Virtue Signaling And Wokeness: A Return To The Primitive
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/10/26/virtue-signaling-and-wokeness-a-return-to-the-primitive/
Last week, activists at Dartmouth College reacted to notices of Republican-sponsored events by vandalizing property and harassing conservative students. Like so many other woke fits pitched by Democrats and their fellows travelers, the infantile behavior was driven not by policy differences but instead by primitive impulses, which have come to be regarded by the ruling class as acceptable responses.
According to Campus Reform, zealots tore up flyers announcing a speaking engagement and a panel discussion, and tried to intimidate members of the Dartmouth College Republicans. The topic of the talk was abortion, quite clearly a divisive issue in this country.
But it was not opposition to ideas that fed the thuggish behavior. It was fueled by a need for some to feel morally superior over others. It’s the same inclination that drives kids to pick on the least popular and the different among them on the playground. They feel better about their own inadequacies when they have a target to attack.
The ugly display at Dartmouth is an example of what we see frequently on college campuses. But bullying and threats are also widespread on social and mainstream media. We see it as well in Democratic politicians. They rely on their own “Big Lies” to spread misinformation, and actively try to pit American “deplorables” and bitter clingers against the cool kids.
This mob mentality intended to hurt has infected the left and radicalized a large segment of the country. Those living the out an “us vs. them” mindset have neither the inclination nor apparently the time – so busy in their efforts to ostracize that there’s not a moment for reasonable thought – to examine the facts they’re constantly screeching about.
It’s a problem because the Democratic Party-mainstream media-celebrity industrial complex has successfully portrayed conservatives and Republicans as evil men and women bent on destruction. The crusade is superheated by toxic lies, exaggerations, character assassinations, and far too often, violence. People desperate for attention, desperate to build themselves up at the expense of others, desperate for social status, desperate to feel strong have picked up the cues and ran with them.
A significant part of this country needs to grow up. To leave schoolyard taunts and snubs behind. To stop caricaturing “others.” To drop the shallow virtual signaling. To get beyond the childish desire to obtain the approval of the “in crowd.” We’re heading down a dangerous road and picking up speed. A cheerless future is ahead if the left doesn’t regain its sensibilities.
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