Author’s Note: I know I’ve painted with a broad brush, but if I put in all the nuances and caveats, this would be a novella. So take it for what it is – my take.
Two weeks ago, Sarah Huckleberry-Sanders, Der Gropenfuhrer’s press secretary, went to a restaurant called the Red Hen in Lexington, VA. The restaurant owner and her staff were uncomfortable with her presence and asked her to leave. Huckleberry and the Mango Moron then tweeted out to the troops to instigate harassment of the restaurant. If that ain’t incivility, what is? (Of course, MM got the restaurant wrong and his supporters attacked a restaurant with a similar name within DC city limits.) On either the same night or a day or two before, Kristjen Nielsen and her husband were having dinner at a Mexican restaurant and were harassed by a crowd of protestors. (I find the irony of this so delicious – by day she tortures Hispanics and by night she wants to eat in a Hispanic restaurant. If ever there were any legitimacy to the crazy notion of “cultural appropriation”, it’s here.) So of course, the RW pundits, especially on FAUX News,were all up in arms about the “incivility of the left” – completely ignoring the last ten years of incivility by the RWNJs or the last couple years of near constant incivility by the Orange Bully.
Every society has a mechanism for sanctioning those whose actions are so egregious or beyond the pale that it is offensive to the society as a whole. This is usually done through a legal system, often by way of the criminal justice system. But what is to be done when those engaging in the egregious behaviors are the ones in control of the entire justice system and have used bogus “security rationale” to justify their behaviors or have effectively ruled themselves to be above the law? How is the society to sanction them and their accomplices?
Such is the situation that we now have with the current administration. The Mango Moron has stated in a variety of ways that he is above the law. He also has instituted a number of policies that are racist, discriminatory, and even contrary to universal human rights. So by extension, any member of his administration who helps to implement these policies or to attempt, however lamely, to justify them, is every bit as culpable for such egregious and immoral behavior. Of course, they would claim, as the Nazis did at Nuremberg, that they were only following orders. But that is a bogus excuse. If they were decent people with any ethical standards, they would have resigned rather than implement such policies or taken such actions, as some people have. And it’s not like another job couldn’t be had – they’re always telling us how the economy is booming and there are more jobs than people to fill them. Otherwise, they are making it clear that they either approve of this administrations actions, or are willing to accept them for a better career opportunity. So they are therefore totally unethical without a shred of human decency and unfit to associate with the majority of Americans who are decent people , slim though that majority may be as the 2016 election showed. They need to be excoriated as pariahs and treated as such. And if it means making their private lives unpleasant, all the better. They need to pay a stiff price for being part of and enabling this administration.
Let me digress for just a minute. To me, one of the most criminal things that this administration has done is to remove virtually all regulation(s) designed to mitigate anthropomorphic climate change. As our NSA (when it was still legitimate) stated, the number one threat to global stability and our security is global climate change leading to mass migration. So to work to accelerate climate change and quite possibly hasten the extinction of the human species is downright criminal. I don’t recall all of the other people on this planet getting to vote on the current POS in the White House, and yet he is working at breakneck speed to destroy their lives. Either he’s too stupid to understand the consequences of his actions or he’s stupid enough to believe that he has some kind of immunity. Maybe from his imaginary friend in the sky. But back to the topic at hand.
One of the arguments against what is being called incivility (ignoring for the time being the massive amount of incivility perpetrated by the RWNJs over the last ten years) is that it poisons the well and prevents civil dialogue and compromise. That is indeed true, but in order to have dialogue and compromise, there needs to be common ground and shared values. Unfortunately, in American society today, there are no real shared values and therefore little or no chance of compromise. Liberals/progressives tend to place strong emphasis on improving the overall human condition and recognizing the inherent humanity in every humn being. Conservatives (or what passes for conservatives today) are concerned primarily with maintaining the privilege of their tribe – white x-tians. They view the world as a zero-sum equation where keeping their foot on the neck of, or taking from, “the other” is the best way to perpetuate their dominance. They also think that black and brown people are inherently inferior and therefore don’t deserve the same rights and or opportunities as the white x-tian tribe. And of course, this notion of divinely endowed privilege is buttressed by their religion. (That’s one of the many reasons that they hate atheists because we don’t buy into their delusional nonsense. But that is a topic for another time.)
So my point is this – the notion of incivility on the left is a non-issue. Worrying about compromise when none is possible is a waste of time, so let’s be in their face everywhere they turn making sure that they are constantly made aware that they are persona non grata among civilized people.
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This one-night showing will be at 7pm, Wednesday, January 24, at the Melwood Screening Room (477 Melwood Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213) in North Oakland near the University of Pittsburgh campus. The movie will be followed by a short Q&A with Pittsburgh native, Linda LaScola, who works for the Clergy Project out of their Washington, DC office, in close collaboration with Prof. Daniel Dennett, one of the other co-founders of the Clergy Project.
