"The world is divided into those who know they are right."
24
If the chaperone would have told the boys to sing the Prayer of Saint Francis ("Make me a channel of your peace") rather than a chant for athletic events, I wonder if a consensus on the situation could be reached.
152
This is not about kids in $49.95 MAGA hats. This is about the schools, and by extension the communities they come from. Mostly, it's about those religious schools and communities banding together and USING these kids to advance their Trump-supporting agenda. This smirking punch-able MAGA hatted kid turned out to be GIFT to them. They even hired him a PR firm, (part-owned by conservative media pundit Scott Jennings) to tell him what to say in his NBC network interview. The organization by these private religious schools in these overwhelmingly WHITE communities is where the real story is, not know-nothing teens who may or may not have any actual political convictions, which we know 99% of them in fact do not have. What RNC organization is behind this? Is this a DeVos family project? Let's see some reporting on this.
40
I love listening to Ross on the Argument podcast, even though I almost never agree with him. He poses a considered intelligent "other viewpoint" than mine that is good to understand. On this point I also like the approach of this opinion with both sides. Interesting. I heard "the kid" interviewed and agreed with his point that he had "a right to stand where he did" even though I wanted to pull the MAGA hat down on pathetic face. The school and the parents should be ashamed of taking teenagers to such an event. My go-to question is "what would Jesus do?". Not where a MAGA hat and NOT vote for Trump.
19
Nicely done.
10
That was pretty OK, Ross. Well done.
16
Let's crystallize this: a young white male stands smiling, apropos of nothing, wearing his Make America Great Again hat, before an unsmiling, native American who is performing, participating, apropos of something.
What is the young man doing? Why?
10
Seriously y'all ? This is what's it's come to in America.
Parents now feel compelled to hire a PR firm when their kids find themselves in trouble.
What a sorry excuse for parenting ? The parents clearly have more money than they have common sense.
Jeeeszh !
26
I think Douthat needs to listen to his conscience more often. Better yet, the entire Times staff needs to listen to Ross' conscience more often.
14
Wearing a "Maga" hat is like holding a giant middle finger out to people who don't like Trump's sexist, boorish, ugly behavior.
It's as if i went to a Trump rally with a "Maggots Are Governing America" t-shirt on. Yeah, it's my right. But so what? So is holding a middle finger out to nuns or the cops. It's designed to anger someone.
Once again, Ross Douthat sets out to prove that there are no adults left in America, just sulky teenage boys.
20
What was the main teaching of your Jesus Christ? Seems no were to be found in the mob of kids from the Covington marchers in MAGA hats or the Hebrew Israelites for that matter. For the Hebrew Israelites they were few and most every one is pretty sure they are just plan nuts. On the other hand kids getting a supposed Catholic education you would think it had something to do with the teaching of Jesus. I didn't see it, did you. Or is Covington just another school designed to perpetuate segregation. I sure didn't see any of Jesus's Love each other, did you? I did see about 4 black guys maybe 6 American Indians, and over 50 white kids in MAGA hats taunting and acting in a Mob form of intimidation. We all know, that rarely goes well. And where were the Fathers, Brothers, or Parent Chaperones? Didn't see anyone trying Christ like behavior there either. What's that all about?
29
I have to ask those that keep bashing the Covington boys and school and the one kid in particular, Sandman. What is wrong with you people? Have you nothing better to do? This is clearly a situation where nothing much happened and the boys did nothing wrong -- except because they went to a pro life rally and wore Maga hats. The worst you can them of is being HS boys in a confrontational situation they didn't start or elevate and maybe didn't know how to handle as well as some of the brilliant adults on here think they should have.
You are simply haters. You are trying to destroy lives to press you liberal agenda. You're beyond the pale. And you're cowards as well because none of you would have the temerity to say any of this to someone's face -- like maybe the Covington parents.
27
All you have to do is look at the long video recording in its entirety to understand more of the context. It doesn't cover everything, but it does enough to show what really happened.
Fox&Friends, Hannity, and Trump only look at one small segment that allows enough "wiggle room" to change the narrative and create FAKE FACTS about the situation. These people are passionate about doing this sort of thing. And it has taken an event that should've been an open/shut case and perpetuated the conflict of polarized sides.
TRUMP didn't cause all of this ugliness, but he INCUBATED and PROLIFERATED it with gusto. The POTUS is supposed to set a fine example. Turns out a bad example can be set and the backing party will allow it.
I will never forgive TRUMP for what he has done to America and the world. I will relish the day when justice finally comes cracking down on him.
25
And sometimes it's exactly what it seems to be. Deal with it.
6
As the glaciers melt, the oceans heat up, the hurricanes and winter storms become more severe, as inequality soars, and the nurses asked to work 12 hour shifts at the mental health unit at my local hospital quit their jobs from burn out.
As elementary school students continue to drill on what to do when an active shooter enters the building and drill on how to find that "hard corner " so they can be safe.
As more people choose to die because they can't afford their insulin. As more people graduate from college with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt they will not be able to repay. As buying a house in America becomes more out of reach.
Eventually, when things get bad enough, no one will care whether or not this kid was smirking.
12
What is it of your business Ross on not "really" knowing what happened between Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh? The man should not be a judge and certainly should not be on the Supreme Court.
Can you imagine behaving the way he did on a job interview? Why did he lie about his credentials and experience?
I believe Blasey Ford but her experience with him is only one of the reasons why he is a cultural shame for this nation.
29
Once you realize that Covington Catholic is a white flight school for people who don't want their boys in the diverse public schools in the Cincinnati suburbs in Kentucky, the behavior in Washington falls into place.
28
I watched the video and it showed a Trump rally, writ small. The usual foils were there, blacks, Muslims, native people of color, non-christian religious ceremonies and a large crowd of young dopes with MAGA gear shouting down a few old men. The smirk on that young man's face tells you all you need to know about what happened. Covington nation should be ashamed of the way they were represented by this mob of thuggish young punks.
16
The parents and the Catholic school were wrong to use these kids as pawns in their struggle to make abortion illegal.
22
I wonder why there is little discussion of the chaperones and parents of the teenagers who wore those MAGA hats to a
political rally. I went to parochial high school - never was
politics included in a school sponsored event.
Sorry, these students have made a mockery of religious education.
19
This is fine, except: I did not jump into premature judgment based on a decontextualized internet video. We did not all do that. If you are not smart enough to avoid that, then that's the problem in and of itself. I'm not going to "walk back" judgment I never cast.
As for the kids, they are wearing MAGA hats that are not in-and-of-themselves the center of the problem. They DO, however, cast some SERIOUS doubt on the claim that the kids were there to get along with anyone or that they were not seeking to provoke. At an abortion rally, you wore the hat of a man who has made himself synonymous with "the wall", which will always be a metaphor even if it DOES get built. His base is (unabashedly) white nationalist. I'm not sure why we are pretending that's a controversial observation at this point. Shut down the government to build a monument to keeping America white? Yes, a hat that reflects that is a provocation in and of itself. And while that provocation is not the entire story, it certainly undermines any defense couched in the idea that these kids meant to be "non-confrontational" -- as though their presence at an anti-women rally left some doubt.
As for the particulars, I'm inclined to lay blame for this incident on all sides, primarily on the "black nationalists" and secondarily on the chaperones who allowed the kids to do "school cheers" in escalation of what was clearly already an inappropriate interaction. High school basketball coaches have more sense than this.
10
The Sandman boy could have simply said that if he was intimidating Mr. Phillips, he did not intend to. His staunch stick to it approach of "I did nothing wrong" is the problem. Clearly these boys were pawns of the Catholic school and diocese they live in. They were sent to DC to stand against a woman's right to chose, which is still currently the law. And their chaperones were AWOL!
In the end, the kids lose, because this gave them a pass to act irresponsibly. Sad.
21
The real problem here is the continuous news cycle. People in the media of all stripes are hard pressed to find enough topics of interest to write about so instead they write about twitter bombs.
6
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
My sister-in-law in Brooklyn and my niece in Los Angeles are ready to tear my head off over this affair. I sent them your article. Maybe, now, they'll ease up on me.
6
Hebrew Israelites are not simply "black nationalists" as Mr Douthat describes. Elements of religion, Bible, and preaching "truth" were the shock-style campaigning-on-the-Mall performed by Shar Yaqataz Banyamyan of DC and Ephraim Israel of New York.
They confront loudly; and it is neither a dialogue nor a podium for learning that they might imagine. Those Hebrew Israelites were selling identity through their extreme theater of political incorrectness.
The Covington Catholic High Schoolers are minors. They and their parents decide upon appropriate dress for their DC visit. Adults would know that the MAGA hats & at least one MAGA t-shirt DO PROJECT the confrontational approach of "modern-day presidential".
These are the same age kids as at the Boy Scouts Jamboree, when Trump shocked former Scouts in his administration with his victory bragging, "cesspool/sewer" draining, and sexually suggestive praise (13. "Oh, you're Boy Scouts, but you know life. You know life. So -- look at you.") inserted into a story about his weirdo friend's life on a yacht in the south of France.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/07/25/politics/donald-trump-boy-scouts-speech/index.html
Is wearing a MAGA hat embracing an ideal or embracing its charismatic leader?
If I had the literal Scissors, Mr Douthat, the MAGA hats would be "retired" now.
5
Ooooh-kaaayy. I don't really know what this column was trying to say, with Ross arguing with himself. But I know the way professional journalists should be dealing with possible "scissors" (I like that concept, by the way). Bring back actual investigative reporting and fact-checking. Don't run a story until you're sure you've got the facts right. If that's not possible because everyone is seeing something different, and there is no consensus, then don't run the story at all. This whole Covington thing would never have gotten any attention if so many sites, including respectable papers like this one, hadn't picked it up and run with it first and asked questions later. Just because something blows up on Twitter, that does not mean you have to repeat it.
11
Caught up in the scissors, eh?
Still, this was a young, Catholic high school student, accosted by an activist, beating a drum, and then confronted face-to-face in a weird staredown.
Do you remember being a teenager, Ross? I do. I would have smirked, at the very least.
10
It is shocking (although it shouldn't be) that well after the smoke has cleared, the confirmation bias among those who were willingly duped by their media sources, continues to grow. No questioning of media credibility, no self reflection of conclusions jumped, just deeper entrenchment through straw man reasoning.
This isn't about a white kid, or a native American, or a black Hebrew Israelite. This is about people, as individuals, purposefully distorting reality to maintain their cognitive dissonance, and the media using it to their advantage.
15
I watched the entire video of the confrontation. What I saw was a group of young men and their sponsors who managed to engage and apparently enrage 2 different groups of minorities. Add in that they were using racially tinged symbols (tomahawk chops), Indian war hoops and chanting "build that wall," all of which leads me to believe the burden of blame falls on the CovCatholic community.
16
When my kids were in (public) elementary school (just 1 and 4 years ago), one of the things being taught was Kelso's choices for resolving conflict. The options are, "Talk it out, Share and take turns, Ignore it, Make a deal, Tell them to stop, Apologize, Got to another game, Wait and cool off, or Walk away." It seems like these high school kids could use some lessons along those lines. Kelso's choices would be much more effective to resolving conflict than standing your ground with a smug expression while your friends jeer, laugh and take video of you. Having made the mistake, as teens, (and adults) sometimes do, an apology for the bad behavior is another option. Sadly, these kids are actively being failed by their school, their chaperones, the PR firm and their parents. Their failure to make amends; to be curious about others (not judgmental)... speaks poorly about their futures. There was an opportunity here, to learn from mistakes made... probably, 'on both sides'. Sadly, it doesn't seem that the Covington Catholic School culture is much for learning.
168
@Katrina Lyon
You are proving the point of the article: You are seeing what you want to see.
30
@Katrina Lyon
I looked at several videos from several different perspectives. Those kids did nothing wrong, absolutely nothing wrong!
The people in the wrong are those who join the "progressive" mob attacking these young adults, and of course the "progressive" media for publishing false news. Shame on all of you.
23
@Dick Watson
In what way is she proving the point of the article. The teenagers had plenty of opportunity to walk away from the Black Hebrew Israelites (2 hour encounter), which was the adult thing to do. Where were their chaperones, and why did it take 2 hours for the buses they were supposedly waiting for?
31
@WPLMMT - You write:
"We still are a democracy and have freedom of choice. At least I thought we did."
Those of us who are frequent readers of this forum know that your unwavering support for trump and the MAGA crow is primarily due to his pro-life, anti-choice agenda, and the potential overturning of Roe.
That you would base your argument for this kid's right to behave how he chose to, on his "freedom of choice", displays an astounding degree of hipocrisy, in that you would deny any woman that same freedom of choice when it comes to the autonomy of her own body. Stunning.
10
It's somehow fitting that this witty, mordant column would appear within a day or two of Russell Baker's death. Requiescat in pace to Mr. Baker, and may Mr. Douthat continue to follow in his footsteps with columns like these.
3
I just watched an extended video of the incident, beginning long before the Covington students showed up on the steps.
One might disagree with the Black Israelites, but there were five of them, preaching their "gospel" to the crowd. First Amendment on the mall has them covered.
Then the Covington students showed up. Mostly boys. One student rips his shirt off and encourages his classmates to engage in a chant. When the Native American arrives, they begin chanting what sounds like a school chant that quickly changes into a taunting mockery of Native American singing.
I would have to say they exhibited an extremely high degree of football team like adolescent behavior. To put it another way, rude and obnoxious kids. It was not the kind of behavior one would encourage in a child.
I engaged in that behavior when I was that age my mother and father would have straightened my out on how to behave in public and towards others.
17
...but you would expect, as your parents would have, that the adults would have acted like adults first and foremost, which didn't occur.
When we expect teens to be the adults, and the adults to be teens, our compass needs repair.
9
Zeno of Elea wrote of the paradox of illusions 2500 years ago. And, thanks to Social Media, we are back in the dark ages.
4
Whatever else you want to say about this kid, he’s now got a great topic for his college application essay.
None of that old phony-baloney stuff about wanting to help people, animals and the environment.
He could call his “The Day I Did Great For America.”
5
There is no writer I wish the American commentariat would read more than Scott Alexander. No one is doing more for the Principle of Charity than he.
1
No 'thoughtful' observer can separate these youth from the bigotry of the Catholic Diocese that runs their private, exclusive, establishment school. Do REAL research about the values being taught to these youth. Spend time viewing the REAL interactions in the videos. The school, the boys, and their parents ARE NOT VICTIMS. They are ingrained supremacists.
14
The kids were not only disrespectful towards the elder, but also to their adult chaperones. All that was needed was for one of the adults responsibile for watching over the kids was to instruct, direct or even order the boy to step aside to let the protesters continue on their way. Perhaps a little public tongue lashing was also in order. But alas, the signals were it's okay to chant, mock sneer at and otherwise verbally abuse adults who were in no way a threat to the boys. Shameful.
9
In a sane world, it would be liberals wanting a better America, and conservatives shaming them for disrepecting their country, suggesting it needed to be made great. Rush Limbaugh would be belting out Love it or leave it!
Try wearing a hat that says "Please god, make Trump a good president" and see how respectful people are.
4
I thought racism, sexism, religious bigotry, and narrative thinking was a problem on both the political right and the political left but that, after decades of people on the right using the southern strategy to accomplish their goals, that particular deal with the devil had left the political right much further from the possibility of redemption on these questions than the political left.
Reading the favored comments on Bruni’s, Douthat’s, and Brooks’s essays has caused me to rethink that.
Here’s hoping the congressional Democrats step up and set the tone on these questions. The relationship between politicians, donors, strategists, activists, and workaday people is interactive. This seems like the time for elected officials to follow their own consciences, take the long and the broad view, and employ their talents to lead us away from racism, sexism, religious bigotry, and narrative thinking. If not, maybe we’ll have to find a way to start a viable third party.
This is a problem.
2
Ross, Impressive piece today - objectively great. Thanks for pointing me toward the Scott Alexander story; will check it out. Has your conscience written any books? Looking for gift ideas.
3
I have rarely felt so utterly hopeless about the chances of our world becoming any better than in the aftermath of this gruesome incident. Maybe the imaginary WASP elites that you and Mr. Brooks think did a better job of ruling our world would have prevented this confluence of terrible events. Maybe if these children of privilege had internalized some ideas of Catholic social teachings, they could have avoided being in that situation. Maybe if their parents' answer to this problem weren't to hire a public relations firm to try to smooth everything over, I would feel some small glimmer of hope.
Did it feel good to write all those italics? To say the quiet part loud? There's an intoxication to anger, especially if we imagine it to be righteous. Maybe you would be happier at The Federalist. They put the quiet part you try to keep in your subtext in their headlines, reveling in their desire to grind everyone who isn't a wealthy white male into dust. You can do all the whataboutism you ache to do there. I imagine whatever malevolent extralegal entity keeps the lights on at that outlet would pay you handsomely for rubbing a patina of legitimacy across its masthead.
You are right about one thing: It will get worse. It will get so much worse as the seas start to boil and the land stops producing its bounty. No dog is more than two meals from being a wolf, Mr. Douthat. Your ears don't need to be that keen to notice the howling is getting louder every day.
11
This is too sad.
In many ways America has not been great (think slavery, Panama, Philippines, Shah of Iran, etc.), but the thought that making America Great (again or not) carries such baggage is terrible.
As people are standing for "black lives matter." I wanted to say that all lives mattered. I then realized that this would be interpreted as racist and anti- black. What I wanted to say was that ALL lives are equal, be they black, white, purple or pink.
The twisting of meaning to fit our biases and paradigms without taking the time to understand what is really meant will continue to further split our society.
Why doesn't someone go to the school and explore what their interpretation of Make America Great Again really means.
1
Starting in the early 2000's displaying a Republican bumper sticker in the city of Minneapolis guaranteed a "keying" (a long gouging of your cars finish). Since then, various apocalyptic issues have been weaponized on the Left to justify hatred for Conservatives. The irony is that true apocalypse is brought closer by the attempt to body-slam half of the population.
5
Eye witnesses said the students repeatedly chanted "Build the Wall" to Native Americans at the march.
One wonders the quality of history instruction in our schools.
Historically, whites invaded America from Europe, marginalizing Native Americans. And taking their land. Which was America.
As an educator, I shudder.
9
I feel like I've said it before in these pages, but I'll say it again. We need Ross Douthat around here, as a referee of sorts. Although, as we Louisianians know only too well, referees can be off by a country mile.
4
Quite frankly, Mr. Douthat...I don't want to give away my "scissor" if it means I have to support a president who separates children from their families, makes fun of physically challenged individuals and gold star families, brags about grabbing women in their genitals, wants to ban anyone who is not from Norway or Sweden from entering our country, feels that white supremacists are "good people", gives billions of dollars to the ultra wealthy at the expense of the American working and middle classes, distorts reality to cover his indiscretions, calls himself a "nationalist", cares nothing about our planet and the natural resources that belong to the American people...not the Trump corporation, and lies incessantly to get what he wants. No thank you, Mr. Douthat...I will keep that scissor.
6
as you present it, the one really laughing is Putin. and he surely knows there is no possible resolution when a situation involves religion.
1
Had a good time listening to you try to convince yourself that this was anything less than liberals\progressives\social justice warriors gone wild. For these folks, this represented a trifecta: 1. Catholic school boys 2. Kids probably are Republicans or their parents are 3. Protesting against abortion. Listen closely, you can hear the hyperventilating. Have a good day all!
5
I concur with your dark, inner voice in just this one respect: “don’t give me the both-sides piety when something like this happens.”
When all is said and done, those Catholic prep school boys did in fact treat Nathan Phillips very disrespectfully. Your piety—not to mention your obscurantism—can not hide the relentless taunting, mocking, and in-your-face stare-down that Mr. Phillips endured. And such stare-downs are as aggressive and threatening as it gets. They should be ashamed of themselves, and thereby apologizing to Mr. Phillips.
14
nice try. your inner conflict isn't real or funny enough to absolve you of complicity in this republican dance with the devil. the saddest thing about all of it, is that it won't end well for anyone. That includes those who equivocate about the danger of this presidency, like you.
We're approaching the end of "The Lord of Flies". When the officer arrives, you'll be one of those kids staring at his shoes. It's not a good look
9
At first I was outraged by this event. Then I saw that "Black Israelites" were involved and I immediately knew that blame assessment would need to be reassessed. I had my first run in with them 20 years ago in Times Square. i have seen them for years harassing innocent strangers with racist taunts. That is their M.O. They try as hard as they can to get you to call them the N-word. Preferable on camera, so they can use it for fundraising or whatever they do. They are also extortionists. They set up in front of a store and create a problem until the store pays them to go away. i know of one place where they tried this and got threatened by the mob! They split. So, professional provocateurs are taking shots at awful, jerky boys and a professional protester steps in for the perfect photo op. He got his 15 min. of fame! Can we go back to real issues now?
6
It may come as a shock to some, but the Catholic Church has zero credibility when it comes to morality especially to gender issues and reproductive rights is a gender issue. Further, does Ross need to be reminded of the cover up of decades of sexual abuse? Shame! Look to your own house. And keep out of the bedrooms of non-believers.
8
As of my reading this at 11:50 SM CST, 1398 commenters have proceeded to make Ross Douthat's point.
6
I have always tried to behave, as a kid and as an adult, as though my mother was looking over my shoulder. But "Indian" and MAGA and all that hat represents would never have been in her vocabulary as it seems to be with some of these parents. Mom would have expected me, smirk free, to distance myself from potential trouble and befriend those whose lives are different than mine. It appears that the Native American was trying to diffuse the situation unlike the seemingly non-existent chaperones. And yet he was mocked rather than thanked. More and more I appreciate my open minded mother and her expectations for my conduct.
6
The groups clashed in the public square, one taunted each of the others and proselytized them as well, through exercising private speech (no government was involved) and the other groups reacted in various ways.
It was much like an English Common Law trial by compurgation in its temporal state at the physical site and now the groups seek such acquittal from any charges/wrongdoing.
The young man is well supported and well scripted; the native american is not so much in that vain but is to be granted the principle of charity. The Black Hebrew contingent, well, that is what they do and can do.
Is the algorithm more like a poker from a blacksmith's forge? A real trauma that will surface again but the native americans have at least in one place sought reconciliation. The is a place of peace and unity in a low earthen redoubt at Crow Agency, MT - just west of the 7th Calvary Memorial.
The redoubt is the memorial for the seventeen sovereign nations that had gathered to the east at the Big Horn River and were attacked while carrying out their culture. Stand in the Peace and Unity Memorial and you will understand Mr. Phillips, the memorial has seven openings to allow coming and going by all ...
2
Maybe Omaha Nation elder Nathan Phillips had enough of how poorly Native Americans have been treated by white Americans over the centuries. Maybe the reversal by the Trump administration of the Obama administration’s denial of a key permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline was just another example in a long history of poor treatment of Native Americans. Then maybe seeing the young white men wearing MAGA hats at an already tense rally was the last straw for him. So was it right for Mr. Phillips to get into Nick Sandmann’s face? To Mr. Phillips, maybe it was. Try walking a mile in his shoes.
1
The underlying short story, "Sort by Controversial," is funny and frightening at the same time -- an algorithm that can create a "scissors" meme that can tear a society apart. Here, the meme was created by the press itself: not intentionally "fake news," but a biased interpretation that is just as harmful.
2
One would hope that next year these institutions will stop the practice of shipping busloads of students in to try to pad their numbers in the quest to reduce half the population to the status of "property."
8
Public protests rarely if ever involve thoughtfulness and the recognition of nuance, ambiguity, and culpability.
2
The media that I saw covering this event (mainly CNN) got it right in that the context of this complex situation is derived from the maga hats. Peoples' perception of what happened here will depend entirely on their understanding of maga. There is no center unless you live in a vacuum.
3
It’s a sad commentary on the state of our society when the rude conduct of several teenage boys (I’m assuming this to be true for the sake of argument) becomes the subject of a national debate. I’m just glad that “social media” did not exist when I was a teenager.
5
Brilliant. Critical. Necessary. Nuanced and courageous. As usual. As a politically “left-leaning centrist” Unitarian Universalist minister (raised Republican) whose entire consulting practice is devoted to the belief that it is possible to find solutions that bring us together and benefit all, reading your column regularly brings me hope that deep dialogue is still possible. And it will always be possible between those whose highest commitment is attempting to see the whole picture, reaching across the divides to seek to understand the experiences of others, working to identify common ground and acting from there. As far as I am concerned, you are absolutely a part of my tribe: the tribe of those who take their stand In the conviction that the only way forward is when those who will not be manipulated, frightened or enraged into playing Scissors reach out to work together to repair what has been broken. Thank you.
15
Thank you for that excellent, well-writer statement. (Mr. Douthat is one of my favorite columnists because of his insights and refusal to be pushed deep into one camp or another.) He contributes to the common good. As you did with your statement.
5
Even though it happens time and time again, Democrats refuse to consider the idea that a lot of them are just bad, self-serving, authoritarian people. Trump got elected because people were tired of the authoritarian left/Democrats: the Democrats response is to get more shrill and authoritarian and to overturn the results of a democratic election by the people. Heck, it's two years into the Trump presidency and he still can't get his own staff on-board. The "orderly transition of power" is gone and we're at war.
8
in reality, Trump lost the real election by real voters, and was the winner only of the biased, eletist, and corrupt Electoral College. the fed up Americans you mention cast about 3 million more votes for Clinton than for Trump, and even many Climton voters didn't find her a compelling candidate.
5
I too think there are too many coincidences for the event to have happened randomly. Deflection and obfuscation are classic (a la Lee Atwater & Karl Rove) techniques used by Republicans to redirect our attention away from what’s important. The Shutdown is hurting millions. The separation of families is immoral. Tariffs are heading the economy toward a recession. Most critical is the upcoming report release by Robert Mueller.
Decide for yourself what happened Saturday. Nothing seems impossible in a Trump Administration.
2
"Welcome to another controversy algorithmically designed to tear America apart."
That tells me this is all about a trivial distraction from America's real problems. I have not seen any videos, have not read these articles or columns, and am concentrating on important issues, like the shutdown, the environment, the economy, Russian manipulation in our democracy, etc.
If others want to wallow in trivia, let them. I think they are idiots.
6
@WPLMMT
How about the "tomahawk chops" performed by the boys toward the Native American Elder? Should - someone - apologize to them?
How about parents hiring a "spokes person" to make a statement for the boy in the forefront? Really?
I watched the 9 minute video and saw a lot of different expressions on his face. The widely published photo seemed arrogant, but for most of the footage he looked calm, and was smiling while each person looked into the other's eyes. And both were much closer than the 3 foot personal zone Americans generally allow each other in public.
Perhaps that was some kind of confrontation but - it takes two...
Certainly diffusing the situation was the intent of the Elder. What other motivation could he possibly have had?
If nothing else it is a teachable moment if people can calm down and think about the situation.
Sadly, it seems like an example of what has happened to America of late in a nutshell. Three widely diverse groups come together in a random collision.
Time to - pick up the pieces.
3
@Brandy Danu
The "elder" lied twice to the media in an effort to make the boys look bad. Can you really not think of another motivation for him to confront the boys other than trying to diffuse the situation? His lies told you why. He is a racist who was trying to get a reaction.
7
@Full Name...
The "elder" was trying to leverage his race in an effort to make the kids look bad.
Seems to me that your conclusion that he is a racist is pretty much on target.
6
No matter how meandering or imaginary, the writer becomes an apologist for one side and accuser of the other. As any serious thinker wishing to give an opinion about the entire situation understands, videos are stopped and started by humans and have a single perspective that's either fixed or moving with the human witness. The adage that nothing is less reliable than an eye witness applies and is proved exponentialy with each additional recording and every witness. A recording, while it may be viewed dispassionately, is aimed at whatever is most noticable to the witness, who often will contradict, rather than confirm their own recording. I'll not view the videos, but attacking anyone involved is unacceptable and unjustified, yet the writer uses common racial tropes to shade the adults while expecting us to see teanagers from a priviledged white
town and "école la plus blanche" as alabaster alter boys. It helps to remember why these teens were there and that reportedly none of their supervising adults intervened. Transporting white boys, none of whom will ever conceive or endure labor, across state lines to support the subjugation of women is as suspect as any activity their devout minders and parents could consent to. Sadly, any issue we may read about in this collumn will be dissected with entirely predictable judgement and with pre-reformation moral certainty, defensiveness, and coy pseudo-creativity. Bored yet?
8
Standing within inches of someone's face is threatening by anyone's understanding and is not a way to protect a stranger you think is under attack, as Mr Sandmann claims.
Mr Phillips (an experienced activist and adult) did not ask for Mr Sandmann's (an unfamiliar child) help; Mr Phillips did not ask for a child for protection--he had other familiar adults with him to help if he felt threatened. Mr Sandmann's stance and position locked Mr Phillip's in between the Covington Mob and the other threatening group. Mr Phillips it would seem was trapped because of Mr Sandmann and his classmates.
Mr Sandmann's post-event explanations ring disingenuous from any angle of the event. An entire mob of Covington Catholic's children are surrounding Mr Phillips and performing derogatory actions, historically understood to be a mockery of Native American dance and spiritual chanting.
Social media is here to stay. Everyone, especially chaperones of large groups of children, need to understand cameras are everywhere, their images can be interpreted in different ways by different people all across the world and that has consequences for the school you represent as well as the well being of the students themselves.
10
What kind of church leader would allow the MAGA hats on a church sponsored outing in the first place. Maybe that's where the problem is.
17
@Terry
Perhaps that is the church leader's interpretation of freedom of speech. Or perhaps "MAGA" hats are the equivalent of shouting "fire!" in a crowded theater. Judgement call.
2
This is my freedom of speech:
MAGA hat wearers are viewed as racists goons. Imo, I find those hats deeply offensive. When I see someone wearing one I automatically despise the person. And I refuse to apologize for it.
That kid smirking with the MAGA hat knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to show-off in front of his buddies.
Well, he got exactly what he wanted.
19
@Anabelle: and as a woman, I am deeply offended by OTHER WOMEN marching in parades wearing pink vagina hats.
9
@Concerned Citizen Since the pink hats are a direct response to the current President's braggadocio behavior concerning his history of sexual assault, I think they are quite appropriate.
9
@Concerned Citizen
Across the board - FIRST AMENDMENT!
3
My reaction to the hat and the impact it had on the situation is fear, loathing and anger. No PR firm from the RNC can twist this to change that reality.
The symbol that they proudly wear on their heads represents a naked power grab by an autocrat who has taken advantage of years of Republican party dogma and dog whistles to manipulate a voting block as a means to gain and keep power. The R's have rolled over to a man who has stripped away any pretense that R's mean well and work for the "common man". Laid bare is an aggressive plan that only assures the gains for the rich and powerful. Democracy has been abandoned by the R's. Their acquiescence to DT is also wrapped up in that red hat. In my opinion, it might as well be a Swastika.
It is my hope that these kids, who have been indoctrinated to support an egregious, lying autocrat by their hypocritical "Christian" parents, will someday find the truth. The truth being that they are being used and groomed to carry on the tradition of the use of hate to define their beliefs, in service of those who use it to gain power.
I hope that in the future, these kids are able wake up to join the rest of us in service to our Democracy and the truth that will keep it one. We must demand a stop to the divisiveness and hate that has been escalated to a standard of governing by the R's and this man.
7
@JDH
Agree with everything you say, except "demand."
We have to work on it, talk to the other side, reason with them. "Demand" and they dig in deeper. Gentle socratic dialogue lays the groundwork for an awakening a year or two down the road.
I have said many times that any idea worth writing about is more likely to be found in science fiction than any other literature. Algorithmic scissors, yes.
2
@Mike S.
Generally Agree with the thought, but would suggest that we learn at least as much from history as we do from sci fi. In fact, the best sci fi reflects history.
1
We don't need algorithms or tribal parsings or scissor explanations to tell us there are simply a lot of idiots out there.
2
@Robert McKee...
Indeed, sir, you are correct...
And there were many of them that weekend that were lining both sides of the meeting.
Ross, I just want to thank you for revealing yourself a little. You indeed had me flattered by your previous layer performances. These insights helps us interpret your arguments.
I did see different things in the videos and interviews than you point out. I also don't interpret the hats, chanting, and attendance at the rally as you reveal you do.
3
Good column, Ross. But I think divisiveness is who we are now. And rigidity. And seeing everything, hearing everything, reading everything, through our own preconceived and increasingly rigid notions. I’m as guilty as anyone. My own family life difficult, to the point I try to avoid political discussions at all, and extricate myself from them as rapidly as possible.
As someone who recently was called to a strong religious faith, after beginning life as a Roman Catholic and spending fifty years as an atheist, my only solace is that all of this is noise in the grander scheme of things. Greek Orthodoxy has a humility and transparency I find profoundly sensible as well as life-sustaining. It shares much with Roman Catholicism, including its positions on abortion and homosexuality. But mercifully, the clergy in my parish for sure, and I believe everywhere, do not pollute their pulpits with politics. They can’t even vote! I am sure some of my fellow parishioners have worn MAGA hats, but I have never seen one at any of our social gatherings, and there are many.
I am not condemned by our priests for my own position that while I am Greek Orthodox, I cannot impose my beliefs on others. That is why God gave us free will. So I will continue to vote for gay rights and freedom of choice in the secular world. God will decide how to judge all of us in the end for the lives we have led, being just, but even more, merciful. Heck, some rich folks may get to heaven. All is possible with God.
4
@Publius...
A question, Publius...
Does government telling The People what they can and cannot think a promotion of freedom of choice?
Of course, you don't.
But, does government have a legitimate interest and role in defining the line between abortion and murder?
Any reasonable person will conclude that it does. So the argument becomes one of where to draw the line.
Any discussion of this topic usually ends up at this point, so why don't we all cut the preliminary exchanges of not-so-friendly hellos and greetings and tackle the Gordian knot that we find ourselves bound in?
1
I first saw the short video and, within hours, the long video. A few points here:
1. City kids would likely be familiar with a solo preacher or small group of folks preaching crazy stuff. Suburban kids from KY, not so much. So let's give them a pass for their uncertain reaction to the African Hebrews (who were saying all sorts of nutty things).
2. Having a few folks preach nutty stuff is not news. It isn't even interesting. I've heard this sort of stuff from right wing Christians, ultra-orthodox Jews, Muslims, born agains and various other groups. Those who want to turn these guys into a national issue need to sober up.
3. Let's argue that the kid who smirked was actually smiling and uncertain. He is not the issue.
4. Other boys were, in fact, taunting the Native People. They were rude and inappropriate and under supervised.
5. If I were a Catholic school teacher or administrator and my students wore a MAGA hat, I would think that I totally failed in my mission. Jesus and Donald Trump have radically different values. Jesus taught compassion, concern, kindness and generosity especially to the poor, the sick, prisoners, youth and the dispossessed. Trump treats refugees as perpetrators, teaches "me, me, me" and steals from the poor and the dispossessed. Trump is evil by Jesus' standards.
6. The Catholic kids were on the Mall to force all churchgoers to obey the Catholic bishops on sexual morality, even those whose churches permit abortion. This is unholy
16
This is how we got Donald Trump and why he may be re-elected: the Left paints respectable people who hold traditional and generally well-founded views as the Source of All Evil and tries to bully us out of the public square. Did you learn nothing from 2016?
8
@Thomas Alderman
Well founded views?
Well, well, well...
4
@Thomas Alderman
Got to agree with Brandy. Please set out the "well-founded views."
2
Fine piece. Thank you, Ross.
7
"One may smile and smile and be a villain."--William Shakespeare Especially if one wears a MAGA hat.
12
This situation is a sign of the times; we have become Culturally Capitalists, not that we are so business-oriented, but that we need to have winners (our "side") and losers("the blah blah blah) .
4
What a pile of exploitative nonsense! Nothing actually happened. People went into an area set aside for demonstrations, and demonstrations took place. So what?
Who is responsible for turning this total non-event into a big deal? Why is anyone "reporting" on this?
Our government is shut down, and people are willing to be diverted by this trash. Shame on us!
10
Why isn't the media interviewing the Black Hebrew Israelites? It appears they were as involved as any other party, but no one seems interested in them - why not?
10
Regardless of who started what, the kid with the smirk was wrong to try to intimidate. And the rest with their racist MAGA hats were wrong in weak g them. But the biggest wrong were the adults who used these kids as props for an antiabortion rally. Teenage boys couldn’t care less about abortion unless their girlfriend gets pregnant.
11
@rantall: and plenty of teenage girls and elementary age girls had no interest in the Women's Marches in 2017, 2018 and 2019 but were dragged by their lefty lib mothers to make a point. Or to peace marches or other protests.
Why is it OK for the left to do this, but wrong if the right does it? Why is a MAGA hat "bad" but a BLM t-shirt perfectly OK?
5
Brilliant!, Ross
4
It's not a scissor. It's a spring pole. Bubbling up toxic, flammable muck. Long buried. But always there.
Never argue with a fool because nobody will know who the fool is. Take note of how Trump is being relatively quiet and tending to the nation’s business, unlike Chuck and Nancy...never argue with a fool.
2
Nonstop tweeting is being quiet? Trump is addicted to social media!! Not quiet in the least.
1
The basic right to be what you want and to say anything that doesn't cross the "fire!" shout In the crowded theater line IS what "makes America great."
The way I dissect it is I try to determine who has crossed the line into trying to control my life. Like religious zealots who would deny me my rights because I don't fall in with their fiction. That sort of thing.
We have a lot of that sort of thing brewing in this country.
Case in point. I got a "Make America Mexico Again" hat as a gag gift last year. It looks at a glance just like a MAGA hat.
I wore it out and downtown and a guy who had passed me on the street turned around, came up and suddenly knocked it off my head. He took off up the street.
I thought it was a joke. Who knew it was a scissor?
2
These kids wearing the MAGA hats says it all. The hat represents all that is wrong with our country today: it's all about being hateful and mean. Wow, what parents these kids have to teach their children to hate while pretending to be God loving, ugh!!
4
White Catholic high school boys in MAGA hats protesting abortion meet Black Hebrew Israel religionists observing MLK Day. Native American drummer makes big mistake and steps in to make peace. Wearing MAGA hats was a purposeful incitement without a word being said, and it was done with Catholic adult approval.
11
Pretty cute idea, Ross, talking to your conscience. Hasty interpretations by the press (or anybody else) are frequently wrong. Death threats against teenagers are horribly wrong. But (try this out on your conscience, Ross), teenagers not taught by their parents or their church to treat their elders with respect (even ones of a different race, no, especially those of a different race) - how will they grow up? Are they likely to be disrespectful adults, ignorant and disdainful of the precept that all people are created equal? And to all those who would march for life, what if your conscience encouraged every single person who takes to the streets to commit to adopt every single unwanted, unborn child (I take it you remember Mother Teresa, who said "Give the children to me")? What a loving way to abolish abortion! No, Ross, your conscience has come up with nothing new, only a not-too-clever writer's trick you use to stick to your guns. Oh, and the MAGA hats? Well, that's pretty obvious, Ross. These kids, who know very little about life and less about their "Christian" convictions apparently have been taught to follow the truly un-Christian man in the White House. You have a platform. Use it and your "conscience" to teach them, not keep them in ignorance, lacking in charity and respect. Do for them what their parents and their church have failed to do. Oh, and why not send them some hats with the letters WWJD?
4
You must be right Douthat because I could not more strongly disagree with you and doubt we will ever agree.
The MAGA hat is just another Confederate Flag.
All these cowardly symbols of hatred come with the same shopworn built in disclaimers.
9
What's with all this nonsense about the magic of algorithms? Like long division or carry ten addition? Are those algorithms magic? How many who use the word algorithm understand what it means? Read Alan Turing, Alonzo Church, Kurt Godel, Steven Cole Kleene, among others, and understand the meaning of the expression before using it like a magic word.
1
The problem with the Ross article is ignorance of the fact that MAGA hats are intrinsically a symbol of bigotry and racism, and wearing it marks one as such. Any attempt to try and make the MAGA hat just a sign of one's support for normal conservative policy comes from pure delusion.
9
@SP "MAGA hats are intrinsically a symbol of bigotry and racism." Who wrote that rule? Why is that inference the only correct inference? Why any inference at all? Why is it always the left that gets to decide what is OK or not-OK? It is just a hat.
11
@wnhoke And an armband is just an armband.
1
@wnhoke...
Because they know it all.
Just ask them...They'll tell that to you every day of the week
4
I like it they wear the hats. It tells everyone exactly who they are and what their character and morals are all about. That way I can stay away from these very spoiled pampered kids whose parents have hired a PR firm to get them out of this mess their chaperones didn't stop them from getting into in the first place. And yes that was a smirk not a smile.
3
Trump is the ultimate scissor user, to tear rather than mend. He has weaponized this by demonizing the other and his inane slogans, branding, and hats. Those youth, privileged and used by their religious school, would be better served engaged in community service than protesting abortion law. And, our Catholic plurality Supreme Court starting with limiting transgender rights will likely given them their sanctified limits or prohibitions on birth control and abortion. And as for the so-called Hebrew Israelites, what happened to turn the other cheek. These boys were not easy prey as one commentator said. They were willing and eager to engage and heighten the tear, as Douthat would call it.
1
I find it ironic that Jesus -- one of the most effective protesters in history -- is not being quoted by adults in Covington Catholic culture. After all, this is the leader their culture is founded upon. Where is his message in all of this? I don't hear or see Jesus' philosophy and example in this culture.
5
@PE
It's also ironic that the "progressive" left is so easily triggered by a hat. 60 years ago Democrats in the Jim Crow south were lynching black men for much less. I guess we should all be thankful that the virtual lynchings in 21st-century America are limited to social-media mobs. So far.
7
There's no escape from this trap. The problem is that both sides are basically right about each other.
4
And trolls posting divisive comments on news reports and Op Ed pieces are part of the picture.
How do we get out of this insanity?
Great piece. Mirror image of 1984.
6
The profession of journalism needs to clean house. How is it possible that a known plagiarist and fabulist can be hired again to break a 'bombshell' report that is blasted out across all media?
We have seen this newspaper hire a racist as tech editor, a cable news channel re-hire a disgraced anchor for lying about his reporting and numerous other examples where reporters and pundits are not fired for repeatedly lying or misreporting facts on national TV.
This is a profession with no shame, humility or professional standards left in it, and is completely agenda driven. The American people deserve better than this.
7
Mr. Douthat has outdone himself. One question, or maybe two? Would Pope Francis approve of the behavior of those Catholic school boys? And two, WWJT?
Avoiding the "scissor", aka social media, is simple: don't use it.
2
The real issue here is why the Black Israelites, a group known for their homophobia, antisemitic and racist views, the group who obviously, from viewing the entire video, were at the center of this conflict, are being totally overlooked by practically the entire liberal media. How can it be that the group responsible for the racist taunts that triggered this entire episode are totally left out of the coverage ? Why hasn’t the NYT or other media shown that main part of the hour long video ? Why are we trying to hide the truth of this horrible debacle ? It is precisely this mindset and distortion of the truth that sends shivers down my spine.
19
You wear a MAGA hat out in public, you get what you deserve! It's a provocation. MAGA is a "movement" that represents backwards, undemocratic, un-American ideas and values and as such is different than other, normal, political apparel (e.g., a Bush t-shirt or an Obama pin). As far as I am concerned, a MAGA hat is no different than the Confederate battle flag or the Nazi swastika (maybe Trump chose a hat because the armband was already taken?). Like the Confederate battle flag or Nazi swastika, ADULTS who wear these symbols out in public know their power and deliberately choose to brandish them to provoke, infuriate and make a statement – a big middle finger to a society they feel alienated from. Defenders of these boys say the Hebrew Israelites provoked them, but I place the blame on the school and the parents for placing these boys in a potentially violent situation by sending them to a politically charged rally wearing politically charged apparel. (The boys are too young and undereducated to understand the issues and, as much as I'd like to wipe the smirk off young Mr. Sandmann's face, he is a child deserving of forgiveness.) You wear MAGA apparel out in public, don’t be surprised if otherwise decent, law-abiding, patriotic Americans like me—a white Army veteran—call you a "TRAITOR!" or "FASCIST!"
4
Try wearing a gay rainbow symbol on a cap in Russia and I bet , they’ll also get ‘what they deserve’.
How sad it is for this country that a person simply wearing a cap of a political US party can expect to be treated similarly to a gay person in Russia. That is how far our intolerance has taken us. And before you make another absurd assumption, I am not a Trump supporter.
5
I find any argument that Mr. Sandmann was simply standing his ground disturbing. It was Florida's "stand your ground" law that exonerated George Zimmerman in the murder of Travon Martin.
4
@Michael Clark
When the truth is disturbing to you, it's time to re-examine your opinions.
4
@Michael Clark. Really, Mr. Clark. I would be interested to see how you would react if a provocateur marched up to you and started banging a drum inches from your face because he didn’t’t like what you were wearing.
6
Judging from the comments here the premise of the article is correct, since there seems to be enough "blame" to place on all sides here. First, the despicable comments being hurled at the teens from the black nationalist group. Next the poor judgement of the teacher chaperone giving permission for the school chants which only escalated the situation. Having taught elementary school for a number of years, I believe the main function of a teacher in this situation should have been to protect the students. Ignoring the derogatory comments or moving the students away from the encounter might have been more productive in diffusing the incident. Whether Phillips intentions were good or not, moving into the crowd of teenagers also showed poor judgement on his part. As for the teen's statement that he was also trying to diffuse the situation, sorry but the "smirk" on his face makes that explanation a bit hard to swallow. Now here is where my own bias comes in. If you are representing a Catholic HS in a right to life march, please leave your MAGA hat at home. There seems to be too many blurry lines today between religion and state and I say that as a practicing Catholic.
4
If there is ‘enough blame to go around’, why is it that the group of Black Hebrews, the one group who were the most vocal and racist of all the groups is given a free pass and barely even mentioned in most of the reporting ? What could possibly be the reason for this dishonesty ?
5
I only wish the effect of the Trump/McConnell shutdown on Native American communities would be discussed as much as the video.
https://www.indianz.com/News/2019/01/11/navajo-president-government-shutdown-vio.asp
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/01/us/native-american-government-shutdown.html
https://www.pih.org
2
What does Ross think of the photos that are out now of boys from that high school in black face at a basketball game? Curious.
4
These young men are saints? SCOTUS drinking game on that! Check out the videos below same day same event. The kid on one video is making a joke about violence on women...at a 'right to life' march! The pathetic need for conservatives like Brooks and Douthat to answer the age old joke question, when did you [stop being horrible to} your wife is near criminal..... way beyond sadly hypocritical.
https://twitter.com/cbouzy/status/1087532291675643904
https://twitter.com/cbouzy/status/1087747995574169607
4
Regardless of the larger context, what that smirking white MAGA kids face said immediately to me was the future Brett Kavanaugh. Priveleged, cocky, and sure of himself in his place in life. he will go to Georgetown, edit a right wing rag perhaps, suck up to big money donors, carry water for corrupt right wing politicians for a dozen years, all the while drinking a lot of beer. he loves beer already, even tho he probably has only recently tasted it.
Then he will be a ready for his role as a 'respected' jurist.
If the Republican party is still around in 40 years they can nominate that kid to the Supreme Court.....If the Supreme Court is still around in 40 years.
6
In retrospect, when you review these scissor scenarios after they age a bit, you determine that they really matter much less than when you were first exposed to them.
Hardly anything is ever as it seems at first glance, especially and isolated video or film clip seen out of context. A good lawyer can convince a jury that black actually IS white, as can some established branches of physics prove to you that a particle CAN actually be in two places, at the same time. It is quite possible that we may never know the whole truth here.
I went to that kind of high school, with those kind of guys, some 50 years ago and it appears that some of them were actually in that clip, having miraculously aged very little over the intervening half century!
Besides producing men who became respectable, intelligent, productive members of our society unfortunately my school also produced a substantial number of 'butt holes in suits', as was the expression. The belief was that if you knew how to wear a suit to work every day, you might just be able to pass for someone who actually had the character of someone deserving to dress like that. My guess is that this is still happening, and at many other institutions as well.
1
For me "Ross Douthat" is itself a "scissor." I'm trying to keep an eye on my blood pressure, and so some days I just choose not to read. On days I do read I know I shouldn't since his goal is pretty much always to figure out ways to provoke liberals and leftists into outrage white retaining some degree of plausible deniability about what he is up to.
Typically I find that the trigger points are not necessarily the key claims or ideas in a given column but rather little moments along the way--examples, turns of phrase, etc.
Here, to cite one example, notice how his "voice of reason" offers a counterargument to the invocation of Kavanaugh by the "raging id," but that same raging id's snide treatment of the Planned Parenthood recordings is allowed to stand uncontested by a purportedly more moderate voice that would defend an organization that provides a wide range of vitally important health care services to women.
Or, in another recent column, in a paragraph where he referred to men as "human males" he referred to women as "the female of the species." Man equals culture and woman equals nature, anyone?
So, as a reader I leave Douthat's essays inclined not to dwell on his ostensible efforts to foster dialogue across political lines but instead mostly just ticked off at his hypocrisy. Today is no exception.
4
MAGA hat has become a symbol of racism, bigotry and hatred thanks to 45 and some of his supporters/advisers. The Sunday incident, in my view, was a common mishap among a group of ordinary people that can happen anytime, anywhere. However, when kids with MAGA hats were jumping, dancing and shouting , the incident drew attention of people of different political spectrum. I believe the "scissor" in your article has a name and it is Trump who sewed hatred and discomfort in American public life.
4
These boys have the absolute right to wear the MAGA hats, just like the KKK has the absolute right to march in DC.
However, the boys aren't the only ones with rights in this situation. I have a right to judge them based on how they choose to express their first amendment rights. Some people seem to have an erroneous expectation that these boys and / or their position must be respected as opposed to mocked, hated, belittled, or blacklisted.
That's not how freedom of speech works.
9
Congratulations Ross for a lucid and witty dissection of our tribal infirmities. How timely that you wrote just as Russell Baker passed way. I have missed him much in the last twenty years. Yes I understand that that you and he are very different in style and point of view, but there is a bit of Russell's incisive modesty in your piece. You might look over his work, if you have not already done so, for inspiration as you cultivate a playful response to our political troubles.
3
Lost in all this is that the blame should rest squarely on the man at the top. When a so called leader, constantly lies to Americans, displays his take on the world like he read the book,"everything I need to know, I learned in kindergarten", but then didn't bother to read anything else. Takes name calling to the most childish level possible and encourages his followers to do the same. Who claims and is believed to be religious and moral, no matter his history, by a segment of society that believes their God supports him. Then you will understand the reaction and outrage of a majority of Americans.
3
Bottom Line: The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is fully responsible for creating the hateful MAGA hat culture. He finds the divisiveness, regardless of who is at fault in any particular instance, very useful.
Trump's calculated use of divisiveness belies his inaugural address: "The Bible tells us, 'how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.' "
"We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable."
The immaturely ugly (and weak) "power fist" that Trump presented as he emerged from the Capitol to take his oath of office in 2016 was the first step on his way to deliberately dividing the country.
MAGA hats are one of the most useful tools in Trump's ongoing ego trip. MAGA hats are just another kind of wall, right here inside the country, not on the border. Put one on, and you are helping to build that wall.
4
children being taught to protest a woman's fundamental civil right, reproductive freedom, are disrespectful to native elders -- no surprise here, just entitled conservative theocrats doing what they do.
7
You know that from their perspective they are interesting in protecting unborn babies. There is nothing wrong with that. There is no shame in that.
Stop demonizing kids.
7
There is now basically a war on, and the left is trying to destroy dissenters. Too bad, but it is what it is, so act accordingly.
7
The children were minors. It absolutely amazes me that no one, and I mean absolutely no one, speaks to the fact that these children were left unprotected and unsupervised by the chaperones during continued harassment by the black nationalists. First, scheduling an all-boys school to march in a Right to Life rally is a bit like having Trump blast forth on this issue--it doesn't affect them personally because boys are never going to get pregnant and need to consider an abortion and neither is Trump. Second, I object strongly to politizing children. Third, if you watch the video there's certainly more to the story, and the fact is that the boys' chaperones had both adequate time and space to relocate the children away from the black nationalists but chose not to do so. Before you start sending death threats to a teenager, maybe ask him where the adult who was supposed to be guiding him was hiding when needed.
7
Saying "MAGA" is not racist is like saying the Confederate Flag is not racist. Individuals--or even groups of individuals--don't get to selectively choose the meanings of images, symbols, or slogans. The Confederate flag does not mean two different things to two different people no matter what anyone says : it's a bunch of malarkey to say the Confederate flag is about "heritage," or "history," but is not racist. The meaning is fixed and does not change. The only thing that changes is how people feel about the fixed meaning: one person likes what the Confederate flag represents while the the other abhors it. "MAGA" is racist because the man to whom it is inextricably connected is racist. The people who wear the MAGA hat are, at best, are willing to ignore his racism or, at worst, willing to embrace it.
5
Ross' angel on his shoulder makes it clear that the left (my group) got it wrong this time, and that was because it jumped to applying its preconceptions to an ambiguous snippet from a complex situation. Although there have been mea culpa's from some who rushed to judgment, there have been as many or more, especially on social media, who have doubled down on their initial claim of racism, White privilege, White Supremacy, even neo-Nazism and homophobia. Their arguments run from "wearing a Maga hat is racist" to "look what else Covington Catholic High School has done in the past" to "at the least this shows ignorance and intolerance to Native American culture." In other words, the actual facts of the situation (which are ambiguous regarding what the boy was expressing, but clear that Nathan Phillips walked up to him and stood inches from him while banging his drum and that there were insults from another group being thrown around and some sort of response—a school cheer, possible derision—from the Covington kids) don't matter, this is just another instance of White, religious, Trump supporter intolerance and bigotry and you won't change my mind because "I saw the red MAGA hat as plain as day and I know what that means." Isn't this the definition of stereotyping and prejudice? Of course, the president tops this almost every day in his tweets, but what does that have to do with this situation? Ross' angel has him dead to rights.
6
MAGA hats are designed to offend. Freedom of expression...fine. But everyone else has the freedom to express disgust by hats. MAGA is a slur. It's an expression that if it had occurred in a vacuum would be benign. But it didn't. It came from the racist venom that spewed from Trumps mouth.
Whatever took place will never get sorted out. However, for the same reason I wouldn't recommend wearing a hat that says "German Pride" in Jerusalem, I wouldn't recommend wearing a MAGA hat in Washington DC.
6
When you discuss something with yourself, the usual outcome is that the other self confirms your ideas. Your view was a narrow focus rather than through the wide-angle lens of history. In the narrow focus this was just sweet boy with a smirk on his face, a MAGA hat on his head, leering over a dark skinned, elderly, scrawny male, 1/3 his weight and more than half a head shorter. My other self looking through the fisheye of history reminded me where I had seen this before?
Travel back 90 years for the answer. A photo from 1930 of a crowd at a political rally. Focus on one of the males about the same age. A black shirt, a ban on his outstretched arm and the same smirk on his youthful face, looming over someone crouching in fear in front of him. That's what I saw in the current situation.
2
Fabulous. Would that we all had such discussions with our consciences
3
Along these line, in Philadelphia two black men were told they couldn’t hang out at Starbucks without buying something, right? Wrong. According to early reports, they were told they couldn’t use the restroom without buying something. However, that tidbit was quickly buried. Why does it matter? Because, given the location, my guess is that the policy was aimed, not against people of color, but the homeless of any color. While I don’t believe that policy is anymore fair, and the whole escalation was unwarranted, it deserved at least one enterprising reporter looking into it to determine if Starbucks’ employee was, indeed, practicing some form of uncontious racial bias or just stating the Starbucks policy he was told to apply to anyone in that situation so as not to lose his job.
5
I am not divided from my fellow Americans, and a bunch of overpaid do-nothing ‘commentators’ will not make it so.
I only feel divided from the likes of McConnell, who deliberately hurt my fellow Americans with a needless shutdown.
3
Another item to add to the American "progressive" Mea Culpa Tour, not to be confused with the competing Knee-Jerk Reaction Tour. It's good that the Twitter-obsessed left got this one so wrong. They might actually learn something. Stop laughing. Meanwhile Fox News, never one to miss an opportunity to inflame the white and elderly, is running the story every 10 minutes. Something about America's War on Christians. I am not making this up.
3
In looking at many videos of the "incident" , the most striking fact is the total lack of the boys female contemporaries. No Catholic Girls School invited to the rally? Just adolescent 14, 15, 16, year old boys bussed in to a rally regarding female reproduction rights.
7
No one can choose the parents or culture into which they enter this life. These boys were unfortunate to enter a place, time, and culture incongruent with the principles and ideals of civility and their professed religion of Christianity.
They are mirrors of dominant forces of American culture. It isn't just the boy with the staring smirk; his backups are also repugnant, and behind them, the school and ideology represented in this photo, no matter how it is spun.
1
What Douthat is describing as a "scissors" is what systems theory calls a kind of "trap", in this case the trap is called escalation.
“THE TRAP: ESCALATION When the state of one stock is determined by trying to surpass the state of another stock— and vice versa— then there is a reinforcing feedback loop carrying the system into an arms race, a wealth race, a smear campaign, escalating loudness, escalating violence. The escalation is exponential and can lead to extremes surprisingly quickly. If nothing is done, the spiral will be stopped by someone’s collapse— because exponential growth cannot go on forever. THE WAY OUT The best way out of this trap is to avoid getting in it. If caught in an escalating system, one can refuse to compete (unilaterally disarm), thereby interrupting the reinforcing loop. Or one can negotiate a new system with balancing loops to control the escalation.” Meadows, Donella H.. Thinking in Systems (p. 126). Chelsea Green Publishing. Kindle Edition.
2
I can't understand why anyone takes moral leadership from the Catholic Church at this point - the horrible, violent history is bad enough, but the last two decades uncovering the disgusting child abuse crimes and coverups? I'm sure not every priest is a child molester, but the breadth of the scandal seems to cover virtually anyone and everyone in any capacity of church leadership. Everyone knows about it and either commits the crimes, shuffles around the criminals, covers it up, or turns a blind eye. I know this a little off topic, but it's the first thing I thought of when I heard about this incident of Catholic school boys at a rally for the rights of the "unborn." Once again, pushing forward their "morality," while ignoring the top to bottom monstrous actions of their church.
6
We used this article in our college credit, English 11 class. I showed the short video clip, then the longer one, then we read the article. I added some evaluation type questions about the article at the end (since we are writing critique papers). However, this is really what I want to say. I wanted to let you know that I told my class that this is a perfect example of critical thinking and writing. You have a current event, you link with some other "thing" and then find a rhetorical appeal that works for your audience. I am so thankful I stumbled across this piece, so thank you!
4
Honestly, Russ, you make some good points; and I believe that there were a few bad actors on all sides. The black radicals were awful; but so were many of the students. The Native American, by most accounts, was trying to defuse the situation, but seemed to have made a hash of it by not realizing that his efforts at praying for peace wouldn't be understood/appreciated by a bunch of immature kids. Also, one of the guys accompanying hi was angry and abusive in his remarks to the student. As to the kid who faced down the older man; it's clear to me that he had contempt in his face. If he had been a true Christian, he would have stepped aside, and encouraged his friends to be respectful. So much for his Christian Values. And the MAGA hats ... well ... they speak volumes about the true values of the school ... not to mention his mother's remarks, and this:
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/gay-valedictorian-banned-speaking-covington-graduation-not-surprised-d-c-n961446?cid=sm_npd_ms_fb_ma
2
America already is torn apart.
2
This is not about Trump or MAGA hats or the Black Hebrew Israelites or Native American rituals.
This is about manners. This is about elder respect. Manners and morals go together. Etiquette and ethics go together.
Neither this young man's parents nor his school had taught him how to conduct himself as a gentleman in public or any where else for that manner. They have failed him just as Kavanaugh's school failed him when it allowed the shameful misogynistic things he wrote in his yearbook. His parents must have known that their son was a drunken frat boy.
Now we have the MAGA tribe making excuses for boorish disrespectful behavior. That young man had no business standing in the elder's face.
Shame on the young people from this school. Shame on the school and the parents. They all ought to apologise to the elder and resolve to do better in the future. You do not have to like a person or know a person or understand their religion to show respect. And when it comes down to a face to face with an elder, elder respect says the young man ought to stand down in honor of the old man he hopes to be some day.
4
While I disagree with your interpretation of the Catholic kid's confrontation with Native American elder, what I very much object to is your characterization of Mrs. Pence's school as adhering to "traditional-Christian code of sexual behavior." Exactly whose tradition are you talking about? WWJD? I think Jesus would be horrified that children who are of an age discovering their sexual identity would be denied entry to the place. Yes, there are fire and brimstone Christians who preach that sexual relations outside of marriage or with a same sex partner are the work of the Devil, but there are plenty of Christians who simply accept this sexuality as an aspect of the human condition.
1
I appreciated this column. I may be on the progressive side of the fence, but I think Trump fans should learn that to the non-faithful, MAGA hats symbolize racism, pure and simple. Even if they think that wearing the hat means something else, it does not mean that to non-Trump people who see the hats. Thus, the MAGA hat is interpreted as a provocation. If the kids (or anyone) wears them in public outside of a rally, they should know that it will be taken as a blatant racist act by many who see the hats. Thus, for the good of the country, they should leave the hats at home - they're too provocative, and like so much else at the moment, the problem begins with Trump's racist mouth.
4
Some people interpret nose-rings as anti social. Does that mean nose rings should be banned from public display???
3
Who paid for those MAGA hats, or were they provided gratis by the Trump campaign. Does this school get federal subsidies?
4
It was the MAGA hats. Absolutely no place for them in a rally of this nature. Why have these Catholic boys aligned themselves
with the malevolent Trump? Pro life is one thing but everything else those hats stand for are something else entirely.
5
Great article, but could be said quite simply: today's media are more concerned about clicks than about the truth.
5
You left out the voice that says this: this young man was posturing for his peers in a group dynamic that led him to put forth his ugliest face, which was a terrible distortion of his gift of being in the image and likeness of God.
That picture is an image instead of a primitive male pose, a smug face empty of knowledge or wisdom, much less Christian love. Under that pose I assume a soul longing for human goodness, but neither his chaperones nor his parents seem to have guarded or nurtured that goodness. You failed to lament its absence.
4
Brilliant piece, especially the dialogue with your conscience at the end. Given our controversy-ridden climate awash with iPhones,
there is no end of potential for more such diversionary scenarios allowing the President to reinforce his administration's prejudices.
Kids will do awkward, stupid things, reflecting the biases of their society like funhouse distorting mirrors.
The problems cannot be pinned on a few scapegoats--privileged boys in an elite religious school. It is ubiquitous.
The phrase "tinder box" comes to mind. It seems that a lot of people are now so sensitive to offence, so primed to hear insult, that hostility is their default reaction. This means that some people are bound to do something stupid and provoke others. Worse, the potential for mischief - trouble stirred up for political gain - only increases.
2
Some twisted 'blogger' just oozed in as, in this case apparently, a covert foreign troll to manipulate and stoke the flames of hate, ignorance and evil via modern thought control, aka – ‘Social’ media.
On the other hand, underage teenage boys should not be bussed to an anti-abortion rally. Has the 'Catlick' hierarchy sent any similar delegations to anti boy-buggering events?
And another thing, the fact that an old man is a Native American and a Vietnam vet does not automatically qualify him for either sainthood or 'ex cathedra' doctrine.
Speaking of saints and other ‘Catlick’ demonology. Apparently the CovCath students’ high school staff and the Moorlockian resident wizard(s) in the Diocese of Covington condemned, disowned and wept in horror at their wayward children’s unverified antics.
Last but not least, the ‘Black Israelites’ – or whatever vile putresence they are – would probably had, at least, their obscene butts kicked by no less than ‘Good old Abe’’ hisself for the garbage spewing out of their mouths from their vacant souls.
Peace Love Revolution
Not necessarily in that Order
2
Baloney. These future punks of America MUST be put in their place NOW unless you want more racist haters tomorrow.
1
Which punks are you referring to? The Black Hebrew Israelites or Nathan Phillips, the Native American? Please specify.
6
Ross are u ok
3
Another stupid and pointless kerfuffle. And vintage Trump. That is all he has got.
Excellent article. I wish we all could learn to pause and listen to a quiet, reflective inner voice before letting our prejudices gain full throat.
But there should be consequences here. One has to wonder why many of the most vocal and vitriolic celebrities who took to social media to openly foment online harassment of these kids have not had their twitter accounts suspended.
5
Who is innocent in all this? I doubt that there are many Americans who saw the initial stories and the photo of the lad who remained impassive throughout and allowed themselves to wade into the story with even-keeled emotions. Now that I have had a chance to reflect on my own instant reaction, I can defend myself to a certain degree. I'll put away my scissors and mend my part of cut cloth. Nobody is right if everybody is wrong.
1
Yeah. Pretty much.
I likened this to the Yanni v Laurel controversy though. One thing happens but people see (or hear) something different.
Some saw a group of teen boys mocking a Native American elder, and their parents saw the elder threatening them.
I only heard Laurel for the record. All those who heard Yanni were “imbeciles”.
50
the fact that we can't see the scissor list reminds me of the Monty Python skit,"The killer joke" -- no one can see for fear they will die laughing.
I think that Ross nailed this article in terms of "how do I look at something other people won't look away from and not just confirm my priors," and also the dialogue between his Id and writing voice. I was chuckling the whole way through the dialogue portion!
2
That conversation between Ross Douthat and his id was one of the funnier things that I have read on the Internet in a while. Who says conservatives don't have a sense of humor? Nice job, Ross.
6
You are my favorite conservative columnist. You help keep this progressive feminist Trump hater honest. Even before reading this column I deleted the facebook post I’d shared about this incident. But you have to admit, that pic was liberal outrage bait of the juiciest sort. I bit and I regret it. What really happened was much more complicated. And the boys did not deserve to be pilloried on-line, in print and in person. What happened to them could happen to any of us.
8
@Caroline Forell
So these kids were not actually engaged in chanting insults at some elderly indigenous Indian guy who didn't look particularly robust while wearing hats that proclaimed their political belief system? Funny I've seen several videos showing them doing exactly this (whatever the circumstances that are being used by Republican spinmeisters to muddy the issue).
And no it couldn't happen to any of us because some of us know how to comport ourselves in situations like this. It goes to standards of male conduct that one tries to inculcate in one's children. Personal grace. Do you know what that is? And for another I would never have allowed my kids (who went to Catholic schools for part of the time) to be used as political props to swell the numbers at some abortion demonstration.
4
Thanks for your take on my take. Let’s agree to disagree on this. I expect it’s one of the few things we disagree on.
1
@Caroline Forell
Maybe you don't have any male children. Let me assure you that had either of my sons conducted himself like this I would have been incandescent and it wouldn't have been with the elderly Indian with his little drum, or the crazy black Israelites or whatever they call themselves in the background. Obviously we have different ideas of what constitutes proper male conduct however many other things we may agree about.
1
Read several articles & saw several videos with contrasting views. People are making a mountain out of this unnecessarily. The black Jews group is out of line....
The interaction between native Americans & high schoolers seemed an unfortunate misunderstanding. I know as a teenager I did & said some regrettable things. What the students stand for or believe MAGA or not - they should have been more respectful of their elder & native American culture. This was simply poor behavior and lack of education & example by teen's parents & school.
Let them learn & let's move on to real issues.
3
@Will Goubert
Absolutely. It's a given that teenage boys have lots of energy and do daft things. I did lots of them. To me the surprising feature of this whole incident is the absence of the adult supervision of these kids. Where were they when this was going on? A local bar?
1
Perhaps this woudnt be a thing if the media wasn't so quick to lambast a teenager with a MAGA hat.
They did, in a big way, and they were wrong, again.
Couple this with the other ridiculous rush to judgement, the Buzzfeed lie, the media is exposed for what it is - not reporters, but activists.
This is why you justy cant trust them anymore. When they are working so hard to deceive the American public, they have truly earned the title Enemy of the People.
5
@Sports Medicine
We don't know Buzzfeed was a lie. You need to wait to find out before you use it as an example of media activism. Also keep in mind where you read this article. Even if mainstream media has biases, they try to tell the truth. You can't say that about Fox or the other right wing outlets you have apparently chosen to believe.
1
Not bad, Ross. Tour de force display of manic confusion mimicking it's subject. I hope you can calm down. We all need to.
2
This is ridiculous. A brief vid was put up that went viral, designed to make these kids look like the bad guys. And because some were wearing MAGA hats the left and its mouthpieces decided this was a great way to bash Trump. Then the whole story comes out and its clear the kids didn't do anything. They were initially being harassed and called names by a group of ADULT black activists, then Philips, well intended perhaps, marches right up to the boys and into the face of one who stood his ground while Phillips pounded his drum. No punches were thrown, I heard no vile invective from the boys.
For you know who's sake -- these are high school boys. They didn't pursue this situation. They were suddenly confronted by groups they may never have encountered. Nothing I saw they did merits any opprobrium -- and those on the left who continue to attack should be ashamed of themselves. But if they, these haters that are convinced they need to ruin these boys lives, why don't they go to Covington and confront people in the town. It's real easy to be judgmental and try and ruin people's lives from a distance on social media. Not so much doing it in person.
This was simply a soft target of convenience for the left that they used to attack Trump and Trump followers. These kids aren't criminals. They did nothing wrong. They should -- those who attacked these boys -- be ashamed and apologize.
7
Oof, this was one rough formal experiment, Ross. Your articles are usually a trial to read but you bested yourself here, buddy.
Yet another voice:
Narrative.
Linkoln, stone cold sober, was not available for comment.
Later the following day:
Clean up PR team found a child’s burger king crown blowin in the wind.
The answer?
1
In my day when I needed an excuse you could say “my dog ate my homework”. Today it’s “ the algorithm made me do it”.
Please, we are each capable of evaluating what we see, hear, experience and, more time-consuming, analyze.
2
Like a Rorschach test, what you see in these videos reveals a little of your self. What upsets many on the right is that the US population is coming to see MAGA hats as a symbol of racism and division. They cry out it’s unfair, but is it really? Name one MAGA policy initiative that is not rooted in blaming foreigners or nonwhites for all the problems in the USA.
3
@EW
You really think what upset people about all this was that MAGA is seen by many as racist? Really? It had nothing to do with the fact that these boys were attacked because they are white males? Or that the guilty people were given a pass because they weren't white males? You don't think that had something to do with it?
3
“Except that they always get things wrong the same way. They’re always looking for some white preppy scapegoat. The Rolling Stone article about frat-boy rapists that turned out to be a hoax …
You know plenty of white preppies are bad people deserving media scrutiny, you’ve lived the same life I have.
… the Kavanaugh witch hunt …”
It’s obvious Ross is trying to be sarcastic and humorous. But it’s really his veiled way of saying whites and conservatives are under attack in America. Unfortunately by writing this column he unwittingly feeds right into his scissor concept. Thanks Ross for the hypocrisy and added chaos!
2
I watched the videos and cannot get that boy's smug mug out of my head-scissors or no scissors. Sending a bunch of privileged mostly-white boys to a "pro-life" rally is absurd; we are all pro-life. We are not all against women making their own healthcare decisions. This could have been a teaching moment for them but it appears that this will not be the case as the adults in this do not seem capable or willing as this is really their agenda and the kids are just mimicking them.
They seem to be pawns in the larger catholic politics picture and that is what the parents seem be focusing on...it seems to me to be a form of child abuse to send them to this kind of rally and not expect something like this to happen. And wearing that ridiculous maga hat just invites judgement as it has become a symbol of racism and bigotry. Maybe it didn't start that way but it is now.
5
The migrant caravans were a nice touch, weren't they? I mean, right before the election and all...
Has it occurred to anyone that the job of scissoring America is a job ultimately paid by fossil fuels? The MAGA-16-yr old will do OK, as will the Native American elder. You know what won't do OK?
The LAND they are standing on. The ENTIRE East Coast.
To quote the Music Man: "There's a burglar in the bedroom while you're fiddling in the parlor!"
2
Pretending this is about anything other than white supremacy is disingenuous and dangerous. Thanks for the mental exercise... I’ll stick to knowing that the drummer was diffusing situation maga kids wouldn’t leave. But of course the white man’s “right” to overtake space and stay no matter the consequence is the most important thing to protect.
2
Are you really doing this, Ross?
Excuse me?
Are you really going to write about this minor incident when there are a million more pressing issues to hand? When Federal workers are standing in bread lines and failing to pay their mortgages? When children in diapers are STILL being held apart from their parents at the border? When sanctions against a Russian oligarch who helped attack our precious voting system have been dropped by the administration? When our President embraces Putin, the leader of an adversarial power?
Are you really going to wring you hands over this incident even as you make column fodder out of it?
Are you? Really?
4
Young, teen-aged Catholic boys bussed to anti-abortion rally. Offensive to begin with aside from anything else.
4
Why don’t young, white, Catholics have the same rights as everyone else in America? Is that fair?
4
No one criticized the mothers who brought their young children to the 2017 Woman's March in Washington. That was definitely a political March against President Trump attended by Democratic politicians and celebrities exclusively. There was not one Republican in attendance.
In contrast, the Washington March for Life is not a political event as it has both Democrats and Republicans in attendance. There were some Democratic politicians on the stage and they spoke of their pro life views. To say this is a political event is false and misrepresents the truth.
3
The fact remains that the Catholic diocese in Covington went to great lengths to organize the students in its all-male prep school to go to Washington to participate in the Right to Life demonstration. The fact that most of them were wearing MAGA hats meant that they were looking for a confrontation.
They got what they were looking for. The fault for this donnybrook lies with the diocese for exploiting their students to promote their anti-abortion opinion.
4
What the video shows is three obnoxious political groups loudly yelling and making noise in a public place where people just want to see the Lincoln Memorial, where, I'm pretty sure, the idea is to quietly reflect. Hey, the First Amendment is first for a reason - but if I was on that plaza that day and had to navigate between drums, a group of men yelling racist remarks at me and a bunch of rowdy frat bros, I'd plug my ears and silently tell everyone to shut up.
1
I apologize to the many people in Kentucky who undoubtedly do not approve of the behavior of the representatives from your state who recently attended the pro-life rally in DC. But coming from a state that regularly sends itch McConnell and Rand Paul tomthe Senate they tempt me to say that while you might take the boy out of Kentucky, you can’t take Kentucky out of the boy.
4
If, as I have frequently read, these are children who made a mistake, the proper thing to have done would be to APOLOGISE for it, as the school immediately did. Not have your parents hire a PR firm and affiliate CNN craft a story that you did nothing wrong and are actually the victim of a peaceful man who stepped in to help you.
These boys acting like the mob in Lord of the Flies is forgiveable. The actions of the parents and chaperones pretending they did nothing wrong is unforgivable. I pity the future of a child not held accountable for his bad behavior and the mess people like this make in our society.
4
Hopefully, without actual real hope, this incident will finally bring the forces of divisiveness and nastiness and, I really must say it, evil, to their senses.
The left or "progressive" movement, is evil. There is no other word. It must be stopped. Now is the time.
It follows its own book, of course, which book clearly states that lies are good if and only if they lie to aid the far far left wing cause. It does not say "tolerable" it says "good". The idea is to attack the other side for any event it (the other side) is visible in ... no matter what that other side did.
I've said this before and always been censored out by the NYT. But I'll say it again. If Trump made his State of the Uinion speech at say a local hospital and announced that he was in fact God incarnate, and that all the sick and dying would be cured, and they all got up and left, free of all disease, the Left would find a way to attack him.
Even if the healing was spreading out throughout the whole galaxy.
And the legacy press , even the NYT at first, would manage
to follow the left in their spin. To its credit, the NYT would correctly mention the Second Coming.
Note that the mention of God here is, of course, merely a talking point. I don't claim Trump is God.
3
Yanni. 100%. And that dress is definitely white and gold!
1
So, just what is the point of this piece, to bring people together or to tear them farther apart? The latter certainly draws more clicks, and that makes media management happy. Is it the tonic America needs right now, or is it more problem, less solution?
I grow weary of the sanctimony on both sides of every issue, and putting it all in one place makes it worse. As Peggy Lee so aptly sang, "Is that all there is? ... If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing. Let's break out the booze and have a ball."
I really enjoyed this article because when I first learned of the incident and checked it out, I thought, "This seems like a bunch of blather, much ado about nothing, making a mountain out of a mole hill." You confirmed my initial reaction. Thanks.
As usual, Douthat's column is all about Ross - "Look how smart I am!" A thoughtful examination of "scissor" statements, as this column started out to be, would be a worthy exercise, especially in this age of "fake news". But Ross doesn't have the intellectual integrity to go there. Sad.
4
Gawd, America! Even when you seem to realize there are many sides to every argument you seem not to grasp that fact’s significance.
It doesn’t mean that everything is relative. Far from it! It means that logic and fact matter more than ever. It is possible to come to a “righter or wronger” conclusion about political issues without being partisan about it.
Until you figure this out you will continue to spin your wheels.
The top reader comments make Ross Douthat’s case for him. Here we are in the longest shutdown of the people’s government ever in our history — with hundreds of thousands of federal workers directly affected, with lots of consequent and needless hardship and damage to ordinary Americans, and with great ripples of disruption spreading out to constractors, people that rely of government services etc etc — and yet the social media lights up with apoplectic liberal righteousness about some nitwit kid wearing a bound-to-provoke MAGA cap, who may or may not have disrespected an American Indian elder. Have we gone completely nuts. Americans, especially liberals, have lost their bearings. Forget gender, forget race, think solidarity, think about all the essential aspects of life we ALL share.
2
Very nicely written.
But I still want to punch the kid...
3
You know what, Ross? I usually only comment when I have something rather negative to say about your attitude, but today ... excellent column!
Finally, something everyone can agree about - we're all obnoxious, each in our own little way.
I question the sincerity of people concerned over getting the real story coming from supporters of Mr Trump, he of the > 6000 falsehoods since becoming president.
I see the media seeking to correct the story. I see people on the comment boards offer apologies for a rush to judgment. Please point to me one instance where this President or his supporters have shown the same effort to correct the record. Has Mr Trump apologized for calling for the death penalty for the Central Park 5? Or is he still insisting he is right despite DNA evidence and a confession to the contrary?
"You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye."
1
Religions are control systems and do not describe reality in their beliefs. These boys are the victims of their parents cult. Nuts exist aplenty among all groups and nearly everyone involved in this incident, except the native American guy, are obviously not in a rational fact based reality, including Ross. We are about to pass through a time when return of our environment to a survivable state may be in doubt. We have ten to twenty years to make huge changes and if we don't then humans will become extinct. But then, religion does always pray for the end times. So, maybe they know what they are doing. Killing us all because it is proof of their God. The prophecy comes true. The sins of man bring about the apocalypse. Because they predicted the end, the end proves their religion. This is their insanity,
2
Ross Douthat's compassionate focus on his fellow white Southern Roman Catholic clansmen is typical.
Only 24% of Americans are Catholic but six Supreme Court Justices are of that faith. Only 2 % of Americans are Jewish but 3 Justices are Jews. The religious sectarian misogynist patriarchal bias regarding female sexual, procreation and health and medical choices is the root cause of this issue.
The truth is that 63 million Americans including 58% white people voted for the moral degenerate serial adulterer sexual assaulter harasser cowardly dishonorable unpatriotic military draft dodger corrupt crony capitalist corporate plutocrat oligarch who inherited his Daddy's moneyed real estate empire.
Trump did not run a covert stealth subtle campaign. Everyone knew that he was a heathen hedonist pagan by nature who played a businessman on reality TV and had no governing political experience nor talent. And everyone voted for or against him accordingly.
Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton was also a known figure who managed to stumble and fall twice on the way to her coronation. Two of the most atypical different men to ever.
Cutting through all of the algorithmic "scissor" nonsense is the reality that high tech white supremacist Silicon Valley class of robber barons malefactors of great wealth colluded, collaborated, conspired and cooperated with Israeli and Russian foreign intelligence to hack, meddle and intervene in our campaigns, elections and politics.
3
I am no fan of protests in general, because they often threaten or actually create violence and bring out others into confrontations. A March for Life is clearly anti-abortion, and I partially understand why teenagers from a catholic school might be there. But why are native Americans or black Israelites there? Barging in on another's party is bound to be controversial and confrontational. Protests are too often an excuse for people to do stupid things.
Reading someone's face, into a smirk, is clearly a projection.
Remember, Charlottesville was, originally, a protest over removing a statue from a park. A large number of counter protesters gathered and the issues went far beyond the statue. The villain was really the city and police of Charlottesville which allowed the violence to start and build. Stupid and vile protesters are just that; I expected more from the City.
1
C'mon. Get real. The kid in the MAGA hat was outrageously disrespectful to the elder. He says was he was smiling to show he was in peace? He was saying a prayer? No way. Use your eyes, people. Clever of the far-right tribalists to mobilize their children for media buzz. In counterpoint possibly to the leftist Parkland teens.
5
I read Ross and the comments, but one item is missing: the responsibility the parents of the boys bear for how their kids behaved.
“Proper” boys doing the tomahawk chop in front of an elderly Native American while standing before the Lincoln Memorial?
And where were the chaperones?
I see faults in two parties at this event: the “boys,” and the agitating Black Muslim group.
But I hear nothing about the adults raising these boys.
Relax Ross, you'll forget about this incident in a week, so don't fret, your next appearance on a national media talk show is right around the corner. Hang in there buddy.
May be an unbiased bystander (a foreign tourist) can actually describe how this evolved with three parties , the preachers, the children and the native american.
The native american can beat his drum wherever he pleases. After all it is his ancestral land. Was he threatening anyone with his drum beat? Was he being abusive?
Tongue in cheek , I have to add - The kid will probably be invited by the White House to attend the State of the Union Address. The cameras will turn on him when the president brings up the subject of protecting the unborn. Smirk, smirk!
Is it just me, or has protest in America have become so ritualistic, so constant, that it has lost its ability to move us? It seems today everyone and their sister is marching in small groups - like children playing at protest - to what end? Worse, this idiotic government shutdown well into its second month should have people in the streets by the millions marching on the Capitol to demand the 100 callow, mere shadows of greatness that now inhabit the US Senate, drop their partisan posturing and carve some profiles in courage into the walls of photos that cover their outer offices. Instead, we fain outrage at children being children and wearing MAGA hats because saluting with their middle fingers has become so mainstream they need something more edgy to festoon their strutting. Let us, like the anti-war and civil rights marchers of the 1960s, resolve to find one thing we can agree on, and then signs in hand, head to the Capitol. Until then, please take your small ball game and go home. Until real change comes, no one is listening. And real change requires consensus and that requires finding what unites us. That, after all, is what the powerful interests in control of our 'American Democracy' fear the most.
Not sure what the point of this exercise was. If it was about the complexity of the intersection of a religious cult, MAGA hat wearing adolescent Trump supporters marching for reproductive oppression and Native American activists with their own agenda then it was poorly done. Should everyone who reported this incident and reacted to it have waited for more information? Yeah that’s a nice idea. Since when has the conservative media blowhard echo chamber “ever” waited for clarity and accuracy before spouting off. Or corrected itself when wrong. How about almost never. But advocating the idea that the students were simply victims here is just as simplistic a reading as the initial one that a MAGA hat wearing smirking white boy was the primary aggressor. You wear the hat you own the symbolism. If the symbolism is xenophobic, aggressive, reactionary bigotry then that, correct or otherwise is what’s represented and seen. Look at a photo of Trump with his hat and his smirk and then the one of the catholic adolescent with his hat and his smirk (or nervous smile if you will) and the reaction plays out based on your own bias, not the facts on the ground. Yeah I’m biased against Trump, his smirk, his bigotry, his arrogance and his hat. As far as I’m concerned the adults chaperones are the ones who poorly handled this by encouraging confrontation in the first place. And where’s the capital police, are they absent because of the Trump government shutdown? Now that would be sad.
2
accelerant: the event took place at the Lincoln Memorial...under Lincoln's gaze...the site of so much gathering about racial-conflict history in the US.
Congrats Mr. Douthat. Or I suppose I should say thank you.
After avoiding/ignoring your columns for quite some time, you have won me over with this.
Now I'm gong back for a re-read. It's worth it.
Excellent piece.
Imagine what would have happened if it had been a large group of black boys being rowdy and confrontational, and making chopping motions. How many riot police would have been there? How many black boys would have been shot dead by police?
When I see the video, I see white privilege.
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@Carrie
My guess is zero. What's your guess? What I can't imagine is a group of black boys being verbally attacked like these boys were. I also can't imagine that the group of black boys would have been betrayed by their school and mayor and hung out to dry by the media. When I see this video I see the feminist media being exposed for the bigots and sexists they are. I see you being exposed as well.
2
This article was quite good, if a little long.
In my largely poor urban neighborhood, young men are the ones to avoid on the street. This I learned after becoming a landlord new to this kind of city living. The bums, drug users, drunks, and prostitutes aren't that bad, it's the young men you have to watch out for.
There is always rock and paper.
Amazing to me that a group of white teens horsing around is just that; had it been a group of black teenagers it would have been a “mob,” a “gang,” or worse! Kavanaugh and his buds were just white boys horsing around, too...and look where that went! Accountability is an important concept for all of us to learn.
2
One doesn't have to be an expert on facial expressions and body language or a rocket scientist to see that peacemaking boy's smirk is a smug smirk. And what about the tomahawk chops obviously not intended for the black demonstrators. Otherwise that would have been a real mess. The "peacemaker" had a neat explanation the day after being coached what to say to the media. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. There are two possibilities here. Must be a quack or a duck.
3
My conscience is pushing me to point out the near universal lack of condemnation of the "Hebrew Israelites" and their vociferous racism, homophobia, and basic decency. And to ask why there is no rush to judgement, let alone detailed criticism, regarding them.
I have been a close-up witness to their hatred and vile language in several venues, and I have marveled at the restraint that most of their "targets" have exhibited. I have also marveled at the cowardice exhibited by everyone, pundits, local authorities, and bystanders alike.
My conscience wants to know:
Isn't it just because they are Black? What if the HS boys had been African American, and the Hebrew Israelites white? Would there now be a moment's silence?
4
"Culture war signaling"! Listen to your "whatever"; like "hate speech" for which there is no legal definition, "culture signaling" can mean whatever an individual wants it to be and for whatever purpose no matter how revolting or nefarious. These two principles are used to justify any prejudice that strikes one at the moment. Anything a person says, anything they wear, can be used as an excuse to defame, incite, and ruin peoples' lives..no thought or principles needed. With "hate speech" and "culture war signaling", we each are a walking, talking beacon, ready for a hit at any time by anyone. No wonder people with any sense refuse to discuss issues. Want to know where this will wind up? Watch a video of Evergreen University students confronting their hopeless and complicit professors, or right wing thugs in Charlottesville. That is our future, a Stasi State.
1
The Black Hebrew Israelites are as fringe as Westboro Baptist Church and everyone who lives in cities knows to ignore them. You just walk by. These Covington boys indulged their own provocations by wearing red MAGA hats that many associate with racist and sexist and homophobic views. Then they mocked and smirked at Nathan Phillips. The boys treated their DC trip like a circus sideshow. Clearly they were not properly prepared for such a trip to a diverse, global city where the world moves through. Instead they brought their apparent lack of basic social skills and their privileged provincialism. And the adults in charge apparently condoned their behavior. I’ve attended many matches in DC. Everyone has always been civil. These boys reflect their school and what apparently is a boys will be boys culture and white male privilege.
1
So now we’re ALL acting like Trump. Good work, Vladdie.
Glad mainstream media is doing their mea culpable with more “evenhanded” coverage, highlighting the relative innocence of dozens of marginally controlled teenage boys, wearing intentionally inflammatory political paraphernalia, surrounding a small group of older Native Americans and 5 elderly Black Israelite activists.
The Scissors scenario might get even more sanitized if the latter two groups had also retained “crisis management” PR firms as did Sandman’s parents, who released a multi-page statement with a phenomenal amount of extrinsic detail, attributed to the teenager.
(RunSwitch Public Relations, which is Kentucky's largest public relations and public affairs company and specializes in “crisis management", confirmed that the Sandmann family had retained their services through RunSwitch partners, a third partner of which is a "conservative political commentator is the third partner in RunSwitch.")
A crisis management team working on behalf of the Native Americans and black activists could have de-fused the situation faster than you could say, “Spin.”
The column violates one of Aristotle's rules of rhetoric, that you should not attempt to explain the obvious by means of the less obvious.
The “scissor” is a fun way of polarizing long festering issues that need to be unpolarized to be solved. My thanks to the fake media (and the Russians) who are far enough away from reality to point out and exploit the folly of our policy stalemates. Consider:
MAGA hat + Anti-abortion march: Conservative federal judges (appointed by Mr. Trump) will recognize a father’s right to refuse consent to the abortion of his unborn child. Government may not infringe father’s right to procreate after consensual sex.
Gun violence: Require gun insurance priced at the danger of harm of particular guns and ammunition in the hands of particular people. Victims will be well compensated and insurance companies will reward best practices.
Affirmative action: End discrimination, end collection of data on race, sex, etc. Replace Civil Rights laws with right of all to be treated fairly by business, universities and places of public accommodation. Respect legitimate religious values in business decisions.
Poverty + mobility + taxes: tax net wealth and income inversely, See https://nyti.ms/2HrN5WD#permid=30275208
Immigration + sanctuary cities + wall + drugs: Stop political obstruction of what all know is reasonable.
Criminal Justice + discrimination + justice: Invalidate criminal laws that are not clearly defined, impose fixed sentence lengths, encourage alternatives to incarceration based on public release plan available on the internet for public comment.
1
Why don’t you interview the attorney from Florida who, along with her mother, was a disinterested bystander to this confrontation? Why did she think they were dangerous and showed a mob mentality? What about the photographer from South Carolina who likewise thought the boys were out of control? I understand that the black Hebrew Israelites were taunting a lot of people, but there’s still some truly reprehensible behavior on the part of these boys. WHERE were their chaperones?
"To understand what makes this incident so brilliant in its divisiveness, you need to see the tapestry in full, how each constituent element (abortion, race, MAGA, white boys, Catholicism, Native American ritual) automatically confirms priors on both sides of our divide.z'
No, all you need to see is white male privilege. Arrogant white male privilege. The rest is just commentary.
I think in the end the school and local diocese will support these students. Simply put, the parents of these students and the local catholic population in general are rich and powerful. They are the bread and butter of the diocese and that's all that matters. Show them the money and they'll bend over backwards and forwards for you. Eyewitness testimony, audio video and facts don't count. Money, wealth, and power does.
1
this is more balanced than David Brooks. Thank you.
If you are a parent of a teenager, as I am, you should be intellectually honest and see that MAGA kid’s facial expression for what it was and what it was intended to be: a smirk.
3
Google "Covington, Blackface, Snopes" and then explain this all to me again (please, I still can't believe it). A upper class, 90% white community, in 2015, allowing behavior like that at a high school basketball game? Where are the adults in this community- coaches, teachers, parents- that allow this to happen? Shame on them.
1
The scissor concept is brilliant and terrifying.
Let’s not forget the context. Those boys were there in DC to demonstrate their disrespect for women. Small step to face down an older Native American. As a former catholic prep school boy, I recognize the presumptuous arrogance. Those boys and those who educate them and sent them sicken me.
2
Does it 'disrespect women' to stand up for the human rights of developing human beings? How, may I ask, are women attending the march 'disrespecting' themselves for their moral beliefs? They believe the intentional killing of developing human beings is wrong. Why can't their beliefs be respected as well, as they peacefully assemble in America?
1
Ross, It sure would help to heal the country if you told your employer not to be so one-sided and biased.
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Rather interesting. Very little, perhaps no, mention of the real hate speech and despicable behavior; i.e. that of the Black Hebrew Israelites ( or whatever they call themselves ). And of course a total ignoring of the speech of the young Native - American telling the kids to go back Europe, which in itself is rather amusing in that Native - Americans are not really " native " in that they crossed the Barents Sea from Russian Asia to reach North America.
2
If you can't see that preppy smirk for what it is, I wonder if you could see GW Bush's preppy smirk, or Brett Kavanaugh's preppy smirk.
If not, you've got a significant cultural blind spot.
1
Facebook is the ultimate Scissor machine. It is purposefully designed to promote the most engaging, and therefore the most divisive, content -- because that is what keeps people on the site and clicking through to ads and generating profits for Zuckerberg et al.
This is a great example of the how the free market automatically generates progress, if you just let it do its magic! The magic of Adam Smith's invisible hand!
I don’t know what happened, but in between this and the BuzzFeed story last week, it’s almost like a rush to produce content, any content, to soak up as many clicks as possible, means that understanding and learning what actually happened isn’t important anymore.
And newspapers go bankrupt if they don’t participate. Fantastic.
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Our country at this historical moment in time is massively at odds with itself from within. Its extreme divisiveness is a gift to Vladimir Putin and his brilliant grand plan of gradual destabilization of the U.S. as witnessed each and every day under this destructive administration which is tearing apart its very citizens one ideology and one institution at at a time He's succeeding.
1
In terms of the March for Life, the Trump hat signifies the President's support for the marchers. The President understands that the intentional killing of developing human beings as a matter of convenience is wrong. That is a pro, not anti-science statement. When will the party of human rights begin to stand up for the developing human being's rights?
Thanks for a good article. I enjoyed the inner monologue. May you never succumb to that voice.
And yes, it's a sad time for national dialogue. Outrage jumps ahead where facts can never reach it.
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Suppose they had " Black Lives Matter" T shirts on? Think of the interpretation. I agree that the adult supervisors for these teens should have stopped all of this. There are very credible eye witnesses who definitely blame the Teens. Then there is the history of this school being involved in many other racial incidents. Bottom line there is now a climate of racial hostility throughout the country and it is part of one group trying to get the power over all others.
2
I dislike confrontation and have avoided expressing my liberal-leaning opinions online to my conservative MAGMA wearing family and friends. But since we all grew up in Northern Kentucky, I replied to a comment about the Covington Catholic event. I felt slimed by their immediate and highly charged emotional response. The short exchange was almost exactly as described in the Scissor effect. Where I saw a disrespectful kid; they said, among other things, that he was defending himself. Whatever or whoever is inciting this divide must be addressed. Myself, I'm taking the Buddhist approach -- empathy for where the other person is coming from.
1
" . . . let me flatter liberal readers' piety . . . " Really, Ross. My piety has never felt flattered by you. I like your "conscience" debating you on this one, and you may be right about these kids. One piece of this I found most disturbing was the immediate condemnation of a school community, blaming the school for possible negative attitudes exhibited by the kids. Schools can only do so much. As a former principal, "there, but for the grace of God, go I." Kids arrive in the 9th grade with fairly well-formed attitudes and habits, many of which the school spends a great deal of energy trying to overcome.
This incident leaves me wondering if there is anything that can possibly bring us together. Are the disagreements just that, or are they indeed symptoms of a deeper disease that is incurable? Will we all adopt the New York Subway approach of making eye contact with no one, or will we move TOWARD each other in the hope of achieving something better. God bless your "conscience." It was a good exchange.
I'm as left coast as they get, but I do indeed see the exasperation Ross is getting at, the immediate harsh condemnation of high school kids with their fashion statements covering their under-informed brains. My first reaction was outrage at the tomahawk chopping youth, but I think back to my own high school days and am pretty sure I too would have followed the crowd there. Then, is it the fault of the chaperones? Or were they too victims of a fiery mix of divergent forces at the Lincoln memorial, the nation and the globe? As the scissor rends the fabric of our democracy, the only way forward is to come to terms with these frictional factions in our heads and in our country. I appreciate Ross's authentic discourse with himself and with us. If we are immediately denouncing high school kids based on short social media posts, we all could use some of that same self awareness.
2
I think our country as we have known it is gone. As many others have noted since Trump came to office, he is the symptom of a dramatic change in the GOP in the last 30 years.
As a party they no longer believe in any of the things they pretended to champion (morality, national security, fiscal responsibility, citizenship), and they don't really believe in the premises of the Constitution. They want to keep people from voting. They don't want to govern, they want to loot. Given all this, how are we ever going to turn around? Especially with climate changing racing down on us while the GOP denies it. You don't want to be on the planet after 2050, maybe even after 2040. And the USA is likely to be become outright authoritarian before that.
2
The rage on the right is fueled by the protected class status of the Native American and even more so by the protected class status of the black protesters. They don't believe in protected class status or care about the history behind it (genocide/slavery). Rage on the left because the MAGA hat guy represents the faction that holds power (SCOTUS, POTUS and half of Congress, while being a clear minority of voters. trump lost by 3 million votes, and the Senate, which controls SCOTUS has heavy over-presentation of the same minority. Deep-seated historical antipathies faced off. It's not just a social media driven teapot tempest.
5
I glanced at the story when it first appeared: Catholic school boys, MAGA hats, elderly Native American seemingly abused - yes all the boxes were ticked and so I pressed my outrage button.
And I see that I'm doing that all the time now. Headlines continuously flash past and provoke reactions in me which then reinforce the views that cause me to have such instant reactions - and so the process accelerates and expands and leaves no room for anything more complex than anger.
I'm becoming a dog in a Pavlovian experiment, abandoning all higher judgments as the media rings its bells.
It starts from the fact that I despise Trump for wholly rational and defensible reasons, but its gone far beyond that now and has polluted the way I see anyone even slightly on his side.
The Covington affair brings that demeaning truth home and I'm going to try to do better.
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Very powerful.
The "scissor" algorithm is simply the same one bullies have always used amplified by manipulates social media, fox so-called news and hate radio.
WE THE PEOPLE are smart enough to sort out the truth and must not stoop to the "bully" level.
2
Maybe I'm wrong. The comments here show exactly what Mr. Douthat points out - and exactly what The Con Don and other democracy-destroyers want. Arguments that cannot be won but cause chaos.
The entire incident was unnecessary and should not have been amplified by the media.
Let's think, people. Let's ask ourselves if today's "thing" will matter tomorrow or next year. What doesn't divide us makes us stronger - together.
2
Nope the MAGA hats representing racism and hatred and our so called racist sexist hateful bigoted homophobic incompetent so called president is what’s tearing this country apart. Conservatives don’t shriek about thousands of kids separated at the border illegally by DHS but when a few privileged white boys IN MAGA HATS get blowback let the pearl clutching commence. White male privilege and racism are the primary vehicles of hate here. Look in the mirror Ross.
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Douthat, you can't muster the courage to simply write that here was another shameful racist display by the left without creating a cartoon to give you some cover.
3
@flix
Wait. Is he a conservative or liberal commentator? I've seen him described as both in this comment section. Maybe that means he's doing a good job of being balanced? Both sides hate him.
1
The problem is the press --- right and left. The 24-hour, instant news cycles are driving journalists crazy. We saw where this was going when TV news first appeared.
We need to keep our skepticism alive at least for 24 hours. Once a few hours went by, someone got the full story. Trouble was that heads were already spinning.
1
just a note that NLP/NLG algorithms can absolutely iterate on social media - entirely automatically. Techniques and datasets upon which to build have exploded over the last 4 years, and any programmer can expose artificial, selectively polarizing content by trial-and-error, to the entire twittersphere and other platforms. Better yet, by combining metrics on each post's success in this infamous operation, with quantitative metrics in the process that generated the most successful posts, genetic algorithms can breed the most abhorrent content generators maximizing the entropy (uncertainty) of reception and the aggressiveness of recipients' tone in response. The level of bot policing required to break this crisis is beyond the reach of most elected representatives.
A way forward would be to have the MAGA hat teenager and the Native American sit down together on a few talk shows (after a bit of counseling on conflict resolution) to demonstrate how differences can be discussed and accepted. Maybe a friendship or mentorship would follow between such two unlikely people. If it can happen in Green Book...ah, but I wish. I don’t think any of us are taught those skills anymore. We’ve lost the ability to put ourselves in other people’s shoes.
2
My opinion of Ross just went up considerably. Maybe he should adopt this approach more often?
4
I liked Douthat’s taking a sort of novelty in the style for this column, which worked very well. That might not be “novelty”, because I’m a new subscriber, starting at the end of 2016, around the time of the unsettled settlement of the last Presidential election; so, I might not know simply. The introduced short story anyway is intriguing. The plots seem to exaggerate the current polarization in reality to be a nightmarish (for me) divisiveness of opinions - easy to diffuse, prompt to be agreed on, irresponsible to be counter-argued against, and quick to nullify all in chaotic digital exchanges, *and* relentless to move onto the next, to the next, to the next ... (theoretically it can continue infinitely). This is the potential in the introduced short story, I grasped. Douthat made this column lightly rounded in the latter part (=the conversation with the AI) by indicating that any criticism, professional or not, would not be able to get out of the arena (=the fighting field = platforms), because leaving the field means that you lose the whole audience. Now, how to fight with the enemy’s weapons in their terrain?
My take away: Clarifying words and thinking and trying to find some reasonable middle ground and sense out of conflicting stories like this one are important.
We cannot own the hubris any longer that allows us to judge incidents like these based ONLY on our interpretation of a 10 second video. We expect great WRITERS to attempt to squeeze out the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. To do otherwise is to foster further breakdown of the important basis of democracy in the United States...E Pluribus Unum.
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Bravo!
1
Ross, the real question is which PR agency us paying your bills? A 100 teens wearing the new symbol of white supremacy bussed to an anti abortion rally- surrounded 4 black people and an elderly Native American man and Mick him? And you are still trying to spin this?
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@Richa. Did you actually learn anything about this incident? I cannot believe you are actually supporting a hate group like the Black Hebrews. Or are you just really anti-White? You seem to somehow assume white supremacy in your screed.
2
Well said, Ross. Good luck getting yourself heard.
4
"Also, it’s dumb to wear MAGA caps to a march against abortion; to lots of people they’re a symbol of white-identity politics and a justifiably unpopular president...."
The author, or one of his conflicting pretend personalities, fails to acknowledge that the MAGA cap's symbolism of "white-identity politics" is another creation of the hostile liberal opposition media. The ones who are again responsible for another episode of Fake News. He actually thinks, or expects his readers to believe, it became the "new white hood of the KKK" by a force of immutable nature.
2
I have to admit that just the sight of a MAGA hat affects me in a negative way. That being said I did not jump on the bandwagon of labeling these boys or anyone with a MAGA hat. However, I have no doubt that our current president is a racist and the MAGA hat is HIS hat and if I ever see one lying around I will promptly urinate on it. Is America greater since the MAGA hat made the scene?
7
Another right-winged pundit claiming victimization of one of their own, so to absolve his GOP of their path to power with bigotry, misogyny and religious fascism. Before you glorify a religious student's self righteous mug, you should point out these are the same people that elected your president. How is that going? More tax cuts? Deregulation? Corporate welfare? Your GOP got all that in your first year in office now it is time to play the right winged victimization card, I suppose. People who live in your GOP house of bigotry should not cast any stones!
3
Point taken. See ya, Twitter.
1
Thank you.
1
What is not mentioned in this 'soul searching' op ed is that the red hats were making hatchet gestures. Also shame on you for invoking Kristalnacht in this piece. That is more out of line than what these young red hats did.
1
Sorry, Russ, the device in this column didn't work for me, though I wanted it to. I came away thinking you are conflicted. I have no problem with that, but I didn't learn anything.
Every time I see a punk with a MAGA hat I feel the same way I do when I see one with a cigarette in his mouth. What a shame. What a waste.
3
From a symbolic POV, MAGA hats are basically Klan robes at this point. Wearing them automatically makes whatever is happening racist.
8
The real question - why does this matter - other than - for the 2nd time in less than a week - the "media" takes a selected ball and runs with it ( proving that Buzzfeed taught nothing ) and that - even in discussing this "incident" - and that is a stretch - the focus is on the white kid with the MAGA hat from a Catholic Church. There were at least three players in this - one of which apparently had a nationalist agenda, was taunting and generally spreading an agenda. They warrant hardly a message So, we are descending to a level scarily comparable to Nazi Germany where the "news media" controls the message and plays to people's worst nature. Weak "We blew it again" from the media means nothing
3
I would like NYT's liberal chorus of commenters to explain to me why you are all bashing the Covington kids for rudeness, while saying NOTHING about the Black Israelites who began the confrontation by harassing the Native American group, and continued by insulting everyone shouting phrases like "incest babies". Please explain the obvious double standard.
15
Either we have rights under the First Amendment, or we don’t. The MAGA hats are protected speech, as was the Native American’s drum. Those are non-issues here.
9
People are criticizing the boys for wearing their MAGA hats. I would tell them to keep them on. These hats are part of their freedom of speech and freedom of expression. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these. Just because those critics don't like President Trump doesn't mean they should remove them. Would they insist if they were wearing Obama or Clinton apparel? Of course not. This political correctness has become ridiculous.
These hats had absolutely nothing to do with the despicable behavior of the Black Hebrew Israelites. They needed a target and these boys were easy prey. The boys should be proud of who they are and wear what they want. They must never give in to these detractors and be true to themselves. I would tell them not to listen and be who they are. We still are a democracy and have freedom of choice. At least I thought we did.
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@WPLMMT The 'boys' have a right to wear the hats. But what I don't understand is why they are wearing political messages at a school sponsored event. Don't know why the school was sponsoring them attending the event at all, actually.
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@WPLMMT. MAGA hats are the new Confederate flag, a symbol of racism, there is no equivalence with Obama or Clinton apparel. Also, because you didn’t watch the early videos, you are unaware that the boys were yelling racist taunts back at the cultists. While the boys do have a right to be proud of being small-minded racists, that does not negate right of moral people to state their disapproval of such evil.
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@WPLMMT
"True to themselves"? "Be who they are"?
Right now they are adolescents, who are unlikely to have thought a great deal, if at all, about the issues underlying their purported commitment to "making America great again" (whatever that might mean).
The values and norms they espouse, or rather which are manifested in their actions, are for the most part not theirs but those they have unthinkingly inherited throughout their short lives. The capacity to reflect, analyze, and evaluate these values and norms has yet to be developed. This, of course, is likely to be true for most adolescents.
In any case, until the capacity for honest reflection on their values develops, together with the willingness to revise or reject them in light of clarity on a variety of relevant factors, these boys have no selves to be true to.
The sad part is this is likely to be true of most of us.
30
I normally find Douthat's pieces very tiresome, but I appreciate that he had the self-reflection to see how he comes across to both sides.
As for the issue, I no longer think it matters what happened at the march. It no longer matters what the next controversy will be. There isn't going to be break because each side recognizes that the other is an existential threat to their way of life.
Is that alarmist? Maybe, but I think it's true. Research has started to show that the both sides don't even think about issues the same way. That both sides can even agree on the same fact but have an entirely different view about what that means for the country.
As an example, I don't think many people would agree what Make America Great Again means. We know what the words mean. But to progressives the implication is a call to return to White supremacy and the racial terror of the mid 20th century and earlier. For conservatives, that interpretation might seem insane. They might see it as a sign of patriotism and support for the president.
There is no real way to bridge that gap. Even if we try to consider the question from the other person's perspective, we can't. Not really. The effects of the other side's views and policies will still be felt as an attack. And to a certain extent, it is.
1
I am at a loss. Everyone near or at the Lincoln Memorial had the absolute right to be there and to speak or act in any way that was legal in terms of the First Amendment. But, what is more important, is that speakers have responsibilities. Even symbolic speech carries with it the responsibility to take the backlash. Wearing a MAGA hat means something - different ideas to different people - but one must know that in putting on the hat, he is inviting criticism.
The real issue at hand is why no adult in the lives of these teenagers chose to step in. No chaperon chose to tell them to stop.
Racism is not going to be conquered by those who are targets. It is up to white people (and I am one) to raise our children better, to be better and to help change our country for the better. Wearing a MAGA hat sends a message to the contrary. That boy knows it. All those boys know it. Their chaperones know it. Their school knows it. They choose to call it something else - kind of like saying that the Civil War was about states rights, not slavery.
Are we really this obtuse?
4
The PR Firm the family is using was offered by the Republican National Committee, just to maximize the exploitation.
8
Symbols come to have specific, generally accepted meanings that are very powerful. For Americans, the bald eagle is a symbol of freedom, not an animal picking at a dead carcass. The swastika is a symbol of murderous evil, not a Eurasian religious symbol. The MAGA hat is symbol related to raucous rallies at which Trump called for beating up protesters, jailing political opponents and building walls. I doubt anyone who wears a MAGA hat is trying to find a compromise to thorny problems. The hat is worn to use its symbolic meaning to enrage their opponents, just as if someone walked around New Orleans wearing a Rams hat.
4
Ross, I thought that was brilliantly written.
3
I am not a general fan of Ross Douthat, but I must give him credit for a very reflective piece. Thank you for these thoughts, Ross!
1
Sadly, the only interpretation that comes to mind is poor parenting. And kids that have no manners.
Maybe that is too simplistic, you say?
These kids should have been on the bus back to their hometowns and not hanging out in the cold.
And there is a reason that these groups clash when they meet in a public space such as Washington DC.
Because they don’t mix in every day life.
You wonder how Trump became such a hater? Because he lived his life in a tower, Trump Tower.
1
The worse behavior among all the ‘actors’ here, were the Black Israelites. If you don’t believe me then you haven’t seen the entire video. But, it appears, that you have no problem with THEM.
2
I won't be done until every conservative religious school stops sending out 16 year old boys to tell me what decisions I should make about my body.
11
They are as entitled as anyone else, including yourself, to state their opinions. Perhaps you’d prefer living in a country where only YOUR view is acceptable. There are many countries like that around the world...and none of them are democratic.
3
With respect, if you find yourself relegated to arguing that the smile of a teen-age boy is in fact not a smile at all, not even a sign of baffled, awkward embarrassment, but a "smug" expression carefully constructed to hurl an offensive insult while cunningly maintaining plausible deniability, you've already lost your argument. You are most likely looking in a mirror, not at the teenager.
2
There was a report on NPR this morning which discussed the suspicious Twitter account which spread the the most inflammatory video. The experts interviewed believe the action were specifically designed to create discord. Russian bots anyone?
2
The Black Nationalist were there spewing hateful wrong stuff, unquestionably. However, although the Catholic kids have a right to be there, they didn't have to be there. By staying there, they are giving them an audience to spew their hateful rhetoric, walking away from them would have served everyone better.
On a slightly different rhetorical note, I wonder if President Trump would call some of those Black Nationalist "fine people".
2
What is most notable about this sad story is the quick corrections made by the mainstream media. Yes, they too easily fell prey now to expectations of bigotry emanating from a rowdy group wearing MAGA hats. They've seen it before. And there was bigotry aplenty just not nearly as much as they read into the video clip of that smirking young adult who now has hired a PR firm. Would that the Hannities and the Fox News outlets retracted their innumerable follies so quickly. In fact, they don't retract them at all; after they are exposed as fakes, they just bring them back a few months later and Douthat will write about them all over again. I understand that Jim Jordan, the House wrestler, is trying to drum up another investigation of -- get this! -- Hillary's email!
1
This whole opinion piece is just one more example of the inherent paranoia of the evangelical movement. If they don't get their way, they are being "attacked." The press is out to get them. Everything is rigged. Poor us. They want women back in their place, darn it, and if they don't get that it's clear evidence they are being repressed.
1
The press is definitely out to get them, if after viewing this hour long video, they have nothing to say about the Black Israelites, the ones who actually created this entire situation.
2
Probably going to be the column you wrote that I admire most.
1
Ross,
I am very appreciative of your efforts and that of the NYTimes to carry on the journalistic tradition of writing for those across the ideological spectrum from yourself. However I’m afraid that this particular installment has instead joined with the trend in popular media of simply pointing out forced or unforced errors of the “other side,” while not speaking to larger issues or solutions. I guess it’s understandable, what with virtually nothing to credit your side for...when your team hasn’t scored a point let alone a win, it’s best to point out a fumble or two on the other side to salve your broken spirit. I’m sorry Ross, there’s a lot of anger in this country but only one particular political party, its leaders, and financial backers has willfully chosen to harness that anger for political power. It further fans that anger and division with daily lies and deceit until genuine hate is the result. You may find little nuggets of fault in the actions of the Democratic Party but I believe it’s genuine efforts toward inclusion rather than exclusion and division are doing more to win the heart of this nation than the party you so dearly cling to. The extreme irony of religious organizations proudly purchasing and wearing rank partisan soaked paraphernalia (MAGA) as they exercise their right of protest indeed speaks volumes. It so easily connects to the death of a young woman in Charlottesville during another protest.
1
I fancied myself to be the only one to hear divergent opinions in my head. Thank you, Ross!
These Catholic youth, unless they’re brainwashed by clergy, would be better advised to protest the church’s appalling treatment of women as second class and its backward stand on contraception.
5
Is it only the religious who can be brainwashed by their leaders. Are ‘liberals’ simply immune to brainwashing ?
3
We used to call that kind of comment a Mother in Law comment- not very PC, but along the lines of "You used to look good in that" type poison dart. Lol.
1
Just get off Twitter. At the very least, don't whine about Twitter and then immediately provide a link inviting the reader to follow you on Twitter.
MAGA hats are basically another form of the confederate flag. why are teenage BOYS allowed/permitted to wear such symbols as they represent their school in public? is it a trump school for sociopaths?
why is there a boy from this elite school leading cheers with his shirt off? in most chaotic situations, police will tell you that the guy with no shirt is going to be a guy who gets arrested.
where are the so-called chaperones in this entire fiasco? do they have MAGA hats too?
3
Why would a loyal outpost of the Vatican, that Covington school, hire a PR firm, RunSwitch, to bail out its boys? That firm was co-founded by supreme smirker and CNN “pundit,” Scott Jennings. He has advised the campaigns of Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, and Jeb(!). When I see that a panel includes Jennings, I switch and run. For a fee, he’ll justify a rotten apple so long as it has fallen to the right.
5
It’s the divide that makes the scissors appear real. The video and the controversy are symptoms, not causes. There is no “the algorithm made me do it.” Confirmation bias—we see what we want to see. For many people, the country they see is unrecognizable. So, when incidents appear to verify their worldview, they pounce. The short story got it right, but in the wrong order. The hate, the racism, the fear, the ignorance, the divide—they have always been here. The existential crises is already here—the incident just reveals it.
And, btw, using Kristalnacht as a comparison is bad journalism and shameful—and you know it, Ross.
In all the noise is a signal. In Libya lots of noise. The signal is the oil flowing unimpeded into the markets. Iraq ditto. Vietnam had its revolutionaries.They sew now. A ton of noise from Russia and well connected bagmen scurrying everywhere . Congo for 150 years. Iran and Venezuela learned a hard lesson. In the bread basket of the world farmers are going broke, not for lack of trying. The food supply is safe, plentiful and artificially cheap.
What you have is mine, Just looking for a way, ANY way. The old expression follow the money.
The riddle of the ages is how to separate the Michalangelos from the Burlusconis. Richard Cheney told us right in our face what his plan was. I wouldn't want his reputation.He thinks he did the job.
High school biology was a shock, we pithed a live frog with scissors.Beautiful garment. The frog? Probably you Ross.
Trump established the red MAGA hat as a clear and unequivocal symbol of racism, bigotry, hatred, intolerance, and white nationalism during his campaign. Anyone who wears that hat carries a reputation that precedes them. Nothing about that slogan has done anything to make this country great. Those who wear it embody and support one of the ugliest persons to rise to power in contemporary history. This much is undeniable.
8
These kids are exactly what I expect from the state that keeps giving us Mitch McConnell. How could wearing a MAGA hat not be incendiary?
3
These were Catholic school boys, whose free speech was unfairly subsidized by being inappropriately untaxed. These were males marching to deny women reproductive rights. These were self-proclaimed supporters of a racist president. And then, the student at the focus defends himself by saying he had "every right" to do what he did, but not addressing whether it was the right thing to do. I'm not looking to further punish these kids, but I'm not sympathetic either.
5
Put the blame on the school's poor planning.
Time to do some field trip overhaul.
1
Trump is the undisputed king of “scissors” statements. By removing him from office, we can begin the healing.
At least no guns were involved.
I thought these boys behaved very well and were just minding their own business. They were standing around waiting for a bus when a bunch of thugs started screaming profanities and the worst insults imaginable. Then a Native American man approached them with a beating drum who was uninvited. All they did was stare. They come from Kentucky and this behavior is probably a bit odd to them. They did not act violently or disrespectful in the least. Why are they receiving all the blame from liberals. Quite frankly, I would be honored to have anyone of them as my son.
I hope these boys have a good lawyer as they have an excellent case for character assassination. After all the inflammatory and derogatory statements made against them, they should sue to the hilt. There have been death threats against them and their families. They even had to close their school on Tuesday. This is the worst kind of harassment and they need to teach the liberal establishment a lesson. Maybe they will then think twice before jumping to conclusions that are false.
2
This story, and the recent news about the Women's March, and a hundred other recent "news" stories just makes me want to retreat and not engage with anyone, for any reason, at all.
2
It seems odd that Mr. Douthat has chosen this incident as a time to wrestle with a tendency to blame both sides where this case obviously dictates an understanding that the kids were harangued at length by a ridiculous hateful group that New Yorkers have heard and learned to ignore for many years. It's easy to understand that these high school children, without having had exposure to this group, might get upset. Being teenagers, they are not going to be good at handling a situation like this. Their reaction to the Native American was stupid and immature- not really surprising actually. If there were adult chaperones from the school present, however, they are the ones that should be blamed for letting this incident play out without interruption.
great article, thanks Douthat, one of your best. People have gone absolutely nuts.
1
Rashomon+Confirmation bias+Demagogery+social media= Scissors. Got it.
What amazes me about this incident is that a statement clearly written by a P.R. firm, not the smirking boy, is accepted as the gospel truth by conservative commentators, and that an elderly man singing and drumming is now being positioned as the aggressor. I believe, based on the videos, that Nathan Phillips was making an honest attempt to diffuse what had become a dangerous situation because of the aggressive taunts of the Hebrew Israelites AND the failure of any chaperones present to read the danger in the situation and get the boys out of there.
3
Aided by the knee-jerk media that reported it all before doing its research into what really happened.
3
Comment section proving right.
Brilliantly done Ross
4
Asked to choose between hanging-out with a kid who thinks with his hat and his smirk and an older guy who thinks with his drum,
I look for the nearest exit and make it a point to find other people to hang-out with.
1
Perhaps videos show everything: teenage boys being disrespectful & teenage boys reacting to insults thrown at them by African American protesters. Like the Duke lacrosse case, where when a rape charge turned out to be false the abhorrent behavior and misogynistic culture that reporting documented defined the Duke lacrosse program was disregarded as the team became “victims” of the media. A full accounting of the incident at the Lincoln Memorial requires an honest reckoning of behavioral mistakes made on all sides. So far that hasn’t happened.
The "scissor algorithm" is here: We call it "Donald J. Trump".
If the boys didn't appreciate the provocation implicit in wearing a MAGA cap, they should now. Blame no else than creator of that hat. This mess is his making; both the specific mess of the Covington incident and the larger mess we're all in.
1
Why did those teens feel the need to travel all the way to Washington to behave that way? Teenage boys really have that much thought about “right to life”? How’d they know to do that “tomahawk” chop? They probably bought those silly red hats at a near by street vendor on the Mall. And their chaperones were where? I feel like we’ve been Kavanaugh’d.
2
Sorry Ross I know what I saw. Ii's not the first time I've seen "in your face" intimidation tactics by MAGA minions. I'm not buying the"good people on both sides" nonsense.
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Two quick things:
Clever literary device.
Based on Mr. Douthat’s thesis, of what use are police body cams?
Funny how all of the examples of "Scissors" are when conservatives weaponize outrage against the rest of us.
3
The problem is the liberal left media, which totally showed their bigotry by not giving the boys the benefit of the doubt in the first place; by not doing their homework in the first place. The main stream media did the nation and the boys a huge disservice.
3
Poignant, entertaining and interesting article, Ross. As scissors go, what number would easing of sanctions on Deripaska be?
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,”
Pope Francis
I am a Catholic child psychologist, and I can't begin to imagine the complexity of the experience that Nicholas Sandemann and his friends had in DC. I feel for him.
Yet, all those who wear MAGA hats should know that their hats express support for a particularly cruel world view that is the antithesis of Christian, just as if they wore hats with swastikas on them.
2
A lot of this fascination with the trivia of society (this incident should never have been covered in the national press) goes back to the 24-7 news cycle. You can keep repeating the same national and international stories over and over to fill the time, or you can find interesting little 'slices of life' in America today, like this one, to comment on, to report. Maybe this was insignificant enough that it shouldn't have gone national...but we gotta fill all that time, got to keep eyeballs on the pages. It's my right, and your job, to be entertained by 'the news' constantly. When news became entertainment, and undertook to entertain constantly, we took a large step downward toward just this sort of constant obsessing with interpersonal trivia that, in the grand scheme of 'the news', amount to belly button lint. Celebrity coverage is tacky, but better than this sort of thing. What are the Kardashians up to? Go cover that.
1
Talk about the Supreme Court decision today instead of this meaninglessness. Just saying
1
It's the second event this week which seem suspiciously designed to undermine media, the first being teh Buzzfeed story. Seems that there are some false stories being planted and run away with on purpose and design.
Those boorish, judgmental, boys are products of adults who have lived long enough to know better. It requires hard work – frequent diverse reading and dialogue together with active inquiry into the broader world - to integrate charitableness and empathy into routine thoughts and actions. The Covington boys’ local elders – parents, teachers, coaches, etc. – have not succeeded at cultivating in their children a propensity to rational and compassionate engagement of the world. And, at a very distressed moment in our nation’s history, such propensity is direly needed. Apart from smirks, sneers and jeers that are typical signifiers of teen-aged boys not yet comfortable in their own skin, we all know that a MAGA cap is effectively an insult to thoughtfulness and compassion. It frankly blares values of the man who popularized it: Lower taxes! Run an unprecedentedly huge deficit! Slash government’s support for those of small means and lesser opportunity! Deny human-caused climate change! Deregulate environmental protections and thus increase threats to our citizenry’s health and safety! Be suspicious and afraid of non-white skinned peoples! Objectify women! Assault women! Lie enthusiastically in order to challenge unwelcome facts! Skirt the law! Navigate life with thin skin and militant vacuity!
The MAGA cap’s values are a world apart from the founding and long-held values that define our America. Those caps don’t belong in Washington DC. They don’t belong in Covington, Kentucky.
5
Bullying is the main ingredient in Trumpism. He "promised" a wall that Mexico will pay for, and thinks that the 33% of fellow fear-ingrossed Americans have forgotten that the wall was to be paid by others...so now he wants us (including the 67% who don't want it and see it as un-American, to pay for it.
Back to what the bully does: he and his minions hold another child, while they steal his lunch and his bus-fare: then promise to give back his bus fare if he says "uncle" and "thanks". So they are to be grateful that they have back half of what is his. They eat his lunch and say "we win again."
How long will this school-yard bully be in total charge of a third of our citizens?? When will we rise up and throw him out of the yard??? Let him continue fleecing the willing who invest with him and go BK while he laughs all the way to the bank. God help us. Amen.
1
Dialogue with an imaginary friend?
In the 80's that was called "Dancing With Myself."
Does anybody think that the parents of these guys would not want a girl impregnated by one of their high school age sons NOT to get an abortion? Seriously?
1
I propose a logical: ad hominem argument ratio. That means the logical divided by the ad hominem. Although I consider myself a progressive this ratio would apply to both sides.
I attended 12 years of Catholic school and have close relatives in the Priesthood and serving as Nuns. When I attended we learned about making moral decisions, thinking, resisting the emotions of the mob and reflecting well on your family name, community, and God.
Somewhere the Catholic church morphed into sex, sex, sex, with focus on gays, birth control and abortion, and now "Making America Great Again" with anti-immigrant hysteria, even as the churches are filled with Spanish speaking congregants. This, even while the Priesthood (but not the disrespected Nuns) sink further into a neverending sex scandal.
I fail to understand why 14-year-old boys need to be enmeshed in one of the thorniest problems in America, birth control, abortion, and sexual identity instead of the more basic acts of charity and compassion.
We supported migrant farmworkers, passing out flyers to boycott non-union grapes at our local market on Saturdays. The sisters to the VA hospital to visit elderly veterans.
Now, Catholic parents let children wear hats of a movement whose leader denies the dignity of the poor and repeatedly calls them criminals and disease-carrying vermin.
And everybody cries foul (snowflakes aplenty) while the nation weighs in with a quick thumbs up/thumbs down as if we are at the Coliseum 2 thousand years ago.
We'd better wake up and stop inculcating our young people with our own biases and start teaching patience, love, respect, and understanding.
Wake up America!
743
Almighty Dollar,
Two leftist priests, James Martin and Thomas Beck, severely criticized these Catholic boys without having all the facts. Who made these two the voice of Catholicism? James Martin pushes the homosexual agenda without making any apologies. Maybe someone should inform him that this goes against Catholic teaching.
The Catholic Church and Covington Catholic in Kentucky were also quick to jump to conclusions against these boys. As a practicing Catholic, I was angry that they did not listen to the boys side of the story. I hope they have since watched the complete video and will apologize to these students in a sincere manner.
I often defend the Church when wrongly attacked but I cannot in this instance. Where was their Christian charity? They certainly need to practice what they have preached for centuries.
7
There is nothing more immoral than abortion. It robs an innocent fetus/baby of life within the womb. The pro life movement has been successful in the 45 years they have been advocating for the least among us. They have saved countless lives.
I volunteer as a pro life advocate in Manhattan and have met many Sisters for Life during my volunteering. They are some of the finest and kindest nuns I have ever met. They devote their entire lives to both mother and child at all stages. Once the baby is born they are still there to assist in any way necessary. They have provided shelter, employment and job training whatever is needed to help these people get on with their lives.
Pro life is the human rights issue of our day and we must never stop speaking out against this intrinsic evil called abortion. We want to protect these mothers and babies from this terrible injustice. I admire these Catholic boys and they have every right in taking up this very important cause. They are wonderful role models for our youth.
6
@Almighty Dollar
Your comment is misinformed. The Catholic Church is one of the great defenders of immigration and sanctuary for the oppressed. Catholic Charities has been roundly criticized for sponsoring and settling tens of thousands of immigrants in the US.
17
Ross, thank you for informing me what Scissors are. My response to it is is as with everything else these days. Roll my eyes, shrug my shoulders and keep walking. This world and the people in it deserve themselves. I'll keep my eyes open for the Scissors App and place it right next to the NYTimes' on my iPad, since they both kind of do the same thing anyway.
Good one Ross. We do need to look inward to examine our conclusions. The chief did express himself, and his direct interpretation, being the primary participant, holds much weight for me.
But yes, viewing the short video and a more extensive video leaves room for doubt. And of course, my mind, when seeing someone wearing a MAGA hat, goes directly to one place. I do think that anyone who wears one of those hats is looking to stir things up. They are tending to model their immature and unbalanced and divisive “leader”. So perhaps not an unjustified conclusion.
But we should indeed slow down and be silent for a minute.
Very cute, Ross! About halfway thru I caught the gist of it, playing out the 'scissor' in the article.
But let me try from my very stock liberal position: I don't know what happened, and I don't care. I haven't watched the video and probably won't bother.
The fact is, this is a tempest in a teapot. Outside of the kids' school, nobody should care. The school should determine to the best of it's ability what fault might lie with the kids, and take appropriate action. The rest of us should yawn.
Compared with the evil that Donald Trump does on a daily basis, or even the Pences do by supporting a school that's blatantly homophobic, this is a 'nothingburger'. (Note that I can live with a homophobic school, but not with the VPs wife supporting it. That's basically thumbing their nose at the law of the land)
I predict the left will get bored and start ignoring this within about a week. Let's hope the right does the same, unlike say the 'ground zero mosque', which took years, and some still are bitter about.
Of course, this is MSM factual distortion. The Covington kids, who are accurately described as mainstream Catholic high school kids on a field trip waiting for their bus, are verbally accosted in an incredibly vile and racist onslaught by a small group of Black thugs, and then doubled down by the Native American drum beaters. The only way to make them look aggressive was to focus on and then magnify a picture of one baby faced kid not retreating from the real assault. You have to do backflips journalistically to turn those kids into racist, privileged, hateful, violent aggressors, and true to form, practically every account over the weekend did exactly that, to the glee of liberal darlings all over the country.
This is the state of reporting in the Trump era, and why there is not a single outlet that can be counted on to give an unvarnished report. And then this editorial still connects these innocent kids to some overlying prejudice in America. Ridiculous
2
Brilliant!
So its too bad you city-living, atheistic humanist progressives cannot understand that the urbanist propaganda produced by the mainstream media is offensive to the traditional values held dear by us God-fearing, hard-working rural conservatives.
We are rubber and you are glue; anything you say bounces off us and sticks on you. :)
1
Forget scissors, let's apply Occam's Razor. These boys were on a school trip to DC to scream hate filled slogans about women's reproductive rights that they have been taught to hate. In the course of the day, they donned their MAGA hats and found a group to scream Trumpie slogans about walls at. Another thing they have been taught. During the course of that, they found a native american to harass, another group they have been taught to hate.
So apply Occam's Razor - the simplest answer is the best answer. These boys have been taught by parents, teachers and Trump to hate...and when given the opportunity to express that hate, they acted out in accordance with their learning. And they got caught on camera. Now they hire a PR firm to help them claim to be victims. No apology, PR.
And the media, including Douthat, play along. And we wonder why our country is sliding into distopia.....
6
This glimpse into Ross Douthat's conflicted mind was a bit more disturbing than I would have liked it to be.
3
Well this one left me scratching my head. Wha?..
what I did notice was the over use of two words lately. Everywhere , algorithms and weaponized. Mostly in news stories. Lately. Look, certain republicans have been waiting for a Donald trump to come along for years. He and their party are modeled after fascism. Call it fascism lite. Or dictator lite. It pretends to be legit, until there is real pushback. Then the crisis/pretense is use to take over parts of the government or in our current case, shut down the government. Don’t belong to the MAGA party, your not welcome or wanted. No work for you. Little Adolfo in his trumpstag.
Fascracism is a new word. Feel free to use it everywhere.
1
This incident is a bit like Star Wars, which first we join in Episode IV. What seemed like forever later (22 years in 20th century time; a day in Trump era time), a "prequel" shows the villain as a sweet, innocent boy.
Say you're under a rock for 44 years—or, as I, avoiding the news for a weekend—and you first come to this tale after all the leaping's done. (Helpful hint: DVR the news and watch it a week late. So much easier to digest when on half of it the story's key Republican reversed himself [Trump/Charlottesville, Flake/Kavanaugh, Romney/Russia…] and the other half's been totally ignored.)
Am I the only person, then, who sees an earlier chapter?
Donald Trump acted in professional wrestling kayfabe and spent 14 seasons learning to pit teams against one another in reality TV competition. Never forget this.
Fresh from not honoring WWI soldiers in Paris, and a bucket of KFC being his first choice to honor MLK (Read: Taco Bowl), the Trump braintrust strategizes.
So stop me if you've heard this one: "Black nationalists," white Catholic school boys protesting abortion, and a Native American war hero go to the Lincoln Memorial on Dr. King weekend.
It's a "government shutdown," so few to no park rangers.
"But how could Trump and McConnell predict our government would be shut down so long," says nobody.
Are the MAGA hats a shoot? (Wrestling term.) Before you answer, the kids are bused in from McConnell's home state. The main kid's represented by McConnell's PR firm.
2
You left out the part were the Smile's parents hired a politically connected PR firm the next day to mitigate the situation.
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/01/21/covington-catholic-runswitch-pr-helped-student-in-controversial-video/2638400002/
4
Those voices you are hearing in your head?
They're wrong.
3
The kid had that look of smug hate on his face and he was arrogantly flaunting it. The rest of the details brooks and this character grasp at are irrelevant.
3
Thank you, Ross.
And let's all call out the "Brazilian" twitter account that started this all @2020fight. The account is now suspended. They were posing, falsely, as a teacher from California.
I would question if the account is actually from a Brazilian. We know these tactics are what the Russian troll farm engages in.
It sure was a "scissor" clip - and it was fundamentally dishonest to what really happened. I don't think that was accidental. It's just such a shame that so many fell for it.
2
A bunch of white, entitled kids from Kentucky went to DC on MLK weekend wearing MAGA hats looking for a confrontation and found one, and filmed it.
It is all the fault of one Native American guy.
Pretty simple, right Ross?
5
You wear a MAGA hat, you are looking for a reaction. You wear a MAGA hat in front of folks who are demonstrating, you’re going to get one.
It’s your choice.
4
How about just “we were had” and apologize to the kids.
Even if the original, now we know totally wrong promise was correct and some kid smirked ( I believe he was just a teen frozen by this novel to him form of confusing aggression in a new and strange place and coming from different directions.
I don’t know what expressions you would have sported as a kid if some strangers in a new strange place started shouting societal taboo insults at you and one and another stranger got inches from your face with a drum. Buddha like smile reflecting your inner peace and understanding that we are all one and kindness is the answer, I am sure.
But let’s say he was smirking. Good for him. That is all what those characters are worth, a smirk and walk away.
This story does not need all this intellectualizing.
Our public places are taken over by unseemly characters and hustlers of all sorts. They know how to play the system. Some have mental issues. In this case they harassed bunch of kids. Media once again turned a ho him nothing happened into a firestorm of falsehoods.
Now they are going through loops of abstractions to give themselves a pass.
3
It's somehow grotesque that on their sweatshirts those students have a "Crusaders for Life" motto. And one of the kids made terrible and ignorant statements in the video. https://gritpost.com/covington-catholic-rape-enjoy/. Sorry those kids don't know anything about life.
4
I watched significant portions of the video of the incident. What I saw was bottom of the barrel examples of both sides of political divide both on the scene and in media afterward. On the scene you had an example of the great public education of America, lockstep, groupthink, "Christian" (right) kids meeting up on the mall with black guys who are not remotely representative of the black population as a whole and a sad old Native American guy with who knows what in his head, and there was another apparently Native American guy arguing with one of the Covington kids about Native Americans having been in the Americas for millions of years.
It was bottom of the barrel America expressive on all sides of consumer, without culture horror show and the media and political parties apparently have sunk to that level too because each tried and are still trying to make their side look good when really this is an example of tribalism on all sides to point of sheer oddity, sheer cultishness, sheer bizarre grappling for some sort of identity in the world. Really, white kids with red baseball caps with Christian rubbish and actually in more mechanized lockstep than anything else? Really a Native American banging a drum, all of Native American culture finally just a dead drumbeat? And black guys from apparently the ghetto with a garbled religious/black nationalistic message? It's like watching three bottom of the barrel music bands facing off in contest and media arguing about which is best.
1
“The high-school boy” was transported to Washington by the Covington Diocese (famous for denying the gay valedictorian in the High School from speaking at graduation) presumably using tax exempt dollars to deny girls and women equal rights. The cynicism of the Church to indoctrinate the boys in male hierarchical superiority bestowed by “God”, and then uses them to subordinate women.
In world history the “scissor” has always been religion. Religion is the “Scissor” that allows believers to torture, burn at the stake, decapitate, rape, enslave, corrupt, wage war and starve non believers with the blessing and grace of god. Fear may motivate humans to violence but fear coupled with religion provides divine justification for genocide,
The children are not responsible for the events. They are minors. Calling zygotes, embryos, fetuses babies is a religious propaganda tool that gives approval to harassment, shaming, threatening with “eternal damnation”, violence and death. All religions need to recognize the freedom that the 1st Amendment provides and then abstain from using that as a club to pummel non-believers. Believe what you want but respect all who do not share your beliefs.
Break the scissor as the 1st Amendment intended. Prohibit religions from twisting law and fomenting violence and depriving women of their right to equality. End tax exempt status to all religions who engage in politics. “Free speech” for religions leads to endless war.
5
The Right has been tearing America apart for decades because it has been the vehicle to getting their true aims into law - lowering the taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans. Don't believe me? Go google Koch brothers and the political policies they proposed in 1980. Then google about their political retreats today and who attends it? Who seeks financial support from them? All you have to do is follow the money. From Rush, Gingrich, Murdoch, Koch's, Mercer's, and a long list of enablers promoting polarization because its profitable, it works as strategy and distracts the public. The MAGA hats are the new "White Hoods" of the 21st Century. The hats are as symbolic as the "brown shirts" of Nazi Germany. People who wear them look at everyone else with the demeanor of saying I am a "tough" guy and don't mess with me. Their kids wear them and have the same attitude. But I have never met anyone who wears one engage in a fact based argument that supports their politics. Everything is dumbed down to a slogan like the "Wall" as if the "Wall" will return America to some time in the past before White Republican CEO's moved their "cheese" overseas. Before a time when technology and automation eliminated their jobs. A time before higher education was necessary to advance in society. Before a time when discrimination of all things not White or male was OK. But a new majority is rising now and the Right is struggling to hide their ugly truths and Trump's. It's not's going well, thankfully.
2
Change the image to one of African American Students from the Bronx wearing "Black Lives Matter" shirts, and how do you think this Scissor Issue would play out on Fox News and other media?
5
It should be noted that students at Covington Catholic HS showed up in black face at a basketball game in 2011. Thus, this school's students have a history of racism. They're affluent, privileged white kids who attend a school whose students engaged in racist behavior in the past.
3
How come so little is reported on what the black nationalists were doing? How come, despite their actions being easily the worst of the bunch, they've been given a pass?
Today's liberal media is just feeding the fire of divisiveness with your biased coverage. A group of people screaming homophobic and very racist slurs--oh and please don't tell me that black people can't be racist--doesn't deserve attention?
No, because liberals self-conceived moral superiority is rooted in their apologism...even at the detriment of truth. So NYT will just shrug their shoulders and say "the whole thing was a mess," so they don't have to actually shine a light on the black people who were REALLY starting trouble. Also, white people--males especially-- are such easy marks these days.
I would never watch Fox News, but I'm becoming more aware by the day that the outlets I used to trust--when it comes to race, and politics--are only serving "truth" from one very biased perspective.
2
[...but some teenagers get rowdy at the March for Life — while they’re being yelled at by black nationalists, for God’s sake — and it gets covered like Kristallnacht...]
Kristallnacht?! How did that enter the picture? Isn't there enough fuel already for this fire?
Nevertheless, it did spur an interest in exactly how Kristallnacht was covered the following day (11/11/1938) in the NYT. Thanks to the excellent "Timesmachine" archive I was able to read the account of that atrocity which proved more informative than I suspect Mr. Douthat anticipated. Here's some of the ways:
+ Five years after the Nazis came into power the cultural/religious divisiveness that had long been part of Germany was brought to fever pitch by the fascist racist government,
+ And, yes, children did play a role in all the violence. Gangs of youth roamed cities throughout Germany beating Jews and vandalizing Jewish owned stores and homes.
As for the wearing of the MAGA caps by the boys, they are of course incendiary. The year following Charlottesvilles, White Supremacists had a rally in Washington, many of whom wore MAGA caps, the symbol of the racist Trump administration.
And then we have this: NBC reports "In May of last year [2018], the Catholic diocese ruled just hours before Holy Cross High School's graduation that the openly gay valedictorian and the student council president could not give their planned speeches at the Covington school's official graduation ceremony."
1
And the liberal media wonders why more Americans than ever consider them “fake news.” The absolute hatred of trump by the MSM and Democrats is sickening. Their intolerance of republican viewpoints on abortion, illegal immigration, charter schools, unions, climate change, etc is nothing more than autocratic rule. Take chuck todd’s View on climate change....absolutely no climate change deniers on his show, “meet the press “. He should be fired for trying to supress, slant and spin any dissident on this subject on a national television political program. Fake news or suppressed news? Both.
2
Did anyone interview the girls who were (allegedly) hooted and whistled at by these young Catholic school boys?. The video is up if you wish to judge for yourself (sorry I don't have the link)
1
I saw a smirking face with a sneer that pretty much dared the elder Native American to try to move past him. The other kids were a hooting and mocking mob. Let’s be honest here and tell it like it is.
5
Regardless of political bias, the Native Americans paid for the right to march, and a Catholic HS student got in his face while fellow classmates jeered in a disrespectful and threatening manner. That the this happened before or while the black Israelites got into a confrontation with the rowdy students is irrelevant. The students behaved badly and should have embarrassed any parent with a moral compass.
Jake Tapper has a letter from a PR firm stating that the mother of the student who confronted the Native American drummer hired them to rebut the narrative of this incident that is critical toward her son. When interviewed the student in question disputed what took place, defending himself and his classmates as innocent and non-threatening.
Really? They couldn’t just apologize? That says everything one needs to know about where the MAGA-hat wearing students — and their PARENTS — were coming from.
Is it as big a deal as it’s been made out to be? Perhaps not. But it does reflect a cultural shift when parents teach their children to justify asinine behavior. But then, that’s what the MAGA spirit seems to be all about. If you’re white and Christian, you can do whatever you want; everybody else must accommodate.
A "scissor” would seem to be a granular way of viewing a wedge issue, up close and personal. In this case, the bequeathing of vile Trumpism v. respect for Other (and the 1st Amendment) from one generation to the next.
321
@John Crutcher: "The students behaved badly and should have embarrassed any parent with a moral compass."
The Black Hebrew Israelites called those kids foul, racist names and singled out the African-American student from the school by telling him that they would ‘harvest his organs.’
Any person of any color with a moral compass should be embarrassed by those Black Hebrew Israelites.
23
@John Crutcher
“ a Catholic HS student got in his face ...”
In fact, the video from any angle shows the exact opposite. Don’t let the facts ruin your narrative.
25
@John Crutcher The boys were called vile racist homophobic names while committing the unpardonable sin of waiting for a bus.
They did nothing but maintain peaceful silence. Maybe their expressions were a little cocky, but boys at that level of maturity cannot always control their expression.
But they did control their actions, and for that they should be commended
MAGA Hats withstanding..
23
The narrative of this random encounter of a few different groups with divergent interests has become a modern-day "Rashomon," with the same objective facts experienced in completely contradictory ways by the participants and eyewitnesses. There may be no way to conclude what actually occurred without administering sodium pentothal to Mr. Phillips and the students (and their parents.)
There is one very clear thing here: these little boys show with their MAGA hats that they've been brainwashed at an impressionable age by their ignorant, hateful parents to worship a draft-dodging physical coward who is a thief, adulterer, cheat and a traitor to his country, a willing puppet of one Vladimir N. Putin, and who is the embodiment and essence of whatever is the exact opposite of Christianity.
364
@Phil, YES, the hats worn by all students say it all. All else is noise. The simplest explanation is often the best, like now and here. Well said!!! Thank you for your clarity. Ironic that on the day of MLK that a religious institution would pervert the use of civil disobedience. Moral clarity does not need to hire a PR firm. Who is running this Christian school? Who is the power behind the alter? Our founding fathers knew that reason and rationality gets lost when state and church become one.
14
@Phil What happened was a short tsunami event. Many afterward-truths exist among the participants. I saw many films, considered many words. If I take time to attend to a broad spectrum of media interpretations maybe I will form a greater truth. Maybe not.
One film triggers my bias, a young man in a red maga hat who seems to be smirking at a drumming man. Others see his smile. He says he was smiling. To me the youth seems a little too close, his smile too rigid and glued on. His eyes are not smiling. Was he invading the space of another person to show disrespect? It could be, I wasn't there.
I will be happier when Americans once again want civilized behaviors and respect shown for differing viewpoints. THAT is when America will be great again. Shutting our government down for more than a month harms and disrespects people who work for ALL of us. It is uncivil. It is wrong. It is mean.
11
@Phil...Why would you administer truth serum to anyone? You have already decided who is telling the truth, haven't you? Phillips is obviously both aggrieved victim and courageous hero. Videos don't lie, do they? Reliable sources who wish to remain anonymous to protect their families have described faithfully that the Covington 200 went on a wild wilding rampage up and down the National Mall. They desecrated everything that is sacred to real American patriots. Trump told them to ransack and pillage. Their parents egged them on. As you say, Phil, this is VERY clear. VERY.
1
Anyone wearing a MAGA hat is making a political statement, which they know is deeply offensive to 50-60% of this country. Period. Just as anyone wearing a pink pussy hat is making a statement which is offensive to 35% of the country. Somehow I never realized that churches and their schools were so involved in politics...reminds me a little of the Muslim schools which are so hated by the right.
8
Excellent, thank you.
Now you need t o get some data from a psychiatrist to explain why people have started interacting this way; "this way" being a huge complex interaction between our identities, our egos, our myths, our culture, the lizard part of our brain and that voice within our heads that keeps talking to us. And that voice keeps talking on and on and..........
1
No one is truly innocent in all of this. Shades of grey everywhere. Doesn't matter though. Next week, Social Media will move on to the next outrage.
@Wilhelm
Ahh...the all purpose escape from judgment. All are responsible so none are responsible. There are no shades of grey in the behavior of these teenage boys from a fairly comfortable if not privileged background. If you think their comportment in this incident reflected credit on them, their school, their parents and most important of all the adults who were supposed to be supervising them then what does it tell us about your value judgment.
And yes it does matter. If society ignores loutish conduct of this sort where is the bottom. It's not as if we don't know from the experiences of the last 100 years.
2
I wish there were more emphasis on what is really wrong here: religion. If none of these people were demonstrating for their religion, nothing might have happened. Obviously, religious wars have caused enormous numbers of deaths. For what? If everyone could simply live their own religion, we might not be ok, but at least better. The whole problem is trying to impose a religious belief on others. If you oppose abortion, then don't have one, but leave everyone else alone. I know they all believe they have some right to tell others how to live. Or that they are called to live out their beliefs by attacking others. Since everyone has a slightly different belief, then no one of them is right. Or better, aren't they all delusional mind fantasies? What proof is there that any religion is reality?
8
@Scott Excellent, thank you!
While Covington is comfortable with sending its adolescent boys to a Right to Life march, I wonder how much it has told its students about how to avoid a girlfriend's preganancy. -- Might be a better solution in the long run.
5
When I started to read this, I had thought that Douthat was going to get to the heart of this issue, but then he veered into the same sort of silliness that everyone else has.
The real issue here is money. Please, Ross, follow the money. The problem is how the tail of social media is wagging the dog of the media and society for profit. How much as Facebook or Google or anyone else made on this silly ruckus? That is the real story.
There is no question that social media influenced behavior on the mall, behavior in the media, and Douthat's own behavior. Yes, it's a scissor, but WHY? Money.
I'd bet that Facebook has concrete, exacting numbers on how much they've made on this, because that is what they do. But because they won't give them to you because that is what they do.
Why do these things become scissors? Because they are immensely profitable. Let's explore that, shall we?
2
"The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp."
1
Seldom --no, make that rare, very rare-- is the column by Ross Douthat that brings a smile to my face.
This is one of those serendipitous times.
1
All of these intellectual pretzel bending offerings to find fault are an attempt to avoid seeing a basic truth. This country has been torn apart by a movement represented by red hats and a willingness to tolerate lies, distortions and blatant racist calls to support a White Nationalist. It is implicit support of his lazy and calculated use of hate fomented by the right for years, to gain power. It is support of his autocratic and anti Democratic approach to governing. These kids are thrown into a situation and taught that the "Red Hat" is a call to a higher power. The "adults" have placed young people into a role that they are not quite ready to fully manage due to their still developing growth process, toward adulthood.
It is the adults who have made the knee jerk reaction to the symbol of hate that these kids wear to belong to their tribe. It is all they know. They are the victims of hate supported by those who claim,with the highest level of hypocrisy, to follow Jesus teachings. The reaction is appropriate.
The kids may find themselves seeing truth later when they are are able to get exposure to others who see truth, and we who truly understand and follow spiritual paths, will be here to help them heal.
3
Go to the National Mall to enjoy and celebrate the good things about the USA. "If you got a message, use Western Union."
Interesting to see how differently the RWers are supporting the Covington students compared to the Parkland students.
7
I can think of nothing less Christian than wearing the latest divisive article of clothing. This “inkblot” test is a sham. It almost seems orchestrated to divide us further. The reporting was piecemeal and edited to show only one side at a time.
1
Should be rather plain that our better angels have all but been extinguished by our #1 traditional model, the President. When a con man successfully takes over the reigns of leadership and creates a cult like following, you will inevitably see every argument that juxtaposes opposed or contradictory ideas that usually seeks to resolve conflicts - as impossible. Intellectual exchange of ideas and the dialectical tension or opposition between interacting forces are doomed and become impossible. That is exactly what happened in Hitler's Germany when institutions were attacked and failed to the detriment of millions of people.
In Trump's America, discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method of investigation and resolution using the traditional Socratic techniques of exposing false beliefs and eliciting truth is defeated by rancor coupled with deafening ignorance. Any subject matter is relegated to a deep seated inability to view issues from multiple perspectives and to arrive at the most reasonable reconciliation of seemingly contradictory information and postures. When you have the top leadership of the country wallowing in lies and campaigns of disinformation, you have a nation in chaos and ripe for the plucking.
1
Wonderful! "Fair and Balanced" after all! (Nice that Douthat's conscience spoke up. Wish the media and entertainment elites on twitter and elsewhere who were trying to incite violence against high school kids and calling them "Nazis" had a conscience.)
'The “nonpartisan” media took what felt like years to discover that some of the Women’s March organizers had an anti-Semitism problem'
Pretty rich that a Republican writes this when his party is led by anti-semites.
https://hellogiggles.com/news/eric-trump-anti-semitic-comment-fox-and-friends/
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-pittsburgh-the-jews-and-anti-semitism-a-dangerous-double-game-1.6601063
Why is an organisation that ought to be barred from dealing with children bussing teenage boys to an anti abortion rally ..?
5
It's so clear who owns the narrative in this country. Imagine if every young black man pulled over for no cause had the means to hire a PR firm afterwards!
I am tired of hearing that these young white men deserve an apology from the entire country.
You know who deserves an apology? Every innocent black man who has ever been blamed or beaten or killed in this country for the past two hundred years. I don't think they've ever gotten the attention that these young white guys have gotten in the front pages in the past two days.
This is from a 45-year old white woman.
7
Let’s leave the MAGA hats and their divisive rhetoric at home. If nothing else, they preclude dialog and incite racism. They are tribal symbols that don’t belong at peaceful protests.
2
@White Rabbit
Those hats, however misguided, are protected by the First Amendment and weren’t the only “tribal symbol” shown in the video. Do you mean to exclude the drum also, or is your censorship limited?
1
These Covington "boys" who specifically dressed in Trumpian regalia to go trample on women's right to control their bodies got into other controversies too.
Color me not at all surprised. This is a White Privilege Gone Amok problem.
4
The whole incident begins and ends with the MAGA hats. No MAGA hats, no controversy. Some comments talk about that symbol representing patriotism. Did anyone watch Trump genuflecting to Putin at Helsinki? Is obsessive lying and monetizing the Presidency patriotic? Some comments talk about the hat representing the dignity of the American worker. Has anyone talked to a furloughed Federal worker or one who is forced to work without pay. Figure out what you are truly angry about. Maybe a black President who did not fix everything in your life. Getting there now are we? Thou shall not worship false hats, everybody.
3
@alprufrock
The hats, however misguided, are protected under the First Amendment, just like the drum.
2
I'll admit that this strays a bit off topic, but there is much irony that Catholic school boys were wearing MAGA hats at an anti abortion rally which Trump endorsed. I mean, Mr. MAGA himself has paid for sex with women while married to Melania, his third of three wives whom we know of. And who knows how many abortions he has paid for. They never said he hasn't, so it must true.
5
Ross - what is your point here? Do you know what your point is? Sounds like tRump’s “both sides” comment after Charlottesville.
4
I am a left leaning immigrant and was happy to recently become an American Citizen till America has now started reminding me of the country I left behind. Identity politics, people waiting to bait and jump on each other, getting worked up over stupid symbols (MAGA Hats). These guys are teenagers for crying out loud and I would have worn a MAGA Hat just to provoke at that age even if I thought Donald Trump was a complete idiot, which he is. To me it’s much ado about nothing and a bunch of people jostling for their 15 minutes of fame and a avaricious Press that is happy to oblige. When will the ridiculousness stop? Never, because sadly, people are the same everywhere!
3
Let's see...... A little old man beats a drum, mistakenly assuming it will calm down or distract a bunch of (50?) wound-up boys who had been insulted by four Black men who belonged to a strange cult. (big city, protest day, this happens.) So, these 50 boys, en masse, feel "scared" and thus obligated to yell, mock, perform tomahawk chops, bully, block old man's path, stare down old man within inches of old man's face, and generally behave like adolescents behave in groups when they have no adult supervision. They looked like the bullies on a playground imitating the school autistic kid. We've all seen that look, that mocking behavior. It does not fool us. It takes a school teacher to stop it. Anyway... all this while wearing MAGA hats, representing a Catholic school, marching against female reproductive rights--rights that have already been confirmed by several courts that have sited our constitution (so they were marching against our constitutional rights confirmed by the Supreme Court). Not one adult stepped in. Not one priest. Did I get this story right?
6
@Ann Based on the numerous accounts I have read, you did not get the story completely right - the young men had adult supervision and asked the adults supervisinig if they could start stomping and chanting their school chant. In one account, I read that the adults suggested the "boys," who were marching to force their views on women who don't share the boys' views, commence chanting. Otherwise, GREAT analysis of the story - one of the best I've read! I truly thank you.
1
Poor Ross. In nailing the secret weaponry of this presidency, you've been cleaved straight down the middle.
1
To add to the Monday morning quarterbacking, if the teachers, administrators, chaperones, and parents of the Covington Catholic High School students felt they were mature enough to travel to Washington, DC to express their passionately held March for Life beliefs, then the "they're just kids" defense doesn't wash with me. And regardless of what reasons a person may have for voting for Donald J. Trump, the MAGA hats have now become the modern day swastika, the new white hood, or as someone put it to me yesterday: "what is a MAGA hat, after all, except a white hood you can wear to the movies?" The president of the electoral college has encouraged, enabled, endorsed, and legitimized hatred and bigotry of all kinds from sea to shining sea. The increase in hate crimes since his election is well documented, anecdotally and formally. If there's anything good to come out of all of this, it's that the ugly underbelly of America has been exposed -- the boil of racism, misogyny, homophobia and the like has been lanced, spilling pus and bile across the country, thanks to this "sad specimen" (George Will, Washington Post) and his sycophantic, cowardly, cynical enablers. It is now up to us to confront it, acknowledge it, and work to change it. Because change it must, or we are doomed. Recovering, uniting and making this country truly great will be a formidable task for whoever follows Donald J. Trump into the White House, whenever and however he leaves office.
3
The MAGA hat is a racist , misogynist,white supremacist anti-immigrant symbol. Those are the signature issues of Trump, and when you wear the hat, you do so belligerently announcing all the groups you hate. Even the "black provocateurs", admittedly an unlovable half-dozen thugs, had a right to react to a phalanx of white teenagers fired up (and judging by what Kavanaugh has taught us about all-white all-male Catholic schools, quite possibly tipsy) and attending a rally to deny women their rights. The tomahawk chop, the pep-rally, the yelling, the "its only rape if you don't enjoy it" shout-out---give these guys swastikas instead of Maga hats, and we wouldn't be having any discussion. Or at least I hope not, but after Charlottesville, anything goes...
2
I just want to know why church groups are wearing MAGA hats to attend a rally concerning women’s reproductive rights. It was all a set up for confrontation, and we’re being manipulated again.
371
@Jsbliv
Absolutely right. Churches and religious schools that pay for children to attend political rallies should pay taxes.
23
@Jsbliv Exactly. An all-boys Catholic school attended a march against Roe v Wade wearing MAGA hats. First, there is the hypocrisy of boys protesting Roe V Wade... wouldn't be any abortions if boys learned to prevent impregnating girls. Second, there's the hypocrisy of wearing hats that enrich a man who has 5 children by 3 women, has committed adultery multiple times and is basically 100% counter to Christian ideals. The boys were stooges for the local parish and the chaperones. The parish priests and bishops should be sanctioned; they are a disgrace to Roman Catholics.
23
@Jsbliv
Americans are generally allowed to express political views in public.
2
All of the post event hyper-ventalating is avoiding the truth of what was perceived at the time. Those perceptions are important, and no amount of hand-wringing afterwards will change that. The ultimate question is whether the reporter has accurately portrayed the instant.
Again, I would ask: Does a religious school officially participating in political advocacy retain its tax-exempt status? I hope not.
3
I read it. Offensive. Those ‘boys’ are ideological/religioso inculcated with an American Christian/Judeo education.
Do I need to say anymore.
2
We should be fighting against everything MAGA hats represent; violence, bigotry, hatred, racism.
But, if one cares about integrity, we must also condemn the adult men yelling violent, racist, homophobic threats at teenagers. Are we really willing to overlook this behavior by adults (because they're black) and crucify some teenagers for smirking and tomahawk-chopping?!?!
The right-wingers are correct on this one. White self-loathing has impeded rational thinking.
Someone sew Douthat back together!
Or maybe not - bifurcated Douthat is great. Inspired. This is the best opinion column I've read in a long time.
I hope the scissors come for other opiners.
1
If they came for the March for Life, why were they at the Indigenous People's rally?
2
I'm sorry, but I view anyone wearing the red hat as my enemy. There are many not wearing the hat - they are my enemies too, but the guy putting it in my face is the face of the mob, the face of Trump. It might as well be a white hood as far as I'm concerned.
And I don't care what you think, and I don't care what you do, and I don't care what you say. The red hat is the symbol of ignorance and stupidity for the ages. Wear it in good health.
4
The so-called MAGA hats are almost always red.
Do notice that Trump wore a white one to his recent border visit.
This was intentional.
Along with low information voters, these catholic boys have no idea that they're being manipulated by Trump.
3
I’m beginning to think that the original posted material on the MAGA hat boys incident was a right-wing set up. What it shows most emphatically in any case is how dreadful the news media is at its job.
2
Commenters apologizing for these boys must have missed this video that shows them harassing random women before intimidating the Native American gentleman:
https://twitter.com/roflinds/status/1087486166939680768
At the end of the day, you know who apologizes for racist children? Racist adults. I'm looking at you, Ross.
4
It’s good to be aware of Shiri’s Scissor.
Don’t run with scissors.
“We pray for mercy because we would all be fools to pray for justice.”
There is no mercy in Trump’s America, and plenty of fools. We may have no choice but to pursue justice.
1
The only thing these kids are guilty of are being white Trump supporters. That's enough for some.
"Where were the adults?"
You mean the adult Native Americans who purposely targeted a bunch of teenagers?
"How dare they disrespect Native American culture and traditions"
You mean the adult Native Americans who made a mockery of their traditions by using a sacred drum and chants to purposely target and disrupt a bunch of teenagers?
"What would happen if they were a bunch of black kids?"
What would happen if they were a bunch of Muslim kids promoting their pro-life religious beliefs?
"The MAGA hat is the new swastika"
The same way the Hijab and Niqab are symbols of women's freedom and liberation?
"What are these kids doing at an anti-abortion rally?"
You mean the pro-life rally in support of heartfelt religious beliefs?
"These kids are pro-Republican propagandists who have a PR firm behind them"
Was that before or after they were slandered by thousands with millions of erroneous tweets and other posts on social media?
"There is a video of these kids from the school in blackface"
You mean the themes the school routinely has, including a "blackout" event where some paint their entire bodies and it has nothing to do with race?
"There is a video of these kids harassing passing females"
You mean the video that happens to start right after they have already passed the MAGA group and doesn't indicate what was said or what happened beforehand? Hmm, seems familiar.
3
Ross! You are needlessly confusing your self.
The hats are/were the whole deal. In Right Wing media, the Maga Red heads are not the symbol of Trump so much as they are of White Hate and rage.
Fox may deny this, or you may let your Angel on your right shoulder argue with your Devil on your left, but the fact remains that the hats are a potent symbol to both Right and Left of racism, misogyny, anti-environmentalism, anti higher education....etc .
As such, the entire problem was that the grown ups let these adolescents wear the hats. Honestly, you don't have to fret over this any more.
I'd be looking for the Agents Provocateur that rigged this up. He's likely working for the Repubs, and by extension, Putin.
Whoa! This whole thing is out of control. Let's remember that adults started this thing. Clickbait media. While the high schooler in the bus line had an ugly smirk, in my opinion, there's not a parent of a teenage boy who hasn't seen the same (yes, it makes you want to slap them). As far as the hats go, they make me sick too. The Black Hebrew Isrealites had the right to scream invectives. The elderly man tried to run interference in his own way. The kid was smirking. The hats...gag. Anyway, everything was legal. Let's all chill before we scare these kids into actually become republicans.
Only one side is defending racist comments by anyone...
Racism is never racist okay. It is never defensible. It doesn’t become okay when someone else does it.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, and the moment there are black nationalists in Congress or the White House to discuss it as equal is a false equivalence.
But then Ross wants America Okay with racism the same way he wants America okay with rape.
I will never find it okay, and anyone who does is a racist.
1
For some reason, the NYT has declined to print a previous comment from me pointing out that....
The single best piece of writing about the whole kerfuffle on the National Mall between Catholic kids, American Indian drummers and Black Israelites is the piece, "Stop Trusting Viral Videos" by Ian Bogost in the Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/viral-clash-students-and-native-americans-explained/580906/
The piece emphasizes that we naively believe we can "interpret" or understand events based on videos or photos, but the fact is that *every* video or photo has a perspective, and it's foolish to think that we can correctly interpret events based on images.
Heck, it's foolish to think we can correctly interpret many events based on our own "eyewitness" testimony.
Douthat's "id" is as wrong as those who saw things from the other direction.
3
OK, so you wrote something about that very nasty situation. You got your column done & will presumably be paid. All in a days work I guess. But did it provide any insight, help or explication? I don't think so.
1
there isn't anything new about this. it's a common right wing political tactic. you could write columns giving examples.
I’m sure glad I don’t have that voice in my head.
1
Shutter every last conservative religious school? You bet.
As a gay boy who came of age in the evangelical culture of a small Indiana city, I know painfully well the harm that these people inflict.
3
The only thing these kids are guilty of are being white Trump supporters. That's enough for some.
"Where were the adults?"
You mean the adult Native Americans who purposely targeted a bunch of teenagers?
"How dare they disrespect Native American culture and traditions"
You mean the adult Native Americans who made a mockery of their traditions by using a sacred drum and chants to purposely target and disrupt a bunch of teenagers?
"What would happen if they were a bunch of black kids"
What would happen if they were a bunch of Muslim kids promoting their pro-life religious beliefs?
"The MAGA hat is the new swastika"
The same way the Hijab and Niqab are symbols of women's freedom and liberation?
"What are these kids doing at an anti-abortion rally"
You mean the pro-life rally in support of heartfelt religious beliefs?
"These kids are pro-Republican propagandists who have a PR firm behind them"
Was that before or after they were slandered by thousands with millions of erroneous tweets and other posts on social media?
"There is a video of these kids from the school in blackface"
You mean the themes the school routinely has, including a "blackout" event where some paint their entire bodies and it has nothing to do with race?
"There is a video of these kids harassing passing females"
You mean the video that happens to start right after they have already passed the group and doesn't indicate what was said or what happened beforehand? Hmm, seems familiar.
1
Sorry, but the hat and smirk says it all.
1
So Individual-1 made a few hundred bucks off the sale of the hats sold to another bunch of chumps. And to top it off, he benefits from another idiotic distraction event taking everybody's attention off of Mueller and the shutdown, one that he himself did not have generate this time around. This distraction was so successful that Individual-1 ought to consider hiring Phillips to bang his drum at his rallies to boost ratings.
Tat so many people wit no doj in tjis dispute (like me, I am an Australian and live in Sydney, no connection to tje US) clealry reconisd tke sustained look of pure malevolence on Sandmann's face counts for sometin doesnt it?
1
Can't wait for all those defending the kids behavior to explain how we shouldn't rush to judge or condemn minority kids when they do something stupid because we "all know kids do dumb things sometimes"
Just for the record, I think lots of liberals like myself watched those videos and saw a bunch of silly teenagers doing not much of anything wrong. It was just more fodder for the fake outrage machine.
1
So Covington High School teaches its students to defiantly smirk in the face of elderly people? The boy in the red MAGA hat was being rude and disrepsectful to his elders. Oh, and all the young "men" from Covington behind his were also. Get them on the bus and back to their gated communities. Also, teach them that women have a right to birth control and the right to choose abortion.
Ross I think the only thing wrong about your piece is that you failed to mention that the kids chanted “build the wall”
Other than that it is tremendous b/c you are actively trying to systematically understand your own biases and realize that you too unfortunately partake in motivated reasoning.
This is how we do better.
Religion and politics dont mix, why is a catholic boys school even at this event? and of course the right thinks this is ok for our youth
Two things:
"The road of life is rocky
And you may stumble too
While you point your finger
Someone else is judging you"
- Bob Marley
"Do to others as you would have them do to you."
- Luke 6:31
The Kanagnugh hearing "witch trial", was no different. Its hate white men first ask questions later. When questions are answered and being white or male wasn't proven to be the case, ignore them and still vilify white males. Equality to liberals is walking over someone, not with them.
1
This shows us exactly what social media can and will do: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2018-12-11/deepfakes-and-new-disinformation-war (Deepfakes and the New Disinformation War," Jan/Feb 2019).
The concluding paragraph is telling:
"...democratic societies will have to learn resilience. On the one hand, this will mean accepting that audio and video content cannot be taken at face value; on the other, it will mean fighting the descent into a post-truth world, in which citizens retreat to their private information bubbles and regard as fact only that which flatters their own beliefs. In short, democracies will have to accept an uncomfortable truth: in order to survive the threat of deepfakes, they are going to have to learn how to live with lies."
Where is Joe Friday when you need him?
1
This is your Kathleen Parker Doppelganger column in which a purportedly reasonable conservative commentator reveals just how much of a fraud he really is. This hokey conversation with yourself is as nutso a contrivance as Parker's Doppelganger theory was. The purpose of both is to portray the authors as bending over backwards to empathize with people outraged by despicable behavior while the authors, in fact, imply that there is absolutely no evidence of bad behavior.
Nothing has come to light since the original video that either excuses the behavior shown in that video or suggests that the initial characterization of that behavior was wrong. And the statement that Sandmann's crisis team put out is almost worse than his original offense.
If anyone thinks that Sandmann is actually praying in that video, he/she probably also thinks that Trump is a devout Christian and Paul Manafort is a philanthropist and patriot.
1
Pity, for someone who consistently claims in his writings to own a sense of history, like Ross Douthat seems often to do, to degrade the significance of the recent stand off between the White MAGA wearing elite students and the Black Hebrew Israelites (and the attempt by an elderly Native American Veteran to peacefully intervein before the incident turned into a situation) that occurred in the very same plaza where MLK delivered his immortal 'I Have a Dream' speech 56 or 57 years ago, to some vapid so called "Scissor Moment", is astoundingly insensitive and intellectually disingenuous.
My guess is that this incident will turn out to be as much of a symbol of our countries 21st Century growing racial tension and divide, as was the blocking of the school house doors by Southern State Government officials- to the first attempts at integration of White schools- was to 1950's America. And the only irony I can detect, Mr. Douthat, in this more recent racially charged incident was that it occurred on the Holiday of the Father of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr.
1
Sending kids to DC wearing MAGA hats to an anti abortion rally has the hallmark of the Children's Crusade of the XIIIth century. No matter who was at fault on the Mall, the blame rests with the Covington Catholic High School in Kentuky.
1
I am totally astounded by the fact that the “black nationalists” have come out totally unscathed.
They were taunting the boys with very hateful and homophobic slurs (you can find them on YouTube) and literally instigated this incident.
What are their names and why aren’t they being held to any account?
1
In the interview this morning, the young boy said he was just exercising his first amendment rights. He also said that the protest demonstration that his school had organized for the students was over, and that they were just waiting around for their bus. He also said that he had every right to 'stand his ground'. He did not appear afraid of Mr. Phillips in the video, and in fact he said that he respected Mr. Phillips.
From my point of view, the Covington students had the opportunity to learn a lesson on how to react without resorting to a mob mentality. I fear the only lesson they learned is that the media can be gamed, with a little access to the right politically connected PR firm and some money.
I agree with the comments that pin the blame on the school and the chaperones (if any). No responsible adult would hae encouraged 50 kids to chant back at the taunters, yet this is exactly what the students were given permission to do. According to the interview, the boys said that they 'felt their school was under attack and they had to defend it'. Okay, so they are only 16 years old or so, but the adults knew better than to be sucker punched by the taunters.
I think Covington High needs to to back to school to learn how to educate children.
2
Nobody "needs" Twitter except for a certain individual ("individual 1"), especially not the press. Your obsession with staying in front of news cycles is what is precipitating this ongoing crisis.
Social media platforms are tools of convenience not essentials.
Full disclosure: I am a part of the tech community and have been since the early 2000's. I used to be an early and frequent adopter of a lot of these platforms before I realized they were shallow and transient means of connecting with others.
3
“Unlike some media figures on the right, and unlike our president, those gatekeepers also correct the record and walk things back when they get things wrong.”
This is so important. Caring about credibility and facts instead of the narrative. Errors and misinterpretations will always occur. However, when any part of society refuses to recognize them and remains committed to the erroneous view, danger is ahead.
4
The trouble with video, as Kurosawa taught us in Rashomon, is that it's a tabula rasa on which we are invited to write whatever meanings, interpretations and narratives we want. In that regard this scene becomes a proximate cause for people who are already itching for a fight to have one. Given the complexities of human relations, every interpretation we impose on such scenes is reductionist and a naked reflection of our own biases.
4
Awesome column - I have 2 feelings about this controversy based on who I am. On the one hand I have 2 teenage boys and last year I was a chaperone on a middle school trip to DC. At the end of a long day of visiting museums we were all gathered at the MLK memorial waiting for the buses to take us home. During the day a number of boys - and yes they were all white boys - bought MAGA hats and while waiting for the bus they were jumping around and being rowdy. I can only imagine that if someone published a phone video showing their rowdiness with MAGA hats on at the memorial it would not have been a good look for our predominately white upper middle class suburban middle school. So as a mom I was never in the camp of lets destroy these boys.
But on the other hand I am a black woman raising two black boys and what always strikes me in these stories is the lengths to which conservative media and to a lesser extent mainstream media feel the need to search and search for explanations to justify and rationalize bad behavior by well off white boys and the hand wringing about not rushing to judgment that never seems to be afforded to any other group of boys. So I'm glad these boys, their families, and school have had a chance to "tell their side", but I hope these same conservatives will also be willing to give the benefit of the doubt when young black and brown kids are portrayed as hooligans in a video - but somehow I doubt it.
11
@VJO The one white boy in the video didn't DO anything other than stand there. Some don't like his facial expression, but they have to admit that he kept his hands to himself and didn't assault or even insult anyone. Physical assault is infinitely more harmful than just smirking in someone's face, if that's what that one kid was doing.
Thanks Ross for Trying. The whole incident has convinced me to dedicate my time to finding the good stories out there because I know from personal experience there are many. I have also weened off of Facebook and other social media because I see now how dangerous these tools are in society. People would never say such ugly things to each other in person.
Good people live on the right and on the left. I want to find them and hear from them. This world of hate and blaming each other is tiresome. Time to move on.
2
I'm still looking for someone who behaved well in this incident. The high schoolers are kids, but as a teacher for longer than my juniors have been alive, I've seen their behavior enough to know when they are, and are not, being respectful (that boy was smirking, and not in a "I enjoy indigenous ritual performance" sort of way). They're also old enough to know what proper and appropriate behavior is, and isn't.
What of the Black Israelites who engaged these kids? I have trouble appreciating adults who bicker with teenagers.
And the Native American fellow? I'm still not entirely sure what he wanted to convey to these kids, and to the crowd as a whole, though he may own the least blame in this.
Now, what about the chaperones? Teacher friends of mine have wondered why the chaperones didn't huddle the kids and move them away from any threats. As someone who has done many field trips, that's the first, second, and third things I would have done (I also don't let my students mouth off at strangers, but I maybe that's a New York thing. Stranger danger is for real in unfamiliar places).
But most of all, I shame the reporters (I choose not to use the word "journalist") who ran with assumptions and terrible research, and the Twitterati who spiked Interweb outrage in a resonance of retweets.
We as teachers, especially Science teachers, are trying our hardest to teach our students to be critical consumers of information. God help them to be growing up in this information economy.
6
@Thom Hessel.
Well said, anyone who has taught middle school Science is well aware of how they can behave. Your, (and mine), 1st, 2nd, and 3rd responses would have ended it before it started. In solidarity
1
The theme of "where were their parents (chaperones, teachers, administrators)" is the correct issue here. But having seen as much footage as I could stand (about 3 minutes), and having been a parent on a long field trip with Jesuit HS students, I was wondering why so many students were there, all revved up. I was wondering if I were a lone chaperone (or one of few), would I not myself feel too frightened to try to control the sizable number of boys there? They need to take trips with smaller numbers of students or larger numbers of "handlers".
3
The stories ("scissors") are selected by the network, there is often no need to deliberately plant them hoping for disruption. There's also no point blaming social media which operates independent of stories and only spreads them. Social media filters but does not create. Sure, people can promote and manipulate certain stories. They can alter context, pick emotionally charged situations, videos or photos bound to subdue reason. Perhaps tracing fake news is what's necessary. Accountability.
The president, when elected, should give campaigning a rest. Once president you become president for the entire nation. Similarly, parents (and especially entire schools) should not use their children as political ammo.
"Can’t you see that our opponents won’t be happy till every conservative religious school gets shamed or shuttered." School education and a religious education should be convoluted, irrespective of religion. Teachers should not proselytize in school, whether in favour of communism or catholicism or other personal political or religious views. It is unavoidable naturally to some degree, we are pack animals, but should be discouraged. Religion in particular has no place in the classroom, unless it is being taught from a historical context (with due respect for students possible religious views). There are extracurricular programs if you want to learn religion.
2
correction: "School education and a religious education should NOT be convoluted"
Also, "The president, when elected, should give campaigning a rest." leads me to think that reducing the presidency to a single term might be a good way to avoid the challenges presented by the desire of presidents to stay in power and favor their party.
1
correction: "School education and a religious education should NOT be convoluted"
1
@northern exposure I utterly disagree that social media is blameless here. It is entirely to blame. This fracas would not exist without social media.
It is the perverse incentives of promotion and likes, spurred by bots, that drives these wedges between people. There should be no question that the mainstream media has been coopeted by the "memes" of social media. If people were actually having conversations about this rather than going off half-cocked here and on social media, this would not be happening.
113
I would like to think that my father, a retired combat-wounded Army officer who would have turned 100 this year, would have been pretty mad at me if I stood toe-to-toe with an adult (any adult), even one who approached me and not vice versa. In fact, I’m sure my loving mom would have grounded me, too.
The challenge is for a teen to walk away and show respect (in the face of peer pressure) to an adult who may not really have deserved it given his actions. Our kids today are taught that they are “equal” to adults, including their teachers. It’s really created a perfect storm for these unfortunate events.
3
For once I feel like you've dragged me into your head and it's a recognizable place. That's good.
2
The young man is a Kavanaugh in the making. But it's not just Catholic schools that produce such people but all the elitist private schools that teach the students that they are being prepared to lead the less privileged masses.
7
Brilliant article until he starts talking to himself.
That said, combine this with Ken Vogel’s article yesterday on Russian oligarchs donating to Republican senator’s careers like McConnell and Romney, and we’ve got a really big problem.
Instead of taking sides and forming opinions on the “scissors” that divide us (we’re pawns in the Russian-Republican strategy), we need to focus on exposing the Russians and their American counterparts like Mr. McConnell, the Senate Republicans, and President Trump (that’s you Mr. Mueller and House Democrats), and then run them out of office!
1
This country is controlled by forces on both sides who can’t stomach the fact that Mr. Trump actually won. He’s been a fantastic president for the people but we can’t have that so the media lies and creates false narratives to destroy him and anyone who dares to like him. This country is in deep trouble and it’s not due to anything that Mr. Trump has done.
3
Regardless of who shouted at whom first or ever, the act of entering another person's personal space uninvited and staring unblinkingly with a smirk is hostile and aggressive. That "teen" is very lucky the older man exercised restraint.
Those boys are very odd. Multiple videos have surfaced of their actions that day.
"Scissor" story is a good read.
1
Actually, the older gentleman insinuated himself into the crowd of boys, invading their space, not the other way around.
1
@Lynn in DC Are other people permitted to have their own personal feelings? You want to police facial expressions??? Apparently, as far as you're concerned, an expression on a white teen's face is criminal, but thousands of actual physical assaults by black teens are just fine. Got it.
1
It is the older man who invaded the kids personal space if you watch the video. He walks right up to him gets about 1 foot away and begins chanting and banging his drum. but go ahead and continue to feel self-righteous and judgmental.
1
Yes, the teenager was standing there, and the elderly Native American man walked up to him, not vice versa. The older man was clearly trying to defuse a tense situation between the boys and the black Isrealites. The older man needed to stand between the groups.
The teenager could have taken a step back. Instead, he made it a mini stand-your-situation to an old man who was clearly no threat to anyone and only trying to help.
Was he required to take a step back? No.
Would it have been polite? Yes.
Would it have been civil? Yes
Christian? Yes.
All this while the teenager's friends were whooping and jeering.
Maybe the teenager just has an unfortunate smile that always looks like a smart alecky smirk.
The teenager and his friends were no innocent babes. They're young, so give them a break. But they aren't the victims here.
2
@nub Explain why everyone avoids blaming the so called "Black Israelites" for anything.
1
Ross Douthat's essay: The Covington Scissor, is a wonderful but scary read. And there is much truth in it. But the "short story" he refers to is more like a bad extended "tweet" and not even an essay. A great piece of researching though. Ross did good. Such very gloomy thoughts for our shutdown government leaders to read and hopefully heed during their idled unpaid(?) evenings.
1
I imagine David Brinkley reporting on this incident on his Sunday Morning show: "Finally tonight there is the story of the smirking teenage and the older man at the Lincoln Memorial. When we in the media business write endless columns about smirking teenagers it confirms my suspicion that America has more journalists than news. Thank you and good night."
3
Sadly, this shouldn't be the biggest news today or for that matter on any day. For me the top story worth commenting on is how the Supreme Court ruled against transgender Americans looking to serve or serving in our military. Now that 5-4 vote is truly shameful.
So a bunch of kids who are in D.C. to protest wore MAGA hats. Where did they get them? Did they bring them to march, did chaperones hand them out, or did they think that it was a cool souvenir? And if you know kids this age, once one buys his MAGA hat, others will follow without debating the meaning of the hat. But chaperones should have known better than to let young kids wear that hat in a public place if for no other reason than their own safety. The hats should have stayed on the bus.
The real antagonists, the Black Hebrew Israelites (wish they had another name), targeted this group of teens with abusive and inciting language not because they knew these kids were in town to protest against abortion, but most likely because of the hats.
And that got the boys going. Again, where were the chaperones entrusted with the boys safety?
I doubt Mr. Sandmann or Mr. Phillips expected to caught in a stare down. I hope that in the near future they get a chance to sit down and talk about each others experiences. Not only might they learn from each other, but such a scene would teach all of us a valuable lesson about healing. It would also show us how an adult can share a story of his culture and how a kid can be more adult.
3
Ross, in your columns you always talk about how morally bankrupt Trump is. Given this, and your avowed deep Catholic faith, which is based on the idea of moral goodness, one would think that you would use your platform as a columnist for the most important news organization in the country to bring this president down as quickly as possible.
But you hedge your bets. You talk about the things Trump stands for that you agree with...policy stuff, the economy, etc...so you leave a kind equivocation. A rationalization if you will. This column is an example of your practiced equivocation.
Moral and ethical matters, human decency, transcend day to day policy. Those teenagers knew exactly what they were doing when they wore their MAGA hats on a school field trip to the nation's capital, where their hero resides.
They aren't innocents. And that hat, because of the president's behavior, represents a lot more than just support for an individual or political party. It represents support for his values. And those values are amoral!
3
"Well, the kids were being disrespectful to an American Indian elder, and it's certainly because of race, but some people were mean to them earlier and the elder doesn't seem like the 'noble Indian' image I like, so I guess it's okay."
1
On a lighter note, do you really need a twitter account for your job? For what purpose? So crazy people can contact you? What did you do before there was twitter? How insightful can one be in 480 characters? Wouldn't the country be a less fraught place if Trump didn't have access to twitter? And scissor moments thrive and metastasize on twitter and Facebook.
Apparently, the thousands of allegations against priests and bishops mean little or nothing to most Catholics or they would have nothing to do with the organization.
5
I wish I could believe that many of the comments here were brilliant satire, rather than depressing illustrations of the phenomenon that is the real subject of this column.
4
Watch out for gaslighting (including what Mr. Douthat is presenting here): Anyone who watches the extensive video footage (see below) and trusts his or her own eyes and brain and heart will conclude that these students are tragically ignorant and misguided and headed toward arrogant, mindless mob behavior including racism, violence, hatefulness, recklessness, and disrespect. It is completely irrelevant what other factors are involved. I fear for our country.
And as a parent who would do whatever I could to help my own teenager, I have no respect for the parents (and teachers) of the featured young man who would put out a disingenuous public relations statement to defend his behavior instead of standing with him to publicly ask for a process of truth and reconciliation, dialogue, or anything that would turn this fiasco into something positive, educational, transformative -- for the sake of the young people themselves.
https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/the-whole-story-before-and-after-video-of-nathan-phillips-magayouth-and-more-_O6lTVo8M0muOgi6Foug-w/
6
Whatever the words and harassment of other protestors, I see a young man caught in a ridiculous situation somewhat of his own making. Been there and done that; the non-violent outcome is something to appreciate.
The concerning part of this story is the MAGA hat worn by a young man, perhaps 17-years-old, on a trip to oppose reproductive rights sponsored by an all boys catholic school. There is a lot to unpack there and it has nothing to do with any 'scissor' applied after the fact.
Perhaps Mr Douthat can write on the real import of the story and what it reflects in our society. Does young Mr. Sandmann understand what he was really supporting by participating in this trip? Denial of women's human rights. Dictating medical practice to doctors. Criminalizing actions that do not conform to religious doctrine in a nation that supposedly values the separation of church and state. The indoctrination of young males who are not old/experienced enough to understand the issues, will never personally experience the reproductive challenges of women, and have never attended medical school.
Mr Douthat has a rich menu to choose from, no need to write some fluffy 'scissor' piece.
8
This is marvelous writing.
3
The scissors analysis is astute. If it's not divisive it doesn't make the news. Which, you should report to your conscience, makes the news media a big promoter of divisiveness.
Add the notion of hate crimes to the list. It was national news when it was reported that a person of a different race shot at a family in the car going to get coffee on New Year's morning, tragically killing an innocent child. A hate crime.
Then, when it turned out to be a more random act of everyday idiocy by a person of the same race, it wasn't so much "news" anymore.
Is it really supposed to be more ok to shoot somebody dead as long as you don't hate them?
2
Ideas are good. Inner dialogue gimmick, not so much.
1
Identity politics is used for short term political gain by creating divisiveness and animosity.
Prejudging individuals based on their "identity group" is inherently biased and damaging to all Americans.The media compounds the damage in its quest for "more views" online or in print and better TV ratings which generate more profit.
1
Careful, Ross. It's dangerous to stand with your feet on different ice floes.
60
@Dan But you've gotta admit that Ross did it brilliantly! Never better!
9
I appreciate the approach Ross took to this opinion piece. Knowing the importance of Catholicism to him, I would have liked him to boil the whole episode down to: a group of Catholic teenagers, some black Israelites, native Americans "supplicating to God," all of whom are male.
What a recipe not for success - religion, male, physical and political intimidation.
1
Like it or not, the kids had every right to behave as they did, good or bad, as long as they weren't invading anyone else's space or otherwise breaking the law. The Crazy Black Hebrew Whatevers are allowed to spout hatred and nonsense, again as a long as they aren't invading anyone else's space or otherwise breaking the law. The Native American demonstrators were also permitted to exercise their right to chant and protest as they pleased as long as they didn't invade anyone else's space or otherwise break the law. Well, it's clear as day that last one didn't happen. Mr Phillips clearly worked his way TO the kids and did indeed invade their space not just to stand or speak peacefully, but bring a drum within inches of one kid's face. That action had no other intent but to provoke a reaction. Each group has a constitutional right to say and behave as they like within the law. Wearing a MAGA hat is a dog whistle to advertise one's support for Trump, for what little it's worth. However, it is the wearer's right to do so as much as someone could wear a sports team's hat. As much as it pains some, the only one in the video who actively and physically invaded others' space was Mr. Phillips.
5
As a mother, who has allowed my daughter to go to this March for Life, I am shocked how adults have and had treated these children, hats or no hats.
As Americans, we all have freedom of speech. You taught them, they don’t. As Americans, we all have the right to assemble. You taught them, they don’t. As journalists, you are supposed to be our check and balance. You taught us, except for this column, you don’t have to tell us the whole story, and seek out the truth. Your only job is to report. Your job is to sell stories. Hmmmmm. Telling the whole story is an afterthought. “Oops, sorry, there’s more to the story? Oh, I will get right on that.” Meanwhile the damage is done.
As politicians, you are supposed to represent the people, all people—what happened to this poor boy? Sadly, you feel so pressured now to get on the bandwagon that you forget you are representing his future. HIS future. He does matter. Truth before Twitter.
He was trying to be respectful and listen to the drummer. Kudos to his mom and dad for that. He is a boy. He is allowed to grow and develop. You taught us, he is not. I agree, had he been a girl or possibly any other race, this would be a different story.
It is TIME for us to unite together and love. It is TIME for us to EDUCATE. It is TIME for us to work together. Dare I say, you taught them, we can’t?
1
What the Right has been promoting in this country are not good values. Each time there has been an opening to stand in the way of intolerance and hate; the GOP hesitate and offer tepid redactions. This pitiful true 'conservatives' movement is on the wrong side of history.
The US of A is working overtime to become a bellicose wealthy bully in service of the dysfunctional past.The Christian Right is neither Christian or right. I feel no pity for the boys; they know what they were up to and were already feeling sorry for themselves. The hats scarves and shirts of persecuted privileged white folk, fallacy is what they garbed themselves in.
1
Does anyone want his/her child to grow up emulating Donald Trump, his intellect, his convictions, his diction? It's one thing to swallow one's pride and vote for appealing policy by accepting this difficult individual, but it's another to celebrate him and the administration's marketing mantras as if they embody the ideal executive.
1
Meanwhile, the ghost of Old Abe looks impassively down on this small incident of three groups being impolite to one another.
He's seen worse.
4
Two problems with your article. First, it rejects basic morality. There is a difference between right and wrong. Not everything is relative. Racism is purely and simply wrong. When an action is intentionally or effectively racist it is wrong.
Second, there must always be a careful analysis of the facts in every situation. Sometimes a police officer shoots a black person for legitimate defensive reasons and sometimes the shooting is racially motivated, The problem is that too many people do not want facts or truth. They assume a result based upon their deeply held prejudices.
We must have moral codes. We must seek truth and determine facts in every situation.
Typical journalism for this decade. The right gets themselves all upset about a silly little issue, the mainstream press feels like they have to cover it- ad nauseam, and then the flames of outrage gets fanned. So kids were acting badly, as were the professional protesters, but honestly most people actually do not care. This is only a story for the columnists who do not want to write about less interesting but more important issues, like - how to get beyond the 45 year old, abortion debate, and is there a role for technology, or how do we rebuild local communities, even in places that have been taken over by technology companies, or how will we ever cover the retirement costs of the millennials. These are real issues that need journalism and attention, Covering MAGA High Schoolers and professional protesters for days is just lazy. Blowing a silly situation out of proportion contributes to tearing our country apart as well. Please focus on what is real and important, not what is convenient and easy.
Thanks. When I first saw the headline on this confrontation, I did not read the article. The reason is simple, I knew that whatever the truth was, it would not matter to partisans. Catholic, white males and an elderly Indian, you knew that the winds of war were about to be unleashed. So, when the facts finally became somewhat clearer, it looks like the press got it wrong. This is what really concerns me, that we cannot rely on the press, Fox News, or the NYT included to get the facts correct on these emotional issues. Since the press seems blinded by their preconceptions, people just assume that their inner voices are correct, regardless of the facts.
The adults, including Mr. Phillips are the bad actors here. Since when are teenagers supposed to be the mature actors in these situations? How many mature adults would have let Mr. Phillips walk up to them and beat a drum in their face? In the new social media world no one has the time to get all the facts including so called journalists. Mr. Phillips should be ashamed of his behavior, unless of course being a Native American gives him permission to act badly.
1
I would have a lot more sympathy for that kid if shortly after the whole thing, he stood up with his chaperone or parents or some responsible adult and just said he didn’t mean to be rude, the situation was getting out of hand and he didn’t know what to do.
A statement put out by a PR firm saying his group of dozens of kids were quiet innocents minding their own business the entire time, suddenly being threatened by a handful of zealots and one older fellow singing and beating a drum? Come off it.
3
I must be on the list. I think my story comes in at least #5.
Ah...the Scissors Algorithm...
Isn't that what the Russians perfected long ago and elucidated 34 years ago by KGB spy/defector Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov? According to him, the Russians play the long game in sowing seeds of discord.
They are the experts in manufacturing and wielding the scissors that they have been sharpening for decades. Social media has not provided them with an unprecedented platform for planting these ideas.
A reminder that we should be careful of what we allow our brain to consume because scissoresque stories are media boon and the public eagerly consumes.
I recognize the two voices, but there is a third--history's cavalcade of human incapacity to see complexity and still discern wrongness.
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Occasionally my cat eats too much and throws up. We're both to blame. Sometimes I watch too much Trump news (MSNBC only has one topic) and my brain throws up. Again, we're both to blame.
And so it is with this now constant and urgent pulse and sensory insult that is existential and at the same time, just plain silly. There is the zany notion that one absolutely must pay attention to every bleat or one is not being a dutiful watchman (person,..excuse me), and we feel guilty for moments stolen from the Sturm und Drang to tend to our own affairs and life.
Maybe peace and solitude still exist in open spaces where you can hear the wind in the trees but chances are, there's a cell phone bringing the argument along.
Each of us has the same need. Get through this.
Kindness will help.
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It's ironic that everyone is willing to issue verdict but no one wants to serve on a jury.
Jury duty is served by taking the time to watch ALL video evidence -- all two hours of it. I have put my time in and can say that evidence exonerates the children. The worst one can honestly say is that some of them were mildly disrespectful.
Anyone who says differently is lying. When you have irrefutable video evidence and one lies about it, they are depending on most people being lazy and not watching the full encounter.
If you get duped, its your own lazy fault.
I’m confused. Initially, the public was presented with an abridged, misleading video clip which on the surface appeared appalling—and many people were appropriately appalled. But then, when more facts emerged, level-headed reasonable people made a quick course correction and changed their opinion. How is this a liberal peccadillo? It seems to me like a rational thought process.
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Musings from a parallel universe as Mr. Douthat: The Covington boys were no less than what we saw a few days ago and would have continued in obscurity thus, if not worse. There are many more like them, and little in their everyday environment will ever transform them into what we may want them to be.
Yet someone happened upon this particular pubescent crew with their feckless chaperones and uploaded a video. Good, document it. Yet does it ever occur to liberals to think before they retweet? Or is the satisfaction of immediate righteousness worth so much more than the long term result? So Covington H.S. closed for a short spell. So they took down their website. So the diocese will investigate, for whatever that's worth. Small victories, if even that.
The real outcome is that a smirking teen mediocrity has become the latest right-wing darling. (Yanny or Laurel, indeed.) In spite of yourselves, you'll have gotten him scholarships, internships, peer admiration, a speaking tour, and maybe even an Oval Office junk food fete. Was it worth it?
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Probably the best column I've ever read from Douthat - inspired and incisive.
See Kurosawa's "Rashomon". Same idea. Ever been on a jury in a hard case? Same idea.
Time for national introspection, but, of course, we know that certain tRumps will never go there!
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Social media has made us anything but social; it's made us uncivilized. If the rules are now that you can terrorize people you disagree with, I am not sure how many people on the lifestyle Left are cut out for that kind of politics: Spanish leftist began the 1930s terrorising ordinary Catholics & ended it on chain gangs building roads for General Franco
It’s childishly easy in these days to identify people in mobs, and then to dispatch similar mobs to their homes and workplaces. Eventually, it becomes protesters all the way down, and if we haven't yet figured out that can lead to political violence, we're dumb.
Apparently, some of us are dumb or else want violence. We carefully erected civil peace to avoid this sort of devolution-to-a-mob. It is a great civilization achievement and it is intensely fragile... And many people will miss it when it’s entirely gone.
E pluribus schisma
"There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as moral indignation, which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue. Moral absolutism is a disease of the psycho-immune system, meaning those most certain about their ability to avoid fundamentalism are actually the most susceptible to it." — Erich Fromm
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Dear Russ, I agree about the memes and the viral news cycle and this kid looks so small and cute on the nbc interview. But. I keep looking at the videos where are the chaperones ? And maybe it's just me remembering other Catholic High School trips but that kid had been drinking. Look at his smirk and his somewhat tired stare. Why he could make it to the Supreme Court. Watch out ladies. He's to die for.
Having watched all videos available it’s obvious those on the left are engaged in fake news - once again.
The student politely and courteously stood remarkably still when confronted by an adult intent on creating a scene. The student acted with extraordinary restraint and respect, such that he literally never made any gesture or uttered any word that could have in any way been categorized as aggressive, or even impolite.
Despite having acted with courtesy and dignity that few adults could have demonstrated in very stressful circumstances - orchestrated against him by others who refused to respect his rights - liberals attack him viciously, merely because his political views differ from their own
Liberals ..... aren’t.
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Call me crazy, but my first impression was that all those MAGA hats looked Brand New.
And I wonder if that kid was wearing a confederate flag hat you’d have a slightly different take on the event.
American is in its death throes. The question is how long will it take.
Let’s all pretend that a smirking kid in a MAGA hat is a good child of conscience like his parents’ PR firm would have us believe. His friends stepped aside, though. I saw it. At bottom, if it were my kid I would have given him a what for about respect and making good choices. Then again, if he were my child, I wouldn’t have let him be used as a prop for an anti abortion rally, either.
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Clever, but deeply distressing.
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Perhaps the word that describes the situation is "imbroglio".
Good, Ross. I've read that talking to yourself is a sign of intelligence. Even good, intelligent people, however, make mistakes. Moreover, intelligent people make the best marks--doctors, lawyers, professors, and the like. The Trump cult must include a fair number of such folks, given the relatively high annual per capita income of the typical Trump voter. Ross is approximately neither more nor less of an enabler of the Trump cult than is Mr. Brooks, neither more nor less conflicted, and morally and intellectually AWOL.
MAGA hats and other gear are now indelibly linked to Mr. Trump's racially inflected statements and actions. How could it be otherwise? The racists don't wear white sheets anymore. And they are part of the Trump Republican party. That would be Ross's old party. Trump is no normal president. Wearing his gear is not wearing the gear of a normal president.
The NPR report was the best thing that I ran into. They questioned Mr. Phillips vigorously. My takeaway? The kids' statements are not truthful. The veteran Phillips interceded himself between the large crowd of high school boys and the five black protestors when it looked as if the confrontation was going to get violent. The young men chanted, among other things, "Build that wall." Given that immigration and the border are irrelevant, are there any non-deplorable explanations for their use of that phrase?
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Where were the chaperones? You can’t take a bus load of high school kids to a march in DC and expect all will go well.
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Love this column. Just the pure creativity of it made it good to me.
What if a fight broke out and some of the teenagers got hurt, the chaperones would be as responsible for their injuries as anyone. They should have had their group move on. Why in the world would you not have just moved on when they were being taunted by the Black Isralites? No, they did the worst thing you could do and that is stop and confront them with school chants inflaming the situation. I am sure they were emboldened by being in such a large group. The groups leaders should be shammed for failing to do their job.
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It is the obligation of all people of privilege to use that privilege for love, kindness and understanding. That is biblical teaching. Why are we not expecting more of these Catholic school boys? Make America great again is a simple message. Let’s go back to a time when the “others” knew their place. Ironically Ross, back then it included the Catholics. Any teacher who teaches children should be ashamed that their students wear that symbol of bigotry and racism.
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I found the slogan of (MAGA) inappropriate and offensive from the beginning. It suggested that USA was no longer a great country. Was that a suggestion that the first black president or perhaps a Democratic President change how great this country was ? Which to me was not correct....but let’s face it, the man who made it his slogan as made a living of putting himself above all others. He now acts only to divide us even further. He is a selfish man, self serving person, which I suspect the Muller investigation will confirm. But, make no mistake these kids were well aware of what the slogan meant ( and the reaction it would solicit) and as a Catholic I am not only appalled by their behavior and lack of manners but also by the school they attend allowing such behavior!
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The far left sounds just like the far right in their logic. So this 15 year old boy who was publicly smeared as an aggressive racist is still “bad” because he was at a pro-life march (an opinion that is shared by most religious leaders and is their right to hold), and he was wearing a MAGA hat (also his right to do -this hat does not mean the same to the people wearing it as it does the people who hate Trump). This negative over simplification and stereotyping of people and issues only serves to cause a greater divide. Warming yourself with faux outrage and bigotry toward any group does not make you morally superior, just a mirror image of what you profess to hate.
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If you send your sons to protest against choice you can't then fall back and call them children.
In reality, these children have been propagandized by a regressive church since the day they were born. Women exist only as a vessel to carry a man's sperm. Men are what is important.
You can't have it both ways. Either they are children and get a pass for perhaps over-reacting or they are full fledged adults with an understanding of the complex issue of choice and how it impacts a woman's life and need to be held accountable for their outbursts.
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MAGA hats are meant to intimidate - wearing one means you are proud to be associated with all the hatred and bullying the president projects. It a way to say 'I like toughness." and either "watch me be tough" or "I'll watch you ( my fellow MAGA hat wearer be tough). It in no ways communicates "I want to understand your view of the world, I want to learn from you, I want to work with you to make the world a better place." No, it just screams WHITE POWER!
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I keep hoping rational, non-dogmatic adults might show up someday in some of the situations. A bunch of male teenagers -- by definition not adults and developmentally several years away from understanding anything -- are getting a bit rowdy. And many are wearing hats with a message a lot of folks don't like. (Speech that at least very tenuosly still is protected by the Constitution.) No adult supervision in evidence. The only adults around don't like that the kids appear, well, white and conservative. And the hats! They hate the hats and all they (perhaps) represent. Instead of ignoring the kids, these so-called adults taunt them. No big surprise, that doesn't go down well. The kids do what kids do. They make more noise. Some protester, another alleged adult, walks over beating a drum in the face of the kids. How he thinks that will help, well, you'll need to ask him. He will claim he's an adult, so he should be able to explain. Except he can't. And then the 60 year old adult taunts the 17 year old kid into a stare down contest. And loses. And the progressive Twittering class blames the 17 year old kid. Grow up!
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it's better over here, Russ. Both Sides know it.
You can cut this a thousand ways but what I saw in that kids face was Trump with his maga hat bought by his parents who mentored him and the crowd behind him at one of his rallies. I don't care about the rest.
Quit over analyzing. Some one said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Get real, this is all simple math.
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Folkks, forget Covington's Scissor if you don't understand it. Occam's Razor will do just fine: the simplifying KISS paradigm works best.
Yes, everyone felt pain. Everyone responded to their pain causing more pain. We are less able to relate to one another. And this behavior is exponentially getting worse.
Dialogues won't work with monologues and shouts of: "If that's what you are, what am I?" Our collective consciences need to remind us that know-it-all pride, and the lies that go with it, are the over-heated basement of Dante's Inferno.
Want out? Thomas Merton held the remedy: "If there would be peace in the world, it must first begin with me." Pass it on, peacefully, and with terms of endearment.
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What innocence? They left a rally to go look for trouble at another. Everyone knows that MAGA gear is antagonistic, specially toward minority groups. At best they were racially indifferent, at worst they were deliberately seeking to intimidate. The fact that other groups chose to heckle them for showing up is not an out of the ordinary response. The only thing that's changed since the new videos were released is they've acquired the services of a PR firm.
As a teacher of 40 years and as someone who has chaperoned groups such as these on out of state trips, my 1st thought was , "Where are the chaperones?" Any competent adult would have had those young men out of that situation very quickly. Also, based on my years as a teacher of junior high students, kids this age in a group can turn stupidly ugly very quickly. In my opinion, the statement that they were being supportive of the Native Americans with hteir school cheers is hard for me to believe.
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It's true that Mr. Phillips approached the group of students beating his drum. That's pretty clear from the many videos that are now on the Internet. And you might note that many defenders of the students cite this, and they use the words "approached the students."
BUT what is shown in one video is that Nick Sandman was NOT directly approached by Mr. Phillips. In fact, you see Nick Sandman jockeying around a fellow student to place himself directly in front of Mr. Phillips. And there he stood for several minutes smirking directly in the old man's face while his fellow classmates jeered and laughed. And, granted, the expression of Sandman's face is what has enraged so many adults who feel that the elderly should be respected, or at least NOT mocked by a mob of kids.
But that's OK! Nick Sandmann was wearing the magical MAGA hat that makes everything OK and everything the opposite of what it really is, unless, of course, the opposite is true. I blame the hat for confusing so many normally-decent adults.
The reaction of the liberal left, who have decided the young man is "the face of evil" because of the way he is (nervously) smiling, is why the hated Donald Trump will win again in 2020. If you can't concede something so simple as the fact that these kids really didn't do anything worth getting all worked up over, you should vote for DT yourself; you are sure giving a boost to his campaign.
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How would this have played out if these had been African-American students wearing hoodies? MAGA hats and free speech come with a price. I have a visceral reaction when I see a MAGA hat and I don't think that will change because in my mind based on my experience it screams ignorance, uneducated, and anti-American.
I have read that the school has employed a PR firm to try to spin thus for them! Doesn’t that speak volumes about where we are as a nation?
Lies fly while the truth hobbles along later.
I am appalled by the hyperventilating reactions on all sides, though.
The nation needs to sit down, have a cup of tea and breathe for a change...
It‘s becoming ridiculous now..
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Great and entertaining reading and writing.
Thank you.
Best suggestion ever, delete your twitter account. The land of the self absorbed does not need more avenues for bumper sticker comments about complex issues.
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I thought when I began reading this piece that I might actually agree with something Mr. Douthat wrote. Sadly, it was not to be.
He spent a good part of his column talking about divisions & even mentions that many conservatives resort to conspiracy theories because...I guess because of the rest of “us?”
He actually proved the point of his column himself dropping into the usual “we are the victims” mindset of Christian America. Always the victims. Misunderstood. Starbucks offends them with plain red cups not Christmasy enough. A war on Christmas is apparently being waged by “us?” Google’s banners are never “appropriate.” The mainstream media is anti Christian and lies about them. Always the victims. And, as it is and it seems shall always be, in the end, when there are no excuses left to them? Boys will be boys.
That’s the gist of this column. That’s the right wing talking point. As with all of these so called scissor incidents, when the Christian Right has no excuse, they blame the “other.” Here’s who I blame. Those boys parents. The school. And a church that apparently doesn’t believe in teaching Jesus’ most important lesson—turning the other cheek. But then, boys will be boys right?
Two thoughts: First, the adults from Covington Catholic should have outlawed any caps with messages other than "Covington Catholic" or whtaever the school "mascot" is. Second, when asked by the students, which they did according to the smiling student, if they could start some "school spirit" chants, the adults should have said either "Leave this area in silence" or "No. We will pray together." These are kids from a religious school. One should be able to help them see that silence or prayer are appropriate responses to hate and taunting. Jesus is the pattern here.
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@meh
Would you apply those same rules to the BHI performers or the Indigenous Peoples demonstrators?
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@Bob Krantz No, I would not expect the BHI or the Native Americans to follow the example of Christ. Since the Covington students go to a Catholic Christian school, I would expect them to follow Jesus. And what I said about the Covington students was my suggestion for their dealing with the taunts of the BHI people. The Native Americans, as I understand it, chose to follow their own traditions and started to pray in an effort to defuse a situation they feared might grow serious. That was what Mr. Nathan was doing: chanting a prayer as he drummed. Apparently, the Native Americans did not understand the "school spirit chants" of the Covington kids, and the Covington kids had no idea that the Native Americans were praying.
These boys should not have been at this rally. They are too young, too immature , and too brainwashed to understand the complexities of the right to choose versus the anti abortion/anti birth control ideas. The anti abortion fanatics should not use these children to foster their extreme and hypocritical views.
I find it bizarre that boys, and only boys, from a Catholic school came to march against abortion, which is an issue involving girls, and only girls. Is this the lesson they learn in that school, to force their will on other people, girls in this case?
One of the more chilling commonalities of some of the world's most brutal dictators is their ability to harness youth movements and unleash their budding thirst for power and perceived justice on a public that thought them too innocent to be capable of widescale mob violence.
Sure, the Covington Catholic boys are just a jumble of Draco Malfoys, but we'd be wise to stay vigilant on what is being cultivated within the various compounds of the Branch Donaldian sects.
After all, Trump seeks to gaslight the nation with his incessant lies and usher in a new dawn with a cultural revolution that will involve "reeducating" or eradicating the nation's intellectual elite.
He will need his Red Hats to do so.
I think the point everyone should be focusing on is that these boys never should have been there to begin with.
Taking into account the Catholic Church’s views on abortion, it’s one thing to send students from an all-girls school or even co-ed school to this march. They should have recognized the terrible optics of sending a dozen boys from an all-boys catholic school to DC to rally against women being able to control their own bodies, especially since one of their better-known alumni (the basketball player from Xavier) was charged with rape and sodomy a month ago!
If the school hadn’t made this wildly inappropriate choice (and policed their out-of-uniform dress - my catholic high school never would have let us march around in MAGA hats not because of politics but because they are inherently inflammatory), this never would have happened.
Scissors indeed. Or wedge, or identity politics or ..... The rush to judgement has been accelerated by AI and social media. I have followed some of the twitter talk around this event and saw how this scissor was picked up to generate hits and shore up bias. The problem is that the scissor is only a tool to achieve an end. In fact, so much individual data is available and used that the slices are exceedingly fine. In the case of product advertising and politics it is done to the individual level and then fragments are combined to increase sales or win elections at all levels. Do Americans understand this is occurring? I think a small minority. Education about technology and how it is used to win is sorely needed. Until then we will be sliced and diced like a paper democracy.
Anyone who has ever lived in Cincinnati but is not a native will recognize how well this sorry mess represents the mentality of this area. A beautiful city, to be sure, but there’s a reason the infamous GQ article years ago was titled “Town Without Pity.”
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And I thought I was the only one with that pesky pain in the you- know- where in my head.
Separators, lines, strings, felt covered ropes with brass stanchions, boundaries, personal space, imaginary walls, real walls, demarcation lines, barriers, lanes...
And when they don't work, riot control. Truncheons, plastic shields, pepper spray, helmets, guns, some with flowers in their barrels.
So we are all invested in our opinions and may step out of line now and then.
But there is a person in the White House, and he is surrounded by people in and out of government and people in far away places, who would love to see us graduate to the helmet and plastic shield and the can of mace. And the gun.
And I don't see anyone in our institutions doing anything powerful enough, significant enough, smart enough, to stop them.
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My initial outrage as a Catholic school educator of many years concerning the boys behavior still stands. I'm not sure if it was poor planning or a scheduling glitch but having a large crowd of teenagers in a public place for over an hour with nothing to do is an invitation to trouble. They found something to do. Why did they or why were they allowed to continue gathering around the Hebrew Israelites? They exchanged banter with them. They could have chosen to walk away. Innocent chanting? Removing your clothes in the middle of winter and inciting your friends at the Lincoln Memorial is now acceptable behavior on a Catholic school field trip? Mocking, mimicking, gesturing and laughing at anyone after you have just attended a rally whose supposed agenda is respect for all life? My opinion, after working with teenagers for many years, I saw a single boy stand tall, toe to toe to with adult giving direct eye contact and smirking. This did not appear to me like a boy who was confused, bewildered or praying. The boys behavior was inappropriate, rude and disrespectful particularly consider why and where they were regardless of what kind of hats they were wearing.
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Bravo Mr. Douthat!
I rarely agree with your columns but I really really enjoyed this. It was a creative approach to being self reflective and a little self critical.
This was your Fonzie moment!
Fonzie, as you'll recall, was the the leather jacket clad tough-guy from the sit-com Happy Days. In one episode he kept attempting to utter the words "I was wrong" but just couldn't get it all the way out, getting repeatedly stuck on that last word... "I was wro-wro-wro-".
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A very interesting piece indeed ! It is always interesting to try get into other people's skins, to try to see thing as they see them.
I would nevertheless say that there is a huge difference between what you in America call the liberals and the conservatives. Liberals, being human, also have plenty of moral faults, and hypocrites, and cover-ups. But the difference is, sorry, they acknowledge these way faster. Ok, let me rephrase that : much less slowly than the other side.
And the problem is that since the last three decades of Fox-and-Koch the conservatives have allowed themselves to be hypnotized into a cult. Sorry, there is no sin of the mind on the Left as colossal as climate change denial, there is no talk of pizzeria pedophile rings, there is no talk of millions of unwashed rapists invading Peoria with razors, M13 goons and germs.
The Scissor-wielders (thanks nevertheless for this brilliant metaphor) are mostly wearing red headwear...
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