Michael Hirsh, national editor at Politico, went nuts on Tuesday and posted the home addresses of Richard Spencer on Facebook, encouraging violence against him.
From the Daily Caller:
National editor at Politico Michael Hirsh resigned after publishing the home addresses of alt-right figurehead Richard Spencer Tuesday morning and advocating for serious violence.
Politico confirmed his resignation following requests for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Stop whining about Richard B. Spencer, Nazi, and exercise your rights as decent Americans,” Hirsh wrote in a public Facebook post. “Here are his two addresses.”
“These posts were clearly outside the bounds of acceptable discourse, and POLITICO editors regard them as a serious lapse of newsroom standards,” Politico Editor-In-Chief John Harris and Editor Carrie Budoff Brown told TheDCNF. “They crossed a line in ways that the publication will not defend, and editors are taking steps to ensure that such a lapse does not occur again.”
While Hirsh’s initial post could have been charitably interpreted to imply advocacy of a non-violent protest outside of Spencer’s home or other similar non-violent actions, a subsequent question and answer clarified Hirsh’s intentions.
“Completely agree we should mobilize against his hateful ideas, but what does knowing his home addresses do?” one Facebook user asked Hirsh. “Send a letter? Confront him in person? Seems like counter-speech is the main thing we can do. You can call it ‘whining’ but I’m not sure that’s fair or constructive. Side note: Apparently the GSA-owned Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in DC felt obligated to host his organization’s event because it can’t discriminate against speech under the First Amendment, so there’s that problem, too.”
Hirsh responded in an unhinged manner: “I wasn’t thinking of a fucking letter, Doug. He lives part of the time next door to me in Arlington. Our grandfathers brought baseball bats to Bund meetings. Want to join me?”
Oh, my God!
Publishing home addresses?
Suggesting being armed with baseball bats?
This is completely unhinged behavior from a journalist.
Of course, the backward views of Richard Spencer and white nationalists/supremacists should be condemned.
All lives should be valued and respected, regardless of one's race, religion, ethnicity, or age.
Bad things happen, as Hirsh learned, when one behaves badly.
Speaking of behaving badly, Howard Dean decided to call Steve Bannon anti-Semitic and actually referred to him as a Nazi.
A Nazi?
Aaron Klein disagrees, calling Bannon a "fighter against anti-Semitism."
I wonder why Leftists, particularly in the media, didn't and don't object to the anti-Semitism in the Obama administration, yet they are going off the deep end because some white supremacists, like Richard Spencer, have decided to rear their very ugly heads.
It seems like everyone is going crazy. The rhetoric is out of control.
Crying wolf is a dangerous thing.
In another edition of "they really haven't learned," not too long ago when Trump's 2005 video emerged and many conservatives--myself included--wanted Trump to step aside and let Mike Pence man that top of the ticket, one liberal friend mocked it by saying, "Great! Let's replace a racist with a homophobic racist," not so subtly implying Mike Pence would be worse than Trump. Pence, a mild-mannered, thoughtful, serious Midwesterner who actually held public office as an executive is somehow more dangerous than a presidential candidate that committed about 150 instances of typically career-ending behavior by The Atlantic's time capsules' count???
ReplyDeleteFrom there perspective, though, I wonder if they genuinely believe that anyone that subscribes to any level of traditional views like heteronormativity is a homophobe or any white person interested in helping the inner city is still a racist, thanks to their "white savior" complex (not making any of this up). They aren't crying wolf, they might say, everyone truly is irredeemable, which requires a government enlightened by urban views to impose a redistributionist legal structure forcing compliance.
The rest of us see it as hysterical. And it's sad that crying wolf now means we lack the vocabulary and means to address the real thing.
Here's a thought, everyone on the Internet knows not to feed the trolls. Don't give white nationalism attention. Keep the Overton window closed to their sickening views by keeping them where they belong, the fringe.
They are on the fringe and that's where they belong. Unfortunately, the Leftist media/Democrats and the still stewing Never Trump crowd keep the spotlight on them.
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