More Media “Inconsistency”
Saturday 13 August 2011 - Filed under Uncategorized
More evidence of the hypocrisy of the pundit class:
“This is the uprising of the working class,” said a London anarchist taking a momentary break from smashing things on Monday. “We’re redistributing the wealth.” Said another, “[We’re showing] the rich we can do what we want.”
If you have been keeping up with the news from Britain, then you know who bears the blame for this: conservatives!
[. . .]
Well, you get the point: Yes, the hooligans have destroyed family businesses, trashed London institutions, sent millions of real and sweat equity up in flames, inflicted misery on thousands of innocent people. But one mustn’t judge too harshly. One must try to understand. And to mollify.
You hear that sort of flummery a lot.
Or at least you hear it when the perpetrators of mayhem are objects of liberal approval. Labor unions, demonstrators against global free-trade agreements, environmentalist activists — they have legitimate grievances that must be addressed. The blind rage of young people in working-class neighborhoods is the product of socioeconomic conditions. They should not be held responsible for their actions — the people who created the conditions should be held responsible. (David Cameron, this means you.)
Funny thing, though: You didn’t hear that sort of guff in 2009, when middle-class conservatives turned up at town halls across the country to vent about health-care reform. Back then, the town-hall events were filled with “angry, sign-carrying mobs,” wrote Politico, which lamented the way constituents were “shouting criticism” at members of Congress. Signs and criticism: oh my!
[. . .]
To be fair, after the Taxpayer March on Washington on 9/12, Reuters did pause to wonder what the source of public anger was: “Protests Against Obama: Race or Policy?” it asked, noting how “former President Jimmy Carter said out loud what Democrats had been whispering for a while, that the protests against the country’s first black president are tinged with racism.”
When conservatives wave signs, it’s not “unrest” caused by a “sense of disenchantment.” It’s because they’re bigots. Society as a whole is not to blame; they are, individually. They need an attitude adjustment. When violent mobs of young people burn down a city, though, they are not individually responsible — society as a whole is (or at least that part of society that ostensibly ticked them off). They don’t need an attitude adjustment: conservatives do.
To expect ideological consistency from virtually anyone in the media is probably asking too much in the partisan hack world we live in. They’ve rigged the game in favor of their own ideology. If conservatives engage in any form of protest, they’re uneducated, racist rednecks who need to get in line; when liberals engage in ACTUAL violence and the wanton destruction of property, it’s because conservatives made them do it.
2011-08-13 » madlibertarianguy