Brother Against Brother, Father Against Son By Walrus.

This is sad but predictable, a son informs on his father to the FBI. The father is allegedly a Capitol demonstrator.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/teenager-hiding-capitol-riots-jackson-reffitt-b1792474.htmlhttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/teenager-hiding-capitol-riots-jackson-reffitt-b1792474.html

This child identified as a social justice warrior and has destroyed his family.

My opinion is that identity politics, the toxic spawn of modern marketing, electronic media and bad academic research, is going to destroy current American society. What will replace it I know not.

People are no longer satisfied to identify themselves as "merely" Americans or Australians for that matter. We have always done so in the past. It is possible to have sub categories, like Californian, Virginian, Southerner, etc. but in my view there was always a primacy of national identity. I say "merely" and "was" because todays youth are encouraged to identify (ie: label) themselves as for example: "Cis hetero male(for the time being) anti racist feminist vegan climate change warrior". I have a big problem with this.

The problem is that labels constrain our thinking and attitudes to a set compatible with the identified self image. My example person is a globalist because climate change is an international problem. He (she?) can be mobilized to support any Government policy quite easily by couching the argument in terms that resonate with the chosen labels. For example "responsibility to protect" resonates with the human rights crowd and this one - LBGT Kurds indeed!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/in-isis-shadow-lgbt-kurds-take-a-stand_b_594e9b08e4b0c85b96c659d2

Can you see the problem? We are divided, manipulated and ruled by this crap. Nobody is talking about Americans as a national identity any more. That means that American solutions to problems won't do. Every policy is picked over by the identities to ensure their pet requirements are met. The end is no policy at all or a jumbled mess of conflicting rubbish. For example Bidens order regarding identified gender. How do you now provide "safe spaces" for abused women and children when a man decides he now "identifies" as a woman and claims right of access? How do you tell a vegan environmentalist that the grain crops he extols are protected by poisoning every living thing: birds, small mammals, etc. within a hundred miles?  That doesn't resonate with him(her) because she(he) isn't labeled as an animal lover. There are many more examples.

There are two options. You either dump the identity politics or it will dump you. Focus on National identity or watch the Nation fragment further. The purveyors of labeling have forgotten one thing; other people can make up labels too. What happens if  the current "deplorables" relabel themselves as "Patriots and freedom fighters" and social justice warriors are relabeled as "Traitors"?

If I was advising the Biden Administration, I would be throwing the extreme left under the bus politically, disowning Antifa and BLM, ordering the FBI and DOJ to back off the "domestic terrorist extremist" shtick, stop the persecution of Trump and his family, forget about firearm regulation and generally doing everything it can to defuse the current situation by bringing the deplorables into the tent. Jackson Reffitt is a sad example of where this country is headed if Biden fails to do this.  

Comments

[A. Pols]

Young Mr. Reffit has crossed the Rubicon. The question I have, as a father, is what does a parent do about this? Chances are once the furor dies down and the country moves on to its next "moral panic", Mr. Reffit Sr. will probably wriggle off the hook, but not before his life is thoroughly turned upside down. But then what? How does he deal with his son? In my opinion what his son did was an attempted murder and the father would be well advised to put aside sentiment and eschew further contact with his snake in the grass offspring.

[Barbara Ann]

Heaven and Earth are big, but not as big as the Party's kindness
Mother and Father are dear, but not as dear as Chairman Mao
A multitude of goodness is not as good as socialism

"After 43 years of reflection I realise I was mistaken back then. Now I must apologise to my mother and express repentance" - Zhang Hongbing describing how he feels about denouncing his mother (who was later executed) during the Cultural Revolution.

Not to worry, I see this young Red Guard's GoFundMe should easily cover his undergraduate education - in political science. I hope he is a good student.

[David Kissinger]

I would hope that anyone would do the same thing. To see your own father in a treasonous mob, trying to murder the Vice President, with Trump's approval, and remain silent, is unacceptable.

[O.B.]

Dear Walrus,

In order to make sense of the world, we must destroy some myths about political history, and separate political philosophy, which requires rigorous thinking, from the very shallow identity issues.
We should not even speak about identity politics; it is a juxtaposition of contradictory concepts.

Kind regards,
O.B.

[Deap]

Arthur Schlesinger saw this coming in 1991: (And it happened - read it again now to see how we missing the warning signs. then contemplate why we chose to ignore the warning signs.)

"The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society" is a 1991 book written by American historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., a former advisor to the Kennedy and other US administrations and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Schlesinger states that a new attitude, one that celebrates difference and abandons assimilation, may replace the classic image of the melting pot in which differences are submerged in democracy. He argues that ethnic awareness has had many positive consequences to unite a nation with a "history of prejudice." However, the "cult of ethnicity," if pushed too far, may endanger the unity of society.

According to Schlesinger, multiculturalists are "very often ethnocentric separatists who see little in the Western heritage other than Western crimes." Their "mood is one of divesting Americans of their sinful European inheritance and seeking redemptive infusions from non-Western cultures.

(WIKI)

[Terence Gore]

https://news.yahoo.com/san-francisco-school-board-not-231512882.html

"There are first world problems, and then there are San Francisco problems: for example, deciding whether or not a gay, white father of a multiracial daughter adds enough diversity to a volunteer parent committee filled with women."

[Deap]

He needs to introduce his son to George and Kellyanne Conway's daughter. And then visit his estate planning lawyer to ensure his estate plan reflects his new family realities.

[Deap]

I see some in the media use the label "black supremacist" to describe those taking more radical positions. Sounds fair.

[Don Q]

When will he get a statue and a postage stamp like Pavlik Morozov? Why not just call us Kulaks? History may rhyme, but it also repeats.
One of the problems that is becoming painfully obvious is that when the source of power is victimhood, there must be 'oppressors' to be rooted out.
I think we saw the first clear signs of this with Christine Brassy Ford in the Kavanaugh hearings and the unimpeachable character of all "me too" accusers.
If we want to move forward with "lack of animosity" it would be nice, but that requires a dialogue, but the deployment of emotional thoughtstoppers renders communication impossible. The fact that said thoughtstoppers are used for that purpose indicates that the revolutionaries are not interested in coming to an agreement unless it involves surrender.

This is not a game I am interested in playing. But I'm guessing I don't get a vote on that.

[Dorian Lucey]

I have been thinking of my great-grand-parents. All but the French Canadian arrived about 1877. The year that southern and northern elites united in the interest of ruling. The result was sharecroppers in the south and company stores in the north. A hundred years later, 1977, the elites decided there was more wealth in breaking the USA apart. Leveraged buyouts and debt peons are the result.
Where would the unrest be if people could get a 40hr/wk job with benefits that allowed them to feed, clothe and house their families.
My relatives went west of the Mississippi River. They left oppressed societies in Europe. They considered themselves to be Americans. In my opinion they would not emigrate the 2020 USA.
I agree fragmentation is not healthy for society. In fact it is not a society. But it is much easier to rule.

[Fred]

"If I was advising the Biden Administration..."

It sounds like you too have read Maichiavelli and agree that now that he's in charge Bidwn needs to be the 'good guy' and put the country's actual interests at the forfront of his actions. If you recall from your reading, that only comes after ruthlessly purging all his political opponents, and those who might challenge him in the future. We;ve got a ways to go on that count.

" defuse the current situation by bringing the deplorables into the tent." If you mean that you should start by not using that term.

[fakebot]

Nicely said Barbara Ann.

[JerseyJeffersonian]

Barbara Ann,

No, I don't think young Mr. Reprobate needs to go to college. There is certainly a reserved place for him in the FBI, the latter day Gestapo/Stasi/NKVD, american-style. He's a natural; he got all the ideological "education" he needs to slide into that role from K-12, apparently.

When the FBI was repurposed from fighting crime to fighting "terrorism", it was a big clue that they were, going forward, being directed toward a role as ideological enforcers for the Deep State. It only involved them shuffling their feet a little, and they would be there. One of the more insidious steps in the March Through the Institutions. Once the Deep State had everybody deeply fearful, the clamor to have the Feral Government "protect them" was the green light. It could be seen - and indeed was by some vigilant souls - that the whole push for the P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act, the creation of Homeland (historic resonances, nicht wahr?) Security Department, Total Information Awareness, was going to be directed against the citizenry at large.

And here we are.

[Barbara Ann]

Walrus, if you will permit me a follow up comment.

"Identity Politics" (IP) is an oxymoron - politics requires a polity with a level of common identity. An atomized society where everyone is able to 'identify' as they please is a recipe for the fast track to Hobbesian conflict.

I think this Cultural Revolution will end for the same reasons the Chinese one did. Unfortunately that may not be until after the economy is substantially destroyed by the Great Resetists - who themselves are strong advocates for IP and have no place in their ideology for nation states. The adherents of this nihilistic and profoundly a-cultural philosophy will eventually be overthrown by realists who understand that successful societies must be constructed around humans (both our strengths and weaknesses) and not the other way around.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for the Biden Administration fixing this. They appears fully signed up to the Davos agenda and the Leftist Democrat media are firmly ensconced in Cloud Cuckoo Land. NYT is advocating for a 'reality czar'. Well reality has an awkward habit of impinging on utopian fantasies, with unpleasant results - as Kipling described so wonderfully in The Gods of Copybook Headings. Here is the final verse:

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man --
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began --
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire --
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/gods_of_copybook_headings.html

[james]

walrus... i happen to agree with you.... i think the idea of buddha was non attachment, which is sort of the opposite of identifying with these labels.... what i want to know is pat lang going to let go of identifying as a 'deplorable', or is he going to continue on with it? lol! it is an interesting marketing strategy, but i think at some point he will have to let go of identifying with the labels too...

[Artemesia]

Jersey Jeffersonian, The reality is that our children -- my children -- work for the very entities that we are slowly slowly discovering are seeking the undoing of our nation.

All our pride in their intelligence, their diligence in studying; all our efforts at finding good neighborhoods to go to good schools then good colleges -- all of that, and we watch our own children, now full-fledged adults with children and stiff financial obligations, be participants in institutions and values that I, at least, have spent the last ten years opposing.

I recall when our first child was born reading some odd-ball mystic's writings: "Your children are not your own . . ." And I believed that; I tried to think of our children as their own persons, not my clones or trophies. I tried not to impose MY expectations but to give them freedom to explore and decide. I'm not sure it worked out so well. They are successful and, presumably, happy in the decidedly SJW lifestyles, but they have made it clear that I have no place in their lives.

"Honor thy father and thy mother that you may be long-lived" is unique among the Thou Shalts. Failure to do so carries fearsome consequences, in both Old Testament and New Testament, not to mention real life.

[Deap]

David K.:

1. Treasonous mob
2. Trying to murder the VP
3. Trump approved the treasonous mob's attempt to murder VP

Sorry David, facts not in evidence.
Ruling: Failure to state cause of action

[Jimmy_W]

Walrus, Barbara Ann, et al:
"Identity Politics" may not be rational or logical. However, it legitimately arises from feelings. Cultural feelings.

It is a given, (even if everything is completely random), that 1 sub-culture / ethnicity will always have more cultural overlap with the dominant society culture than the other ethnicities / sub-cultures. In real human society, of course someone is always dominant. WASP culture had long dominated "American Culture" until very recently, for example.

Therefore, the less-dominant ethnicities / sub-cultures will always feel more alienated from the overall society than the dominant ethnicity. The 2 common responses to this alienation are Booker T Washington assimilationists and WEB DuBois nationalists. In both cases, "Identity Politics" are equally relevant, even if the nationalists are more separatist than the assimilationists.

Now, here we get into some more unpleasant facts. Current genetic and psychometric research shows that IQ is 40-60% inherited, and Personality 60-80% inherited. This means that, even if everything is randomly distributed, genetic inheritance will still give rise to distinct ethnic identities, as defined by a unique IQ mean and variance, and a collection of common personality traits.

Therefore, to some extent, ethnic cultural differences will always remain, despite assimilationists' most fervent wishes. [Or we can adopt the Latin American model.]

The fact that there are hurt feelings, of course, does not mean that the Separatist Nationalism is the optimal choice. It does mean, however, that Diverity(tm) is always a centrifugal force. A society that cares about staying together, would take pains to cultivate a supra-identity, through, say, national conscription and a state-religion. That we are here now, is not a surprise. The World Wide Web unleashed Disaggregation in all modes of human interaction. That Multicultural Diverse Societies are falling apart is only a matter of time. USSR and Yugoslavia led the way. It is hubris to think America can escape its fate.

[srw]

DEAP
The term "black supremacist" must be an oxymoron. How can there be black supremacist with a so called "black population" of 11 or 12% and shrinking.

[Fred]

Jimmy W,

"Multicultural Diverse Societies a...."

We've been falling apart as a long time, it started accelerating long before the internet. "USSR and Yugoslavia led the way." You left out the Ottoman Empire as well as the Austro-Hungarian one, and a lot of others that preceded them.

"cultivate a supra-identity, through, say, national conscription and a state-religion"
The religion of Woke with its various denominations, Climate Change, BLM, Covid are what you had in mind? National conscription led by Biden's best?

"supra-identity" It was called the United States for a reason. Obama and company gutted the cultural mythos that held the republic together and allowed people from varisous regions, as well as non-ciotizen immigrants, to assmimilate into our notionally national culture - if they wanted too.

[mcohen]

Good article makes sense.but I noticed one thing when watching the video of insurrection.
there is my friend..... NO connection between those protesting and trump and his party.The impeachment is just a side show.
I looked at the many faces there that day and they are not the rich and pampered.
I would say that the ruling elite should be thankful for trump because the restrained anger on display was his doing.

oh the ides,oh the ides
come let us March
like the tides,like the tides
through the golden arch
I believe the dude divides
beware the ides of march

[Valissa]

David Kissinger,

Trying to figure out whether you are an active propagandist, a passive propagandist or merely a heavy drinker of kool-aid.

There was no insurrection or treason or intent to kill, just a bunch of frustrated Trump supporters letting people know didn't believe the election was fair and honestly run. Many Democrats challenged the 2016 election results, and ever since they have since instigated hatred and anger against Trump and Trump supporters by lying and demonizing them at every opportunity.

The oligarchy and political elites are scapegoating Trump supporters much like Jews have been and continue to be by some. It's a sick way to get and maintain power, but it has been effective. Now that you Dems have the power you craved why do you need to continue to bully Trump supporters. Why are you so obsessed with Trump and his supporters when you won?

[Mark K Logan]

Walrus,

Most people here pay little mind to the political media, a great many pay it no mind at all. Rest assured your example is quite anecdotal. Less than one in a million households has anyone in it that participated in the attempt to stop the election, and it's safe to say of that tiny subset that the vast majority of them would never consider killing their kids for speaking truth.

To quote Joseph Merrick: "We are NOT animals!!".

[jerseycityjoan]

I disagree that Jackson Reffitt destroyed his family.

The son was concerned because his father joined the 3 Percenters group. "They're pretty out there," Jackson Reffitt said.

"Jackson Reffitt said he had “just wanted someone to know” that his father was threatening to do “something big.”

“I didn’t know what he was going to do, so I just did anything possible just to be on the safe side,” he said."

If it had been Antifa planning "something big" in Washington, I have to wonder if people would condemn the son for speaking up.

As an 18 year old Jackson Reffitt grew up having active shooter drills in school and was told all his life "if you see something, say something". That is the post-9/11 world. So he spoke up.

On the other hand I believe the father let his family down with his threats. I have to wonder if he talked this way a lot after he joined the 3 percenters. My parents would never have dreamed of threatening us. Parents are supposed to die for their children, not talk about killing them as traitors.

"He told his son if he “crossed the line” and reported him to the police, he would have to “do what he had to do.”

“Are you threatening us?” the son said, according to the complaint.

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” he answered.

The son took his comments as a threat to kill him, the FBI said.

Reffitt also threatened to “put a bullet” through his daughter’s cell phone if she recorded him.

His wife quoted him as saying, “If you turn me in, you’re a traitor and you know what happens to traitors. Traitors get shot.”

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/wylie-man-who-was-at-capitol-riot-threatened-to-kill-his-family-fbi-says/2530571/?_osource=db_npd_nbc_kxas_eml_shr

[jerseycityjoan]

I do not know how much longer we can remain a stable country with all the various baloney out there and with people not using common sense when deciding what to believe.

I agree that thinking of ourselves as Americans is essential for there to be an America. Certainly the mass migration of the past 50 years has been excessive and we are paying the consequences of that. But I have wondered for a long time if part of the problem isn't also that the country has grown too big in population. We assume that going from around 200 million to 330 million people in about 50 years hasn't changed anything. If we had remained a mostly white country but still added another 130 million people, we might be experiencing many of the problems we had today, but probably to a lesser degree. But obviously with all those additional people there are more opinions and less ability to get our individual opinions heard and considered. We are all getting lost in the shuffle and competing with more people for everything. The elites dominate us far more than they should.

Disagreement and discontent is high and will continue to get higher.

I worry for the young people who are being taught that the "other side" is the enemy. We are in essence creating problems for the next generation by telling them that.

I hope nobody else does what Mark Cuban and his team did in the name of responding "to the community":

"In listening to the community, there were quite a few people who voiced their concerns, really their fears that the national anthem did not fully represent them, that their voices were not being heard. So we've had a lot of conversations about whether or not we should play the anthem."

If the team wanted to play other songs too I don't care but the national anthem should never have been sacrificed. I can't believe it was even a topic for discussion.