How much of the political future are today's riots costing the left?

The joy of today’s America. Noah Rothman claims:

You’d be hard-pressed to find a mainstream Democrat or prominent liberal defending the violence that erupted on Wednesday night in Berkeley, California, in response to a planned appearance by professional agitator Milo Yiannopoulos. There, over one hundred masked rioters attacked police, set fires, pepper sprayed President Donald Trump’s supporters, and used Molotov cocktails and commercial fireworks to terrorize bystanders. You’d have similar difficulty finding conventional liberals to defend the chaos and violence that occurred in several cities on the day of President Trump’s inauguration. And what Democrat would stick their necks out for those who attacked pro-Trump rally-goers in places like Chicago, Tucson, Costa Mesa, and San Jose? And yet, this violence is not occurring in a vacuum. It behooves the left to ask what is catalyzing a distinct rise in political violence.

Well I don’t know, let’s see, there’s Madonna who thinks a lot about “blowing up the White House”.  Then there’s Sarah Silverman, who styles herself as a part of the “resistance”,  calling for a military coup.  You know, anti-gun Silverman who now wants the guns of the military to help her “resist.”

Berkeley was simply a manifestation (as are all the recent politically motivated riots) of this sort of “virtue signalling” from popular celebrities who have all but condoned anything, including violence, to get their way.

Speaking of Berekley and the Milo event, Steve Hayward at Powerline is willing to give the students the benefit of the doubt:

A word should be said on behalf of Berkeley students. I am convinced that the violent rioters were not students from the campus, but were organized outside agitators from off campus that exploited the event. Most students today, even my left-leaning students (I have quite a few in class), were angry about what had happened, as they resented having their protest hijacked by thugs, and the victory it delivered Milo, who is the Kim Kardashian of political theater. Instead of speaking to 500 people in an auditorium last night, he spoke to perhaps 4 million on TV. I think the net present value of the protest to him, in increased book sales and media market value, is at least $1 million—probably considerably more. I’m certain Milo’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, doubled his print run this morning for his forthcoming book. Go Milo! You’re a true marketing genius when you can get the unhinged left to help promote you for free. Most people have to pay a lot for this kind of promotion.

It seems that the new narrative that’s going around is it wasn’t Berekley students, it was those darn outside agitators.  Yet if one looks at the crowd gathered prior to the outbreaks of violence, those aren’t “outside agitators” holding the signs.  It isn’t about how many were there and what the mix of students was, it’s the fact that the university (and countless other universities) has fostered and countenanced the sort of group think that celebrates shutting down dissenting voices. Oh, and the reason for the new narrative?  Well, there may actually be some consequences for this if Trump’s tweet about it is to be believed.  Funny how that works, eh?

BTW, Milo’s book sales went up $12.74% that night and the next day.

Justin Moldow hits at the heart of it all.  This is the problem:

There is no pact to be made with those that shut down dialogue. There is no discussion to be had with those that have violent outbursts in the streets because a man who holds different opinions from them is speaking inside a college building, instead of maybe going to the event and challenging his ideas intellectually. There is no teaching economics to someone that wants everything handed to them for free and will throw a tantrum if you take it away from them. There is no teaching someone about the ethics of property rights when they feel that they are entitled to your belongings, and will take them from you if the state isn’t going to.

You almost want to yell “fascists, heal thyself”.  But that takes self-awareness, something blatantly missing from those who attempt to block the exercise of free speech and resort to violence to do so.

And, the moralizing and incitement isn’t going to stop.  We were treated to some  by actor David Harbour at the SAG awards, in which he called for cultivating a “more empathetic and understanding society” by having to “punch some people in the face” if they, you know, aren’t like them.  And on a lesser plane, but equally as irritating, apparently Lady GaGa is going to musically lecture us during the Superbowl halftime about “inclusion”.  That should be a treat.

What is the seeming common denominator for all of these people?  Well they seem to have internalized the belief that they are somehow enlightened and the rest of us … well, we’re truly deplorables.  To give you an example of that, here is probably one of the most bigoted and irredeemably racist screeds you’ll ever read.  But the author, completely unaware of that, is a true believer.  And it is perfectly acceptable to the left because it’s about Christian whites in fly-over country.

Back to Noah Rothman’s article though.  He gets to the meat of his point and it makes perfect sense given what we’ve all witnessed these past few weeks among the media (who will do whatever it takes to discredit Trump, even continue to publish “fake news”) and celebrities:

There has been more than a passing reference to the notion that Donald Trump and his administration represent a similarly existential a threat to the American republic. Writing for CNN, historian and student of history’s fascist movements Ruth Ben-Ghiat is convinced that the Trump administration’s “blitzkrieg” across the bureaucracy is the spear point of a “coup.” “How fascist is Donald Trump?” asked Georgetown University Professor John McNeill in the Washington Post. “He is semi-fascist: more fascist than any successful American politician yet, and the most dangerous threat to pluralist democracy in this country in more than a century…” Liberal columnists and entertainers have been calling Donald Trump a fascist demagogue for over a year. This kind of conditioning eventually yields a Pavlovian response.

And, again, that Pavlovian response was seen in Berekley.

Does the left know how badly all of this is hurting them?  Have they a clue?  Not that I particularly care – the more clueless they remain the less of the results of their twisted anti-liberty ideology this country will have to suffer.

That’s not a bad thing to have happen.

~McQ