinced a lot of people who hate Trump that maybe law and order isn’t such a bad thing after all. Defund the police? Yeah, that’s a tough sell outside a sociology department. Mansions and BMWs burn just like churches and police cars do.

The rioting was really an information operation, and a failed one. There were two big problems for the furious rioters. One was that normal people saw no connection between protesting the treatment of George Floyd and looting big screens from the local Target, except that both disgusted them. The second issue was the inability to identify a specific enemy. Who exactly was the person supporting the killing of George Floyd? What was the name of the person who said, “Yeah, that was a good thing”? Across the spectrum, liberal to conservative, people were appalled at what they saw on the video. Even Judge Mom, a former deputy district attorney, said she would have considered charging it as first-degree murder under California law. Talk about unity – America was united in the conclusion that his treatment was a crime. So, the left had a real problem because there was no individual to apply Alinsky Rule 13 to: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

But a larger, more comprehensive information operation is still ongoing, one in which a bunch of pampered SJW stormtroopers, aided and abetted by the weak and frightened elder caste of liberals occupying the heights of the establishment, are attempting to define the tolerable range of ideas and expression within our culture. In a shocking turn that would surprise only stupid people, the tolerable range of ideas and expression they wish to establish corresponds exactly to the ideas and expressions they agree with. The Venn diagram of what they think and what they allow to be thought is a single circle.

The rest of us are expected to shut up, and thereby concede and recognize their mastery over us.

We could do that, sure. 

Or we could tell them “no.”

I’ll go with “no.”

Look at what’s happening. You had a U.S. senator articulating a position that polls say 58 percent of Americans agree with, that riots should be suppressed with military force if necessary – and the New York Times’s nursery erupted with silly infants babbling that this idea makes them “unsafe.” And worse, the editorial board – which at least used to pretend to harken to the idea of free expression – folded like one of Eric Swalwell’s cheap, stinky suits.

Think of what would happen if the editors at the NYT said “no” to these glorified interns…

“Tom Cotton’s mean ideas have me literally shaking! You must withdraw and repudiate this hate crime op-ed!”

“No. Grow up.”

“I’ll, uh, resign.”

“Fine. I hear there’s a big market out there for whiny adolescent journalists who can’t handle opposing views.”

“So, you’re saying I should apply to CNN?”

Instead of standing up to these tiresome teenyboppers, the NYT pulled a journalistic Sir Robin and bravely ran away. Pathetic. Now it’s established that the paper of record needs to run whatever it wishes to print past a coterie of militant pipsqueaks who will scan it for wokeness.

This nonsense is expanding to all of society. You must meet their exacting standards in all things or, well, here comes the mob. But the punchline is that you can’t satisfy them, not ever. There’s no way to appease them because what they say they want – adherence to some amorphous idiot dogma – is not the point. The point is the bullying. The point is the tyranny. The point is their ability to exercise delicious arbitrary power over you.

But for this scheme to work, you have to be complicit in your own oppression. You have to not say, “no.”

It’s time to adopt some basic rules for dealing with these sissy savages. These rules recognize the underlying premise that absolutely nothing the left does or says in an attempt to control or bar speech is in good faith and therefore you are not required to obey the Marquis of Queensbury rules in responding. It’s not an argument. In an argument, there is the possibility that a person will change his mind in the face of facts and evidence. There is no such chance here because facts and evidence are irrelevant. Everything these leftist schmucks say and do is designed with one purpose in mind, to increase his, her or xis power. Your goal is not to prove anything, because you can’t. It is to resist being bent to the will of the SJW lynch mob.

1. Never apologize. You have nothing to be ashamed of and even if you did, apologizing to these creeps only chums the water for the feeding frenzy. Drew Brees apologized and he looks craven, while the giddy horde is walking around with his head on a stick. If he had said, “Hey, a lot of people were upset about what I think about kneeling. Well, that’s what I think and you are free to say what you think, but no, I’m not apologizing,” they would have moved to a softer target.

2. Reject their demands. Tell them “no.” They will be baffled, since their mommies and daddies – most likely acting through the immigrant nanny who actually raised them – probably never told them “no.” LEGO is allegedly taking sets featuring cops and the White House off the market at the demand of these lunatics. It could have said, “Some people feel they can tell us what toys we can sell and what toys your kids can buy. We say that you get to make that decision. No, we’re going to keep doing what we please.” LEGO blocks would have become the most popular toy in America instead of a symbol of craven submission.

3. Speak truths they want suppressed. Say what they have agreed cannot be said. For example, we are not supposed to say that the Pennsylvania health official who was responsible for the state’s nursing home disaster is obviously a man pretending to be a woman. That’s why it is vital to say, “No, he is not a woman.” One of the most powerful tools to compelling obedience is the shame and humiliation inflicted upon someone they force to utter a manifest lie. Stand up to them.

4. Laugh at them. No, scary Tom Cotton is not putting you SJWs in the most perilous of perils by suggesting we use the Army against domestic rioters. Words are not making you unsafe. You clowns. You babies. You’re a joke.

5. Buy guns and ammunition. No, we will not surrender. An armed citizenry deters tyranny, and the idea of you packing heat make these simps wet themselves.

It’s time to push back on these punks. They leverage our natural politeness and tendency to try to avoid conflict to take advantage and seize the high ground. Understand that tactic and refuse to play along. They leave you spinning your wheels by drawing you into trying to reason with them when reasoning is beside the point. You do not owe them a debate. Mock them instead, and stubbornly defy their commands.

A strategic information operation like the one designed to control the acceptable (Read “Leftist-friendly”) scope of thought and speech in society can only work with your complicity. It fails completely when you refuse to play along.

More than ever today, unleash the power of “No.”

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2020/06/08/more-than-ever-its-time-to-unleash-the-power-of-no-n2570188