Now that both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri—the original faces and leaders of al-Qaeda—are dead, it is interesting to reflect on how the terror strikes of 9/11 impacted me. Although I now often write on topics such as the Muslim persecution of Christians and the historical interaction between Islam and the West, following September 11, 2001, my focus shifted to the specter of modern day Islamic terrorism in the guise of al-Qaeda. As such, almost all of my earliest work—published articles, first book (The Al Qaeda Reader), and media appearances, stretching back to 2005—revolved around al-Qaeda; and even more so on the recently slain al-Zawahiri than bin Laden himself, as the former was always the organization’s chief ideologue.
Because they may make for interesting or edifying viewing/reading—not least as al-Qaeda remains a serious threat—below are two of those media appearances and one article, all from fifteen years ago:
CSPAN Book-TV: After Words, with Lawrence Wright, September 10, 2007:
The entire, hour-long interview can be viewed directly on C-SPAN.
KCET-TV/PBS: Life and Times, August 2007:
Chronicle of Higher Education: “The Two Faces of Al Qaeda,” by Raymond Ibrahim, October 3, 2007:
When the September 11 attacks occurred, I was in Fresno, Calif., researching my M.A. thesis on the Battle of Yarmuk, one of the first yet little-known battles between Christendom and Islam, waged in 636 A.D. That battle, in which the Arab invaders were outmatched and yet still triumphed, would have immense historical repercussions. A mere four years later, Egypt and Mesopotamia, and all the land between, would become Islamic. A century later, all the land between southern France and India would be added to the House of Islam.
The next time I came across any reference to this pivotal battle was four years later, as I was translating the words of Osama bin Laden. Surprisingly, an event that seemed so distant, almost irrelevant, to the West was to bin Laden a source not only of pride but of instruction. For him it was not mere history but an inspiring example of outnumbered and under-equipped mujahedin who, through faith-inspired courage, managed to defeat the Western empire of Byzantium. When the Arab and Afghan mujahedin, including bin Laden’s nascent Al Qaeda — outnumbered and under-equipped — defeated the Soviet invaders, history was repeating itself.
Yet why would this band, so reminiscent of their seventh-century forebears, attack the United States, its onetime ally against the Soviets, and in such a horrific manner? What was its motivation?… Click to keep reading
Watched part one with your younger brother talking. Thx Raymond. That spot alone is telling.
Look forward to the rest. So how many years have you been at this…20+?
We are in debt to you more than we can repay.
Thank you, Raymond Ibrahim, for this brilliant analysis which clarifies once and for all, and for many unsuspecting non-Arabic speakers in the West, that the Islamic excuses which purported that attacks such as 9/11 were supposedly “acts of reprisal” against foreign policy by disaffected young Muslims, were in reality nothing of the kind but stemmed from the “theology of eternal hostility” ingrained and commanded in the Koran against all non-Muslims who refused to convert to Islam. As you have so brilliantly shown, the first hypocritical excuse which aimed to deceive us (and make us feel as if we were the ‘guilty’ party) was that offered to the English (non-Arabic) speaking world while the second correct excuse was that aimed to Arabic speakers only, in untranslated documents.
Most Westerners are generally ignorant of Islamic precepts and consider Islam “like any other religion” without having read one word of the Koran or Hadith, etc. This would explain the many cries of incomprehension like “Why do they hate us, what have we done to them” so often heard especially after 9/11, which presumed guilt on our part and possibly reparation. Nor are most Westerners aware of the history of Islam which, since its inception in the 7thc., has invaded, occupied and Islamised both by conversions and by foreign Muslim imports in order to change the demographic structure of a country (and its religion), as done in all of the Middle East and North Africa, including present day Israel, which were all Jewish and Christian lands, and as happened lately in the Northern part of Cyprus. They all seem to believe that Arabic saying that a country once conquered by Islam is forever Islamic – which seems to have gone to their heads and they act as if all these countries are theirs to Islamise by right of conquest.
Completely agree Mary, very well written. I remember Trump saying something like, (They really hate us. I don’t know why they hate us so much, but they really hate us.).
Interesting how it sounded like Raymond himself wasn’t completely aware of the degree of Islamic hatred until he was translating the documents as a young man. (If I heard correctly – I’ve only watched the first segment).
I’m going to try and get some people to watch that first segment and use your comment here for them to read. I won’t use your name. I’ll send it to some people in high places that highlight some of my comments on their programs.
I’m also now thinking of going in person with material to people of influence.
Have to be always trying, can never give up.
Thanks again Mary for your unwavering commitment to exposing Islam and often teaching us in your commenting.
Mary, I read your comments and you are very right. However, I would slightly diagree with you on one point. Yes, indeed the Quoran does mentione about infidels and that they should be fought to accept islam as their religion or they should perish. I also agree with what you stated “that a country once conquered by Islam is forever Islamic – which seems to have gone to their heads and they act as if all these countries are theirs to Islamise by right of conquest.” Yes, and you are right about the occupied part of Cyprus, Erdogan repeated that Cyprus was their territory many times and they will get it back. Well the same applies to half of Europe and the whole of N.Africa. And that’s why he is getting into Libya and a few other African Nations.
However, it is not just that. The American aggression, and there haas been a hell of a lot since after the frist decade following WWII. Eizenhower in his address to the nation when leaving the presidency pointed and stressed out that “… we should be aware of criminal elements within the Military-Industrial-Financial complex.”. America since has been ran by these people. They want to establish the American empire through out the world. The means they use are disgusting and they don’t hesitate to kill, murder, destroy countries and its people, as long as they achieve their aim.
To start with I want to clarify my own position and opinion. Eye for an eye makes the world go blind! Having said that I am sure I don’t need to confirm that I am against any and every kind of violence, no matter where from it is originated. All terrorist activity we have been experiencing is caused by America’s actions and activities – often covert activities – around the world. I lived in the M. East in the 50’s and the PRO-American attitude was unbelievable. American cars, American cigarettes, American Drinks, fashion, and clothing. Slowly it started changing because America started changing. The first incident of this change was in Iran when the then Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadengh mationalized all Iranian Petroleum assets. British Petroleum interests were badly affected. England sought the help of the US – their allies from WWII! Military action against Iran was too risky as there was the threat of the Soviet Union into taking action on behalf of Iran. CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt (grandson of Theodore Roosevelt) was sent to take action there, through payrolls and threats and enlisting many under payment to organise violent street demonstrations and riots, thus creating the impression that the PM was both unpopular and inept. The PM went down, and the pro-American Mohmmad Reza Shah Pahlavi became the unchallenged dictator. British Petroleum (BP) got what they wanted, their hands on Iranian oil! This was the beginning of the American financial conquering of many countries around the world – M. East, Asia, S. America. It is a long story to write here. I suggest that you have a look at this interview and hear the truth from the “horse’s mouth’’. John Perkins was a Financial Assassin. Let him tell you the facts firsthand. You will be disgusted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLc3ehhPIKA (copy this link and place it in your Internet viewer if the link doesn;t work directly)
America’s attitude changed and damaged many countries for the benefit of a handful of US companies and their owners. People also changed and realised that America is not their friend anymore, but their enemy. And that’s what has been happening. The problem is that is not just America that is paying the price – in fact America is paying the minimum – is the rest of the world that suffers. Iraq was invaded under false pretences, Libya was attacked because Ghaddafi started trading in Euros and not in US$. And do you think that the Ukraine war is what is publicly presented? The US is fighting a PROXY war. Otherwise, they wouldn’t finance $43 billion worth of weapons to fight Russia. Their aim is to destroy Europe and the Euro, which has become a thread to the US$, which in reality is worth nothing. Before anyone makes a comment on the above, please watch the interview on the above link. It is an eye opener and indeed we should not go around with eyes shut.There is plenty more in other chanels. But please watch that interview and also I wouold highly reccommend that you read John Perkins’ book. You will be disgusted with the facts and actions of the US.
Hi Danos,
I have just finished listening (twice) to the long discussion between John Perkins and Patrick Bet-David and, frankly Danos, I hope you won’t mind my saying so but there was hardly anything there that I hadn’t heard before throughout the years at one time or another during my lifetime about or against America. First, however, I would like to clarify an important distinction between the wishes of citizens of a country and that of their governments, which do not always coincide. In your comment, Danos, you mention the Iraq war to which I was completely opposed along with many others here and in the States. But governments more often than not do what they want irrespective of their citizens’ wishes. Despite huge demonstrations against the war, our leaders went ahead anyway with people being fed outright lies about Iraq’s apparent possession of weapons of mass destruction which could reach Europe within a few hours.
After WWII, as I remember, the Allies had to contend with a Soviet Union whose leader, Stalin, was throwing his weight around, intent on keeping half of Europe under the Communist yoke as the price of contributing to the allied victory. I was still a teenager but I remember the ideological battle which followed the war between Soviet Russia and the West which was brutal with Stalin intent on spreading his appalling Communist ideology far and wide, taking full advantage of the fact that his country had fought long and hard and contributed to the final victory. But Hitler and Stalin had also signed a pact of non-aggression in 1939 which fell apart when Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union in 1941. So in a way, Stalin was forced by Hitler into a war on the side of the Allies against Hitler. And, at the end of the war, Churchill was intent on carrying on the war, this time against the Soviets, but he lost the election in Britain, which put ‘paid’ to his plan. Churchill was right. Yes, people were tired of war but victory against Stalin would have prevented the sacrifice of half of Europe to the altar of Communism for so many years. Yet their dream of destroying the Western world seems to be alive and well still.
In your comments you say I “will be disgusted with the facts and actions of the US” but believe me, Danos, I was even more disgusted with the facts and actions of the Soviet Union, who never stopped in plot after plot to try to infiltrate America in order to destroy it, along with any other Western country it could along the way. America was and is Russia’s “bête noire”. One such famous incident was the Cuban missile crisis when Krushev decided he was going to install missiles in Cuba, which nearly caused WWIII, until he finally realized the Americans would never allow it and changed his mind. The Communists were always trying to put a foot on the American continent by trying to install a Marxist dictator in one South American country or another, which provoked crisis after crisis, with retaliation on the American side. This went on for years.
Apparently we have outlived Marxism but have we? Well, they have never stopped trying to infiltrate the Western World throughout the years after the war, in the 50s, 60s, 70s, even until now despite what happened during the McCarthy era. You say at one point that “Their aim is to destroy Europe and the Euro which has become a threat to the US$…”. Whose aim is that exactly? You seem to think it is America’s aim to destroy ‘Europe and the Euro’. I think rather that it is a Marxist aim, it is the aim of those Marxists who have infiltrated the left-wing Democratic Party in America, now allied with their Islamist partners in crime intent on destroying Christianity, with the blessing and the bank account of the ex-Hungarian presently-US billionaire George Soros, whose life’s goal is to destroy Western civilisation. If we can all stay united and defeat their plan to divide us by pitting us against each other and against America, which is what they have been trying to do all along (divide and conquer), we shall prevail whatever our governments say or do. I could go on but this is way too long already so I rest my case, Danos, in the hope that you will take this in friendship, in the spirit in which it is written. Just think about it.
In closing, I would like to thank Raymond Ibrahim again and again for keeping us informed about the fate of Christians in Muslim majority countries and, especially, for his most incisive analysis of Islam.
To tell the truth Don I, myself, was hardly ever aware of the degree of Islamic hatred until the Suez War and Revolution which ousted King Farouk and the city of Cairo was set on fire from one end to the other. And even then we had Muslim help (mostly delightful Kurdish girls) who slept in our homes and we felt completely safe. Yes, there were insurrections from time to time usually against the British, other times against the Jews, when groups of young males would roam the streets most of the time in search of someone to rob or worse, it didn’t matter who you were as long as you looked European and not Arab, but this was a minority of the population and such insurrections though serious and dangerous were short-lived because eventually the army was sent out to restore order. During the Suez war and after the departure of the King, however, things became much more dangerous and two Muslim friends office co-workers, to whom our debt is impossible to repay, came and took us all to a safe house until some sort of peace was restored.
For various reasons, one being the transfer of cash out of Egypt which Nasser put a stop to, the American film companies and others decided to move their Middle East Headquarters from Cairo to Beirut, the “Switzerland” of the ME at the time, which is where we ended up for some years. Of course, the majority population in the Lebanon was Christian at the time, including the President who had to be a Christian according to the Constitution, while the Vice-President was Muslim. In all these years, I never thought of reading the Koran seriously (the part I was more interested in was their treatment of women) except much later when I came to Europe especially after 9/11, which shows that the hostility against non-Moslems was already present in the Koran centuries ago – but which, Raymond then clarified, with his readings of untranslated Arabic papers that explained “why this band, so reminiscent of their seventh century forbears, [could] attack the United States, its one-time ally against the Soviets, and in such a horrific manner”. The hypocrisy of pretending that their grievances were all our fault, that we were the only ones to blame for their horrific retaliations and that they were the “victims”, whilst a completely different message was transmitted in Arabic, a message which was never translated but meant for Arab-speakers only. Is it surprising, therefore, that hardly anyone in the West is aware of this monumental hypocrisy – an example of taqiyya at work? Will the Western leaders finally learn that no matter how much money they dish out to Moslem countries and no matter how they try to befriend and pacify them it is only a matter of time until one or other will turn against them because they can never, but never, be really friends?
To Danos: Thank you for your comments which I have read with great care. I will answer after I have heard the tape you mention on the internet.
To Don: I learn a lot from you too, Don, and I always look for your comments.
Thanks Mary for another piece of your life history which is valuable to us who have not lived in such situations.
I’ll leave the response to Danos in your hands and keep my eye on it. I would be interested to know if he has read Zinn’s, “A People’s History of the United States”.
It is a work of pure propaganda and revisionist history, using half truths and exaggerating all grievances about European colonialism to the negative, while whitewashing native cultures. He was a Marxist seeking to destroy Western culture as they all desire to do.
His book has poisoned the minds of young Americans and is taught as accurate history in both high schools and college curriculums across the country. It’s part of our internal battle here to refute these ideas. I’m reading, “Debunking Howard Zinn” by Mary Grabar, a thorough refutation of Zinn’s fraudulent work, well written and sourced.
I have also read Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”, it is the strategic handbook of the American Progressive Left. Basically a win by any means strategy as if those with opposing views are actually mortal enemies of the “good” they supposedly intend to do.
The US is not pure, but essentially good, despite its areas of corruption or past sins. I’m afraid Danos has taken a poison pill.
The United States is not, “the sum of our past sins” as Gov Kristi Noem of S Dakota mentioned recently.
Greet Danos for me, I admire most of his writing as I do yours. Look forward to the discourse.
Stay well Mary
Hi Don. Interesting comments! Have you watched the interview on the link I sent? If not, please do. It will help you open your eyes to reality. Then make your comments! By the way. Danos hasn’t taken a poison pill. Danos has TASTED an American poison pill. What ever I am writing, it is from my personal experience. Watch the video interview of John Perkins, even better read his recent book. have a nice day.
Thx Danos, I will watch soon and get back to you. Despite any disagreements, I hold you in high regard. Reading list is too long now and I’m still working part time so doubt I’ll read the book any time soon.
Reading – ‘Sword Over the Nile’ – slowly, – ‘Debunking Howard Zinn’ – has become my steady read at present. He has done more damage to young college educated friends here in MA with his, – ‘A People’s History of the United States’ – than you could imagine, by inculcating in them a hatred for our country that I believe is suicidal.
Understand plenty of problems, not whitewashing. Look forward to the interview in coming days and will get back to you.
Hi Don: Am taking a cue from your list of books. Have ordered Debunking Howard Zinn which I am getting tomorrow together with Raymond’s Defenders of the West. On another note: Will appreciate anything you can add to my reply to Danos.
Hi Don. I always respect other people’s opinion and I don’t expect that everybody will agree with me. I haven’t read Zinn’s book, “A People’s History of the United States”. I will read it soon, as you have trickered my curiosity. I look forward to you comment on John Perkins’ interview.
PS Danos:
I like Patrick and haven’t had time to watch his long interviews as I’m still working part time. He has Hightlighted a number of my comments on his sight and is a good guy, his family having escaped Iran after the Ayatollah arrived in 79. Though not focusing on it, which as we all know can be a dangerous occupation, I believe he knows the real story.
Pat did a very brief video explaining how overnight, the country went from freedom to authoritarian rule. It was only a few minutes but candid in its content.
Hi Danos, Watched the interview with Pat and part of another interview they did by mistake.
I think you may not realize that those of us who pay some attention to politics in the States, realize that the CIA besides giving us some very necessary intelligence, has also been involved in nefarious activities, sometimes with the full knowledge of of some of our politicians and military.
Therefore like Mary, not surprised.
Currently, and through the Obama administration’s 8 years, we saw the corruption go to the highest levels of government, setting the powers of investigation and intelligence meant to keep our country safe from outside intruders and harm – these powerful forces were turned on our own citizens.
There is as I write a battle going on to return to a more transparent, accountable, pro-America stance in our governing in all aspects. “Drain the swamp” as Pres. Trump called it.
I am very hopeful seeing the surge of genuine patriotism in the Republican party (I’m an Independent voting with the R’s by necessity) with the running and winning of offices by many former military, housewives concerned for their children and grandchildren and the country of course, and many naturalized immigrants from various countries who saw totalitarian governments first hand, and escaped.
These immigrants are some of the strongest defenders of this country they have come to love, they are an amazing group.
Not to mention businessmen and women who take time out of successful lives to serve as they try to “give back” to the country that has given them so much.
We as conservatives have been asleep while the Progressive left (neo-Marxists really) have taken over numerous institutions.
Using the tactics of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”, seeing opposing opinions as enemies and the need to win by any means necessary, rather than as fellow citizens to be negotiated with to find reasonable agreement on policies.
It is an existential battle my opinion. Perkins is a good guy but through his guilt feeling I believe leans too far to the left, which always looks for the realization of the “impossible”, perfect society and world they think they will usher in.
As you know very well, it has never worked and can’t, because it ignores the basic corruption that all of humanity is capable of.
In every generation, a new group of bad actors arises. Nothing but overwhelming military force will keep the free world free, my very strong opinion.
The American idea/experiment, I believe is the greatest political system ever created and its Constitution magnificent. It does require participation by informed citizens which we have strayed from.
We are in the process of fighting to correct our errors and fighting an actual enemy within, the neo-Marxist, Progressive Leftists.
So, not excusing the sins of the past highlighted by Perkins or other stains in our past and present. The Founders were not perfect themselves but what they created is good, very good, worth fighting for, meaning that metaphorically within the country and actually in foreign policy as necessary.
Got to run, working this week. Hope this is helpful. Will continue if you wish.
Have a good day and week.
To Mary: Hope this is helpful for you as well feel free to question or want more thoughts on the matter.
Stay well and safe
Hi Don, There seem to be some hope when you say, “We are in the process of fighting …… an actual enemy within, the neo-Marxist Progressive Leftists’ – but the battle will be long and hard, in my view, and “we must respond in like kind only with greater force to survive”, as you said in one of your previous comments (Raymond Ibrahim, ‘Video: “The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam”, 8/15/2022).
A few years ago, I read David Horowitz and Richard Poe, ‘The Shadow Party, How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party’ (2006), and I felt very uneasy. Then I read his ‘Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America’ (2018). And this week I finished reading his latest,‘The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement is Destroying America’ (2021) which horrified me to see how far this ‘shadow party’ (or Cultural Marxism, Critical Race Theory, or Progressivism, oh I forgot, Identity Politics, whatever new fancy name they invent it’s still based on Marxist totalitarian ideology) has not only infiltrated the old Democratic Party but has taken over US institutions and the educational system, as indeed it has all over Europe.
In ‘The Enemy Within’ (a must read), Horowitz discusses Howard Zinn’s ‘A People’s History of the US’ and Mary Grabar’s ‘Debunking Howard Zinn’, as well as Noam Chomsky’s anti-Americanism (I never understood why America allowed such people in), the anti-Trump campaign, the case of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the pandemic, but all the time I was reading I kept wondering how was this left-wing Marxist movement allowed to make such inroads into the Democratic Party, US institutions and the US educational system which brainwashed children and the young against their own country. And now, with these fake Democrats in power it will take nothing less than a revolution to dismantle this whole edifice and defeat them. Without a doubt, the battle will be brutal but it must be fought no holds barred if we are to win it.
PS Mary.
I too in 2015 or 16 discovered the absolute horror of the UK grooming gangs where your former PM David Cameron called it, “Rape on an Industrial Scale”, and Labor MP Sarah Champion in a brief spot on BBC, when asked how many of the underage, mostly white teen girls were victims answered, “it could be up to a million.” in what was close to a 30 year, ongoing crime spree, with the main body of abusers being from the Islamic Pakistani community, native born British Pakistani men and and their multi-thousands of “clients” that came to “use” the young girls.
All this happened before the 2015 mass-migration into Europe of the Islamic community, which began to see abuse of women and girls spread across Europe.
This horror continues as I write with minimal action from the UK authorities, not to mention the censoring of the crime as it spread across other European countries though more random and not organized in a crime syndicate.
I’ll stop here, but suffice to say, I share your great concern for the victims abandoned by those who should protect them, not to mention the people of any country or area where our “friends” occupy in numbers.
Hi Don, As you probably heard, our PM Boris Johnson has been forced to resign and Conservative members of the public have a choice to vote between two contenders who is to become the next Prime Minister – the two who were left after the Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons had already voted out six others from the original eight. This means that a choice between these two is the only choice now available to the citizens members of the party. Our democracy is far from perfect but it’s the only one we’ve got – at the moment. Anyway, given the outcry that the abuse of so many young white girls by Pakistani Moslem men has provoked among the general public, both contenders have promised that if elected these men will get long prison sentences. It’s about time. If it were up to me I would put them in prison and throw away the key, or better, send them back to wherever they or their parents came from. It is about time these people understood that it is the laws of this country that are in force in this country and not those of the old country.
I favor the life sentence over deportation. They might get back in and certainly there will be no punishment in deportation.
I don’t think the UK Gov has the will to do what it takes to solve the problem. Hungary/Poland and some others do.
I commented to Danos this morning 8.16.2022
Hi Mary, I’ve been blocked by some error for a few days. This is a test comment.
Comment to Mary on her 8.19.2022 comment at Raymond’s
How did the Progressive Marxists take over
Hi Mary – Thanks for your reply of 8.19.2022
“Hi Don, there seems to be some hope when you say….”
There is great hope indeed. The US Constitution is such a well-crafted and powerful document, it acts as a stumbling block to the Progressives repeatedly as they have to pass illegal laws (is that an oxymoron?) to accomplish their purposes.
As the battle goes forward I am frequently reminded and amazed at the sheer brilliance of our founders, the separation of powers, the three co-equal branches of the government, and the checks and balance they provide to stop any one branch from becoming overly powerful.
The answer to your question of “How?”, concerning the Progressives, is human corruption. The attack started ramping up under the Woodrow Wilson Administration as they wanted a strong president and powerful administrative state, made up of unelected, expert bureaucrats, that would form policies quickly without much congressional oversight.
This Progressive movement in my opinion is all in the Marxist and neo-Marxist genre. It always goes in a totalitarian direction, with the state as the all-knowing, benevolent power not of, but over, the people and the leaders thinking they alone can direct the ignorant masses in proper living. Despicable.
Our congressmen and senators (together make up the “congress” of law makers though each group has some differing powers and term limits and procedures), they alone, have the authority to write and pass laws.
The president has to sign in the laws and has a veto power.
That veto power can be overridden by congress with a two -thirds vote in both House (congressmen/women) and Senate (our senators).
In the Constitution, there is a “non-delegation clause” directing the congress (both houses), not allowing the members to delegate the making of laws to anyone not a member of one of the houses, Congress or Senate.
My opinion is the congressman and senators began to rely too much on “experts” to craft law and not do the hard work of making good policy from the expert advice.
That is the skill required by good legislators – to assess the effects of any law made on the people as a whole, and the reason our government is designed to be deliberate, in the passing of laws, to think about possible unintended consequences of those laws and policies.
A recent glaring example of this is the long term lockdowns over the Covid pandemic.
The lockdowns were both unscientific and severely damaging to the country. The Democrats now led by the Progressive wing of the party were all in on the disastrous lockdowns recommended by Dr Fauci and, did not listen to opposing Scientists with stellar credentials with a totally different view. Fauci even called Facebook and Twitter also I believe, to block those scientists and disagreement to the long lockdown policy.
He was successful with the help of our corrupted media and big tech.
Trump was forced to go along though he realized how destructive they would be, he could not stop it.
That was the result of unelected bureaucrats forming policies and our legislators not doing the proper assessments of the effects of the policy. That dereliction of duty started in the 1920’s with the Progressive movement. Both parties fell into the trap of laziness and freedom from blame as they could always blame the experts for a failed policy. Those experts faced no consequences.
That’s my take on it Mary, in brief, from the very light but informative free, online courses at Hillsdale College. If your interested – hillsdalecollege.edu –
Horowitz gave you the big picture, my anecdote on Wilson era perhaps gave more clarity.
There’s much more if we look at the Frankfurt School group as the strongest pre-1960’s Marxist influence, i.e. Herbert Marcuse and “Critical Theory”, which can be used as a philosophical wrecking ball to destroy anything that is good because, nothing is absolutely perfect.
Critical Race Theory, Critical Political Theory and all the offshoots of the current unscientific Gender Madness, immigration policies, systemic racism complaint, implicit bias, white supremacy complaints, etc. flow from Critical Theory, my working class, toolbelt opinion.
Unlearned and immature minds fall prey to the deceptive, Utopian dream that criticizes everything that is in disagreement with the lofty aspirations of the Marxist dream. The dream of Marx, Stalin, Chairman Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, Xi, Putin, Kim, etc., etc.
The body count of this ideology is in the multi-millions as you well know.
The suffering of the people under its leadership continues in the multi-millions as we write here.
The initial movement towards it, is Socialism or Communism light, which has been tried in over 40 countries and worked in none.
These are truths of history. We who are aware of them have grossly neglected to educate our western societies to their failure, falsehood and devastating consequences when followed.
Note: In my observation informing my opinion: This ideology creates in the minds of those who buy in fully, a powerful attitude of Moral Superiority – Exclusive Knowledge of a perceived Grand Truth – that they are above the rest of us and are Crusaders of Justice…even though they may just talk about it and do little to actually make the world a better place, besides Protesting and just holding the ideology personally.
The sheer arrogance and superiority of the attitude makes it extremely hard to communicate with them and help them see the errors of the ideology and abandon it.
That is the Big Job of correcting course in the US and West overall.
We must fill ourselves with historical knowledge, be extremely patient with our friends who disagree, and present our case as we have openings – Not with a firehose of info to drown them – But in digestible portions that may aid them to change their thinking, realizing they may never change and remain as cordial as possible if they don’t reject us as friends totally. Live out our convictions quietly in that case, speaking to those who are open.
Finally: Another example of the brilliance of the Founders, demonstrated in the pandemic lockdowns in the US is, “Federalism”. The powers of the individual states to craft their own laws and policy specific to the needs of the area and people of their own state.
Using those powers, a number of the Republican led states did not choose to lockdown their states long term and a couple never locked down anything at all.
S Dakota, led by their great Governor Kristi Noem, never shut down anything, not schools, churches or any business or even events with multiple people.
Gov Kristi and Gov Ron DeSantis of Florida, Ron shortened the lockdowns, both have states that did not suffer the economic devastation, loss of the school year for the kids, and lack of normal life movement in the lockdown states.
There are some other Republican Governed states that followed the real experts who’s advice was pure science, not an experiment in the “mass control” of their populace.
I have no degrees Mary, a carpenter all my life so no expert, also a registered independent voting with Republicans as they are conservative in their thinking at least, full disclosure.
Was up with some agita (Italian slang for heartburn) and in the quiet of the early hours, decided to write this. Back to bed for this old guy.
Stay well Mary. You remain an inspiration to me.
Thank you, Don, for this very comprehensive explanation. BTW I did go on the Hillsdale website some time ago and I really like their ethos. That’s how universities should teach. Pity they don’t award degrees to the very many (I’m sure) who follow their courses.