A couple of days ago,
comedian Kathy Griffin displayed a fake severed head of President Donald Trump
on TV. A lot of liberals condemned her in the process, and she lost her job at
CNN as a result.
Over the past few years, right-wing rock musician Ted Nugent has said that both President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should both be executed. Not only did Nugent face no similar fallout from conservatives but he was also invited to the White House after Trump's inauguration.
Please don’t even try to tell me that the "left" is merely a mirror image of the right, because it isn’t and never has been. What we're seeing is the result of a long-standing double standard in that a conservative taking shots at someone perceived as more liberal is "truth" but even mild criticism of conservatives is "politically correct," "biased" or a personal attack. The only thing that seems to matter to that side of the political fence is that "liberals" are humiliated or destroyed, in the words of Malcolm X, "by any means necessary." That's the real reason our country is so divided.
This has been going on for decades; I first began to notice it in the 1980s, but it became obvious with what the political right was doing to President Bill Clinton to try to drive him from power. What was his real crime? Getting elected.
Over the past few years, right-wing rock musician Ted Nugent has said that both President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should both be executed. Not only did Nugent face no similar fallout from conservatives but he was also invited to the White House after Trump's inauguration.
Please don’t even try to tell me that the "left" is merely a mirror image of the right, because it isn’t and never has been. What we're seeing is the result of a long-standing double standard in that a conservative taking shots at someone perceived as more liberal is "truth" but even mild criticism of conservatives is "politically correct," "biased" or a personal attack. The only thing that seems to matter to that side of the political fence is that "liberals" are humiliated or destroyed, in the words of Malcolm X, "by any means necessary." That's the real reason our country is so divided.
This has been going on for decades; I first began to notice it in the 1980s, but it became obvious with what the political right was doing to President Bill Clinton to try to drive him from power. What was his real crime? Getting elected.
During
the last presidential campaign, a T-shirt with a vulgar reference to Hillary
Clinton was being sold at the Republican National Convention, and no
conservative to my knowledge displayed similar disgust. Indeed, eight years ago
GOP presidential candidate John McCain was criticized for refusing to denounce
Democrat then-candidate Barack Obama as a “Kenyan socialist” or "closet Muslim,"
among other things.
But
at some point people get tired of being bullied and will eventually lash out,
and I won't blame them one bit for doing so. We're already seeing this on
certain college campuses, where conservative firebrands such as Ann Coulter,
Milo Yiannopoulos and even Charles Murray have been shouted down because the
students are smart enough to recognize their true purpose — sliming opponents. (No,
it's not about "exposing people to different views" because the
speakers themselves, there specifically to cause trouble and well paid in the
process, don't offer anything constructive or are even attempting to.)
Why am I not similarly criticizing the left? Primarily because it doesn't operate the same way — remember that Griffin lost her job as a result — and I refuse to engage in false equivalence. They're just not the same.
Why am I not similarly criticizing the left? Primarily because it doesn't operate the same way — remember that Griffin lost her job as a result — and I refuse to engage in false equivalence. They're just not the same.
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