America is a nation divided

One cannot fail to be troubled by the growing cultural divisions within the country

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(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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Imagine a European country today in which a newspaper in its most populous city launches a mendacious project reinterpreting its past. The practice was perfected under the old communist system that ruled Romania, Hungary, Poland and the rest of the Soviet satellites. But it is no longer possible in that part of the world now that the old continent has rediscovered freedom.

It is taking place elsewhere, though, right here in New York, marinated by the Bagel Times, which has invented a nation predicated on racism and enforced racial inequality. The 1619 Project is based on…

Imagine a European country today in which a newspaper in its most populous city launches a mendacious project reinterpreting its past. The practice was perfected under the old communist system that ruled Romania, Hungary, Poland and the rest of the Soviet satellites. But it is no longer possible in that part of the world now that the old continent has rediscovered freedom.

It is taking place elsewhere, though, right here in New York, marinated by the Bagel Times, which has invented a nation predicated on racism and enforced racial inequality. The 1619 Project is based on delusion and is a sweeping assault on the American way of life, spreading racial and gender discord. I have yet to encounter a person who takes this project seriously, and yet many white liberals and minorities live and breathe it.

Although life’s too short and much too pleasant to bother with false history, one cannot fail to be troubled by the growing cultural divisions within the country. There is intense polarization, bitterness, resentment and criminal activity. A Bagel Times columnist joyfully announces the crumbling of the Protestant establishment in the last century, describing America today as being “marvelously diverse.” What shouldn’t be forgotten is that it was the Protestant establishment that made America the leading nation on Earth and took in the hungry and huddled masses of the world.

As they say, no good deed goes unpunished, and Uncle Sam is now paying the price for his good deeds. The falsification of the past has been standard procedure under totalitarian regimes the world over, and it still is in certain parts of the world. But I never thought it possible here in America. It is normal for people to wish to preserve their own culture, but when that culture is presented as being built on hate, murder and cruelty against a minority it begins to resemble totalitarian regimes of the past. And that is the point of the 1619 Project: it aims to portray whites as colonialist oppressors and then take it from there. Well, I for one do not fall for such rubbish, and nor do many Americans, who can tell the difference between lies and historical truth.

Who benefits from this monstrous invention? Fantasist pseudo-historians can come up with any theory that suits them, but to whose benefit? I think libel laws prevent me from accusing those who are behind this sordid saga, but eventually the truth will emerge. For the moment it’s New Yorkers, San Franciscans, Chicagoans, Portlanders, Philadelphians and other dwellers of large cities who are suffering as criminals walk out of jail faster than the police can fill out arrest reports. There is a dramatic rise in murders, rioting, mobs looting stores and violence in America, and the Bagel’s no-bail-required rule has emptied the jails of hardened criminals. In Philadelphia, non-prosecution and de-carceration has emptied the jails, doubled the murder rate (from 248 in 2014 to over 500 in 2021) and demoralized the police. If this helps minorities, I am Alphonse Capone.

I know it is easy to be caught in nostalgia’s thrall, but life really was more fun in New York before the Bagel Times deemed us all to be oppressors. Incidentally, the Times employs a media columnist of sorts, but no word-Smith he. One needs to read the hack’s sentences at least three times for them to make some kind of sense. He managed to get a German scribe fired for having slept with a female colleague, but missed the biggest media story of the past twenty-five years, that of the Russian hoax which ran and ran for three years.

Never mind. Discrimination in America is hardly new. The Irish were the first to feel it, and they felt it rather hard, followed by the Jews and then the Italians. The Hispanics came after World War Two. When I see what those immigrants have accomplished in America, it makes me question whether the high rates of violent crime among blacks and Hispanics can be blamed entirely on systemic racism and whether individuals themselves bear any responsibility. George Floyd, a career criminal, is not representative of black America, as some losers pretend. Black Americans deserve better.

This is my last column from the polarized states and divided souls of America as I’m headed for the old continent that was once home to the huddled masses who made it big in the US. When the commies blew up my father’s factories following the war — he had shut them down for four years — he came to America and became a ship owner. Little ole me followed a few years later. The place was paradise for the haves and close to paradise for the have-nots. It now reminds me a bit of immediate postwar Europe. A place full of violent men seeking retribution, displaced persons complaining of having had a raw deal, and opportunist politicians seeking to gain an edge. And it’s all Thomas Jefferson’s fault.

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s February 2022 World edition.