My friends think I have gone over to the dark side, because of my disagreements with what goes under the label “progressive” these days. I don’t think so. I think they have, through inertia and intellectual laziness, drifted over to the dark side without knowing it. And they reinforce each other. If you get crossways with the groupthink, it can be uncomfortable, which is why most people don’t like to have unpopular opinions.
One of my opinions is that the ideal society encourages and creates space for creative, hard-working people to succeed. I believe that we live in a society, here in the U.S.A., closer to that ideal than any other society in human history (even though it could always use some improvement). Anyone who realizes that opportunity exists for smart, hard-working, knowledgeable people to be successful, has a real shot. For one thing it is easier to learn skills, and accumulate scientific, literary, and philosophical knowledge today than it has ever been, ever.
But if you are born in the ghetto, have no father, and your mother is a crack whore, or some other Dickensian fate befalls you, you will probably not realize what is possible. A few do, but most don’t. Making everyone aware of the opportunities that exist, what it takes to exploit them, and how to acquire the necessary knowledge to exploit them, is not only the best way to help people, it is the only way that will actually work. Much of the welfare state, at every level, while well-intentioned, is doing more harm than good.
Another thing I believe is that we are at war with Islam. This is the thing that it is most forbidden to say except for maybe being against gay marriage, or thinking that cutting off your dick is indicative of mental illness. If I am right, about Islam that is, then we must at some point, sooner or later, be able to say out loud that we are at war with Islam, or we will lose.
I think that what my friends call the “dark side” is the side that actually perceives the darkness and the light as it really is. In this world today, the United States of America is the light, and Islam is the dark.