As the evil Islamic State terrorist group take a sledgehammer to ancient artefacts and throw men off buildings as punishment for their sexuality, the silence on the Left has been deafening.
Those who usually wear the liberal jersey with the greatest pride have slipped on a plain tracksuit top. Not a single gay rights lobby, or activist of any note, has said a thing. Artists have been similarly mute. No self-righteous lectures about the importance of art, or museums. No floats on the Mardi Gras as a form of satirical criticism. No hastily convened press conferences expressing outrage and demanding action.
Some might be quick to suggest that this silence is borne from fear for retribution. But this is not it. It is because for most on the Left it is not about the principle, but about the side.
Let me explain. If it was a conservative commentator with a slight slip of the tongue, the gay crusaders public relations machine would kick into overdrive. If a Republican Congressman openly canvassed cuts to funding for the arts, artists everywhere would drop their pencils, pens and laptops, with every curator desperate for television face time. Compare this hysteria to the non-response legitimate, real and evil homosexual persecution in the Middle East receives. Juxtapose artist angst over funding cuts to the “look the other way” reaction when Islamist thugs smash their way through a museum, looting irreplaceable ancient artefacts. As America represents a conservative culture, it receives the same treatment.
Quite simply, the silence exists because the sins of Islamists are incompatible to the Leftist narrative. Their thinking can be explained this way: the modern liberal- those in power in the Democratic Party and beyond- hate America. In fact, they despise Western Civilization. The reason for this is actually somewhat "democratic." If all people are created equal then all outcomes should be the same. If someone becomes a criminal, then, something must have happened to him to turn him bad. If someone becomes a successful business person, something must have allowed him to stand out. He must have had better teachers or better parents, etc. And, by extension, if a culture or a nation is evil, then they must be the victims of something. If a nation or culture is successful, something must have worked to their benefit. Just as "if you have a successful business you didn't build that," if you have a successful nation or culture you didn't build that. Social justice, then, demands that successful Western Civilization be at the very least weakened and Islam as the dominant non-Western ideology- and the most evil and failed- must be rewarded.
It is these deductions that account for the remarkable hypocrisy we see on the Left. If asked to name the great triumph of the modern tolerance movement, I would say it is the happy suppression of freedom of speech while tolerating the most sinister aspects of Sharia Law.