Douthat: The Covington Scissor

Well, the thing is, Douthat's conscience is right: the Covington case wasn't difficult. It really was about as clear as any such issue ever is. That's not to say that there was absolutely nothing to any of the points made by progressives. But, if not a 100-0 case, it was, at most a 95-5 case. Progressive (social and real) media took an extremely (but not perfectly) clear case of people higher in the progressive stack acting terribly toward someone on the bottom of the stack: white Christian male conservatives. Hating on such people isn't just tolerated by the contemporary left--it's one of their ideals. The usual suspects applied their copious piles of prejudice and irrational anger and came up, almost instantly, with a story that was just about as exactly wrong as it could be. Then, when called on it and presented with clear evidence to the contrary, they were either incapable of or unwilling to admit error. Pretending that it was a Rorschach test when it wasn't is as much of an error as the opposite kind.
   Everybody makes mistakes. But this is the kind of thing that constitutes the derangement of contemporary progressivism. Everybody makes mistakes, but not everybody makes such obvious ones, and not everybody refuses to admit them. The real problem is that this isn't an isolated case; it's what people like me have come to expect from this aspect/sector of the left...because that's who they are. It's just about par for the course...it's just a particularly clear case.
   The right isn't immune from this. It has its own problems, Trump and his disregard for truth being just one notable one. But a big cluster of very bad ideas that's long infected the left have become particularly influential; the very worst of the extremist left is extremely powerful right now. This is not a "scissors" case; it's not he-said/she-said. Ignore the comparative question for a bit. Stop caring about who's worse. Focus clearly on the train wreck that is the leftier wing of contemporary progressivism. When you come back, as you inevitably will (and, perhaps, should) to the comparative question, perhaps you'll decide that the right is so bad that you're willing to tolerate what's happened to the left. I think you shouldn't; but at least try not to have too many illusions about the devil you're dealing with.