Topic category:  Other/General

Knowing that there is no fool like an old fool, the seasoned citizen trying to prove he hasn’t lost his grip on America’s rapidly changing culture quips says to his grandchild, “I’m not exactly your father’s Oldsmobile.”  His grandchild looks at him like he is a dithering old codger and says, “What’s an Oldsmobile?”    

If the latest tech wonders seem more like science fiction to you.  If the Apple watch reminds you of Dick Tracey and 3-D printers of Captain Kirk’s replicator than the coming transformed America may remind you of the Oceania Eurasia and Eastasia of Orwell’s 1984.  Then again there are other things that remind me of 1984 in American society today.  For instance the outpouring of vitriol unleashed against anyone who the Corporations Once Called the Mainstream Media finds to have transgressed the politically correct standards of the Progressive Elites.   

The case of Memories Pizza in Walkteron, Indiania is a case in point.  A reporter for a local TV station, Alyssa Marino, was out trolling for evidence to support a story she wanted to write.  Crystal O'Connor, the co-owner of Memories Pizza, after being asked if she would cater a gay wedding told WBND-TV she would serve a gay or non-Christian couple at the restaurant, but would not cater a same- sex couples wedding. 

How did this media feeding frenzy come about?  According to Scott Ott of PJ Media:  

Memories Pizza didn’t blast out a news release. They didn’t contact the media, nor make a stink on Twitter or Facebook. They didn’t even post a sign in the window rejecting gay-wedding catering jobs. They merely answered questions from a novice reporter who strolled into their restaurant one day – who was sent on a mission by an irresponsible news organization. 

Next: ABC-57 anchor Brian Dorman leads the evening newscast dramatically with this: 

Only on ABC-57 News tonight. We went into small towns looking for reaction to the Religious Freedom Act. We found one business, just 20 miles away from a welcoming South Bend…with a very different view…. 

Not only did ABC-57 News create that story ex nihilo (out of nothing), but the next day, the station’s Rosie Woods reported on the social-media backlash against the Christian pizza shop owners. 

“Our Facebook page has been blowing up with comments after we aired that story last night,” said Woods. 

You see, not only did ABC-57 manufacture the story with an ambush interview, it then doubled-down by making the reaction to the story into another story to give the sense of momentum, as if it were growing at its own impetus. Yet, everything about it is a fabrication. 

Memories Pizza didn’t “publicly vow to reject gay weddings” as HuffPo says it. The O’Connors were just, quite literally, minding their own business. 

Back in the ABC-57 studio, Rosie Woods read three negative social media comments attacking the pizza shop owners, and then said, “And that’s just one side of this debate that’s heating up as more people and business owners speak up about the law.” 

She then quotes one (1) person, the owner of another business, who agreed with the O’Connors. Seems that “just one side of this debate” deserves more attention than the other. 

Meanwhile, over at Yelp.com, more than a thousand “reviews” of Memories Pizza rapidly accumulated, quickly overwhelming the positive comments from actual customers who like the pizza, the hospitality and the small-town charm. Folks who never heard of Walkerton attacked Crystal O’Connor’s business, her morality, and her Lord. Many of the remarks included racially charged descriptions of genitalia and sex acts. “Reviewers” also posted pictures of naked men, of Adolf Hitler shouting “Ich habe ein pizza” (I have a pizza), and of Jesus gesturing with his middle finger. Over on Facebook, the restaurant’s 5-star average rating rapidly plunged to one star, as non-customers slammed away at Crystal’s little business. 

In Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, a manifesto of political power, Rule No. 12 says, in part: Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.) 

The Left doesn’t care who gets hurt, so long as they get what they want. They’re willing — no, they’re eager — to sacrifice a small-town business, and its owners.  

Lest you think I’m being too dramatic. Late Wednesday, word comes that Jess Dooley, a female coach at Concord High School 45 minutes away in Elkhart, has been suspended after tweeting:  

Who’s going to Walkerton, IN to burn down #memoriespizza w me? 

All of this reminds me of the 2 minutes of hate that was a tool of Big Brother.  The Two Minutes of Hate is a ritual observance that is designed to use the collective rage of the people against supposed "enemies of the Party" to strengthen the Party's position among the people. The ritual serves to unify the people in the observance of the ritual. 

The Two Minutes of Hate also serves the purpose of religious observance by deifying Big Brother. It serves to channel the rage that persons may feel toward the lack of control over their own lives away from the Party and against purported enemies of the Party. Because Big Brother is proclaimed to be benevolent and good, any enemy is automatically evil and bad. While it is a "two minutes hate" the desired end result is less hatred of Big Brother. 

This is very similar to what some politicians do to strengthen their position when they feel threatened. The politicians will invent an enemy and then channel the public rage against that enemy. 

Then there is the double standard that shows this is not really about gay rights or gay weddings it is about attacking the religious liberty of Christians.  For instance Muslim bakeries in Michigan refused to bake cakes for gay weddings. You would think that would be news like Memories Pizza refusing to cater gay weddings. No. Muslims are part of the liberal media protected class. If Muslims want to follow their own religious beliefs and not bake cakes for gay weddings, you don’t hear any big outcry about bigotry of ‘homophobia.’ Instead, these Muslim bakeries in Michigan are given a pass to practice their religion as they see fit, unlike Christians. 

Then of course there is the direct opposite of the Memories Pizza case where gay bakers refuse to cater a Christian wedding.    Tim Richards and Cheryl Johnson reported they were recently turned down for a wedding cake by Stewart's Cakes in Kettering, Ohio.  "When we told the man what we wanted and where we wanted the cake delivered, he turned us down," said Richards. "We asked if he could deliver a 4-layer chocolate and vanilla wedding cake to the Holy Calvary Church, and he told us it was against his principles to serve us." 

The owner of Stewart's Cakes, Stephen Hillstrom, who married his partner in Washington D.C. last year, told reporters, "We're a private business, and we're allowed to serve or not serve whomever we'd like. It would violate our beliefs to serve people like that."  Have you heard a media storm about this?  Don’t expect to because it isn’t coming.  This is a one way street and a classic case of Christian bashing by the media. 

Thus the culture war of the 80s and 90s has morphed into the triumphant Progressive Elites and their majority hating storm troopers smashing anyone left who dares to stand for values not baptized in the politically correct secular humanism of the of the ascendant minority.  A coalition of Progressives in both parties, the left-wing media, various activist groups that live off the conflict, and the low information voters who empower it all ride rough shod over those who not long ago ruled the roost. 

All this signals the last gasp of the once ruling majority as it accepts the control of the Progressive minority without even a whimper. 

Let me ask one final question.  If you are treated this way when you are still the majority how will you be treated once you really are a minority? 

Dr. Robert Owens
The History of the Future

Biography - Dr. Robert Owens

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. Get the latest dispatches from the History of the Future and find books by Dr. Owens @ http://drrobertowens.com View the trailer for Dr. Owens’ latest book @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ypkoS0gGn8 © 2014 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook.