(Paul Mirengoff)
The authoritarian left isn’t content just to block speech it disagrees with. It also wants to force people into making leftist utterances and gestures.
Today, at various restaurants in Washington, D.C, BLM protesters demanded that diners eating outdoors raise their fists in support. Most diners did — this is Washington — but a few did not. Those who did not were berated.
The mob chanted “white silence is violence” at them. The statement is stupid and obviously false. If the BLM mob wants, nonetheless, to chant it, that’s fine. But not in the faces of people who are simply trying to eat dinner.
I agree with Bari Weiss, who was recently “cancelled” by the New York Times because her writings didn’t track leftist orthodoxy. She described the BLM mob’s behavior as “vile and un-American.”
One of the victims of the mob said she has been protesting for weeks against the police (or whatever), but that “it did not feel right” to be coerced into raising her fist. Unfortunately, she reportedly was the only person at the restaurant where she eating to have such quintessentially American qualms or, in any case, to act on them.
The pandemic has caused those who frequent restaurants to eat outdoors, even in the horrible D.C. heat. But nothing will stand in the way of mobs coming inside restaurants to harass people when the time comes.
Years ago at Dartmouth, a mob of black protesters rampaged through the library demanding aggressively that students who were preparing for final exams join them outside at a rally. The fledgling brown shirts received no meaningful punishment from the college.
Colleges have become training grounds for brown shirts. Graduates have taken the authoritarian lessons learned there to the streets and sidewalks of America. The chickens have come home to roost.
Tonight at the Republican Convention, Nick Sandmann, who received the equivalent of a berating from an old lefty who banged a drum in his face because he dared to wear a MAGA hat, was one of the speakers. He showed remarkable restraint when he was confronted by the ancient drum banger.
The mainstream media demonized Sandmann nonetheless for “smirking,” and it lied about what had transpired. He fought back with a lawsuit and is now collecting settlement money from various media giants.
Unfortunately, there is no obvious remedy for the kind of mob behavior that occurred today in D.C. Nor will law enforcement become involved. I’m told that officers stood by passively as diners were harassed. Naturally. If they aren’t going to lift a finger to prevent looting and arson, we can’t expect them to prevent harassment at restaurants.
It will take considerable planning and courage to counter leftist authoritarianism. In the meantime, the best way to do it is by voting for candidates who understand the problem and are willing to fight back — candidates like President Trump — and to vote against candidates who fail to condemn, and even condone, the outrageous behavior of the left. Candidates like just about every Democrat.
Here is some video of the vile, howling mob in D.C. today (the seated woman in the pink shirt is the liberal referred to above):
