DEFEAT FASCISM

 Read Rebuke Resist

Sometimes I read Thomas Sowell to see how conservatives think. They say he was smart. I’m not, so I must take their word for it.

He once said he started out as a liberal, but facts got in his way.

He loved facts, or so he said.

Therein lies an interesting observation that I, a public-school product, made over time. Sowell loved to present facts and let the reader mix them as a viewer of an impressionistic painting mixes disparate colors to imply a new one. Sowell’s readers see facts and the conclusions they drew are their own affairs.

For example. He once wrote a treatise on slavery. Without once offering an opinion or, at the ending, a moral conclusion, he sprinkled the piece with facts about slavery.

It seems that a huge proportion of all organized groups, from the attendees at Adam and Eve’s family reunions to states of modern Africa, have practiced slavery.

A weak mind would mix these facts and absolve America of any shame associated with the practice. At least that seemed to be Sowell’s intent.

Everyone else was doing it. What the hell?

Now this may pass for critical thinking in some places, but it wouldn’t stand up to my Sainted Mother’s “If everyone else was jumping off a cliff …” test for juvenile guidance.

Watch a criminal trial. Opening arguments consist almost entirely of facts, sometimes the same on both sides. Nonetheless, their purpose is to lead the listeners to diametrically opposed impressions.

We can’t change the truth. As John Adams actually said, “Facts are stubborn things.” What we can change is our method of searching for moral guidance.