If we were to listen to the lectures from the media, we are on the cusp of an outbreak of violence set to explode from the right side of the political spectrum. President Biden has enthusiastically pushed this agenda, positioning MAGA Nation as a violent faction orchestrating an uprising of democracy-threatening actions any day now. At Biden's direction, "fascist" has become the left's new knee-jerk accusation since "racist" has become a played-out charge.
There is one disqualifier; the actual acts that we have recently seen that fall under this heading are emanating from the left. There have been numerous incidents of leftist political violence over the past year, yet – despite typifying the very promised outbreak of outrage – these are somehow not classified as dangerous, get explained away, or are outright ignored by the press.
The following examples perfectly display the very promised violence they say will arrive any day now from the conservative right, and their willingness to not address these incidents exposes the effort to demonize and criminalize only one side of the political arena.
North Dakota Political Killing
Last week, Shannon Brandt was arrested for using his car to run over and kill an 18-year-old who he declared was a "Republican extremist." There has been a notable lack of enthusiasm in reporting on this on a national level, and we have been spared numerous news panel discussions, editorials, and think pieces decrying the political divide in this country. Some are even going so far as to say there is no evidence that this was a politically-motivated attack – despite the fact that the suspect, Shannon Brandt, repeatedly stated he did this as a result of the political stance of his victim.
Las Vegas Reporter Killed
The news outlets have not exactly been filled with lengthy reports on the murder of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German in his front yard. German is believed to have been stabbed repeatedly by a Democrat politician he had investigated and reported on, Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles. In covering the attack and the arrest of Telles, most news outlets are side-stepping the party affiliation of Telles. The morning shows never mentioned this, the Associated Press covered his hearing with no allusion to his party, and even CNN, in four stories on the attack, only managed deep in the later piece to mention Telles lost his primary this summer.
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Campaign Violence in Texas
This weekend, Governor Greg Abbot's campaign office released details about campaign workers who were attacked while canvassing on behalf of the governor. Outside of Houston, a man chased the volunteers and damaged their car after attempting to pull them from their vehicle. An arrest was made after the accused man was found to have pieces of their damaged car in his trash.
SCOTUS Justices Threatened
The repeal of Roe v. Wade led to protests outside of the private homes of select members of the highest court, and yet we saw Democrats, the press, and even the White House shrug off these antagonistic steps as just citizens exercising their right to protest. When a California man was arrested after crossing the country with weapons in order to target Brett Kavanaugh, there was nothing in the way of genuine concern over the rise of political threats of violence.
Summer of Organized Violence
The SCOTUS decision on Roe v. Wade perhaps shows best the bifurcated approach by the press. On the one hand, they resort to condemning violence, yet when the left acts up in order to protect abortion, they have to remain in support of those acts. This is how we get examples like CNN's Jim Sciutto insisting that there are impending riots coming from conservatives in reaction to the leaked Alito draft opinion. Conservatives would riot over…a decision they favor is the claim.
Meanwhile, pro-abortion activists were openly calling for violent actions, and throughout the country, dozens of pregnancy care center offices were attacked, with some even firebombed. As the activist group Jane's Revenge called for these actions – and they played out – the condemnation was not to be found.
The calls of impending right-wing violence in this country can only be made by ignoring the tangible examples of left-wing violence.
— Brad Slager: Distracted at the Auto Show (@MartiniShark) September 26, 2022
Projection, deflection, denialism, narrative-building - any and all may apply, but know that the press is complicit in this dodge. pic.twitter.com/Qmftj6OD3N
Kentucky Gun Control Activist Shooting
It has been conveniently memory-holed in the press how this past February, Quintez Brown, an anti-gun activist, attempted to shoot a mayoral candidate at this campaign office. Considering all of the hot-button issues attached to this crime – gun control, race, antisemitism, a journalist, political violence – that it was a leftist activist crossing over all of those lines means the press would rather you just forget the whole story.
The Insurrection That Never Was
Following the Capitol riot, the media was promising us repeated flare-ups of that kind of violence last year. In March, D.C. closed down for an impending arrival of protests that never materialized; then, another uprising was expected in May. In September, hundreds of law enforcement officers converged for the Justice for January 6 Rally and the expected furor, only to outnumber the peaceful attendees, who disbanded without so much as a raised voice.
But then, in October, it finally occurred. All the earmarks of an insurrection took place as protestors stormed a federal office in D.C. to oppose governmental legislation, vandalized the building, burst past security, occupied the location, and placed numerous police in the hospital during the assault. You probably never realized this because the attack on a Saturday was lightly covered, and once the realization was that these treasonous moves were organized by left-wing environmentalists, committing these acts the press declared to be atrocities against our democracy, they dropped the story before that Monday.
Biden Inspiring Violent Rhetoric
The media loves to hurl accusations that Republicans can say things that are promised to incite violence. Funny that when a Democrat says something that leads directly to a violent reprisal, there is no condemnation to be delivered, especially when it is the president. Immediately following his infamous primetime speech where he called MAGA Republicans violent fascists, in Florida, a GOP election office was hit with vandalism, invoking the term used by Biden. The outrage in the press over this incitement has yet to arrive.
Republican Candidate Threatened On Stage
When Lee Zeldin was giving a campaign speech in New York, he was approached directly by an individual with a sharp instrument. Zelden fended off the assailant before he was corralled by handlers. The media worked to recalibrate what happened as less of a threat, going so far as to state the man was impaired and only approached Zeldin with "a plastic cat keychain." In truth, the item the man wielded was, in fact, a designed weapon, but the press had their talking point in place to entirely dismiss the incident.
There is the attempt to dismiss this as an innocent keychain, but this is in fact a designed weapon being used. https://t.co/Gwy6rxEwyp pic.twitter.com/NouyFoXpun
— Brad Slager: Distracted at the Auto Show (@MartiniShark) July 25, 2022
An impressive list, and this does not encompass any of the permitted violence we witnessed with the riots spreading across the country recently. All of the above examples were following the Capitol riot when we were promised violence would be swelling from the right. It seems to work in a similar fashion to Obama being granted a "scandal-free" term; if the press does not count incidents of violence, then statistically, they did not take place.
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