I still don’t understand why people assume the children weren’t innocent. What did they do? Is it the hat? It must be the hat. I don’t have a MAGA hat, but my 18 year old stepson does. I can guarantee you he’s not putting a lot of thought into his politics and he’s certainly not a racist. He couldn’t name one bill Trump’s signed. He’s got Somalian friends and some of them wear MAGA hats too. I doubt their knowledge of politics goes any deeper than his.
MAGA hats are cool in his circle of friends, which are mostly athletes at his high school. I think this mostly boiled down to annoying and unpopular weirdos at his school being Bernie and/or Hillary supporters and most of his hockey team being Trump supporters. Not a whole lot else going on with his policy reflections at that age, not with him anyway.
Now someone who doesn’t know anything about him or why anyone else might choose to wear that hat has decided MAGA hats are the new KKK hood. That’s ridiculous. Who decided the KKK hood was the KKK hood? The KKK. They were clear about what they believed and clear on their use of symbols.
A monopoly? No, not at all. But I think you can say they’ve cornered the market when it comes to the politics of personal destruction and widespread rhetoric that is rooted in the assumption that conservatives are acting in bad faith.
The MAGA hat is a perfect example. A bunch of people who don’t wear them have declared that it means something other than what it says on the hat, and now they expect everyone to give their feelings on the matter deference. If someone doesn’t, well, they’re fair game, just like these kids. They say it’s racist to wear a hat, so anyone who does must be.
We just saw this notion of racists hats deeply woven into an ongoing national narrative that succeeded in spreading blatant lies about innocent people to further a narrative. Even today, over a week after the entire video was made available, people (and at this point, mostly fringe news outlets) are still clinging to this falsehood. Almost every single major media outlet in America was still acting as if there were two valid viewpoints on this days after the entire footage was released. Very few clear retractions were issued. Nathan Philips was still being given interviews even after it was abundantly clear he was lying through his teeth.
I understand the Orange Man Bad point of view. I wish he’d get off of Twitter and act more presidential. But I also like that he punches back and I think we ended up electing the only guy in the field who would. I think that’s a big part of why he got elected.
That’s one of the reasons I like Dan Crenshaw so much. He’s a conservative who represents my policy positions well. He will get on TV and sit down with democrats and challenge their viewpoints and silly assumptions, but with a lot more dignity and class. Trump fights like a bully who’s only got a wild haymaker, Crenshaw fights like a jiu jitsu black belt. I really hope he runs for President in the coming decades.
Back to comparing conservative bad behavior to left wing bad behavior, there are many other examples where media narratives have resulted in tragic outcomes.
Much of Ferguson, Missouri was destroyed in riots. Looting and violence were wide-spread. Many people suffered. In the lead-up to that many blatant lies were spread in an effort to advance a political narrative that simply didn’t apply to the case of Michael Brown, who attempted a gun grab on officer Wilson while he was still in his patrol car, discharging a round in the process. There was no “hands-up, don’t shoot”, there was only a violent man who didn’t want to be apprehended assaulting an officer after he already escalated the encounter to one of lethal force. This became apparent weeks after the rush to judgement and media-fueled notion that Michael Brown was needlessly gunned down for no reason. Even after all of the facts are in, his mother was invited to speak at the DNC. The narrative is what matters, not the truth.
That’s not to say that there aren’t police shootings that are unjustified. There are, but the left-wing narrative isn’t interested in any facts beyond the races of the people involved. There are many, many examples of this rhetoric from mainstream media and mainstream politicians. The intention is clear. Keep the focus on police and not on any individual’s actions that lead up to the shooting. Advance the narrative by any means necessary, including omitting facts. Ignore cases that don’t fit the narrative. Sow division. Get votes. Get ratings. Get views and clicks.
Border security is another example. The same policy positions clearly stated by prominent democrats in the past have now become racist. The same actions taken by previous administrations are now racist. Abolish ICE is a serious policy position now, even as the one ICE agent I know spends days and weeks away from his family to pursue underage sex traffickers. If you don’t agree with these, it’s not out-of-bounds to call you a bad person with bad motives.
Where are the conservative equivalents? Where do you have examples of elected officials encouraging their constituents to do more than just debate ideas and vote? What about public figures like celebrities? I know Ted Nugent’s said some terrible things I don’t agree with, but what other examples do you have of conservatives characterizing their political opponents as enemies that can’t simply be voted out of power?