Conservatives’ reluctance to be as assertive as the left has seen them lose valuable ground in the culture wars. Conservatives have given the left free rein to dismantle cultural norms. The time to fight back has arrived.
For too long, the right has given the left not only the leeway to get away with anything, but also allowed the left to appoint itself judge, jury, and executioner – setting the standards that the left itself refuses to live by. It’s “do as I say, not as I do.”
And the reason why the left has been able to do so, is that the right has for too long refused to fill the vacuum by taking charge and imposing its will on others – it’s a feature and not a bug of the libertarian mindset that has come to permeate throughout Western conservatism.
Libertarianism is a peaceful, “live and let live” philosophy – and one that came about in good times. But as the saying goes, “good times make weak men.” And that’s exactly where we are today – because these are times of war, and the left is fighting to win. In short, libertarianism is incompatible with conservatism, and it must be uncoupled from the notion of “conservative values” for conservatism to have even a chance at conserving anything.
The slow decline of conservatism will inevitably lead one to ask, “What has conservatism conserved?”
While conservatives are like progressives driving at the speed limit, progressives are accelerating. They’re going faster and farther than ever before – dismantling cultural norms and challenging basic decency.
We laughed at pronouns. We laughed at blatant degeneracy, the inclusion of made-up genders, “alternative” lifestyles, and sexualities, and apologized for our immutable characteristics. And now, because conservatives have failed to fight back, the left is encountering little to no resistance in forcing its ideology into the minds of the public, especially children, through the institutions it controls while labeling anyone “bigots” for speaking up.
One of the facets of the modern left is cancel culture: the act of exiling an individual from polite society for having opinions inimical to the zeitgeist – and it’s also a norm that has come to expose the public to the left’s hypocrisy and all its contradictions.
The left determines who gets to stay and who gets canceled, and you don’t have to look much further than the twin cases of Whoopi Goldberg and Gina Carano, with the former given a two-week vacation from talk show ‘The View’ for minimizing the Holocaust, while the latter was fired from her role in ‘Mandalorian’ and unpersoned by her coworkers for having the audacity to suggest that pandemic-related authoritarianism is on the rise – citing pre-World War II Germany’s quiet acquiescence to the persecution of Jews.
Contrary to arguments that the right ought to simply live by its own principles and not cancel the left for failing to abide by its own rules, the right should instead tackle the left and force it to play by its own rules. Exposing the left’s unquestioned positions, notions, and ideas is the only way to challenge and overcome its despotic ideology.
Refusing to participate in cancel culture is suicidal for the right. It gives progressives a blank check to carry out its assault on personal freedoms, rights, and everything the right takes for granted.
It is crucial to the survival of civilized norms for conservatives to impose conservative values and form a bulwark against the encroachment of degeneracy, depravity, and the decay of social standards.
Allowing progressives to continue edging themselves further into deviancy, completely unchecked, will only have a ripple effect on younger generations who will see this as a new “normal.” The decay must be halted in its tracks.
So-called “character building” – rolling over, turning the other cheek, and taking punches – is never a good strategy in any battle, let alone a war. It’s not only okay to stand up for yourself: it’s crucial. conservatives must grow some balls and swing back against people who will never accept them for who they are. These are people who want you dead. And beyond that – who cares about gaining their acceptance?
It only takes a few people to stand up for others to follow suit. There is solidarity in numbers. And if you can’t muster the courage for yourself, muster the courage to protect your children. You owe them that.
Being “principled” only works if both sides engage in the same practice. The left does not, and it never has. Therefore the only way to win is to fight fire with fire and turn progressives’ own weapons against them.
Ian Miles Cheong is a political and cultural commentator. His work has been featured on The Rebel, Penthouse, Human Events, and The Post Millennial.
Read More