The Violence of the Left

Anyone else seeing a pattern here?

(h/t Lizzy in the previous thread for the graphic)

Now, I know what many of you are thinking. You want to ask me, "Muse, what does rocket scientist Sally Kohn have to say about all of this left-wing violence?"

Glad you asked. Here is Her Magnificent Dumbness in all of her resplendent glory on Farcebook:

Sometimes right wing extremists do violent and hateful things. And sometimes — as it would appear happened today at a Congressional baseball practice — left wing extremists do violent and hateful things. These are the moments to search our souls.

I do happen to believe that conservatives are habitually more hateful and violent than progressives, that those on the right end of the spectrum have historically been guilty of perpetuating more hatred and violence than those on the left. Slave owners were infinitely more violent than abolitionists. Segregationists extraordinarily more hateful than civil rights protesters. It is indisputable that throughout history, more evil has been done by those seeking to prop up and perpetuate misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and racism than by those seeking inclusion and equality.

But pointing out that one side is historically worse in this regard doesn’t absolve the rest of us. Just like acknowledging that conservatives are more casually inclined toward sexism or homophobia doesn’t mean the left is beyond reproach. In fact, if we think we’re answering the higher call of justice, shouldn’t we hold ourselves to a higher standard? When I hear Islamophobia on the right, I’m angry. But when I hear Islamophobia from my progressive brothers and sisters, I’m devastated. We’re supposed to be the ones standing strong against hate. In all its forms.

I spent a good part of the last two years trying to teach my eight-year-old daughter not to hate Donald Trump. She didn’t get the idea to hate Trump from conservatives. She absorbed it somehow from the liberal bubble in which she lives, picking it up from peers or side conversations or maybe even from me if I wasn’t being careful enough to mind my own consciousness.

I remember going to rallies during the election and chanting “Love Trumps Hate.” The sign I held didn’t have an asterisk. I didn’t mumble some addendum of exceptions afterwards, that what I was saying didn’t apply to Trump or conservatives or Republicans. The extremities of hateful rhetoric coming from parts of the conservative right during and in the wake of this election have taken my breath away. I can’t believe that people not only still believe such hateful things but suddenly feel safer to say them out loud. And it is also true that I have also been taken aback by how many decent people I know feel what can only be described as hate toward not only Donald Trump but the people who voted for him.

I’ve talked to people in the corners and cracks of America who voted for Trump and they’re convinced that people like me hate them. And too often they’re right. Sure, people like me are convinced a lot of Trump voters hate people like us and maybe some do. But I’ve taught my daughter that two wrongs doesn’t make a right.

Martin Luther King wrote, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” I know it is hard to ask that we love even those who we feel represent so much darkness and hate in the world today. But what do you think fighting for justice and equality means? Yes, sometimes it means fighting their hate and opposition. Sometimes it means fighting our own. Sometimes it means being the change we want to see in the world. Being that love and kindness. Not being full of hate.

I pray for the victims of the shooting. I pray that those on the right will be less hateful. And I pray those on the left will be less hateful, too. In the meantime, I’m only responsible for myself. Imperfect and searching.

Ace is woke, but I stomped him.

posted by OregonMuse at 01:31 PM

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