Society is more divided now than at any time since the Civil War. People hate other people because of who they voted for. People are even choosing friends and breaking apart from family members based on who they supported in the last election. Beyond Facebook unfriending, relationships are impacted. It’s based on fear, disappointment, and hatred, and it seems to be all coming from one side.
Leftists said if Trump won, that there’d be violent mobs of hate, and intolerant fascists would try to silence those with whom they disagree. And they were right. It just was by a group of people from which they didn’t expect it: themselves.
What is happening, in the larger sense? Historians will study this election and our times as unique, but what seems to be unfolding in politics and America overall is stunning not only in its scope, but hypocrisy.
The “othering” of a group of people
They said that if Trump won, that groups of people would be identified and persecuted. And again, they were right. There is now a movement to identify anyone who supported the current president as an an extremist, which is kind of hard to do when he won the Electoral College by 70 votes, which means his support is hardly extreme and maybe, you know, mainstream.
That is, liberals believe that most of America is out-of-step with America.
Only the enlightened folks in the blue bubbly blotches are normal, and not extremist at all. They just happen to control Hollywood, the mainstream media, and Big Education.
The Man
Donald Trump was never called a racist or sexist or xenophobe for decades in business, working with Hollywood, or in the primaries. But once he was the roadblock in Hillary Clinton’s cakewalk to the coronation, he became all these things and more. A strategy was needed.
Early in the election, leftist Huffington Post had a disclaimer on every story mentioning Donald Trump: “Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.” Further, it made a conscious decision to feature stories about him in the Entertainment section, because the future president wasn’t a legitimate political story. Accuracy be damned, the othering had begun.
This isn’t to say that he wasn’t boorish or controversial; of course he was. But suddenly, for a late-night host to have Trump on as a guest was “normalizing” him, and a campaign had begun to shun those who didn’t shun Trump. In fact, it caused anger when a TV host touched Trump’s hair. Why? Because it made Trump seem almost like a normal human being. Outrage!
His Supporters
Soon, this othering outcasting spread beyond the man, to his supporters. See, you couldn’t possibly support Donald Trump because you were tired of the direction leftists like Obama took the country while excluding everyone outside his base (and Hillary promised to continue doing). No. The only possible reason to vote Republican in 2016 was because you hated minorities and women and foreigners, said the party of nuance with its sledgehammer of hate.
Thus, a justification was born for condemning everyone you disagreed with. Someone voted for Trump? Nazi. Someone voted against Hillary? Nazi. Someone doesn’t agree with same-sex marriage? 2008 Barack Obama. Oh, and Nazi.
Behold all the tolerance!
Yes, the party of enlightenment became “everyone that’s like me is smart and good-looking and smells like awesome, and everyone that doesn’t think like me is Adolph Hitler.”
Democrats wished for their general election opponent to be Trump. They then ran, in an outsider year, an out-of-touch unlikable DC insider with an FBI probe. Then, the most qualified candidate ever lost an election to a boorish political amateur with the worst negative approval ratings ever. Panicked in shock, Democrats scrambled to place the blame squarely where it belonged: on everywhere else but the candidate. First, they blamed the Electoral College, because it’s always rigged and unfair, except when it produces a result they approve of like in 2008. Then, they blamed Russian hackers, because Putin’s ground game in Madison knew Hillary was weak in Wisconsin, and he could brilliantly mastermind her winning the popular vote but losing the electoral one.
But eventually, blamethrowing gave way to violent tantrums. Because, as someone put it, they forgot to inform us that liberal ‘love trumping hate’ involved so much arson and broken glass. The leftists smashed their own towns, and then started tolerantly having free speech arson festivals at their own universities to stop free speech.
But the Party of Progress isn’t satisfied with property damage and destruction of cop-cars and coffee kiosks. The tolerance extended to the next phase: hypotheticals with the enlightened New York Times asking if violence against some people is justified. It’s ok, you see, because these people are Nazis. What makes a person a Nazi deserving of violence? Almost everything.
They say the reason for fear is all the violence at Trump rallies, which happened only because Democrats intentionally caused confrontations to get ugly headlines.
- Plan protest at rally.
- Break stuff, start fires, and cause mayhem.
- Headline: “Rally Turns Ugly with Violence!”
- Blame rally.
This tactic has been used before.
This has led to at least one “fight club” on a college campus dedicated to teach socialists how to beat up Republicans and “Bash the Fash” (fascism, get it?). The “fascists” attendees learn to bash: Republicans, along with “other Nazis.” Of course, this is billed as self-defense, stoked by fake hoax reports, against all the imagined violence some on the right may commit. In sum, a group is openly debating about victimizing another group just because of their identity, and training to physically harm this group, all because the target is an imagined threat and might do something. Science!
And while polite Tea Party protesters were called violent racists, today’s glass-smashers and jaw-crushers are glamorized by gauzy appellations like “The Resistance.” You see, they’re not violent radicals destroying crap, they’re noble Victor Laszlo opposing today’s tyrannical totalitarian.
Putting it together
Historically, being a Nazi was a very specific thing with a very narrow ideology. It used to involve squelching dissent, breaking glass, and violence. And we can all agree that people who engage in such behaviors (cough) are bad. Very, very bad.
But today, when not shattering storefronts, the liberal left has diluted the idea of Nazism to include all their foes, cheapening history’s mass murder of millions of innocent people into something that includes the half of America it can’t stand. With that, enabled modern leftists can give themselves smug permission to justify punching anyone they don’t like or disagree with, and even openly holding “no GOP allowed” workshops to develop those violent skills.
And you know who else took millions of people, “othered” them as beneath contempt, and then justified violence against them.
Leftists have become the very thing they say they hate.
Follow Razor on Twitter at @Hale_Razor and bookmark https://medium.com/@hale_razor/ for endless reading pleasure.
15 comments:
If Hillary had ascended to the White Hut what would "the resistance" look like? We know the direction her policies would have taken, and there would be a Resistance, and a need for a Reckoning. Half of America has cast off restraint and can not discern between Good and Evil. The Country was founded for a moral and religious people, but when the immoral and lawless say they are righteous and free we are into new territory.
Yeah? And a lot of them seem to work for the federal government. Academics, bureaucrats, school teachers, and the rest.
If I had the power, I'd send "normal" Americans through the lines, or ones with blogs who purport to be against federal unions and illegal immigration etc. If they are picked out for particularly rude treatment, the employees should be fired on the spot... all who were involved with the case. Yes, I would do that.
Buy ammo.
1. It will make you feel better.
2. You just may need it.
Leftists didn't "become" the very thing they say they hate, they;ve always been that thing. They hate anyone who doesn't agree with them, and they've been that way since Mohammad's time.
"In sum, a group is openly debating about victimizing another group just because of their identity, and training to physically harm this group, all because the target is an imagined threat and might do something. Science!"
Superbly and elegantly written ... explains every bit of violence that man has ever initiated toward man, ever.
MikeD
Yes. This is who they are.
Earlier today I made a comparison between American 2017 and America 1858: "America is a "house divided" and it cannot stand."
In 1858, when Lincoln gave his famous "house divided" speech, America's divisions over slavery had been sharpened by the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which buttressed slave holding as a Constitutional right, based solely on the justices' openly-stated racist reasons. I would say thatthe still-unsettled Ninth Circuit's quashing of President Trump's executive order temporarily halting, with some exceptions, entry into the country of anyone from seven named countries, is a fair comparison, though we don't yet know how it will end.
The Left hates racists, except when confronted with people of color who do not embrace their ideology.
The Left hates misogyny, until a woman does not embrace their ideology.
The Left hates homophobia, but terrorize any that do not embrace their ideology.
The Left is tolerant until someone does not agree with them.
The Left cares for all children, until someone tries to put them into better schools.
The Left kills babies and calls it pro-choice.
If H. Clinton had been elected instead of D. Trump, the "resistance" would have been the loyal opposition, bitterly disappointed and wondering aloud for a little while whether dirty tricks had been at play, but ultimately accepting the results of the American election and then turning to the problem of how to minimize the damage. Like we do.
What would NOT have happened is a so-called "resistance," in which the party that lost the election would have wailed to the heavens, hooded and masked ourselves, attempted physically to obstruct and stifle the party that won, gone to our therapists to seek comfort for our existential angst, and immediately begun beating the bushes for pretenses for impeachment.
Ask yourself this, which political group is more likely to create a fascist government? One that promotes ever increasing government control of all aspects of our lives or one that wants to greatly decrease government intrusions and actually rule according to our constitution?
Not much to argue with here. It's been unsettling to watch from here overseas a hitherto-conservative society being up-ended in relatively short order. Was hysterical stuff like we've seen in the last year even conceivable ten years ago?
Yes, you are absolutely right
The left has got it's violent action arm going again, this time in black clothing and masks as opposed to the white robes of earlier days.
I consider them to be the New Klux Klan.
A 'normal' American, as you state, were he/she/they picked out for 'rude' treatment, would be blamed for the rude treatment since just by showing up and having the belief they had, caused the 'rude' treatment, hence they are responsible for their own 'punishment'.
I read it and wish even more will because you nailed it with the possible exception of the 1858 date. Seems like 1860 or even 61 to me.
Knowing this we all should be prepared, otherwise this keyboard pounding is a waste.
Post a Comment