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Through A Tweet, Darkly
I understand lynching now.
The way the Covington boys were treated brought me a moment of clarity. The fundament for this understanding came not from the left (I know what to expect from them) but from the right. Watching in near real-time as thinkers, writers and pundits that I may not agree with but used to respect go off like Roman candles at the mere hint of a whiff of the notion that white teenage males wearing MAGA hats were everything bad in this world was a wake-up call. Those poseur “conservatives” are every bit as intellectually brutish, morally smug, and ideologically craven as those leftists that I despise so.
First, if you went off on a hair trigger after seeing a sliced and diced snippet of film taken at a political event and published by the mainstream media and assumed the very worst about people ostensibly on your side, then you are stupid. You aren’t bright enough to have gleaned the least clue as to the left’s hate-mongering, smear-hungry, hysterics-reliant playbook. Congratulations, you got played. It did not even occur to you that the March for Life would bring leftist provocateurs out of the woodwork to ply their sinister and dishonest trade. Really? Not even a little bit?
You are also stupid because, despite all your proclamations and protestations about being reasoned, balanced, phlegmatic thinkers, you cannot resist turning your opponents into two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. That’s what muttonheads do. Despite your smarts, you cannot see your opponents as three-dimensional moral agents. You cannot take a digital moment to ponder “why would they do that? Did they do that? What are the odds this happened as stated?” Sad.
Your provided aid and succor to those that would take your liberty, your property, and your legacy because you don’t like MAGA hats.
If you were willing to cast every aspersion upon a bunch of kids and throw in with the rabid digital mob that wanted to dox, punch and kill these kids, then I beg you to take some time for introspection. If you could do that digitally, then you could, in the flickering light of the torches, help body surf the rope over the crowd to string up that uppity black boy that allegedly looked inappropriately at a white girl. Honest truth.
C’mon. Wake up.
I wouldn’t presume to ask you to study critical thinking, reason, and rhetoric. You had to have had all those classes, even if you didn’t internalize them. I would admonish you to get off of Twitter. It’s hurting you. It’s hurting the way you think, the way you process information, and the way you weigh variables. I don’t know if it’s the thrill of being part of a digital mob, the instantaneous feedback, or them there dopamine hits all the egg-heads talk about, but it brings out your worst self.
If you are addicted to dopamine, c’mon down; I’ll teach you how to generate it unilaterally, internally. Because you aspire to be a conservative, I’ll give you a rate.
Published in General
It’s an orangey!
Can competent anything occur at Twitter speed?
No it is totally unreasonable. There are an awful lot of people who have bought/wear those silly red hats.
The Crips street gang used to wear a lot of Dodgers Caps. That does not mean that any person in a Dodgers cap should be treated like a gang member.
There is no confusing 16-17 year old boys for Proud Boys. The similarity ends at exactly, they were white and may were the same hat. A Catholic School trip is easy to distinguish from a group of Proud Boys. They should be treated separately because they are completely separate things.
As always, I’m never invited to the orgy.
Explain, please. I don’t associate any of these imbroglios with the word “cute.”
I meant the facts fit their preconceived agendas too well.
Any freaking hot Latina assassins involved? Be the death of you.
Not checking first before opining was totally unreasonable. Thinking that it might be true was not.
My question is why so many “conservatives” (I know, I know) had the same preconceived agenda.
A lot of them have been doxxed or attacked at home or on the street by zealot Trumpkins. They are willing to believe there are a lot of MAGA nuts running around looking for somebody to punch out, as if they were at a MAGA rally.
Stereotyping is good!
Wow. I’m happy I don’t know any such people.
There they go again. That Darn Media©, covering up for the many crimes committed by Trump supporters.
Having someone show up on your doorstep and harangue your wife or kids is no fun. Ask Eric Erickson, a former NeverTrumper who’s capitulated and now supports Trump.
Citations, please.
See above or listen to Jonah’s The Remnant at about minute 55:00.
I would think a citation would be “on date XXX, Erick Erickson was accosted by <insert picture of the elusive zealot trumpkin> and as a result Erick is now singing President Trump’s praises”
There is no such reference above. Despite your assertion.
Which episode?
I’ll give you Erickson, ’cause I’m too tired to look it up (since you’re not providing a citation, I’ll take you at your word). I don’t know if the podcast is about Erickson, or Jonah’s talking about himself.
So you’ve got one, maybe two (without citations, but I’ll go with it).
I heard “a lot.” Is two a lot?
Under the bridges, it’s an epidemic!
Anecdotes are slippery things: in a nation of more or less 320 million, you can find examples of almost literally anything. You can probably find several examples of almost literally anything.
And the press will inevitably find the most salacious ones.
Back before the election, my kid brother and I decided to explore, informally, just how fierce was the anti-Trump sentiment, choosing a blue-state Starbucks as our testing ground. I wrote about it here.
I continue to believe, based on my own experience and a perception of my fellow Americans gained over a half century (plus) of living among them, that: there aren’t many really crazy people out there; that they tend to come from the left more than the right; and that most Americans, left and right, are still pretty easy to get along with.
The best thing about the Trump presidency, besides the considerable amount of winning and that vile harpy will never be president, is the sorting job it performs on “conservatives.” Clarity has never been easier to come by.
I’m bringing the cheerleaders!
By the way, excellent post @bossmongo! As always.
Oh my stars and garters, I almost forgot about blatant self promotion. If you don’t understand Columbo’s most excellent reference to freakin’ hot latina assassins, please go here.
This incident reminded me of the whole Trayvon Martin incident.
Yep, fake news from beginning to end. And I think this may be the beginning of the end for National Review and much of the establishment conservative pundit class.
Just read this again and I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have because I was nodding my head too vigorously. Really great!
And it’s true that we should revisit things to have a perspective – unlike what these dolts are doing. And then there’s always history. As though political narrative-crafting didn’t exist before and doesn’t exist now.
But taking first impressions from the MSM perspective is politically moronic. This is a test-fail for anyone presenting themselves as a thought-leader on the right. And then to scold these young misguided people. 16 year olds can be misguided. They can want tattoos piercings change their gender, admit to mental deficiencies in exchange for performance enhancing- but psychologically dangerous drugs.
The 16 year olds who are in gangs.
So maybe these poor kids are victims of propaganda – unlike perhaps
So shouldn’t these teenagers be granted the same allowance?They are being improperly taught by their Trump supporting parents and Catholic schools.
These writers don’t understand they are broadcasting their contempt.
Maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome.
This incessant race-focus is staggering.
Right – even if the original still shot, headlines, and captions had been true that still isn’t reason to ruin anyone’s life. Competing demonstrators is not and should not be a story; taking one side or the other shouldn’t be an infraction; an infraction short of physical or violent activity shouldn’t ruin a life. Especially from a conservative perspective.
Damn frustrating when those who should be on your side, are not. Tragic when a deleted Bill Kristol tweet does nothing to make amends for the harm caused. The destruction done here cannot be undone. An early lesson in life isn’t fair.
I agree with you, Boss. Especially about the kid’s smile—I had the same impression myself.
And I was just talking with my daughter today about how this lunatic thing—a bunch of grownups (scare quotes?!) dumping homicidal fury on what were, even in the worst possible premature reading of the situation, children— makes lynchings and Kristallnacht, a whole lot less mysterious.
Seriously: I think if all these pathetically unhinge-able people were in a room and poor Nick Sandmann walked in, the kid would get literally (not figuratively) curb-stomped. Over nothing.
It’s a very ugly, unnerving and disheartening thing.