Thread by @yhazony

This week’s Rome National Conservatism Conference was an important meeting of national conservatives from all over the world.

Sadly, it’s been sullied by disgusting attacks from UK liberals against Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski for participating.

A thread: Please read and share.

A smear campaign by Buzzfeed and other left-wing outlets attacked Kawczynski, falsely claiming he participated in "a conference packed full of racists, homophobes and Islamophobes."

These attacks repeatedly implied that the conference and its participants were anti-Semitic.

Astonishingly, these unfair attacks on Kawczynski neglected to name any of the conference organizers or sponsoring organizations.

These organizers include Chris DeMuth, Ofir Haivry, and myself from the Edmund Burke Foundation and John O'Sullivan of the Danube Institute.

Why smear a conference without naming any of the organizers?

Simple: Because the organizers are prominent mainstream conservatives with well-known reputations.

Naming them would undermine the premise that Kawczynski recklessly attended a gathering of racists and anti-Semites.

Anti-Semites? The conference committee included myself and @haivry, both Jews.

Our Herzl Institute in Jerusalem was a co-sponsor, so Kawczynski and other participants were speaking in front of an Israeli logo (among others)--featuring a Star of David and Hebrew!

Here he is:

From the attacks on Kawczynski, you'd think he went to Rome to praise the wonders of fascism.

In fact, he came to discuss Brexit with other concerned political and academic figures.

His speech was judicious and moderate. Watch it for yourself!

Which is why its so disappointing that the Tories (@CCHQPress) acceded to the leftist media stampede without doing any fact-checking of their own.

They panicked, criticizing Kawczynski's attendance “in light of the views of some of those in attendance which we utterly condemn.”

Did @CCHQPress say *whose* views they “utterly condemned”?

No.

Did @CCHQPress say *which* views they “utterly condemned”?

No.

They just bought into the views of the same leftist media that demanded sacking Roger Scruton on similar grounds last year.

https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1115987831674015744?s=20

You'd think the Tories would be more careful.

In 2019 they had to reinstate Sir Roger Scruton after believing misleading media stories about him.

Now they’ve jumped the gun once again, smearing a whole conference of their own friends and sympathizers.

Good show, my friends!

There were plenty of other speakers at the conference. We'll be releasing videos in the coming days on the National Conservatism YouTube Channel.

I think you will find these speeches as fascinating as I did: They include talks by DeMuth, Dreher, Marechal, Meloni, Murray, Orban.

You won't agree with everything. But you'll find these speakers addressed pressing issues in substantive and intelligent ways. That's why they were invited.

The claim that this was about racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia is nonsense: An attempt at PC cancel-culture intimidation.

We won't apologize for inviting controversial figures.

The Edmund Burke Foundation has been bitterly attacked (including this week) by white racialists and anti-Semites.

Why? For excluding racialist and anti-Semitic views from our events.

In Rome we pursued the same policies

The Tories' capitulation dramatically emphasizes how dependent UK and US conservatives are on the leftist media for their views about conservatism in France, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Sweden.

All the leftist media have to do is cry "Far right!" and many conservatives flee in fear.

I agree with @DouglasKMurray that "governments and parties are being called ‘far-Right’ when they are not, and whole countries and movements are being anathematised when they will — must, in fact — be partners in the years ahead."

unherd.com/2020/02/the-da…

The rise of nationalism in Europe has changed the map of the conservative world.

English-speaking conservatives like Chris DeMuth, John OSullivan, Rod Dreher and myself refuse to buy the media's PC party line that says: They're all fascists.

We're getting our own information.

Look at @roddreher's moving essay about his two days of meeting European conservatives at the Rome conference.

It gives a picture that is almost diametrically opposed to the one presented in the UK media.

Read it. You'll be glad you did.

theamericanconservative.com/dreher/rome-na…

All of us understand that their are plenty of bad actors on the European right.

But what we've discovered is that the leftist media have zero ability to figure out who the bad guys in Europe really are.

We conservatives need to get our own information, make our own judgments.

Chris DeMuth and I wrote a letter summarizing these points to the UK Jewish Board of Deputies, which was also drawn into criticizing Kawczynski.

Unfortunately, it seems neither they nor the Tories gave our letter much attention, getting their information from the media instead.

This same story keeps repeating itself: Conservatives allow their worldview on crucial issues to be shaped by a leftist media:

I know the media are wildly off base when they're talking about *me.*

But I believe the very same media outlets when they are smearing *others.*

That's what happened to the Tories this week. They aided their political opponents and acted dishonorably toward their friends and supporters.

They did this not out of malice, I'm sure. Just ignorance, lack of professionalism, and fear.

You can do better, Tories. @CCHQPress.