“what you mostly hear … is the silent majority’s silence” (update)
Mark Steyn’s commentary on the death of Prof. Mike Adams: “if you’re doing the heavy lifting on an otherwise abandoned front of the culture war, what you mostly hear, as Mike Adams did, is the silent majority’s silence – month in, month out….”
As of this writing, the most we know about the death of Prof. Mike Adams is that he reportedly suffered a gunshot wound, and had been acting erratically and appeared stressed as his days at UNC-Willimington came to an end.
A lot of people assume this means suicide, but we don’t know that. At some point — maybe soon after this post goes live — the police will release their findings.
In my comment at the end of Stacey’s post about Adams’ death, I wrote:
WAJ adds: I’m not sure if I ever spoke with Mike Adams. For some reason, I think I did long ago, but regardless, he served as a source of strength for so many conservatives in academia under attack. Many readers recently have told me I really needed to contact him, but I didn’t. I now understand the pain of working with people who want to damage you personally and professionally, and I can only imagine how that stress affected him over many years. Rest in peace, Mike, you fought the good fight.
Mark Steyn has a column today about Adams’ death. While leaving open the possibility that Adams death could be a homicide, Steyn speaks to those pressures Adams must have been under regardless of cause of death.
Steyn’s column, A Not So Happy Warrior, is chillingly perceptive. Read the whole thing, of course, but here’s an excerpt:
A two-time “Faculty Member of the Year” winner at the turn of the century, Adams grew more “controversial” as the university got more “woke”….
As the new millennium settled in, calls for his termination were like swallows returning to Capistrano in novel forms of transportation – first old-school pieces of paper signed by real people; then a Facebook group dedicated to his sacking; then multiple Change.org petitions…
It was all scheduled to come to an end on Friday with Adams’ painfully negotiated departure and a $504,702.76 settlement. Half-a-mil sounds a lot, but it was to be paid out over five years, if the university stuck to it, and it’s not really a lot, is it, for the obliteration of any trace of your presence at the school to which you devoted your entire teaching career….
I was struck by these lines – an aside in a piece on Nick Sandmann:
[Mike Adams] wrote with verve and humor. He seemed like a happy warrior. He didn’t cave at false charges, or wallow in synthetic guilt. Nor twist himself into pretzels, as timid ‘conservatives’ do, who are eager to placate the crocodiles by feeding them someone else.
He “seemed like” a happy warrior, but who knows? It’s a miserable, unrelenting, stressful life, as the friends fall away and the colleagues, who were socially distant years before Covid, turn openly hostile. There are teachers who agree with Mike Adams at UNCW and other universities – not a lot, but some – and there are others who don’t agree but retain a certain queasiness about the tightening bounds of acceptable opinion …and they all keep their heads down. So the burthen borne by a man with his head up, such as Adams, is a lonely one, and it can drag you down and the compensations (an invitation to discuss your latest TownHall column on the radio or cable news) are very fleeting….
We are assured that out in “the real world” there is a soi-disant “silent majority” whose voices will resound around the world on November 3rd. For what it’s worth, I don’t believe in the existence of this “silent majority”, and a political party that has won the popular vote only once in the last thirty years (2004) ought to be chary about over-investing in it.
But either way, if you’re doing the heavy lifting on an otherwise abandoned front of the culture war, what you mostly hear, as Mike Adams did, is the silent majority’s silence – month in, month out….
And yet, if the facts are as they appear, a tireless and apparently “happy warrior” – exhausted by a decade of litigation, threats, boycotts, ostracization and more – found himself sitting alone – and all he heard in the deafening silence of the “silent majority” was his own isolation and despair. A terrible end for a brave man. Rest in peace.
Even if his death was a result of homicide, Adams must have felt some of the emotions described by Steyn, though in this April 28, 2020 video he didn’t show outward signs.
We’ll continue to follow the story.
UPDATE 10 p.m.
Death of Prof. Mike Adams ruled a suicide
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Comments
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t suicide also homicide? Homicide is not murder, but the taking of a human life by a human being regardless of the circumstances.
It’s been a long time but I believe homicide generally is killing by *another*, in other words, suicide is never homicide.
Wouldn’t a coroner list the cause of death as homicide ?
No
NASH is the acronym for listing causes of death:
Natural
Accidental
Suicide
Homicide
“the silent majority’s silence…” is more unsettling than the riots. People are not organizing, they’re just laying down and taking it.
Waiting till November and will speak at the ballot box. I outsource my violence to the cops as much as possible.
I’m in Wa and don’t know if I’m in the majority.
Why would I stand between riotors and the people who voted for this stuff? While I won’t hand out incendiaries at the edge of the mayhem, I’m not crying over Seattle liberals getting exactly what they voted for.
WA here too. I’m sort of in the group that says “Seattle got exactly what they voted for”. I’m all for letting them eat their own and wish nothing more than the safety of the police and people that didn’t actually vote them in. But with the Seattle directors openly campaigning as socialists and communists, I fall back on “they got what they voted for”. WA still has a problem with voter fraud, even with all mail in (or because of?) voting. Illegals allowed to get state ID and drivers licenses and motor voter laws, democrats still find ways to “find” uncounted ballots that ALWAYS goes to the dems.
Sarge
How does the silent majority make their views known? The Red Guard controls the media, academia, most of social media. At some point I fully expect private email to be monitored for “racism” (read: opposing Communism), so that might get cut off as a source of communication.
You can post on blogs and websites via an anonymous email you set up.
You can call elected officials.
You can buy a gun and a lot of ammo.
I always hear the question of, “what does it mean to counter these leftist views?,” spoken of in generalities, not specifics, and its frustrating, because it’s starting to feel like what used to work isn’t working anymore…
So far, the silent majority is presumably planning on making their views known at the ballot box. This is understandable given that the left controls most of the media, wields cancel culture, etc. Having controlled that battlespace, in the meantime the Antifa/BLM crowd are making their views know via “intensely peaceful” protests.
I read how a motivated and organized minority was ultimately able to overthrow the established governments of Russia and China. I wonder what that would look like here in the USA. Is it even possible? What would be overthrown – The Federal government? State Government? Could whatever happens occur before the election? How would we know if that tipping point were being reached? What could be done to stop it?
It seems to me that in the worst case scenario, the Antifa/BLM types would need to be confronted in the same way they are operating now, i.e. via “intensely peaceful” counter-protests. That means it would likely require a resort to some form of violence. In Madison, WI the protesters blocked a police station, preventing officers from leaving from or returning to the station. The police themselves chose to let this continue. It seems to me that to send a message, a counter-group composed of representatives of the silent majority would need to move in and disperse the protesters. Are you ready to wield violence?
How would the police react to that? Would they assist the counter-protesters or arrest them, given that the protestors have the support of the mayor? Are you ready to risk arrest and incarceration, given that in many communities the district attorneys and even police chiefs support Antifa/BLM?
Hopefully it doesn’t come down to this, but I do think we need to be more specific about what this could mean…
This type of action is long overdue. I have e-mailed my so called Republican Representative about the riots and have gotten no response. We The People have to ACT!
“But it wasn’t the bullet that laid him to rest
’twas the low spark of high-heeled boys.”
No such thing as a “silent majority”. Only sheep being led to slaughter. How else did Hitler rise to power?
If the majority is silent, it is also meaningless. Its only when it lifts its voice that it can be dominant. Good night, America.
Richard Nixon has a genuine Silent Majority. Unfortunately, they ultimately lost because they were – silent. You cannot defeat a vocal minority by silence, and you cannot grow by remaining silent. You may keep your majority for an election or two, but ultimately you are going to lose if you don’t speak up.
In trying to be less silent, I’m wondering how to leverage the small microphone that I do have. I maintain a website for my small group at church, posting news items, a rare blog post, and various evangelical Christian stuff. Only 5 or so hits a day, mostly evangelism pages. I haven’t promoted the site in ages, but I do keep the “current events” mostly current. Not that I have any regular visitors. Anyway, I hope to figure out how to make it more useful given the current state of the country.
Hitler rose to power because there was no viable alternative. Something had to be done, he was promising to do something, and he didn’t seem significantly crazier or more evil than his rivals.
…and he didn’t seem significantly crazier or more evil than Joe Biden.
Um, yeah, he did, actually. But his rivals were also a lot crazier and more evil than Joe Biden. Germans in 1932 would have been happy to have a Joe Biden. Well, a pre-senility Biden, anyway, when he was still just a bit slow.
The Germans kind of did have their senile leader under Paul von Hindenburg – who knows how different history might have been had there been a president who was more competent than Hindenburg apparently was towards the end of his life.
There is one group in the US that has the ability to get a message out over the 24/7 din of Communist propaganda. That organization is the Republican Party.
But instead of a daily, constant drumbeat of criticism leveled against Biden and the rest of the Communist Party for the rape, murder and mayhem they have deliberately spawned, we get ….. silence. No, scratch that – sometimes we get the thrill of watching Mitt Romneycare marching with the brownshirts. Others in the GOP, when they occasionally gurgle to the surface, will offer up some weak, tepid response like “We believe in the same things our good friends on the other side of the aisle believe, only we can do it cheaper and better.” A few Congressional Republicans understand and are carrying on the fight, but most seem to content themselves by sucking their thumbs while in their normal fetal position. Only the Trump administration is consistently using their bully pulpit to battle the Communists.
If enough of the big boys in the GOP who have the power to render the silent majority silent no more choose to do nothing, what can the ordinary Deplorables do? What happened to the leaders we chose to lead us?
Excellent
We elected Donald Trump partly to counter the GOPe.
The GOPe works quietly to elect Biden.
The GOPe must be reformed or replaced.
And even that may not be enough. We have a couple, or more, generations that think marxism is just great.
Truly Free Men will not be enslaved so it will not end well.
I believe there is a silent majority, though of what timber and ultimate resoluteness I do not know. We will see in November, as voting is the one decisive means for a silent majority to exercise its will and exorcise its frustration. One problem I see is that this majority is not being inspired at the moment. Trump’s rather Zen-like response to the riots may be shrewd, but it is not inspiring.
The silent majority came out gangbusters for Reagan, so I believe they’re there. I believe he won every state but two. They have responsibilities– children, small or otherwise, a living to make, maybe sick parents. For most people, they can’t afford to get on the street and raise a ruckus. Can’t afford to get hurt, don’t want to worry an anxious wife, mowing their mother’s lawn, babysitting while the wife works, etc etc
Most of the communista-anarchista are to busy with their meetings and other c-a krp to take on those responsibilities, or they just abandon them like their forefather Marx did, and just live off other people, letting their families rot.
I would argue that the struggle for the future of one’s country is ultimately as urgent a responsibility as one’s responsibility to one’s spouse, children, or family. What you see now is the result of the neglect of that responsibility by one side — and infuriatingly, the Left understands this far better than the Right does.
#mikeadamsdidntkillhimself
sadly, I’m afraid he did. There’s no evidence of anything else so far.
There were only two outcomes possible very sadly, self or murder.
Mark Steyn has becoming increasingly pessimistic
I understand
I talk to peole and they shrug their shoulders, I look them in the eye and ask, “ what have you done to change things”… deer in the headlights
I was talking to parents and a teacher about school not starting in person for 6 weeks in North Texas.. they want it to, but don’t call, don’t go in person, don’t get petitions
They sit around and do what they are told
Sheep, just sheep
I am very scared of November… very
I think they actually don’t vote out of fear…
To whom should we call in North Texas?
not many raising voices over him and not many raising voices over lloyd marcus death either.
I no longer run any websites so have limited platform to do anything on other than comments on other sites
Was there anything suspicious about Lloyd Marcus’s death? I thought it was a heart attack.
you are correct, no extenuating or odd circumstances.
but the point about people being silent is still salient here.
many forget how much he helped especially around 2010 timeframe. many sites carried his articles (one written 2 days before death) yet most of these sites who benefited from him are silent.
amercan thinker and canada free press are only 2 that I could find that posted anything.
Apparently Adams had no wife or kids (haven’t seen a reference to any) and that would deepen his solitude and depression even more. A lot of us who are hunkering down find solace in our families. If his only “family” was UNC, I can see why he’d decide it was time to end it.
I believe I remember some columns a few years ago about him teaching his daughter self defense. But he would have wanted to protect her from knowing any hardship he had. I taught in a University in the 80’s, and even then there was intense pressure, open hostility and even malice toward conservatives from some of the lefties faculty. And no, no one defends you.
I always admired his strength to persevere, and the sheer gallantry with which he took them all on. (I quit, just couldn’t take it).
RIP, Mike. Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
At work (a major police department), I’m seeing an increase in the number of death investigation reports involving suicide and accidental overdose.
I had one suicide of a 34-year-old man who hanged himself. In the report his brother said the deceased was struggling with depression brought about by the Covid isolation.
A few days ago I had an accidental overdose death of a middle-aged lawyer. His daughter said he, too, was depressed over the virus lockdown isolation and this depression was compounded by financial problems brought about by Covid as well.
I’m guessing life was pretty miserable for Professor Adams before the coronavirus hit. It sounds like his university “community” had ostracized him. Not having the immediate support group of a spouse and children must’ve made his struggles all the more lonely. Then the coronavirus hit and I’d bet the further isolation made him fall into a seemingly bottomless pit of despair.
THIS is the true cost of the Wuhan flu scam… broken, devastated lives in the wake of the shutdown nonsense and subsequent economic destruction.
Then we have all these ninnies running around parroting claptrap like “we’re all in this together,” “if it saves just one life,” “you can rebuild an economy but you can’t rebuild a life.” Yeah, tell that to the guy who lost his job, lost his business, lost his life savings, and now has nothing to leave for his kids except ever mounting piles of debt. Ever try to get a new career or even a new job when you’re middle aged, let alone closer to what should be retirement? You’re not only competing against all the young bucks who look down at you because they think you’re a dinosaur, you’re also competing with all the other middle-aged guys who got pink slipped as well. Is it any wonder that suicide and substance abuse are on the rise?
These people who have brought this about are pure evil. They hate not only Trump, but they hate us as well. They don’t give a damn about “the little guy,” and instead treat us worse than the dogshit you’d scrape off your shoe. They fiddle while America burns, content to gorge themselves on premium ice cream from a well-stocked commercial grade freezer while “the little guy” goes to food banks to try and get by.
There are no fires in hell hot enough for these scum.
Very well said. I don’t think I could agree more. I’m all for going to great lengths to protect the very vulnerable–those in nursing homes and the like.
But I would like to see what the cost has been in lives lost and lives ruined by these lockdowns. Probably hard to gather the data. Covid can be the cause of death even when one is not actually infected, but rather is affected in a nonetheless devastating way.
I feel profound sadness when I get these reports. The increased number and the circumstances definitely point to the lockdowns as a major, and sometimes sole factor leading to death from hopelessness.
The fact that some Democratic politicians are trying to gain some political advantage from the lockdowns is just pure soulless evil.
Agreed with both of you. I knew some of those who died, and more families who lost someone. My community suffered heavily from the Wuhan disease, and I’m still terrified that my mother will get it. But I was also worried from the very beginning about all the people whose names we would never hear, whose lives would be the price for saving the ones we knew. I was warning people from the beginning that the “cure” was likely to be worse than the disease, and cost more than it would save, not only in money but also in lives.
My uncle died and we were forced to plant him without a funeral.
I always looked forward to reading his pieces. I found his constant willingness to spar with his adversaries on campus humorous. I did at times wonder what toll that level of antagonism being directed at Adams was taking.
He seemed to be in a self made zone in that he would simply point out the inconsistent and unequal treatment for those not on the ‘progressive’ side and refused to be bullied.
Maintaining that day in and day out takes a toll. I spent a year fighting back against a toxic leadership group and it was lonely as Hell. Fortunately, I was in a position where my career was at an end so much of the threat was minimized. I still had to calmly and dispassionately deal with these jacklegs provocations. Ultimately they were removed from their command positions with reprimand on file so their careers and ability to inflict suffering was revoked.
I received words of support and encouragement from some during that period but refusing to kowtow to toxic leadership is never popular. Very lonely and very isolating.
In Adams case, it appears that one tweet in which he made a poorly thought out turn of phrase was his undoing. He likely knew, he had made the mistake that the administration was waiting for in order to justify canning him. With no family and not much else outside his job…
So the lesson is to have a kind word of support for those who are in a position to take on the ‘progressives’. Not everyone has tenure, not everyone is retirement eligible. Those who have achieved that state are better positioned to openly fight back than the young new guys and girls.
Let them lead but don’t forget to make a point to thank them for sacrificing their peace of mind when they do so. Their success is going to be an improved institution that you, not they, will inherit. Remember that these folks are really fighting for the benefit of those who remain in the institution when they fade away into retirement.
Good essay by Steyn, an essayist and commentator whom I like, a lot. I only take issue with him referring to Bari Weiss as a “Jewess” — even allowing for a degree of irreverent intent, that’s a pretty disrespectful term, and, one that I would never use in referring to a woman who is Jewish.
Um, what’s disrespectful about it? It’s a bit quaint nowadays — archaic, even — mostly because we’re no longer supposed to use feminine words like “actress”, “aviatrix”, “postmistress”, etc. (And now we can’t say “postmaster” either!)
Include “waitress” in your list. It’s now “server,” but what does that make a large computer?
And there’s “clintess,” but I digress in an attempt at humor.
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Mark Steyn’s thoughts on Mike Adams’s death recall to mind Bob Owens, the Editor of BearingArms.com who committed suicide in May of 2017:
He “seemed like” a happy warrior, but who knows? It’s a miserable, unrelenting, stressful life, as the friends fall away and the colleagues, who were socially distant years before Covid, turn openly hostile. There are teachers who agree with Mike Adams at UNCW and other universities – not a lot, but some – and there are others who don’t agree but retain a certain queasiness about the tightening bounds of acceptable opinion … and they all keep their heads down. So the burthen borne by a man with his head up, such as Adams, is a lonely one, and it can drag you down … .
And yet, if the facts are as they appear, a tireless and apparently “happy warrior” – exhausted by a decade of litigation, threats, boycotts, ostracization and more – found himself sitting alone – and all he heard in the deafening silence of the “silent majority” was his own isolation and despair. A terrible end for a brave man. Rest in peace.