Abbeville Institute

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Facebook has kicked the Abbeville Institute off its platform.  This is an offence against free speech.  The Abbeville Institute is not a crazy, rabble-rousing place from what I can tell by the articles it publishs.  They are supporters of the old South, but this is not a criminal offense.  There are probably a few crazies who attach themselves to it, but this is true of any organization, including Black Lives Matter, the American Legion, the Brookings Institution, and the Democratic and Republican Parties. 

Facebook appears to have a political agenda that it is forcing on the United States, as Pravda and other Communist media did in the old Soviet Union.  The book 1984 is relevant today; it has just taken us a few more years to reach its description of the political situation than George Orwell expected.  Mark Zuckerberg has become “Big Brother” whether he wants to be or not.  The First Amendment of the Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

is under serious assault. 

I do not think the Abbeville Institute is crying “fire” in a crowded theater or encouraging rebellion against the United States.  It is celebrating the exploits of the Old South militarily and socially before and during the Civil War.  People who oppose this are doing so on the same grounds they oppose all the accomplishments of European civilization: because they were done my white men.  The Roman Republic, Athenian democracy, English literature, Dutch master painters, classical music, the Renaissance, capitalism, and the industrial revolution are all opposed as evil for that reason.  The American founding fathers were influenced by European philosophers of the Enlightenment such as Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, which is now seen as evidence of their depravity. 

I believe the American Founding Fathers were great men who created a great country.  I believe many of the soldiers who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War were great men, certainly including Robert E. Lee.  I’m not sure my great-grandfather who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War was a great man, but he was a good man.  He was doing what he thought was right although he was born in Iowa and owned no slaves. 

I believe the continued suppression of speech by non-governmental media is a threat to our country, which has a history of free expression of ideas.  Indeed, it suppresses not only the current expression of ideas, but what we record of the history of mankind, and how we record it.  Great ideas will be lost.  We may return to a new “Dark Ages” of intellectual darkness, a rejection of truth, beauty, and science.  I am sad that this dark day may be coming unless we stand up against it. 

 

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