A Sad Commentary About Unity

George Rebane

In his inauguration speech President Joe Biden went out of his way to emphasize and promise that his would be the administration to heal the chasm that separates Americans and bring us together again – he would unite us all.  From the policy statements that his WH started to issue immediately put paid to that particular inaugural lie; the new administration’s efforts to unite handily beat the setting sun to the horizon on that auspicious day.

But lying is not the only precursor to the Left’s love affair with disastrous public policies.  We have to credit them also with a genuine desire to benefit society, which, after all, has been the overarching objective of collectivists – socialists, communists, …, Jacobins – since the French Revolution.  Their problem becomes evident when they present the fruits of their deliberations and then attempt apologetics to bolster their freshly minted policies.  It becomes immediately clear to most who pay attention, especially those with some book-learning, that their supportive logic for any given policy simply does not tie.  It isn’t the kind of logic that the rest of us have been taught and successfully practiced in our professions.

This dichotomy between thinking processes by the Right and Left continued unexamined and fruitlessly debated for over two centuries until some psychologists and brain scientists at the University College London decided to do a clinical study and try to answer the question of why the logics used by the two sides are so different.  I reported on that study (here and here), and was a bit astounded to learn it revealed that collectivists use a different part of their brains than do the conservatives to solve policy problems that require use of logic tools.

That clinical finding finally convinced me to reject the late Sen Daniel Moynihan’s ‘You can have your own opinions, but not your own facts.’  It turns out, as amply verified by years of public discourse, that we can indeed have our own opinions, facts, histories, sense of justice, …, and yes, even logics.  And having such private and personal ontologies, that nicely tie in our minds, makes it easy to resist not only the opposing beliefs of our fellow citizens, but correct interpretations of realworld happenings and observations.  In short, in such a cognitive environment no productive learning can take place.

To bring the reality of this interpretation closer to home, RR comment streams are full of some pretty twisted expressions of liberal logic.  A landmark episode on what can only be tagged ‘looney logic’ involved the 2010 debate about the difference between giving and getting.  This was graphically detailed in my 7sep10 post (here) and its comment stream.  Unabashedly, the liberal readers equated the giving to various charities and the receiving of funds from public agencies.  There I wrote –

In recent weeks I have been taken to task for both not revealing the causes to which I contribute my personal funds, and for revealing from what sources others receive funds for their personal benefit.  In the discussions surrounding both cases, it was made clear to me by several liberals that both cases are equivalent.  In other words Case A and Case B as shown in the figure above are equivalent in the liberal view of the world.  And being so, both come under the same rules of disclosure when the parties in Cases A and B meet for public discourse.  Furthermore, there is no differentiation if the person receiving funds gets those funds from tax-payer or public sources, they are still equal.

So according to such logic, today’s Dems, as they feverishly attempt to expose Donald Trump’s income sources, should have no problem disclosing to what extent and which causes they support.  Of course, their logic here is so perverse that they would never consider disclosing such personal disbursements while willingly trumpeting Trump’s (or any other political enemy’s) income sources and amounts.

The actual logical schema here is simple.  Disclosing your funding sources, especially if they are public, is a duty for someone who serves as a public outlet for partisan or ideology-promoting content.  The public has a right to know who enables the messaging that they are consuming – in short, who really is talking to them.  This is totally different than demanding that a private individual or privately-funded institution disclose whom they are supporting, especially if the recipients are non-profit organizations that may or not have a partisan bent.  If I as a private individual am also a public personage and ideologue, then my equally partisan recipient may, subject to our mutual agreement, disclose me as a supporter.  Were I instead a disperser of public monies, then my recipient would have no choice but to disclose my agency and me as one of its benefactors.  In any event, there is no logical equivalency between such giving and getting.

More examples could be given to illustrate the different logics used by the Left and Right.  I’ll finish with one with which I, and now our entire community is familiar.  Jo Ann, representing only herself and not The Union as a member of its editorial board, or the county Republicans as an officer of the NC Republican Women Federated and member of the Republican Central Committee, wrote a short column for 12feb21 Union.  Therein she described herself with attributes that are noxious to all self-respecting, politically correct progressives, and cited President Biden’s appeal for unity with her side of the political spectrum.  It’s important to note that she made no appeal to the Left to be accepted or ‘unified’ with them.

Instead, referencing the ‘my way or the highway’ ultimata of Teams Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer, she asked how such diktats would ever serve the fine-sounding, and by implication now clearly fraudulent, unity rhetoric of Biden’s inaugural.  Her online column has drawn 150+ comments, a record of some sort for the newspaper.  These were overwhelmingly from leftists whose reading skills and logic totally missed her very clear question, and instead attacked her for supposedly demanding that national unity required the Left to accept her stated values and beliefs.  The mind-numbing comment stream is still online available here for your perusal.  It is (almost) incomprehensible that so many of our now liberal neighbors can exhibit such willful and terminal ignorance while they hold themselves in high esteem. 

So again I ask, how can any productive conversation toward a reunification be had with people who lack the most basic understanding of the printed word, and let their blind and abiding hatred of the ‘other side’ totally eliminate any possible common ground on which to meet.  We must always remember, it is the Left that does not want the Right to depart, and promises to use force to keep us together on their terms (programs they advance daily).  It is the Right that wants to initiate a national dialogue for a peaceful parting, instead of demanding that the Left embrace our Constitution, capitalism, minimally regulated markets, small government, national sovereignty, private property, and personal freedoms that encourage responsibility and enterprise.  The logical difference between the two positions is simple and easy to grasp, they need not be confused.

Comments

[RXCross]

How can there be any kind of "unity" when trump and the trumpophiles continue to lie and lie and lie just about everything. Does unity mean those whose beliefs are fact based have to accept the false reality the extreme right propagates? Common ground is based on shared realities of which there are none when the conservative version of events is totally fictitious yet believed hook, line, and sinker by delusional psychopaths. There cannot be any unity until the right rejects the lies.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/28/politics/donald-trump-cpac-speech-fact-check/index.html

[fish]

Posted by: Whine Aunt | 01 March 2021 at 09:47 AM

There cannot be any unity until the right rejects the lies.

Thank god for that!

[RXCross]

10:05 --delusional psychopath

[🐟]

Posted by: Roberta X | 01 March 2021 at 10:29 AM

You are a dear Roberta....and hey.....that’s from my ticker ❤️.

[George Rebane]

RX 1029am - Is there just a bit of hubris in your certainty of which side has been doing all the lying?

And just for drill, in the above examples, do you understand the difference between disclosures of giving/getting, and soliciting unification and questioning the methodology used by the solicitor?

[Teine Rebane Kenney]

LifeProTip for RX Cross 9:47
If you want to be taken seriously here, don't link to CNN.

[RXCross]

11:50 -- what about Breitbart, Fox News, Daily Caller, Newsmax, and the other often quoted sources posted here... should I take them seriously?

FYI --in case you didn't know this already, but CNN was started by arch conservative Ted Turner as a counter voice to Walter Cronkite and other mainstream news sources he thought were too liberal. How times change..

[Don Bessee]

Then came zuckor and his cabal @1231. What a maroon.

;-)

[George Rebane]

Re CNN et al. All institutions (e.g. Ford and Rockefeller Foundations) that have been co-opted from their origins and founders' intents have been co-opted by and for the Left. That itself demonstrates the ignorance of the Right which longer has its act together. Privately maintaining your principles without also defending them in the public square never works. What freedom you want to practice privately, you must always defend publicly.

[Don Bessee]

Hey look, a good candidate to take over from the former kvmr po' ol' fakenewsman -

https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-fact-checker-bidens-president-month

;-)

[Don Bessee]

Here is your unity with a disabled vet -

Seth Jahn eviscerates US Soccer's decision to remove him from council, reveals death threats
Jahn railed against the repeal of the organization's anthem-kneeling policy

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/seth-jahn-us-soccer-decision-death-threats-anthem-kneeling

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

‘Washington Post Publisher: Biden Is Failing His First Major Test of a Campaign Promise‘

“President Biden is facing his first major test of a campaign promise and, it appears, he’s about to fail it . . .

It appears as though under the Biden administration, despots who offer momentarily strategic value to the United States might be given a “one free murder” pass . . .

There is no legal, moral or logical reason to apply sanctions to the lower-level players in this conspiracy, who were following orders, while letting the criminal mastermind get away without consequence. In fact, it’s contrary to the American system of justice, which always works to go up the chain of responsibility to land the person ultimately accountable for serious crimes. The man whom Biden described as a “pariah” is about to escape personal liability for a murder he ordered as we offer diplomatic-speak about “recalibration” rather than insist on accountability. As other tyrants in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world watch Mohammed escape without personal consequence for his brutal behavior, not only is his hand strengthened but the others become emboldened to do the same.

The Biden administration could argue that this approach to MBS is carefully calibrated and a just-tough-enough response to a complicated problem. And they could argue that applying sanctions to MBS would do lasting damage to U.S.–Saudi relations that are not in long-term American interests. But that would mean admitting that Biden’s campaign-trail promise of “make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are” — along with a pledge to end all arms sales to the kingdom — was oversimplified and overwrought campaign-trail rhetoric.

In other words, it would require the likes of Jen Psaki to admit that what Biden said back in November 2019 was just campaign-trail rhetoric, and that it was never meant to be taken seriously as a policy proposal.

UPDATE: Robin Wright of The New Yorker offers a similarly scathing assessment, concluding that Biden talked tough during the campaign and then wimped out once he was in office.

Biden has done nothing to punish M.B.S. Absolutely nothing—to the astonishment of human-rights groups, foreign-policy experts, Saudi activists, and even some on his own staff. For days, the Administration had pledged that Biden, unlike Trump, would both take punitive measures and recalibrate the relationship. Biden’s response would symbolize his tough stance on human rights globally, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said, last week. “He will not hold back, and he will speak out when there are concerns he has about human-rights abuses, about the lack of freedom of speech or the lack of freedom of media and expression,” Psaki told journalists. But the Administration didn’t even mention M.B.S.’s name in the punitive sanctions that it announced after releasing the intelligence report. On Saturday, Biden refused to answer questions shouted by the press pool about whether he intended to punish the Saudi royal.”

[Gregory]

woke math is here:

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/there-is-no-such-thing-as-white-math

There's also a new Math Frameworks for California Public Schools being finished... it's woke math from star to finish.

[Don Bessee]

Who knew that there were so many comedians in creepy grampa joes admin -

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-dhs-secretary-trump-admin-gutted-immigration-system

;-)

[Don Bessee]

Now dont let those pesky facts mess up a good narrative -

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/03/01/churchills-grandson-joins-historians-shred-leftist-academics-charges-against-war-leader/

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Column: CNN Should Shut Up About ‘Misinformation’

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2021/02/26/column-cnn-should-shut-about-misinformation

And why that fake-new junkie and mass spreader of misinformation , that man-boy Rechard Maddow still has a job is beyond me after building his entire career on the Russian Collusion Delusion and trying endlessly (and unsuccessfully) to debunk Spygate....which is true despite Wikipedia calling it as of today a conspiracy theory.

Bobbie, you might have a smidgen more creditability here if you didn’t go off the trails over Trump’s 4th of July parade in Washington DC in 2019..claiming most confidently that Trump was going to declare martial law, surround himself with troops, and appoint himself dictator for life. Connect the dots. Trump wants to showcase our military on the Fourth of July with a tank in the parade and our jets flying over the festivities means...means Trump is going to appoint himself God Emperor for Life....exactly confirming your deepest and oft stated fears. It’s true!!

Fear is the big one. The words ‘tanks in Washington DC’ and ‘the 4th of July’ really triggered you and sent you over the rails. Big derailment. ‘Tanks’ is one thing, but the ‘4th of July’ was the real trigger, I reckon.

You are in good company. Bobbie. Lots of those who participate in class warfare really really hate the ‘4th of July’ as much as the word, ‘Christmas’. You have a heavy cross to bear, pun intended.

PS: Bobbie, your deepest fears have come true. Washington DC is now surrounded by thousands upon thousands of troops. You were just a wee bit premature in your well sourced prediction about the coup. It is just you had the wrong President. Simple mistake....anyone of us could have fallen for that Whooper...not!

They are coming for you. Hide under Punchy’s Ann Coulter doll....and don’t look up under her skirt this time, ok?

[fish]

Posted by: Bill Tozer | 01 March 2021 at 02:36 PM

Bobbie, you might have a smidgen more creditability here if you didn’t go off the trails over Trump’s 4th of July parade in Washington DC in 2019....

......no she wouldn't.

[Walt]

Poor Babs...Add him to the list of fearful LIBS that demand all Conservative news be yanked from cable providers. Not just Fascistbook or twittworld.
You DO know what's called Bobby? Fascism.
"two Democratic members of Congress sent letters to the presidents of Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Cox, Dish, and other cable and satellite companies implying that they should either stop carrying Fox News, One America News Network, and Newsmax or pressure them to change their coverage. According to the lawmakers, these conservative channels are responsible for promoting misinformation and political violence."
https://reason.com/2021/02/22/eshoo-mcnerney-letter-fox-news-newsmax-oann-comcast-misinformation/

No complaints from LIB news about BLM, ANTIFA violence for months on end.
That's OK... Right Bobby?

OK Babs,, have any proof that Conservative news is fake news?
Try something called,, *FACTS*..

[Don Bessee]

So the question is will Michelle 0 be canceled for having read Dr Seuss to kids on film??? The woke world wonders! -

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-erases-dr-seuss-read-across-america-proclamation

;-)

[RXCross]

George 12:51-- All institutions (e.g. Ford and Rockefeller Foundations) that have been co-opted from their origins and founders' intents have been co-opted by and for the Left."

What about Heritage, Hoover, American Enterprise institute, National chamber of Commerce, and numerous others...have they not been co-opted by and for the right?

RE: 11:47 -- I stand by my statements at 9:47 -- You can believe whatever you want George... but that does not make it true. According to all legal standards there was no election fraud. period paragraph..

[Don Bessee]

The chamber of commerce not that's FUNNY! Another example of the lame ass ignorance of the local trolls!

;-)

[Don Bessee]

Another gift from a soros funded DA oh never mind he was just an old asian close to death, Chesa Boudin has sparked outrage on social media after telling the New York Times that 19-year-old Antoine Watson was "in some sort of a temper tantrum" -

ABC7's Dion Lim spoke with Ratanapakdee's family, who said that a temper tantrum is "no excuse" for murdering someone. In addition, she obtained police documents showing Watson was "seen on surveillance going to a BMW after the crime— retrieving a cell phone & walk back to Ratanapakdee & appear to take photos of him as he was dying."

https://www.foxnews.com/us/san-francisco-da-under-fire-after-citing-temper-tantrum-for-murder-of-84-year-old-asian-man

;-)

[George Rebane]

RX 716pm - co-opt = divert to or use in a role different from the usual or original one. The only one of your list one can argue that has been co-opted - and also toward the corporatist Left - is the National Chamber of Commerce. The others have remained true to their founding commissions.

[Don Bessee]

Well the socialist's can forget the squads wish list because one wont sign on to destroying the country. SO SORRY! -

Sen. Joe Manchin on ending the filibuster: 'Jesus Christ, what don't you understand about 'never'?'

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/sen-joe-manchin-ending-filibuster-004147395.html

;-)

[Walt]

So Bobby,, got nothing on "fake" news from the likes of FOX and NEWSMAX? Proggy yap is cheap.

[Don Bessee]

Can we unify in reality on this at least? -

The alignment of our regional partners and allies in both the economic and security domains will ensure that the legacy of the Accords incentivizes other states to normalize relations with Israel and forge new economic and security partnerships to meet the myriad challenges posed not only by Iran, but also by the malign influence of China and Russia.

Following the announcement of diplomatic normalization between Israel and the UAE in August of last year, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco quickly followed suit. What motivated this move? Certainly, the threat from violent extremism and Iran animated the members, but so too did the promise of cooperation and recovery from the pandemic’s impact on their economies.

How can the U.S. capitalize on this momentum to persuade other countries to join and expand the Accords? The first step is to establish trust. This begins with cooperation on security threats that preoccupy the region’s leaders. In addition to restating joint commitments to counter violent extremism, we should ensure close collaboration to address the regional threat from Iran and its surrogates. The State Department can rapidly affirm the interagency review that approved of arms sales providing our regional partners with the tools required to combat shared threats, recognizing that both Russia and China would be happy to fill the void without restrictions.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/president-biden-expand-abraham-accords-113043874.html

;-)

[Don Bessee]

Unity in killing this socialist dem radical bill -

The measure went down in bipartisan defeat with just 97 Democrats voting in favor of the amendment compared with 328 members who voted against – 119 Democrats and 209 Republicans.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/squad-amendment-fails-house-to-restore-voting-rights-to-felons-incarcerated-individuals

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Aha, I am beginning to catch on to this unity thang. It’s not reciting facts that is the issue here. It’s how people respond to facts that is the real issue. Off with her head!

‘Student Journalist Settles With ASU After Being Fired Over Tweet About Jacob Blake’

“So, it wasn’t for the views she expressed, it was for how students reacted to those views, which is somehow different. Instead of explaining to the allegedly offended students why Klein’s tweet was an act of journalism — providing context to a bigger story — the school took action against Klein.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/student-journalist-settles-with-asu-after-being-fired-over-tweet-about-jacob-blake

Best not to read why Blake had a warrant for his physical arrest and to henceforth be brought before the bench, per judge’s order.

[Bill Tozer]

Unity, lol.

‘Mississippi Gov. Reeves tells Biden after 'neanderthal’ jab we should trust, not 'insult' Americans’
"Mississippians don’t need handlers," Reeves said.

https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/mississippi-gov-reeves-responds-bidens-neanderthal-insult