Paul Krugman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at The New York Times, has claimed that the antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots of the past year were fake news. And you’re a big, fat dummy if you disagree.
Krugman claimed that reports of those riots were just gaslighting from right wingers.
Paul Krugman: GOP supporters believe mobs burned and looted major cities, but the people living there didn’t notice https://t.co/7IBLZNY0d1 via @twitchyteam
— Carol RN ❤️Rush 👩⚕️🌺🌸🇺🇸 (@pasqueflower19) April 22, 2021
In a series of tweets, Krugman claimed that the people in the riot-ravaged cities don’t think their cities are riot-ravaged at all.
In reality, given that GOP supporters believe that rampaging mobs burned and looted major cities — somehow without the people actually living in those cities noticing — getting them to see facts about something as abstract as the deficit is a hopeless cause
Yes, major cities were not burned or looted. Not sure why people would get the impression they were. Good journalisming! pic.twitter.com/oKOvoFBEKK
— Lil Hangleton (@dsonoiki) April 22, 2021
Ignore the rioting and looting in Portland.
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They were mere mirages.
#Portland: Protesters have looted several stores in Portland, including an Apple Store and a Louis Vuitton store. The Wells Fargo bank has also been damaged.
pic.twitter.com/R0VgdHum4y— I.E.N. (@BreakingIEN) May 30, 2020
The third precinct in Minneapolis wasn’t really torched by rioters.
4 men have been indicted on #Arson charges in connection to the burning of the #Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct, the building where the 4 officers charged in the death of #GeorgeFloyd had worked, US Attorney Erica MacDonald said. https://t.co/7TG5hQJUHY
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) August 26, 2020
The Apple store and cop union hall weren’t really vandalized by rioters.
Wait, is that a fire?
This is what happens when citizens are pushed over the edge. This would not have happened if it wasn’t for the antagonistic behavior of the police. Riot declared at Portland Police Association headquarters as people set union office on fire https://t.co/THSNA3qeC8
— Dane (@dane_theplug) July 19, 2020
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As Fox News noted, in order to cling to his beliefs, Krugman had to ignore (at least) 18 deaths and $2 billion in property damage.
Krugman made the claim hours after the Times ignored 18 deaths and nearly $2 billion in property damage nationwide in an article slamming Republican bills designed to stop what the liberal newspaper considered mostly “peaceful” protests.
Seattle radio host Jason Rantz joked that covering Seattle’s Capitol Hill CHAZ/CHOP zones last summer with colleague Julio Rosas of Townhall must have been a bad dream.
I photoshopped this. It didn’t happen in Seattle, you 🤡. pic.twitter.com/vZZaFrvaJY
— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) April 23, 2021
Rosas guesses that the Minneapolis and Kenosha riots he covered were figments of his imagination.
I can assure you people who lived in cities and towns last year noticed the rioting. Pictures I took in (L) Kenosha and (R) Minneapolis: https://t.co/ksO8rAkHeZ pic.twitter.com/a4jpJ6fRJF
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) April 23, 2021
Krugman’s rationale seemed to be that since rioters didn’t burn entire cities it wasn’t really that big of a deal.
Obviously, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler didn’t get the memo from Krugman. He declared Friday that he wanted to “take back our city from antifa” rioters.
The Portland Police, which has an ongoing timeline of riots and protests, didn’t get the memo, either.
Krugman’s assessment coincided with the Times’s article excoriating the anti-riot bills being considered in several states. Fox News noted, however, that in order to excoriate those bills the Times needed to turn a blind eye toward the actual violence, deaths, and damage.
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The Times then claimed, “The laws carry forward the hyperbolic message Republicans have been pushing in the 11 months since Black Lives Matter protests against racial injustice swept the country: that Democrats are tolerant of violent and criminal actions from those who protest against racial injustice.”
The newspaper essentially began a public relations campaign for protestors, reporting [that] “the overwhelming majority of last summer’s nationwide Black Lives Matter protests were peaceful,” “more than 96 percent involved no property damage or police injuries,” and “most of the protests held across Florida last summer were also peaceful.”
But to The New York Times they were “mostly peaceful” protests, so no biggie.
Billions of dollars in rioter-caused destruction occurred, but Krugman didn’t notice, so it didn’t happen.
Insurance companies didn’t notice the millions paid out for riot damage.
We get it, Paul. Not everyone was killed in Chicago over the weekend either, but to the victims’ loved ones, work mates, and neighbors, each shooting mattered. And each one was a tragedy.
So it is with riots and mobs. It doesn’t have to happen to your whole city for you to feel intimidated. Downtown Portland is a ghost town. The mob did that. People are afraid to go there.
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Sure, they didn’t riot in front of your house or burn it down, but they might do that in order to attain their terroristic goals. The fact that people worry about it answers the question.
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