The Other Side of Paris

For John, BLUF:  Opportunists of the Left.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From Salon is an article by Writer Chauncey Devega (of Alternet), "And so the hate speech begins:  Let Paris be the end of the right’s violent language toward activists".  And the sub-headline is "Real terror unfolds in Paris.  Perhaps this will convince the right to tone down their incessant violent rhetoric".

Are these people actually living on the same planet as Barney Frank?

Here are the first couple of paragraphs:

In a still developing situation, the city of Paris, France, is under attack by terrorists armed with guns and explosives.  Many dozens of people have been killed.  A still undetermined number of people have been wounded.  The terrorists took dozens of hostages in a concert hall.  French police and military forces have been deployed. There is mayhem and blood in the streets of Paris.

President Obama has correctly described this day’s horrific events as “an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share.”

Terrorism is politically motivated violence against a vulnerable population that is designed to intimidate, sow fear, create panic and alter public policy.

Terrorism is serious business that kills people, breaks bodies and alters lives.

It is not a game.

In the United States, the right-wing media and movement conservatives have for decades consistently used eliminationist and other violent rhetoric to describe liberals, progressives and other people with whom they disagree.  As was seen in the recent attacks on a Charleston-area black church, and other violence by right-wing anti-government militias, such rhetoric does not float in the ether of the public discourse, harmless and unacknowledged.  No, it does in fact lead to action.

There you have it.  The terrorist attack in Paris isn't about a violent branch of Islam, it is about shutting down those who think differently from the Social Justice Warriors here in the United States.  It is about condemning those who are concerned that the students (and supporting faculty) are acting to deny free speech at places like Yale and the University of Missouri (and UMass Amherst).

Hat tip to Memeorandum.

Regards  —  Cliff