The Dangers of Leftist Groupthink
If you were a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, you are familiar with the Borg – a half human, half cyborg species with a collective consciousness; if a thought occurred to one Borg, it occurred to all Borg. When attacked, they acted in unison without orders being given. In nearly every way, they are the science fiction version of the Democratic Party.
The United States is a nation of “rugged individualism,” or at least we used to be. People took care of themselves, and when something happened where they couldn’t, family, friends, neighbors, and churches stepped up to help out when it was needed. Starting with the “Great Society,” Democrats pushed government into that space, supplanting that community-based infrastructure with a centrally planned one. This wasn’t naturally occurring or by accident.
In the years since government’s insertion into the care and feeding of individuals, the left has redefined the word “community.” What once used to mean your neighborhood has been twisted to mean people who look like you or share the same sexual orientation. They’ve trained people to care more about what happens to someone on the other side of the country with whom they share those irrelevant characteristics than what happens to someone on their block who doesn’t. And it happened seamlessly.
That’s how easily the left changes the world around us. If you weren’t paying attention, you likely didn’t even notice it had changed.
But they do telegraph their punches, you just have to pay attention.
An idea gets floated – from a think tank, on TV, or some op-ed somewhere – and normal people laugh at it.
We laugh because it sounds stupid, or in some cases it really is stupid and has no basis in reality. But it’s out there, and once a thought occurs to one of them, it occurs to all of them.
They don’t move quickly on it. Unlike conservatives, who push for an idea and, as long as it’s not tax cuts, try to implement it and abandon it once they fail (see: Obamacare repeal), Democrats are fine with working incrementally when they have to. That’s why it’s important to see what they’re saying on fringes, what seemingly random ideas the “intelligencia” is floating.
On its face, when Washington Post columnists Max Boot tweeted, “Biden needs to reinvigorate the FCC to slow the lies and sedition from Fox and other right-wing broadcasters. Or else the terrorism we saw on Jan. 6 may be only the beginning, rather than the end, of the plot against America,” it was laughable, but not surprising. The left would love nothing more than to silence every non-liberal outlet for information.
Boot linked to a piece he’d written entitled, “Trump couldn’t have incited sedition without the help of Fox News.” It’s filled with the usual left-wing babble, whining about Fox, etc. But in his conclusion, he shows his cards. He write, “CNN (where I’m a global affairs analyst) notes that the United Kingdom doesn’t have its own version of Fox News, because it has a government regulator that metes out hefty fines to broadcasters that violate minimal standards of impartiality and accuracy. The United States hasn’t had that since the Federal Communications Commission stopped enforcing the “fairness” doctrine in the 1980s. As president, Biden needs to reinvigorate the FCC. Or else the terrorism we saw on Jan. 6 may be only the beginning, rather than the end, of the plot against America.”
Putting aside the stupidity of the “fairness doctrine” and how the FCC has zero authority over cable television (it doesn’t use “public airwaves,” so they have no power over it), they want Fox. Get Fox News, and by extension, damage everything else. Fox is just a proxy, the big prize. Aim for it, and if you get it, you take out a lot of the rest with it. Miss, and you can still do some damage to others with the crossfire.
It’s a wildly un-American concept, to silence critics/competitors/anyone, but it’s who the left is. They’ve been flirting with the idea for years, grumbling about “Fox News’ lies.” This is different, this is the plan moving to the next phase.
They’re blaming death and a “plot against America” on those not on their team. Everyone from college journalism professors to cable news talking heads are suddenly asking “Should Fox News be allowed to exist?”
With Democrats in control of government, they will position themselves to take a run at Fox, at talk radio, at everyone. A crazy idea doesn’t mean the collective won’t act, and it doesn’t mean they won’t succeed.
And succeeding in silencing, or even just coming close, will only embolden them more. From there, it’s an easy leap for a collective to make from targeting ideas to targeting people. That’s the danger of groupthink, and it’s only just now starting to roll.
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2021/01/24/the-dangers-of-leftist-groupthink-n2583603
