"It feels liberating to say after years of tiptoeing around the fact, but the American left has lost its mind. It's become a cowardly mob of upper-class social media addicts, Twitter Robespierres who move from discipline to discipline torching reputations and jobs with breathtaking casualness.Taibbi continued:
"The leaders of this new movement are replacing traditional liberal beliefs about tolerance, free inquiry, and even racial harmony with ideas so toxic and unattractive that they eschew debate, moving straight to shaming, threats, and intimidation."
"They've conned organization after organization into empowering panels to search out thoughtcrime, and it's established now that anything can be an offense, from a UCLA professor placed under investigation for reading Martin Luther King's 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail' out loud to a data scientist fired from a research firm for — get this — retweeting an academic study suggesting nonviolent protests may be more politically effective than violent ones!"Taibbi then examined what's been happening within the media itself.
"By my count, at least eight news organizations dealt with internal uprisings (it was likely more). Most involved groups of reporters and staffers demanding the firing or reprimand of colleagues who'd made politically 'problematic' editorial or social media decisions."Taibbi lamented at the Intercept writer Lee Fang being denounced as a racist for daring to ask if a black life only matters when a white man takes it. The outrage that followed forced Fang to make a public apology.
Taibbi's acknowledgment of the collective insanity of the left is refreshing but misses a major point. This kind of outrage politics is not new or limited to the Black Lives Matter movement. The right has been repeatedly targeted by the outrage mob for years — decades, actually. Taibbi's concern seems to be rooted in his fear of a liberal circular firing squad, and the casualties among the left because of the outrage mob. Where has Taibbi been all these years when conservatives were branded racist for opposing racial quotas and taxpayer-funded abortion. Where was Taibbi when Republican support for Voter ID was was likened to Jim Crow laws? Or 2007 onward when Republican opposition to Barack Obama was branded racist by default? How many years now have black Republicans been dismissed as "Uncle Toms" and token blacks?
Should Taibbi really be surprised that eventually, this racial virtue signaling would result in casualties on the left? It was inevitable that the hunters would ultimately become the hunted when the left became so consumed with their own self-proclaimed righteousness that they'd compete with each other for who won the medal for the most un-racist.
About the Author:
Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama's Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
Reader Comments
The current madness has been in the works for decades!
RC
We passed through what used to be a cool, wacky. unpretentious foothills village. I say -"used to be" because like many of the mountain towns here they've been bought up by the wealthy; and claimed as their own. They put their haute couture stamp on the town, with the smell of out-of-town cash, and 'tourists come hither' this and that. After the flood in 2013, there was a BONANZA of BUYOUTS. For pennies on the dollar. One has to wonder, how would they know that the area would become a mecca for elite? Convenient. Ah shoot, gettin' off topic.
Well, what did we see when we drove through the 1/2 mile main street? Yep! A Protest . By the way, not one face of color in the crowd! (just observation)
I began to bite my lips and I may have resembled the Grinch with a curl and scowl@. Not because I don't think that 'lives matter", But BECAUSE I DO! But what makes me madder than an ol' wet hen is the hypocrisy. So, to keep from being dragged into their drama. I sat silent when they were screaming, screeching, and taunting passing motorists. It seemed that if you didn't honk in approval, or screech back, and you sat as you should do in traffic, and pay attention to the road-they became triggered. Just as we were about to the end of their faire défiler; a giant boy-man began to look as though he was going to stop our car with his pinky finger. He gave the impression that he was about to bully us into his realm of distorted reality. At which time after being screamed at that BLM. I reply, "What about all life?" And I gave him some quick stats. Oh no, you can't tell them that. To which he said, and this is the honest truth, "well, black lives matter right now!" I am not making that up. His comeback said it all to me. Then we noted that several of the 'protesters' were busy taking selfies. probably for their badges they'll receive for being virtuous. I have no problem if you care about other human beings. Great, good, we need more caring. Real caring. What makes me itchy and scratchy is the timing. What do all the lives being lost due to suicide from this shit-down mean to you? What will, or who will matter to you next month, or next week, or next year? When will this be over? Let me guess, November?
We are never going to matter, not really. All that matters are ideologies and agendas.
Manipulating stupid people as mercenaries for your bidding knows no political bounds.
Fitting is overrated anyway.
There's also:
They want to live without any accountability for that they are doing. This is why they are trying to remove law and order and the police.
Perhaps, I've had enough of this shit.