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(Fashion: India nationalism POV) Let’s Retire The Word ‘Liberal’ + Trump + Kowtowers

#1
C C Offline
Let’s Retire The Word ‘Liberal’ And Use ‘Alt-Left’ Or #SJW Instead - Nov 27, 2016
https://swarajyamag.com/politics/lets-re...jw-instead

EXCERPTS: [...] We in India should be used to nomenclature terrorism, as it has been used as a deliberate Goebbelsian tactic of propaganda. Some perfectly harmless, or even attractive, words are now twisted beyond recognition in the Indian discourse. In an alarmingly Orwellian way, some of them now mean the very opposite of the dictionary meaning of the term. Indeed, Orwell would easily recognise the Party’s slogans from 1984 in India: "...war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength." [...]

The word ‘liberal’ has been so overloaded with meanings that it is, in essence, meaningless and a euphemism. [...] The problem with it is that it sounds like a good thing. How could anybody not want to be a liberal? It conjures up visions of all that is bright and good and decent. How did we get to a point where this perfectly fine word is now poison?

First, there is the constant use in the West of this term to mean 'Western dominance' basically. [...] the term “liberal international order” is used to convey what is primarily American domination of the world. Sometimes its synonym, ‘rules-based global order’ is also used. [...]

So far as I can tell, it is a harking back to [...] when America reigned more or less supreme [...] In pursuit of its own interests, it set up a series of institutions and rules that enabled it to act as a benign (and sometimes not-so-benign) dictator. And those interests? The best articulation was supposedly by George Kennan, the famous ‘X’ who anonymously codified the Cold War. I paraphrase: "America has 8% of the world’s population, but enjoys 50% of its resources. The objective of American foreign policy is to keep it that way."

[...] There is nothing particularly liberal about all this. It means that where the West had an advantage, they would force open others’ markets [...] but where they had a disadvantage, they would erect trade barriers [...] Ironically, the very ‘liberals’ who support this alleged ‘liberal world order’ are quick to support every little tin-pot dictator who oppresses his subjects, because it suits their geopolitical aims.

And despite all their protestations about their love of democracy and so forth, it was the so-called ‘liberals’, those who had supported Hillary Clinton, who rioted in the streets [...] The big takeaway from Trump’s victory, Brexit, etc., is that ‘liberalism’ is dead.

It is not clear how the word ‘liberal’ came to be associated with a set of ideas that are far removed from the dictionary meaning of the word (as “open to new ideas”). In practice, the ‘liberal’ world-view, as articulated by those who self-identify themselves as such, tends to be closed-minded, bigoted and downright dogmatic. Nevertheless, it is great marketing for those who are purveyors of blind faith.

Some years ago, a self-confessed ‘liberal’, Jonathan Haidt [...] identified six values in an ethical system: compassion [...] Haidt showed that ‘liberals’ simply cannot understand the last three, which are perfectly appropriate values. In other words, ‘liberals’ can only deal with a world view that consists of nuclear families, industrialisation, and radical individualism. They cannot even conceive of something like nationalism, or hold something sacred: they have to deconstruct these things [...]

These ‘liberals’ have also succeeded in diluting the content of much academic and scientific research because they are polemicists first and foremost, not honest seekers after the truth as they claim to be. Almost all their work is half-baked, and despite their superficially appealing ideas, they are not trustworthy, especially in the social sciences that they dominate. [...]

[...] For a long time, I have ceased to use the term ‘liberal’ concerning India’s self-proclaimed ‘liberals’ and ‘left-liberals’, because they are simply ‘left’. And a sort of virulent Left, which means they are mostly Stalinists, fascists of the Left, though they profess to be horrified by fascism. Let us retire this clichéd term ‘liberal’, therefore, and replace it with something more accurate.

The best name I can think of is #SJW, the pejorative term meaning ‘social-justice warrior’, essentially one of those urban-guerilla-wannabes skewered so mercilessly by Vivek Agnihotri in Buddha in a Traffic Jam. I have recently seen the term ‘Alt-left’, in analogy with the Alt-right in the US (I saw this first being used by Rupa Subramanya, so in the absence of any other data, I credit her with inventing it too)....

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The New Trump State: Is It Simply A More Rigorous Obama-Era Administration? - Jan 30, 2017
https://swarajyamag.com/politics/the-new...nistration

EXCERPT: [...] What is most interesting, however, is that the same set of Muslim countries appears in an Obama-era order from February 2016. People who had dual citizenship with one of those countries, or who had visited those countries in the past five years, would be denied visa-free entry, presumably on the assumption they could have been radicalised.

So all that Trump has done is to tighten Obama-era restrictions - the point that has escaped the Leftie observers. Obama issued the order in the wake of terror attacks in Europe, and what Trump has done is to announce a tightening of the rules. Apparently the blowback, especially about green-card holders, caused a re-evaluation of the Trump order. Besides, as sanctuary-city people have already demonstrated, there are ways to tie things up in court.

So was this visa issue an example of a power struggle between doctrinaire people like Steve Bannon, presidential adviser, and others? Or was it simply a cock-up, potentially instigated by bureaucrats? We don’t know for sure, but the visa issue has taken all the attention away from the other executive orders, and confirmed for both Trump fans and Trump haters whatever they have believed about him. Not exactly an auspicious start for the new POTUS.

[...] it is not unusual for the US to be racist. But for the many Indians who live there, this is cause for alarm, of course. However, the mitigating factor is that Indians and Chinese contribute heavily to the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), and also have founded some 35 per cent of all successful firms in Silicon Valley. It would be counterproductive for the US to push out some of their best brains, who will almost certainly be welcome back in their home countries or elsewhere.

In a potential further blow to Indians, the OPT (optional practical training) programme for STEM graduates, which allowed holders of advanced degrees for up to three years, and the employment authorisation for spouses of H1-B visa holders, may be restricted according to a leaked memo. That was the usual route for Indian engineers to get employment in the US, and may be curtailed.

But if you change perspectives for a moment and look at the embargo on Muslims, there are some intriguing facts. First, if it is meant to reduce terrorism, the epicentre of terrorism, namely Pakistan, is surprisingly excluded. Second, the seven countries named are the ones that have sent the maximum number of refugees to the US. Third, Trump has announced a preference for Christian refugees from those countries. Fourth, the ban falls also on the most severely affected population, the Yazidi, on the verge of extinction after ISIS atrocities – more victims than perpetrators.....

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Why we are the world’s worst bunch of kowtowers - Dec 14, 2010
http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/main-ar...rs-1480850

EXCERPT: [...] The incident in Mississippi was startling: the Indian ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, clad in a sari, was pulled out of the security line at an airport and subjected to a humiliating pat-down, apparently because of Transportation Safety Administration guidelines about ‘voluminous clothes’. This, despite the fact that the ambassador produced her diplomatic papers. I suppose one could argue that the Mississippi officers were just doing their job, although it is possible that a little xenophobia, if not a little racism, was thrown in. Somehow I can’t imagine them patting down a white woman in a voluminous bridal dress.

But worse, the Indian embassy tried to hush this incident up. [...] It appears, sadly, that the first instinct of Indian officialdom is to swallow insults and to, if possible, insist on not having any semblance of a backbone. Consider that other countries do not ‘go gentle into that good night’, but they ‘rage, rage’.

The Americans have strategic intent [...] China similarly has a strategic intent: they want to be Numero Uno in everything: wealth, military power, soft power. And what is India’s strategic intent? To be a toady to some great power? Can’t India see that it can be more than a banana republic, it can be a great power itself? It can be the bride, not just the bridesmaid.

On the contrary, I find a supreme lack of self-confidence. I understand that when the Chinese once sent a démarche to the Indian embassy past midnight — in diplomatic terms a gross insult — instead of waiting till the next day, the ambassador showed up at the Chinese foreign office at 2am! The Chinese would have considered that to be kowtowing.

But when a rude Chinese diplomat claimed in Mumbai that India had no business in Arunachal Pradesh, India did not immediately declare him persona non grata and give him 24 hours to clear out of the country. Instead, he was allowed to hang around and make more offensive statements!

[...] Is there a genetic problem among Indians? Are we so used to obsequiousness that it has become the way we think?...
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#2
RainbowUnicorn Offline
(Mar 18, 2017 08:54 PM)C C Wrote: Let’s Retire The Word ‘Liberal’ And Use ‘Alt-Left’ Or #SJW Instead - Nov 27, 2016
https://swarajyamag.com/politics/lets-re...jw-instead

Quote:How did we get to a point where this perfectly fine word is now poison?


Because you allowed your culture and language to be hijacked by those who seek to control you and your money.
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