The Mirror Society

What if our most lamentable actions, and our most glaring hypocrisies, were reflected back to us in a way impossible to un-see? Would we grow by that? Would we learn the error of our ways? Or is it possible to be so convinced of one's own virtue that his most loathsome trespasses become evidence of surpassing goodness in his mind — and in his tribe? This is the plight of the modern American progressive in maximum "RESIST" mode. (Mirror, mirror, on the wall — who's the most intolerant of all?)

Ever since the abject defeat of the anointed one in November of 2016, the Left has metamorphosed monstrously into its worst self — like a werewolf in an old B movie. It has been a terrible thing to watch. The veneer of humanity and civility has been ripped away to expose the ugly, feral truth beneath. From urban and urbane to a bane of America, the transformation is now complete. Progressives' snarling contempt for the president, his supporters, and this American moment is no longer just howling at the moon. It's a hunger that can't be sated — an unquenchable thirst. Every day brings new stories of scorched-earth hatred leveled against President Trump, his family, his Cabinet, his supporters, and the outnumbered but unbowed members of the media who are favorable toward him. The scalding anger, invective, and escalating violence from the Left appear to be building up to something — something, as Pete Townshend offered in "Give Blood" — “that can only be redeemed with fire.” Too melodramatic? I hope so. Recently, conservative journalist Andrew Ngo was targeted by Antifa in Portland, Oregon while covering a protest. He was surrounded, punched, stomped, and kicked and went to the hospital with blood on the brain. The incident was barely covered in the liberal media, which blithely and routinely ignore or lowercase any news stories that reflect unfavorably on the Left. From the Berkeley riots in protest of a speaking engagement by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in 2015 to Andy Ngo, and last week's intimidations at a demonstration in favor of free speech in Washington, D.C., the Left has become increasingly unhinged — and naturally getting support for its increasing violence from the ever biased media. A typical example of coverage of this latter protest was in USA Today: "Far Right Extremists Proud Boys Outnumbered by Counter Protesters in Washington DC Rally." After successfully impugning, by name, the free speech "extremists," who surely had it coming to them, what the headline doesn't say is that the unnamed "counter-protesters" were Antifa — a black-clad, masked, and fascist mob for whom the media have been running interference for the last four years, who "bike-locked" a conservative demonstrator in 2017, and who have been labeled domestic terrorists by the Department of Homeland Security. Antifa is always given free rein by Mayor Wheeler of Portland to do some ultra-violence (he orders the Portland Police to stand down) — just so long as it's in the name of tolerance and diversity. Stay with me here: a group of blunt defenders of the 2nd Amendment are labeled a "hate group" by the contemptible Southern Poverty Law Center and as "extremists" by the media, while the anonymous mobs who pelt, punch, and hospitalize a journalist are deemed heroes. CNN's Chris Cuomo even compared Antifa to the allied soldiers of D-Day, fighting the Nazi Regime. All this excuse-making for bad behavior causes one to wonder how the media, the celebrity Twitter twits, and our progressive politicians might react were the shoe on the other foot. The idea begs for a few pointed "what ifs." What if a liberal journalist covering a woman's attempt to enter an abortion facility, for example, were attacked and hospitalized by a masked mob — and Fox News's Tucker Carlson compared the attackers to the freedom riders of the civil rights movement? Would the media be so muted or disinterested? What if recently demonetized online conservative comedian Steven Crowder called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a "feckless c---," just as Samantha Bee derided Ivanka Trump in 2017 on her cable show? What if Fox News's Kennedy was photographed holding up a likeness of Obama's bloody and decapitated head, just as Kathy Griffin was pictured with Trump's? What if every time Jon Voigt stepped up to a microphone, he railed about wanting to punch Obama in the face, in the same way Robert De Niro threatens the president? What if assassination threats were made against Joe Biden by Kanye West, Carrie Underwood, and Dean Cain — just as they've been leveled against Trump by Snoop Dogg, Madonna, and Johnny Depp? What if a junior Democratic member of Congress had vowed to "impeach the m----------!" about Bill Clinton to a crowd of adoring supporters, which is what house member Rashida Tlaib recently said of Trump? Now that she's an adult, what if a waiter at a Washington restaurant spat on Malia Obama the way Eric Trump was recently spit on at a local establishment? What if Tim Allen tweeted that he'd like to see Sasha Obama locked in a cage with pedophiles, as Peter Fonda informed his following he'd like to see happen to Baron Trump? What if Dennis Miller took up sculpting and posted a bust of Stacey Abrams's fetal brains being sucked up during an abortion, as depicted in Jim Carrey's recent painting of Alabama governor Kay Ivey? What if speaker of the House Paul Ryan had wished aloud for Obama's family to step in with an intervention, based on the president's erratic behavior, just as his successor, Nancy Pelosi, "prayed" for Trump? What if an ex-CIA chief became a paid consultant for Fox News and spent two years calling Hillary Clinton's collusion with Russia "treason" — an act punishable by death — as in the case of perma-scowler John Brennan's on-air attacks against Trump on MSNBC? And finally — what if a counter-protesting movement called "The Mirror Society" responded to the increasingly unhinged attacks against all things conservative by "mirroring" the actions as closely as possible — but targeting progressives instead? Would that be justified? Would two wrongs make a right? Or would an-eye-for-an-eye leave us all blind, as the adage goes? Would that deeply unflattering reflection of themselves cause a crisis of conscience on the extremist fringe of the Left (AKA the Democratic Party circa 2019) that would stanch the flow of unabated, alarming, and aggressive actions? Or are leftists too hermetically sealed in their bubble of hate ever to be convinced that their anger, actions, and aggression are anything but justified and virtuous?