Vox, Newsweek sound alarm bells over President Trump's praise of — gasp

Strange, isn’t it, that while journalists at some of America’s most high-profile networks and newspapers seem to think they’re battling the Trump administration not just for their own lives, but to preserve democracy itself lest it “die in darkness,” others are sounding alarm bells over the president’s defense of Western Civilization during his speech in Poland.

Twitchy has already covered Zack Beauchamp’s hot take, interpreting Trump’s speech as a warning against “non-white immigration.” Maybe he and anti-racism strategist Tariq Nasheed can get together and have a long talk about it.

Trump did a speech in Poland and spoke about Western values. Now we all know what "Western" is a code word for, don't we?

— Tariq Nasheed ?? (@tariqnasheed) July 6, 2017

It should be no surprise whatsoever to see writers enclosing terms like “values” and “civilization” in scare quotes; look, for example, at Seattle University’ Matteo Ricci College, where a humanities dean was put on leave following a student protest demanding the school “scrap its Eurocentric curriculum, decentralize whiteness, and instead ‘focus on the evolution of systems of oppression such as racism, capitalism, [and] colonialism.'”

Around the same time, students at San Francisco State University calling themselves the “Third World Liberation Front 2016” held a hunger strike to demand the school allocate $8 million to the College of Ethnic Studies. What is it all of these universities think they have in common with the Western tradition, anyway?

In his address, Trump cast the West, including the United States and Europe, on the side of “civilization.” With an undercurrent of bellicosity, he spoke of protecting borders, casting himself as a defender not just of territory but of Western “values.” And, using the phrase he had avoided on his trip to Saudi Arabia, he insisted that in the fight against “radical Islamic terrorism,” the West “will prevail.”

Civilization, values, borders are good; terrorism is bad. Give us a little more time to grasp the danger here.

https://twitter.com/davidharsanyi/status/882983818952667138

https://twitter.com/Southfive/status/882990115034996736

Enough said.

Trump translated: What he said in Warsaw, and what it meant https://t.co/ntGhUV4q54

— Josh Lowe (@JeyyLowe) July 6, 2017

Newsweek staff writer Josh Lowe was alarmed as well by the words Trump used and offered his own translation of the speech, employing plenty of scare quotes around terms alt-right types like to use at their alt-right rallies:

Translation: Much of Trump’s speech was philosophical meanderings about the defense of “civilization” and the West against “forces” (he never fully defined which “forces,” though he did mention “radical Islamic terrorism” as a new shared threat) that want to “undermine our courage, sap our spirit and weaken our will to defend ourselves and our societies.”

https://twitter.com/just_jodi67/status/882959431285321728

Your "translation" isn't needed.

— AmericanMom (@_Americanmom) July 6, 2017

Thanks for the effort, but I don't need a "translator". I can listen to his speech myself and come to my own conclusions.

— Nome Rasques (@nomerasques) July 6, 2017

Since you don't seem to understand what Western values are, they include freedom for you to write lame articles like this one.

— Denise McAllister (@McAllisterDen) July 6, 2017

It'a about time we had a POTUS that wants to defend Western values and civilization. Obama certainly did not. Democrats certainly do not.

— That Greek Guy! (@DesignGreek) July 6, 2017

https://twitter.com/UnrealRonBrown/status/882973269036552192

https://twitter.com/megadrivedan/status/883013619797118976

https://twitter.com/seanharshey/status/882967405533724672

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Related:

Cave story: Seattle U places dean on leave over psychologically abusive focus on dead white dudes https://t.co/YybKzwPSaf

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 3, 2016