Sticks and Stones

Like a four-year old with a fully automatic weapon loaded with a magazine of evocative words, the Left pulls the trigger and empties the word magazine anytime is sees, hears, or encounters an idea that doesn't conform to its narrative. When someone criticizes one of the Left's sacred cows, the trigger is pulled instantly by progressive politicians, "activists," and their trained hamsters in the media. Out spews words—racist, bigot, misogynist, intolerant, fascist, Islamophobe, xenophobe ... the list of slurs is long and tiresome.

A few months ago, Bill Clinton rightly confronted Black Lives Matter "activists" and called them out for their abject hypocrisy with regard to black on black murders and violence. Instantaneously, some on the Left shouted the word "racist." Hillary's people cringed, afraid that their flawed candidate might be associated with Bill's remarks, even though they were among the most honest things he's said in the past six months.

When Ayaan Hersi Ali criticizes Islam for its homopohobic, misogynist, violent characteristics, she is branded as "Islamophobic."

When Donald Trump ( a very flawed candidate for president) rightly suggests (using words that are poorly chosen and overly combative) that open borders and lack of immigration control are a danger to this country, he is branded a "bigot" or a "racist" or more gently, "anti-immigrant." When he suggests, (admittedly, with less than sufficient nuance) that Muslim immigrants from countries that support terror should be banned until a proper vetting mechanism is put in place to determine who is an Islamist and who is not, he is branded a "racist" and "religiously intolerant." When he suggests (again, sadly, with too much generalization and not enough factual support) that there are violent criminals embedded in the population of 10 million illegal immigrants, he is branded "anti-Latino."

The automatic weapon is always at the ready and its magazine of words is reloaded as new "grievances" are defined. And as the years pass, the words that exit the weapon have an increasingly corrosive effect. We become afraid to criticize the sometimes insane positions held by some on the Left because the trigger is pulled immediately, piercing the critic as "uncaring," or an "oppressor," or as a catalyst for "micro-aggression."
An Islamic terror attack occurs somewhere in the West, and leaders look up and see the Left's automatic weapon pointed at them, waiting for the slightest phrase that might be cause for a trigger pull. So leaders turn away from the Islamist perpetrators and warn their peaceful citizens against "Islamophobia," and the Left sagely nods its approval.

At Universities, a "weapon free zone" absolutely doesn't apply to the automatic weapon of words. When a gay conservative recently tried to give a talk at an elite university, his talk was disrupted and ultimately stopped because his words disturbed the delicate sensibilities of leftist students.

Those of us in the center used to laugh all this off, suggesting that "sticks and stones ...," but the totalitarian left now uses words as a trigger to stifle speech they disagree with. That's very "1984." It's also very dangerous for a free society.