{"id":82732,"date":"2020-07-02T19:13:08","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T23:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=82732"},"modified":"2020-07-02T19:13:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T23:13:15","slug":"the-daily-gouge-archive-wednesday-july-1st-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=82732","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge Archive, Wednesday, July 1st, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Wednesday, July 1st, 2020…but before we begin…regarding John Roberts siding with the Penumbras Emanating from William O. Douglas’s sphincter on the recent Louisiana abortion decision, Townhall.com<\/em>‘s Cortney O’Brien observed…<\/strong><\/p>\n

“But it was Roberts’s vote on this Monday morning that convinced conservatives he will never be on their side, and regret<\/span><\/em> that President George W. Bush ever uttered his name.<\/strong><\/span>“<\/p>\n

Truth be told, it was Robert’s vote which caused Conservatives to regret they’d ever heard the name\u00a0BUSH<\/em><\/span>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as this meme from Shannon cautions…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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…it ain’t over ’til it’s over.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And given the abysmal performance Joe Biden put on earlier today<\/span><\/a>,<\/span><\/em> when it comes to November, the fat lady hasn’t even begun to warm up; wait until he’s forced to answer some unscreened, chin music questions<\/em><\/span><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, here’s The Gouge<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

First up, courtesy of\u00a0<\/strong>New York Magazine<\/em>‘s Intelligencer<\/em>\u00a0via Speed Mach, Andrew Sullivan…(yes<\/em><\/span>, for those who know him, that<\/em><\/span> Andrew Sullivan) wonders aloud of his fellow travelers…<\/strong><\/p>\n

You Say You Want a Revolution<\/span><\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/h1>\n

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“One of the things you know if you were brought up as a Catholic in a Protestant country, as I was, is how the attempted extirpation of England\u2019s historic Catholic faith was enforced not just by executions, imprisonments, and public burnings but also by the destruction of monuments, statues, artifacts, paintings, buildings, and sacred sculptures. The shift in consciousness that the religious revolution required could not be sustained by words or terror alone.<\/span> The new regime \u2014 an early pre-totalitarian revolution imposed from the top down \u2014 had to remove all signs of what had come before. The items were not merely forms of idolatry in the minds of the newly austere Protestant vision; they also served to perpetuate the rule of the pope.<\/span> They could be occasions for treason, heresy, and sin.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The impulse for wiping the slate clean is universal. Injustices mount; moderation seems inappropriate; radicalism wins and then tries to destroy the legacy of the past as a whole.<\/span><\/span> The Taliban\u2019s notorious<\/span>\u00a0destruction of the great Buddhas<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0of Bamian in Afghanistan was a similar attempt to establish unquestioned Islamic rule.<\/span> \u201cMuslims should be proud of smashing idols. It has given praise to Allah that we have destroyed them,\u201d Mullah Mohammed Omar<\/span><\/span>\u00a0explained<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>.<\/span> This was the spirit of Paris in 1789 as well. \u201cIf we love truth more than the fine arts,\u201d the Enlightenment figure Denis Diderot remarked, \u201clet us pray to God for some iconoclasts.\u201d<\/span> (He was also the lovely chap who insisted that \u201chumankind will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.\u201d And in the French Revolution, of course, he almost got his way.)<\/span> The Romans, for their part, eventually decided that the only way to govern Jews was to physically destroy their Temple in Jerusalem.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Iconoclasm is not just vandalism and violence.<\/span> It is a very specific variety that usually signifies profound regime change. That\u2019s why the toppling of old Soviet monoliths in the 1989 liberation of Eastern Europe was so salient.<\/span> They were important symbols of that sclerotic Soviet empire\u2019s power. And for true revolutionary potential, it\u2019s helpful if these monuments are torn down by popular uprisings.<\/span> That adds to the symbolism of a new era, even if it also adds to the chaos. That was the case in Mao\u2019s Cultural Revolution, when the\u00a0younger generation<\/a><\/em><\/span>, egged on by the regime, went to work on any public symbols or statues they deemed problematically counterrevolutionary, creating a reign of terror that even surpassed France\u2019s.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And Mao\u2019s model is instructive in another way. It shows you what happens when a mob is actually quietly supported by elites, who use it to advance their own goals.<\/span> The Red Guards did what they did \u2014 to their friends, and parents, and teachers \u2014 in the spirit of the Communist regime itself. They murdered and tortured, and subjected opponents to public humiliations \u2014 accompanied by\u00a0the gleeful ransacking of religious and cultural sites.<\/span> In their\u00a0attack<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>\u00a0on the Temple of Confucius, almost 7,000 priceless artifacts were destroyed. By the end of the revolution, almost two-thirds of Beijing\u2019s historical sites had been destroyed in a frenzy of destruction against \u201cthe four olds: old customs, old habits, old culture, and old ideas.\u201d<\/span> Mao first blessed, then reined in these vandals.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, in late-19th-century Russia, much of the intellectual elite also found themselves incapable of drawing a line when it came to revolutionary behavior \u2014 and so they tolerated violence that eventually swept everything away\u00a0in terror<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>.<\/span> Even though they were the elite, the intelligentsia regarded the wealthy as the real rulers and salivated at the prospect of dethroning them. As the Russian-history professor Gary Saul Morson\u00a0told<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em>: \u201cThe idea was that since they knew the theory, they were morally superior and they should be in charge, and that there was something fundamentally wrong with the world when \u2018practical\u2019 people were.\u201d<\/span> Welcome to the New York\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0newsroom in 2020.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Revolutionary moments also require public confessions of iniquity by those complicit in oppression. These now seem to come almost daily.<\/span> I\u2019m still marveling this week at the\u00a0apology<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>\u00a0the actress Jenny Slate gave for voicing a biracial cartoon character. It\u2019s a classic confession of counterrevolutionary error: \u201cI acknowledge how my original reasoning was flawed and that it existed as an example of white privilege and unjust allowances made within a system of societal white supremacy\u2026Ending my portrayal of \u2018Missy\u2019 is one step in a life-long process of uncovering the racism in my actions.\u201d<\/span> For Slate to survive<\/em><\/span> in her career, she had<\/em><\/span> to go full Cersei in her walk of shame<\/em><\/span>. If you find this creepy<\/em><\/span>, but don\u2019t<\/em><\/span> want to say that out loud<\/em><\/span>, just know that you are not alone<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

Here’s the juice: the vast majority<\/em><\/span> of those advocating “revolution” don’t even begin<\/em><\/span> to comprehend the real<\/em><\/span> ramifications\u00a0every<\/em><\/span> Socialist revolution has entailed, while the controlling\u00a0<\/em>minority<\/em><\/span>, like Robespierre, Marat, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot before them, truly relish<\/em><\/span> the prospect:<\/strong><\/p>\n

France, during:<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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The Kulaks, before:<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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the Kulaks, The New York Times stories to the contrary notwithstanding, after:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Great Leap Forward according to ChiCom propaganda…which, incidentally, might<\/span> have been prepared by contemporary<\/span>\u00a0American Dimocrats:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Great Leap Forward as experienced by some 45 MILLION not-so-fortunate or well-fed Chinese:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Cambodia, before:<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Cambodia, after:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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We could add photos from other examples of contemporary Workers’ Paradises…including, but not limited to, Cuba, Romania, North Korea, Vietnam or Venezuela…but we figure you, quite literally, get<\/em><\/span> the “picture”!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of those condemned to repeat history because, thanks to Progressives’ takeover of America’s public education establishment, they never learned it in the first place, courtesy of The Daily Caller<\/em> via James Nichols, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr relates how, with each passing panic…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018The Dumbest Generation\u2019 Grows Even Dumber<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

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“In 2008, Mark Bauerlein wrote \u201cThe Dumbest Generation, How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.\u201d Judging by events in the intervening dozen years (and especially in recent months), it appears that Bauerlein\u2019s assessment was premature<\/em><\/span> and perhaps<\/em><\/span> even too kind<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Bauerlein correctly identified<\/em><\/span> overreliance on the internet and social media (then still in its infancy) as the primary culprits<\/em><\/span> for Millennials<\/em><\/span> losing their ability to think, learn and communicate coherently. What his analysis perhaps did not<\/span><\/em> anticipate is the number of\u00a0adults<\/span><\/em>\u00a0who have come to encourage, empower and support<\/em><\/span> Millennials in these efforts.<\/span> It is almost as if adults in government, the news media and academia are competing with Millennials for the title.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Consider, for example, the issue of providing college students with \u201csafe spaces,\u201d where they can shelter from the horrors of people, ideas and principles they consider \u201coffensive.\u201d<\/span> The students<\/em><\/span> may be the ones pushing<\/em><\/span> for these accommodations, but it is the\u00a0adult\u00a0college administrators<\/span> who cave in and make it happen<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Young protesters<\/em><\/span> in Seattle may \u201coccupy\u201d a sector of that once-respected city; they<\/em><\/span> may scream \u201cpolice brutality\u201d and call for the police department to be \u201cdefunded.\u201d<\/span> Their demands<\/em><\/span>, however, would amount to little<\/em><\/span> were it not for the city\u2019s clueless Mayor<\/em><\/span> Jenny Durken, who lauded the young occupiers as \u201cpatriots<\/em><\/span>,\u201d and her namby-pamby police chief<\/em><\/span>, Carmen Best, who decided that barricades which had protected one of her department\u2019s precinct headquarters should be removed as a \u201cgesture of trust\u201d to the mob<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

But there’s dumb, and then there’s just plain ignorant, as personified by Indiana’s Mike Braun, who not only makes no sense whatsoever, but doesn’t seem to grasp what the rest of us have known for some time: namely\u00a0Black Lies Matter<\/em> is a funding conduit<\/em><\/span>…\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n