Why Progs Are Inherently Vile Exhibit #1,000,006
You might have caught Max Read’s screed over at Glenn’s or Michelle’s, but something about it caught my eye:
Good, serious progressives are supposed to condemn violence as a political tactic, because it’s wrong and in many cases counterproductive. But do we really need to condemn the union protestor who socked Fox News comedian Steven Crowder in the jaw?
“In many cases counterproductive.”
“In many cases.”
That’s an interesting choice of words.
What about the times when violence is politically productive? Is it OK then? Do we just need to up the violence to the point where people will cower at the bloody majesty of the vile Progressive agenda?
I think Read’s problem with the assault on Crowder is that it didn’t accomplish anything. It wasn’t productive. You have to wonder if he’d nuke Lansing and everyone in it, if it would result in single payer health insurance or free Head Start lunches for hungry Gawker editors.
Just breaking a few eggs is all.
It’s all about the “ends justify the means” to people like Read, and they can’t get beyond their hatred for whatever they dislike. The moment the left decides you are not 100% ideologically on their side, they consider you untermensch, and liable to be ostracized, re-educated (forcibly) or killed outright. That’s why it’s “politically productive.” They Must Be Right, and you Cannot Be Right.
And in the case of Crowder, the ends didn’t justify the means, because the Union thugs overreached badly. Between their thuggery and the Michigan Senate Dems “there will be blood” speech, they lost any “moral” ground with the Right to Work legislation, and they know it.
Jason B:
In like vein, it’s been interesting to me to see just how much hatred the left has for women, blacks and gays who don’t toe the line. It’s OK to hate them, in the leftist mindset, because they’ve betrayed their own.
The left DOES hate their “chosen” minorities that don’t toe the party line. I have friends of mine who are gay, latino, women, etc., and the left heaps racist, homophobic, and sexist scorn on them. The concept of the individual only works so far as they toe the line, and adhere to their class consciousness(es) of identity politics.
It’s one of the reasons I’ve long left the left. They talk a great game about equality and fairness, but they act more and more like totalitarians.
“What about the times when violence is politically productive? Is it OK then?”
Yes. It is call a war. That is the step to be taken when all peaceful political methods to achieve your objectives have been exhausted. If you win then history vindicates you.
George Orwell, in his essay “Politics and the English Language” pegged people like Max Read perfectly. (And this in 1946):
“…Consider for instance some comfortable English professor defending Russian totalitarianism. He cannot say outright, ‘I believe in killing off your opponents when you can get good results by doing so’…”
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/12/12/unions-eye-gubernatorial-elections-for-payback/
That’s a pretty good political take on what the unions are doing, and how they are failing. Bottom line is: they’re winning a few battles, but they have no idea how badly they’re losing the war.
By 2014 they’ll be a spent force.
Private-sector unions, maybe. But (Wisconsin aside) no-one has yet found the antidote to public-sector unions. Voters still respond like Pavlov’s dog when the firemen, police, teachers, and nurses do radio ads in favor of Proposition X or Candidate A.
It will take years of counter-indoctrination or one very fast-talking free-market politician to explain why powerful public unions are not conducive to basic law & order.
That’s my job, dammit! Where’s my union rep!
That’s pretty much what you should expect from Gawker, though. I would have been shocked and suspicious if their take had been any different. I used to like their sports spinoff–Deadspin–but then they started mixing prog politics with sports stories and that put me off. I only read Magary at Deadspin now.
Haven’t noticed any “good, serious progressives” anywhere. It’s a triplet oxymoron.