Waterboarding: "Water is forced into a detainee's mouth and nose so as to induce the sensation of drowning."  Alternate inducers are delivering that drowning feeling in 2021.

A Peggy Noonan Wall Street Journal op-ed early last year set a baseline for America's burgeoning threat to freedom.  Her wrap-up was spot-on regarding the woke menace then; it ballooned soon thereafter.  She hadn't foreseen SARS-CoV-2 and George Floyd on the 2020 horizon.  Thus, "they never have a second move" turned out to be an error.   

Noonan wrote:

The past decade saw the rise of woke progressives who dictate what words can be said and ideas held, thus poisoning and paralyzing American humor, drama, entertainment, culture and journalism.

She went on to say:

[T]heir entire program is accusation: you are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic; you are a bigot, a villain, a white male, a patriarchal misogynist, your day is over.  They never have a second move.  Bow to them, as most do, and they'll accuse you even more of newly imagined sins.

Sadly, COVID and George Floyd provided the vilifying woke not only a second move but a third while the second was ongoing.  Everyone instantly bowed to them, not just most.

The follow-on result was that "all lives matter" became racist by national consensus.  People got fired from their jobs just for saying it.

How could that be?

Somehow, uttering those words proved they were racist when, in fact, the reverse is more likely true.  Consider one simple definition of racist: "a person who believes one race is better than another is racist."

Consequently, if someone believes that the lives of only one race matter, they are, by definition, racist.  It's not those who believe all lives — all races — matter.  That's pretty straightforward.

Woke progressives' "entire program is accusation," but America bought it.

Noonan's insightfulness really came through in her article.  She went on to deliver a shrewd synopsis about the woke: "They claim to be vulnerable victims, and moral.  Actually, they're not.  They're mean and seek to kill, and like all bullies are cowards." 

Wait!  "Like all bullies are cowards."  I've met them before.  They're just like the '60s and '70s "antimilitary/antiauthority zealots, in-the-streets anarchists," spitting on U.S. soldiers coming home from Vietnam.  Gutless individuals, bullies in mobs.  Now, most of them try to claim they were only against the war, not the troops.  Oh, clearly, the profanity, snot, and projectiles demonstrated that.  We knew whom they hated. 

But back to today.  For those not mindlessly buying the woke crapola — nonsense, rubbish — "like all bullies are cowards" is the key.  Don't back down from them.  Individually, they're nothing.  

When one blathers, "You are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic; you are a bigot, a villain, a white male, a patriarchal misogynist," face him and smile.  Tell them what he can do with their accusations; you know the truth.  If it's a mob, still smile — you know the truth — but walk away.

Whatever else you do, though, don't turn your back.  Cowardly bullies always attack when backs are turned.

Problematically, the woke progressives have now foisted "Critical Race Theory," or CRT, on America.  Racist is no longer about "a person" as in the definition above; it's about the system.  Systemic racism über alles.

CRT has been on America's Marxist campuses for decades, but in 2021, it's being forced down everyone's throat.  It's the woke progressives' waterboarding equivalent — choke until you submit — but it's not water you're choking on.

At lightning speed, CRT has infiltrated K–12 classrooms to corporate boardrooms and even America's military and intelligence (sic) services.  People are getting fired just for questioning it.

What happened to freedom of speech, the First Amendment?

There is no such thing in Wokeville or wherever woke Marxism rules.  The Constitution is unenforced and irrelevant there.

That's not good news, nor is it a joke.

Fortunately, one of Noonan's comments in her article offers hope for the future.  She closed with "everyone with an honest mind hates them"...the woke progressives.  If a majority of Americans today are still of an honest mind, all may not be lost — yet!

When those screaming "you are racist" are the de facto racists and the power brokers in America, let them get away with it — and benefit from it — it's time for American patriots to take a stand and fight.

Wake up, America!  U.S. liberty and freedom may soon be gone. 

R.W. Trewyn, Ph.D. has been a university faculty member for 43 years, working in central administration for the past 27.

Graphic credit: Open Clip Art, public domain.

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