(Editor’s note: You can listen to this column, read by the author, here.)
Here’s an example of how the left funds a system to accuse their foes of “hate,” while employing violent hate-group organizers themselves.
The progressive guru Saul Alinsky laid out an effective battle plan for the left’s cultural socialistic revolution, the heights of which are being played out now throughout American and in Colorado specifically.
His 1971 book, Rules for Radicals, taught young socialists to disrupt the system. His 13th Rule has now been perfected like a sniper’s rifle, “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
Otherwise known as the politics of personal destruction, it’s now the hallmark of the modern political age. Focus on one person, or organization, get all your allies to triangulate on him, keep attacking until he quits or has been effectively destroyed.
Think of all the Republican candidates that have a series “offensive little stories” pop out from their past to build up like a wave and wipe them out. It’s not an accident. It’s the 13th Rule in action.
In Colorado the operation is well-funded and oiled. One of the levers of the machine is to collect and warehouse stories that might someday been useful. So, they fund organizations that look like legitimate news sources.
Although you’ve likely never heard of Colorado Times Recorder (CTR) it’s run by a handful of social justice warriors. Their mission is to consistently ankle bite conservatives for stories that might “cancel” them later.
For the likes of Colorado Times Recorder, the mere association, however vague, to something distasteful is newsworthy. Example, Walker Stapleton running for governor. The nerve to be a distant descendant of a KKK member. His great-grandpa, Benjamin Stapleton, was Denver’s mayor in the 1920’s.
“Gotcha” articles like (and get ready for these scandals) Walker moving a picture of old Ben off his office wall, or how he didn’t talk to the NY Times about old Ben were common for CTR.
Colorado Times Recorder’s job was to connect the Klan to Walker to help build a narrative of a racist Walker.
So how very interesting that conservative reporter Andy Ngo recently reported that one of Colorado Times Recorder’s reporters has, not a distant association with, but a leadership role with the violent hate-group Antifa. And somehow that is NOT worth getting canceled.
In fact, CTR stands behind their so called reporter adding, “We’re proud to have her as a colleague and friend.”
On his online news service, ThePostmillennial.com, Ngo reported the “individual who created the violent Colorado Springs Antifa Twitter account was suspended from Twitter has been identified as a far-left furry, transgender activist and former high school teacher who boasted using their military experience to ‘fck sht up.’ ”
Ngo broke it on Twitter, “@COSAntiFascists, the Colorado Springs cell of #Antifa, has been suspended on Twitter. The account has operated for years instructing comrades to assault people & directing member to get the home addresses, phone numbers of targets. It had 15k followers.”
Heide Beedle, formerly Sean Beedle, has tweeted, “Do I support violence? Yes. Fck ’em.” Just a year ago tweeting, “Anyway, just want to reaffirm once again that antifa is good, actually.”
That wasn’t long after AR-15 toting Antifa members (including Heide? if only curious reporters might investigate) blocked off streets in the Springs.
Over Twitter I asked CTR’s editor, Jason Salzman, a genuinely nice guy and straight shooter, if he knew Beedle was Antifa before Beedle’s hiring. He did, but said it was in Beedle’s past.
I asked if he would hire a person who was in the KKK. His answer, “No, we would not hire a KKK member.”
Hmm. So just some violent hate groups are unacceptable?
Back to Saul Alinsky’s Rule’s for Radicals, I’m a fan of his 4th rule, “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
In other words, if conservatives are to be canceled because of the “hateful” words they’ve used or the questionable company they’ve kept, and it’s the role of Colorado Times Recorder to chronicle such offenses, then surely this “reporter” must be fired from CTR immediately and CTR must issue a heartfelt apology and detail how it will avoid hiring people who’ve incited violence in the future.
If not, it’s proof of what groups like Colorado Times Recorder are and the role they play in the machine.
The left tolerates calls for violence.
Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
