If Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) didn’t have double standards, she wouldn’t have any standards at all. The New York Democrat’s rank hypocrisy is on full display after viral footage showed her lashing out at left-wing protesters who harassed her outside a movie theater and called on her to take a stronger position against Israel’s war in Gaza.
There’s no other way to put it: She freaked out.
“I need you to understand that this is not OK,” she scolded one of the protesters.
“It’s not OK that there’s a genocide happening and you’re not actively against it,” the protester replied.
“You’re lying!” the congresswoman screamed back before storming away.
The protesters then continued to follow the congresswoman, and the exchange continued until she berated them further: “It’s f***ed up, man. And you’re not helping these people. And you’re not helping them.”
To be clear, from what we know now, none of these protesters appeared to violate any laws or otherwise cross the line. They were simply engaged in a hostile, aggressive form of protesting that targets a politician they’re displeased with (in this case, Ocasio-Cortez) during the person’s off-hours.
As a general rule, that’s not something I support doing as it’s invasive, uncivil, and not constructive. However, what makes Ocasio-Cortez’s meltdown so deeply delicious and ironic is that this is the exact kind of aggressive protesting she has both participated in and explicitly endorsed throughout her political career to date.
After all, in 2020, during the debate over the “defund the police” movement, Ocasio-Cortez defended this kind of protest tactic.
“The whole point of protesting is to make ppl uncomfortable,” she wrote on social media. “Activists take that discomfort w/ the status quo & advocate for concrete policy changes. Popular support often starts small & grows. To folks who complain protest demands make others uncomfortable … that’s the point.”
So when aggressive protesters target the people whom Ocasio-Cortez disagrees with and make them uncomfortable, that’s laudable and, indeed, “that’s the point.” But when it happens to her, it’s “f***ed up.”
Which is it?
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In fact, Ocasio-Cortez is such a fan of aggressive protest tactics that she was even arrested in 2022 while she participated in a protest that blocked the street in front of the Supreme Court amid outrage over the court’s abortion rulings. She apparently believes that it’s perfectly fine to block traffic but unacceptable to yell at someone outside a movie theater. Huh?
This viral incident puts Ocasio-Cortez’s galling hypocrisy on full display. Hopefully, she will learn from this and realize she was wrong to defend invasive and aggressive protests. But don’t hold your breath waiting for Ocasio-Cortez to see her own inconsistency — or you might pass out.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is an independent journalist, YouTuber, and co-founder of BASEDPolitics.
