For What It's Worth (Part II)

Paranoia strikes deep, into your lives it will creep; it starts when you’re always afraid…

Qualifying as an Islamophobe is easier than just taking certain public stands or political actions, but involves even the barest acknowledgment, (even all to yourself in private, let alone to others), that you do indeed have a feeling of growing unease about the gathering cultural and military threat from Islam.

Consequently, those frightened of being called that name find it most practical to refuse to think about it at all. You aren’t just being silenced at the ballot box, and the townhall, or at church, now you can’t even open your mouth at your own damn dinner table, or else the shrieking Man is right there condemning you for what, according to him, you are.

I tell you, those PhDs at Berkley and Columbia are smart. They know the best way to stop you from saying something is to scare the hell out of you first from even thinking it. And one good way to keep from thinking something is to train yourself to always think the opposite. And that is exactly how the American public thinks about Jihad and Islam. Against every evidence, we think it is the benevolent worldwide advance of the Religion of Peace.

I believe there are a significant portion of the population who, if they permitted themselves just thirty seconds unfettered analysis of the predicament of the West in relation to the global Jihad, the appeasement, and the campaign of lies pouring out of the Jihadist collaborators who control the media, people would immediately seek one another out, close ranks, and stand up to this death-through-diversity once and for all.

But it’s as if the same Reds who burned out Laurence Harvey’s brain in The Manchurian Candidate got the whole country under the hot lights, fixing us so no matter how many times we’re shown the flashcard that says “2+2”, our mind refuses to visualize the numeral “4.” (“Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life. Oh, and the word ‘Islam’ means ‘peace.’”)

Oriana Fallaci, who just passed away last month, had this to say in her book, The Force of Reason, about how good people in Europe once lost their way under totalitarianism, and are losing it again now from fear of Islam:

Europe burning into torpor like the city of Troy has renewed the disease that last century made Fascists even the Italians who were not Fascists, that made Nazi even the Germans who were not Nazi, that made Bolsheviks even the Russians who were not Bolsheviks, and that now transforms in traitors even those who would not like to be traitors. It is a deadly plague, the fear. A disease which, fed by opportunism and conformism, hence cowardice, leads to more deaths than cancer. It is a disease which unlike cancer is contagious and strikes all those who are along its road. The good and the bad. The intelligent and the stupid. The honest and the dishonest. I have seen terrible things, in the nowadays of Eurabia, caused by fear. Things much uglier than those I’ve seen in war where in fear we live and die. I’ve seen leaders who used to pose as Braggarts and who out of fear hoisted (and hoist) the white flag. I’ve seen liberals who called themselves champions of secularism and who out of fear sang (and sing) the glory of the Koran. I’ve seen friends, or alleged friends who (though cautiously) have sided with me and whom out of fear have done an about-turn. They have surrendered and now they are openly against me. But the most terrible thing I’ve seen has been the fear of those who should protect the freedom of thought and of speech: the journalists, the teachers, the so-called intellectuals.

As proof regardng the teachers and intellectuals on our side of the ocean, check out these attacks on free speech rights here.

This may be painfully obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: just because people call you a name doesn’t mean you are that thing. It’s just a name, and they’re liars. (If it’s any help with the fear, those folks call you those names behind your back anyway even when you try to give them what they want, because folks like that really are hate-filled bigots, and they despise and insult you for your weakness when you give in like that.)

Brother, are you often afraid? Sister, do you lie awake nights sick at soul from trying to puzzle out what you did to make bin Laden hate you?

My friends, there is deliverance tonight. You can do something about this. There are steps you can take to get back your freedom of thought and speech. You can practice reciting your own views into the bathroom mirror until you can recognize the sound of your own voice again. Then boldly start speaking up in more dangerous settings, like your own dinner table or in you den.

Maybe the next time someone tries to tell you “of course, most Muslims are very peaceful people and most all of them denounce terrorism,” try looking at them with buggy eyes and exclaiming, “The hell you say! Where’d you ever come up with that?” (Of course you already know they're just terrified of stepping out of line from fear of the Man).

The Man isn’t going to like it when you speak with your own mind. But he hates a vaccum, and if you won’t think with it, he’ll be glad to do it for you. And then if he can’t shut you up he’ll try to divert your attention, and get you thinking that a melting ice cap a millenium from now is a lot bigger threat to your family than Iran with a Bomb in 3 years. Or that you and other decent people are at risk of losing your freedom because a terrorist’s lawyer in Dearborn can’t talk on the phone to his murderer client in a Pakistani cave because Homeland Security might be listening in.

Why not try telling a friend what you really think? (Better make it a friend you can afford to lose). If he or she calls you a bigot and you don’t immediately die and go to Hell, try writing a letter to the next reporter who insults your intelligence by transcribing an activist’s talking points and calling it news reporting. I promise you, you aren’t going to have to wait long.

And then let’s all start sticking it to the Man.