Patterico's Pontifications

10/8/2018

Insane Behavior in Our Polarized Times

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 1:21 pm



I’m not totally sure the present day is more polarized politically than other times. We’re constantly told that, but aren’t people always told that? That said, it may be true — and if you’re looking for anecdotal evidence, it’s everywhere.

Take these leftist zombies clawing at the doors of the Supreme Court. Brains!

Or this aggressive woman slapping down a pro-Trump and Kavanaugh and anti-Ford sign held up by an older man:

(Sorry about the whole Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet thing, but that’s the only place I have seen the video.)

What kind of rhetoric could wind people up so much? Maybe rhetoric about a thousand-year Reich?

On MSNBC, editor of Above the Law Elie Mystal was on a panel discussing the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, along with Associate Editor of Commentary Noah Rothman, MSNBC analyst Zerlina Maxwell, and SiriusXM host Danielle Moodie-Mills.

. . . .

Mystal said that the question of whether the bump for the GOP sticks, but rather what will Democrats do in November. The turnout has to be high not just for a midterm but at a level that would be high in a presidential election, he argued.

“That’s what we’re about to see. We’re going to see if this reign that they now have control over all three branches of government, we’re going to see if this reign lasts for thirty days, or two years, or a thousand-year Reich,” he said.

Then there’s the Georgetown law professor who maintains a web site in which she publishes the personal information of people who send her emails she doesn’t like:

PJ Media reviewed hundreds of posts (yes, hundreds) on “ShitMenSay” and identified 11 accounts of full-on doxxing, for which home addresses, phone numbers, photos, aliases, and occasionally work phone numbers and other family members were made public.

. . . .

Another man, B, said he was doxxed within a day of sending Fair an email that contained his phone number in the signature line.

“Then I got 30 emails with the subject line ‘ASSHAT’ or something like that and some of the contents of those emails contained attachments with very disturbing images. Very gruesome. People.”

“Were they dead or alive?” I asked B during a phone interview on Sunday.

“That I don’t know. I only completely opened one email attachment, and was too afraid to open any others,” B told PJ Media. Then B got a phone call from a man who said he knew where B lived, claiming that he was calling on behalf of Professor Fair.

(Said in a sing-song Homer Simpson voice) Yes, it’s clear that the left, and only the left, has gone insane. And that the only rational response is to punch back twice as hard. (End Homer voice.)

Oh, by the way: then there’s this. Orlando Sentinel:

A Winter Haven man faces a felony charge after deputies say he made Facebook posts threatening to “sacrifice my life” and “kill who needs to be killed” if Judge Brett Kavanaugh is not confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

James Royal Patrick Jr., 53, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of written threats to kill or injure. He’s being held in the Polk County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

On Wednesday morning, Polk County deputies received an email tip alerting them to several Facebook posts Patrick made threatening violence if Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court is rejected. . . .

“I can tell it seems I will be sacrificing my life for my country,” Patrick wrote, according to authorities.”But I am ready and will know who needs to be killed after the vote to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.”

In another post, deputies say Patrick wrote, “I expect to be confronted and I will be ready to kill and ready to die.” In other posts, Patrick claimed to have weapons and ammunition.

He also said he wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about killing Democratic congressmen and their families, according to authorities.

Within five hours of receiving the tip, Polk County deputies obtained and executed a warrant on Patrick’s Avenue C home. They discovered a .308 caliber hunting rifle, Desert Eagle handgun and ammunition for both weapons, authorities said.

If the Trump phenomenon has taught me anything, it has highlighted the obvious fact that there are lunatics on both sides of the aisle. Indeed, the last story is the worst of the five.

The key is to oppose insanity anywhere and everywhere you see it — and not to pretend as though it happens only on one side.

(Sorry to harsh your tribal mellow.)

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]


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