A textbook example of psychological projection

At American Greatness, Boris Zelkin writes,

...Charlottesville proved once more that the media is unworthy of the trust the people want to place in it. Keen to pounce reflexively and at any opportunity on a president they abhor, the mainstream press provide cultural cover for Antifa’s political violence.

In a textbook example of psychological projection, they ascribed to the president actions and motivations which proved to be their own: making excuses for political violence. The claim that President Trump was too forgiving of neo-nazis and Klansmen turned out to be a more accurate description of their own assessments of Antifa. The media all but lionized the group, mitigated criticism of it, and allowed the political violence Antifa engages in to be swept under the rug of good intentions.

...By framing the events of Charlottesville in almost infantile terms—Nazis-bad-everyone-against-Nazis-good—the media placed Antifa right alongside goodwill counterdemonstrators. This normalization of Antifa with the peaceful protesters at the rally may have yielded eyeballs and the short-term political gain of hurting President Trump, but this reductionistic narrative has also served to mainstream and embolden Antifa by playing into the group’s self-identification as the people’s revolutionaries.

Only One Kind of Evil
Despite his much criticized and maligned initial pronouncement on the events in Charlottesville, in noting the “violence on all sides” Trump was, in fact, more nuanced about the situation than all the journalism-school graduates sent to cover the event. On that day there were neo-nazis who rightly deserve scorn clashing violently with Antifa who likewise deserve scorn. But the media couldn’t be bothered to note such nuance. Their simple-minded narrative would only allow that Good and Evil needed to clash on that day. There could be only one kind of evil in Charlottesville. Seeing both a political opportunity and the ability to profit off strife, the media set about creating a mythos. So let it be written so let it be done.

More disappointing were the supposedly conservative politicians who piled on and, for whatever reason (personal hatred of Donald Trump?) appeared to buy into this reductionistic and politically expedient narrative. Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, and John McCain all refused to acknowledge the distinction between good-faith demonstrators and Antifa, thus helping to normalize political violence. (One can only hope that now that Nancy Pelosi has denounced Antifa, McCain, Rubio, and Romney might summon the courage and find the political cover they need to denounce political violence regardless of ideological origins).

...This is dangerous business. Now that the most recent events in Berkeley, where Antifa violently attacked peaceful demonstrators (organized by a conservative transsexual with not a neo-nazi in sight), have forced the mainstream media and Left to once again publicly break up with Antifa, I can’t help but wonder whether this will be the final split or just more of the same, and that when political expedience allows, we will see them happily back together once again.

Read more here.