Leftist tactics and boundaries
Yesterday the left did to Josh Hawley’s family what it’s done to so many others in recent years – came to his house:
Protesters from ShutDown DC went to Senator Josh Hawley’s house, chanted loadly with bullhorns, approached the front door and looked in the sidelight. Hawley’s wife and newborn apparently were at home alone as the mob gathered…
The group spent 51 minutes in front of the Hawley residence.
This sort of thing has become almost commonplace, and it’s not just the left coming to the homes of people on the right. They act similarly towards those on the left who are insufficiently leftist in their eyes.
The goal is twofold. The first aim is to intimidate the particular person being targeted, but that is a minor one in comparison to the second goal, which is to intimidate others – probably more easily cowed – who might even be thinking of taking a stand with the person whose family is being harassed. Profiles in courage are rare enough as it is, but the left’s actions are designed to make them even more rare.
Hawley tweeted, “Let me be clear: My family & I will not be intimidated by leftwing violence.” Perhaps not. But many other people will.
One of the strengths of America in the past – and in particular the mid-twentieth century, when I grew up – was to separate the personal from the political. Remember “I may not agree with you, but I defend your right to say it”? Ha. And the internet makes the intimidation tactic available not just against public figures but against just about anyone, because once you have someone’s name it’s not hard to find an address and even to dox that person and then encourage the mob to go after them.
All this is mild, of course, compared to what the left has done in other countries. But the left here now feels poised on the brink of great victory, and leftists are merciless in victory because once in power they try to make sure it is never relinquished.
ADDENDUM: From Dennis Prager:
Half of America, the nonleft half, is afraid to speak their minds at virtually every university, movie studio and large corporation — indeed, at virtually every place of work. Professors who say anything that offends the left fear being ostracized if they have tenure and being fired if they do not. People are socially ostracized, publicly shamed and/or fired for differing with Black Lives Matter, as America-hating and white-hating a group as has ever existed. And few Americans speak up. On the contrary, when BLM protestors demand that diners outside of restaurants raise their fists to show their support of BLM, nearly every diner does.
So, then, who are we to condemn the average German who faced the Gestapo if he didn’t salute Hitler or the average Russian who faced the NKVD (the secret police and intelligence agency that preceded the KGB) if he didn’t demonstrate sufficient enthusiasm for Stalin? Americans face the left’s cancel culture, but not left-wing secret police or reeducation camps. (At least not yet — I have little doubt the left would send outspoken conservatives to reeducation camps if they could.)
I have come to understand the average German living under Nazism and the average Russian living under communism for another reason: the power of the media to brainwash.
As a student of totalitarianism since my graduate studies at the Russian Institute of Columbia University’s School of International Affairs (as it was then known), I have always believed that only in a dictatorship could a society be brainwashed. I was wrong. I now understand that mass brainwashing can take place in a nominally free society.
Well, of course it can. People are people. The safeguards of our Constitution and our traditions are extremely helpful, but they rest on a foundation of awareness and knowledge in the people. Propaganda can undermine everything, and it can do so in a manner both subtle and ubiquitous. Intimidation and fear can assist in cementing the deal.
These leftist terrorist mobs are supported or enabled by the government, police, and media. That is why they are effective. Not only do they face little to no opposition when they attack their political opponents, they know they will face no punishment. Furthermore, the media will not report on their activities, so the majority of people in the country discount their mob terror tactics as “conspiracy theories”.
Look at how peaceful right-wing protesters are treated. They just arrested the leader of the proud boys in DC for simply burning a BLM flag, a misdemeanor. Imagine what the reaction would be if a rightwing group surrounded a leftist politician’s home. Even if they were peaceful and not trying to knock down the door or light the place on fire, you can bet the police would be out in force busting heads and arresting everyone. Anyone arrested would then face the maximum penalties upon sentencing by a leftist judge.
Where the left fully controls the government, and thus the police and judges, as well as the media, these things such as mob justice and election fraud can only be propagated by one side, while the other side would be given international exposure in the press and be prosecuted brutally for their actions.
Only one side is allow to break the rules and engage in terrorism. That is why they will keep winning and winning.
Portland Rules.
“So, then, who are we to condemn the average German who faced the Gestapo if he didn’t salute Hitler or the average Russian who faced the NKVD (the secret police and intelligence agency that preceded the KGB) if he didn’t demonstrate sufficient enthusiasm for Stalin?”
Important to note that in Germany, violent intimidation by Brownshirts *predated* the takeover of power by the Nazis. We tend to think of the Nazis as an all-encompassing totalitarian government…but first, they were an organization of street thugs and propagandists.
Of course no response by the Police. I would hope that if something like this happened in my neighborhood I would try to help. But of course I could then be arrested. Not going to end well.
I would suggest that if Sen. Hawley is resolute in his determination to defend the Constitution, that he move his wife and child back to Missouri and ask his supporters to voluntarily create a team of bodyguards for his wife’s safety. I’d also advise him to buy his wife a .410 or 20Ga pump shotgun and ensure she knows how to use it.
“The safeguards of our Constitution and our traditions are extremely helpful…”
Not anymore.
In a video I saw, there was a police car there. And they did nothing! That’s a real problem.
Here in Omaha, a group of leftists protested outside the home of the county attorney because they didn’t like what he had done in a case. Some idiots spray painted his house and got arrested. Other idiots didn’t break the law.
This is a bad, bad thing.
Is it a coincidence that the rise of the left is accelerating as the very last of our WW2 victorious warriors and Holocaust survivors are dying?
A 12-year old girl with an AR-15, 30-round mags and a little training can decimate a mob.
booster,
“Only one side is allow to break the rules and engage in terrorism.”
That’s true. But only as long as the other side continues to abide by the ‘rules’. History has repeatedly demonstrated that, in the face of grave injustice, that situation has a decidedly short time frame.
}}} Half of America, the nonleft half, is afraid to speak their minds at virtually every university, movie studio and large corporation — indeed, at virtually every place of work.
This is hardly new… from 2008:
How to Get So Dead in This Town
http://www.seraphicpress.com/how-to-get-so-dead-in-this-town/
Eva Marie,
There are no ‘coincidences’.
Chases Eagles,
We’re not there… yet.
}}} A 12-year old girl with an AR-15, 30-round mags and a little training can decimate a mob.
True, but then the local Soros-sponsored DA will ignore the axes and pitchforks they were threatening her with, and charge HER with Murder One… as an adult.
:-/
This crap will not end until these Antifa Sturmabteilung are shot dead committing these violent acts.
Shot dead as in a bullet or two in the head.
Those targeted for elimination, via a bullet thru the head also include the financiers and all the under-the-radar-screen organizers of these violent acts.
As long as those that organize and carry out this crap can continue to do this stuff without repercussions, it will continue.
History has shown that causes that are promoted by violence and intimidation in the pursuit of totalitarian goals that are not stopped by legal means, can only be stopped by killing those that perpetrate the terror.
The first step is to kill the head of the hydra; and then work the way down until the threat is removed.
Our Constitution provides legal and ample ways to express discontent with prevailing policies and anybody – from communists to neoNazi to KKK to BLM to ANTIFA – has a right to PEACEFUL protest and assembly, however distasteful and repugnant. After all, all of us have a choice as to how WE decide to react in the face of obnoxious speech and Peaceful demonstrations.
Personally I could care less what extremists say about me because I have no regard for their intellect, their intelligence, their ability to reason; I think they are just total stupid morons incapable of rationale thought; so why should I give a F about what they think or say?
I don’t.
Let them say and act however they choose as long as it is Peaceful.
However, when interest groups resort to violence and intimidation and when the legal authorities REFUSE to uphold the law, that is another matter. The citizenry then has a right, if not the obligation , of killing those that resort to violence and intimidation to end the threat to civil liberties.
If given the chance, these thugs will have no compunction about killing all who disagree with them. That, you can take to the bank.
My youngest son and I attended the Stop the Steal/Let the Church Roar events in D.C. on December 12th. Before we left, my older son who served 8 years with the Marines warned me not to depend on the police for any protection and to be back at the hotel before sunset. After we recovered from the red-eye flight, when we left the Grand Hyatt, directly outside were a number of police vehicles with flashing lights. All the immediate streets in the vicinity were cordoned off with police patrols blocking use. An antifa thug had “bear-sprayed” some Trump supporters. We experienced peaceableness for the 10+ miles we walked that day but there were skirmishes in the evening after dark of which we were aware because of the ambulances we heard. I was surprised at the number of Asian Americans present. We didn’t come away thinking all would be well with the Republic, but we were a presence and we prayed a great deal.
Sharon W, my Asian neighbors are horrified at creeping socialism/totalitarianism and are, if anything, more outraged about the election theft than I am.
Sharon W:
It could be that conservative Asian-Americans (A-As) recognize that according to the left they (A-As) are not considered minorities and are to be oppressed just like all other non-BIPOCs and especially conservative non-BIPOCs. Because diversity, inclusiveness, and justice (sarc)!
Geoffrey Britain, agreed on the 20-gauge. My husband got me one, thinking the 12-gauge would have too much kick for me (and I’m not a small woman). I have been trained to load and fire it. First two loads are bird shot; the third is a solid slug, in case the bird shot hasn’t stopped any idiot who breaks in.
JohnTyler,
Didn’t you get the memo? “You have a duty to retreat.”
Fail to do that in a dem ruled area and you’ll be proscecuted and imprisoned. And, if Biden gets in, even in a red area, the feds will charge you with violating your attacker’s civil ‘rights’, of which you have none.
The only way to win in a rigged game is to not play by the rules and then, under cover of anonymity, do to them what they’re planning to do to you.
Those who call the tune, pay the price.
FYI:
Blog Post by David Foster: “Year of Consent” (by Kendall Foster Crossen) at ChicagoBoyz:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/64491.html
“Year of Consent can’t be called great literature, on a par with 1984 or Brave New World, but it projects a future which is perhaps closer to the immediate threats facing American liberty in 2020 than do either of those two other novels.”
OBloodyHell,
And said DA should not be surprised when the girls men folk deliver a Winchester ballistic Silvertip in his left eye from 1000 yards away.
The PC Police…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKgzWT4K_Lc
From the post: “…the mid-twentieth century, when I grew up…”
That’s poignant, capturing the sense that we truly live in a different world now. Soon those of us who remember that world will be gone, and no one will really understand what was lost. That world included many evils, but it also had a clearer sense of what is good and what is evil, and there was hope in that.
Apparently the Washington Post tried to justify this behavior, calling it “peaceful” and claiming there was no trespass. Video and testimony of neighbors refute that.
https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/05/washington-post-defends-leftist-mob-that-terrorized-sen-josh-hawleys-wife-and-newborn-at-their-home/
Michael in Pennsylvania…thanks for the link!
Been said…but I concur…this stops when the mob drops and bleeds out on the street.
“Apparently the Washington Post tried to justify this behavior, calling it “peaceful” and claiming there was no trespass. Video and testimony of neighbors refute that.” – Kate
WaPo knows that only those who read the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Theory Media will ever see those vids.
I’m tired of seeing spokesmen and women saying — as Prager does — the Left’s “cancel culture.” THIS CONCESSION to Evil is wrong. It is CENSORSHIP as in a Nazi Germany, plan and single, Evil and abhorrent.
State the Truth LOUD and clear! No mumbling in Newspeak.
I think I picked this up from a PowerLine commenter.
I don’t listen to Adams’ podcasts, although I used to read his blog; however, the graphic can be seen and understood without having to listen. The example is the Raffensperger call.
https://www.scottadamssays.com/2021/01/04/episode-1241-scott-adams-how-the-fake-news-industry-manufactures-hoaxes-using-todays-fresh-example/
baby, you aint seen NOTHIN yet..
Art, you are sooooo right!
“This is hardly new… from 2008:
How to Get So Dead in This Town” – OBloodyHell
That was an extremely interesting post.
ICYMI, the blogger, Robert Averech, is a Hollywood screenwriter of some fame, who was blindsided in a script conference by an exec who assumed that everyone there was a Democrat and essentially demanded a loyalty oath that they were voting for Obama (end of October 2008). The blogger attempted to deflect the question and leave politics out of the meeting, rather than admitting he was voting Republican.
We have now read that story a hundred times in the “cancel everybody” situation we have today.
As he put it in a reply to a comment by OBH, that was the dominant culture of the place and time, and it has not diminished.
“Obloodyhell:
Here’s a good example of how Hollywood thinks: almost every issue of “Written By” the magazine for the Writer’s Guild of America, the union for screenwriters, is stuffed with articles about the Hollywood Ten, men and women who knew and apologized for Stalin’s genocidal crimes, plus all sorts of leftist action committees that read like a playbook from planet Berkeley.”
Many of the comments could have been describing our current situation, and several predicted where an Obama win would bring us.
Samples:
“I’m having that experience more and more often nowadays. It seems that every commenter defines “conservative” to mean whatever will advance his agenda.
Robert, sorry to hear you had to go through that. I just had a conversation with my boss where we complained about the crummy accounting software we’re now required to use to report our travel expenses. My boss commented, with a completely straight face, that it’s the fault of the Republican Party.
I will be so glad when this election is over.”
“Obama would be a disaster for the US, not the least in the choices he would make for the courts and what he would do to our military.
It’s nice to be idealistic but the truth is a Democratic majority in Congress and the most leftist President in history won’t bode well for America. They talk a good game about bipartisanship, and being tolerant, and Republicans close their eyes to history and swallow that seductive lie. Then the Dems cackle at our naivete and steamroll right over us. Just like they will do with an Obama presidency.”
“Robert, it’s funny (well, not funny, ha ha) that you mention Obama’s cult of personality. I know of so many people who say they are pro-Obama just because he ‘inspires’ people – and I guess this is all that is needed for the economy and international relations to heal. I guess having substance isn’t ‘sexy’. This whole obsession of blindly following him scares me. I fear if he wins (G-d help this country) and I fear if he loses (his fans around the USA & world will be VERY sore losers).”
“Personally, I like Sarah and am terrified of Obama and Biden. I don’t see how having them in office in the most powerful country in the world is better than the prospect of a Palin vice presidency.
However, that’s not what is going to happen post-election in general, if the reaction to George Bush is any indication. I think the past eight years of unremitting vitriol and hatred have fundamentally changed how we react to people of the opposite political persuasion. It’s not just disagreement, or the loyal opposition anymore. It’s demonizing, denigrating, and demolishing (note those all start with “D”, ha ha).”
This one clearly was naïve about his preferred party; note that his castigating friends are Republicans:
“It irritates me to no end how provincial some people are. I make no secret of my immense distaste for Palin and how she is the primary reason I am not voting for McCain.
Some of my friends have castigated me for this stand, but none of them would have the audacity to say that our friendship hinges upon agreeing upon who we vote for or any sort of political affiliation.”
I think none of them would even consider ending their friendship for those reasons, although (as abundant testimonials here attest) the Left has enough audacity and to spare.
The last word goes to Mr. Averech, because of today’s events at the Capitol: Republicans are no longer just moving on, but if the protestors had been the ones driven to violence, the buildings in DC would not still be standing.
“Let me make a post-election prediction.
If Obama wins, Republicans will be disappointed and then we’ll move on, wait to see what happens.
If McCain wins the Dems will cry voter fraud, drag in hundreds of lawyers, and yes, there will probably be violence.
As for pulling together: that’s nice rhetoric but I do not pull together with a man who regularly consorts with American and Arab terrorists and Jew-haters disguised as Christian Ministers.
In short: if Obama makes good on his various foreign and domestic policies, which I consider disastrous, if not ruinous, then I will exercise my freedom of speech and thought to peacefully and respectfully oppose such policies.
It’s called checks and balances.”
Substitute “Biden” for “Obama” above.
MAGA
This thread is old, but I have to add a link to a story that PowerLine linked on 1/7.
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/january-february-2021/kicked-out-of-the-comedy-club/
“Andrew Doyle wonders why so many comedians are offended by the satire of Titania McGrath”
Titania, of course, is the fictional invention of Doyle who ignited furious storms on the internet with “her” spot-on parody of the Left.