{"id":11669,"date":"2019-02-19T12:54:01","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T20:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11669"},"modified":"2019-02-19T12:54:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T20:54:09","slug":"the-strange-paradoxes-of-our-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-strange-paradoxes-of-our-age\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strange Paradoxes of Our Age"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern prophets often say one thing and do another. Worse, they often advocate in the abstract as a way of justifying their doing the opposite in the concrete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is that contemporary culture abounds with the inexplicable \u2014 mostly because modern progressivism makes all sorts of race, class, and gender exceptions for politically incorrect felonies, an appeasement that ensures an absence of deterrence and thus even more transgressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paradox No. 1: Merchants of Hate.<\/strong> We are told that white, racist young men are preying on people of color, obsessed with skin color (and gender), and emancipated by Donald Trump\u2019s Klan-like MAGA army. In truth, the purveyors of such theories are themselves merchants of hate, who stereotype and demonize on the basis of skin color. And they do so, largely for anticipated career advantages, on the principle that supposed victims of white bigots can translate such ill treatment into publicity and, with it, attention and career enhancement. How did this epidemic of hate happen in 2019 America?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answer:<\/strong> a) There are not enough racists left to fuel the current insatiable appetite of the anti-racism industry. So both victimizers and victims have to be invented \u2014 as we see with the Duke lacrosse lynching, the Virginia fraternity hoax, the Covington-kids invention, and the recent Jussie Smollett fraud. b) There are few punishments for fraud, but lots of rewards for being victimized, and so deterrence is lost and the merchants of hate assume they are free to invent what they please. c) Anything useful to destroy the presidency of Donald Trump is seen as a moral act, whether equating the Covington MAGA-hatted teenagers as veritable Klansmen or fitting out Smollett\u2019s hired thugs with lynch rope and red hats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Modern prophets often say one thing and do another. Worse, they often advocate in the abstract as a way of justifying their doing the opposite in the concrete. The result is that contemporary culture abounds with the inexplicable \u2014 mostly because modern progressivism makes all sorts of race, class, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1161,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-32d","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8625,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-does-the-modern-malleability-of-gender-and-race-mean-for-the-future-of-affirmative-action\/","url_meta":{"origin":11669,"position":0},"title":"What Does the Modern Malleability of Gender and Race Mean for the Future of Affirmative Action?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online In the present postmodern world, we are told that there is no such thing as a biologically distinct gender. Instead, gender is now socially constructed. It can be defined by the individual in almost any way he or she sees fit. In the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Identity Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Identity Politics","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/identity-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Caitlyn Jenner at the Espy Awards, July 15, 2015. (Kevin Winter\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/download-31.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9410,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/donald-trump-postmodern-candidate\/","url_meta":{"origin":11669,"position":1},"title":"Donald Trump, Postmodern Candidate","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump defies all political orthodoxy and confounds any attempts at explanation or prediction. By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Early 20th-century modernism ignored classical rules of expression. But late 20th-century postmodernism blew up those rules altogether. Barack Obama was a modernist candidate. He turned out vast numbers of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":647,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/calls-for-hearings-on-radicalization-of-white-christian-women\/","url_meta":{"origin":11669,"position":2},"title":"Calls for Hearings on ‘Radicalization’ of White Christian Women","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPage Magazine During a Homeland Security committee hearing last month on the \"Radicalization of Muslim-Americans,\" Texas Congressman Al Green (D) criticized the hearings as biased and unfair to Muslims, suggesting that the only way to justify them is if Congress would also conduct a \"hearing on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10551,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/two-resistances\/","url_meta":{"origin":11669,"position":3},"title":"Two Resistances","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson National Review The quiet resistance \u2014 the one without black masks and clubs \u2014 is the more revolutionary force, and it transcends race, class, and gender. After the election of Donald Trump, there arose a self-described \u201cResistance.\u201d It apparently posed as a decentralized network of progressive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11144,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/donald-trump-tragic-hero\/","url_meta":{"origin":11669,"position":4},"title":"Donald Trump, Tragic Hero","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review His very flaws may be his strengths The very idea that Donald Trump could, even in a perverse way, be heroic may appall half the country. Nonetheless, one way of understanding both Trump\u2019s personal excesses and his accomplishments is that his not being traditionally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11684,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/yes-this-is-america-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":11669,"position":5},"title":"Yes, \u2018This Is America, 2019\u2019","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness There have been so far about three general reactions to the concocted Jussie Smollett psychodrama. One, and the most common, has been apprehension that Smollett\u2019s lies will discredit future real incidents of hate crimes against gays and minorities. This could be a legitimate concern,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11671,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11669\/revisions\/11671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}