At Powerline, John Hinderaker points out that there are events in Minnesota where people can express their “rage” at Trump through smashing watermelons or old TVs. It’s almost funny. Hinderaker points out they are never mad at policy, they are always mad about some fantasy of a Trump administration that is just not true (e.g. “concentration camps.”) In other words they are just crazy. But you see, that’s Minnesota nice.
In Ohio, people are being arbitrarily being beaten in the streets. (You know, they are “raging.”) That’s not crazy, that’s felonious. Journalists are no longer merely spinning, they are flat out lying. In response to the Ohio beating people are saying, “Don’t California my Ohio,” making reference to the massive destruction from riots and protests in California. There is a lot more going on here than just crazy people being harmlessly nuts. I would that all people were doing was smashing watermelons in a booth on a Friday night.
But they are not just smashing fruit, liberal rage somehow justifies the previously unthinkable, even if the rage is entirely fantastical. But if conservative rage gets out-of-hand, well that’s an insurrection. It’s not the double standard that bothers me most; however. What bothers me are efforts to justify such behavior under any circumstances and for any reason.
In 2023, three legislators in the Tennessee Statehouse literally used a mob from outside the Statehouse to hijack a legislative session. Two of them were dutiful expelled, as they should have been. Their “rage” was born of the fact that they could not get gun control legislation passed in response to a school shooting. Now, if you look the episode up on the internet you are swamped with people trying to justify their actions. Their actions were not justifiable. They are entitled to their opinion, and their disappointment, even anger, in failing to achieve their legislative goals. But they are not entitled to hijack a legislative session – no one is.
There is more here at play than just a bit of crazy. These actions are born of a grossly misplaced sense of moral righteousness – as was Jan 6. The other day I wrote about fraud in the scientific literature and concluded that the problems cannot be solved by changing review standards, or other institutional means. The problem is in the human heart. Back in mid-July, I wrote, “Seems like many of the ills that befall us right now are rooted in self-righteousness on all levels, personal, professional, and political. ” That self-righteousness is now being used not only to justify extreme position, but to justify violence – whether it be to watermelons, random white people in Minnesota or Jews at a music festival. That’s not crazy, that’s just wrong.
We Christians draw a distinction between mental illness and sin. Sometimes the line is fuzzy and hard to find. But I think it is fair to say, that instances where it is clearly and unequivocally crossed are on the increase. I pray this morning that we can recognize the line again.
