Rage Against the [Outrage] Machine
The supply of hatred, racism, and sexism doesn’t meet liberal demand
In a much publicized bit of holiday spirit, Ivanka trump was verbally rebuked on an airplane by a Hillary supporter. She and her husband reacted nobly, and her assaulter acted like a complete child, kicking and screaming his way off, then taking to twitter to create a false narrative about the engagement before he tucked his tail between his legs and deleted his profile in shame. Bravo. We would expect in the aftermath charges of sexism and accusations of “assault,” from the Media. But no, it was down played and even defended. Lauren Duca from Teen Vogue:
Later on Tucker Carlson’s program, Duca would back down from the tweet, further clarify that the smell she was talking about was vanilla, call Carlson a “partisan hack” (quoting directly from the 2004 John Stewart Crossfire interview she watched in the green room no doubt), then take to twitter to say Carlson violated ethics rules of journalism, and
While I happen to like Carlson, he is a tv-host and commentator, not a journalist, and the enemy of rational discourse might be the person yelling out accusations of bullying when they are asked to qualify their tweets on television.
The lack of outrage from the left surrounding the event on the airplane is surprising though, given it’s perfect set up: helpless woman on plane with children verbally assaulted by man. But Ivanka is not of the Left (despite the fact a political spectrum test might put her to the left of Hillary). Her attacker was.
During Roast of Rob Lowe, famously, Ann Coulter was called: a scarecrow, a Klan member, a repugnant “hatchet-faced bitch,” a horse, and a “transvestite whore,” among other wonderful expressions of the English language. Obviously, this was meant to be funny, which I believe is the point of the Roast, but I have never been compelled to watch it.
Despite the fact that the majority of the flaws picked on by the roasters related to her looks and her being a woman, the normal outrage from feminists and leftists was not there. The blinders went on; Alaskan songbird Jewel really summed it all up the best, “As a feminist I can’t support everything that’s being said up here today, but as somebody that hates Ann Coulter, I’m delighted.”
Its only sexism when the Right does it. Which is peculiar, since the Left’s appetite for outrage never seems quite sated.
During the heated and publicized exchange with Sam Harris on Real Time, Ben Affleck asks, “So you’re saying islamophobia is not a real thing?” Maher responds, “Well it’s not a real thing when we do it. It really isn’t.” Talk about blinders.
In another recent airline outburst, prankster, Adam Saleh, was booted from his flight last week as a consequence of his bad behavior. His contrived and highly edited videos purport to show how open-minded the Arabic world is as it compares to the US. This isn’t even the first time he has done a “Speaking Arabic on a Plane” prank, so forgive me if I don’t believe his cries that “this time” it was real oppression, but rather than dump this non-story as fake news (and perhaps focus on Ivanka’s airplane assault), the mainstream media continues to run with this juicy anti-Arab story.
Kellyanne Conway, whom SNL treats like some air-headed ditz, despite being the first female campaign manager to win a presidential election has been quick to point out areas of sexist hypocrisy in the media. After the vice-presidential candidate debates, she accused Tim Kaine of sexism for repeatedly interrupting the moderator; Politico’s headline: “Conway accuses Kaine of sexism with debate performance.” Compare this to Newsweek’s “DONALD TRUMP INTERRUPTED HILLARY CLINTON 51 TIMES DURING ‘SEXIST’ PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE.” In the first, Conway’s assertion is taken to be ridiculous and unfounded, whereas in the second the accusation against Trump is dogmatic truth.
Unfounded claims of sexism are often swept up by the mainstream media and cradled until they are strong enough to walk on their own. When Kellyanne tries the same tactic, it leaves them confused.
I am reminded of accusations of sexism launched over Facebook at those not supporting Hillary Clinton during the primary — who was the “most qualified person to ever run for president.” Let’s just remember for a moment how untrue that statement is. We should not be expected to blindly support someone who managed 8 years of elected office and a Secretary of State appointment. There are far more qualified people: her primary opponent for example, Bernie Sanders, spent 8 years as a mayor, 16 as a US congressman, and 10 as a US senator. But no, he was the sexists’ choice.
Being anti-Hillary in 2016 meant being anti-woman. But in ’08 she couldn’t play that card against Obama, he had her beat. And just as now, back then those who didn’t support a single term US Senator, were called racists.
It’s the same tired framework of false dichotomies. You are either with us or against us.
Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman who should be lauded by women for their successes in politics are written off as dumb-asses who possess nothing of value to add to the conversation. Perhaps it’s their midwestern accents that coastal elites equate with stupidity; perhaps they are engaging in some sort of “betrayal” of their sex for not being pro-choice. (This link comes complete with a very classy candid photo of Bachman eating a sausage. Great choice guys.)
While we are on the subject of accents; Gigi Hadid making fun of Melania Trump’s accent was something of a kerfuffle for the left. They couldn’t figure out whether or not Slovenians had privilege and so the whole conversation was scrapped.
In Chris Kluwe’s Medium post, “Fuck you Donald Trump,” from last week, we were treated with the author’s desperate and successful attempt to get shares by the age old trick of saying “Fuck” a lot: “Fuck you [Melania] for being willing to support this disgusting slime mold because it means you can live a life of privilege and luxury….Fuck you [Melania] for taking the easy choice, the choice to suck the dick of a loathsome troll in order to wear Hugo Boss dresses, instead of taking a stand in order to protect the fifty percent of our population who shares your gender.” Forget the fact that 42% of American women voted for her husband; that’s not nothing; the entire piece is pure vitriol, and what is directed at Melania, if it were written by a right-winger would certainly be labeled misogynist, anti-woman, slut-shaming, etc.
But no. Shaming Melania for “turning on” her gender get’s the Imprimatur, and 1.4k shares, though one commentator did mention how Kluwe “fat-shames” Trump in his opening paragraph. Very tsk tsk.
The supply of hatred, racism, sexism, and islamophobia does not meet the demand for it, so the left inflates the tiniest reflections of inequality into huge stories — unless of course these aggressions are directed at a conservative. This is why people continue to downplay negative commentary about conservative women while posting fake news about hate crimes that did not happen, and sensationalizing the future of a Trump administration:
Sturmabteilung? Never mind the actual history of that organization, but seriously. The left is praying for apocalyptic visions like this to come true because it will validate their opinions: every perceived micro-aggression really was deep-seated hatred just waiting for the opportunity to come out of hiding — and Trump will make it so.
We are certainly heading towards some uncharted territory, but the same wolf-crying, exaggerationism, and PC dialogue the Left has used over the past 8 years will not help them here. There’s a ghost in the machine: Outrage; and we are due for an exorcism.
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