© Richmond Times-Dispatch
Over the last few weeks, the left has been a very happy bunch. With the 'Unite the Right' rally on August 12th in Charlottesville, they finally,
finally, got that first little shred of concrete evidence (outside the online bubble of 4chan and The Daily Stormer) that some Trump supporters are white supremacists. No, not the ordinary, working class Middle-Americans who were caught in the slip-stream of the collective, months-long tantrum thrown by so-called 'progressives' when their preferred candidate lost the election. I mean
an actual faction of self-admitted white nationalists, protesting (with a permit) the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.Can you imagine the elation of the left when, after hearing of the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, they realised they had actual people to direct their cries of "Nazi!" "White supremacist!" and "Fascist!" at? No longer are they hurling insults at the empty air, trying desperately to make everyone who disagrees with them into some sort of Hitler-clone. Instead, they have real-life Anglo-enthusiasts to validate their virtue signalling.
How thrilling for the left to be able to justifiably use those shiny new labels; after all, "racist" "bigot" and "sexist" are
so 2016. In fact,
the left is so thrilled to find this fraction of Trump supporters happy to call themselves white supremacists; they've gone on a Confederate statue trashing spree to celebrate.In the wake of Charlottesville, numerous Confederate monuments around the USA have either been removed, considered for removal, or (in the Case of Durham, North Carolina) torn down by wailing social justice warriors. However, the debate over not just monuments, but also the display of the Confederate flag, predates the events of August 12.
This movement is, of course, pushed largely by the Democrats, and has understandably gained more traction over the past couple of weeks. The left would put this newfound vigour down to
eradicating 'hate' by erasing history, and thus engaging in the usual leftist pastime of throwing their toys out of the pram. Then again,
the right would put it down to the left's penchant for opportunistic virtue signalling. However, I would like to posit a third option.
Comment: Erasing or rewriting history has always been a mode of perception management for politicians, governments and regimes. For the left, it seems to be the standard default.