What are we hearing as the 2020 presidential election nears?
Posted By RichC on June 14, 2020
Ok … I’ve decided that most of the outrage (see 1, 2 & 3) in our country happening is politically motivated and it is being fanned and fueled by political operatives and left-wing ideologues as we approach the 2020 election. Considering we’ve been through racial outrage before, the latest looks to me to 
be a way for radicals to unite disgruntled socialist-leaning people behind a cause (believing government controlled socialism must be better than liberty and capitalism).
It is also pretty obvious to me that Democrats and the political left who have an unhealthy dislike for President Trump, also control much of the way in which we communicate in 2020. 
They noticeably are tilting news and open-exchange platforms in favor of the the left and openly oppose views and commentary from conservatives (NYTimes v Sen Tom Cotton Editorial). The social media giants have appointed handpick censors who represent their left-leaning ideology and mores in order to silence views they disagree with, particularly those of a political party they oppose. Social media has been dealing with this for a a while now, but one of the more recent steps comes from Apple who controls what apps are install on the iPhone. They have frozen updates due to the social app Parler not policing the users of their platform. Many conservatives left Twitter after they became more aggressive speech-policing against users who posted offensive views (their censor’s opinion), comments or content. They either booted them off the platform or tagged their posts as they did for the President of the United States.
This may be all appropriate, but those MANY who are equally offensive have not been policed, tagged or suspended … and very few world leaders or notables on the left receive the same censure (quite the double standard).
Now to the Parler app … where many on the right (farther right) have gone. It is a social networking platform who does not to aggressively police content, but now they are being targeted by Apple because they aren’t making judgmental decisions and censoring speech. I suspect that means removing the users and content Apple dislikes? (Are we to sift everything through the colander of those looking at this from left-leaning Silicon Valley … just as we approach the election?)
Back to controlling the “megaphone” …
Academia, most in the mainstream media, journalists, big tech, Hollywood, lefties lobby organizations, etc control the biggest megaphones and therefore much of the message we hear. The politicians who stand to gain the most have used recent racial events, economic injustice or “the right to protest” as a way to ‘incite’ (energize – to use the PC term) and divide people; they pit one group against another (yes, the conservatives including the POTUS does it too). In politics it has been done this way forever. It does not UNITE our country, which is what all politicians “in-office” should be doing.
Unfortunately this is not healthy. The choice to use violence, provoke and damage and loot private property should be condemned by all. 
The taking over of public and private property, setting up independent zones or CHAZ and destroying whatever statues, monuments or places a mob decides is offensive to “them” isn’t the way a representative democracy works. History isn’t always pretty, but it is our history. Independently choosing what is preserved, recognized or a part of our heritage is not the right way to whitewash American history.
A couple 1 minute video clips stood out to me this past week as I contemplated how to best address our shortcomings. First was Morgan Freeman back in 2005 with Mike Wallace on 60-Minutes (below). His take on race can be applied to almost all human differences, be it skin color, gender, religion or ethnicity. We would be so much better NOT purposely accentuating these points to others (especially those we don’t control), but focus on our similarities as human beings and Americans.
This leads me to Thomas Sowell discussing the history of slavery (interesting because it is not something we often think about). Americans for the most part are narrowminded and see slavery and race as our history and some believe Americans today should pay reparations for slavery. A world view shows slavery as a human history problem and not something specific to race. How far back do we go in whitewashing that history? Who do we continue to hold accountable for the sins of our ancestors … in the southern US states … in the world?
Perhaps prejudice will never go away and something we will have to continue to work. I also suspect political opportunists will always be able to find an ignition point whenever they need one … and suspect they “blow on the ember” a little harder during a presidential election. So sad for our country and our people.
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