Ubiquitous
2024-07-18 01:05:08 UTC
When authorities arrested the man who shot and nearly killed Ronald Reagan in
March of 1981, he asked them a question. He wanted to know whether the
Academy Awards, which were scheduled to take place that same evening, would
be delayed.
Ultimately, the answer was yes: The Academy Awards were postponed for 24
hours. Gregory Peck said the assassination attempt brought to mind the
murders of the Kennedys, John Lennon and Martin Luther King. The producer of
the awards called the shooting a tragedy. Meanwhile, at the NCAA
championship basketball game,18,000 fans in Philadelphia held a moment of
silence.
When Reagan joked to his doctors, I hope youre all Republicans, his doctor
a liberal famously responded: Today, we are all Republicans.
Forty three years after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, Donald
Trump was nearly killed on live television. And in the aftermath, as youve
probably noticed, theres been no similar moment of national unity.
Entertainment venues arent cancelling events or holding a moment of silence.
Theyre doing the opposite, in fact. A member of the gimmick rock band
Tenacious D just told a crowd that he wished the assassin had killed the
former president. Youve probably seen that video. The New York Times
published a full-page spread claiming that Trump had betrayed America. CNN
and ABC criticized Donald Trump for using the word fight just moments after
he was shot. Kara Swisher and David Plouffe, the former Obama campaign
manager, made jokes about the assassination attempts on their podcast.
Listen:
I almost cried watching the afternath of the assassination attempt
vs ***@realDonaldTrump. @karaswisher and ex-Obama campaign mgr
@davidplouffe joked about it. Advertisers support Pivot pod: if a
conservative said this about Biden, lib hissyfit.#WhatsBuggingMe on
@Ricochet. pic.twitter.com/nDMhkcSk1g
Dennis Kneale (@denniskneale) July 16, 2024
You dont have this reaction to the presidential frontrunner nearly dying on
national television just three days earlier unless youre fine with it
happening. Theres no other explanation for it. Any normal, well-adjusted
person who doesnt wish death on their political enemies anyone who cares
about the democratic system of government is still shaken by what happened
on Saturday. But not Kara Swisher and David Plouffe. They dont care at all.
And theyre not alone.
While a handful of tech CEOs from Apple to Amazon to Google did post
condemnations of political violence, for the most part, from Left wing
corners of society, theres been an outpouring of ambivalence or outright
disdain not sympathy for the former president.
There are a few different ways you can explain this disparity this major
shift from the 1980s to today. How did we go from a country that came
together to mourn this kind of violence, regardless of politics, to a country
that doesnt really care about it or even endorses it? Its an important
question.
The simple explanation the one youll often hear is to say that were
living in a much more polarized political climate these days. Were
supposed to accept the idea that violence has simply become normalized. But
its not particularly compelling because it overlooks the extent to which
Leftists, more than conservatives, accept and embrace political violence even
while pretending to condemn it categorically.
Consider whos been committing most acts of political violence over the past
few years. Its not conservatives. It was BLM that torched cities and used
car lots and churches and attacked Secret Service agents in the summer of
2020. When Trump was inaugurated, Leftists vandalized cars and businesses in
the area. A Bernie Sanders supporter shot up a Congressional baseball
practice, nearly killing Steve Scalise. It was a leftist who attacked the
Family Research Council, supposedly because it was falsely classified as a
hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The one major recent example of Right-wing violence youll often hear
mentioned is the protest on January 6th, which can only be understood in the
context of the 8 months of nationwide rioting perpetrated by Leftists and
endorsed by the Democrats that preceded it. And, of course, the only person
killed on that day was a Right-winger.
Additionally, on social media right now, youll find many examples of
Leftists openly celebrating the attempted assassination on Trump. Its
striking how comfortable these people are, talking so nonchalantly about the
attempted murder of a former president. Its a window into what Leftist
discourse is like in places like San Francisco or Portland. Hatred for
conservatives is so normalized, so commonplace, that they dont think twice
about saying something objectively insane in a public forum something that
would have obvious professional ramifications in most of the country,
especially if a conservative said it.
So it doesnt seem like we can just wave our hands and say polarization is
the issue. What were seeing is something closer to dehumanization. Many
Americans have been indoctrinated into believing that their political
opponents arent human and dont deserve to live.
The other explanation you might hear is that Donald Trump is supposedly a
uniquely bad guy. Hes going to end democracy with Project 2025, and so
forth. But this isnt a satisfying explanation either, for a couple of
reasons. Obviously, the premise is hysterical nonsense. Project 2025 is the
Russian collusion of the 2024 election. But even if you accept for the sake
of argument the false premise that Donald Trump is this horrible human being,
the logic still doesnt make any sense.
Four years ago, pretty much every Fortune 500 company, government agency and
university in this country mourned the death of a horrible human being by the
name of George Floyd. Pretty much every single LLC and nonprofit in the
universe came out of the woodwork to make that very clear. Even the National
Association of the Deaf recorded a video for BLM, in sign language,
lamenting, Black deaths at the hands of police officers. Companies like
Nike and Ben & Jerries also got involved. The national funeral went on for
months and cost billions of dollars. Watch:
These companies have not pledged a billion dollars towards ending political
violence after Donald Trump was almost assassinated. In fact they havent
issued statements of any kind. They havent changed their Instagram profile
pictures. They havent put out any PSAs. They havent said anything. Its not
like these companies are in the habit of ignoring current events. Usually
theyre quite vocal about it. Now we have one of the most historic current
events that any of us will live through, and we get silence in response.
Same goes for the major universities in this country.
As Chris Rufo pointed out, elite universities published an endless number of
statements on Black Lives Matter, climate change, MeToo, Stop Asian Hate,
Ukraine, and Hamas, but couldnt be bothered about the attempted
assassination of an American president. And thats true. Universities that
have become de facto political action committees are suddenly silent when the
most serious political assassination attempt of the century takes place on
live television.
For example, here was Harvards statement in June of 2020: The Harvard
community is deeply distressed by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna
Taylor, Tony McDade, and many more Black Americans at the hands of those who
have promised to protect communities and uphold the rule of law. Black lives
matter, and we must use this moment to confront and remedy racial injustice.
To be clear, these are deaths that had absolutely nothing to do with
Harvards campus. None of these people died anywhere near the school. And
Tony McDade apparently stabbed a guy to death, then pointed a gun at a cop
before getting shot. This is all on body camera, but Harvard decided that
Tony McDade was a martyr, because Tony McDade identified as a transgender
man. And apparently some news reports accurately described McDades gender,
which bothered the faculty at Harvard. So Harvards more distressed by the
so-called misgendering of a murderer than they are about the attempted
murder of the leading presidential candidate.
Not to be outdone, back in 2020, Yales women and gender studies department
declared that they stand in solidarity with the protests against the murder
of George Floyd, and against state-sanctioned racism and racist police and
civilian violence. They warned that police violence against people of
color, and especially Black people, is a systemic, foundational condition of
the United States. Foundational, but nonessential.
The Yale women and gender studies department has not put out a similar
statement post-Trump assassination attempt. Berkeley is also apparently
unbothered by the Trump shooting. And thats a little conspicuous, since
Berkeley put out multiple statements about George Floyd. In fact, in his
statement announcing the murder of a Berkeley student named Seth Smith,
Berkeleys chancellor still ended up talking about George Floyd. Thats how
large George Floyd loomed on campus at the time. He was bigger than the
deaths of actual students at Berkeley:
Many of you may have had a close relationship with Seth and are
feeling a sense of loss and disbelief. Others, like many of us,
are experiencing stress, grief and anxiety related to the coronavirus
pandemic and the recent murders of George Floyd, Riah Milton, and
other Black Americans.
The chancellor actually wrote that, as part of an email announcing a
students death to the campus. So Berkeley clearly sees enormous societal
significance in the death of a drug addict 2,000 miles away. But theyre not
so concerned about the attempted murder of the leading presidential
frontrunner.
I could go on, listing pretty much every university and Fortune 500 company
on the planet. But honestly we dont have time for that. The point is that
all of these institutions either dont care about the attempted assassination
of Donald Trump, or they endorse it. And it would be a mistake to conclude
that federal government agencies like the Secret Service are immune from this
trend. If the Secret Service is ambivalent (at best) about Donald Trumps
safety, then that would explain why they didnt have that rooftop covered,
less than 150 yard away. That would explain why no one has resigned or been
fired. It explains why the Secret Service director made up some ridiculous
excuse about how the roof was too slanted for snipers to sit on, or
whatever.
And it explains why just days after Donald Trump was nearly killed
theyre promoting the same unhinged rhetoric they were before. Here, for
example, was Joe Biden yesterday, in a speech to the NAACP, stammering
through a claim that Donald Trump wanted to send the National Guard after
peaceful BLM protesters. He ignores all the violence and rioting and arson.
Watch:
BIDEN TO NAACP: You peacefully protested George Floyd's murder.
Donald Trump called for the National Guard to go after you. What
in the hell's the matter with this man?
No! Im serious! pic.twitter.com/5N9Huib3We
Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 17, 2024
This is whats changed since the 1980s. Theres now a large, influential
segment of the population that endorses violence against their political
opposition but for the most part, they wont admit it outright. Instead,
theyre going to pretend its peaceful protest, as Joe Biden just did.
Theyre going to refuse to even mention what happened to Donald Trump, even
as they mourn their fallen foot soldiers.
This is now the norm in the country that once mourned Reagan across party
lines. The Left might not acknowledge thats what theyre doing. But thats
all the more reason that we should call it out, and prepare accordingly.
--
Let's go Brandon!
March of 1981, he asked them a question. He wanted to know whether the
Academy Awards, which were scheduled to take place that same evening, would
be delayed.
Ultimately, the answer was yes: The Academy Awards were postponed for 24
hours. Gregory Peck said the assassination attempt brought to mind the
murders of the Kennedys, John Lennon and Martin Luther King. The producer of
the awards called the shooting a tragedy. Meanwhile, at the NCAA
championship basketball game,18,000 fans in Philadelphia held a moment of
silence.
When Reagan joked to his doctors, I hope youre all Republicans, his doctor
a liberal famously responded: Today, we are all Republicans.
Forty three years after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, Donald
Trump was nearly killed on live television. And in the aftermath, as youve
probably noticed, theres been no similar moment of national unity.
Entertainment venues arent cancelling events or holding a moment of silence.
Theyre doing the opposite, in fact. A member of the gimmick rock band
Tenacious D just told a crowd that he wished the assassin had killed the
former president. Youve probably seen that video. The New York Times
published a full-page spread claiming that Trump had betrayed America. CNN
and ABC criticized Donald Trump for using the word fight just moments after
he was shot. Kara Swisher and David Plouffe, the former Obama campaign
manager, made jokes about the assassination attempts on their podcast.
Listen:
I almost cried watching the afternath of the assassination attempt
vs ***@realDonaldTrump. @karaswisher and ex-Obama campaign mgr
@davidplouffe joked about it. Advertisers support Pivot pod: if a
conservative said this about Biden, lib hissyfit.#WhatsBuggingMe on
@Ricochet. pic.twitter.com/nDMhkcSk1g
Dennis Kneale (@denniskneale) July 16, 2024
You dont have this reaction to the presidential frontrunner nearly dying on
national television just three days earlier unless youre fine with it
happening. Theres no other explanation for it. Any normal, well-adjusted
person who doesnt wish death on their political enemies anyone who cares
about the democratic system of government is still shaken by what happened
on Saturday. But not Kara Swisher and David Plouffe. They dont care at all.
And theyre not alone.
While a handful of tech CEOs from Apple to Amazon to Google did post
condemnations of political violence, for the most part, from Left wing
corners of society, theres been an outpouring of ambivalence or outright
disdain not sympathy for the former president.
There are a few different ways you can explain this disparity this major
shift from the 1980s to today. How did we go from a country that came
together to mourn this kind of violence, regardless of politics, to a country
that doesnt really care about it or even endorses it? Its an important
question.
The simple explanation the one youll often hear is to say that were
living in a much more polarized political climate these days. Were
supposed to accept the idea that violence has simply become normalized. But
its not particularly compelling because it overlooks the extent to which
Leftists, more than conservatives, accept and embrace political violence even
while pretending to condemn it categorically.
Consider whos been committing most acts of political violence over the past
few years. Its not conservatives. It was BLM that torched cities and used
car lots and churches and attacked Secret Service agents in the summer of
2020. When Trump was inaugurated, Leftists vandalized cars and businesses in
the area. A Bernie Sanders supporter shot up a Congressional baseball
practice, nearly killing Steve Scalise. It was a leftist who attacked the
Family Research Council, supposedly because it was falsely classified as a
hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The one major recent example of Right-wing violence youll often hear
mentioned is the protest on January 6th, which can only be understood in the
context of the 8 months of nationwide rioting perpetrated by Leftists and
endorsed by the Democrats that preceded it. And, of course, the only person
killed on that day was a Right-winger.
Additionally, on social media right now, youll find many examples of
Leftists openly celebrating the attempted assassination on Trump. Its
striking how comfortable these people are, talking so nonchalantly about the
attempted murder of a former president. Its a window into what Leftist
discourse is like in places like San Francisco or Portland. Hatred for
conservatives is so normalized, so commonplace, that they dont think twice
about saying something objectively insane in a public forum something that
would have obvious professional ramifications in most of the country,
especially if a conservative said it.
So it doesnt seem like we can just wave our hands and say polarization is
the issue. What were seeing is something closer to dehumanization. Many
Americans have been indoctrinated into believing that their political
opponents arent human and dont deserve to live.
The other explanation you might hear is that Donald Trump is supposedly a
uniquely bad guy. Hes going to end democracy with Project 2025, and so
forth. But this isnt a satisfying explanation either, for a couple of
reasons. Obviously, the premise is hysterical nonsense. Project 2025 is the
Russian collusion of the 2024 election. But even if you accept for the sake
of argument the false premise that Donald Trump is this horrible human being,
the logic still doesnt make any sense.
Four years ago, pretty much every Fortune 500 company, government agency and
university in this country mourned the death of a horrible human being by the
name of George Floyd. Pretty much every single LLC and nonprofit in the
universe came out of the woodwork to make that very clear. Even the National
Association of the Deaf recorded a video for BLM, in sign language,
lamenting, Black deaths at the hands of police officers. Companies like
Nike and Ben & Jerries also got involved. The national funeral went on for
months and cost billions of dollars. Watch:
These companies have not pledged a billion dollars towards ending political
violence after Donald Trump was almost assassinated. In fact they havent
issued statements of any kind. They havent changed their Instagram profile
pictures. They havent put out any PSAs. They havent said anything. Its not
like these companies are in the habit of ignoring current events. Usually
theyre quite vocal about it. Now we have one of the most historic current
events that any of us will live through, and we get silence in response.
Same goes for the major universities in this country.
As Chris Rufo pointed out, elite universities published an endless number of
statements on Black Lives Matter, climate change, MeToo, Stop Asian Hate,
Ukraine, and Hamas, but couldnt be bothered about the attempted
assassination of an American president. And thats true. Universities that
have become de facto political action committees are suddenly silent when the
most serious political assassination attempt of the century takes place on
live television.
For example, here was Harvards statement in June of 2020: The Harvard
community is deeply distressed by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna
Taylor, Tony McDade, and many more Black Americans at the hands of those who
have promised to protect communities and uphold the rule of law. Black lives
matter, and we must use this moment to confront and remedy racial injustice.
To be clear, these are deaths that had absolutely nothing to do with
Harvards campus. None of these people died anywhere near the school. And
Tony McDade apparently stabbed a guy to death, then pointed a gun at a cop
before getting shot. This is all on body camera, but Harvard decided that
Tony McDade was a martyr, because Tony McDade identified as a transgender
man. And apparently some news reports accurately described McDades gender,
which bothered the faculty at Harvard. So Harvards more distressed by the
so-called misgendering of a murderer than they are about the attempted
murder of the leading presidential candidate.
Not to be outdone, back in 2020, Yales women and gender studies department
declared that they stand in solidarity with the protests against the murder
of George Floyd, and against state-sanctioned racism and racist police and
civilian violence. They warned that police violence against people of
color, and especially Black people, is a systemic, foundational condition of
the United States. Foundational, but nonessential.
The Yale women and gender studies department has not put out a similar
statement post-Trump assassination attempt. Berkeley is also apparently
unbothered by the Trump shooting. And thats a little conspicuous, since
Berkeley put out multiple statements about George Floyd. In fact, in his
statement announcing the murder of a Berkeley student named Seth Smith,
Berkeleys chancellor still ended up talking about George Floyd. Thats how
large George Floyd loomed on campus at the time. He was bigger than the
deaths of actual students at Berkeley:
Many of you may have had a close relationship with Seth and are
feeling a sense of loss and disbelief. Others, like many of us,
are experiencing stress, grief and anxiety related to the coronavirus
pandemic and the recent murders of George Floyd, Riah Milton, and
other Black Americans.
The chancellor actually wrote that, as part of an email announcing a
students death to the campus. So Berkeley clearly sees enormous societal
significance in the death of a drug addict 2,000 miles away. But theyre not
so concerned about the attempted murder of the leading presidential
frontrunner.
I could go on, listing pretty much every university and Fortune 500 company
on the planet. But honestly we dont have time for that. The point is that
all of these institutions either dont care about the attempted assassination
of Donald Trump, or they endorse it. And it would be a mistake to conclude
that federal government agencies like the Secret Service are immune from this
trend. If the Secret Service is ambivalent (at best) about Donald Trumps
safety, then that would explain why they didnt have that rooftop covered,
less than 150 yard away. That would explain why no one has resigned or been
fired. It explains why the Secret Service director made up some ridiculous
excuse about how the roof was too slanted for snipers to sit on, or
whatever.
And it explains why just days after Donald Trump was nearly killed
theyre promoting the same unhinged rhetoric they were before. Here, for
example, was Joe Biden yesterday, in a speech to the NAACP, stammering
through a claim that Donald Trump wanted to send the National Guard after
peaceful BLM protesters. He ignores all the violence and rioting and arson.
Watch:
BIDEN TO NAACP: You peacefully protested George Floyd's murder.
Donald Trump called for the National Guard to go after you. What
in the hell's the matter with this man?
No! Im serious! pic.twitter.com/5N9Huib3We
Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 17, 2024
This is whats changed since the 1980s. Theres now a large, influential
segment of the population that endorses violence against their political
opposition but for the most part, they wont admit it outright. Instead,
theyre going to pretend its peaceful protest, as Joe Biden just did.
Theyre going to refuse to even mention what happened to Donald Trump, even
as they mourn their fallen foot soldiers.
This is now the norm in the country that once mourned Reagan across party
lines. The Left might not acknowledge thats what theyre doing. But thats
all the more reason that we should call it out, and prepare accordingly.
--
Let's go Brandon!