Alinsky's impact on our current moment (10-21-2025--Hour2)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. So all right, let me get to this because it is it's a well, okay, it's about a month old. It was an article at the Washington Examiner, and I missed it on their website. But I do get a dead tree copy recycled to me by a friend, and so I get them. But I'm usually a couple weeks behind on the dead Tree copy because the Washington Examiner's got a paywall, and you know, I'm just living on a radio salary, so I can't I can't have all the subs, you know. Anyway, the big piece by David Hersani, and we've had David on the program over the years, and I had a really good I think this was the cover story. Yes, it was one of it was connected to another story. That's two stories that were part of the cover headline writing the book on political violence. And I remember when I first came across this guy's name, not David Harsani, although I guess it would have been about the same time. But no, I'm talking about the name Saul Olinsky. And I had never heard this name before. I mean, I was a product of you know, government K twelve education, so it's not surprising. But the name Saul Olinsky I only started learning about when Barack Obama ran for president and I started seeing this name of some community organizer and he wrote a book called Rules for Radicals. And then, of course was the famous photo of Barack Obama at college and he's or maybe not at college, maybe it was like right after college where he where he went out to be a street organizer, community organizer guy. And he was doing like a chalkboard presentation of some kind, you know, teaching people about stuff about communities and organizing. And when you look at the photo, you can make out what's on the chalkboard, and it's it's the Olinsky stuff on the chalkboard. And I remember when I saw that picture, and I was like, huh, I'm reading this guy's name popping up, you know, from certain commentators and writers and such, and they're tracing the connections between Barack Obama and Saul Olinsky and what Olenski taught. And I remember the pushback because you know, this was going on for a while in conservative media. I covered it. I remember there was a whole case that was made that Barack Obama is a red diaper baby as they're called. You know, his parents were Communists, his grandparents commis ount in Hawaii. The guy in his book, his own biography, his autobiography, and he talked about his relationship with this guy, this father figure. His name was Frank, and that was Frank Marshall Davis, a Kami that his grandmother had sort of introduced her grandson too. So he had a father figure mentor in his life. Because at that point when Obama and his now single mom moved back from where were they, Indonesia, I want to say, and they had moved back to Hawaii and because she had gotten a divorce from her second husband, and that that was because he was working for I think it was a gas company maybe, but he was working in a corporate environment and it was getting he was becoming wealthier, and he was like welcoming this like new infusion of investment into the country, and the people were raising their station in life. And Obama's mom not so big on the capitalism, and so they had fights and stuff. They eventually separated, and yes this was the period in which Barack Obama ate dog. But anyway, he moves back to Hawaii. He's then, you know, paled up with Frank Marshall Davis, and I saw him referred to as red diaper baby, raised in this culture, in this ideology, and then he became sort of I saw another tag for him, which was the Red Avenger. In other words, I'm going to prove that the life's mission and philosophy of my parents, my mentor my grandparents, the weather underground terrorists that you know, helped launch my political campaign in their living room in Chicago. Like I'm going to prove that like I am the you know, the light bringer. People refer to him as like I'm going to bring the light to all the people, and I'm going to show everybody like this is fundamental transformation of America and like their philosophy was right, their lives weren't wasted, you know, pursuing the communist utopia. But I remember when I started looking into Saul Alinsky's stuff, reading through the Rules for Radicals, talking about it, and there was this sort of stiff arming in the legacy media, mainstream media outlets and such. I would get lefties that would call into the show and they would they would mock me, Oh yeah, rules for Radicals, Oh it's Sawlolinsky like. They would just like mock me in order to make me shut up about this guy Sawlolinsky like, denying that this guy and his strategy was you know, animating in any way. For any of these politicians, let alone Barack Obama, you get the same reaction, by the way, with George Soros. Right people try to stiff arm you out of that conversation too, because when it started breaking containment out of the right wing conservative media ecosystem and it started filtering into the mainstream, then there was this rush to dismiss and deflect and defend Saul Olinsky and Barack Obama because you know, the precious Obama has to be protected at all costs. And so I was interested to see this piece by David Harsani because he is connecting what we see now with Slolinsky. This is the natural trajectory. His headline writing the book on political violence, the subhead is how Slolinsky mainstreamed the radicalism seen on the left today. Perhaps no one helped bring violence and the disruption of all norms into the mainstream from the fringes more than Saulolinsky. His book Rules for Radicals explains what we are seeing today and how we got here. Just as the title of this nineteen seventy one work of practical militancy suggests, it codified tactics intended to overturn the constitutional order. At the same time, the quote Rules that Alinsky had championed threatened and promised to propel American politics into violence. The most reprehensible accomplishment of Rules for Radicals was convincing a generation of progressive Democrats that it no longer needed to ask the fundamental question does the end justify the means? Indeed, Olynsky derided this broad rule of civilized conduct as a meaningless moral formulation. That's what he called it. Who's meaningless? Does the end justify the means? What? He said? The only question worth posing, he said, was does this particular end, justify these particular means, and what does that mean. Well, that's why you get different standards in every conversation and on every top right. That's why you can be arguing with a lefty and they're taking a position of X, and then you shift to a different topic and now they're arguing not X, and it doesn't matter. There doesn't need to ever be a consistent application of a standard because of this philosophy that has so permeated the way the left engages in I was going to say discussion, but I mean, let's be clear, like that's not happening right by the way. I know, I have mocked the inflatable costumes that the left has been wearing of recent days, and I shouldn't have been doing that, not because it hurts their feelings or anything, but because they're simply doing that to deflect attention away from their violence. They knew things got too hot. That's them dialing it down. They're trying to dial it down by Oh my gosh, look at me. I'm just so silly. I'm dressed like a unicorn. M Yeah, I know what the person inside that costume is capable of. You know, stories are powerful. 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They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creativideo dot com. Got a message from John in New Jersey who says there's a film out there on how Olinsky developed community organizing and compromising social programs in the Catholic Church. It can probably be viewed somewhere without purchasing. It's called a wolf in sheep's clothing. Also regarding Obama, I could just never trust a guy who ate a dog. That's fair. That's fair, all right, So David Arsani writing about Saul Alinsky in the Washington Examiner. This was from the September twenty fourth edition, the Dead Tree Edition, the paper edition. Alinsky wrote, a practical revolutionary understands that quote, one does not always enjoy the luxury of a decision that is consistent both with one's individual conscience and the good of mankind. So a practical revolutionary understands that you don't always have the luxury of making a decision that is going to be consistent with your conscience and the good of mankind. So in other words, you're going to have to do some stuff that you don't want to do, that would offend your own conscience, but it's for the good of mankind. See, this is what makes communists so dangerous, much like well, really all of the worst people throughout history is they think they're doing good. They think that I am going to reach for this utopian vision. I can perfect society and people, and then everybody will be better off. This is a good place to be, and it's just all of this rabble getting in my way. And so you know what, Sorry, I'm going to have to exterminate a whole bunch of people in order to get to the utopia. But once we get there, it's going to be so good for you. See, don't you get it right? They think that they are doing something good. That's what makes them so dangerous. Well, that and all the murdering. Of course, as Harsani says, this is an invitation to do what your nature and civilization teach you is wrong, and then to allow you to excuse any enormity as being for the wider good. According to rules for radicals, what was good for mankind? Well, its answer was building a revolutionary force that methodically deconstructed the system and imposed class justice. The book is an instruction manual for appropriating the ideals of an open society and turning it against itself. It's also a ready made strategy of disruption by trial attorneys. This revolution begins with the fundamentally destructive task of transforming every interaction between citizens into confrontation. One of his rules you may have heard. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. One of his rules. I think there were thirteen. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. This is perhaps Lensky's most vulgar rule. Aim your fire at humans rather than amorphous institutions. Create caricatures of your opponents, because if you quote push a negative horr and deep enough, it will break through into its counterside. Is what he wrote. This is how to isolate your adversary and deny him public sympathy, even from his own side, which is really at the roots of the defender disavow game that the media make Republicans play all the time and never make Democrats play. By the way, have you heard of this guy what's his name, Plampton or something up in Maine. He's running for Senate. I want to say, I'm pretty sure he's in mein. And the guy was like a poop poster on Reddit that they don't call them poop posters, but you get the idea. And he has said some vile, awful things. I know it's not a secret group chat with you young Republicans. This guy was posting on you know, open threads on a public forum, and today it turns out dude has a Nazi tattoo on his chest. He's a democrat. Anybody playing defender disavow with him, No, didn't think So see how that works. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it, and so you isolate the adversary and you deny them public sympathy, even from people on his own side. People who have gone through these cancelations, they go into depression because all your friends and family now want nothing to do to do with you. Oh my god, I can't believe you said this thing. And now you're isolated and there's no path back. There's no forgiveness, there's no grace, there's no apology. Even in fact, if you offer an apology, then it's worse for you. There's no respite for grace or compromise. In Alenski's world, he says, quote, keep the pressure on, never let up. All of it in essence dehumanizes the opposition, and social media has thermonuclearized the ability of activists to demonize their opponents. Now here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. 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So anyway, hyper personalization, hyper personalization of politics. It works only if you can convince people on your side that their opponents are all evil. This is why progressive democrats bred on this kind of radicalized politics treat every single political setback, no matter how trivial, as if it's an existential threat to the nation or as I would say, to the democracy. Right. He is spot on. Harsani is spot on, Like this is why every single issue, no matter how big or small, is the end of the world. Everything is lost. Every Republican president is Hitler, and the next president that's a Republican is worse than the last Hitler. It's like at some point, like where Hitler cubed or something. He goes on to say, conservatives are not seen as merely adopting misguided policies, but as putting the elderly, the poor, and minorities in perilous situations. Even fleeting and mundane policy disagreements like a tax cut or the institution of net neutrality portend death. Well, okay, and hang on a second, that part, that part is actually true. I myself died when net neutrality was repealed, so like that, I'm not sure sure he may have missed the mark on that one. A lot of people died from net neutrality. Okay. Former President Joe Biden, you'll recall, delivered a speech smearing the right as budding fascists. Remember that speech right in Philadelphia. It was all had red lighting, had the black, black and red motif going a tableau. He had the two marines stationed behind him, and he was angry, calling all of his opponents fascists. And it was such a bad visual that I believe it was CNN. It may have been MSNBC, but then nobody would have seen it, so I think it was CNN. They actually adjusted the color filtering to try to make it less red. You could actually see it happen where it morphed into sort of a purplish you know. They tried to. They tried to increase the tinting of the blue a little bit, to make it a little bit more purple so it wouldn't be quite so jarring. Alinsky would have approved of that speech. He understood that the threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. That is a direct quote from Olinsky. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. Net neutrality, climate change, right, which is why democrasse is always allegedly hanging in the balance, but somehow never ends. It's why you see these people in their inflatable costumes and such. Oh, by the way, somebody said something about the inflatable costume. Here it does on the text line stand says an adult in an inflatable costume at a protest is scary because they are reproducing. Are they? Are they? I'm not sure about that. You need a fact check on that one. Radicals were council to compare their conservative opponents with Nazis even back in the day, back in the seventies, even prior. Actually, it's been going on for a very very long time. Many of the modern left have convinced themselves that their political opponents are ideologically as dangerous as Nazis. Again, this sort of hyperbole has been around for a long time. Alinsky used the Nazi analogy. The left began accusing Republicans of being Nazis when Harry Truman said that Thomas Dewey, the GOP presidential candidate, was a hitlarian frontman for bigots and profiteers. That was nineteen forty eight, right. Olinsky himself claimed to have quote survived the Joe McCarthy holocaust of the early nineteen fifties. That was a holocaust, Joe McCarthy, that was a holocaust. Really. Later in the piece, David Arsani goes on to say that modern Olenskiites don't function under any book of rules, that is, under any code that applies principles consistently. Their principles are contingent. That's the key to always remember that the principles are contingent. Everything is contingent. It's relativistic. Right. If an act moves your cause forward, it's okay, you can do it. There's no guardrails. They can play innocent. But anybody functioning in the real world understands that many progressive Democrats, perhaps most of them, have a difficult time coexisting with conservatives, usually treating conservatives as pariahs. I would refer you to the story that I covered at the end of the last hour about the man from Atlanta who could not bear to see, to simply view, a Trump banner whilst driving through western North Carolina. So he stopped his car and ripped it down. And then when the owner of the property saw him and fired warning shots into the air to scare him off of his property, the leftist accountant from Atlanta opened fire on the guy's house, firing indiscriminately from out of his sunroof, which just like that's just a really bit just from a tactical standpoint, that's not that's not wise, Like, it's not a natural position to be firing out of. Just like stick your hand up out of the sun roof and just fire around, you know, like you got no you got no firearm control there, you know. Just that's how I knew he was a lefty. Anyway, it's always the think pieces and the explanatory journalism pieces and the uh, you know, hey, I'm going to offer you this advice for Thanksgiving dinner when you're sitting around with your trumper Republican uncle. Here's how you here's how you fight back, and all this other stuff. Right, Democrats, according to the polling, have a difficult time coexisting with conservatives. Our mere existence is triggering to them. They get angry with us. Now I'm not and this is not all people who are liberal. Again, I use the word leftist, uh specifically, that is a it is an ideology, it's a religion. It's an ideology that animates a portion of people that would be considered you know, democrat liberal, not not even progressive, like I see those as as further towards towards the center than leftists. I use that word intentionally. It's not leftists who are browbeaten into silence and learn to keep their opinions to themselves in case they are attacked verbally at a minimum. Right, I don't ever hear of leftists having any kind of problem, you know, celebrating Charlie Kirk's death and then they're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm getting fired for posting Charlie Kirk's assassination was justified somehow, Like that's the first time I can recall there being any kind of ramifications for this kind of behavior. Conservative self censor themselves, particularly in the workplace, all the time, all the time. All Right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news, slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. All right, So back to the David Arsani piece. This is from the Washington Examiner talking about saul A. Lenski's rules for radicals that has laid the groundwork for the kind of violence that we are seeing today because we've had fifty years of leftist agitators trained up in this kind of in the Olinski philosophy. Okay, for example, there was one this is not in the article, but what Alinsky called it the eyes, ears nose tactic, which is, if you have the numbers right, if you're going to march someplace, you're going to protest whatever. If you've got the numbers, then you show up with the numbers and you parade around and you show your force. You show the size of your army. Right now. I also would just point out here that some of these tactics are not actually new. Olinski did not invent these, like I think this one is actually Sunsu Art of war. But regardless, this is what he says. If you have the numbers, you bring the numbers and you march around and you show the opponents the size of your forces. If you don't have the numbers, well then you just make yourself sound like you've got the numbers. And this is where social media becomes very effective because with the bot armies and such, you can you can make it seem like remember remember when Rush Limbaugh got targeted for the boycott, the Advertiser boycott, and he actually hired investigators to go find like who is doing this because it was all anonymous online people and I think I forget the exact number, but it was basically like ten to fifteen people and they had created what appeared to be or what sounded like a large army, but it wasn't. So that's the ears. Make yourself sound bigger, Maybe give yourself some important sounding name. Oh my gosh, these these sound this organization sounds powerful, sounds legitimate or whatever. Now, if you if you, if you don't have the the large army, and you can't make yourself sound like you're larger than you are, well, then there's the nose. And that is just to stink up the place. And that's what we see in like the North Carolina General Assembly with the Moral Monday protesters. We see it today, happened today, happened yesterday in the General Assembly where the protesters go in and they just they cause a scene. They stink the place up, right, they disrupt. These are the tactics and they've been the tactics for fifty years. Okay, so back to the piece here by David Arsani. The problem of leftists shutting down speech on campus is an old one. According to a recent you gov poll, people who identify themselves as very liberal people, which I think is a misnomer, as does David, But people who are quote very liberal are eight times more likely to say that political violence is justified. Then very conservative people do eight times the rate. The Foundation for Individual Rights and expression, fri or fire. They put out their college free speech rankings every year, and the latest one found that about one third of students contend that using violence to stop a campus speech is acceptable, about a third it's acceptable to use violence to shut down freeze. This isn't even the Heckler's veto anymore, right, that's not the Heckler's veto. That's the assassin's veto. That's very dangerous. And this, of course is at the root of this authoritarian mindset on the left that has to silence opposition because they can no longer if they ever could persuade based on rhetoric, based on oratory skills, based on data, for whatever reason, they cannot convince you that they are right, that you should do what they want. So if you're not going to do what I want, then I'm going to prevent you from making any case against me. And by the way, this is not just a leftist ideology. Islamists also engage in this very same kind of behavior. There is a nexus of authoritarianism, of tyrannical behavior. You're not even allowed to question this stuff in either camp. You can't question. You question, you get shouted down, you'll get canceled. Factions of the progressive left have made heroes of murderers for decades, like Jay Govara Castro Mao Stalin. For years, he says, I attended the Conservative Political Action Conference or SEAPAC, and never once did I witness anyone celebrating the legacy of a mass murderer or terrorists. But whenever I go to the Socialism Conference in Chicago, I can purchase a slew of their work at the book sale. The only way for the mainstream left to join the side of angels is to reject Alensky's moral relativism. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecallnershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.