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An MSNBC contributor named Anand Giridharadas believes that those of us who are balking at the heavy hands of government, during this Covid-19 pandemic, have an infantile view of freedom. Those of us doing the balking may believe that Mr. Giridharadas is a condescending nimrod with no understanding of The Constitution. We would be correct.
Since like me, you had never heard of Anand Giridharadas before today, I looked up his bio. Mr. Giriharadas attended Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.. He has written for the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. He hosts a program called “Seat At The Table with Anand Giriharadas”, in addition to his role as an MSNBC contributor. This particular interview was conducted by Christiane Amanpour. So, why does Mr. Giridharadas believe that we have an infantile view of freedom?
Watch the video, and then, we will discuss:
Mr. Giridharadas asserts that many Americans have a childlike understanding of freedom that goes back to our founding. Um, yeah. Those of who know our history do have an understanding of freedom that goes back to our founding. “Childlike”? Our Founding Fathers were highly educated men. James Madison, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton knew what it was like to live with the King’s boot on their necks. Their speech and movements were restricted and their homes were not secure from the King’s intrusions. They could not peaceably assemble. That might be why good, old James Madison included the right to peaceably assemble in the First Amendment with freedom of speech, religion, the press and the right to petition the government for the redress of grievances.
Americans do not and have never defined freedom as the absence of government. That would be infantile. Government is a necessary fact of life. Absence of government would be anarchy. We are not infantile. We obey the federal, state and local laws and ordinances. After that, we do want the government to leave us alone.
Mr. Giridharadas next statement is that we are paranoid about the government being way more interested in us than we are interesting. Mr. Giridharadas, and I mean this in the most sincere and loving fashion, “Bless your heart. I’ma pray for you.” You have boring, trite and shallow opinions of those who disagree with you and you are going to say we are not interesting. Epic fail.
We are paranoid because we don’t think the government has the right to shut down churches and small businesses. Try again. Maybe we have read The Constitution. Nowhere does it say that the rights come from God and not the government, except in the case of a pandemic.
Next, Mr. Giridharadas claims that we are in more danger from private actors, like banks, than we are from government overreach. We are just paranoid about government. The government is not coming for our guns. Right. Tell that to the folks at Ruby Ridge.
Mr. Giridharadas says that our government is our bulwark against be underpaid. It’s government that can get us $15.00 per hour. Apparently, in all his education, he has never heard of personal agency. If you are underpaid, if you desire more than $7.00 per hour, you can get better educated, often through taxpayer funded education programs. You can move to a different area, where there are better opportunities. Mr. Giridharadas apparently is ignorant of life as an American citizen, although he was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, right outside of Cleveland. I am appalled by his ignorance. At his age, about 39, it’s not just ignorant, it’s downright infantile to be this uneducated.
Before you deride others’ views as infantile, you ought to take a self-inventory. If you don’t, you will come off as a condescending nimrod.
Featured Image: Hoola Tallulah/Flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Joe in PNG says: Not surprising. The Leftist intelligentsia has been working to return us to feudalism since pretty much forever.
They’re just far more open about it now.
Nolan Parker says: I doubt my understanding of Freedom is childlike. I KNOW what it means,, and I am absolutely certain my understanding of the tyrannical desires of Librulls are fully mature..Screw em..
Joe in PNG says: It’s an ancient argument of the elitist against (ironically) Liberalism- that the general population is too ignorant to govern themselves, but need the hand of the enlightened elite to guide and correct them.
That the elite would enjoy all the good things (as benefiting their station) while denying them to the lower classes, well, that’s just how it works… and the hoi polloi would just abuse it anyway.
Then, America came along and proved that the old Liberalism works- that the common peoples are actually better at self government than any set of supposed elites you could name- from aristocrats of the blood to the nomenklatura of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Americans enjoy more freedom, more economic opportunity, better security, and so on than any other peoples of any other nation every. Even in our currently degraded state.
GWB says: But, mind you, the hoi polloi are only capable of this if they maintain themselves as moral and educated. If they lose their critical thinking and give up their morality, then, yes, they certainly are too ignorant to rule themselves.
Johnny says: “… you will come off as a condescending nimrod.”
Oh, Toni.
Methinks you’re going to get a sternly worded letter from the American Nimrod Association…
Cameron says: “Americans do not and have never defined freedom as the absence of government”
People like this cretin have a binary world view on this. You either support Big Daddy Government in all things or you want the nation to collapse in anarchy. The very idea that people can run their lives without government permission is abhorrent to this over-educated soy boy.
“If you are underpaid, if you desire more than $7.00 per hour, you can get better educated, often through taxpayer funded education programs. ”
Been there, done it, lived it. Poverty sucks. That’s why I pushed myself and earned a better job.
Lefties are the infantile ones. Freedom is not simply doing whatever you want. That’s the left’s wish for themselves; it’s infantile and selfish. Freedom, coupled with responsibility, is mature. Lefties want no personal responsibility; again, that’s infantile and selfish. The adults understand that their freedom ends at the rights of others. I’m free to possess a Lamborghini, but I’m not free to take yours without paying for it.
No cannot reason with lefties for the most part, because lefties have no capacity for reason for the most part.
GWB says: Mr. Giridharadas claims that we are in more danger from private actors, like banks, than we are from government overreach.
Well, the banks don’t have power over us like the gov’t does. Unless, of course, the gov’t has intervened and granted them some sort of power. You know, like banking regulations that favor the big banks over the small ones. Or the gov’t forces collusion among the banks (Operation Chokepoint). Or (an example other than banks) the gov’t gives monopoly power to a tech platform or two.
At his age, about 39, it’s not just ignorant, it’s downright infantile
This.
Mind you, there are PLENTY of Americans who ARE infantile about their freedom. They are the ones who demand “positive rights” (e.g., rights that something has to be taken from someone else to be given to you). They are the libertines (those who demand license without responsibility). They are those that demand fascism (gov’t control of the corporations in the marketplace – to obtain their “fair” world) – often while misusing “fascism” to describe what it most assuredly is not.
John Casteel says: I’m guessing he’s a supporter of our governor, Wretched Gretchen, and others like her including Phil Murphy, Gavin Newsom, Kate Brown and Janet Mills. He’s of the “we’ll tell you what to do and you’ll do it” school of “public service.” Effete is a seldom used term but applies well here.
Mike says: Par for the course for MSNBC, “Voice of the Overlord Class.”
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