Media Indifferent As Steven Crowder Infiltrates Antifa At Ben Shapiro Speech
This is a fascinating video. It shows Steven Crowder and a colleague infiltrating Antifa before a Ben Shapiro speech, discussing weapons that they have (including some serious firearms) — and the curious indifference of media on the scene. Worth watching:
The always excellent John Sexton sums up the clip in this paragraph:
As you’ll see in this clip, Crowder’s producer Jared put on a disguise and met with members of Antifa who installed an app on his phone to allow them to communicate. The protest plan, according to the organizer, was “plain clothes and hard tactics.” That meant not dressing in black or wearing masks, which had been banned by police, but preparing for violence. At a subsequent meeting, one member of the group discusses the guns he has in his trunk. Another member hands Jared an ice pick. Jared immediately makes an excuse and takes the footage of local police who have already been monitoring the situation. Crowder ends the clip by focusing on the media.
Also astounding is watching lunatics like Lex Scott, a Black Lives Matter organizer, saying stuff like this: “People like Ben Shapiro are the most dangerous people on this Earth.”
Ben Shapiro is actually a fairly standard conservative with many sensible positions, most of which I share. It’s eye-opening to know that, even though I care about the poor and despise Donald Trump — but just happen to think that small government is the better way to solve our problems — there are people who see me as the highest form of evil, and would happily beat me senseless simply for holding the political positions I hold.
This movement illustrates the danger of applauding the whole “punching Nazis” thing. Yesterday they call Richard Spencer a Nazi and punch him. Today they call Ben Shapiro a Nazi and plan violence at his speeches.
Tomorrow, you’ll be the Nazi. And if you have applauded punching Nazis in the past . . . what principle will you invoke in your own defense? “I’m not really a Nazi”? If it didn’t work for Shapiro, it won’t work for you.
No, the only solution is to rule out violence against people for their political beliefs. Even if you really, really don’t like them.
Finally, let’s talk about the media ignoring this. Sexton says:
Media outlets are probably worried about getting scammed. They don’t know Crowder and the fact that he’s a YouTube host/comedian probably doesn’t inspire confidence.
But Sexton doesn’t let the national media off the hook. They have the resources to investigate something like this, he says. They just don’t care.
Sexton is right. Sure, any video that doesn’t give you the full context of remarks made on the video is subject to the criticism that it is heavily edited and all that. But it would take some pretty amazing context to render innocent the discussion of weapons and violence we see here.
Substitute “Nazis” for “Antifa” and Big Media would have been all over this.
[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]
