Let us imagine that there is an Activist who has called for a protest, he says he is going to shut down this town. He gets a lot of publicity and everyone is expecting something big. But instead it is a total fizzer, the media reporting on the event outnumber the protesters. Here is where the difference between the Left and the Right is revealed.
If he was a Leftist then they simply go silent and if pushed to give an explanation they will deflect, ‘you misunderstand his aims’, ‘this was a call to arms not a call to action’, etc. etc. etc. What they never do in public is criticise.
If he was a Rightist then he would be criticised from every corner, ‘what an idiot’, ‘couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery’, ‘ and he’s ugly!’. All in public for everyone to hear.
Now this is an area where the Left get it right!
Criticism
All criticism should be done in private, your Mother is correct, if you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all.
Not because people, causes or events are above criticism, but because you should never be handing the enemy ammunition. Which is what public criticism ends up being. But even worse is it discourages further activity. If this is what doing something is going to get you then why should I bother?
Why should I devote time to a cause or event if all I can expect is criticism for it?
It further discourages people from supporting the wider movement, because they only want to associate with people that they already know and trust. This even extends to the leadership of different groups. To be honest it is an absurd situation to be in. Everything that we love is being abused and destroyed right in front of our eyes and we still cannot unite to defend ourselves, let alone fight back.
Criticism should be done in private and it should be as constructive as possible. The aim should not be to shut people down, as is the current mode, but to help them build a foundation, to improve what they have to offer. Constructive criticism is criticism that can lead to improvement. We need to build up our people.
Tactics
Every activity that we engage in has to be of benefit to us, that may seem obvious but it isn’t. I have seen this over and over again where something is done simply to be provocative. Unfortunately the Liberal system that we live under does not allow us to be free from Liberalism. Any philosophy or ideology that cannot be co-opted by Liberalism will be treated as what it really is, as a threat.
That means that the rules that apply to the Left do not apply to us. The Left is not an enemy of the system, it is a part of the system. Which is why it is allowed to do things that we cannot. We will always be treated as a threat to the system and therefore we must always take that into account. Our activities must be of benefit to us. Poking the beast is dangerous.
So do nothing?
No!
Do guerrilla tactics, organise in secret, maintain security and fight the enemy where they are weakest. These things are true in politics as they are in warfare. You can see the Left doing all of these things. What you also need is a support group, people who support you in private, but rarely if ever in public. The Left also has this.
The Right needs to get better at what it does, because what we stand for matters.
Originally published at Upon Hope. You can find Mark’s Subscribestar here.