For a long time, conservatives have been branded as the media’s victim-blamers.
Well, the New York Times actually did just that. In a column titled, “In Ann Coulter’s Speech Battle, Signs That Conservatives Are Emboldened,” Times reporter Jeremy Peters accused conservatives of “throwing themselves” on to violence on college campuses, “emboldened by a backlash over what many Americans see as excessive political correctness.”
The article holds “the acid-penned” Ann Coulter responsible for inciting violence from campus leftists, who are simply trying to counter the “growing tolerance of aggressive and intolerant speech against minorities and immigrants.”
In other words, they’re simply being intolerant of tolerance for intolerance. It also blames President Trump for coming to the defense of conservative speakers who are routinely met with rioters at left-wing campuses.
“It was no accident that Ms. Coulter was drawn to speaking at Berkeley, the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, at a time when the country is consumed by a raging debate over political correctness and the proper place for offensive speech in public, especially on college campuses,” Peters writes.
Coulter should have backed down when the university told her they couldn’t have her, he suggests. By insisting on speaking, she is intentionally provoking violence. Milo Yiannopoulos is accused of this too.
But victim-blaming on the left is still victim-blaming. Coulter being a politically unsavory victim does not justify the violence against her. And this fact is so clear that even hard liberals like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are coming out in agreement.
