A Lesson in Emotional Reasoning
Democrats seem pathologically incapable of reasoning to a logical endpoint.
Here is the essence of a conversation about the LA ICE riots from last night:
“Sure, the protests are turning violent, but it is Trump’s fault...”
That statement also reflects the media coverage flowing from the pieholes employed by most of the mainstream media outlets. “If he just didn’t try to detain these illegal alien criminals, then there would be no issues,” seems to be the approved talking point. I guess putting an end to arrests will keep the criminals happy and they won’t be mad at us.
That’s just stupid.
I’ve long said that progressives, aka leftists, never can reason to a logical endpoint, only to a point where their emotions are satisfied. This is that.
If you want to drive a leftie bonkers, when they make a declarative statement, ask “And then what?” or simply ask “Why?” and force them to go one more step closer to a reasoned endpoint. They don’t like it when they are forced to recognize they aren’t at the end and that end doesn’t really align with their feelz.
“Trump is at fault for the violence.”
“Why?”
“Because he is arresting immigrants.”
“Legal immigrants?”
“Well, no but no human is illegal.”
“But humans can do illegal things.”
“Trump can’t arrest people for just being here.”
“Actually, he can if they came here illegally and/or broke other laws while they are here.”
“But they just want a better life.”
“OK, but isn’t illegal immigration – you know – illegal? It’s in the name.
And that is when it finally dawns on them that there is one step beyond where they were willing to go.
It is just like when the “Reconquista”/La Raza crowd tries to claim the Southwest is really “Azteca” or belongs to Mexico (never mind the conditions of the Treaty of Gudalupe Hidalgo) and I respond by saying that their “ownership” of those lands probably would come as a great surprise to the Apache, Comanche, Havasupai, Hopi, Jemez, Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, Lipan, Maricopa, Mohave, Navaho, Paiute, Papago, Panamint, Pecos, Pima, Pueblo, Shoshoni, Sobaipuri, Tewa Pueblos, Ute, Walapai, Yavapai, Yuma and Zuñi and the Anasazi – whose possession of those lands predated all of them.
We are also witness to the hyperbolic reasoning of every hysterical “activist” about how every “subjugated class” presumes to claim their little slice of the pie due to some presumed “wrong” done to them by someone, somewhere, at some point in the revisionist version of their history. I always marvel at both the “reparations” crowd wailing about slavery like only American blacks were subject to that reprehensible institution – when African blacks were captured and sold to European and Arabic slavers by tribes who were black, too.
We used to see journalists use the “And what comes next” Socratic questioning, but the current journos are just progressives with computers.
I want to hear just one journo ask Karen Bass or Governor Hair Products a chain of questions – “Aren’t the targets of ICE here illegally?”, follow up with “Haven’t they committed actual crimes while they were here?” and then the knockout, “Why are they still walking the streets of LA, shouldn’t they be incarcerated or already deported?”
In the past five years, we have had two periods where the left publicly demonstrated their insanity. The first was the Ferguson riots, the second was the intersection of the Covid “pandemic” and the George Floyd riots, and now – here we go again – the LA ICE riots, none of these have any basis in logic, fact or reality.
Michael Brown attacked a police officer, he did not yell, “Hands up, don’t shoot!” That was a lie.
There was no need to quarantine, wear masks, social distance, or arrest a solo paddle boarder or a family playing alone in a park – and George Floyd was a career criminal, who just committed a criminal act by passing a counterfeit bill and was loaded with enough drugs to kill a 17-hand tall draft horse. Police were not “hunting” young black men.
Trump – and ICE – are acting lawfully, he has the legal authority to deploy the National Guard without Newsom’s request, and ICE has the duty and responsibility to arrest illegal aliens and deport them, especially when they have committed and previously been convicted of multiple criminal acts.
Just about everything you hear from Democrat politicians and elected officials and their allies in the media are lies, including “a”, “and”, and “the”.
I truly believe that progressives suffer from a lack of emotional maturity. They're stuck at the five-year old level of "I want" and never actually wonder "do I deserve?" When all your thought ends with your desires with no recognition of whether you've earned something or not, we end up with progressives.
Social constructs like socialism, communism, and fascism are an outgrowth of "wanting" something and not being willing to work for it.
So California needs illegals to keep their electoral college numbers, and ignore the law to do so. The communist mayor and the low intelligence governor will do whatever is needed to keep their power, and support whatever irrational thing comes along that will keep them on top.
The media, of course, aids and abets this criminal activity because they also are true believers in doing what's necessary to maintain their power and position. That's what gets you Jake Tapper, who didn't know until he knew. Same head, two faces.
Thanks for a thoughtful article.
I worked in Ferguson, Missouri for over a decade, and I was there in 2014 when the riots took place because of Michael Brown's death. A number of Ferguson businesses burned to the ground; most never reopened. Missouri's governor at the time, Democrat Jay Nixon, refused to send in the National Guard to help the police protect the businesses. He simply let Ferguson burn to the ground.