Journalists have a very specific job; they’re supposed to inform the people about what’s going on outside the little world that we can see every day. That means a network of boots on the ground with cameras and microphones, reporting the stuff that we don’t get the chance to see in person.
Unfortunately, somewhere along the way that became less about informing people and more about conforming them into the political party that they align with. This means that an unbiased media has gone completely by the wayside, and we are left to try and sort out the fact from the fiction, and we have very few resources to do it with. The main thing that helps with that is the one resource that we have between our ears; our brains.
When surveying a situation like the Charlottesville riots, you’re going to hear both sides saying that the other was at fault for starting the violence. So the question you need to ask yourself is; who has the history of the most violence? But be forewarned, if you do ask that question somebody will probably hop up and call you a Nazi. Because if you don’t want to strip the white supremacist of their right to protest, that must make you one of them.
As Ben Domenech wrote in The Federalist:
“The list of protests which turned violent – which, when I shared it, triggered numerous accusations that I was defending Nazis, a white supremacist, and caused a reporter for one magazine where I used to be a columnist to describe me as “alt-right” – includes: Oakland 2009, Akron 2009, Pittsburgh 2009, Santa Cruz 2010, Oakland 2010, Los Angeles 2010, Oakland 2011, Chicago 2012, Anaheim 2012, Brooklyn 2013, Ferguson 2014, New York City 2014, Baltimore 2015, Anaheim 2016, Chicago 2016, St Paul 2016, Milwaukee 2016, Charlotte 2016, Standing Rock 2016, Oakland 2016, Portland 2016, Washington DC 2017, Berkeley 2017, Anaheim 2017, Berkeley (again) 2017, Berkeley (again again) 2017, Olympia 2017, and Portland 2017. This is a list of overwhelmingly leftist protests. But those have a different standard in the press.
Protest and assembly are the rights of all. Violent extremism is the enemy of all. There is no “winning” in such a clash, only loss. Their enemy is civilized society and the public square. But apparently listing such protests is all it takes to be considered an anti-Semite Nazi shill. Facts are not what people want at a time like this. They would prefer fiction.”
We really would all prefer that we get an answer gift-wrapped and delivered with a bow. We don’t want shades of gray, we want clean-cut and well defined. The problem we’re all having is that the neo-Nazi’s platform is despicable, and most conservatives don’t agree with it. We also don’t agree with their right to gather and speak their minds being taken away.
The ANTIFA have a long and sordid history of all participating in violent outbreaks, and that’s unacceptable. The white-makes-right group are pretty disgusting as a group, but unless they break the law and lash out (as much as it pains me to say) they have the right to think themselves better than everyone else if they please.
If we take away the right for Americans to assemble and pat each other on the back for being better than the unwashed masses, we’re going to have to empty every country club and most of Capitol Hill while we’re at it.
(H/T: Red State)