27 June 2016

No cameras, no peace?

The Traditionalist Workers' Party tried to hold a rally in Sacramento CA yesterday. It's opposed to "economic exploitation, federal tyranny, and anti-Christian degeneracy," and is described by critics as white-supremacist. Not long after the TWP made its plans known, self-styled "anti-fascists" announced a counter-demonstration, and really something more than that. Some on the far left hold that groups like the TWP have no moral right to be heard, whatever the First Amendment says, and are in fact liable to violent suppression, presumably by "the masses," wherever they show themselves. Thus the TWP people found themselves outnumbered by approximately ten-to-one and got clobbered. In the end, ten people were hospitalized, including victims on both sides. More alarming than the "anti-fascist" attack on the TWP was their apparent desire to suppress media coverage of the action. At least one black-clad gang -- perhaps a typical anarchist "black bloc" demanded "no fucking cameras" while hassling some journalists. Whether this was to protect themselves from reprisal -- unlikely considering many of them were masked -- or because they felt that the TWP deserved no attention whatsoever is unclear. In footage at the local newspaper's website, one protester barks about "White supremacy in the media!" in possible rationalization of their tactics. While few tears need be shed for the TWP, or for the sake of their specific beliefs, their antagonists through such tactics surrender most if not all of the sympathy they might demand when cops clobber them. If we're supposed to worry about whatever threat Donald Trump might present to the media, we ought to be at least equally worried about spectacles like the scene in Sacramento.

The TWP's platform may be abhorrent, but as long as it's legal it ought to be protected better than it was in Sacramento. And while I suppose it can't be said often enough that racism is abhorrent, I can't help thinking that the protesters are trapped in an obsolete paradigm. How else could they think that white racism, abhorrent as it is, is the main thing they need to fight, and by implication the biggest threat to the country or society? Militant Muslims are perhaps less likely to hold public demonstrations -- and probably less likely to receive permits for such events -- but who actually believes that these "anti-fascists" would be as quick to attack such a gathering as they were the TWP rally? If I don't believe that, it's not because I think they're afraid of Muslims, but because too many 21st century "anti-fascists" haven't been able to wrap the menace of Islamic militancy around their traditional "anti-imperialist" narrative, according to which European or "white" imperialism, founded on a form of racism somehow unique to the West, is the necessary and sufficient cause of any atrocities in the developing world or any attacks on the developed world. Yet I should think that anyone so passionately opposed to "hate" would see something hateful in Islamism, or something hateful in Islam itself, presuming that our masked protesters are leftists in the old Marxist sense of the word. That issue aside, the Sacramento incident keeps alive the ironic narrative of 2016, in which everyone freaks out over the presumed latent violence of Donald Trump's supporters, while for the most part it's those supporters (apparently including the TWP) who are getting beat up. It seems to me that if the left wants to play this game, they'd better be wrong about that latent violence on the other side. If they're not, that violence will be blatant sooner or later, and when that happens leftists might not find numbers on their side.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Similar action a few months ago at an SJW protest at Missoula, wherein the "leftist" protesters tried to block journalists from interviewing people and tried to stop random cell phone users from recording the event. I think the old left/right dichotomy no longer really exists. Things will only get worse here before there will be a chance at improvement.

Due to incompetence and obstinance on both sides, this administration has been a waste of 8 years.

Anonymous said...

I just realized something sort of alarming and despicable. It may be unconnected, but...
It is primarily people who claim membership to the left who defend islam. Muslims have the attitude that islam is beyond criticism, beyond reproach. Many people critical of islam on both YouTube and FaceBook have been banned for posting material which is critical of islam. Now people on the left are acting as though their idiotology is beyond criticism or reproach. My conjecture, therefore, is that islam is having a negative impact on the left, which leads them to abandon their defense of free speech. Yet another reason for islam to be banned and muslims to be sent packing.

Samuel Wilson said...

You would have thought that Orlando would have short-circuited some leftists since it appeared to pit two protected groups against each other. Apparently not, though, now that the shooter is increasingly seen as a self-hating gay man. As to your main point, I don't think you can blame Islam for any increasing leftist intolerance, except insofar as you can blame it for increasing intolerance across the board. I hear a lot of right wing Christians say "If they can ... why can't we?" in envy of Muslim cultural assertiveness and defensiveness. The left in particular could just be reverting to Leninist ways, and as far as religion is concerned, I suspect that most leftists defend Muslims rather than Islam, caring little about their actual beliefs except to defend people's right to believe against eternal white-christian intolerance. The repressive desire for "safe space" among leftists is just an extension of the "criticism = hate" equation that rightists indulge in just as readily when their oxen are gored.

Anonymous said...

To defend an intolerant religion from intolerance is intolerable.

Anonymous said...

I've recently watched a video that showed certain muslims in London who were publicly denouncing terrorist activities for the news cameras, but then promoting jihad within their own mosques. So again, where is the basis for trust? A muslim will lie to your face without a problem. So again, the only logical solution is for peaceful muslims to practice their peaceful religion - - - elsewhere.