Hate and Ideology

In the midst of the current blizzard of psycho theorizing about mass murderers and their motives, David Brooks makes the salient point: these killers are often driven by an ideology. The El Paso killer was an anti-Mexican fanatic. The Dayton murderer was a leftist Antifa supporter.

They were not driven by loneliness or anomie. They were not impelled by an unresolved mental health issue. They were making a political point and advancing a cause. Evidently, we are not going to stop them by passing gun control laws. Most of the gun crime today is committed by gangs living in neighborhoods that have stringent gun control laws. 

Interestingly, Brooks explains that the Christchurch mosque killer was driven by identity politics. He defined himself by his race and ethnicity. He defined his enemies by theirs. We should all be aware of the dangers inherent in today's identity politics.

The ideology he goes on to champion is highly racial, but it’s not classic xenophobia or white supremacy. Its first feature is essentialism. The most important thing you can know about a person is his or her race. A white sees the world as a white and a Latino sees it as a Latino. Identity is racial.

Ignore the fact that Brooks misuses the concept of essentialism. And that the killer seemed to confuse racial with ethnic. (Obviously, Islam is not a race.) The important point is that we live in a culture where the value of one’s words and actions is determined by one’s racial or ethnic identity. This means that some groups are at fault for belong to a certain race-- say the white race. Which others are blameless victims because they belong to another race-- as in, people of color.

Strangely, Brooks says nary a word about the perpetrators of most of the world’s terrorist violence: Muslim extremists. It’s too easy to single out white people because the El Paso shooter was a white racist. The modern phenomenon of mass murder has not just been limited to Muslims, but clearly Muslim extremists are leading the march, even setting the example. They are driven by their hatred of the West, because it has outcompeted their culture.

Nor does he mention that violence committed by those who occupy America’s increasingly radical political left. From Antifa to Maxine Waters, the message from the left has been: Trump must be destroyed. In rank defiance of democratic norms, the American left, led by Democratic politicians, has been flinging everything it has, every vile epithet, every violent threat, every subpoena, every means possible to destroy Trump, his friends, his family, and his presidency.

A climate of hatred does not arise by itself. Those who have rushing to the media to blame it all on Trump should examine their own actions… as noted here in yesterday’s post.

As though to prove the point, yesterday a group of anarchist demonstrators surrounded Sen. Mitch McConnell’s house and threatened to kill him. So much for nonviolence. So much for the political party that is promoting peace and love.

Powerline blog reports the events, via The Daily Wire:

Far-left demonstrators appeared at Mitch McConnell’s home in Louisville on Monday night and protested the 77-year-old who is recovering from a broken shoulder after he fell.

A short clip of the protesters was posted to Twitter by Ben Goldey, a life-long Kentuckian.

In the video, one person says they hope someone uses a “voodoo doll” on McConnell. Another person in the video says they hope somebody “just stab the mother f***er in the heart, please.”

Obviously, they are not all suffering from mental illness. They did not all suffer childhood traumas. Even if they were not brought up very well, nothing obliges them to express their discontent by calling for the murder of a United States Senator. 

Calls for violence do not normally provoke peaceful and law abiding reactions. And then, another radical imbecile from the Democratic Party, Congressman Joaquin Castro exposed the names of San Antonio Trump supporters… along with their employees.

… Joaquin Castro, the brother and campaign manager of presidential candidate Julian Castro, and himself a Texas representative, tweeted a list of San Antonio residents who have contributed to President Trump’s campaign….

Castro’s claim about a “campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders'” is of course a lie. But what possible motive can he have for publishing this list to his Twitter followers other than to encourage harassment of, and perhaps violence against, Trump supporters?

In today's vernacular, this is called doxxing. If you or I do it, it's a crime. Recently, a Congressional staff member was sentenced to four years in prison for doing the same. His name was Jackson Cosko. Among others he exposed the address of Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Of course, Castro should be censured by Congress. It will not happen, but it should. For a member of Congress to encourage acts of violence, all the while denouncing President Trump for encouraging acts of violence is beyond the pale. In today’s Democratic Party, unfortunately, it is the norm. 

At least, Democrats will never be able to claim that they are not encouraging violence. After all, the Dayton shooter was one of theirs. He was inspired by their rhetoric. To blame it all on Trump is to play it for political gain. And to advance an ideology. To blame it on white people is simply dishonest. I would not call it an ideology of hate, as Brooks does, but it is a radical leftist ideology whose goal is to undermine the United States of America.