I’ve said I hope to refrain from discussing current events on this blog, or at least reacting to every news story other than to talk about larger constitutional and philosophical principles surrounding them. One of the reasons is my complete frustration with the state of the media and how things are reported, and what stories are reported. This past week served as confirmation of at that approach. Let’s recap the week that was, where things just dumber each day.
First, there was this Gillette toxic masculinity ad, which I think became viral late Sunday or last Monday. This is one of those moments where the reaction to it, and then the reaction to the reaction were more the story. Count me among those who just gently shrugged his shoulders at it. I can see what Gillette is trying to say, though why a razor company feels obligated to spread the message is beyond my poor ability to comprehend. Perhaps the reaction to it would have been more muted had it not come on the heels of the idiotic APA guidelines on “toxic masculinity.” I have only daughters, but I’m more afraid of them coming home with any of these guys than that I’m going to confront some toxically masculine son-in-law.
And then it got dumber from there.
President Trump then had the temerity to buy fast food and serve it in the White House to the National Champion Clemson Tiger football program. He said the government shutdown meant his cook staff couldn’t prepare a meal, so he bought a whole bunch of Burger King, McDonalds, and Wendy’s. I think the most overwrought reaction to this were those who claimed this proved that the president was a racist – because I guess only non-whites eat fast food and no member of the Clemson team is white. Amazingly this dominated the next two days of the news cycle, because we just needed to hear every possible analysis of just how wrong it was for the president to serve fast food to probably the only set of humans who can afford to eat fast food calorie-wise – athletes.
This was only displaced in the news cycle when BuzzFeed published a story by Jason Leopold claiming he had seen evidence proving President Trump had directed Michael Cohen to lie about the Russia investigation. Most sensible people waited for confirmation of the story, while others put on their impeachment party hates and started counting the days to his big Senate trial. But the story never was confirmed, and Robert Mueller’s office responded, saying “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the special counsel’s office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony are not accurate.” This may seem like a non-denial denial, but I have to question why the Special Counsel’s office would have responded if the report were completely true. I don’t think this completely forgoes the possibility that Trump will wind up in legal hot water, but at this point BuzzFeed’s credibility should, again, be called into question. Still no other outlet has come forth to corroborate this story, and it seems more likely than not that this a nothingburger.
But that was all just the warmup for the stupidest, most despicable event of the week. Fortunately for me I was at a family event on Saturday, and thus could only briefly scroll through Twitter and Facebook. Therefore, I only saw some mentions of the altercation that had taken place near the Lincoln Memorial for the March for Life. So when I finally had an opportunity to sit down and watch the videotape, much more evidence had emerged. Some things became immediately obvious to me. First, there were no chants of “build the wall.” It’s possible some voice shouted that at some point, but it’s not clear who or even if that’s what was said.
Second, the original story of some high school kids getting in the face of a lone Native American protester were manifestly untrue. The longer videos clearly show it was the black Israelite* organization who were hurling all sorts of racist, homophobic, and other slurs at the boys, not the other way around. Then Nathan Phillips entered the fray, and things did not de-escalate, though that was his stated purpose for walking up to the group.
*: Just to be clear, that’s what they call themselves. I once saw them in New York, and as I called them by that name in response to a friend who asked me who they were, some woman chided me for using a supposed slur.
I’m not going to recount everything that happened. By now I’m sure anyone reading this has already seen the videos or is familiar with what took place. Robby Soave has one of the most detailed and accurate assessments.
As I said, I fortunately came to this story a day late, so didn’t have the opportunity to opine about matters before more details became available. Others, however, were quick to condemn the kids, especially Nicholas Sandmann, who emerged as the Emmanuel Goldstein of the weekend. I’ve never heard of a Nazi smirk, but he has one according to the bright lights of the internet.
The treatment of Mr. Sandmann is particularly galling when you consider that he acted more responsibly than any other human being in this affair. There’s even a point, caught on video, where he clearly signals to one his classmates to knock it off when said classmate began getting into it with one of the other protesters. Rather than representing the smirking face of hate, Sandmann was a young man who showed great resolve and fortitude in the face of – let’s call it what it is, hatred.
There are numerous takeaways from this event. Perhaps none are as important as this: maybe wait a moment before posting your social media hot take. It’s true that waiting for “all the evidence” to come in may entail literally waiting forever, but it couldn’t hurt to wait for more than one initial viral video.
But at least some who initially attacked the boys repented and apologized when moire evidence started coming in. Others, however, just dug in their heels. Either they’re lying about seeing the longer videos, or else these people are so blinded by their ideological hatreds that they refuse to see truth when it is literally in front of them.
There are many to blame in this fiasco, and few who come off well. Let’s start off with who deserves the least amount of blame or hate: the aforementioned Nicholas Sandmann. As for the bulk of his classmates, I’m starting to take the position that they, too, largely acted well. Did some of them act foolishly and respond poorly to some of the antagonism? Perhaps, but how should a 16 or 17-year old respond when a bunch of nutjob racists are yelling at you, or some other weird dude begins playing a drum in your face? As for the MAGA hats, this is the only semi-legitimate criticism, but only insofar as wearing any partisan political regalia should be frowned upon at the March for Life because we want to try to keep partisanship out of the event as much as possible. But the idea that the hats themselves are inherently bad or equivalent to a Klan hood, as was repeated throughout the Twitterverse, is obscenely stupid.
Next up, we have the chaperones. I have not heard a satisfactory answer to where they were during this. Could any of them have stepped up to protect the boys, or did some try only to be shouted down? This is one part of the story I’d like to investigate further before passing judgment.
Nathan Phillips, meanwhile, at best exaggerated his role in this or just blatantly lied, intimating that he went in there to play peacemaker, when it is clear he was dead set on stirring up the agitation. Of course, the black Israelites are the worst direct actors in this story. They are an insane group of angry bigots, and anyone attempting to defend them in any way should be shunned.
Then there’s the media. Oh, suddenly they had something to report on during the March for Life. Let’s ignore those anti-Semites marching in Washington the very next day, we’ve got some southern, Catholic, white boys to demonize. It took most major media outlets a full two days before some of them started to say, “Hey, maaaaaaaybe we kinda sorta got this one completely wrong.”
But I reserve my greatest ire for both the school and for the archdiocese of Covington, with special mention for the archdiocese of Baltimore. These venerable institutions wasted no time in throwing these students under the bus. What’s more, when the situation began clearing up and the real news began trickling in, they failed to retract their earlier groveling statements. Only very recently did the Archdioceses of Baltimore and Covington walk back a little bit, but only through mealy-mouthed statements saying that they were “investigating” the incident. What’s there to investigate? It’s the same mealy-mouthed shit being spewed by Fr. Jim Martin, who refuses to fully apologize for throwing stones at these boys, and instead chooses to offer passive-voiced, conditional-laden non-apology apologies.
Amy Welborn has more to say about Jim Martin and that other noted guardian of charitable speech, Mark Shea. Donald McClarey, meanwhile, has noted the cowardice of Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville and his failure to retract his earlier condemnatory comments.
For those who are not fans of harsh language, I advise you to skip this next paragraph.
Hey, assholes, you know how you buried your heads in the fucking sand while your colleagues were out there diddling boys and seminarians, and how you continue to evade all sense of responsibility? Yeah, you might want to think twice before you trash faithful Catholic boys and men before all evidence comes in. But I guess you don’t much care about evidence, because you obviously didn’t give two shits while seminarians were telling you what was happening inside the walls of your seminaries. So the next time you mail your pleas for your archdiocesan appeals, just know the envelopes and the papers inside are going to be used for their only useful purpose: toilet paper.
Ahem. So that’s where we are. The only confident prediction I will offer from all this: we will learn absolutely nothing from this.
Letters from Cato 