A Surge In Hate

It was in the headlines again today. The “surge in hate” that the President’s election has unleashed. The increase in anti-Semitic crime, the increase in anti-black race related hate crime, the misogyny, the xenophobia, the Islamophobia, the homophobia, the transphobia.

I’m sorry, but I don’t see it. It’s like one of those confounding computerized prints where they say you can see the rocket ship if you look at it just right. If you turn your head just a little and squint your eyes just so. All of your friends can see it. Look. No. I won’t waste my time. I’ve seen a picture of a rocket ship, and this isn’t one.

What I see is Michael Brown trying to disarm and kill a police officer and the narrative becoming that of a brutal cop and a street execution. “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” echoed through the culture with enough frequency and volume that by the time the local investigation (backed up by the federal investigation) was complete the facts of the case didn’t matter anymore. News anchors, professional athletes, and even elected representatives in the halls of our government parroted the lie.

What I see is a petty criminal drug dealer in Baltimore who died as the result of an accident while in police custody sparking weeks of civil unrest and rioting in a minority community that could scarcely afford it. The arrest and trial of six police officers (three of whom were black) by a black prosecutor in front of a black judge without a single conviction.

What I see are activists who use already distorted news headlines and statistics, bereft of context or thoughtful analysis to emotionally energize mobs and promoting (intentionally I believe) the murder of police officers. Charles Manson has to be laughing from his grave at the dreams of Helter Skelter he had during the '60s.

What I see are college campuses where free speech, the abridging of which, is prohibited by the Constitution is limited to special zones. And where students, administrators and faculty alike support limiting and even banning speech. Campuses where even on Constitution Day it is prohibited to distribute copies of the Constitution. I see campuses where professors of all subjects give political indoctrination lectures.

What I see is Christianophobia. Conservative Christians mercilessly mocked for their beliefs while the adherents of other religions are treated with deference. Piss Christ is heralded as high art while a former president of the United States proclaims that “the future must not belong to those who would slander the profit of Islam”. Christian charitable organizations are now told that they must not only tolerate the existence of behaviors condemned by their teachings (which they always have), they must now take it inside themselves and participate in it.

What I see is a news media with a complete lack of credibility. They were caught colluding against Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump and have openly chosen sides. It does however have to be admitted that it is perhaps no more true now than it ever was that you can’t believe anything you read.

What I see is a particular news commentator stating her opinion that if Trump won, Hillary supporters and democrats would be sad but accepting, but that if Hillary won Trump supporters would be violent. It will never be known how Trump supporters would have reacted to a loss, but sad and accepting can hardly be said to describe Hillary supporters and democrats. Progressive activists proudly take to the interview circuit to boast of training other activists in physical confrontation with the police.

What I see is a reported rise in white nationalist “hate crime” and at least a number of democrat activists arrested for “hate crime” hoaxes calling into question the whole surge in hate narrative. If progressive activists and students are willing to riot and burn their own campuses to prevent constitutionally protected natural rights, what else might they be motivated to do from the privacy of their own homes, and under cover of quiet darkness? Bomb threats? Grave desecration? Is it really a stretch of the imagination to think it just possible that those who claim that the ends justify the means would commit such crimes?

No, the surge of hate and intolerance I see is not from the right.

But that’s just what an average guy thinks