United We Stand, Divided We Fall
By the Editorial Board
Since the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, a political revolution has commenced under the slogan “Black Lives Matter.” While in no way a new movement, Black Lives Matter has seen itself thrust back into the American cultural spotlight with a vigor and a passion not seen since Ferguson. However, this time it feels different. From the graffiti on the streets to the hashtag circulating our social media feeds, Black Lives Matter is everywhere. The Editors at The Conservateur have cautioned against addressing the movement on our publication, because of the controversy that seemingly follows any conservative who speaks about Black Lives Matter. However, as a publication that covers American culture, we believe that we must address this movement despite our concerns. This is our take...
The death of George Floyd saddened and sickened everyone at The Conservateur. The slogan “black lives matter” resonates with every American, including ourselves. Let us start by unequivocally stating that Black lives do matter, and they always will matter. While we love our country and will always stand behind its founding principles and enduring values, we are always looking for ways to improve it and acknowledge that it hasn’t always lived up to its values. We stand with our fellow Americans in the fight against racism. These feelings of anger and frustration aren’t contained to political parties— they’re genuine feelings of human empathy. However, what the Right does not stand for are the political ambitions of the “Black Lives Matter” organization. Many on the Left don’t understand why so many on the Right oppose “Black Lives Matter.” Who could oppose the idea that Black Lives Matter? Therein lies the problem.
The root of this divide is in the name of the organization “Black Lives Matter.” People on the Right don’t disagree with the idea that black lives matter, rather the organization named “Black Lives Matter.” This is a clever cognitive trick that yields a situation where one can fully agree with the statement “black lives matter,” oppose the organization “Black Lives Matter” and still realistically be cast by the Left as someone who opposes “black lives matter.” Confusing? It’s supposed to be, and it shields the organization and movement under a philosophical camouflage that cannot be readily examined without being called a racist. Ben Shapiro recently pointed out that this technique is an example of “semantic overload” wherein a word or phrase has a multitude of meanings, which often has the effect of inducing a type of information overload in an audience.
At The Conservateur, we believe in fighting racism, but we have taken issue with many proposals of the Black Lives Matter organization. The Black Lives Matter movement has called to “defund the police” and “disrupt the western-prescribed nuclear family.” In addition, Black Lives Matter’s affiliate organization, Moment for Black Lives, and several notable figures on the Left, including Rep. Omar and Ocasio-Cortez, have gone as far as to propose “abolishing prisons,” and “dismantling the capitalist economy.” We believe that the ideas that fuel Black Lives Matter have become a source of conflict for many Americans, like ourselves, who support racial equality, but wholeheartedly disagree with the radical agenda that Black Lives Matter proposes. Unfortunately, a movement meant to fight for equality has been infiltrated by Marxist revolutionaries, violent rioters, and self-righteous white liberals who all seek to promote themselves, rather than improve the country.
A movement initially created to fight police brutality and uplift black voices have evolved into a Trojan horse carrying a neo-Marxist revolution that seeks to erase our founding principles, revise our history, and destroy our culture. Black Lives Matter’s leader, Hawk Newsome, stated, “if this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it”— and they weren’t kidding. We’ve watched protestors rip down non-confederate statues of our former Presidents and Founders. We’ve watched Marxists revise our history to undermine our country’s legitimacy and paint American heroes such as Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt as evil. National Review called it “an alternative view of the American story, rooted in Marxism and one that thrives on encouraging division.” The article concluded “If Black Lives Matter succeeds, it will have reengineered the minds of America to view our system, our history, and our future, through the lens of division and hate.” While the center-Left seems content to kowtow before the country and claim they have control of their party, the radical Left is no longer interested in fixing the system, but completely dismantling it. Don’t believe us? Read Congresswomen Pressley and Tlaib’s new bill, which promises a lawless Leftist utopia. However, this utopia was already given a test run in Seattle’s infamous “CHAZ”— and let’s just say, it was no paradise. This kind of radicalism makes it impossible for conservatives to support the organization of “Black Lives Matter.”
We would also be remiss if we didn’t address the hypocrisy riddled within the Black Lives Matter movement. Protestors chant “defund the police” and “all cops are bastards” while requesting a police presence to ensure protestors’ safety. They tell us that “black lives matter” as rioters destroy struggling minority neighborhoods, and loot their businesses. While Democratic politicians, CNN anchors, and celebrities tweet their support for the riots behind the safety of their gated houses, black communities face the real consequences of their words. While your Instagram is flooded by white girls in suburbia posting petitions to defund the police, their police will remain fully funded in the event that they call 911. While Nike and Airbnb send out emails in support of the Black Lives Matter protests, black small businesses have been destroyed and may never return.
The radicalism, violence, and hypocrisy are concerning, upsetting, and frustrating; however, the most frightening consequence emerging from this turmoil is the hatred dividing this country. Unlike in years past, when hatred was contained to politics, politics has bled over and contaminated every element of American life and brought with it the same division and vitriol that made so many Americans avoid it in the first place. The most recent invasion of American life by our political division comes in the form of “cancel culture.” Like Black Lives Matter, many Americans are familiar with “cancel culture” but this iteration is a totally different animal. In years past, cancellations were contained to protesting right-leaning political pundits like Ben Shapiro at left-leaning universities like Berkeley. However, the cancel culture of 2020 is an armed weapon of the Left. A weapon aimed at stifling dissent and enforcing conformity across virtually every American institution from the workplace, to schools, to churches. While the cancel culture of the past silenced celebrities and companies, this cancel culture silences any form of opposition to the Black Lives Matter organization and its political agenda. The Wall Street Journal not only described this silencing through fear as both “civic catastrophe and an affront to the Constitution” but as “the most tragic impediment to an honest conversation about race in America.” While the Right may be speaking out today, if opposition is entirely stamped out, who will keep the Left in check tomorrow?
This culture of thought-policing is Orwellian, it’s dangerous, and it’s self-consuming. While the Black Lives Matter movement brings legitimate calls for change, how are we supposed to do that without debate? While many are ignorant of the political dangers of letting cancel culture run amuck, there’s always the alternative point of view that this division, fear, and silencing has a purpose. Our country was built on “checks and balances” because a singular ideology reigning supreme is the exact tyranny that the Founding Fathers declared independence from. In the same way that the executive branch is checked by the legislative, and the legislative by the judiciary, Americans often forget that the biggest check of all is a politically engaged electorate. An electorate that cannot function without a system of checks and balances of its own. While Washington never intended for a two-party system to emerge, he certainly intended for freedom of speech to be the mechanism by which democracy was upheld in this country. As Americans stay silent in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, the political fabric of this country burns, and the foundation of our democracy crumbles.
Despite this tumultuous year and the challenging era we find ourselves in, we fundamentally believe in the power of the American people. Americans are good, hard-working people. They see the best in one another, they’ve been taught to respect each other and treat one another with kindness and compassion. Since the Civil Rights Movement, Americans have worked together to make this country a more just and equitable society for all, and live up to our founding principle that “all men are created equal.” While it hasn’t always been perfect, racism continues to exist, and hatred lies in some hearts, America is overwhelmingly composed of good people. Maybe, the crux of our problem with the Black Lives Matter movement largely lies in the assumption that Americans don’t believe that black lives matter.
In times like these, we continue to go back and find inspiration in the wise and just words of Martin Luther King Jr. “We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.” As MLK did and so many Americans believe today, this country, no matter its history, and no matter its current condition, has the ability to right its wrongs and move forward. Our history is one of progress, and pointed reevaluation, but one that stands bravely on the right side of history. We commend our fellow Americans for exercising their rights and pushing the folds of history forward, and we join them in their fight for justice. However, the dismantling of a progressible system in exchange for a static, equitable silence is the exchange of one tyranny for another. We stand for black lives, and we also stand for the United States of America.
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