Bad Apples

It's unfair to characterize any group by the words or actions of a few bad apples. For example, Hillary Clinton's use of the pejorative "deplorables" was mild compared to the recent unhinged rhetoric of celebrity, political, and media types vis a vis the immigration debate. The Trump Derangement Syndrome crowd regularly paints the entire Trump administration and those that support some or all of its policies as "Nazis" or "racists." This occurs regularly when they encounter anything (and I do mean anything) that they find objectionable.

Hollywood celebrities lead the charge. Of course, many of those celebrities are not the brightest bulbs in the pack, so it's enormously unfair to characterize all progressives by considering what Hollywood types say. But still, if the supposedly professional media can spend hours discussing the implications of a designer jacket worn by Melania Trump, I suppose it's only fair to note that has-been actor Peter Fonda suggested that Donald Trump's son, Barron, be placed in a cage with pedophiles to punish his father for trying to enforce existing border laws. But it doesn't stop there.

The Boston Herald provides a summary of only a few of the progressive bad apples' latest statements:

U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III tweeted a picture of President Trump in a meeting with GOP lawmakers and administrative officials. He commented, “You might not know this about me, but I’m a white guy. And as a white guy, I would encourage @realDonaldTrump & his fellow GOP white guys to consult a not-white-guy in their efforts to enact comprehensive immigration reform in less than 24 hours.”

That Kennedy would use skin color to evaluate the worth of any group is not only repugnant, but it speaks to a darker ideology of intersectionality that presumes to impugn people based on factors other than their actual thoughts and actions. It is a bleak way to see the world, and equivalent, tangential associations would make Kennedy culpable for the misdeeds of his lineage, including voting against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 as his great-uncle JFK did or creating the current immigration mess we have now by being the driving force behind the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which his great-uncle Ted was.

Former Celtics star Kevin McHale was set upon by hysterical media types after being spotted at a Trump rally in Duluth, Minn., Wednesday. Nathaniel Friedman of GQ Magazine tweeted, “Kevin McHale is extremely stupid for attending a public Trump event. That, as much as his politics, is why he should never work in the NBA again.”

The website Deadspin piled on, taking a shot at Boston along the way: “Celtics great Kevin McHale enjoys old feeling of being in an arena full of screaming bigots.”

Many celebrities attacked Ivanka Trump, including director Judd Apatow: “My dad kidnapped babies and I said come on dad, that’s not cool. And he said to shut up. So I guess I tried. @IvankaTrump is a cult member. She is a coward.”

Newsmakers all over celebrated the harassment and intimidation Kirstjen Nielsen received by an angry mob while out at a restaurant ...

There are too many instances of progressives acting petulant to count. They don’t care. We’re on year two of their collective tantrum. Let’s not react in kind, but let’s film them for posterity.

And then there's this:

Actress and New York Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a "terrorist organization" on Thursday.

Nixon also called for the law enforcement agency's abolition.

"ICE has strayed so far from its mission. It's supposed to be here to keep Americans safe but what it's turned into is frankly a terrorist organization of its own, that is terrorizing people who are coming to this country," Nixon said to NY1.

Sitting on their high moral perch, "good apple" progressives watch and listen to all of this without a word of criticism. It is fascinating that they tell us over and over again that "words matter" but then choose to disregard ugly words when they come from their tribe. I suspect that those same good apples follow the six rules of outrage and silently applaud the deranged ranting of the bad apples. And when "deplorables" push back with facts and questions, they are accused of being "unstable" or "bigoted" or "racist." After all, the progressive rules of outrage MUST be followed, or else.

UPDATE-1:
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Name calling and heated language are bad enough but at the end of the day, it's still "Sticks and stones ..." But now the TDS crowd is moving ever closer to literal sticks and stones when confronting targeted people in a private setting. Kelsey Harkness describes an outrage demonstration aimed at TSA Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen, not at her place of work or at a public speech, but while she was having a private dinner out:

The protesters marched through MXDC Cocina Mexicana uninterrupted for 11 minutes, screaming things at Nielsen such as, “Shame, shame, shame,” “Fascist pig,” ‘End Texas concentration camps,” and “No borders, no walls, sanctuary for all.”

Nielsen sat there listening to the protesters — never once shouting back — until she was eventually driven out of the restaurant.

The protest was supported by many on the left, including an editor at The Washington Post and Valenti, a feminist writer who recently penned a New York Times op-ed telling conservative women they can’t be feminists. Valenti, who supposedly stands for the championing of women, described the harassment of Nielsen “VERY satisfying” to watch.

“She should never be able to show her face in public again,” she said.

As for the obvious hypocrisy of a “feminist” encouraging the targeted harassment of another woman, well, there’s an explanation for that. Harassment is wrong, Valenti tweeted, but not when there’s a good reason.

Imagine for just a moment the wild eyed progressive outrage crowd in the restaurant, screaming insults at the top of their lungs, spittle undoubtedly projected into the air, physically threatening by their proximity. Nice image, huh?

To date, there has been little pushback for this repugnant behavior. But a time may come when those who find it reprehensible decide that the only response is to reproduce it. Harkness provides a few examples:

If feminists think this behavior is justifiable, where do they draw the line? Are Republicans justified in harassing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi during a private dinner because of her unrelenting support for sanctuary cities? How about Bill and Hillary Clinton, whose administration got us into this mess in the first place. Do they deserve to dine alone?

Cheering on and encouraging mob rule is not just bad politics. It’s bad for civil society. No matter how egregious the situation, we don’t teach our children that it’s ever acceptable to bully others. So it’s strange feminists would change the standard and argue the opposite — that bullying is justified, so long as you have the right reason.

The right reason? That's the problem, the outrage/TDS crowd has jettisoned reason altogether and replaced it with something dark and increasingly threatening.

UPDATE-2:
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Unhinged behavior continues to intensify. The owner of a restaurant in Virginia refused to serve Trump spokesperson Sarah Sanders and seven members of her family. Imagine for a moment if a conservative owner of a restaurant in the DC area had refused to serve, say, Susan Rice and her family, because she was connected to Barack Obama. The media would be apoplectic as screams of "racism" and "misogyny" filled the air.

The Left is showing the rest of the country a level of viciousness and intolerance that is unprecedented in my lifetime. I hope they pay a price for their behavior at the polls, and I think they will.