Please spare us.
With all of the vile policies and existential threats to our democracy that here are to respond to during these nightmare times, our damn lightweight media and politicos are tizzying out about "incivility" that somehow has suddenly crept into our national dialogue with "The Red Hen Incident." Certain ossified Democrats have started to form their civility circular firing squads (please STFU and get out of the way), and the pearl clutchers at the WaPo have hit the fainting couch with a particularly noxious call to let Stormtrumpers eat in peace. Notably, there was this tidbit of Fred Hiatt- generated ahistorical nitwitticism:
... How hard is it to imagine, for example, people who strongly believe that abortion is murder deciding that judges or other officials who protect abortion rights should not be able to live peaceably with their families?Does he mean like the family of Dr. George Tiller or the families of the dozens of doctors and other family clinic personnel killed or wounded over the past 25 years by "pro- life" fanatics? Or the bombings, arsons, etc., that have terrorized family clinic personnel for decades? Or, hey, how about the separated families on the border who're not "able to live peaceably with their families"? Wow, turns out it wasn't hard to imagine at all! And please go fuck yourself, Fred. (Is that uncivil?)
A few tweets to sum it up:
One thing the Red Hen situation has made abundantly clear is that the vast majority of people in the national media identify more closely with the White House press secretary than with anyone who might be in a position to cook or serve food to her in a restaurant.— Nick Baumann (@NickBaumann) June 25, 2018
When we go low, we get blamed. When they go low, we get blamed for not trying to understand them.— Steve M. (@nomoremister) June 25, 2018
If you seriously don't understand how calls for "civility" were historically used by the powers-that-be to shut down protests, you should really read Bill Chafe's excellent study of the civil rights movement in Greensboro. https://t.co/CwH6Vvcj0F— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) June 25, 2018
BONUS: Green Eagle delves into the media concern trolling past and present (h/t One Fly in the comments).
BONUS II: Hunter takes the bark off the WaPo editorial.
