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Weakling Rescinds Kenyon College Nick Griffin Speech Invitation
Taylor Somers
Left-wing terrorists win another round.
The following statement from Taylor Somers of Kenyon College appears on the One People’s Project website:
We have been in communication with Campus Safety, and we have come to a consensus regarding the upcoming Griffin event. While we had wanted to shake things up, the reaction against the event has been compelling. The possibility of violence, or at least unintentional injury, to Kenyon students at such an event outweighs, we feel, any contribution that could be gained from having Griffin speak. Never have we intended to incite violence or to otherwise provide an atmosphere in which it becomes at all likely. With Campus Safety’s advice in mind, and as members of the Kenyon community, we must take it upon ourselves to do the right thing and ensure no one is injured. It isn’t worth the possibility of violence or the further pain that will almost certainly be caused, so with those concerns in mind we have cancelled.
The hurt that this controversy has already caused is palpable. There is a rift, an upset in the Kenyon community, and I will accept personal responsibility for that as I think a sense of honor compels me. It was never my intention to cause such a hurt, and so I think the only decent option is to minimize it at this point. It saddens me that many of those with whom I’ve been on friendly terms are now at odds with me. I would like to apologize to those offended or who feel or felt threatened by the immanent presence of Nick Griffin, who I have never claimed did not say many things that were wrong in the past and present. Your passioned appeals, along with the concerns for the safety and integrity of this school and those who attend it, have persuaded me that we were on the wrong course. I am attempting to right that course now.
As for my own views which were dragged into all of this, I intend to embark on a path of radical self-examination. Those who know me personally will recognize I’m not a bigot, fascist, or totalitarian, but rather, perhaps, more of a contrarian (yet one who believes in a free society, even though we may find difficulty agreeing on what that is). Some of that which I have written over the past day and night could be described as knee-jerk reaction to being attacked personally, and I can recognize failures in my own judgment due to that fact. I think I have been beholden to a more abstract and theoretical point of view than is merited by real life, as has been made clear over the course of this trouble. I only ask that it not be assumed I am insincere in this appeal. I am being sincere, and I humbly submit my apologies to those of you voicing your legitimate concerns who I have attacked for recognizing my failures in judgment before I saw them myself.
I realize this has been difficult, and has created a rift. I’m willing to try to correct that, to learn a lesson, and go on with life, if you’re all willing to go on with life as well. I’ll not go out in search of controversy or extreme methods to incite discussion, however curious I may be. The Taft Society will exercise better and more sensitive judgment with regard to who we bring to campus. I should really thank you all for persuading us toward the right course of action, and indeed I do thank you for that.
With Best Wishes,
Taylor Somers
Robert A. Taft Society
This should come as no surprise from a college kid narcissistic enough to pen this pretentious interview.
News Desk
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That is a Soviet style public repentance. Maybe the biggest difference is that in the Soviet Union government did it officially, while your government supports it unofficially, thus enabling them to reap the power benefits, while externalizing the negative externalities.
Taylor, why?
I would like to say more but I honestly can’t be bothered, brevity is best in a situation like this. Weak. It’s all that comes to mind.
Perhaps you and I, Greg, are being too hard on him he is young after all and it must have been a very stressful situation. Having said that he’s my age or older and if I were in his shoes I would have gone through with the talk. Then again I’ve been in confrontations with commies in the streets of inner city leftist suburbs outnumbered… Etc. Now I’m sounding narcissistic…
Wow! That was the most embarassing exhibition of self-loathing genuflection I have ever witnessed. How appalling that when confronted with a little opposition another white boy crumbles in public for everyone to see. He will never live this down. He will receive NOTHING for his grovelling. He will still be called a racist and a bigot no matter how smarmy his apologies become. For his lack of courage and will he will hate himself forever.
Let this be and remain an example of how men and womem should NOT act. One proud man (or woman) could crush 10,000 Taylor’s. He will never regain any scrap of dignity he once had. Now he will probably join some “anti-racist” organization, travel the country re-telling his personal story of transformation from “hating” diversity to appreciating it along with multiculturalism for the great “benefits” they have brought to Western Civilization. Now he is forever a patsy of the Marxist Left.
We have just witnessed a tragedy of humiliation and degradation. Taylor Somers deserves nothing but ridicule and contempt from EVERYONE. He has brought shame to himself and his family.
I saw this yesterday(Taylor’s letter), and left a couple of comments on the Amerika site that haven’t been accepted by the admin yet asking if it was the same as the guy in the Occident article. It is, and reading that interview from only a little over a month ago makes him look pretty ridiculous, for both the interview itself and his apology.
The Right is full of hobbyists who fail to deliver when the time comes to go public. Griffin is an elected official in Britain – a relevant figure. And this fellow will continue to remain irrelevant so long as he has no backbone.
What a sellout coward. He will get nothing for his sychophantic grovelling. He has destroyed himself. He will now have to join some “anti-racist” Marxist group and travel the country re-telling his Politically Correct story of personal transformation from “hating” diversity and multiculturalism to loving it. The Leftist-Hate Machine now has Taylor Somers as a privately-owned patsy they can bully and humiliate until they grow bored of him.
What a shameful wreck of a human being.
I know Taylor Somers, and I know what he’s up against.
These people threaten every aspect of a college kid’s life. Your professor’s recommendation? It’ll get yanked. Your friends? Gone. Your future? Well, with no one to recommend you — you DID go to college there, did you not?
He’s doing the best he can and he made a political exit to fight again. The school is clearly against Griffin being there.
Somers is keeping his options open; instead of radicalizing, we should do the same, and then introduce our ideas of what change is needed.
If Somers thought that he could be an open White Nationalist and still get the approval of his professors and peers, then he was very naive. Naivete is something one forgives in the young.
Or maybe he knew the odds were stacked against him, but felt that he was so special that he would be the exception. His interview certainly gives off that sort of narcissistic vibe. It gives one pause, but it is still the sort of thing that is forgivable in kids.
As for canceling the Griffin event: I am all for allowing people to determine their own level of explicitness and involvement in the movement. When someone decides he needs to pull back and regroup because he can’t take the heat, that is all well and good, and I have no objection to that.
But it is different if someone else has made plans to fly in and give a talk. One has an obligation to see things through, even if one’s guts are in an uproar. It was chickenshit behavior to back out.
Backing out was bad enough, but the apology is unforgivable. Such apologies have a terribly demoralizing effect on the movement, and they only encourage the enemy. An apology, therefore, is a betrayal — a betrayal of a cause that only a couple of days ago Taylor Somers was lauding as sacred. This kind of about face is a sign of a deep weakness and rottenness of character.
White Nationalists are far too indulgent of narcissistic boy geniuses. Not here.
Reminds me of POWs in propaganda films denouncing the US in terms so exagerated, the film loses all credibility.
He grovels too abjectly, in terms too reminiscent of a Moscow show trial.
You can’t help these lefty radicals, they’re zealots. Since they have nothing of substance to debate us with, they resort to the time tested ways of violence and intimidation. This will actually help our cause in the long run. One way or another adversity is a good thing.
Brett,
I appreciate your inside perspective, and I am not inclined to condemn Taylor. It sounds like he got in over his head.
Nevertheless, I don’t think he has done himself any favors. If he had held the line, or at least maintained a principled stand while canceling solely out of concern for the safety of the speaker and attendees, he would have won a lot of respect.
As others mentioned, his “radical self-examination” (!) will not really win him any real “absolution” from the MC priesthood, and has cost him any standing he might have with any branch of the libertarian/conservative/right.
I agree with the comment made by Brett Stevens and I think many of the rest of the comments (as well as the original article title) are unduly harsh and reflect unthinking, emotion-driven, and simplistic reactions. Frankly, if the original article was penned by Mr. Johnson, I’m rather disappointed.
Most of you have never tried to do anything similar to what Taylor did with this invitation to Nick Griffin. He’s a college boy – not yet a man – trying to establish some kind of future for himself in a world of shrinking opportunities. He overstretched and now he’s paying for it. No doubt clobbered by every institution and force within his world. And I wonder how many of his brave-talking right-wing friends stood by him when the storm came? Surely he was not alone before all of this (he had something like 1,000 Facebook friends). How many of that brave army of 1,000 (probably some of you!) took some of the flack? Dealt with some of the threats? Pushed back against the forces of authority and power?
I think he’ll be back – older, wiser, craftier, and stronger. Which is more than can be said for many of the harsher commentators, who will never do much more than make noise in the Internet.
In RE:
The “article” in question consists almost entirely of Somers’ craven letter. And yes, I am the author of the title and the few lines that frame Somers’ letter. And as for being “unthinking, emotion-driven, and simplistic”: that’s a lot of drama about the use of the word “weakling.” And if that word does not apply here, then it has no meaning.
I seriously doubt that “he’ll be back – older, wiser, craftier, and stronger. Which is more than can be said for many of the harsher commentators, who will never do much more than make noise in the Internet.” The irony here is rich: Somers was quite the virtual threat, but folded as soon as he met any real-world opposition, whereas his harsher commentators (myself included) actually do things in the real world: publish magazines, organize conferences, organize protests, etc.
He needs to grovel a lot more than this. I personally would like to see him try to get an internship with Michael Steele, specifically working to recruit “Hip-Hop Republicans.” Or else he could try to start a Republican youth organization with Megan McCain.
Brett: Dr. Macdonald has probably faced much more opposition and he has refused to back down. There was also a university based group called YAF(Young Americans for Freedom) that had race realist or “far right” politics and faced stiff opposition, and also didn’t give in. Even had a on campus based on shutting them down.
That letter doesn’t read like somebody keeping his options open.
Ditto what De Deckert says, he already has a well trodden career path open to him!
To those who are piling on Mr Somers, may I ask where you would have been had he asked for help in putting on this event?
Let guess…most of us are typing safely from our homes, apartments, etc.? Are we out in the field, putting on conferences, banding together, advancing our cause? Doubtful.
Mr. Somers attempted to put on a very important event. My guess is he received little support, and significant controversy. Perhaps death threats as well.
So before we judge his character, are we willing to go the extra mile? I doubt I am. How about you?
Let’s take a moment. I know it is difficult to be brave and outspoken in these days of anti-white hate, but we are ALREADY getting pummelled even if we do nothing. Cancelling Griffin’s speech would be sketchy enough, but if you read that retraction you can easily see how fraught with self-loathing, artificial contrition and the most noxious form of senseless groveling. This is weird sychophantic perversion at its worst. “Radical self-examination.” Are you kidding me? He is acting like he got caught molesting a child. Who in the HELL convinced him he was so “evil.”
Fine. Cancel the speech because things got too “hot.” I get death threats all the time. SO WHAT! But, to then publicly prostrate yourself before those who have NOTHING but contempt for you. That is beyond the pale. I have physically fought with Antifa and those like them before. They are not THAT scary. The problem is we almost NEVER punch back. When we do THEY crumble. When we don’t WE crumble. We just witnessed the crumbling of a young “man.” I hope I never witness this type of tragedy again. I am sick to my stomach.
Are there any wealthy nationalist benefactors who might be willing to finance a Griffin appearance, if not now then in the near future?
I have known Taylor Somers since he was an activist still in high school.
There have been times when he was the only one with any will or drive to make statements to anti white opposition even though some on this forum were . I always considered him a stand up dude.
Those who would defame him by calling him a “lover of multiculturalism” or “Marxist patsy” i think are causing dissension amongst a pro-white movement.
Although i don’t agree with some of what Somers wrote, neither do i agree with Mr.Griffins recent compromise to allow non whites in the BNP.
I believe Taylor Somers will continue to grow in his knowledge and resource to the benefit of European people and has a bright future in our movement.
To those who posit a bright future for Taylor Somers in the White Nationalist cause: What sort of future can one expect in the movement after this kind of craven behavior? Credibility is important. Somers has shredded his. Wake up folks and smell the apostasy.
David:
No, I don’t think backing down has done him any favors, but if academia fit the pattern, they held something he needed/loved hostage. It takes years to learn to deal with this sort of situation, in my experience. He could use our support as a community as he makes those steps, I think.
Clint:
I agree. We should not sow dissent but support our promising people at universities like Kenyon.
To all TOQ readers:
Most leftist blogs would not have published my comment, and then would have insisted it was not censorship — and by the letter of the law, they’re right, although it’s irrelevant — to do so. I am proud of TOQ editorial staff for having this outlook.
As a veteran of conservative college politics in the 1990s, I am assuming the Kenyon adminstration told Somers: “Retract your views–OR ELSE!…No apology, no graduation!”
In short, they probably told him that if he continued in his mission he would not be granted a degree.
For an intelligent young White man with a promosing future, this is a powerful motivator.
One can only hope that once Somers graduates from Kenyon, he will rescind this rescinder.