Stand back. I’m about to quote a warlord.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
That piece of wisdom was handed down by the ancient Chinese General Sun Tzu, famous for his book “The Art of War” which I highly recommend. It’s full of wisdom that you can use in your daily affairs and you don’t have to be a military leader to get anything out of it. It’s a book that’s typically required reading for anyone looking to climb the corporate ladder.
Sun’s point is pretty apparent. If you know your enemy’s desires, how they think, and what their methods are, you can plan a strategy that your enemy is weak on, in order to overcome them.
The wise win before they fight, while the ignorant fight to win.
That was Zhuge Liang, another warlord.
You get my point. People looking to overcome today’s enemies would do well to know them. You’ll notice that a lot of my writing on RedState is focused on looking behind the curtain and getting inside the minds of those who believe it’s their duty to force themselves on the American people. I like to analyze their behavior and ask “why” because finding the answer will mean finding the solution.
And you’d be surprised how often you can find wisdom about the problems of today by looking to the past. Great men who lived throughout history haven’t been shy about offering up their wisdom for future generations to learn from. However, it’s not always great men that can offer up nuggets of understanding. Oftentimes, you can learn just as much about issues by analyzing the people who caused them.
Like Hitler, for instance.
Moms for Liberty, a parental rights advocacy group that is on the front lines of the fight to save children from radical leftist indoctrination in schools, has a chapter in Indiana. In its newsletter, it quoted Adolf Hitler in what was clearly a reference to how evil people view the usefulness of children. It’s a quote that’s often wheeled out to highlight the radical left’s strategy to normalize their radicalism through your children.
“He alone who owns the youth, gains the future,” was the quote.
How about quoting Hitler in the Moms for Liberty newsletter? Is that ALSO not extreme?? pic.twitter.com/K0q3q06376
— Jana Reynolds (@JanaReynolds85) July 23, 2023
I’ve been known to use the quote to highlight this myself. In fact, going through my writing, you’ll find I quote dictators semi-often. Knowing their mind helps me understand the radical left better. Thanks to these horrible people of the past, I better know my enemy today.
Of course, because Moms for Liberty quoted Hitler in a newsletter, the left is now going apoplectic and likely for one of two reasons.
A: They don’t understand nuance and truly believe that Moms for Liberty was quoting a man they admire about seizing control of the children.
Or (more likely) B: They know exactly what Moms for Liberty was doing with that Hitler quote and didn’t like having a mirror held up, so they could see themselves in the dictator.
Either they’re stupid or they really don’t want that reality check. Not only that, they really don’t want everyone else to see that their attempts at normalization aren’t too dissimilar from the Nazi leader. Teaching hate to children is one of the many crimes that Hitler is guilty of…and it’s exactly what the radical left is doing now.
All we have to do to understand why they’re doing it is look to the past to see why people did the same thing.
And if the left is so angry about being compared to Hitler, then maybe they should stop mimicking the guy so much.
