By Nathan Barton

Tom Woods recently reported on a well-known conductor whose career may have been ruined by a snitch, this weekend at the Oregon Bach Festival. Overhearing a conversation between two good friends (one British white, one Florida black), she construed their jesting as the Brit (the conductor) making a racist joke.  And she reported it – to the press.

That’s right.  So incensed by the “tone” of the private (or at least semi-private) conversation between two good friends, this woman ran to the press to “rat them out,” for something which the black Floridian (a singer) said was absolutely NOT racist.  And the media, ever looking for ways to sell their papers (or the ads on their websites), by blowing things out of proportion, did so.

This is not an isolated incident.  Indeed, it is something which happens every day – probably thousands of times a day. Tom Woods and others are constantly reporting on things like a libertarian fired by his employer for being a Nazi, after an Antifa posting “outed” him, or even progressives eaten by their own. Someone does something that another person doesn’t like:

• they say something that might, just might, be disparaging against some group
• they suggest something that someone, usually “on behalf of” some group (of which they are not even a part), claims will act as a trigger for anxiety or fear or flashbacks
• they “fail” to adequately praise or affirm some group and therefore are “showing their true feelings” as a racist or bigot or some other evil personality trait
• and on and on

In the past, that created hurt feelings, and sometimes developed into a feud (which could, admittedly, last for years or generations).

But not today.  Not in our modern nanny state.  Where government, aided by the media and celebrities and gossip-mongers on every corner, tries to control every moment of our lives and enforce, more or less, every edict that you can imagine. Where people anxious to tear down society, to allow it to be rebuilt in accordance with their vision of the future, grasp every opportunity to denigrate traditions and customs.  And of course, do it in public.  In as public a forum as they have available to them:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Webzines and news sites on-line
• Local city code enforcement and other police agencies
• Local government meetings and assemblies
• Company board rooms and waiting rooms
• Football and other sports events
• College commons
• Court house squares, plazas, and anyplace else the media can show them in

Where ever they do this, the intent is NOT to directly change the behavior that they are opposed to – otherwise, they’d at least FIRST try to go to the person who offends them and get them to change.

But that isn’t what they want: they want to mobilize public opinion and whip the politicians into a frenzy to make illegal whatever behavior or speech or attitude that they do not like.  They WANT those who do something they disagree with to be forced to STOP doing it by using the government’s power of the gun to do so. Or even to be forced to start doing something they want everyone (or a few of us) to do.

We used to say that people like this are scared of the fact that someone, somewhere, might be happy and they just couldn’t have that.  Today, it is worse: they will only be happy if they can make the rest of us do what they want.  And they are willing to use the deadly hammer of government to get it.

If we let them.  Isn’t it time to stop playing by their rules?

Enough is enough.