Existential Dread
"You’re not going to win the battle for the 21st century if, you are a silly people, and Americans are a silly people… you know, who doesn’t care that there’s a stereotype of a Chinese man in a Dr. Seuss book? China. All 1.4 billion of them could [care less] because they’re not a silly people. If anything, they are as serious as a prison fight." - Bill Maher
We would all like to believe that we are making a lasting impact on the world. After all, besides passing on our genetic material through having children, the only way for our memory to remain alive in the world after our death is through doing something significant. It is perhaps this chase of significance that makes us so easily duped by claims of “existential threats.”
What defines a so-called “existential threat” depends on who you are talking to, and I guarantee whoever that may be has an agenda that is well-served by the public viewing their threat as an emergency. Last week, we talked about perhaps the most commonly discussed existential threat of our time, climate change, and how environmentalists have weaponized fear to accumulate public support for an issue often viewed as a tragedy of the commons.
Since the start of the new millennium, issues ranging from the War on Terror to the Great Recession to the COVID-19 pandemic to even the election of Donald Trump, have been labeled by advocates as “existential threats” as a means of encouraging compliance or achieving public policy outcomes. And while some of these things are threats — serious threats, in fact — it is unlikely any are capable of ending existence as we know it.
While the “existential threats” change depending on who is seeking power, the only acceptable solution to these threats is to fundamentally shift the status quo in a direction that is advantageous for whoever is warning about the threat. It is no wonder beneficial technologies like carbon capture and nuclear are so often dismissed as solutions to emissions, while concepts like carbon credits which financially benefit wealthy progressives are praised. The former doesn’t require upending the societal status quo in regards to energy.
While we are not going to claim it is a threat to the existence of humanity, the rise in power and influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is definitely an “existential threat” to the future of Western Civilization… and yet it is regularly ignored. Our constant quibbling amongst ourselves in our nation’s culture wars provides cover for Xi Jinping and the CCP to advance their agenda at a record pace, not just within their country but on the world stage.
Just look at how they influence the speech of American corporations and celebrities. Just days ago, John Cena apologized for having the audacity to declare that Taiwan is a country (Spoiler alert: It is). American and Delta Airlines recently removed Taiwan from their maps because China demanded it. The NBA apologized when Houston Rockets owner Daryl Morey expressed support for Hong Kong protestors in a tweet.
The economic fates of large corporations are so intertwined and reliant on the support (or at least acceptance) of the CCP, that many are willing to sell their soul to ensure their share of the billions of dollars spent by Chinese consumers (not to mention access to cheap labor). Beyond the obvious impacts on freedom of speech, this willful ignorance of American elites has led to the exploitation and literal enslavement of cultural minorities in China.
For proof, look no further than Xinjiang where China holds over a million Uyghurs in concentration camps. No, we are not talking about the actions of Nazi Germany in the 1940s, we are talking about the actions of the CCP today. These camps are prisons where Uyghur Muslims and other political prisoners are kept for months or years to be “reeducated” and forced to take part in slave labor. Some even have their organs harvested, and a ship with 13-tons of Uyghur human hair was recently discovered as it made its way into a New York port.
Even those not literally imprisoned in Xinjiang are forced to live in what is essentially an open-air prison, where their every move is surveilled and one wrong move can have them arrested. Worse yet, several American companies are complicit in providing the technology to make this surveillance possible. Not by explicit choice, but because it's the price of doing business in China today.
The Chinese Communist Party is an existential threat to Western Civilization and American values, and no one is willing to acknowledge it. While supposedly “woke” progressives claim to champion social justice and routinely label former President Donald Trump as a Nazi, it is amazing how many are silent as China stifles our speech and perpetuates genocide with impunity within their own borders.
America has a choice to make. We can either continue to fight amongst ourselves and pontificate about solutions to largely unsolvable “existential threats” of the day. Or we can truly stand for the values in our Constitution and preserve liberty for future generations. It's time for us to make a choice.
