Let's blunt: As the radicals don't like Elon Musk, we left the territory of protest and entered the land of indifference.
Whether you like musk or not, setting a car on fire is not activism. It's a vandalism surrounded by self-righteousness.
And then there's Luigi Mangione, who is said to have shot an insurance executive in the back on Manhattan Street. It wasn't a face-to-face duel like in the past. That was an execution.
Still, some on the far left treat Mangione like some sort of vigilante hero. Social media is now illuminated with applause as if it were a form of progressive justice, as if assassinating someone through the dissatisfaction of the health care system.
And you want to know the worst part? applause. Self-doubt will laugh from “Daily Show””crowd They watched Teslas burn.. The reaction was not fear – it was joy. This is not a political satire. It's a moral corruption disguised as a comedy.
But don't pretend that the rights do not have their own illness. Do you remember January 6th? A violent mob stormed the Capitol to overturn the election. And part on the right tried to spin it into a tourist field trip. Worse, they denounced Antifa and the FBI. When you have to invent a conspiracy theory to justify the confusion, you are not better than the one who claims you oppose.
The pattern is clear. Both extremes believe that if violence serves their cause, violence is not merely acceptable, but even integrity is acceptable. And when someone on the team crosses the line, the response is rarely condemned. That's justification. It's “Yeah, but look at what the other side did.” It's not an argument, my friend. It is a moral coronavirus.
Certainly, America had previously had violent fringes – the weather basement, Ku Klux Klan, political assassins – but we didn't celebrate them in the mainstream. We didn't support them on national television. We did not retweet their destruction with fire emojis and hashtags.
So, the new thing is not violence – it's applause. It is lawless cultural recognition, as long as our side is throwing punches and illuminating fires.
We have created a world where anger is rewarded. The principle is dead or on the way to the grave. The center is hollowed out by sanctuaries on all sides, and unless more people stand up and say “sufficient,” the Fringe continues to drag the country into the dark holes that have been digging for a while.
So here's the idea: If you don't like Teslas, don't buy it. If you are unhappy with the way insurance companies do their business, tell members of the council that they will do something about it. And if you don't like the outcome of the presidential election, grow up and embrace it. It is called democracy.
And while we're working on it, why not stop dealing with political violence like team sports? How about determining your actions based on the character's content, not the ideological colour?
If you don't? We don't just lose debate. We are losing our country.
Bernard Goldberg He is an Emmy Award and an Alfred I. Dupont Columbia University Award-winning author and journalist. He is the author of five books and has exclusive weekly columns, audio commentary, and Q&As. Subsack page. Follow him @bernardgoldberg.
