Since Tara Reade came forward with allegations former Vice President Joe Biden sexually assaulted her, the Left has been in two modes: attack the accuser and the Right, and defend a man who in on video sniffing females’ hair. When people of all political stripes point out the Left’s double standard, the Left talks about “fake outrage” and suggests the people calling them out don’t really care about women, just scoring political points.
You know, like they did with Brett Kavanaugh?
However, it is interesting to look at how the Left uses outrage to achieve ideological goals. Before we do that, let’s define the term.
outrage
What the Left thinks it means – an expression of righteous anger over a grave injustice
What it really means – the rhetorical equivalent of holding your breath to get your way
Today’s society is an emotional minefield. Say something, do something, or believe something that offends a Leftist’s feefees, and you are subject to a world of hurt. If you’re lucky, they will stalk you, find out every piece of information they can about you and release it to the world, protest in front of your house, leave threatening messages for you and your family, contact your employer to get you fired, and make you look like Sybil’s crazier cousin. Just think of what they might do if you did something really bad!
This is only possible due to outrage. Leftists love mobs because they give the impression of popular opinion without the niggling little detail of confirming whether the mob actually represents popular opinion. The other aspect of this is volume, as in loudness. A mob can make a lot of noise, which underlines the impression of public opinion being on its side. It, too, fails to go the extra step to confirm whether the public agrees with the mob.
Let’s look at ANTIFA, for example. This group of happy-go-lucky miscreants make a lot of noise and come out in droves, and the Left uses them to justify their positions on social injustice. It’s a win-win for them…until ANTIFA starts breaking the law and the Left has to pretend they don’t agree with ANTIFA’s methods (Spoiler Alert: they do). And all of this is made possible through outrage.
And, unfortunately, outrage works. Humans have a natural desire to be accepted by a community, and anything that threatens that makes us defensive. Imagine a bunch of blue-haired pink pussy hat wearing Leftists appearing outside your house saying you were Adolf Hitler. The most obvious response is to deny it and try to persuade others (and possibly the mob) you aren’t. Some will believe you, but most will either keep quiet or agree with the mob to avoid having the mob come after them. Or at least to try to get the blue-haired pink pussy hat brigade to stay out of their begonias.
Here’s the funny thing: the Left is always outraged about something, which is as close to a perpetual motion machine as we will see in our lifetimes. As a result, the world outside of their ideological bubble will tick them off at the drop of a microaggression, and we will all have to walk through the resulting minefield while wearing clown shoes. It’s not a matter of if we’ll offend them; it’s a matter of when.
This brings us back to fake outrage, which is a way for the Left to defend themselves against those who see what they do as fake. The Left believes all of their motives are noble and anyone who doesn’t agree is ignoble. Therefore, all of their fake outrage is real and all of our real outrage is fake. And, yes, I realize this makes no sense, but the Left don’t care about facts and logic, only feelings.
Oddly enough, that is exactly how to overcome the Left’s outrage. They need to feel it, but we don’t. If we accept what they believe to be true, we surrender the rhetorical high ground to them. If we don’t, all they have to fall back on is their outrage, which inevitably escalates and makes them seem a lot less persuasive and a lot more cray-cray. Eventually, the line between true outrage and abject insanity gets so blurred as to be non-existent, and the Left is pretty much tap-dancing on the line as it is. As a result, it’s easy to turn their outrage against them by denying them the oxygen for their outrage bonfire.
This isn’t to say the Left is completely full of bullshit when they get outraged. Most of the time, yes, but sometimes they do bring legitimate points to the table, albeit couched in layers of bullshit. I do believe there is a stigma around victims of sexual assault and it needs to be called out no matter who it is maintaining the stigma. On the flip side, there are also people who are unscrupulous enough to make up sexual assault allegations for any number of reasons, which furthers the stigma. I observe Tara Reade’s allegations with the same critical eye I used with Christine Blasey Ford’s: there may be something there, but we need a full investigation to be sure to make sure we move forward with the right course of action. One based not on outrage, but on facts.
The Left doesn’t agree. Whether it’s male college students, a Supreme Court nominee, or a former Vice President, their course of action is the same: protect the Left, no matter how absurd it makes them look. Knowing this makes it possible to see the Left’s outrage for what it is: a temper tantrum designed to get people to knuckle under to whatever they want, only to have them throw another one the next time they want something. As any parent who has had to deal with this from their children will tell you, it never ends well.
Tag: tara reade
The Chicks Have Come Home to Roost
Remember when the Left went crazy over leaked audio of President Donald Trump talking about grabbing women by a part of the body referred to by a nickname for a cat? They still talk about it today (while leaving out important details of the audio that add context…funny thing, that). Now, we have former Vice President and current presumed front runner for the Democrat nomination for the 2020 Presidency, whose history contains a lot of weird and pervy incidents that could normally be brushed off as “Joe being Joe.”
Enter Tara Reade. No, not the co-star of the “Sharknado” franchise, but a former staffer who worked with Biden who is now claiming he not only grabbed the part that is a nickname for a cat but put his fingers in there. And the Left’s response? They’ve been recycling the same defenses they used for President Bill Clinton when he was accused of harassing Paula Jones. Good thing it was Earth Day recently!
This isn’t shocking to me because if the Left didn’t have double standards they wouldn’t have standards at all. Even after the #MeToo, #TimesUp, and #BelieveAllWomen became a thing for all of a few weeks, I knew it would only be a matter of time before the Left would have to address the sexual skeletons in their own closets. When that happened, we would see their commitment to protecting women from sexual assault by powerful men was as solid as pre-chilled Jello.
Further complicating matters is the latest hashtag, #DropOutBiden, which is a movement to get Mr. Biden to drop out of the 2020 Presidential race because of Ms. Reade’s allegations. In other words, the Left wants a do-over after agreeing to the rules of the game and watching their team get crushed like grapes at a wine-making marathon. On its face, it makes some sense because it allows the nomination process to reflect the will of the voters (or at least the voters whose will it is to make someone like Biden President) while simultaneously allowing Reade’s story to be heard and digested.
Hey, Leftists? Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh would like a word. Take a seat. In fact, take all of them. He’ll bring the beer.
I would be dishonest if I didn’t mention there are holes in Reade’s story that have yet to be adequately explained. I would also be dishonest if I didn’t recognize the Left’s scrutiny of her story far exceeds the scrutiny paid to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s story, which had as many holes as Reade’s story has, if not more. By asking Joe Biden to drop out of the race, it gives the Left some cover for its hypocrisy while attempting to shore up the votes of more progressive voters who wouldn’t back Biden if he were the last candidate on Earth.
Put simply, they’re treating alleged sexual assault as a political issue. Again.
In fact, the Left makes sex political whenever they can. From gay rights to how to address allegations of sexual assault, the Left sees each issue through the prism of how it can be used to gain or retain political power. They want to beat President Trump in November, so they are willing to overlook the fundamental flaws of a candidate, even if those flaws involve backtracking on their previously stated ideological positions. Believe All Women becomes Believe All Women Who Agree With Us and To Hell With Anyone Else. But, hey, at least you can kill your babies in the womb, right?
To me, both the defense of Joe Biden and the call for him to resign show the indifference the Left has for women specifically and minorities in general. They honestly believe people won’t notice the change in stance and approach, and when dealing with many of their ideological allies, they’re right. They would rather be hypocrites for the sake of achieving a favorable political aim than to be consistent and risk losing power. The people directly impacted by sexual assault are merely pawns in the game with no chance of ever being a Queen. And now the Left is trying to play both sides of the board so they can’t lose.
Of course, this only works if people continue to play the game the Left is. As with any and all accusations of sexual crimes, I want them investigated fairly and honestly because a failure to do so undercuts the legal process and subjects victims to further hardships. This isn’t a political game, kids. People’s lives are ruined by real and falsified allegations, and no amount of political power gained will make that okay in my book.
As far as whether Joe Biden should drop out, I think it’s too late. The Democratic National Committee had their chance to vet their candidates and they opted to punt, even when the former Vice President’s escapades were well-known for decades and have been circulating on this little thing the kids call the Internet for a while now. The Left can’t plead ignorance here, nor can they redo the nomination process now to allow someone else to get it. The soonest they would be able to change the nominee without creating a massive schism would be at their convention this summer.
Provided, of course, COVID-19 doesn’t prevent either party’s convention from convening. I’ll admit I’m a bit of a parliamentary procedure geek, so this isn’t something that most people would pay attention to. In order for any business to be conducted at a meeting where officers are elected, there has to be a minimum number of voting members, called a quorum. Without that, there’s no nominee and no way to adjust the rules to choose a new one. (Of course, this plays into the fear-porn the Left is trying to peddle that President Trump will suspend the 2020 elections, but that’s a delusion and a blog post for another time.)
The Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times” is apropos for America right now, but for none so much as the Left. As they tiptoe around the allegations against Joe Biden while holding President Donald Trump to a different standard for just talking about what the former Vice President is accused of doing, the Left is banking on people not seeing the double standard or the political motivations behind their actions and reactions. Unfortunately for them, their action and inaction don’t pass the smell test.
To borrow a hashtag, Leftists, Time’s Up.