The Last Strawman
2nd December 2017
If you have been following the news you will have noticed that every day some DemLegHump Media outlet will have a story (or stories) along the lines of ‘This is the last straw!’ or ‘Trump has gone too far this time!’
There appears to be a sentiment among Trump opponents that they are of superior perspecuity to the Great Unwashed and that they can pierce the veil of ignorance to see that Trump is a racist/sexist/whatver-you-goti-st homophobe/tranophobe/whatever-you-got-ophobe, and it’s just a matter of waiting for the Great Unwashed to get it through their thick skulls that Trump Is Actually Hitler and get with the program. Hence they are always on the lookout for that Last Little Bit of Evidence that will prove the tipping point in that (to their minds inevitable) process.
Couple this search (a collateral duty with the search for Heretics and Sinners) with the reflexive urge to see any criticism of women as based on deep-seated sexism (sometimes so deep that the offender himself is not aware of it; that’s a whole academic department these days) and any criticism of somebody who isn’t a white male Christian is based on deep-seated racism (never mind that Mexican isn’t a race and Muslim isn’t a race; race just means Fashionable Minority these days, and there’s another whole six-pack of academic departments based on that delusion), and you get the BREAKING NEWS stories from people who are convinced that the most recent outrage by Trump or somebody plausibly (or even implausibly) connected to Trump is the Holy Last Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back.
The problem is that it never is. It really never is. In most cases it’s just Trump being Trump, and everybody in the Great Unwashed has finally cottoned to the fact that a lot of what Trump does is straight Republican stuff, and almost all of what Trump says is just Trump jerking the chains of the simpletons who inhabit the DemLegHump Media (which he does whenever he feels the urge to entertain himself).
The accuracy of the term The Last Strawman proceeds from the fact that in many of these cases the underlying supposed offense by Trump (or one of his people) is just imaginary on the part of the poor True Believer reporting (or commenting on) the incident.
Consider the notorious Access Hollywood tape that is the cornerstone of the widespread leftist belief that Trump Hates Women and Trump Is a Sexual Harasser. Yes, he did say ‘Grab ’em by the pussy!’ But if you actually watch the tape, he said that in the course of a conversation about how women will put up with some amazing shit from powerful men; this wasn’t a recommendation on his part, but more in the nature of a complaint. Nevertheless, everyone on the Left is convinced that this is Actual Evidence of Sexual Harassment on the part of Trump, and that he ought to be sent to the Gulag in the same train as Harvey Weinstein. But it’s totally bogus; a classic Straw Man.
A similar reflex operates with respect to Muslim terrorism. If somebody points out an incident where a Muslim extremist blows people up or shoots people down because they think their religion requires it (the famous ‘Allahu Akbar!’ shout is key), then a proglodyte will immediately go ape: ‘OMG! You think all Muslims are terrorists! You’re an Islamophobe! Unclean! Unclean!’. Well, no. The fact that Muslim extremists blow people up or shoot people down is just a fact, available to everyone through a simple internet search. I do a weekly post, Islamocopia Friday, that collects the numerous news items every week that document this very thing. Does this reflect a problem with Islam and mass murder? I think it’s pretty obvious that it does, and that’s independent of how one feels about Islam. But the proglodyte search for Heretics and Sinners doesn’t admit of nuance — anything that isn’t a bare recitation of The Party Line is beyond the pale and a sign of deep and ineradicable corruption.
So there it is. Look for it on a TV channel or in a newspaper near you.