During a quiet Sunday evening, I thumbed through my Instagram feed to find an image of a button that read, “No Nazis, No KKK, No Racist USA.” The three lines where followed by an upside down American flag – the sign of distress.
The man who posted the button, Canadian Chef and celebrity among hipsters and millennials, Matty Matheson, threw in the hastags, #IFTHISUPSETSYOU #URARACIST.
While I’m not one to engage in back-and-forth flame wars on social media, I had to go off on this guy . . . to the point that he had to post a video of himself visibly upset and asking “racists” to unfollow him.
The happily obese chef, who has a show on Viceland, then blocked my Instragram account to prevent future humiliation.
While the exchange and Matheson’s reaction was all fun and good, the reaction of the chef and his followers was eye-opening.
These people truly believe that if you disagree with their unjustified hatred of Trump, America, White people, etc., you are an unabashed racist.
Not to pull out my own race card, but I’m Native American . . . a card-carrying tribal member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
While I could easily throw on an eagle’s feather, grow a ponytail and start crying about the historical oppression of “my people” the truth is my bloodline has never affected my life.
I, like any other minority, am responsible for my own success and my own failures.
Having been raised in an integrated society where race really was a non-issue (growing up I attended an “all black” high school and didn’t think anything of it), to be labeled a racist without justification will make your blood boil the first time it happens.
But upon the 139th time you’re called a racist, you consider the source, take a step back and realize that using the “R” word is simply a tactic by the left to control and silence opposition.
While the tactic is not new, since the election of Donald Trump, the racism tactic is being used on the onset of nearly every disagreement.
As Matty Matheson stated through his use of hashtags, “If this upsets you, you’re a racist.”
But the Left’s overuse and abuse of the racist label, like oversaturation of any sort, has lost its power.
For those who have seen the movie, The Dark Knight Rises, you may recall a scene were the sympathetic villain, Bane, stands before a slimy corporate executive.
Bane asks the suited man, “Do you feel in charge?”
The corporate executive sheepishly responds, “I’ve paid you a small fortune.”
Bane boldly responds, “And this gives you power over me?”
Applying the liberal “racist” tactic to that scene, it would go like this:
Bane asks the outraged liberal, “Do you feel in charge?”
The snowflake sheepishly responds, “bu, bu, but, I’ve called you a racist.”
Bane boldly responds, “And this gives you power over me?”
The left has lost its ability to debate because it refuses to trade in facts and reasonable policy arguments; instead it pedals intimidation tactics, and now, violence.
While we don’t have to snap anyone’s neck like Bane would do, recognize that these ultimate insults are designed to control you, but in reality, have no power over your freedom of speech or expression.
Feel free to comment below.
