Did Russia Trick Us Into Being Conservative?
Democrats constantly tell us that foreign powers (chiefly ‘Russia! Russia! Russia!’) are “sowing discord” in American politics. But is that true?
- Name anything you’re happy about with the other party (whichever party you belong to).
- Now consider how much of the other party’s statements and positions make you genuinely angry (64% said they would be “angry” if their candidate lost the election, including 37% who say they would be “very angry”. Not surprisingly, more Democrats feel this way than Republicans).
- Consider why you feel that way.
I am not upset at Democrats because some Russian told me I should be. No Russian agents showed up at my door to talk me into being a Republican (as if they would benefit from doing that).
No, I’m upset at Democrats because they’re transing kids, destroying women’s sports, pushing after-birth abortion, attempting a backdoor nationalization of America’s economies (through taxing “unrealized income”), and openly telling us they won’t allow First Amendment protections for anything they don’t pre-approve (and we already saw the test-run of this over the last four years: thank God for Elon!).
Democrats have their own reasons to be upset at us, among which appear to be that “Russia! Iran! Etc.! are sowing discord!”, which is really just another way of saying that there are people who are disagreeing with them in public.
What should I care if Russia or anyone else joins into the marketplace of ideas? I don’t want them contributing money to parties or candidates — and we should punish that if it happens, as when the British Labour Party was openly organizing expenditures and volunteers to come help Democrats in the final weeks before the election — but if they want to spread their ideas, how does that hurt “Our Democracy”? Aren’t we supposed to value diversity? Don’t we believe that more ideas are better? Do Americans have a monopoly on the truth? Don’t we benefit from intercultural exchange?
Oddly, Democrats believe in all those things if the people we’re talking about are illegal immigrants, or for that matter if they’re those Labour Party activists. They just oppose “misinformation”, like the existence of the Hunter Biden laptop (which turned out to be real), or the idea that putting COVID patients indiscriminately into nursing homes would needlessly kill lots of old people (which it did), or that election machines can be hacked (which Kamala Harris was publicly concerned about until just a few months before the 2020 election).
In other words, Democrats oppose public discussion — even to the point of cancelation, banning disliked politicians from social media, or in the Labour Party’s case, imprisonment for posting memes — of anything with which they disagree.
I don’t need Russia to tell me to be angry about that. In fact, someone should point out to Democrats that they’re actively imitating Vladimir Putin.
The truth is, free speech is the bedrock and lifeblood of freedom. Everyone will always disagree with lots of what they hear. That’s the whole point: hearing all views so you can apply Critical Thinking (as opposed to its opposite, Critical Theory) to determine for yourself what is true. The alternative is compulsory conformity — at government gunpoint — without the possibility of disagreement, discussion, or breakthrough. It’s the Pope imprisoning Galileo. It’s O’Brien telling Winston that “2 + 2 = whatever the Party tells you.”
So yeah, I am angry about that.
And if Russians, or Iranians, or Klingons and Vulcans want to warn me about it, or even lie about it, good for them. And good for us. Freedom is messy. That’s literally the point.
