From Victims to Victimizers: The Left’s Long Journey

Interesting commentary on politics by Ben Shapiro. I think BS focuses too much on celebrities and Hollywood in this article. Instead, I think that a lot of what BS describes in this article can instead be attributed to identity politics.

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From: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442821/left-won-culture-wars-now-its-bully

From Victims to Victimizers: The Left’s Long Journey (Dreamstime image: Lisa F. Young) by BEN SHAPIRO December 7, 2016 4:00 AM

When all the good civil-right issues have been largely won, go after Christian bakers, celibate nuns, and girls in locker rooms. In the vast tsunami of leftist grief that has washed over the land in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s shocking presidential victory, no flotsam has been as prevalent as Hollywood gliterrati weeping and screaming and gnashing their teeth while donning only the most stylish and expensive sackcloth. Most recently, near-sextuagenarian Madonna lamented, “I was devastated, surprised, in shock. I haven’t really had a good night’s sleep since he has been elected. We’re f***ed.”

Some of the shock of Trump’s victory is surely due to the bubble that exists in Hollywood and New York, the Pauline Kael–esque sense that nobody could have voted for Trump. But some of it also derives from celebrities’ self-assured belief that they have an outsized impact in the world of politics. Clearly that view infused the Clinton campaign: Hillary trotted out Lena Dunham of Girls fame, she of the false rape accusations and gleeful admissions of sexually abusing her sister, on the campaign trail all year long; Clinton advocates such as Elizabeth Banks took time off from producing bad a cappella sequels to film ads; singers and actors all joined to make a difference by producing a glossy version of Rachel Platten’s maddening “Fight Song.”

And not only didn’t those things matter, they actually helped drive voters away from Clinton. They exacerbated the image of Clinton as an out-of-touch elitist who spent her free time hanging out with Katy Perry, even as Donald Trump, at a stadium in rural Ohio, took yet another boisterous swipe at elitism.

But it wasn’t just because these celebrities were rich and out of touch that Americans were put off by them. It’s because those celebrities were the people most likely to judge red-state Americans as rubes — nasties intent on targeting Muslims and gays and blacks and women. The unearned moral superiority of America’s celebrity class rests in their open condemnation of flyover Americans as brutish louts, and their self-parodying belief that they are civil-rights heroes. Hollywood (wrongly) believes that it singlehandedly ended segregation; Hollywood (rightly) believes that it had a heavy hand in promoting same-sex marriage. Hollywood sees itself as the moral vanguard.

Americans reacted badly to that.

Why did they react so badly to the celebrities in this particular election cycle? Ironically enough, it’s because the Left had already won the culture wars.

Most Americans, not just celebrities, vote as they do because they have a moral vision of themselves and the universe in which they are heroes or victims, never perpetrators. For decades, the Left consistently put front and center its vision of an America in which Republicans were victimizers: Either they were evil racists, or they were John Lithgow–in-Footloose holier-than-thou sexual prudes, or they were old-style Mad Men sexists looking to shove women back into the kitchen. Celebrities helped push these narratives through the stories they told, the movies they filmed, the books they wrote.

And Americans accepted the critiques.

Americans accepted racial equality. Americans celebrated female empowerment. Americans went libertarian on sexual behavior.

And the Left had to go searching for a new civil-rights struggle with which to cram conservatives back into their “victimizer” cubbyhole. The Left now pushes against civil rights in its ignorant search for the new struggle.

There was, however, one problem: All the good civil-rights issues have been dealt with already. And so the Left, which focuses all of its efforts on social issues, was relegated to pushing crime-increasing myths about the evils of cops; the celebrities were forced to pretend that men peeing next to women was the next great Martin Luther King, Jr.–style struggle; Democrats were forced to march on their next target, not merely church involvement in state, but private beliefs of churchgoers.

And herein lies the biggest problem facing the American Left: America is the most tolerant country in world history. There are no more serious civil-rights struggles for the Left to push. In fact, the Left now pushes against civil rights in its ignorant search for the new struggle: Religious bakers must be destroyed if they won’t bake a cake for a same-sex wedding; young girls must be forced to go to the same bathroom as middle-aged men, hosts on HGTV must be policed for belief in Scripture regarding sexual sin.

No wonder Americans reacted by telling the Left to shove it.

That phenomenon could very well continue. The Left has run out of aggressors to target; instead, they’ve become the aggressors, self-righteous morality police dedicated to wiping out dissenting thought. Americans aren’t up for that sort of thing. We think we’re pretty tolerant people, and, by and large, we are. Trump won, at least in part, by refusing to kowtow to the Left’s newest social crusades, in word if not in deed.

In Die Hard, villain Hans Gruber misquotes Plutarch: “And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.” The Left will never recognize that simple fact — and so they will push ever onward, steadily encroaching on liberty and driving a blowback they cannot comprehend.

Ben Shapiro is the editor in chief of the Daily Wire.Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442821/left-won-culture-wars-now-its-bully



I say the right should boycott everything produced by Hollywood. In addition, they should boycott the NFL and the NBA. And NY entertainment? Them too. Share the disgust with celeb culture.

Look, here's the sad truth: The left produces most of what all Americans enjoy. Blue states are healthier, more affluent, and more productive.The blue states pay taxes so the reds can get their gov't welfare in a more palatable form. And the Electoral College gives red state voters more power.

So enjoy this little victory over America. It'll be short-lived, unlike ACA, which will outlast DJT's term in office.


And enjoy the National Review, which dedicated an entire issue to defeating Trump.


Oh, settle down. You won. You get to grab 'em by the pu**y all you want now.


As a white male, my own "identity politics" these days consist of being embarrassed by my cohort in the "flyover" country that elected Trump. They deserve all the contempt and ridicule they'll get for the disaster they have wrought.


what a bunch of BS.

Not only are the conservatives not content with winning elections, they also want liberals to just shut the **** up. And they love, just love being victims. What a bunch of pansies.


Damn. RFA, I think you may have triggered some folks.


And many still can't stop obsessing over HRC, most recently about her thank you dinner for donors. Glad she still rattles them (yup, I'm petty).



terp said:

Damn. RFA, I think you may have triggered some folks.

Message boards are like that. But I confess that I've grown tired of the bogeymen thrown up by the likes of NR.

Republicans won this round. Their guy is in the WH. No need to whine about equal rights and all that.



dave23 said:



terp said:

Damn. RFA, I think you may have triggered some folks.

Message boards are like that. But I confess that I've grown tired of the bogeymen thrown up by the likes of NR.

Republicans won this round. Their guy is in the WH. No need to whine about equal rights and all that.

I don't think Shapiro is whining. I think he may be doing a bit of a victory lap. He's a pretty sober guy. His analysis of Trump includes good and bad, which is strangely rare nowadays.

Remember, he has to deal with this stuff all the time. I'm sure this has an effect on his outlook.





@dave23: Why is there so much delight/pressure/focus in some quarters, including many regulars on MOL, in describing (or perhaps framing/reframing) Trump's white blue collar supporters as knuckle dragging troglodytes who are racist, misogynist and sexist?


"The Democratic Party’s emphasis on race and gender is compelling to many voters—but it may not accord with the experience of many who are struggling. Liberal-arts classes, numerous left-leaning media outlets, and many social-media progressives don’t merely fail to treat these voters as a disadvantaged class—they speak as if they are playing the entire game of life on the easiest setting, to borrow a characterization of whiteness that is prevalent on college campuses." quote from Atlantic article dated July 25, 2016. See http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/blue-collar-white-men-hillary/493097/


See link to CNN interview regarding Berniebros, misogyny and racism:

See HRC video on basket of deplorables:


dave23 said:



terp said:

Damn. RFA, I think you may have triggered some folks.

Message boards are like that. But I confess that I've grown tired of the bogeymen thrown up by the likes of NR.

Republicans won this round. Their guy is in the WH. No need to whine about equal rights and all that.




terp said:



dave23 said:



terp said:

Damn. RFA, I think you may have triggered some folks.

Message boards are like that. But I confess that I've grown tired of the bogeymen thrown up by the likes of NR.

Republicans won this round. Their guy is in the WH. No need to whine about equal rights and all that.

I don't think Shapiro is whining. I think he may be doing a bit of a victory lap. He's a pretty sober guy. His analysis of Trump includes good and bad, which is strangely rare nowadays.

Remember, he has to deal with this stuff all the time. I'm sure this has an effect on his outlook.


The right's and Shapiro's current inflated concerns about trigger warnings and microaggressions are as whiny as the allegations of the oversensitive small minority of college students he hates.

And, sorry, but this isn't sober: "...young girls must be forced to go to the same bathroom as middle-aged men."

The right in the country hasn't stood for anything in a couple of decades. They've just been defining themselves against the real and imagined left. They just blurt out "small government" then list the myriad of awful things the left does.



RealityForAll said:

@dave23: Why is there so much delight/pressure/focus in some quarters, including many regulars on MOL, in describing (or perhaps framing/reframing) Trump's white blue collar supporters as knuckle dragging troglodytes who are racist, misogynist and sexist?

Because it's easy to generalize. Trump locked up the racist, misogynist and sexist vote, along with other groups. I think a lot of people initially responded with shock and anger. But there is still a lot of racism, misogyny, and sexism in this country. The right has been denying it for years, but this election cycle brought it to the fore.

Trump received more votes than any other Republican candidate in history. His misogynist, racist and sexist ways were very appealing to a lot of people--or at least they weren't disdainful enough to turn off most mainstream Republicans. He visibly mocked disabled people and bragged about sexually assaulting women. And/so Republicans voted for him.

While Trump got a lot of blue collar votes that Dems took for granted, I think we're at a point of exaggerating its effect. Trump got the white vote--which, overall, is a wealthy bracket. Christians supported him strongly, especially Evangelicals. And minority turnout was low in the swing states for a variety of reasons. They shrugged off his

At the end of the day, Republicans voted for him and he won the electoral college.

You won. The Republican candidate, Donald Trump, will be the next president. Maybe the right will eventually stop defining themselves against their perception of the left and complaining about all the bad things the left says about them and simply support their guy.


seriously man. If you want to be proudly politically incorrect, actually be proud about it, man up and stop whining that the "left" is victimizing you. If you're crying that an LGBTQ advocate may call you a homophobe, or some academic will call you a racist, you need to ask yourself if you really have the guts to be politically incorrect.

When did cons become such whiny little *******? Reagan is spinning in his grave.


No bigger whiner than Trump himself. Perfect leader for them. You haven't heard any whining yet though. Just wait.



ml1 said:

seriously man. If you want to be proudly politically incorrect, actually be proud about it, man up and stop whining that the "left" is victimizing you. If you're crying that an LGBTQ advocate may call you a homophobe, or some academic will call you a racist, you need to ask yourself if you really have the guts to be politically incorrect.

When did cons become such whiny little *******? Reagan is spinning in his grave.

Lol. Most I hear aren't whining at you. We are laughing at you. The reSon you are being laughed is because you are behaving like children.

Microagressions, safe spaces, Cry Ins! At Ivy league schools. I It's all quite hilarious!

You guys will say that the PC movement is harmless. You will say that it just prevents the expression of bigotry.

It's amazing to me that there are adults. American adults! Modern Western educated adults who are close minded and ignorant enough to believe that. It's almost as funny as it is shameful.

The problem is the bigotry of the PC Police. They will conflate ideas to shut down discussion. Someone has different ideas? Must be racist! Or maybe sexist! That person should check their privilege and stop thinking for themselves.

It's shameful. And it's affecting people's lives. People's careers are at risk. Recently an NYU professor was alienated and forced to take a leave of absence because of joke he made on twitter.

You have no right to not feel insulted. Grow up.



Gotta love DJT: Al Gore one day; EPA head, a coal whore, the next.


this thread is as dumb as the original article by aptly initialed BS.

LOL. And all that. There is a real dipshit in the WH. Voted in by the duped and the dull witted and the deplorable. And voted in by losing the vote by 2%.



this thread is as dumb as the original article by aptly initialed BS.

LOL. And all that. There is a real dipshit in the WH. Voted in by the duped and the dull witted and the deplorable. And voted in by losing the vote by 2%.



Who is this "you" that you're addressing? Certainly none of that describes me.

Why are cons freaking out over a handful of undergrads?

terp said:



ml1 said:

seriously man. If you want to be proudly politically incorrect, actually be proud about it, man up and stop whining that the "left" is victimizing you. If you're crying that an LGBTQ advocate may call you a homophobe, or some academic will call you a racist, you need to ask yourself if you really have the guts to be politically incorrect.

When did cons become such whiny little *******? Reagan is spinning in his grave.

Lol. Most I hear aren't whining at you. We are laughing at you. The reSon you are being laughed is because you are behaving like children.

Microagressions, safe spaces, Cry Ins! At Ivy league schools. I It's all quite hilarious!

You guys will say that the PC movement is harmless. You will say that it just prevents the expression of bigotry.

It's amazing to me that there are adults. American adults! Modern Western educated adults who are close minded and ignorant enough to believe that. It's almost as funny as it is shameful.

The problem is the bigotry of the PC Police. They will conflate ideas to shut down discussion. Someone has different ideas? Must be racist! Or maybe sexist! That person should check their privilege and stop thinking for themselves.

It's shameful. And it's affecting people's lives. People's careers are at risk. Recently an NYU professor was alienated and forced to take a leave of absence because of joke he made on twitter.

You have no right to not feel insulted. Grow up.




terp said:

Lol. Most I hear aren't whining at you. We are laughing at you. The reSon you are being laughed is because you are behaving like children.

Microagressions, safe spaces, Cry Ins! At Ivy league schools. I It's all quite hilarious!

You guys will say that the PC movement is harmless. You will say that it just prevents the expression of bigotry.

It's amazing to me that there are adults. American adults! Modern Western educated adults who are close minded and ignorant enough to believe that. It's almost as funny as it is shameful.

The problem is the bigotry of the PC Police. They will conflate ideas to shut down discussion. Someone has different ideas? Must be racist! Or maybe sexist! That person should check their privilege and stop thinking for themselves.

It's shameful. And it's affecting people's lives. People's careers are at risk. Recently an NYU professor was alienated and forced to take a leave of absence because of joke he made on twitter.

You have no right to not feel insulted. Grow up.

I've had some experience discussing, debating and arguing topics with adults. Even when they laugh at me, they don't sound like this.


More below on an NYU prof who took a leave of absence. Not sure it's the same guy, because he isn't willing to go so far as to say he was forced, and if there was a joke, I missed it:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/11/01/nyu-professor-who-used-anonymous-twitter-account-criticize-university-trigger

(If anyone's interest is piqued by the article's reference to a Bergen Community College professor's troubles, it may be worth noting that the school admitted it was wrong.)


+1000

hoops said:

this thread is as dumb as the original article by aptly initialed BS.

LOL. And all that. There is a real dipshit in the WH. Voted in by the duped and the dull witted and the deplorable. And voted in by losing the vote by 2%.




RealityForAll said:

Interesting commentary on politics by Ben Shapiro. I think BS focuses too much on celebrities and Hollywood in this article. Instead, I think that a lot of what BS describes in this article can instead be attributed to identity politics.




"Americans accepted racial equality. Americans celebrated female empowerment. Americans went libertarian on sexual behavior.

And the Left had to go searching for a new civil-rights struggle with which to cram conservatives back into their “victimizer” cubbyhole. The Left now pushes against civil rights in its ignorant search for the new struggle.

There was, however, one problem: All the good civil-rights issues have been dealt with already."

A Black Man was shot to death, shot in the back a number of times 17 feet away from the shooter and running away, and then the shooter went over to the dead or dying man and took his, the shooter's, taser and put it next to the dead or dying man, apparently so he could claim that the man he shot was threatening him. It was all on video tape, "caught on camera". So they put the shooter on trial for murder.

Hung jury.


Yup, "All good civil-rights issues have been dealt with already".

They said that when the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were adopted, and again when Pro Baseball and the Military were integrated, and when SCOTUS decide Brown v. Bd. of Ed, and when Congress passed the Civil Rights Acts of '64 and '65, and again when a mixed-race person was elected President.

And a Black Man is shot in the back and the jury hangs. And I am still glad that my son and I are White.




DaveSchmidt said:

I've had some experience discussing, debating and arguing topics with adults. Even when they laugh at me, they don't sound like this.

Where is this bastion of discussion? My experience is that people avoid conflict even the political discussion type at almost all costs. Yeah, you can argue whether you like Bernie or Liz Warren better and get along just fine. But have a real substantive discussion? There are a few out there that can have discourse with those they disagree with, but its a rare animal.


DaveSchmidt said:

More below on an NYU prof who took a leave of absence. Not sure it's the same guy, because he isn't willing to go so far as to say he was forced, and if there was a joke, I missed it:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/11/01/nyu-professor-who-used-anonymous-twitter-account-criticize-university-trigger


(If anyone's interest is piqued by the article's reference to a Bergen Community College professor's troubles, it may be worth noting that the school admitted it was wrong.)

If you're interested, he's on Gaad Saad's show called the Saad Truth. Great name for a show.

Anyhoo, He explains his side. According to him, when he was called in there was someone from HR there already. Never a good sign.



hoops said:

this thread is as dumb as the original article by aptly initialed BS.

LOL. And all that. There is a real dipshit in the WH. Voted in by the duped and the dull witted and the deplorable. And voted in by losing the vote by 2%.

Yeah. And there lives were going so well thanks to you and those you serve.


GL2 said:

Gotta love DJT: Al Gore one day; EPA head, a coal whore, the next.

What? He chose the wrong whore?


ml1 said:

Who is this "you" that you're addressing? Certainly none of that describes me.

Why are cons freaking out over a handful of undergrads?

Again. I'm not sure that "cons are freaking out". That seems like projection. Cons aren't the ones protesting the conclusion of a democratic process they were fully allowed to participate in. Have the cons ever done this?

The reason why the SJW PC is troubling is that college campuses are supposed to be about the free exchange of ideas. They seem to becoming the exact opposite of that.

Here's Ben Shapiro trying to enter a forum at Depaul's campus.


So, the left calls people names and tries to stop the free expression of ideas. This is supported by the media, often the faculty, and thus the students now expect this. This is not a good trend. I think you would agree.

If you watch the video I posted earlier. People are chanting while he's trying to make a speech. Obviously, he is unable to speak. He stops them and tells them that they can ask him any question. There is nothing. They have no questions. They just know "he's a bad guy". They have no idea why they think this, but they just know he's bad. Finally, they march to the front and he has an exchange with one of them. One calls him a white supremacist. He asks why she would call him that? She has nothing. He quips that perhaps the yarmulke gave him away.

This isn't thought. It is intolerance. Intolerance of thought that does not fit your preconceived notions. This stuff happens time and time again.



terp said:


ml1 said:

Who is this "you" that you're addressing? Certainly none of that describes me.

Why are cons freaking out over a handful of undergrads?

Again. I'm not sure that "cons are freaking out". That seems like projection.



They're calling themselves victims

The thing about this whining about PC is that the last year and a half suggests it's really not a big deal. I don't think most people have restrained themselves from expressing their non-PC opinions on a whole array of issues. Our president-elect certainly hasn't.


@LOST: you have intentionally attributed the words of Ben Shapiro to me. I am sure that you know that this type of behavior is more than inappropriate. The end does not justify the means. Can we agree on this principle?

With regard to the SC jury, apparently the jury is hung due to one individual juror. The prosecutor has vowed to try this case again. Your posting is a classic attempt at creating alarm and a thesis that the entire society is corrupt. When the fact is that we have one disreputable juror. The system has not been thwarted by one disreputable jury (only temporarily delayed).

Let's instead return the focus of this thread to some of the the issues at hand: why HRC lost the election and why the blue collar white voters were intentionally disregarded by HRC.

PS I did not support DJT (nor HRC) in the last election.

PPS I will take your desperate behavior (namely, quote misattribution and alarmism regarding the SC jury) as evidence of your current state of mind. Sorry to hear that this election has been this troubling to you.




LOST said:



RealityForAll said:




Americans accepted racial equality. Americans celebrated female empowerment. Americans went libertarian on sexual behavior.

And the Left had to go searching for a new civil-rights struggle with which to cram conservatives back into their “victimizer” cubbyhole. The Left now pushes against civil rights in its ignorant search for the new struggle.

There was, however, one problem: All the good civil-rights issues have been dealt with already.

A Black Man was shot to death, shot in the back a number of times 17 feet away from the shooter and running away, and then the shooter went over to the dead or dying man and took his, the shooter's, taser and put it next to the dead or dying man, apparently so he could claim that the man he shot was threatening him. It was all on video tape, "caught on camera". So they put the shooter on trial for murder.

Hung jury.




Yup, "All good civil-rights issues have been dealt with already".

They said that when the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were adopted, and again when Pro Baseball and the Military were integrated, and when SCOTUS decide Brown v. Bd. of Ed, and when Congress passed the Civil Rights Acts of '64 and '65, and again when a mixed-race person was elected President.

And a Black Man is shot in the back and the jury hangs. And I am still glad that my son and I are White.



hahaha

what a grandiose title! But I stopped reading the OP at the words "Ben Shapiro", as he has NEVER written anything that gave me any insight into the world, other than into the minds of the fever swamp.



LOST said:



RealityForAll said:




Americans accepted racial equality. Americans celebrated female empowerment. Americans went libertarian on sexual behavior.

And the Left had to go searching for a new civil-rights struggle with which to cram conservatives back into their “victimizer” cubbyhole. The Left now pushes against civil rights in its ignorant search for the new struggle.

There was, however, one problem: All the good civil-rights issues have been dealt with already.

A Black Man was shot to death, shot in the back a number of times 17 feet away from the shooter and running away, and then the shooter went over to the dead or dying man and took his, the shooter's, taser and put it next to the dead or dying man, apparently so he could claim that the man he shot was threatening him. It was all on video tape, "caught on camera". So they put the shooter on trial for murder.

Hung jury.




Yup, "All good civil-rights issues have been dealt with already".

They said that when the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were adopted, and again when Pro Baseball and the Military were integrated, and when SCOTUS decide Brown v. Bd. of Ed, and when Congress passed the Civil Rights Acts of '64 and '65, and again when a mixed-race person was elected President.

And a Black Man is shot in the back and the jury hangs. And I am still glad that my son and I are White.

What about gerrymandering and the conscious effort throughout the South and other states to disenfranchise minority voters and the conservative members of the Supreme Court scaling back of the Voting Rights Act (including a black man who took the seat of Thurgood Marshall)? There is a concerted effort to make voting harder for minorities and it is succeeding.


Dylann Roof commits mass murder, then is pulled over by police -- who holster their weapons. He's given a bulletproof vest.

African-Americans get pulled over by the police for a busted taillight, and they pull their weapons and shoot them where they sit.


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