A fellow named Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at the University of London, did a survey. The answers merely confirm what we all already know.
“In order to find out how willing liberal Americans are to jettison the country’s cultural identity, I decided, on May 7th, to ask what I thought were outlandish questions…” he wrote. “The answers I received amazed me. I then repeated the exercise on June 15th, after the George Floyd killing and subsequent protests to see whether things had gotten even crazier. It turns out they have.”
“Respondents on these platforms lean young, liberal, and white,” Kaufmann noted, but he wanted that, as these groups are the most politically extreme. After getting the survey results, he focused on the 414 respondents who identified themselves as “liberal” or “very liberal.”
He had asked them to disagree or agree with 16 questions that aimed to gauge support for “a radical blow to American cultural nationhood.” Besides the three mentioned above, the next most supported changes were, in order:
- “Rebalance the history taught in schools until its voices and subjects reflect the demographics of the population and heritage of Native people and citizens of color” (60 percent support among liberals, and 60 percent support among very liberals);
- “Allow our public parks to return to their natural state, before a European sense of order was imposed upon them” (58 percent support among liberals, and 68 percent support among very liberals);
- “Remove existing statues of white men from public spaces until the stock of statues matches the demographics of the population” (51 percent support among liberals, and 60 percent support among very liberals);
- and “Gradually replace many older public buildings with new structures that don’t perpetuate a Eurocentric order, until a more representative public space is achieved” (52 percent support among liberals, and 59 percent support among very liberals).
In addition, majorities of “very liberal” respondents supported destroying Mount Rushmore and renaming streets and neighborhoods according to racial quotas. So did significant percentages of “liberals,” as you can see in the below graph. A third or more supported renaming the United States of America something “that better reflects the contributions of Native Americans and our diversity as a people.”
When he asked these same questions soon after the George Floyd killing and subsequent riots, support for cultural revolution had increased and support for President Trump had dropped, among both self-described liberals and conservatives.
“All of these protest-driven changes are statistically significant,” Kaufmann writes. “…Far from being a disaster for the Left, as in the past, the protests and rioting seem to have invigorated it.”
Did someone mention Proggy being emboldened by his recent victories just now? Why yes, I believe someone did.Kaufmann remains optimistic that this dismal trajectory can still be reversed, but his proposed solutions don’t impress me.
“Faced with neglect or hostility from the media and educational establishment, conservatives should use civil society institutions, associations, and media to keep the country’s customs and traditions alive in recognizable form. This may extend to advocating for, or relocating, statues and other elements of heritage,” he says.
“Relocating” and “advocating for” are not synonymous, but contradictory. The only proper response, the only one that should be considered, is a hearty “go fuck yourself,” perhaps followed by a stern glare of warning and a snarled “just you fucking try it.” That steely-eyed warning must then be righteously supported by actions—not compromise, not half-measures. Sadly, this ain’t gonna cut it:
To keep America’s traditions and principles alive requires boycotting, divesting from, and sanctioning the left’s sources of cultural power. It requires taking spoils after successful tactical operations, such as cutting off federal funding to higher education, enacting full-scale school choice at the state and local levels, buying American-made products from smaller businesses that don’t fund Marxist change agents, and starting and joining new cultural institutions to replace the formerly apolitical ones they’ve mind-hived, like the Boy Scouts and League of Women Voters.
And hey, remember to vote Republican, too!
In a pig’s eye. Proposals like this presume we’re still dealing with rational but well-intentioned fellow Americans, not committed Leftist who viscerally hate America, our way of life, and ourselves personally with an almost marvelous malevolence and venom. Such civilized measures may have had a ghost of a chance of working had they been undertaken decades ago, although I’d posit that even that’s doubtful. They will certainly avail us nothing at this late stage.
We have allowed these vipers into the American nest, to flourish and multiply until the nest was overrun. Boycotts and replacing the institutions the Left has poisoned—ie, ceding defeat by abandoning them—will never suffice to clear it and make it habitable again.
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