Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Specialization in progressivism: gun control, car control, etc.

In my last blog post, I wrote about how critical specialization is to progressive ideology, and the weaknesses that get bred in because of that. I also wanted to point something out, and I don't think very many people will like it.

Culturally, I am quite certain that progressivism would be hard pressed to justify its own existence without specialization, and gun control is one of those topics that is probably the easiest to dissect. One of the main stated goals of gun control is to get guns out of the hands of pretty much everybody, but the only people unaffected will be law enforcement officials, security-related fields, military personnel(current and likely former as well) and probably the politicians themselves. The progressives always omit themselves, but I'll get to that in a moment. Take note of who will not be affected. They're all experts in some way. That's a core of the ideology. In this regard, the progressives actually cannot help themselves.

But, here is what I doubt will score me many points. Memes such as this one and this one are easy targets for claims of hypocrisy, but unfortunately, they're not based in reality. It's perfectly consistent for a progressive to want gun control while at the same time they surround themselves with body guards armed to the teeth. The bodyguards are specialized - they're experts.

This doubles over when you consider the tyrannical nature of progressives.(even though in general, progressives don't think they're tyrants) Of course the King should be protected! Who are you to question the King? But this part isn't rooted in ideology, you see. It's rooted mainly in elitism. Kings and progressives and communists and all the rest of them think they're the smartest people on the planet.

You can see this play out in their media reporting as well. The Washington Post finally figured out who the guy was who stopped the Texas shooting massacre in its tracks. The man's name is Stephen Willeford. But look at how the Post introduces him:

Willeford, a certified shooting instructor, grabbed his own rifle and raced out of his house barefoot.

That statement is as ideological as you can get! The Post, true to progressive ideology, has, HAS to point out that the guy is an expert. That bit of information is wholly irrelevant to the "news". It doesn't matter if a certified instructor or non-certified instructor stopped this madman. What matters is that he, the bad guy, was stopped by a good guy!

This only has importance to the ideologue. Think about the line of questioning that Stephen Willeford was subjected to by an ideological journalist in order to get this information. Or worse, you think the ideological journalists went digging in his trash or dug up records and his back story, his facebook, etc? Maybe it was a combination of both. But the progressive HAD to know this, had to know his expertise level, to appease their own inner ideology.

Do you think Stephen Willeford was a Tea Partier? Scratch that. Don't answer the question, it's irrelevant. Here's the question: do you think the ideological journalist took the time and effort to determine if Stephen Willeford was a Tea Partier? No, of course not. It's not required. If anything, it would be a huge detriment to his ideological outlook, so by definition, that question couldn't be asked.(not at least, until later when its less important) Why make a link with Tea Partiers and good guys like this, especially since the guy is an expert?

The bias is every bit in the questions they don't ask, and the priority it doesn't receive. But I digress.

Meanwhile, it's not like shootings haven't been stopped by armed good guys before. But those often times aren't experts, so the Post and other outlets simply do not report the news hoping that these "problems", these pesky facts - that they'll simply go away.

Similar to gun control, we actually have a media outlet who has (on the surface) made a suggestion that smacks of consistency. In the wake of people getting ran over repeatedly by jihadis and others in vehicles, the NY Times actually took the bold step of proclaiming that we need car control.(or, call it vehicle control, truck control, what have you) This is actually more consistent than most realize, but not at all because of the gun control/car control angle.

Again, the Times leaves an opening for "the experts". Cabs, busses, and of course delivery drivers. But where this really gets good is when you consider the role of trains. Only the experts, the train drivers, should be in charge of getting you to where you need to go. Only the experts should be allowed to determine where "the masses" are allowed to go, you see.

The committed worship of experts can be seen in other areas as well. For example:

You can't home school! You're not an expert! You specialized in something else.

What do you know about climate change? You're not a scientist, an expert. The scientists, they are the once who specialized in this area.

How about citizen journalism? That's not a good thing in the eyes of progressives either.

It can also be seen in early eugenics. So what if the feebleminded get sterilized. They can't possibly be experts in anything. Eventually, the progressives found interest in lethal chambers. To quote Bernard shaw, their lives do not "benefit us and it can’t be of very much use to yourself".

I could go on and on about this, highlighting many other specific policies where this rears its ugly head. But it's important to understand:

The policies are built upon the principles. Expertise, as a concept, specialization, is not a policy of progressivism. It's a foundational principle, that's why it is seen everywhere. The progressives have been making expertise front and central to their writings and ideology going all the way back at least as far as Philip Dru: Administrator, a book written by a progressive, for progressives.

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