Bruce McQuain:
The joy of today’s America. Noah Rothman claims:
You’d be hard-pressed to find a mainstream Democrat or prominent liberal defending the violence that erupted on Wednesday night in Berkeley, California, in response to a planned appearance by professional agitator Milo Yiannopoulos. There, over one hundred masked rioters attacked police, set fires, pepper sprayed President Donald Trump’s supporters, and used Molotov cocktails and commercial fireworks to terrorize bystanders. You’d have similar difficulty finding conventional liberals to defend the chaos and violence that occurred in several cities on the day of President Trump’s inauguration. And what Democrat would stick their necks out for those who attacked pro-Trump rally-goers in places like Chicago, Tucson, Costa Mesa, and San Jose? And yet, this violence is not occurring in a vacuum. It behooves the left to ask what is catalyzing a distinct rise in political violence.
Well I don’t know, let’s see, there’s Madonna who thinks a lot about “blowing up the White House”. Then there’s Sarah Silverman, who styles herself as a part of the “resistance”, calling for a military coup. You know, anti-gun Silverman who now wants the guns of the military to help her “resist.”
Berkeley was simply a manifestation (as are all the recent politically motivated riots) of this sort of “virtue signalling” from popular celebrities who have all but condoned anything, including violence, to get their way.
Speaking of Berekley and the Milo event, Steve Hayward at Powerline is willing to give the students the benefit of the doubt:
A word should be said on behalf of Berkeley students. I am convinced that the violent rioters were not students from the campus, but were organized outside agitators from off campus that exploited the event. Most students today, even my left-leaning students (I have quite a few in class), were angry about what had happened, as they resented having their protest hijacked by thugs, and the victory it delivered Milo, who is the Kim Kardashian of political theater. Instead of speaking to 500 people in an auditorium last night, he spoke to perhaps 4 million on TV. I think the net present value of the protest to him, in increased book sales and media market value, is at least $1 million—probably considerably more. I’m certain Milo’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, doubled his print run this morning for his forthcoming book. Go Milo! You’re a true marketing genius when you can get the unhinged left to help promote you for free. Most people have to pay a lot for this kind of promotion.
It seems that the new narrative that’s going around is it wasn’t Berekley students, it was those darn outside agitators. Yet if one looks at the crowd gathered prior to the outbreaks of violence, those aren’t “outside agitators” holding the signs. It isn’t about how many were there and what the mix of students was, it’s the fact that the university (and countless other universities) has fostered and countenanced the sort of group think that celebrates shutting down dissenting voices. Oh, and the reason for the new narrative? Well, there may actually be some consequences for this if Trump’s tweet about it is to be believed. Funny how that works, eh?
BTW, Milo’s book sales went up $12.74% that night and the next day.
Justin Moldow hits at the heart of it all. This is the problem:
There is no pact to be made with those that shut down dialogue. There is no discussion to be had with those that have violent outbursts in the streets because a man who holds different opinions from them is speaking inside a college building, instead of maybe going to the event and challenging his ideas intellectually. There is no teaching economics to someone that wants everything handed to them for free and will throw a tantrum if you take it away from them. There is no teaching someone about the ethics of property rights when they feel that they are entitled to your belongings, and will take them from you if the state isn’t going to.
You almost want to yell “fascists, heal thyself”. But that takes self-awareness, something blatantly missing from those who attempt to block the exercise of free speech and resort to violence to do so.
And, the moralizing and incitement isn’t going to stop. We were treated to some by actor David Harbour at the SAG awards, in which he called for cultivating a “more empathetic and understanding society” by having to “punch some people in the face” if they, you know, aren’t like them. And on a lesser plane, but equally as irritating, apparently Lady GaGa is going to musically lecture us during the Superbowl halftime about “inclusion”. That should be a treat.