CNN contributor Angela Rye told host Chris Cuomo on Tuesday that she is “so triggered” when she sees “Make America Great Again” or MAGA hats.
“This MAGA hat,” Rye explained to Cuomo and a conservative guest, “is just as maddening, and frustrating, and triggering for me to look at as a KKK hood. That is the kind of hatred that his policies represent. Until we can have common ground on an understanding that it’s that triggering, we’re going to continue to have problems.”
Rye’s assessment is unusually absurd. First off, to compare MAGA hats with the adornments of a cult that reveled in lynching African-Americans is quite foul in and of itself. But the moral and intellectual absurdity reaches further than that. I would confidently venture that there are more incidents of violence against MAGA hat-wearers than there are incidents of MAGA hat-wearers employing violence against others. This bears noting in that Rye’s central contention rests on the idea that MAGA hats are, like Ku Klux Klan hoods, particularly notable articles of ideologically motivated violence. It’s just not true. Most MAGA hat-wearers wear said hats because they support the president — which is not a violent or illegal act, I’m pretty sure — and that’s it.
Still, Rye’s argument isn’t simply problematic for it’s intellectual disingenuousness. It’s also ideologically fanatical. When Rye suggests that she can’t respect her conservative co-guest until he accepts that MAGA hats are de facto KKK hoods, she annihilates the space for any meaningful discourse. And that’s a great shame, because neither President Trump nor his political opponents on the Left have shown much interest in fostering mutual respect towards a more civil discourse.
If we care about America’s better future, it’s up to the rest of us to try and bridge that gap. Rye clearly doesn’t want to be part of that bridging. On the contrary, once again, she has chosen to worship at the altar of mutual hate.
Anyway, you can watch Rye’s commentary below.
