11 October 2006
For some of the liberty loving left, some ideas need to be censored
12:11 PM
This bit of leftist apologetics shows how to get around free speech guarantees. You label your opponents’ position fascist or thuggish, or something like that and then declare that such things are not worthy of debate:
Fascist scapegoating is not up for academic discussion.
And because that is true, when your opponent takes the stage or the podium you can take the stage and silence him. After all, you tell yourself, you are not stifling speech, you are preventing a crime.
To be fair, this writer doesn’t just label the Minutemen position “fascist scapegoating”. He actually tries to make some sort of case. I find from him that the Minutemen are not just citizens concerned to see our nation’s borders enforced. No, they are racists who think that South Americans are just evil people. That, not genuine concern for our nation is what motivates them.
Like Hitler in pre-Nazi Germany, Gilchrist and the Minutemen attempt to demonize foreign-born poor people, blaming "illegals" for society's problems. His group doesn't present reasoned debate. It spouts racism and hatred, aiming to divide people against one another.
After the now-obligatory reference to Hitler, note that the term illegals is in quotation marks. From this writer's perspective, there are apparently no illegal aliens. Note also, the absence of any qualifier for the phrase “society’s problems.” I guess there is no problem, on Gilchrist’s view, that is not the fault of illegal aliens. I don’t know Gilchrist, but I would be willing to bet money that he doesn’t believe that every problem our society faces is the fault of each and every illegal alien. More than likely, there is a set of specific problems which Gilchrist associates with illegal aliens. We are not told so much as one of Gilchrist's specific claims; neither are we permitted to see a refutation of any specific claim. But we don’t have to worry about that, because these specific claims, whatever they are, constitute demonizing. And demonizing is not up for academic discussion.
Regardless of how Gilchrist tries to sanitize his message for national audiences, more candid moments tell the real story. Gilchrist is a member of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, which is now notorious for referring to Mexicans as "savages." Speaking about Mexicans and Central American immigrants, Minuteman co-founder Chris Simcox once said, "They have no problem slitting your throat and taking your money or selling drugs to your kids or raping your daughter and they are evil people."
Were these really unqualified statements? Did the California Coalition for Immigration Reform really refer to all Mexicans as savages? Or was CCIR referring to the Mexican coyotes as savages? I don’t know. What I do know is this writer gives no source for his claim. (And he wants to talk about academic discussion!) And was Chris Simcox really referring to all Mexicans and Central American immigrants when he said, “They have no problem slitting your throat and taking your money or selling drugs to your kids or raping your daughter and they are evil people”? ‘They’ is a pronoun; and pronouns are unintelligible without knowing what their antecedents are. We are not granted, in this article, a look at the antecedent. So we don’t really know what Simcox said, being deprived of knowledge of the context. Again, for all we know, Simcox was talking about specific Mexicans and Central Americans who really don’t have a problem slitting your throat.
What’s missing in this article is any refutation of any claim Gilchrist has made. But of course that’s no surprise since refutation is part of debate, and Gilchrist’s position, being nothing more than fascist scapegoating (oh, and 'demonizing'), isn’t worthy of refutation.
Of course, this writer didn’t actually show that Gilchrist’s position is fascist and racist. He only says that it is and then samples a few, possibly accurate, quotes out of context. In short, the writer of this article employs the favorite tool of left-wing logical rejoinder: ad hominem. Typical.
But this writer’s article was posted at the deletetheBorder.org website. So we know that Gilchrist isn’t going to say anything in support of guarding our border that these people will find acceptable. And deletetheBorder.org is a socialist organization anyway. And socialist positions, being fascist, are not up for academic debate.
That last sentence raises the question (notice I didn't say begged the question): If that's the case then why bother writing about socialists and their positions? C. S. Lewis said it best, I think: Good philosophy must exist because bad philosophy exists, and needs to be answered. (And answering what they think is bad philosophy is one thing that many socialists--to be blunt--suck at.)
Fascist scapegoating is not up for academic discussion.
And because that is true, when your opponent takes the stage or the podium you can take the stage and silence him. After all, you tell yourself, you are not stifling speech, you are preventing a crime.
To be fair, this writer doesn’t just label the Minutemen position “fascist scapegoating”. He actually tries to make some sort of case. I find from him that the Minutemen are not just citizens concerned to see our nation’s borders enforced. No, they are racists who think that South Americans are just evil people. That, not genuine concern for our nation is what motivates them.
Like Hitler in pre-Nazi Germany, Gilchrist and the Minutemen attempt to demonize foreign-born poor people, blaming "illegals" for society's problems. His group doesn't present reasoned debate. It spouts racism and hatred, aiming to divide people against one another.
After the now-obligatory reference to Hitler, note that the term illegals is in quotation marks. From this writer's perspective, there are apparently no illegal aliens. Note also, the absence of any qualifier for the phrase “society’s problems.” I guess there is no problem, on Gilchrist’s view, that is not the fault of illegal aliens. I don’t know Gilchrist, but I would be willing to bet money that he doesn’t believe that every problem our society faces is the fault of each and every illegal alien. More than likely, there is a set of specific problems which Gilchrist associates with illegal aliens. We are not told so much as one of Gilchrist's specific claims; neither are we permitted to see a refutation of any specific claim. But we don’t have to worry about that, because these specific claims, whatever they are, constitute demonizing. And demonizing is not up for academic discussion.
Regardless of how Gilchrist tries to sanitize his message for national audiences, more candid moments tell the real story. Gilchrist is a member of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, which is now notorious for referring to Mexicans as "savages." Speaking about Mexicans and Central American immigrants, Minuteman co-founder Chris Simcox once said, "They have no problem slitting your throat and taking your money or selling drugs to your kids or raping your daughter and they are evil people."
Were these really unqualified statements? Did the California Coalition for Immigration Reform really refer to all Mexicans as savages? Or was CCIR referring to the Mexican coyotes as savages? I don’t know. What I do know is this writer gives no source for his claim. (And he wants to talk about academic discussion!) And was Chris Simcox really referring to all Mexicans and Central American immigrants when he said, “They have no problem slitting your throat and taking your money or selling drugs to your kids or raping your daughter and they are evil people”? ‘They’ is a pronoun; and pronouns are unintelligible without knowing what their antecedents are. We are not granted, in this article, a look at the antecedent. So we don’t really know what Simcox said, being deprived of knowledge of the context. Again, for all we know, Simcox was talking about specific Mexicans and Central Americans who really don’t have a problem slitting your throat.
What’s missing in this article is any refutation of any claim Gilchrist has made. But of course that’s no surprise since refutation is part of debate, and Gilchrist’s position, being nothing more than fascist scapegoating (oh, and 'demonizing'), isn’t worthy of refutation.
Of course, this writer didn’t actually show that Gilchrist’s position is fascist and racist. He only says that it is and then samples a few, possibly accurate, quotes out of context. In short, the writer of this article employs the favorite tool of left-wing logical rejoinder: ad hominem. Typical.
But this writer’s article was posted at the deletetheBorder.org website. So we know that Gilchrist isn’t going to say anything in support of guarding our border that these people will find acceptable. And deletetheBorder.org is a socialist organization anyway. And socialist positions, being fascist, are not up for academic debate.
That last sentence raises the question (notice I didn't say begged the question): If that's the case then why bother writing about socialists and their positions? C. S. Lewis said it best, I think: Good philosophy must exist because bad philosophy exists, and needs to be answered. (And answering what they think is bad philosophy is one thing that many socialists--to be blunt--suck at.)
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- James Frank Solís
- Former soldier (USA). Graduate-level educated. Married 26 years. Texas ex-patriate. Ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
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