While condemnation of the Capitol attack is loud and unending, BLM violence last year, which resulted in deaths, looting, arson, and riots, was dubbed as ‘peaceful protests’.
All people are equal but some are less equal than others in the Left-liberals’ scheme of things. Conservatives and supporters of US President Donald Trump certainly are less equals. Be it Trump enthusiasts or the pro-free speech micro-blogging platform, Parler, they have to face the wrath of the liberal establishment that today comprises the mainstream media, Big Tech, Wall Street, and the public health lobby. Their latest assault is on Parler, which has been made offline by Trump-hating billionaires.
This is not to say that everything that every Trump supporter has done in the last few days is good; the attack on Capitol was surely vile. It needs to be noted, however, that the attackers were a few miscreants, whereas those protesting peacefully were in lakhs. By the way, neither Trump nor any of his prominent admirers—in politics or in the media—has glorified the violence. They have indeed condemned it categorically. The incident, however, has given the never-Trumpers an excuse to launch a blitzkrieg against anything and anybody linked to or backing the US President.
Parler is the collateral damage. Apple and Google play stores have removed it. Amazon Web Services has denied it hosting. Parler’s crime? Unlike Twitter and Facebook, it doesn’t believe in censoring people. Parler CEO John Matze recently told Reuters that the platform may never become online again. “It could be never,” he said. “We don’t know yet.” Later, he said, “I am an optimist. It may take days, it may take weeks but Parler will return and when we do we will be stronger.”
However, odds are stacked against him and all those who cherish liberty above everything else. Trump being the pivot of freedom in America—in speech, economy, life—he is the real target. He and his supporters.
The liberal establishment downplays his achievements—rise in median income of Americans by $6,000, the low ever unemployment rate (the lowest ever among blacks), détente in the Middle East, withdrawal from unnecessary wars, annihilation of the Islamic State, effective action against roguish China—and magnify his drawbacks.
On the other hand, there is rarely any criticism of Marxist movements like Black Lives Matter. While condemnation of the Capitol attack is loud and unending, BLM violence last year—which resulted in deaths, looting, arson, and riots—was dubbed as “peaceful protests”. There have been cases of reporters of big news channels telling their audience that the demonstrations are “largely peaceful”—even against the backdrop of fires and vandalism. Churches and synagogues were damaged, national monuments smeared, even Abraham Lincoln’s statues faced defaced by BLM and Antifa activists—non-violently of course!
Greater New York Black Lives Matter president Hawk Newsome told Fox News on 24 June last year that “this country is built upon violence. What was the American Revolution…?” He told the host that “if this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking…figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.”
No interpretation actually; his comrades were literally burning down their own country.
This was not the first time that BLM showed its hatred for America, freedom, civilization, law and order, conservatives, whites; they have been doing it for quite some time; they have been abusing and maligning anything and anybody they don’t like.
In 2014 in New York City, BLM protestors shouted, “What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want it? Now.” In another protest next year, they screamed about police, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon.” Again in 2015, about 150 BLM demonstrators entered the Dartmouth University’s library, chanting, “F*#k you, you filthy white f*#ks!,” “F*#k you and your comfort!,” and “F*#k you, you racist shit!” They pinned a woman to a wall and screamed, “filthy white b#@ch,” in her face.
Yet, BLM has been portrayed by the mainstream media, including in our country, as an emancipationist movement; its ugly core, which is Marxist, has been airbrushed and its violence minimized. Some people are also more equal than others.
To be sure, this is not the first time this has happened. The excesses of the Right have always been magnified, while the crimes of the Left given many a pass. All of us are taught in schools and colleges that Hitler and Mussolini were monsters, the movements they engendered led the Second World War, the Third Reich indulged in genocide, and so on. Which is as it should be, for Nazis and fascists were evil men.
But when it comes to the crimes of communists, there is a thundering silence—not just in our textbooks but also in public discourse. Few people know that over 100 million people died in communist regimes. Mao alone is responsible for the death of anywhere between 30 to 70 million people. The ideological progeny of Mao, Lenin, and Stalin—for that is what BLM and Antifa are—continue to be treated with kid gloves.
Meanwhile the less equals—Trump, conservatives, Parler enthusiasts, et al—are incessantly reviled and de-platformed.
Ravi Shanker Kapoor is a freelance journalist.