03 June 2017

Kathy Griffin’s Terroristic Sensationalism

Why We On The Left Should Be Leading The Outcry Against Kathy Griffin
Yes, the hypocrisy from the right is mind boggling and outrageous. And, yes, Trump is blight on our entire world. But this decapitated effigy of Trump stunt by Kathy Griffin was filthy and vile. It is indefensible. It is abhorrent! How can we hold the moral high ground when we defend people, supposedly on our side, who do the same things, but just targeted at the Right? Wrong doesn’t stop being wrong because your tribe perpetrated the wrong. 

Let us ask ourselves: When they strung up and burned an effigy of Obama, was that terroristic sensationalism by any stretch of our reason and imagination defensible or justifiable? If our answer is that is “no…” If our answer is that it was wholly unjustifiable… Then our answer to Kathy Griffin’s terroristic sensationalism should be identical. Any other response is pure tribalism. Wrong is wrong even when your tribe behaves badly. In fact, I would say that our side is MORE wrong for justifying this vile display precisely because WE KNOW IT IS WRONG.

We must be better.

The Left Should Be Leading The Outcry Against This Terroristic Sensationalism.
That’s what stunts like this are – terroristic sensationalism. Any defense or justification of stunts like this is social poison. I have read a few defenses and reams upon reams of justifications on behalf of Kathy Griffin over this. In my estimation, the Left’s defense and/or justification is more wrong than were the right wing stunts with Obama or Clinton effigies – because we on the left know the pain and disgust those stunts cause. If we defend and/or justify the same types of stunts just because it’s our own side, we are all the MORE in the wrong.

What do we stand for? 

These kind of tactics are evil. If we use tactics as vile, as evil as those we decry from the other side, what good can there be in our side? You cannot create good by doing evil. The defenses and justifications try to ameliorate her vile actions in light of the other side’s evil by decrying the hypocrisy of the Right who are condemning her vile stunt. We excuse her because they did it first – that, folks, is the height of hypocrisy from us!

Pure Unadulterated FACT: 
Kathy Griffin’s stunt with a Trump effigy was no less vile and filthy – no less evil – than the Right’s stunts with effigies of Obama and/or Clinton. The source of inspiration is no justification. That the other side has done similar things is no justification. That the other side is hypocritical is no justification. There is no justification. 

This horrific stunt and Kathy Griffin should face the same social ramifications as we on the Left wanted to see the Right face for their heinous, acts of terroristic sensationalism against our side. The undeniable hypocrisy of the Right decrying this woman of the Left in tone-deaf ignorance of their own side’s perfidy in no way lessons the perfidy of Kathy Griffin’s disgusting, socially and morally degrading stunt.

These kinds of stunts are indefensible – no matter who perpetrates them. Something like this is like standing up in a crowded theater and yelling “FIRE!” These kinds of inflamatory are flat-out inhumane, degrading, and can only foment more fear, hate, bigotry, tribalism, and even violence in response – such acts are evil. They are incitement to hatred, fear, and violence. Evil can only ever render more evil. I don’t care whose hypocrisy is perceived as worse. It is hypocritical of the Right to have defended or justified their side’s poisonous stunts.
IT IS EVEN MORE HYPOCRITICAL OF OUR SIDE TO DEFEND OR JUSTIFY SIMILAR TERRORISTIC SENSATIONALISM. I don’t care if it’s the Left or the Right who is responsible. Every single time something like this is done, it poisons our society. If we cannot be better than what we abhor, we are lost, already damned. We must be better.

Many of the anti-Trump feeds are defending and justifying Kathy Griffin’s behavior with this stunt. Most are trying to justify not condemning her or her for no other reason than the hypocrisy of other side. They may not be defending her actions, but they are justifying NOT condemning those actions. 

The right-wing’s hypocrisy or past actions should not have a thing to do with condemning such terroristic sensationalism and the person (in this case, Kathy Griffin) who uses our precious right to freedom of speech to inflict it. We shouldn’t be pausing to castigate the Right, as if they have no right to their outrage and anger because “they did it first.” The only thing we on the Left should be hearing and saying about it right now is that she was wrong and that she does not speak for our side. The Left is SUPPOSED to be the side of sanity.

Permit me a crass analogy: If you’re standing between two groups of monkeys and they start flinging feces at each other, will it matter which monkey’s shit stinks worse?

Moreover, the justifications I’ve seen are painfully similar to justifications made by thoughtful and moderate conservatives/republicans trying to justify not condemning people on their side who took their protest and anger too far. I know many republicans who said the effigies of Obama were horrible, but in the same breath justified it as an unfortunate extension of how angry people were.

We on the Left are all righteously angry right now. But, if our anger leads us to evil acts, we have abandoned righteousness and embraced evil.

We must be better.

WE MUST NEVER BECOME WHAT WE ABHOR!


01 June 2017

A Foray Into Existentialism…


Blue is red…
        And green is true…
                Dark is dread…
                        And light is through.
                                I am… I am… am I?

                                        ‘Pon wing-ed thought, I fly!