My latest in PJ Media:
Failed CNN host and cannibal Reza Aslan raised some eyebrows last Friday when he tweeted: “If they even TRY to replace RBG we burn the entire f**king thing down.”
Criticized for this open call to violence, Aslan doubled down on Monday, tweeting: “Been a few days since I tweeted that if GOP try to jam a SCOTUS thru B4 election we burn the f**king thing down & since the death threats & Breitbart headlines about my tweet have now stopped let me just say that if GOP try to jam SCOTUS through we burn the f**king thing down.”
Yet nothing is much less likely than the prospect of the cosseted Aslan donning a balaclava and going out to set fire to Burger Kings in the name of justice. He is, like many Leftists before him, engaging in revolutionary posturing, or what Tom Wolfe indelibly dubbed “radical chic.”
Radical chic involves the spectacle of wealthy, comfortable elitists donning the garb and aping the rhetoric of radical Leftists (remember John Lennon chanting “Power to the people”), or even engaging in revolutionary theatre. The foremost example is Edward Said, the literature professor whose seminal book Orientalism destroyed Middle East Studies in the United States by portraying even the slightest critical word about Islam or Middle Eastern culture as an exercise in colonialism and racism….
In Aslan’s world, fey and soft-handed pseudo-intellectuals vowing to man the barricades and sexagenarian professors throwing rocks aren’t ridiculous, they’re heroic. They’re the vanguard of the hordes of spoiled children who claim to be oppressed when they aren’t, and who then pretend that they are the ones who are valiantly standing on the front line against the oppressors.
They’re silly and stupid, but they’re also dangerous: Others could heed Aslan’s repeated calls to “burn the f**king thing down” and end up destroying the society that has made it so easy for the likes of Reza Aslan and the late Edward Said to gain wealth and honor and live charmed lives. Aslan is now in the odd position of hoping that no one takes his calls seriously. If they do, he could end up in the smoking ruin of the American society for which he has such contempt, his comfortable life a thing of the past, dead by his own hand.
There is much more. Read the rest here.
mortimer says
A violent, lawless anarchist by his own words.
maria says
He should be executed. He is an animal not a human being
william carr says
You insult animals. RA is not an animal he is a very flawed human being like Hitler, Goebels, Himmler etc. and a privileged one at that
JANET says
Right on!
juleonly says
Gee, he sounds like a mideast Muslim.
curious george says
Off Topic… A very cool video, Texas Reloaded, in this article.
Republicans are knocking it out of the park with political ads and memes
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/republicans_are_knocking_it_out_of_the_park_with_political_ads_and_memes.html
gravenimage says
Thanks for that link.
curious george says
You’re welcome. It reminded me of the 1st Rocky movie. Quite encouraging.
RichardL says
awesome. Thanks for that!
curious george says
You’re welcome. I agree, I thought it was awesome also.
Cornelius says
>remember John Lennon chanting “Power to the people”
Not to mention “Imagine”, “Working Class Hero”, and the entire “Sometime in New York City” album. Lennon grew up in a comfy middle class home….far different from the other Beatles, whose roots were truly working class. He went through this ‘radical chic’ period from 1970 to 72….where he magnified his own self-importance by pretending to advocate for the downtrodden….(as if “Imagine no possessions” was something he could actually climb on board with, considering it would mean dispensing with his millions).
Interestingly, during his lost weekend separation from Yoko in ’74-’75, he largely dispensed with the revolutionary songs…but that could have had as much with the changing cultural conditions as anything else (once Nixon got our troops out of Vietnam in ’73, ‘radical chic’ had suddenly lost its chic).
Lennon was a brilliant song-writer…..whose political views were mostly superficial, vapid, and adolescent.
gravenimage says
Spot on analysis. He needed saner creative collaborators such as Paul McCartney to keep him grounded.
James Lincoln says
Cornelius says,
“Lennon was a brilliant song-writer…..whose political views were mostly superficial, vapid, and adolescent.”
An accurate analysis. He was also a gifted singer and, surprisingly, and above average rhythm guitarist.
That being said, if he were alive today, he would likely be a very influential Leftist.
mortimer says
Drugs weaken brains.
Matt says
Thank you, Robert, for so eloquently giving aslan the finger. Hopefully his “followers” and book sales have dwindled to about nobody and none.
mortimer says
The most devastating attacks on Reza Aslan came from bona fide academics who faulted him on recycling untenable notions that were put forward and then refuted many decades ago.
tgusa says
“the death threats’
If he tries to burn the f**king thing down threats will be the least of his worries. What does the dim bulb think Americans would do in response to that?
“since the death threats & Breitbart headlines about my tweet have now stopped let me just say”
Translation; Now that the threats and headlines have stopped it is safe for me to come out from under my desk and respond. For a guy who wants to trigger a war he sure appears to be a wimp.
gravenimage says
Aslan threatens violence, then pretends he is the victim.
tgusa says
They all do that. Yo can find the instructions on page 27 of chapter 4 (Victimology) in the weekly updated reliably incoherent book, Progism for Dummies. You will need to cross reference chapter 2 (Instigation) to fully understand the latest process.
gravenimage says
Yes. And a Muslim saying is “show a victim’s face and take over”.
Bezelel says
” the society that has made it so easy for the likes of Reza Aslan and the late Edward Said to gain wealth and honor and live charmed lives.”
The ingratitude of it all reminds me of barachktooey hussein obama. These types get help from unexpected places. I would like to see him actually work for a living.
Rob says
Didn’t Edward Said once say that only Middle Easterners should be allowed to study the Middle East. To which the late Bernard Lewis responded: ‘Does that mean that marine biology can only be studied by fish?’
Kepha says
Edward Said’s _Orientalism_ was an attack on the very intellectual curiosity that helped make the Western university a magnet for people from all over the world; in contrast to the stultifying intellectual regime imposed by Islam.
gravenimage says
Spot on, Kepha.
gravenimage says
Reza Aslan, Edward Said, and Radical Chic
……………
Yes–I’ve mentioned before that we are seeing another round of destructive Radical Chic now–as bad, perhaps, as that of the 1960s and ’70s.
Kepha says
As a credentialled geezer (politely called a Senior Citizen), I think the current wave is actually worse. We have people giving a platform to avowed Marxists thirty years after the Soviet Union collapsed and Deng Xiaoping saved China as the last, best hope of 20th century totalitarianism by mowing down people in the streets. In the Sillier ‘Seventies, you had people like Joan Baez who were openly repentant and embarrassed when the Cambodian horrors came to light, owning up to the role the Western Left had played in those mass murders. At this point, the Left is unapologetic about the ruining of downtown business owners, and even dishonorable members of the US House of Representatives and Senate openly praise those fascistic “Antifa”.
Yes, part of it is full speed ahead into the year 1968; but part of it is also an inexcusable love of destruction for destruction’s sake, and yet another part of it is willful ignorance.
Expat88 says
And not to mention, he looks like a complete fool. I love to see the video of him doing his little dance routine! Enough said.
Larry says
Pretty bold talk from a little weenie. Also, had he been more specific about the “thing” to be burned down, he could be charged with incitement of a riot. I would love to see this guy being frog-walked in cuffs to a jail cell.
notnolib says
If I remember right, Aslan is one of allahu’s ackbarbarians. He’s just behaving as a proper ackbarbarian, following the screed of the false prophet and pig-faced dog mohammed.
Seth says
‘likes of Reza Aslan and the late Edward Said’
i.e., malignant tumors. Alas, Western society is riddled with this cancer. Perhaps terminally.
James Lincoln says
Seth,
The cancer analogy is very appropriate – and primary prevention is always best.
Cancer can be staged from 0 – 4.
Some Western countries, like Poland and Hungary, etc., are essentially stage 0.
I would put the United States at stages 1 – 2, depending upon the part of the country.
Other Western countries, like France, Germany, Sweden, UK etc., are stages 2 – 3. Still hope for a “cure” with *extremely* aggressive measures, but the window of opportunity is closing fast.
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/understanding-four-stages-cancer/
mortimer says
A fine description of pseudo-intellectuals by Robert Spencer. They haven’t done the hard work of real work nor have they done the hard work of thought.
Cannell says
“Radical Chic” The Peruvians have a wonderful term for the same group: “Caviares.” Caviares are those who are socialists but they themselves don’t want to give up their caviar and their “caviar” lifestyle.