People's Party holds 1st national conference

Bernier tries to walk line between libertarianism and identity politics at People’s Party’s first national convention | Toronto Star - Alex Boutilier:

August 18, 2019 - "Sunday afternoon, ... at the PPC’s first national convention ... Benjamin Dichter — a former Conservative candidate in Toronto-Danforth and co-founder of LGBTory — was warning the crowd about 'political Islam' and how it has infiltrated both Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party and Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives....

"Dichter, who stood at Bernier’s side in a closing news conference, declined to say what he meant by 'political Islam,' and instead recommended a book. Bernier also declined to explain what he thinks 'political Islam' signifies. When asked if he subscribes to Dichter’s position, Bernier dodged the question.... 'It’s important to have that discussion [about “political Islam”] in Canada,' Bernier told reporters.... '["Political Islam"] can be a threat, yes, and we have to have that discussion'....

"A year after his dramatic split from the Conservative party and the formation of the PPC, Bernier still insists his fledgling political movement is all about individual liberty and personal responsibility. But somehow, the conversation around the PPC keeps going back to other topics, such as drastic cuts to immigration and doing away with Canada’s official multiculturalism.

"The party said 500 people — candidates and party volunteers — attended the three-day conference at a hotel near the Casino du Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, just a short drive away from Parliament Hill.... The conference was largely closed to the public — party volunteers and candidates only....

"Bernier has ... lost organizers in Vancouver and practically an entire electoral district association in Winnipeg over concerns his libertarian project was being hijacked by far-right voices. The Star has previously reported that far-right personalities have recommended their followers join the PPC to find a more mainstream avenue to promote their fringe beliefs.

"Bernier told conference attendees that the PPC would campaign on their founding values: the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility, fairness and respect ... — suggesting it’s a central message the party hopes to tell Canadians in the upcoming election campaign.

"But culture and identity are at the very top of the PPC’s platform. Bernier has pledged to end Canada’s official multiculturalism policy, cut annual immigration levels by more than half, and promote “Canadian values” and freedom of speech. In his speech to the crowd, Bernier tied his project to the 'growing populist option that is quickly taking its place in almost every western democracy'....

"The PPC has polled between 0 and 5 per cent according to CBC’s compilation of public polling over the last month. Bernier’s most passionate support seems to live on message boards, blogs and YouTube channels. It’s an open question how that will manifest at ballot boxes.

"Even if public polling is lowballing Bernier’s popular support, there is the further question of how concentrated that support is in individual ridings. While a party can poll at 5 per cent nationally, that doesn’t necessarily translate into enough votes to win a given riding in Canada’s first-past-the-post system."

Read more: https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/08/18/bernier-tries-to-walk-line-between-libertarianism-and-identity-politics-at-ppcs-first-national-convention.html

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Ex-Muslim speaks out on "Islamophobia"

Op-ed: Ex-Muslims – a community in protest | mnamazie - Maryam Namazie, The Free Thinker, Patheos blog:

July 21, 2019 - "When the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) started ... in June 2007, we were hard pressed to find 25 people who would come out publicly to break the apostasy taboo.... Today, we are witness to an international ex-Muslim 'community' – a tsunami of atheism.

"For me, though, this has never been about community as identity politics (people boxed into homogenised, segregated communities with culturally-relative rights managed by 'community leaders'). But rather, a community in protest: insisting on freedom from religion and the right to conscience ... a movement that insists on our common humanity and equality – not difference or superiority. A movement of people who refuse to live in fear and in the shadows. And who are speaking out for social change in unprecedented ways, particularly via social media.

"This movement matters because thirteen states punish atheism with the death penalty – all Islamic.... Because a series of laws in Saudi Arabia define atheism as terrorism with Ahmad Al-Shamri being sentenced to death for atheism.... Because Sina Dehghan has been sentenced to death in Iran for 'insulting Islam'.... Because a Pakistani High Court Judge has said that blasphemers are terrorists with Ayaz Nizami and Rana Noman facing the death penalty. This movement matters because you can be killed for leaving or criticising Islam....

"Yet when CEMB took to the streets of London Pride last year, the East London Mosque filed a complaint against our 'Islamophobic' placards.... when #ExMuslimBecause became viral overnight with over 120,000 Tweets from 65 countries with so many realising they were not alone for the first time in their lives, BBC Trending said it was an excuse for 'Muslim-bashing' and 'Islamophobia' ... when we showed our solidarity with those persecuted in Saudi Arabia for eating or drinking during Ramadan, armed metropolitan police came to the Saudi Embassy’s rescue saying our 'eat-in' and fast-defying solidarity action was “offending” those at the embassy …

"In my opinion, accusations of 'Islamophobia' are less about opposing bigotry (after all you cannot stop racism by outlawing blasphemy and apostasy) and more about defending religious privilege and the status quo. It is used to scaremonger ex-Muslims into silence and impose de facto apostasy and blasphemy laws where none exist. Where they do, we are accused of blasphemy and apostasy and persecuted without any such 'niceties'....

"The charge of 'Islamophobia' protects religion and the religious-Right, not believers.... Conflating criticism of Islam and Islamism with 'Muslim-bashing' sees dissent as bigotry rather than for what it is – a defence of blasphemy and apostasy when one can be killed for it.

"That doesn’t mean that bigotry against Muslims, migrants, minorities doesn’t exist. Of course it does..... And, yes of course, there are ex-Muslims who are bigoted against Muslims just as there are Muslims who are bigoted against ex-Muslims.... But individuals – not a 'community' –  must be held accountable for their choices. We are not extensions of our 'communities' to be defended or condemned depending on which 'tribe' we belong to....

"Whilst touted as progressive, identity politics is a politics of difference AND superiority – these are two sides of the same double-edged sword. The politics of difference has always been the fundamental principle of a racist agenda, not the other way around – whether it is Nazism, the biological theory of difference and racial superiority or expressions of difference in cultural and religious terms. Identity politics is the corruption of the fight for social justice by degrading it to a mere defence of culture and the homogenous 'community' – no matter what.

"In an age of regressive identity politics and cultural relativism, an ex-Muslim community in protest matters because it reaffirms universal values, anti-racism, secularism, the fight for equality, social justice and our common humanity. A movement that is about equality not privilege. Rights without permission. And gives no apologies."

Read more: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thefreethinker/2019/07/op-ed-ex-muslims-a-community-in-protest/
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Bob Marley and identity politics

Music Legend Bob Marley and the Folly of Identity Politics - David Unsworth, Panam Post:

December 20, 2017 - "A few years ago, I spent two weeks in Jamaica [that included] the obligatory visit to the Bob Marley Museum. After touring the mansion, which once housed the headquarters of Marley’s Tuff Gong record label, we were ushered into a small movie theater to watch a brief documentary on the life of Bob Marley.... Marley said on camera something that surprised me; something that I had not known before.

“'My father was white and mother was black. Then call me half-caste or what ever. I don’t dip on nobody’s side. I dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white'....

"Marley’s words should give us much food for thought today, as the post-Trump environment has seemed to engender a new age of identity politics.... In the United States, we are faced with a situation where, politically, we are highly divided along racial lines.... Identity politics has exacerbated our differences, and the animosity that we feel along racial and geographic lines....

"The law is supposed to be color-blind; progressive groups routinely argue, however, that it is not. They likely have many reasonable enough points. Yet, is a nationwide lurch towards identity politics really the path forward for progress in America?

"It is time that Americans stop dividing themselves politically into groups and subgroups.... American politicians of both parties should be saying, 'What can we do, right now, that is good for America as a whole. For all Americans.' ... not dreaming up ways to offer political bargains to various identity politics groups in order to reach 51%. Good public policy, good fiscal policy, good monetary policy, well-written evenly-enforced law, is good for all Americans, regardless of race, class, ethnicity, language, religion, geography, or sexual orientation....

"Entrepreneurship, individuality, and social and economic freedom have always been at the heart of the impressive American success story. It is for that reason that millions of immigrants have sought a better [life] here. It is for that reason that hundreds of thousands still brave perilous sea crossings or hazardous desert treks to reach American soil, regardless of their immigration status.

"A free market economy does not inherently discriminate based upon these identity categories. The market doesn’t care about your sexual orientation, or your skin color, or your religion, or your language: it cares about the cost and quality of the good and service you provide....

"We can not change the past. What we can do now, is try to make public policy that will truly afford the greatest opportunities to all American citizens, regardless of their race or class, gender or ethnicity,"

Read more: https://panampost.com/david-unsworth/2017/12/20/bob-marley-identity-politics/
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Jordan Peterson and the alt.right

Jordan B. Peterson Is the Furthest Thing from the Alt-Right - Foundation for Economic Education - Dan Sanchez:

January 22, 2018 - "Psychologist and scholar Jordan B. Peterson recently had another surge in media attention.... His ideological critics have reacted defensively by, among other tactics, trying to cast Peterson as an 'alt-right' figure. Having listened to all of the lectures and interviews included in his 37-episode podcast, I can attest that that is a gross mischaracterization.

"For example, ... during the Q&A period following one of his lectures ...  Peterson noted that: 'the identity politics that has been practiced so assiduously and so devastatingly by the left has been co-opted by the right'.... Specifically, he warned against reacting to the identity politics of the left by descending into a white racial identity politics of the right ... 'where we’re making your group identity the most important thing about you. I think that’s reprehensible. I think it’s devastating. I think it’s genocidal in its ultimate expression. I think it will bring down our civilization if we pursue it'.....

"Genocide is one of Peterson’s many scholarly interests.... He has made a deep study of the pathologies that result in genocidal states like the Nazi regime. And he is keen on stressing the much-neglected fact that the Soviet regime was quite as enslaving and murderous as the Nazis. As those regimes demonstrated, Peterson’s claim that identity politics is 'genocidal in its ultimate expression' is no exaggeration....

"Not only is Peterson adamantly opposed to identity politics, but his project is decidedly non-political in nature.... As Peterson said in his response: 'You know, I’ve thought for a long time about a political career, really forever.... And I’ve always decided against it, because it seemed to me that the proper level of analysis with regards to the solution of the problem that we’re facing isn’t political. And that’s why I think it’s a mistake when what I’m doing gets politicized either by me or others.'

"Instead, Dr. Peterson’s prescription for 'how to change the world properly,' as he says, is for each individual to focus on self-improvement: to concentrate, not on political crusades, but on his or her own Hero’s Journey. (Peterson is also an expert exponent of the Jungian psychological interpretation of heroic mythology.) As he put it: 'The way forward through the ideological mess … is to place the individual at the place of paramount importance'....

"Alt-right commenters have accused Peterson of being naive about this. Self-improvement is all well and good, they say, but how is cleaning your room supposed to fend off the leftist barbarians at the gates?

"Such critics don’t understand what Peterson is saying, because they are mired in the mindsets of politics and war. The way of politics and war is to confront an enemy horde by amassing your own horde: whether it be on the battlefield, in street demonstrations, or in voting booths. It is to fight tribal barbarism by tending toward the tribal and the barbaric yourself. But the way of the heroic, civilized individual is to lead by example and to lead by appealing to the interests of those whose behavior you want to influence.

"As opposed to purely political questions, with matters of what is necessary to personally thrive, individuals actually have skin in the game, and so are more open to challenging messages and less likely to cling rigidly to their dogmas.... Someone who embraces individualism, not merely as a political program, but as a way of life, can have tremendous power to persuade and inspire. When others see such model individuals sorting out their lives, living free of the life-debilitating resentments that haunt SJWs and alt-righters alike, and generally thriving, that is a much more powerful argument for individualism than a million sarcastic memes."

Read more: https://fee.org/articles/jordan-b-peterson-is-the-furthest-thing-from-the-alt-right/?utm_medium=related_widget
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Rebel Media founder repudiates the alt.right

Ezra Levant’s staff memo on the alt-right - The Rebel:

August 22, 2017 - "When I first heard of the alt-right a year ago, I thought it simply meant the insurgent right, the politically incorrect right, the grassroots right, the nationalistic right, the right that was a counterweight to the establishment of the GOP, the right that backed Trump and his 'Make America Great Again' style over Jeb Bush and the swamp. It was unashamed right-wingedness, with a sense of humour.

"Prominent alt-right personalities back then included the outrageous but loveable Milo Yiannopoulos, who just happened to be a half-Jewish gay man who preferred black men. I remember when Hillary Clinton made her bizarre campaign speech attacking the alt-right, and it sounded no different than any of her other 'deplorables' insults, so that made me even more interested.

"But the alt-right has changed into something new, especially since Trump’s election. Now the leading figure — at least in terms of media attention — is Richard Spencer, and other white nationalists. By that, I mean people whose central organizing political principle is race.

"And that’s the starting point; there are also white supremacists, and even some neo-Nazis. There were actually some Nazi swastika flags in Charlottesville. Whether or not they were being genuinely carried, or carried by agents provocateurs trying to embarrass the alt-right isn’t even important. They were there — and Spencer’s torch-lit walk had other Nazi symbology, including the 'Sieg Heil' arm salute, and the chant of 'blood and soil'  —  which was a slogan popularized by the Nazis.

"Sorry, that’s not conservative, that's just racist, and I think it’s unpatriotic to mimic one of America’s greatest historical enemies. Spencer released an explicitly racist manifesto in Charlottesville. If pressed, Spencer positively admits he is not conservative; he does not believe in individualism; he is a communalist, an economic socialist, but most importantly, someone who believes your race is your key characteristic.

"We disagree. We believe that character and ideas and actions are more important than skin colour, or for that matter sex or sexual orientation. You can be a smart, thoughtful conservative who is black, gay, Jewish, whatever — and you can be a foolish, unethical, violent Communist who is white. In fact, there are quite a lot of them.

"We will still report on what the alt-right says and does, and we will surely report more accurately than the mainstream media does. We can stand up for their freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and oppose censorship — like the ACLU courageously did in Charlottesville. We can stand up for the rule of law, especially when police seem to stand down to allow Antifa leftists do violence as they did in Charlottesville and Berkeley and other places.

"And of course we can point out the differences with which extremist black, gay, Muslim or feminist identity politics are treated by the establishment, as opposed to how white identity politics are treated....

"We are not alt-right. That term now effectively means racism, anti-Semitism and tolerance of neo-Nazism."

Read more: https://www.therebel.media/ezra_levant_s_staff_memo_on_the_alt_right
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Ron Paul: Oppose right and left authoritarianism

Ron Paul: We Must Oppose Fascism Of the Right and Left | News and views from a different angle - Market Slant:

August 22, 2017 - "Following the recent clashes between the alt-right and the group antifa, some libertarians have debated which group they should support. The answer is simple: neither. The alt-right and its leftist opponents are two sides of the same authoritarian coin.

"The alt-right elevates racial identity over individual identity. The obsession with race leads them to support massive government interference in the economy in order to benefit members of the favored race. They also favor massive welfare and entitlement spending, as long as it functions as a racial spoils system.... No one who sincerely supports individual liberty, property rights, or the right to life can have any sympathy for this type of racial collectivism.

"Antifa, like all Marxists, elevates class identity over individual identity. Antifa supporters believe government must run the economy because otherwise workers will be exploited by greedy capitalists. This faith in central planning ignores economic reality, as well as the reality that in a free market employers and workers voluntarily work together for their mutual benefit. It is only when government intervenes in the economy that crony capitalists have the opportunity to exploit workers, consumers, and taxpayers....

"Ironically, the failure of the Keynesian model of economic authoritarianism, promoted by establishment economists like Paul Krugman, is responsible for the rise of the alt-right and antifa.... [M]any Americans continue to struggle with unemployment and a Federal Reserve-caused eroding standard of living. History shows that economic hardship causes many to follow demagogues offering easy solutions and convenient scapegoats....

"As the Keynesian-Krugman empire of big government and fiat currency collapses, more people will be attracted to authoritarianism, leading to an increase in violence. The only way to ensure the current system is not replaced with something even worse is for those of us who know the truth to work harder to spread the ideas of liberty.

"While we should be willing to form coalitions with individuals of good will across the political spectrum, we must never align with anyone promoting violence as a solution to social and economic problems. We must also oppose any attempts to use the violence committed by extremists as a justification for expanding the police state or infringing on free speech....

"Libertarians have several advantages in the ideological battle... First, we do not need to resort to scapegoating and demagoguing, as we have the truth about the welfare-warfare state and the Federal Reserve on our side. We also offer a realistic way to restore prosperity. But our greatest advantage is that, while authoritarianism divides people by race, class, religion, or other differences, the cause of liberty unites all who seek peace and prosperity."

Read more: https://www.marketslant.com/article/ron-paul-we-must-oppose-fascism-right-and-left
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Copyright © 2017 by Ron Paul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

Some guy crashes libertarian event for publicity

Alt-Right Leader Richard Spencer Crashed a Student Libertarian Conference and Was Shunned - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Robby Soave:

February 20, 2017 - "On Saturday, alt-right leader Richard Spencer crashed the 10th annual International Students for Liberty Conference at a hotel in Washington, D.C. After quarreling with conference attendees, he left the premises.

"Spencer, a self-declared white nationalist who believes the U.S. is losing its white identity, had no business attending a gathering of libertarian students, and conference organizers had every right to eject him. Indeed, their decision to do so was a valid exercise of libertarian principles in action....

"Spencer set himself up in the bar of the hotel — the Marriott Wardman in Woodley Park — and attempted to host an unscheduled and unwanted conversation.... Spencer was not welcome at the hotel and had not been invited to participate in ISFLC.

"'We did not invite Mr. Spencer'" said SFL CEO Wolf von Laer in a statement. 'We reject his hateful message and we wholeheartedly oppose his obsolete ideology'....

"It's not completely clear whether Spencer departed of his own accord: he seems to think he was forced to leave, while others say he asked security to see him out safely, even though he was in no danger. But it hardly matters: the Marriott Wardman hotel is private property, and should enjoy the absolute right to evict irksome and unwelcome guests from its premises.

"Spencer has attempted to wring as much publicity from the incident as possible — he tweeted about it no fewer than 40 times, by my count. In his mind, libertarians are 'lolbertarians' who need to 'accept the reality of race' and get serious about 'white replacement.' To the extent that his only goal in life is to garner more attention for his fringe worldview, I suppose the stunt was a success — here I am writing about it. Congrats to you, guy who thinks 'the United States is a European country'.

"Spencer is entitled to broadcast his vile opinions, and to make equal use of public resources. He should not be attacked on the street, or anywhere else. But no private actor is required to give him a platform.... ISFLC, an organization that works tirelessly to support the cause of liberty all over the world — not just for white American college students — handled the matter correctly, in my view."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/02/20/alt-right-leader-richard-spencer-crashed
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