âTruths turn into dogmas the instant that they are disputed. Thus every man who utters a doubt defines a religion. And the scepticism of our time does not really destroy the beliefs, rather it creates them; gives them their limits and their plain and defiant shape. We who are Liberals once held Liberalism lightly as a truism. Now it has been disputed, and we hold it fiercely as a faith. We who believe in patriotism once thought patriotism to be reasonable, and thought little more about it. Now we know it to be unreasonable, and know it to be right. We who are Christians never knew the great philosophic common sense which inheres in that mystery until the anti–Christian writers pointed it out to us. The great march of mental destruction will go on. Everything will be denied. Everything will become a creed. It is a reasonable position to deny the stones in the street; it will be a religious dogma to assert them. It is a rational thesis that we are all in a dream; it will be a mystical sanity to say that we are all awake. Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer. We shall be left defending, not only the incredible virtues and sanities of human life, but something more incredible still, this huge impossible universe which stares us in the face. We shall fight for visible prodigies as if they were invisible. We shall look on the impossible grass and the skies with a strange courage. We shall be of those who have seen and yet have believed.â
Jonathan Choe, was a reporter for KOMO News in Seattle, WA.
He wrote an article on Medium that he was fired for how he covered a Proud Boys rally. The Proud Boys are a group that has been falsely labeled as a white supremacist hate group by alt-left extremist organizations in spite of The Proud Boys clearly rejecting racism in their charter and allowing all races to join their ranks while being led by a man who is not white.
Choe was covering the rally in the Washington state capital of Olympia earlier this month. He tweeted a photo montage of the Proud Boys rally, including some controversial music in the clip. That drew outrage from the Twitterati, who allegedly accused him of being a âwhite supremacist.â
Choe responded to the false allegation regarding the ‘controversial music:’
RAW VIDEO: This audio is what was posted on line with a series of photos recapping the day. I did not rip the song from a CD. In tv, itâs called a âNAT Pkg.â Please have a look and listen for yourself. @FTVLive@thedailybeast@dailykos@TheStrangerpic.twitter.com/MpBfGIVbhY
In a Tweet recapping the day, I decided to create a photo montage with natural sound from the march(in TV news this is what’s called a âNAT Pkgâ). One of my videos picked up music blasting from a speaker strapped over the shoulder of one of the protesters. I could not make out the words and had never heard this song in my life. You could also hear car horns and the footsteps of marchers as I weaved in and out of the crowd. I laid some photos over this natural sound from the video and hit send.
I later learned the song is called âWe’ll Have Our Home Again,â and is sometimes played at white nationalist rallies. This piece was never meant to air on KOMO News and it never did. I wanted it to be a conversation starter, and it sure did incite an unexpected response. In hindsight, I wish I added more context to this Tweet. But before I could clarify or respond to the criticism, my news director told me to take down all my social media related to the Proud Boys march. I was also told by my boss not to speak to any outside media. The following day, I was fired from KOMO.
I’d never heard the song before either. The version used during the rally appears to be Pine Tree Riots – We’ll Have Our Home Again.
The Pine Tree Riot was an act of resistance to British royal authority undertaken by American colonists in Weare, New Hampshire on April 14, 1772 – Wikipedia
Everything that has its roots in patriotism is labeled as ‘white nationalist’ by the alt-left blue anon conspiracy theorists.
There’s nothing in the lyrics to suggest the song is racist in any way without severe mental gymnastics. Whether or not it’s played at ‘white nationalist’ rallies is irrelevant. I’m still waiting for someone to define what a ‘white nationalist’ actually is. They keep freezing up when I ask that question.
Allowing any group to coopt anything to become their own is a sign of societal weakness. Just because a small group uses a symbol that is commonplace, doesn’t mean that symbol now exclusively represents that small group. To say otherwise is silly.
Choe was fired by KOMO because he didn’t lie about The Proud Boys and their rally. It was peaceful and he reported it as such. For that, he was fired.
MY SIDE OF THE STORY. It's official. I parted ways with KOMO News. Thank you to all my amazing colleagues who gave me a chance in one of the most important media markets in America. But I am not done serving the good people of #Seattle. Stay tuned. https://t.co/jplr2VCUq1