BY FRANK SALVATO
I watched the protesters in the streets of Chicago last night as they squashed the free speech rights of those they do not agree with politically. I existed ashamed of my hometown. I have understood for years that Chicago had arrived at being the epicenter of Progressive intolerance, even more so than the grounds of UC Berkeley or Columbia University. I was there at the genesis, experiencing the 1968 riots first-hand and a child embedded in the chaos. But listening to one of the “protesters” being interviewed after the announcement that they had succeeded in effecting the cancellation of a political rally featuring Donald Trump (of whom I am not necessarily a huge supporter), I have come to the conclusion that the brown shirt-jackboots of fascist regimes past have been resurrected; inhabiting the liberal bastions and college classrooms of the Windy City.
One giggling female protester said, “We are protesting inequality, we’re protesting everything.” And a self-anointed community activist (where does one go to get certified as a community activist anyway?), Quo Vadis, said the goal of the protesters – numbering in the high-hundreds, if not thousands – was for, “Donald to take the stage and to completely interrupt him. The plan is to shut Donald Trump all the way down.” In other words, the protesters who consider themselves champions of “equality for all” executed a plan to affect the total censorship of a political figure. By any consideration, these “protesters” annihilated Donald Trump’s First Amendment right to free speech. Correct me if I am wrong, but censorship is antithetical to equality for all. But maybe these protester’s civics instructors haven’t covered the Bill of Rights yet.
Fascism, by definition, means:
“…a political movement that employs the principles and methods of Fascism, the philosophy, principles, or methods of a governmental system that forcibly suppresses opposition and criticism, and emphasizing an aggressive Nationalism and often racism.”
Censorship is a tool of Fascism, serving to suppress opposition and criticism. This is exactly what we witnessed in the streets of Chicago tonight: censorship at the hand of the “enlightened” Progressive movement. So it is that it is fair to characterize these “enlightened” people – young and old, male and female, Black, White, Latino and otherwise – as modern day fascists; individuals intolerant of opinions that exist in opposition to their own; individuals that exist delusional to who they have become; “useful idiots” denying others the right to political free speech in defiance of the Bill of Rights.
It is a consensus among scholars of history that,
“…Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature, and views political violence, war and imperialism as means that can achieve national rejuvenation.”
And so we witnessed censorship and politically motivated violence – even if the Chicago Police Department held it to a minimum – at the hand of our new era Progressive fascists both inside and outside of the UIC Pavilion. It is both ironic and interesting that a common chant among the protesters was, “Bernie, Bernie,” referring to Bernie Sanders, the socialist candidate vying for the Democrat nomination.
To that end, Ayn Rand considered, where Fascism and Socialism were concerned, that:
“…It is too obvious, too easily demonstrable that Fascism and [Socialism/Communism] are…two rival gangs fighting over the same territory; that both are variants of Statism, based on the collectivist principle that man is the right-less slave of the state; that both are socialistic, in theory, in practice, and in the explicit statements of their leaders; that…Fascism is not the product of the political ‘right,’ but of the ‘left’…”
While this type of modern day Fascism takes place across the country, and especially on college campuses; locations that by their very existence should tolerate all political and cultural speech in the pursuit of cultivating critical thinking skills and well-rounded graduates, it is particularly egregious when it happens in Chicago, a city that bears the ugly scars of the 1968 Democrat Convention riots; fascist violence burnt into the soul of that great city. Equally as disturbing is the uneducated, ignorant embrace by our modern day, “useful idiot” fascists of the pseudo-socialism of the Progressive Movement; a movement that is much more fascist than socialist, or even communist.
Tonight, as I watch the fascists of Chicago, young and old, cheer in the streets at their achievement – the successful censorship of political speech, I am embarrassed to call Chicago my hometown. I had always believed that the people of Chicago were vested with a modicum of common sense and at least a splinter of will to quest for knowledge and truth. Sadly, as I watch on, red-faced, I am being proven wrong. Chicago’s streets, tonight, are filled with ignorant fascists who are proud of themselves.
The city that “won’t let you down,” just let me down…and in a magnificent way.