I took a break from PWI after the Kavanaugh hearings and mid-term elections. I don’t keep myself informed of issues the way most of the posters here do, and I don’t have a lot to contribute outside of articulating my own ideas. Since there hasn’t been a thread about Covington, I’ll go ahead and start one.
When I first heard about this story, my first reaction was one of shock. I was shocked to believe that bunch of children who were raised conservative Catholic, as I was, would harass and mock an old man for any reason. My second reaction, which happened immediately after, was to refrain from joining the online outrage mob. I suspected there was more to this story, and it turns out there was.
It’s been about a week since this story broke, and it is now clear that the children of Covington Catholic High School were the only ones acting decently when two different groups of adults went out of their way to provoke them. Nathan Philips approached them and started banging a drum in the face of a child. The Black Hebrew Israelites shouted all manner of vile things at them for over an hour while the children did nothing but stand there and have a pep rally. Nathan Phillips was immediately given a national platform to tell his lies, and called the children “beasts” who wanted their “pound of flesh”.
Even after the full 2 hour video was circulated, you still had major media outlets promoting the narrative that these children were somehow acting wrong. Credence was still being given to the serial liar and stolen valor charlatan, Nathan Phillips. He was still being touted as a Vietnam Veteran, even though he never set foot in that country. He was given a softball interview on the Today show while Nick Sandaman, the child who dared to smile, was not.
Thousands of journalists, celebrities and high-profile online personalities have called for retribution against these children, who did nothing wrong. This has ranged from expulsion to outright calls for violence, up to and including their deaths. It also turns out that this is not, in fact, against Twitter’s terms of use. Any notions that Twitter is non-partisan have quickly flown out the window.
Several people I know personally have doubled-down on their belief that these children are simply the worst. So have many major media outlets. A facebook friend of mine linked a picture of their basketball team holding up three fingers, calling it the new Nazi salute. The same guy linked a picture from a 2012 blackout event, suggesting that this was somehow indicative of vile racism at Covington Catholic High School. Both of these narratives were, of course, circulated by mainstream media outlets. He was just repeating what sounded right to him. I’d imagine he’s never been around sports to know what a 3 pointer is or what black-out, blue-out, white-out or dress up like a nerd nights are all about, but I know that he has. I’m sure the people reporting on these non-incidents have too. None of that matters if you can get clicks, views and attention with dishonest reporting that advances the narrative.
He doesn’t care. He’s already settled on his opinion. The media doesn’t care. They’ve already settled on their opinion. These children are the worst. Old Native American man who fits the Hollywood tropes is the best.
This event is like a Rorschach test. I can’t take credit for applying that term to this scenario, but I think it’s accurate. I think I read it on The Federalist. People see what they want to. At least some do. I’m not sure how anyone can see anything besides children being put in a terrible position, but they do. It’s terrible, if you ask me. This is worse than the Kavanaugh hearings, where the entire weight of the Democrat establishment and most of the mainstream media was set upon a man with the intent to destroy his entire life’s work based on non-evidence and flimsy accusations from highly dubious sources.
I feel like we’re entering a cold civil war. I feel like the hard left continues to poison the entire country with their terrible ideas and vile actions. The Republican party is not infallible by any means, but I see no conservative equivalent that matches the scope and scale of what we see on the left today. Lawsuits for libel are incoming. I hope they win every penny they are after. This is inexcusable. Decent people have to fight back, and I’m glad to hear that they are.