One Direction Only

You can't be mean to the comrades, but they can be mean to you

Oh, so was this caused by “corporate greed”…?

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Here’s the original article:

Who We Are

Here’s the comment that caught my eye:

I opened a newly purchased jar of Smuckers strawberry jam yesterday. It was very obviously watered down compared to how it has always looked before. And, it's also more expensive than it used to be. Why should I have to pay more for an inferior product? Just so the company can keep up their profit margin. This is just one example of corporate greed. Something needs to be done about it, and Trump sure as hell won't do anything. Because he needs to stay in good graces with his rich buddies to stay out of prison.

Here is my comment on that comment:

Well, I’m sure that the Bratgirl, assuming that she oils her way into the presidency, will make sure that your strawberry jam is just as jammy as you feel it should be. With enough bureaucrats, anything is possible.

Oh, and BTW, if companies can’t keep up their profit margins, it might be found that strawberry jam and much else is in short supply.

And here is the rap across the knuckles I received:

I am all for disagreement here, political and otherwise, and in fact I welcome discourse. But I don't like mean comments about anyone. Please keep it civil, I am sure you can do that, Mr. Gregg.

Now as it happened, earlier in the day I‘d done some grocery shopping, one of the items on my list being Smuckers Strawberry Jam. The claim that said jam is being adulterated was therefore easy to evaluate. I got a spoon, opened the jar, examined the contents for consistency, and took a taste. As far as I could tell, it was the same old Smuckers that I’ve been smearing on my toast and English muffins for years and decades.

Claims emanating from the Left that inflation is due to “corporate greed” are of course ridiculous. Inflation is downstream from monetary policy. It occurs when there’s too much money chasing too few goods. This puts upward pressure on both wages and prices. In extreme cases, e.g. Germany in the early 1920s, this can reduce the value of a nation’s currency to zero. Fortunately for America, the Biden spending spree didn’t reach that level of insanity, but by flooding the economy with cash it caused an inflationary spike whose lingering effects are still causing plenty of pain.

But apparently, it’s mean to point out the real causes of inflation, or to heap scorn on a terrible idea like government price controls. I find myself unmoved by this demand for civility, because it goes in one direction only. To call Kamala Harris a Commie is held to be a grievous breach of decorum, but denouncing Republicans and conservatives as Nazis, racists, xenophobes, misogynists, homophobes, etc., etc. is perfectly fine. Donald Trump and his family can be subjected to the most vicious invective, and that’s well within the bounds of permissible political discourse, but don’t you dare make fun of Dr. Jill or Hunter! The most egregious lies are noble and even patriotic when uttered in the service of the progressive cause. After all, do not the ends justify the means?

So pardon me if I’m not prepared to be scolded by anyone who adheres to that double standard. Even so, however, I personally wouldn’t call the Bratgirl a Commie. She’s a California progressive, and surely that’s bad enough. Postmodern progressivism is deeply illiberal, full of dumb and destructive ideas, hostile to freedom of thought and expression, marbled with antisemitism, and that’s bad enough too.

The besetting sin of po-mo progressivism is that it has transformed American politics into a morality play. It’s not, however, a drama based on actual virtue, but a farce based on a portfolio of perverse claptrap like critical race theory and transgender ideology. To reject that claptrap—or worse, to laugh at it—is to be marked down as a thought criminal. Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc, don’t you know…