For Our Leftist Elites, the Double Standard’s Meant to Be Blatant. That’s the Point

I came to understand our political situation today by watching gorilla documentaries. Let me explain.

At day’s end, when I’m exhausted, I wind down by finally turning on the television. The last things I usually watch are nature films, on the diverse, fascinating, and mostly apolitical channel CuriosityStream. For a grand total of $12 per year (as of now), you get access to thousands of polished, beautifully produced documentaries on every subject from ancient history to contemporary science. It’s the best entertainment money I’ve ever spent.

Invariably, I look for animal films. First of all, I’m a sucker for God’s innocent creatures, especially the furry ones. But I take delight in all the evidence of direct, Divine design all through the animal kingdom — from speeding sharks to circling condors. I do wish CuriosityStream would air some programming from the Discovery Institute. Its scientists do much better explaining nature via design than Darwinists do with their “just so” stories and smuggled-in teleology. (“Evolution developed the eagle’s eye to make it a better hunter… .”)

The Pyramid Is the Point

One thing I notice among most higher mammals, especially primates: the almost universal preoccupation with hierarchy. In some species, only the highest status female gets to breed. Once she claims that position, usually by bullying other females, it goes mostly unchallenged. But much more prevalent are species where the status that matters is male. The dominant male collects a harem of she-gorillas or sea lionesses, and fathers all the group’s children. Lesser males steer well clear of females, and accept the scraps from hunts, lest they summon the alpha male’s wrath. Often the dominant males will go out of their way to humiliate their lesser brethren, just to remind them who’s boss.

And that’s how to understand what’s happening politically right now in America.

As Lenin Asked: “Who Rules Whom?”

The default, fallen condition of man — absent Grace — can mirror that of the beasts. Despite our Redemption, we still struggle with the side-effects and lasting scars of the Fall. When our cultures reject the Gospel, that primate dynamic comes roaring back with a vengeance. (And even Christian societies are not immune to this perennial temptation.)

The most obvious instance of this arose with Islam. When Islamic warriors conquered their Jewish and Christian neighbors, they developed a system for ruling over vast, non-Muslim majorities. Polytheists they slaughtered outright, but to monotheists like us they offered the promise of safe, second-class citizenship (dhimmitude). We’d have to pay a special, heavy tax. We couldn’t display the emblems of our religion: No crosses or bells on churches, no public processions or festivals. Christians couldn’t carry swords, ride horses, or work in many professions. If a Christian and a Muslim met on the street, the Christian would have to step aside and show him respect.

Worst of all? In such Muslim-run countries evangelization is banned. We’re forbidden on pain of imprisonment from obeying the Great Commission. And in many lands, those who leave Islam, including those who get baptized, face the penalty of death. The result? Churches in lands like Egypt, Iraq, and North Africa remain little ethnic enclaves, perpetually on the defensive.

The system was designed to gradually grind them down till most of them became Muslims, and in most countries it worked. Not many people, it turns out, can hold onto a faith that renders them virtually Untouchables, and guarantees that status for their children, grand-children, and so on.

Whites in America after the Civil War replicated something like dhimmitude for black citizens, offering them second-class citizenship and enduring poverty, as the price of relative peace. Those who refused the unequal Jim Crow bargain could expect visits from lynch mobs or the Klan.

We Get to Burn Cities. You Can’t Post on Twitter.

This basic axiom of fallen human nature explains what’s happening right now. Honest politicians like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are pointing to the staggering double standards applied to right and left. Leftist politicians like Kamala Harris could praise and encourage the riots last spring. Their own side nodded and smiled. Donald Trump used a few poorly chosen words, and the Capitol Hill fracas gets pinned on him. Now some Republicans are signing on to remove him from office. You can barely drive down a highway without seeing some Trump supporter getting thrown under the bus, by his one-time allies in politics, or “brethren” in church.

The same liberals who insist that we can’t pass anti-porn laws, for fear of censorship, applaud when social media monopolies silence conservatives and Christians. They snickered when Trump was tossed off Twitter, allegedly for encouraging “violence.” They laughed out loud when alternative platform Parler was shut down entirely Sunday night night by Amazon, whose servers it used.

You and I can’t help it. We’re driven to point out the gaping double standard, the manifest unfairness. But we should be careful to manage our expectations. If we think it accomplishes anything to point up this injustice, we’re probably wrong. Because … stay with me here … the injustice is the point.

Dropping the Mask

However liberals cling, as part of their weaponized Wokeness, to rhetoric that reflects our old Christian culture and its ideals of equal treatment and justice, they don’t believe in such things. Don’t fool yourself that they do. Those on the Left may still mouth some old-timey Christian slogans they picked up from the Civil Rights Movement. But in fact they’re acting on the brutal Darwinism which they believe.

Over the past several decades via its long march through institutions, the Left has gained most of the power in the West. From corporate boardrooms to schoolrooms, from press rooms to pulpits. When we elected Donald Trump, they were absolutely outraged, like the alpha male gorilla sensing a challenge from a younger, weaker male. So the Left spent the past four years beating back that rebellion, showing us that even the U.S. presidency could be rendered empty, if they wished.

Now that they’ve fully established who’s in charge, don’t expect magnanimity, or even basic fairness. Instead expect leftist Sharia, the systematic humiliation and relentless degradation of anyone who dissents. At this point, exposing the double standards becomes almost counterproductive. The message the Left wants to send could not be clearer: “Yes, of course there are double standards. That’s what you get for being an infidel, for rejecting our creed. However, if you wanted to sign on this dotted line … all your troubles would be over.” As The Epoch Times reported, Antifa mobilized on January 11 in New York City to meet a rumored pro-Trump demonstration. Like a troop of alpha apes, Antifa claimed the public square for its own.

Footage from the march showed a large group of demonstrators marching and chanting: “Whose streets? Our streets!” Other video posted on social media showed a protester dressed in a police uniform wearing a pig mask walking alongside New York Police Department officers.

Stamping on a Human Face, Forever

Beyond the wish to browbeat and gaslight the masses into surrender, there’s a certain dark, fallen primate glee entailed in exercising raw power. Never underestimate that. Orwell didn’t, when he gave as the goal of the regime in 1984:

[A]lways there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever.

Fake Repentance, Real Servility

Expect some among us to give up the “hopeless” crusade against the new, implacable power of the anti-Christian Left. They see the deal that’s offered them: safe but degrading dhimmitude. And they accept it. “I, for one, welcome our new Woke overlords!” you can see them saying on social media and in columns. That’s the real message they’re sending when they wring other people’s hands and demand that they “atone” for backing Trump.

Some servile types are auditioning to work as Christian scribes at the Sultan’s court, where deference is rewarded with Turkish Delight, such as Narnia’s Queen offered Edmund, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

We must pray for the strength to say “No” over and over, to persevere regardless. The great persecutor of Christians Diocletian was mortal, and so was his regime. No one saw Constantine coming.