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Book 20: Speechless, by Michael Knowles

 Finished June 10, 2022


Speechless is an account of how the Left takes control of ideas by taking control of words. He lays out -- with plenty of verifiable support -- the methods they use, the origins of those methods, and the track record of effectiveness those methods achieve.

Most importantly and disturbingly, Knowles documents the passivity, gullibility, and ineffectiveness of the "reasonable Right." This book is a wake-up call to the tactics of the Left and the dangers of "bipartisan" cooperation, cultural tolerance, and social accommodation of the gate-keepers of American tradition and Judeo-Christian standards, gate-keepers who have unlocked the door, swung it wide open, and handed the key to the Left.

My one small quibble is Knowles' repeated use of the phrase "political correctness" in the sense that the Left uses it. "Political correctness" is not correctness. I know he's using it to describe this way of thinking, but he's falling into the same trap he outlines in the book; he's using the term introduced by the Left, with the Left's definition. I would have preferred it be used with quotations around it, or preceded by a modifier such as so-called political correctness, or what the Left calls political correctness.

This is a fine work of scholarship and journalism, a must-read for every conservative who wishes to stand up to the deluge of fact-bending ideology foisted on the American people over the past 150 years. We do stand a chance to recover some of our stolen inheritance. It will involve thinking clearly so as not to fall into the Left's verbal traps, speaking up with humble and well-informed insistence, and an acknowledgement that good, evil, virtue, and vice are not obscure ideas but foundational truths that must not be dismantled.


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