Posted on 06/21/2017 9:52:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
When Richard Spencer, a controversial figure of the “Alt-Right,” was punched in the face during a television interview earlier this year, the Left cheered the assault, and turned video of the attack into gleeful memes. “The only good thing that happened [at Donald Trump’s Inauguration] was when suit-owner and neo-Nazi Richard Spencer was socked in the head by the new masked hero of Gotham,” wrote Jordan Sargent at Billboard Music’s Spin.com. For a movement populated by pacifists and peaceniks, the Left’s justification of the violence against Spencer came surprisingly easy.
Then, last Friday, when two protestors disrupted a disturbing production in Central Park of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in which a Trump look-alike is assassinated, the Right rushed to defend the hecklers’ actions. Opponents of the play also threatened other producers of Shakespeare summer plays (which were unrelated to the New York production), wishing them “the worst possible life,” hoped they “all get sick and die” and that they should be “sent to ISIS to be killed with real knives.” Apparently, it made no difference to conservative protestors that the offending play, disgusting as it might be, represents speech protected by the Constitution, or that only weeks before those same conservatives were criticizing U.C. Berkeley for shutting down offensive speakers.
Between two sides growing increasingly less rational in responding to all manner of political and social issues, last week’s shooting spree by a single, hate-filled individual against Republican congressmen and staff personnel came not so much as a shock as a sad commentary on the state of politics in America.
Following the attack on Republican members of Congress, pundits and politicians quickly rushed to blame “hate” and “vitriol” for the toxic environment in which an individual would be motivated to use violence for political purposes. This was the very same “analysis” offered to explain the attempted assassination of Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in 2011.
While there certainly is far too much incivility in today’s political discourse, pinning political violence on inflammatory speech misses the forest for the trees. The root problem is not hate, or even emotion, but the abandonment of logic and reason as underpinnings of American society, which leaves only violence to fill the vacuum.
But it goes far deeper than politics. Everywhere you look today, from flying on planes, to ordering coffee, violence has supplanted rational behavior in our interpersonal dealings. A major factor underlying this phenomenon is social media, which inflates the self-importance of its users, and provides them convenient cover from having to actually explain their views on any particular issue. This process is made worse as social media encourages the use of over-the-top rhetoric, with people “virtue signaling” to others about how much they care, rather than using logical arguments that may be less passionate but more substantive.
Combine this phenomenon with the waning respect for constitutional rule of law, and we are left with groups on both sides of the ideological spectrum who believe their views are correct, their actions are justifiable if not moral, and that nothing else – not logic, reason, or even the rule of law – should stand in their way of achieving their perception of the public good. It is why Leftist “Antifa” thugs use fascist tactics to shut down enemies they call “fascist.” It is why conservatives who decry speech suppression on college campuses defend shutting down public theater performances with which they disagree. And, it is why a man would think a killing spree of congressmen is a reasonable act when letters to the editor failed to elicit the response he desired.
Philosopher and renowned writer Ayn Rand, who witnessed first-hand the brutality of Communism, understood well this terrifying balance between reason and violence. “There are only two means by which men can deal with one another,” wrote Rand. “Guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns.” We saw her prescient warning come true on a practice ball field in Alexandria just one week ago. There will be more.
Either we seize this moment of recognition, and consciously do all we can to return reason to center stage in America’s culture; or we enter what promises to be a very long, dark night – the “darkness” of which Ronald Reagan spoke in 1964, and at which time he launched the Twentieth Century’s fight for the “last best hope of man on earth.” Thankfully back then we had Reagan to identify the problem and lead us out of the darkness, at least for a period of time; where might today’s Ronald Reagan be found is not at all clear.
Hoping for another RR to come along is kind of a crappy plan.
I think we need to brace ourselves.
Best I can tell trying to talk with these people hasn't been exactly "fruitful".
I'm not sure that trying to reason with a child in the middle of a tantrum works either. d;^)
While I somewhat agree with Mr. Barr but if you are writing an article about reason and logic, you should use reason and logic.
Equating Gabby Giffords with the baseball field shooting is illogical. The Giffords attack was not motivated by politics but insanity.
Equating the Julius Caesar protesters with the “punch a Nazi” is illogical. One group is actually committing and applauding physical violence and one is not.
Protesting the “hurtful words” of speakers at Berkeley is not the same as protesting a play celebrating the assassination of the President of the United States.
Other than that is he on track.
Their real but unspoken hope is that they can jack the violence and hate up enough to create a backlash from the right.
They want non-democrats to retaliate by taking violent action against democrats and other leftists.
Then the democrats and their leftist media will point the finger at the right and spin the news to portray leftists as the innocent, peace-loving victims of violent gun toting crazies on the right.
I think of the left as a bunch of “yapping and nipping kick dogs”. I think of the right as Pit Bulls.
We’re very nice and real sweethearts and rarely act out, but when we do...
The left had better be careful what they wish for. I could be wrong, but I think conservatives spend more time at the range.
Honestly, if it got to that point we would be in a hot civil war. We’re obviously in a cold one now, and the left is getting frustrated because they are losing at every turn. The internet has completely dethroned the MSM and they are reeling.
As you outline the left’s premise is based on one or two such reactions by any opponents that are singular events, necessary for their media allies to portray the poor widdle kids as victims shifting the blame.
Maybe.
In the Nixon years when construction workers in NYC and Boston whaled away on commie anti-war protesters the 3 networks moaned for one prime time evening followed by print scolding. America yawned and said about time some responded in kind with a little extra for good measure.
A more serious left provocation could result in a wide spread violent reaction that could unleash the whirlwind much to the lefts surprise and regret. Times ares very different and the MSM no longer has a choke chain on the news.
No, this article is mostly wrong the left owns this completely. The article is correct that the left has lost the discussion and ignores facts and logic and can only use violence. Obama brought in the lawlessness ignoring the constitution and letting George Soros run amuck and supporting Black Lives Matter garbage where the police were vindicated and black criminals are treated as martyrs and radicals burn down their own communities. Middle America is sick of democrats, leftists, BLM, Soros, high taxes and exporting jobs, taking away gun rights, taking away God in the public square, watching the media and Europe commit suicide by letting Muslim terror and refuges and ISIS kill without confronting it, forcing Christians to bake cakes for homosexuals, letting North Korea and Iran make nukes and missiles while stating they intend to kill Americans!!! Make America great again means no more left wing handouts and bull crap and acting like adults again and restoring God and faith and Christian values and principles and celebrating what made us the greatest nation on earth without apologizing. The left and the media and Hollywood are no longer the direction the country is going and if they make violence common like Islamic nuts they will lose and lose big. Trump is a sign that America was fooled by Obamas lies and deceit, but no more and Washington needs to learn the same and get on with the Trump agenda which is what the majority of reasoning and logical voting Americans asked for last November.
Today is the first day of summer. Since the dawn of candidate Trump last summer the violence has been pretty much one-sided, excluding `Moldylocks’ getting clocked in the forehead—and she put herself there.
The `pacifist, free speech advocates’ have been assaulting Trump supporters regularly at rallies, pre- and post-victory, often while LEOs stood by. They have been baiting us in all venues,
The problem of violence isn’t a shared problem, as the article seems to suggest.
Inability to control themselves, or a willingness to commit violence along with an unwillingness to accept the results of an election isn’t a conservative problem.
These continuing 3rd world fits of violence are all on the left.
State and local authorities must start doing their jobs, even in berzerker enclaves, or we will see law abiding people using their rights of self-defense and defense of others to protect themselves from the black-clad, left-wing thugs and their enabling, white-collar handlers.
Yes, when the LEOs fail to maintain law and order, there will be vigilantes arising to do it.
The author conflates free speech with murdering the sitting president.
Thus, he is full of shee' and can FOAD.
The left always lies.
So, in Bob Barr's mind there is no legal, ethical, or moral distinction between a theatrical production depicting the murder of a sitting President, and a flamboyant gay dude speaking at Berkeley?
I disagree fundamentally.
Bob Barr is yet another wimpy cuckservative who failed to conserve the women’s toilet. How pathetic.
There is no such thing as senseless violence.
Bob Barr was the first Congressman to come out and say Clinton should be impeached. He was also a strong supporter of the Tea Party movement. Done some odd ball stuff since then but I’d not count him among the bad guys.
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