Stereotypes, as the saying goes, often exist for a reason. Older people are stereotyped as "get off my lawn" types who lecture the younger generations on what things were like Back in the Good Old Days. That's not an unfair stereotype, at least not for me, because I know perfectly well I do that to my kids and grandkids without really thinking about it.
Some stereotypes are completely, 180 degrees wrong, though. A peeve from my Army days was the "dumb grunt" stereotype, whether applied to Army or Marine rifle-toters; most of those guys who were learned and experienced in the art of war were pretty savvy, combat (even in simulation) being a pretty Darwinian environment. In my time I knew a few dumb soldiers, but I never met a dumb infantryman, at least not above the rank of E-3.
Another bad stereotype, one bandied about a lot by the political left, is the notion that people on the right are hateful, angry, and intolerant. That's a canard, of course; most of the overt hate and anger in this day and age is coming from the left; see the summer of 2020 for an example. And for another example, well, watch this:
I’m sorry, but this is so amazing this crazy lady was making the guys life a living hell because he’s a Trump supporter on an airplane and they actually kicked her off.
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) July 27, 2024
Why are liberals such mentally ill lunatics? pic.twitter.com/f9EWgNeVgS
There are a couple of things that stand out here.
First: If you went to any Hollywood studio, went to Central Casting, and asked for someone to play an annoying latte liberal with a sense of righteousness the size of the Oort Cloud, complete with her dark turtleneck and big glasses, and her beta - nay, gamma - husband to sit meekly by her side while she berates everyone else involved ... well, you just couldn't have done any better. And they were flying to Portland because of course they were.
Second: Do you want to see hate, anger, and intolerance? Listen to this Karen's voice, look at her body language, and watch her facial expressions. She just reeks of anger and intolerance; the young man who was the target of her ire, on the other hand, sits calmly (at least in what we can see in videos, shot from two angles) and refuses to engage the lunatic; more credit to that young man.
Third: For once, the captain of the airliner did the right thing: "Get that woman off the plane." She wasn't able to talk her way out of it, despite her massive self-righteousness, although it took cops to board the plane and remove her. Her last action was to snap at the young man who, as far as we can ascertain, did nothing to annoy her other than existing, that "You should be ashamed of yourself." Why? He did nothing wrong; he was not the A-hole in this event.
In the end, the latte liberal was forced to deplane by at least two cops, her pale, scrawny, soy-boy husband trailing meekly behind. In the video, you can hear cheers and chants of "USA!" as the couple is forcibly deplaned.
OK, maybe there is an accurate stereotype in play here.
Things don't always work out this well. There are too many instances in which hypersensitive leftists are catered to.
See Related: Mother and Baby Denied Boarding United Airlines Flight After Misgendering Attendant
Take a look:
A family has been abandoned by @united after reportedly using the “wrong pronouns” for a flight attendant. @JennaLongoria, her toddler, and her mother were not allowed to board their flight to Austin from San Francisco.pic.twitter.com/v9cbcFFpI7
— ThePublica (@ThePublicaNow) June 26, 2024
Now, I would offer the challenge to any leftist out there: Find me any example, even one, of someone being the subject of a completely unprovoked berating on an airplane for being a liberal. Show me someone being forcibly deplaned or, for that matter, refused any service by a major corporation's employees for, say, wearing a "Biden-Harris" cap.
It's almost always the left, not the right, that engages in this kind of hateful behavior. And for an extreme example, I give you the summer of 2020, with its billions in property damage, the looting, the arson - all perpetrated by the left.
There's a time and a place to make yourselves a nuisance, but the left generally lacks any judgment in this quarter.
See Related: 'Karens' Get a Bad Rap (Sometimes)
Stereotypes exist for a reason. Sometimes they are accurate, and sometimes they are not. But there is a stereotype that those of us on the conservative and libertarian side of things are beginning to recognize, and that is the hateful, spiteful, angry, intolerant liberal. Liberals, not conservatives, are committing the vast majority of political attacks and, yes, violence, in the nation today.
Sooner or later a tipping point will be reached when the right decides that we are mad as hell, and we're not going to take this anymore. That won't end well for the intolerant left. But it may be the only way any sanity is returned to our national discourse.
