A Fool’s Journey
Let’s allow for all the negative behaviors ascribed to Trump and his supporters for this discussion: They are violent reactionaries, they support a racist man, and he is the next Hitler. Presume those are true for the duration of the post.
Many pundits have said the Trump supporters deserve or incite the violence they face. This is because of their support for Trump or exercising their rights to free speech — in speech or shirts and hats. Even conservative speakers have embraced this: Source, and other articles at this site.
We have now established that if someone is bad their rights can be violated by an angry mob.
We have now established that if a mob is mad at someone else, it is acceptable to attack others who belong to the same group.
We have now established that certain thoughts are reprehensible enough to allow crimes to be committed against those thinking them.
Does that sound like America anymore?
What happens when the mob no longer has the same sensibilities? Or, what happens when someone commits a crime codified as worse than these evil hate-thoughts?
Do we now allow vigilante mobs to string up rapists and child molesters? What if they get the wrong guy?
What happens to the rule of law?
No, of course it doesn’t sound like America anymore. Because we’ve just given power over political discourse to an angry mob.
As to what happens when the wants of the mob changes: The fools advocating for this mob-veto don’t believe that will happen to them. They’ll oppose it when it happens to them. But when it happens to their political enemies the problem is a joke, the problem is deserved. That is a dangerous precedent to set.
Because now those with different political opinions can see that the collaborators don’t just disagree: they support using violence to suppress dissent. They won’t be violent themselves, of course. No, never. They’ll even use weasel words to get around their endorsement of terrorism. But they will still provide aid and comfort, specifically in the form of cover and victim blaming, to the victims of these lunatic mobs.
The rule of law vanishes when we no longer enforce it, when we no longer protect rights. Selective enforcement of the law is one of the many steps one must take to climb the stairs to tyranny. When rights are brushed away merely for thoughts or political reasons — then they aren’t rights anymore.
We don’t need free speech rights for popular speech, after all.
These people see political enemies attacked physically and do not care. It is time to treat them the same way as long as they remain supportive of threats. Because their behavior puts us in danger, and it puts the nation in danger.
Even if you presume all the bad things said about Trump and his supporters this is a dangerous precedent. This isn’t some slippery slope argument to be waved away. This is a serious danger to our very freedom.
Make no mistake: those supporting the attacks on Trump supporters “because racism” are not cowards. They are far more dangerous and insidious than cowards. They’re the first line in a war against freedom, backed by legions of butt-hurt social justice types that see offense in everything.
They are just too stupid to see that once those of us so-called “racists” are dealt with, they are next. Because something they believe in will be deemed racist, or sexist. The anti-freedom social justice whiners are like the Hugbox Borg: they take away one freedom, one political opinion as valid, and people fall back. Then another freedom, and the people fall back.
At some point there is no where else to fall back to.
That’s the future these people embracing the physical attacks on Trump supporters are enabling. A perfect world: the United Hugbox of America.