On a recent segment, CNN's Chris Cuomo got mad at Hispanic conservative Chris Cortes because Cortes accused him of defending Antifa in an earlier episode. Cuomo snidely denied it and accused the guy of not reading what Cuomo actually said, which - according to Cuomo - was simply that some violence is morally justified if it is against hatred and bigotry. "...In the eyes of good and evil," Cumo said on the earlier show, "here’s the argument: ...when someone comes to call out bigots and it gets hot, even physical, are they equally wrong as the bigot they are fighting? I argue, no. Fighting against hate matters.” Later in the segment and then on Twitter, he cited World War 2 and violent episodes in the Civil Rights Movement as examples of morally justified violence against hatred, even going so far as to Tweet a photo of the Normandy landing with the caption, "Anti-Fascists disrupting a large gathering of white supremacists."
Actually, the second world war and America's role, in particular, was more about defending sovereign nations from invasion by a common enemy than it was fighting white supremacy, and the gathering of Nazis where the landing took place wasn't large enough because the Allies had tricked them into believing the landing would take place somewhere else. At any rate, so what if he didn't say the word Antifa while defending violence against bigots? He didn't have to because the whole thing was in the context of him expressing his opinion on a matter concerning... ANTIFA! The whole monologue was commentary on and/or spurred by a story about a gathering which Cuomo described as, "peppered in a crowd were members of Antifa, or Anti-Fascists..." In that context, if he's not defending Antifa, then who is he defending? Because I don't recall the names of any other groups that fight hatred and bigotry relevant to his segment.
Now, I'm not sure I totally disagree with Cuomo. Antifa often seems to incite its own violent episodes, but for better or worse, violence has long been an effective agent of good and necessary change in human history at both a national and local level. One could make the argument that the American Revolution was first incited by localized violence. What I disagree with is comparing what's going on today with the landing at Normandy or the Civil Rights Movement.
The Nazis VIOLENTLY invaded their neighbors in the name of Lebensraum and, eventually, enacted a very obvious and very horrendous plan to exterminate as many Jews and other undesirables (to the Nazis) as they could. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, police were hosing down and beating black people simply for standing around where they weren't welcome. You could turn a corner in an otherwise nice little neighborhood and see a black man with a broken neck hanging from a tree. Children were being burned to death in church fires by white men that may or may not even stand trial and were just as likely to be exonerated by a "jury of their peers" because their peers were white. THAT is hate. THAT is justification for violence, in spite of another fact that Cuomo neglected to mention, which is that Martin Luther King - arguably the most celebrated and effective Civil Rights leader in American history - followed the example of Ghandi and others and insisted that there be NO VIOLENCE in his marches and protests... even when it drew the ire of other civil rights groups and leaders like Malcolm X.
What we have today started as and, for the most part, still is a war of words that gets out of hand because at least TWO generations of people currently alive seem to equate hurt feelings with real, 100% unadulterated hate. Now, does that mean people should go around yelling racial epithets and other hateful slurs, etc? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But the European Jews in World War 2 and the blacks in 1960's Detroit, Birmingham, Chicago, and other cities across America were literally dreaming of a day in which the only things they had to put up with 99% of the time were the words of a few idiots and, yes, bigots, because humans are imperfect and will probably never fully purge some form of discrimination and hatred from their psyches. People like Cuomo and the Antifa punks think they're standing up for people's rights and nobly fighting to keep REAL Fascism from once again gaining a foothold, but by complaining so much about "divisiveness" and equating the Allies' fight at Normandy against the army of the violently racist Nazi Germanny with Antifa punks' attack on people in the street because they happen to be Republicans or Trump supporters is every bit as dangerous to our civil liberties as anything that President Trump and his supporters has said or ever will say outside of stated and enacted policy. Why?
Because it's setting a pattern AND PRECEDENT in which certain members of our society cannot say certain things or otherwise disagree with certain other members of our society without being guilty of "racism" and "hate," which - in some instances - the law already recognizes as criminal. In America, laws are meant to be made and unmade based upon the demands of the people. If enough people have decided that something should be illegal, then it becomes possible for government to make it so. That's why lobbyists exist. At this rate, within the next decade, people will or won't be allowed to say certain things to certain people based on things like their race and income while others will be forcefully protected and defended for the same reason. There are mild forms of this already on the books. THAT IS NOT EQUALITY. AT ALL.
And while I will always criticize Trump and others for dividing the GOP as a party into quarreling factions and bemoan the fact that members of different political parties no longer even have the same fundamental goals, the current complaints about divisiveness - which now come from both sides - are equally petty and dangerously myopic. We are a democratic republic. Being democratic means we can CHOOSE who we want to lead and how we want to be led, but if our choices are not sufficiently distinct and representative of people with distinctly different ideas and viewpoints, then why bother? If what I want is jelly and someone comes up and says, "Good news! You can choose between creamy and crunchy peanut butter," what's the point in giving me the choice? EITHER WAY, I'M EATING PEANUT BUTTER!
I was under the impression that we're supposed to value diversity, but there's no diversity in a group of weak-kneed sycophants that panic and compare others to Nazis and warmongers any time someone disagrees with them on a topic of some personal importance. There's no equality OR tolerance in a society in which distasteful, yet otherwise innocuous and incidental behavior is moderated, restricted, and punished by law based upon things like the race and income of the supposedly guilty parties and whether or not the behavior is directed at people of a different race and income level. And yet, that's where we're headed. I'm not defending a single thing that President Trump has said or done to date just by saying that the reaction to him and his mistakes and occasional idiocy have become or are quickly becoming every bit as consequential BECAUSE instead of it just being the acts and words of one man, no matter how powerful or how many he represents, it's the acts and words of the national community... the "mob," if you will... that ultimately has and was always meant to have the most power at the end of every day here in America.
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I HATE censorship on principle, so all I ask is that if you decide to vehemently disagree with and challenge me, please endeavor to do so in as civil and specific a manner as possible, citing examples (if not always sources) to back up your claims. Other than that... have fun! Thanks. - JD...