Vox editor: If Trump comes to your town, start a riotJune 3, 2016 by Ed Morrissey
Golly, mightn’t this play hob with the accusation that Donald Trump is the one inciting riots? Vox’s “deputy first person editor” Emmet Rensin took to Twitter last night to declare that, since Trump is a racist and a fascist (in Rensin’s opinion, at least), then all forms of violence short of murder have become completely legitimate. I wonder whether the mayor of San Jose might rethink his blame-throwing for yesterday’s violence from a leftist mob after this:
Advice: If Trump comes to your town, start a riot.
— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
So …. who exactly is the fascist in this scenario? The Week’s Michael Dougherty seemed to wonder that himself, asking Rensin what exactly he saw as the limits of “legitimate” political violence. The answer? Murder’s out … but that’s about it:
@michaelbd Destroying property is legitimate. Shouting down is legitimate. Disruption of all events is legitimate. Murder isn't.
— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
So any violence short of murder is legitimate, as long as the political aim is pure enough, presumably. If you’re wondering what kind of violence isn’t legitimate, Jeryl Bier found this line in Rensin’s sand from last year:
Here's @emmettrensin on "literal violence":
https://t.co/gmYzGWfbHO pic.twitter.com/HPYejDklOm
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) June 3, 2016
A “Stop Hillary” wifi password is literal violence, while destruction of property and shutting down free speech is just legitimate political action. Can’t wait for the Voxsplainer on that! Mediate’s Alex Griswold rounds up some of the reaction to Rensin’s rant, including a number of familiar reminders of Vox’s editorial integrity. No one’s mentioned the Gaza-West Bank Bridge yet, but I’m sure that will be literal violence too when it comes up.
By the by, Rensin’s asinine ideas about political violence don’t amount to literal incitement either, at least not in a legal sense. Incitement has to be specific to a time and place, and have a very clear and direct direction; Brandenburg restricts such legal action to “imminent lawless action.” Rensin’s statements are far too abstract for him to suffer any legal impact from his “advice.” His credibility, on the other hand, should suffer plenty of figurative violence, as should Vox’s.
The best remedy for bad speech is more speech, not fascist mob actions to silence people and intimidate others out of the public square. Calling for the latter demonstrates intellectual and moral impotence. It debases politics to a calculation of who has the biggest rocks and guns in order to impose the rule of mob force rather than reasoned self-governance … and that’s definitely a feature of fascism.
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/06/03/vox-editor-if-trump-comes-to-your-town-start-a-riot/
