Warner Todd Huston
How the left lies its way to 'facts'
By Warner Todd Huston
There was once a famous liberal congressman from New York who reminded his opponents that they could have their own opinions but not their own facts. This, of course, was Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the few respectable liberals of his or any other day. But, for the most part, the left operates on pushing the lie until it is accepted as "fact" whether it is true or not. And the leftist blog Crooks and Liars pulled a doosie this week.
Apparently the guffaw inducing leftist blog thinks that the Occupy protests have been completely peaceful despite the hundreds of arrests, the rapes, the property destruction, theft, and other various act of lawbreaking! No, they are not joking.
C&L, blogger John Amato centered his risible claim upon the video of the "bedlam" that occurred at a recent college football game that saw the Oklahoma State University Cowboys beat the University of Oklahoma Sooners. As the game ended, OSU fans flooded the field to celebrate. Unfortunately, in their exuberance to tear down the goal posts upwards to twelve fans were hurt.
Amato called this a "riot."
"Some reports called it as terrifying as a natural disaster," Amato luridly began. "Thousands of crazed fans rushed onto the field. It's a typical response at many college football games, but this one caused massive injuries to people participating in the rioting."
Rioting? It was hardly a "riot." It wasn't anything to excuse, mind you, but to call it a riot is hyperventilating at its worst.
I have to thank Tina Korbe who brought this to my attention at her HotAir blog. Now, I don't bother much with lefty blogs. After all, who needs lefty blogs when the Old Media fills that bill so excruciatingly? Usually I only hit the lefty blogs when I want to see the left's reaction to a particularly hot story, so this one I missed. But Korbe was at that game and she has a first hand account of the "riot."
Regardless Amato seriously tried to compare the "riot" at the football game to the "peaceful" OWS protests. He lamented that OWSers were treated to pepper spray and had the evil police pushing them around. Those poor OWSers were treated to a "Stasi-type response" by the man... man. Why, those kindly OWSers were just "sleeping in tents," ya know? What could be more peaceful?
Amato then went on to decry the money that it cost "to medically transport and treat severely wounded people and clean up after this violent outburst."
All this arm waving and foaming at the mouth is a perfect example of the great lie, a misdirection used to distract people into accepting that his underlying premise was fact. However, in truth it is the OWS "movement" that has cost cities across this land — and therefore you and I as taxpayers — millions of dollars in police overtime, repairs to destroyed public property, and streets and san clean up crews that had to dispose of the OWSers bodily fluids left in bottles all over these "protests."
Worse, the act of injudicious jubilation at the football game was nothing compared to the nearly 400 criminal acts perpetrated by OWSers at their anarchic "protests." And this does not include the breaking of the many thousands of small laws — like permit requirements, vagrancy laws, and rules meant to keep protests orderly and safe for both protesters and passersbye. In fact, every single OWS protest has broken these laws. None of them got permits, none of them observed any of the laws and ordinances passed by the cities in which they gathered.
This is quite unlike the Tea Party movement that was forced to hold to every single tiny little law on the books to be "allowed" to hold their protests over the last two years. Further this is unlike the Tea Partiers that had no arrests, no destruction of private property, no rapes, no... well, nothing like the criminal activity perpetrated by the Occupiers.
Yet, C&L's Amato pushed the big lie that the OWS events have been entirely free of arrests, free of criminal activity, perfectly peaceful. Amato is employing the left's favorite game. Tell the lie long enough and scream it loud enough that people start to believe it. That is the goal, at any rate.
© Warner Todd Huston
December 6, 2011
There was once a famous liberal congressman from New York who reminded his opponents that they could have their own opinions but not their own facts. This, of course, was Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the few respectable liberals of his or any other day. But, for the most part, the left operates on pushing the lie until it is accepted as "fact" whether it is true or not. And the leftist blog Crooks and Liars pulled a doosie this week.
Apparently the guffaw inducing leftist blog thinks that the Occupy protests have been completely peaceful despite the hundreds of arrests, the rapes, the property destruction, theft, and other various act of lawbreaking! No, they are not joking.
C&L, blogger John Amato centered his risible claim upon the video of the "bedlam" that occurred at a recent college football game that saw the Oklahoma State University Cowboys beat the University of Oklahoma Sooners. As the game ended, OSU fans flooded the field to celebrate. Unfortunately, in their exuberance to tear down the goal posts upwards to twelve fans were hurt.
Amato called this a "riot."
"Some reports called it as terrifying as a natural disaster," Amato luridly began. "Thousands of crazed fans rushed onto the field. It's a typical response at many college football games, but this one caused massive injuries to people participating in the rioting."
Rioting? It was hardly a "riot." It wasn't anything to excuse, mind you, but to call it a riot is hyperventilating at its worst.
I have to thank Tina Korbe who brought this to my attention at her HotAir blog. Now, I don't bother much with lefty blogs. After all, who needs lefty blogs when the Old Media fills that bill so excruciatingly? Usually I only hit the lefty blogs when I want to see the left's reaction to a particularly hot story, so this one I missed. But Korbe was at that game and she has a first hand account of the "riot."
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Now, it just so happens that I was in Stillwater, Okla., for this game — and I'd characterize the atmosphere afterward as anything but violent. Jubilant, ecstatic, buoyant, sure. But violent? Not so much. Nevertheless, it's incumbent upon me to say — and, honestly, I'm very happy to say it — that injuries caused by excessive celebration after a football game are unnecessary, inexcusable and regrettable.
Regardless Amato seriously tried to compare the "riot" at the football game to the "peaceful" OWS protests. He lamented that OWSers were treated to pepper spray and had the evil police pushing them around. Those poor OWSers were treated to a "Stasi-type response" by the man... man. Why, those kindly OWSers were just "sleeping in tents," ya know? What could be more peaceful?
Amato then went on to decry the money that it cost "to medically transport and treat severely wounded people and clean up after this violent outburst."
All this arm waving and foaming at the mouth is a perfect example of the great lie, a misdirection used to distract people into accepting that his underlying premise was fact. However, in truth it is the OWS "movement" that has cost cities across this land — and therefore you and I as taxpayers — millions of dollars in police overtime, repairs to destroyed public property, and streets and san clean up crews that had to dispose of the OWSers bodily fluids left in bottles all over these "protests."
Worse, the act of injudicious jubilation at the football game was nothing compared to the nearly 400 criminal acts perpetrated by OWSers at their anarchic "protests." And this does not include the breaking of the many thousands of small laws — like permit requirements, vagrancy laws, and rules meant to keep protests orderly and safe for both protesters and passersbye. In fact, every single OWS protest has broken these laws. None of them got permits, none of them observed any of the laws and ordinances passed by the cities in which they gathered.
This is quite unlike the Tea Party movement that was forced to hold to every single tiny little law on the books to be "allowed" to hold their protests over the last two years. Further this is unlike the Tea Partiers that had no arrests, no destruction of private property, no rapes, no... well, nothing like the criminal activity perpetrated by the Occupiers.
Yet, C&L's Amato pushed the big lie that the OWS events have been entirely free of arrests, free of criminal activity, perfectly peaceful. Amato is employing the left's favorite game. Tell the lie long enough and scream it loud enough that people start to believe it. That is the goal, at any rate.
© Warner Todd Huston
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