This weekend marked Armistice Day in Great Britain and Veterans Day in the United States. Both are somber days typically marked by honor and respect for symbols of the countries and the men and women who have sacrificed so much for them.
This weekend, instead, both London and New York City featured terrorist supporters marching en masse through the centers of the West, proclaiming their sovereignty. Marxist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once blustered that the West was so guilty for its colonization that the best path would be to be colonized in reverse: “It’s our turn to tread the path, step by step, which leads down to native level. But to become natives altogether, our soil must be occupied by a formerly colonized people and we must starve of hunger. This won’t happen.”
Sartre, obviously, was wrong. He, along with his like-minded and softheaded colleagues, helped to discredit the West so thoroughly that the West spent decades importing millions of people who despise it.
So, this weekend, London saw radical Muslims threatening the open annihilation of Jews. It saw homegrown or imported radicals wearing the headgear of the terrorist group Hamas. It saw them attempting to mob the current Secretary of State for Housing Michael Gove:
Michael Gove mobbed by Palestine protesters at Victoria station pic.twitter.com/yNNWD99hAT
— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) November 11, 2023
At least 150 people were arrested. But there were 300,000 marching in solidarity with a terrorist group.
There was one banner in particular that stood out. It read, “You’re either on the white or the right side of history.” The side reading “white” had the flags of the United States, Great Britain, Israel, and France, while the “right” side had the Palestinian flag along with the flag of the Congo, Sudan, and the Uyghurs.
And we’re just meant to take this? pic.twitter.com/CcK6wExiUW
— Peter Whittle (@prwhittle) November 12, 2023
This, in a nutshell, is the philosophy of those who march with Hamas and against the West. The West is powerful, the West has exploited, the West is white; therefore, the West is powerful because the West is white and exploitative. The right thing to do is to side with Franz Fanon’s “wretched of the earth.”
The flags of the supposed “right” side of history represent places that are not particularly free or well-governed. Yet the wrong side of history is apparently Israel, the United States, the U.K., and France.
The same philosophy extends to this side of the water. A flier that has been making the rounds at the University of Chicago reads, “Ending white privilege starts with ending Jewish privilege.”
Are you starting to understand that this is not actually about the Palestinians? pic.twitter.com/5thbben3Qw
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 12, 2023
The anti-Semitism is directly linked with anti-whiteness. The idea is that Jews are the ultimate white people: They are unduly successful, and thus must be stopped.
This notion is fully coincident with anti-Americanism. America, after all, is largely great because of the promise that anyone of any background can get ahead. Jews are one of the great success stories in American history by that standard, given the fact they arrived mostly in the early 20th century dirt poor and quickly became highly educated and economically successful.
The current anti-Semitic movement is linked directly to hatred for the country and its meritocratic promise. That’s why pro-Hamas protesters spent the weekend ripping down American flags.
Across the world, those who have not achieved are uniting against the West. They blame the West for their lack of success while living off the West’s largesse. That’s why uber-pampered and uber-celebrated dullard Greta Thunberg spent her weekend linking climate change with support for Hamas, as though Islamic terrorists worry tremendously about solar panels rather than burning Jewish babies alive.
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The West has a choice. It can be colonized in Sartre’s fashion, or it can refuse that colonization. In the U.K., that battle is taking place largely over the verbiage of Suella Braverman, home secretary, who has been stalwartly calling for an end to the police and government’s coddling of pro-Hamas ralliers.
Over the weekend, she tweeted:
Our brave police officers deserve the thanks of every decent citizen for their professionalism in the face of violence and aggression from protesters and counter protesters in London yesterday. That multiple officers were injured doing their duty is an outrage.
The sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards and paraphernalia openly on display at the march mark a new low. Antisemitism and other forms of racism together with the valorising of terrorism on such a scale is deeply troubling.
This can’t go on. Week by week, the streets of London are being polluted by hate, violence, and antisemitism. Members of the public are being mobbed and intimidated. Jewish people in particular feel threatened. Further action is necessary.
Our brave police officers deserve the thanks of every decent citizen for their professionalism in the face of violence and aggression from protesters and counter protesters in London yesterday. That multiple officers were injured doing their duty is an outrage. 1/3
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) November 12, 2023
Braverman isn’t white; she’s of Indian extraction. But that doesn’t matter. She doesn’t imbibe from the well of pseudo-victimhood, and thus she is an enemy to be destroyed. She was fired on Monday (today).
In the United States, that battle is taking place at the universities, where enemies of the United States are ushered in and offered scholarships. The latest iteration comes courtesy of MIT, where radical students violated the university’s rules by occupying public places; Jews were told by the university not to enter through the main lobby due to safety concerns.
These pro-Hamas students are foreigners. The university could easily have suspended them. The university didn’t. Why not? It would violate their scruples about the necessity of importing people who hate the United States into the United States. As the university president stated, “’Because we later heard serious concerns about collateral consequences for the students, such as visa issues, we have decided, as an interim action, that the students who remained after the deadline will be suspended from non-academic campus activities. The students will remain enrolled at MIT and will be able to attend academic classes and labs.”
Yes, we certainly wouldn’t want terror supporters deported. That might open a slot at MIT to a deserving Asian-American or something like that.
The reality is that the West has created wildly disproportionate prosperity and freedom over the course of its history compared to other civilizations. That doesn’t excuse the West’s sins, but it does mean that tearing down the West in favor of alternatives is repulsive.
If the West is an aging lion, those who seek to tear it down are scavengers, relying on the lion for their livelihood and wellbeing, but seething with envy.
Either the Western lion will roar again, or the scavengers will tear it to pieces.