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Here’s one for the annals of incivility. The thought police
have bled out of universities and have taken up residence in your local eatery.
At Sunday brunch, no less.
You have heard all about it by now. Fox News commentator and
former Blaze talk show host, Tomi Lahren, a young woman who is a bit of a provocatrice—though
certainly not at the Milo level—was having brunch with her mother in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. For having done nothing to provoke anyone she was
assaulted, verbally and physically by a group of young women who felt very,
very strongly about immigration issues. I might be wrong, but I believe that
throwing things at people is an assault. In England, you know, they do not just
throw water. They throw acid.
Anyway, by their reasoning Lahren does not have the right to
have brunch with her mother because she holds wrong opinions and has said what
they consider hateful things. There you have it, Congress can pass no law
restricting the freedom of speech but the thought police can harass and assault
you in public if you disagree with them.
Even Kathy Griffin thought that they had gone too far.
In the world of democratic norms, the kind that the left is
constantly denouncing Donald Trump for violating, allowing someone to have
brunch in peace has to count among the most basic. Promiscuously denouncing a differing opinion to be “hate speech” violates the norms
of civility. The reason we have these norms is simple: what goes around comes
around. Those who proudly proclaim themselves to be policing thought will
eventually be subjected to the same incivility.
The Daily Mail has the story:
One of
the two young women involved in a brunch scuffle with Tomi Lahren spoke out on
Wednesday to say that she stands by the incident and ‘doesn’t care’ that President
Trump disapproves of her friend throwing water at the Fox News
pundit.
Twenty-three-year-old
college graduate Libby, 23, was at a table with eight girlfriends at UNION
rooftop bar and restaurant in Minneapolis when her friend threw water at Lahren
as she walked by.
After
throwing the water, the girl under the screenname Jasmine Kohler shared
photographs of it on her Snapchat story
and wrote: 'Thanks for the screenshots. I did it lol'. Earlier in the day, she
appeared to goad followers by telling them in post: 'Tomi Lahren at union
(sic). 5 screenshots and we dump a drink on her.'
After
being hit with the water, Lahren turned to engage the group but it was Libby,
not Jasmine, who launched a foul-mouthed tirade at her which was also captured
on another video which later emerged.
What did she say?
She
called Lahren, who is her age, a 'racist piece of s***’ and a ‘f****** piece of
human garbage trash.’
She
went on to tell Lahren’s 55-year-old mother Trudy that she worked with
immigrants ‘every day of her life’, didn't want to hear what her daughter had
to say and told the Lahren family: ‘You’re done, you can go.’
Remember when women were ladies. Remember when women and even men thought it indecorous to use foul language. Now, women feel compelled, not just permitted, to spew out a string of vulgar invectives... because they feel strongly about it.
If
you don’t want to hear something, don’t listen. If you feel compelling to punish those who think differently, you are out of order and out of line:
Speaking to DailyMail.com on Wednesday, Libby said that while she did not throw the water, her friend was quite right to do so because Lahren is ‘racist’ and was ‘not welcome’ Minneapolis.
‘When
you use your platform to spread hate speech, you have lost your privilege to
have a peaceful discourse,' she said.
'Especially
when you come into our city, Minneapolis, which is a huge city for people of
color and immigrants. She is not welcome here. Have you heard anything she
says? She equated the Black Lives Matters movement to the KKK.
So, disagreeing with the principles and tactics of BLM gives
people the right to shut you up, shut you down and assault you in public.
Who is Libby:
Libby
is a liberal arts graduate who volunteers for a non-profit organization which
helps immigrants seeking asylum. She hopes to attend law school in the fall and
wants to become an immigration attorney.
On
Sunday, she said she watched as Lahren was accosted by other patrons on the
rooftop bar where drag performances had been going on all day.
‘Tomi
was there at the brunch and everyone at the restaurant figured it out people
were walking by her table and calling her names. We were going to do a chant,
“like go home Tomi,” but it didn't happen.
‘[As
Lahren was leaving], she walked by and the girl in the video tossed the water
and it barely hit her,' she said.
So, people believed that they had the right to assault
Lahren and her mother verbally. Were they all immigration activists? Were they
cosmopolitan citizens of the world who believe in open borders? We know that
President Trump expressed his solidarity with Tomi Lahren. How about asking
President Open-Borders-Citizen-of-the-World himself, Barack Obama what he thinks
about what he has spawned.
8 comments:
And one has to ask what it is that causes people, especially young males, to shoot up schools? These are the king of young women who have no problem bullying and/or attacking others who they see as the enemy or just not in their class. Please we have to be kidding ourselves not to understand the role that social media plays in much of the violence and intolerance that has now become the norm for the prime audience of Facebook et al. Facebook et al exhibits those very traits themselves in using their platform to bully those that may disagree with them. And we are to believe that these young people are not picking up the idea that this is acceptable?
The sad part is that they have only made Tomi Lahren more powerful and a real threat. Spell checker got me again. kind not king.
Never make those you disagree with a martyr.
For those of you who think that only we had these puzzle wits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=146&v=D9avJlNdTe0
I agree, Dr. Scheiderman, I would be interested in hearing what Pres. Obama thinks about the more extreme tactics of the "open borders" movement. Even if he believes that "civility" rules apply only to his political opponents (e.g. Sarah Palin), but merely hearing him say so directly would be instructive to us casual observers of U.S. politics.
This is ironic since Tomi has jungle fever and only goes with black athletes.
So much for Minnesota Nice. I don't know if throwing water at someone would be assault in Minnesota, but of course the criminality of it shouldn't be the central point. You don't just want someone to pay a fine, but you want them to know what they did was wrong, which means invoking their conscience.
Instead this action isn't seen as shameful, but displayed proudly on instagram, so apparently a way to raise her status in your tribal hierarchy. And for all we know this might start a "meme" and copycats will arise and try to photograph themselves throwing water at some tribal target of righteous hatred.
Overall I don't know what to do with such provocations, and maybe legal means are best, but the problem is it might just raise the status of the action, and even if you spent 30 days in jail, you might be hailed as a hero among true believers of your echo chamber.
So probably what Lahren did looks best, don't overreact, and say you can handle it, and that high road means all the shame stays on the other person where it belongs. Of course no matter how low key you try to take it, your own tribe will erupt, as it has, on social media as proof of the incivility of the other side, and self-righteous feelings on both sides will erupt in mutual contempt for the other side, and the echo chambers will divide one step further, and the number of people who refuse to take sides will grow ever smaller.
Anon 5:10,
What does that have to do with anything? Who she sees or is friends with is her business. I suspect you are a leftist troll trying to plant the idea that this successful site is racist. Typical leftist action. If you cannot find racism then create it.
Anon 5:10,
The person who takes care of my yard is black and has a white guy working for him and a white wife who takes care of my pool and all that entails. Good people who do great work. The only tribe I belong to is that of being a citizen of the US.
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