There is something deeply wrong with the modern left. For all their talk of civility and tolerance, their fantasy lives are increasingly blood-soaked.
By now everything is aware that obscure comedienne Kathy Griffin decided it was a good idea to pose with what appeared to be Donald Trump's bloody severed head. It was an obvious reference to the barbaric beheadings perpetrated by Muslim terrorists.
She claims it was supposed to be funny and on a certain level, it is.
The left keeps insisting that radical Islam isn't a major threat, but their go-to symbol of violence is an parody of Islamic State death porn.
The left also claims that Donald Trump is uniquely rude and offensive, so they then outdo him in rude offensiveness.
When conservatives expressed outrage at this tasteless and nauseating image, they taunted them by saying: "Who are the special snowflakes now?" - as if a reasoned discussion is in any way analogous to a murder-fantasy.
I'm barely aware of Griffin. I don't recall seeing her in anything and so I don't have a great deal invested in her projects, but I do hope that she is rendered the most toxic woman in the country because of this, because that is the only way the left is going to learn to control its increasingly erratic and impulsive behavior.
Noted psychologist Jonathan Haider has a related piece on the witch hunts currently consuming college campuses. In it, he offers several lessons on how faculty should act. The first is the most important:
1) Never object to a diversity policy publicly.* It is no longer permitted. You may voice concerns in a private conversation, but if you do it in a public way, you are inviting a visit from a mob or punishment from an administrator.
That's a pretty bold statement of surrender. Perhaps after re-reading it, Haider decided to walk it back. So he added this:
*1. I am not really urging professors to keep quiet. I am trying to dramatize the growing authoritarianism of some campuses on which calm, reasoned questioning of the sort the Weinstein engaged in is now likely to be punished. I hope that professors will in fact model their behavior on Weinstein. But I would suggest that in the future they consider finding a few others who agree with them and are willing to co-sign the email. It will be harder for a university to punish or fire a group of professors than a single professor.
That's pretty weak tea. Professors now indisputably know that if they speak up and utter heretical thoughts, not even tenure will save them.
I mention this because Haider felt it necessary earlier in his post to emphasize how the violence and intolerance affects both sides of the political spectrum.
But it doesn't. The violence is coming from the left, both literally and artistically.
Stephen Colbert that it was perfectly acceptable to call the president a cocksucker on broadcast television. When called on it, he refused to back down and his network supported him. So why wouldn't Kathy Griffin think a mock snuff video would be similarly praised?
I begin to wonder if a certain level of exhaustion and fear is starting to take root on the left. It was one thing when goons crashed Trump's rallies. Now the mob is targeting otherwise impeccably liberal professors.
In addition to the immediate danger of harassment, violence and job loss, the university system itself is now threatened. Who wants to send their kids to schools where rampaging radicals are going to constantly disrupt things?
Are employers going to look positively on the graduates of these institutions? I can say right now I'd never hire anyone from Berkeley, the Ivies or any of the other schools where this madness is going on.
I've remarked before that armies rarely go down to defeat quietly. Instead they usually launch a final doomed attempt to reverse their fortunes. Maybe the rise of Trump has caused these people to attack everywhere and everything at once.
In a sense, Griffin's stupid stunt may be nothing more than the opening volley of a progressive Kaiserschlacht?
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