Denial and moral cowardice

I got into an interesting argument on a message board forum for writers in the last couple of days. We were discussing whether or not it’s a good idea to give Amazon exclusivity in order to sign onto Kindle Unlimited, and I pointed out that Amazon has donated tens of millions of dollars to the groups and organizations that are promoting the violent riots currently sweeping the country. My point was that it’s important to take Amazon’s corporate values into account before giving them exclusive control over your ability to have a career.

Immediately, a bunch of left-leaning forum members jumped on me for having the audacity to attack Amazon for their support of social justice. No surprises there. But the next thing really surprised me. A member of the forum who claims to live in Portland said:

Joe I have yet to see any riots. If you mean demonstrations, those are the right of any American citizen.

When pressed about that, she responded:

Many people have drank the right-wing Kool-Aid, including Joe.

How bad do I think it is in Portland? Well I happen to live here and the violence and incitment to violence comes from the Fed troops, not from anyone donated to by Amazon. No demonstrator has ever kidnapped someone in an unmarked van off the street or gassed someone. Stop listening to the lies put out by propagandists like Andy Ngo and Tim Pool because I know exactly how false their gaslighting is.

In fact, the demonstrations (there have been NO ‘riots’ here) in Portland would have long stopped if his adored Donald Trump hadn’t decided to send in Federal agents from the Homeland Security Agency (actually the Homeland Oppression Agency) to kidnap and rought people up.

The forum moderator had previously asked us not to get into politics, and in a previous post, I had stated that this isn’t a question of politics, but of violence, corporate values, and narrative control. In fact, no one had even mentioned Trump until this particular post.

Needless to say, the thread was soon locked.

But one thing still bugged me: the fact that this person could so emphatically claim that there are no riots sweeping this country. Does she not have two eyes and a brain? I know that the left-wing echo chambers run deep, but to say that there are no riots is like staring at the sun at noon-day and claiming that it’s midnight. Hell—there was a riot not ten miles from where I live here in Utah, where a person was shot by a member of Antifa. In Utah. UTAH.

So I sent her a private message with pictures of Kenosha Wisconsin (this was more than 48 hours after the shooting of Jacob Blake, by the way), and that video of the guy driving down 5th Avenue in New York City days after the George Floyd protests (aka the 1619 riots). Here was her response:

A man was also murdered by the police in Kenosha, WI within the last 48 hours. So that demonstrations there may have turned into riots is no surprise. Now take your right-wing extremism elsewhere.

Oh really? The fact that there are riots in Wisconsin isn’t a surprise? I thought you said that there are no riots, only demonstrations?

Here was my response:

Jacob Blake was not “murdered by the police,” because he is still alive. But thank you for admitting (1) that riots are happening in this country, and (2) that fact is not surprising to you.

And hers:

You’re right. It was only attempted murder. When people are oppressed they have been known to riot. A pity that you support the oppressors. Now go away before I block your messages.

At this point, I probably should have just stopped engaging. In fact, I probably shouldn’t have sent the private message in the first place. After all, it’s not like anything I could say would change this person’s mind that Trump is the embodiment of all evil in this country, and that everyone who opposes him is either a martyr or a saint.

But the mental gymnastics I’d just seen this person jump through really fascinated me. In the space of less than a dozen posts, she’d gone from (1) emphatically denying that riots of any kind are happening in this country, to (2) admitting that riots may be happening, to (3) implying that the riots (which are indeed happening) are justified, because the rioters are oppressed.

Here’s the problem with all of that: if you believe that the riots are justified and you’re willing to admit in private that they are actually happening, why would you publicly deny them? Either you lack the strength of your own convictions to stand up and defend them, or you don’t want to examine your own belief system too closely for fear that it will fall apart.

Either way, that makes you a moral coward.

I would have had a lot more respect for this person if she’d just come out and say “yes, some of these demonstrations are violent, but it’s right and just because racisexislamohomofacisgenderonazi” or some other such garbage. At least then she would be sticking by what she truly believes. Instead, her moral cowardice DEMANDS that she do everything she can to deny reality, even when it is staring her in the face.

I think that’s where we are in this country. There are only two sides: those who are willing to acknowledge the reality of what is happening right now, and those who are still determined to deny reality. There may be some people in the first side who do not vote for Trump in November. But of the people who vote for Trump, I don’t think there will be any moral cowards.