Leftists and the Virtue of Hatred

Hatred as a Virtue

Reporter Mike Tobin of Fox News was physically threatened a couple times, and constantly berated and yelled at while reporting at the Leftist protest in Madison Wisconsin these past weeks.

He had this to say about many of the protesters there:

“One thing I think should make clear – the people coming after us from every live shot here, these people hate” … “These are people who don’t respect diverse viewpoints. In fact, they’re so afraid I’ll present a diverse viewpoint, that’s why they try to heckle me and shut down every live shot. They’ve made it clear, that what they want to make it harder for me to do my job. They are proud of that when they disrupt a live shot, when they really trample over the First Amendment rights or the First Amendment’s obligations of a reporter. Now, I am not saying that’s all of the people. Those are the people that come here and heckle and try to disrupt things. I look in their eyes – there is hate in their eyes. They don’t want to hear any kind of viewpoint that is different from their own. That’s why they do what they do.”

 I have a Leftist friend that often says something to the effect of ‘stop the hate’, ‘don’t hate’ when I present my opposing point of view. Like many things, Leftists project their own perceptions and feelings on others and refuse to look at how they think and act themselves. The biblical injunction to look to the mote in your own eye applies here. Hatred in the Left runs deep and unabated and is shown in the demonstrations and most especially on Leftist websites. I visit them on occasion and provide my alternative view, and the vile nastiness of the attacks is immediate and breathtaking.

It’s really group think. A few years ago I was watching a Fox News reporter, I think it was Tony Snow, on a college campus asking a small group of students about something, challenging their assumptions, and one girl yelled at him he has no right to ask those questions. Really? The Left constantly affirms First Amendment rights only apply to those with views the same as theirs.

Back to Hate. It should really be reserved for the truly despicable, like racism, fascism, Nazism and the like. It shouldn’t be the lens of one’s social group; the basis for one’s world view. It shouldn't be directed at people that simply disagree with you.

 Elizabeth Scalia on her blog “The Anchoress” had this (full article here) to say about hate as foundation for one’s belief system:

"On the surface, attaching oneself to a hate-collective seems a safe way to belong. One feels invited to the party; one no longer has to think for oneself, or worry about individual appearances or instincts. To continue to fit-in, to feel as if you were truly loved, all one needs to do is continue to hate—and that not even willingly.

This hate that feels like wide-open love is paradoxically limiting and self-defeating. Once hatred has become one’s social vehicle of choice, the travel options become limited: either stay the course and wear the peripheral blinders or attempt to break free and risk the very real possibility of being altogether ditched.

Regardless of whether one hates a Republican governor or a pro-abortion president or Hollywood or “fundamentalism” or “the system” or even a sports team, if one’s sense of belonging depends on hatred, then second-thoughts will flee and stagnation will follow. The only way to re-energize and to delay the inevitable endgame described by Enright as “destruction, discouragement, and hopelessness” is to find a new hate to love.”

 One can love something so much that any opposition generates hate. Scalia again:

“The most insidious part of this Borg-like hate collective is how easily one can slip into its influence through the simple error of attaching real but disproportionate feelings of love onto things which are often illusory and ultimately temporary. I love my politics so much that I must hate you for your policies; I love my church so much that I must hate you for not loving it as intensely; I love the promise of my pension plan so much that I must hate you for pointing out that it is unsustainable; I love my opinions so much that I must not allow you to have opinions of your own.”

These Leftist don't recognize their own hatred but see it in others instead. Even when pointed out to them that what they say and do is hateful, they deny it. The demonstrations in Wisconsin were exactly the bullying, hateful, violent, intolerant, mean spirited event that they accused TEA Partiers of engaging in these past two years. The intolerance, racism, Antisemitism and hatred is glaringly evident in the YouTube vids and pictures.  Look at any TEA Party event on YouTube and you’ll not see anything coming even close to what Leftists engage in during their protests. TEA Partiers pick up their trash too. It’s going to take about $7.5 million to clean up the Madison capitol building.

I sadly suspect the hatred and anger will manifest itself in more violence by the Left as budgets and legislation get passed that try and put our socio-economic house in order.