Racists and Snowflakes and Elephants!

How Hysteria Distracts from Legitimate Criticisms of the Trump Administration

By Hinton Bowers

When one thinks of mass hysteria, many events in world history leap to mind. From the hanging of witches in Salem, Massachusetts, to the British invasion of Beatle-mania… the most recent panic inducing event (for the left anyway), but certainly not the last, was the election of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States: 

These are only a couple of the overreactions that have been happening daily in this post election cycle, as leftists whip themselves up into a near psychological frenzy, asking: “How could this have happened?” The only explanation? “Racists elected him!” Never-mind the fact that the rust belt has been hollowing-out for years economically, or that middle income people are being squeezed by rising healthcare costs and stagnant wages. “It has to be the Nazis!”

Of course, the facts refute this claim, as several studies show that the same swing vote going for Obama in ’12 went to Trump in ’16; my word, Klan membership must have skyrocketed on November 8th!

Are there racist people out there? Well duh, of course there are. It is precisely the attempt to ‘collectivize’ identity by skin color, that makes racism so ugly and unjust. But attempts by other collectivists, the social justice warriors, to incite​ witch-hunts across the country via hoaxes and hysteria are only making things way, way, worse.

Frankly, growing up in an east coast city during the 90s and 2000s , there isn’t a time in my life that I can remember ‘race relations’, though an arguable term, being so poor. It’s very hard to have an honest dialogue about race these days, or on anything at all really in this culture of pc conformity. Looking for the worst in your fellow humans is not a constructive or particularly healthy way of living life; start doing that with your family and friends and you’ll die alone… guaranteed.

Worse still, this negative attitude leads to a kind of paranoia, that well, reminds me of a film I saw as a child…

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

In THE WIZARD OF OZ, Dorothy and her trusty friends walk terrified through the woods, building-up in their minds all the possible future dangers they might face, the wild animals that could tear them to shreds. Of course, what they find is the exact opposite… the lion they feared was more afraid of them.

Most dangerously, conformity, and group think lead to a distorted sense of reality; as Samathan Bee, found out this past week, while mocking the participants of CPAC:

Despite that display of ‘pure comic genius’, there was one hang-up, a wrinkle one might say…

Guess when you see Nazis everywhere you’re bound to conflate cancer patients with storm-troopers. What was funny at first, has taken a darker turn; between the mainstream media attacks and panicked twitter feeds, it’s becoming much more difficult for the average person to differentiate reality from fantasy; and because of this noise more legitimate concerns about the Trump Administration are being lost;  like the proverbial dog, his opposition keeps chasing every car as it drives by…

We saw this on full display in the Jeff Sessions confirmation hearing, with Democrats focusing on trumped-up charges of racism, or Sen. Patrick Lehy asking Sessions about Trump’s use of sexist language from the Access Hollywood Tape. By hoping to score political points, instead of focusing on legitimate policy concerns, the democrats missed their opportunity to ask the tough questions.

For instance, Sessions has stated support for escalating the ‘Drug War’, he could have also been questioned about his support for the intelligence communities’ mass invasion of the public’s privacy, with what appears to be no oversight at all. These are very real civil liberty concerns that Sessions should have been grilled on, and possibly blocked.

A sense of proportion is important, and those are only two of many massively impactful policies that, oh by the way, do disproportionally impact religious and ethic minorities in the US. Unless we can actually talk through the facts and address the real root causes that damage these communities, there will never be impactful change.

I don’t expect Trump’s support to wane anytime soon among his supporters; considering all the names they’ve been called on a constant basis. If you listen closely, you can probably hear them digging trenches in the ‘rust belt’ right now…

So, instead of name calling, why don’t we ‘dust off’ a good old fashioned tactic, and just try talking to each other for a change. Let’s get some needed perspective! There are monsters out there, true, but the vast majority of people in Trumpland want the same things your average coastal elite wants, peace and prosperity. There are areas of disagreement of course, on trade, immigration and the like. But, instead of name calling and assuming each other’s motives, lets discuss…

No perspective is gained by slandering those who disagree. This is a complex world and solutions aren’t binary. So, do your own research. Don’t take something you read in ‘the news’ or social media for truth only because it supports your preferred narrative.

Let’s be clear, big parties LOVE non-thinking partisan robots. The more fanatical the better for preserving their voting block! So the next time you see an unverified ‘hate peddling’ ‘fake news story’  pop-up on your social media feed, dear reader, before you ‘share it’ with your friends, family, and acquaintances, ask yourself this:

 

“Am I just contributing to the noise?”

 

One Reply to “Racists and Snowflakes and Elephants!”

  1. A fantastic, and right on the money, critique of the seemingly ever more crazy statist left. Well done and thank you. There are legitimate reasons galore to be against Trump’s policies. Making stuff up, as children often do, is not going to solve anything.

Leave a Reply