The thought and speech police …

It was recently announced that the Justice Department is looking into bringing charges against companies that deny climate change.  Specifically, it’s targeting major energy companies for claiming that burning fossil fuels may not be that important a factor in climate change.

Justice is drawing parallels to when tobacco companies were held to have misled the public about the dangers of smoking for years, causing countless deaths. The judgements against those companies resulted in multi-billion-dollar settlements. Justice is now saying the major energy companies are also misleading the public putting lives at risk. 

What’s really going on here is that the Obama Administration wants to use the threat of Justice Department actions to intimidate those it calls “climate change deniers” from expressing their views. Right now, it’s focused on energy companies; however that won’t stop the climate-change crowd from going after anyone else who dares question the somewhat specious science surrounding the whole issue of climate change.    

Attempts to suppress speech isn't just a passing fad.  Anytime someone feels -- or thinks they might feel -- offended, it's not uncommon to see politicians move to abridge freedom of speech. The other day, after a typically raucous public hearing Philadelphia, some City Council person introduced proposed regulations to limit what people could say in public hearings. They were specifically targeting epithets and hurtful language. 

The question is always who decides what's hurtful? And who the Hell are they to decide?   

We’re all aware of what’s been going on with the thought and speech police on college campuses. We’ve heard about the “speech codes” and “safe spaces.” We’re already getting pummeled for calling people here illegally illegal aliens, which is precisely what they are.  Our own President can’t describe terrorists following an extreme form of Islam Islamic terrorists.  Our President and State Department can’t bring themselves to say that it’s genocide when Islamic fanatics specifically target and massacre Christians and others deemed infidels. 

Political correctness is out of control and getting worse. Every few days there’s another article about some supposed affront to one group or another. 

The remedy is sensitivity or diversity training classes – which are exactly what? Recognizing that there are people of different races, ethnicities and religions here? That there are people of different genders here?  That not everybody is heterosexual?  That some people might find a particular joke in bad taste? That you shouldn’t grope a person who doesn’t want to be groped?   

Holy crap.  Everybody with the good sense God gave a sweet potato knows all that already. So what’s the point?  The point is simply to intimidate people into the political correctness standards du jour.  It’s also purely subjective. Protected groups can do or say whatever they wish; anyone not part of those protected groups can’t – they have to be “sensitive” to the feelings of those others. Their feelings trump everybody else's rights.  

This nonsense even gets the official imprimatur of the government. In April 2015 the U.S. Army made 400 soldiers at one base sit through a presentation on how American society “attaches privilege to being white and male and heterosexual.”  All in the guise of diversity training.  To what purpose? Probably just to remind our soldiers they’re defending an increasingly whiney and hypersensitive country that worries more about feelings than its soldiers' lives. 

If anyone wonders why Donald Trump has such appeal, this is a big part of the answer.

His critics accuse him of being crude, offensive and insensitive.  That he is; it’s also why his supporters love him. He blurts out stuff that makes people cringe at times mainly because they’ve been conditioned to cringe at politically incorrect statements.

Sure, a lot of it is over the top – like saying Mexico sends us their rapists and murderers – however people recognize that in his bluster there’s often a grain of truth. The Mexican government may not be consciously sending their murderers and rapists here, but it’s sure as Hell not doing anything to stop them.  Not every illegal here from Mexico is a murderer or rapist, either, but more than one is too many to anyone they murder or rape. 

He calls illegals what they are – illegals.  He wants to build a wall to close our southern border and deport illegals – a view held by many Americans. He calls our current political leaders stupid and incompetent – and it’s not too hard to see some truth in that.  He calls many of our trade agreements a disaster – again, he’s got some valid points there. He blames Obama and Kerry for a terrible deal with Iran over nukes – that’s what most people think. He also blames Obama for weakening the American military and making our allies doubt whether we can be trusted – can’t argue with that either.

Does that alone make him a great candidate for President?  Probably not.  But a substantial slice of the voters – Republicans, Independents, and conservative Democrats – are supporting him. Many of my professional and college-educated friends quietly do as well, so he’s not just getting the lower income, less-educated base his opponents claim he’s pandering to.   

His support is broad and increasingly deep. He’s tapped into the mood of many Americans who feel the pendulum has swung too far  and that the country is headed in a direction they are more uncomfortable with all the time. 

They want to bring things back to an America they can understand again. They’ve had it with the thought and speech police, and walking on eggs so they won’t offend anyone. They’re fed up with nuanced positions and dithering politicians too timid to tell the truth.

Right now they are voting for Trump because they feel he’s the only one with the balls to really shake things up.  He’s the worst nightmare for the thought and speech police and progressive ideals of not just the Democrats, but the establishment Republicans as well. 

And they love him for it.