Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Anger Privilege
Sultan Knish ^ | Daniel Greenfield

Posted on 07/15/2024 8:15:58 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo

If you want to know who has privilege in a society and who doesn’t, follow the anger. There are people in this country who can safely express their anger. And those who can’t. If you were angry that Trump won, your anger was socially acceptable. If you were angry that Biden took over, it wasn’t.

Not all anger is created equal. Some anger is privileged rage.

Good anger gets you a gig as a CNN commentator. Bad anger gets you hounded out of your job. Good anger isn’t described as anger at all. Instead it’s whitewashed as “passionate” or “courageous”. Bad anger however is “worrying” or “dangerous”. Angry left-wing protesters “call out”, angry right-wing protesters “threaten”. Good anger is left-wing. Bad anger is right-wing.

Socially acceptable displays of anger, from Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter riots to the anti-Trump marches to the furious campus protests, are invariably left-wing.

Not all anger is created equal. Anger, like everything else, is ideologically coded. Left-wing anger is good because its ideological foundations are good. Right-wing anger is bad because its ideology is bad.

It’s not the level of anger, its intensity or its threatening nature that makes it good or bad.

And that is why the left so easily slips into violence. All its ideological ends are good. Therefore its means, from mass starvation to gulags to riots and tyranny, must be good. If I slash your tires because of your Biden bumper sticker”, I’m a monster. But if you key my car because of my Trump bumper sticker, you’re fighting racism and fascism. Your tactics might be in error, but your viewpoint isn’t.

There are no universal standards of behavior. Civility, like everything else, is ideologically limited.

The left prides itself on an unearned moral superiority reinforced by its own echo chamber even as it has become incapable of controlling its angry outbursts.

Trump Derangement Syndrome is a symptom of a problem with the left that existed before he was born. The left is an angry movement. It is animated by an outraged self-righteousness whose moral superiority doubles as dehumanization. And its machinery of culture glamorizes its anger.

But monopolies on anger only work in totalitarian states. In a free society, both sides are expected to control their anger and find terms on which to debate and settle issues. The left rejects civility and refuses to control its anger. The only settlement it will accept is absolute power. If an election doesn’t go its way, it will overturn the results. If someone offends it, he must be punished. Or there will be anger.

The angry left demands that everyone recognize the absolute righteousness of its anger as the basis for its power. This anger privilege, like tone policing, is often cast in terms of oppressed groups. But its anger isn’t in defiance of oppression, but in pursuit of oppression.

Anger privilege is used to silence opposition, to enforce illegal policies and to seize power. But the left’s monopolies on anger are cultural, not political. The entertainment industry and the media can enforce anger privilege norms through public shaming, but their smears can’t stop the consequences of the collapse of civility in public life. There are no monopolies on emotion.

When anger becomes the basis for political power, then it won’t stop .

The left likes to think that its anger is good anger because it’s angry over the plight of illegal aliens, Muslim terrorists, transgender bathrooms, the lack of abortion in South Carolina, the minimum wage at Taco Bell, budget cuts, tax cuts, police arrests, drone strikes and all the other ways in which reality differs from its utopia. But all that anger isn’t the road to a better world, but to hate and violence.

Millions of leftists are told every day that Republicans are responsible for everything wrong with their lives, the country and the planet. Despite everything they do, all the petitions they sign, the marches they attend, the donations, the angry letters, the social media rants, Republicans continue to exist and even be elected to public office. Where does that anger go?

Either we have a political system based on existing laws and norms of civility. Or we have one based on mob violence and terror. And there are already a whole bunch of those south of the border.

Leftist anger is a privileged bubble of entitlement that bursts every other election. Its choice is to try to understand the rest of the country or to intimidate, censor, oppress and eventually kill them.


TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: anger; greenfield

1 posted on 07/15/2024 8:15:58 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Mr. Mojo

Certainly it seems to be true that if someone were to say:
“I think Trump has been treated unfairly, and it makes me angry.”
The response would be quick:
“Shut up you racist! Your hatred has no place in a decent society! People like you should be shot!”


2 posted on 07/15/2024 8:22:59 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (It's not "Quiet Quitting" -- it's "Going Galt".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mr. Mojo

Leftism is nothing but a demonic, irrational unholy, unhinged cult and anyone outside that cult is to be demonized and not treated as human beings.


3 posted on 07/15/2024 8:47:46 AM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mr. Mojo

One of those hidden truths that often dare not be expressed. An excellent article. Thank you.

We HAVE been intimidated into silence. We avoid putting Trump lawn signs or bumper stickers for fear for property damage.

Election judges are intimidated and no policeman comes forward to protect their rights. And ours!

In left-run cities, there ARE no rights except that of mob rule.

Leftist governments steal election, place leftists in positions of power, including as judges so that they can rule that leftist actions are legal. Regardless of those laws violating the constitution fought for and won by our forefathers.

We win back an inch and then we forget the fight.

The left never forget and wait like the alligator under the golf course pond for the heedless dog walker. They take their mile by force and no one says “Bad alligator!” They say “Don’t walk your dog by alligator-run ponds.”

We are Republicans. So we are too polite to fight for our rights. And we’ve been taught that even when we try to copy the demonstrations of the left in a peaceful manner, we will be DESTROYED for having the audacity to try. And to make sure no one in the future is stupid enough to try that again.

But there’s something the left forgot.

There ARE Heroes.

And they missed him.

So now is the time to force the police to defend the election laws.

So that Heroes can be elected.

Then we need to remind our Hero that This Time we want CHANGE in capital letters. And if he gets snookered again in his appointments, we want YOU’RE FIRED to also be in capital letters and a MAGA patriot substituted openly for the one who either didn’t fight or who tried to sabotage the fight.

There were traitors in the Revolution. There will be traitors in this take-back of our Country.

There’s only one path forward before it’s too late. Get our Hero elected!


4 posted on 07/15/2024 9:00:14 AM PDT by mairdie (Trump (I Will Win) - Pavarotti's Nessun Dormac https://youtu.be/MigUKGKr-nQ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mr. Mojo

So true. I wish there were more comments.


5 posted on 07/15/2024 9:12:21 AM PDT by alternatives?
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mr. Mojo

These people are perpetually angry.


6 posted on 07/15/2024 9:24:59 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: No name given

That sums it up.


7 posted on 07/15/2024 9:31:26 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson