28 Sept 2017
In response to an editorial that appeared this date in the Hamilton Spectator. Roe argues that the success of the AfG party in Germany is a frightening sign of rising neo-Naziism in Europe and in North America, and that good people need to close their minds and their ears to what the people beyond the moral pale are saying.
Editor John Roe needs to let his mind out of the small
kennel in which he keeps it. His
editorial worrying about the success of the AfG (Alternative for Germany) party
in the recent elections was entirely predictable, and could have been written by
Angela Merkel’s stenographer.
Roe writes, “people….need to be aware of the far-right
virus, to realize the danger is poses, and inoculate themselves against it.” This little quote contains the hobgoblin of
Roe’s little mind.
It is one thing to smear an alleged right-wing party in
Germany as nascent neo-Naziism, and it is quite another to say that since
right-wing makes you a Nazi in Germany, it makes you one in North America also.
You cannot suppress free speech forever by placing it under
a ban of moral opprobrium. Public
matters of great moment need to be discussible, and if all major political
parties refuse to discuss them, another political party will be created in
which those matters are front and center of its discussion.
One political matter of great moment in Germany is Angela
Merkel’s unilateral decision to admit more than a million young Arabic Muslims as
refugees into Germany. Germany was
founded by the barbarian tribes which invaded the Roman Empire and brought on
its collapse. So the Germans understand
something about invading tribes, and here is Merkel inviting the invasion of a
completely foreign new tribe of barbarians into Germany to enjoy its largesse.
Curiously, the alarm felt in Germany at this is especially
prevalent in the former East Germany. The
other countries of the former east bloc: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia
are resisting relieving Germany of some of the problem that Merkel created in
her unilateral action. Brexit was helped
across the finish line by the EU’s insistence that Britain take on some of these
refugees, who wouldn’t have come to Europe but for Merkel’s welcome. What do the Brits and the Slavs know that Merkel
doesn’t?
The answer is not to suppress frank discussion of the
problem. But Progressives have got into
the lazy habit of shutting down discussion altogether by simply dismissing
their opponents as beyond the morale pale.
Since the major parties live in fear of progressivist smears and so won’t
engage in frank discussion, other parties have arisen that frighten
Progressives (like Mr. Roe) because they are not intimidated by the moral pale
dismissal.
Merkel created this problem for Germany, and unhelpfully for
the rest of Europe. The Progressive method
of suppressing discussion isn’t working in this matter, and the AfG is the
product of Progressive debating tactics and the failure by the major German
political parties to talk frankly about Merkel’s decision.
Roe’s editorial is simply a reprise of the tired, old
Progressive technique of dismissing talk one doesn’t like as coming from people
beyond the moral pale. Donald Trump
became president of the United States precisely because he was saying things fearlessly
that an astonishing number of people wanted to hear. (It is his fearlessness more than anything
else that frightens progressives about Donald Trump.)
These matters are going to get thrashed out,
eventually. People like Mr. Roe are
simply in the way.
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