Heather Cox Richardson self-identifies as a โhistorianโ and works as a Professor of History at Boston College. Her newsletter is called Letters From An American, which sounds as anodyne as iodine. This earns her the benefit of the doubt as I examine her review of the FBI threat assessment document.
On the other hand, I always bear in mind the words of the great Talmudic genius, Rabbi Chaim Zimmerman (1914-1995) who, among other distinctions, was my late father's Talmud teacher in 12thย grade at Rabbi Jacob Joseph School on the Lower East Side of New York, circa 1946. He was also the great-uncle of my brother Aaron's wife in New Jersey.
A student asked him: โCan we believe the writings of historians about bygone eras?โ
He responded: โIf the newspapers lie today about what happened yesterday, what chance is there that a historian will tell the truth about times deep in the past?โ
He meant that as a philosophical point. The longer ago a thing occurred, the less fresh the evidence, the more latitude that leaves for reinterpretation. And the more temptation it provides for those disposed to lie about the past in an effort to cast it as prelude for something one supports in the present.
Yet this critique also assumes bad faith, using today's lying reporters as an object lesson in the inability of honest people to keep news reporters reporting news and, by extension, to keep history writers writing history.
But even in the world of good faith, there is room for both factual error and illogical deduction. We can apply Zimmerman's point obliquely by noting that today's honest researcher of history still has to use contemporaneous accounts as his primary source material.
If the dishonest reporter lied back then, the honest historian will be forced to relay lies now. Pretty much limited to reporting the record, it is hard for him to outsmart those who have already โfertilizedโ the field with loads of manure.
With all this alertness reinforced and pre-considered, we read with interest Professor Richardson's newsletter, beginning with this observation:
โThe Department of Homeland Security today issued a bulletin warning, โLone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and personal grievances continue to pose a persistent and lethal threat to the Homeland.' Both domestic extremists and foreign terrorists are using online extremist messaging and calls for violence to motivate supporters to launch attacks.โ
Contrast this to the news article of the same day by Eric Lendrum inย American Greatness. The headline reads: DHS Warns of โHeightened Threat' of Attacks on Churches and Cops Ahead of 2024 Election. The first paragraph reads: โThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a warning of a โheightened threat environmentโ including possible attacks against such institutions as churches and the police, as the 2024 election draws closer.โ
Hmmm. Both are reading the same report, right? Now, I am no fan of DHS reports and would not cite them as authoritative. But I can't fault this element of it, the fact that they warn particularly that churches and police are targets. That piece got lost in the heather. Consequentlyโฆ to be continuedโฆ
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions ofย American Liberty News.
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2 Comments
Well, from recent reports it sounds as if right-wingers are the ‘terrorists’ of choice today. Any right-thinking individual can see that the real threat comes from the New Left, who will do anything, like the Marxists, to neutralize and destroy any perceived opponent. Like the Bolsheviks and Hitler’s brownshirts, they are up to any outrage, illegal and/or immoral. Because they know no law and they know no morality. Marxists worship one thing only: POWER. Then, whenever they get get it, they’ve no earthly idea what to do with it.
As every election cycle goes by and we don’t purge the left wing radicals from our government, the harder it’s going to be to get rid of them and get control of our country again. They want to destroy our constitutional republic and install their version of a socialist government, with them retaining the power of course.