Could condescension cause a civil war? Everywhere I look, the left takes it upon themselves to denigrate and show their disdain for the right.

 
by Helen Smith

From the nastiness of Anderson Cooper’s remarks about Olive Garden (I love that place!) to the use of a “basket of deplorables” to describe their political opponents, the jokes and condescension on the part of the left never ends. As an avid student of human nature, I thought about how this condescension mixed with demonizing and dehumanizing their enemies (us) will result in an escalation of violence in our country. In particular, I read about 28-year-old Thomas Baranyi, who gave a recount of what happened to Ashli Babbitt in the Capitol:

“We had stormed into the chambers inside and there was a young lady who rushed to the windows,” Baranyi answered. “A number of police and Secret Service were saying ‘get back, get down, get out of the way.’ She didn’t heed the call….”

“I’m not injured. It could have been me, but she went in first. It was one of us.”

An emotional Baranyi asked the reporter to make this tragedy known.

“Just make sure people know, because this cannot stand anymore. This is wrong. They don’t represent anyone. Not Republican, Democrat, Independent, nobody. And now they’ll just, they’ll kill people,” Baranyi answered.

When asked who is he referring to, Baranyi answered: “Police, congressmen and women, they don’t care. I mean, they think we’re a joke. $2,000 checks was a joke to them. You know, there’s people filming us, laughing at us as we marched down the street at the Department of Justice. There’s a man in the window laughing at us, filming us. And here it was a joke to them until we got inside and then all of a sudden guns came out. But I mean, we’re at a point now, it can’t be allowed to stand. We have to do something, people have to do something, because this could be you or your kids.”

Of course there are many reasons for tension and violence right now, but belittling plays a part. According the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association:

Belittling is the intentional act of making another feel worthless, empty, and dismissed. It is one of many forms of psychological and emotional abuse. Belittling another often creates a personal emptiness and void. It can create a sense of loneliness and despair in the lives of many. It creates the attitude of “Why should I give a dam, nobody else does?” When someone belittles another he/she are often trivializing, minimizing, downgrading, running or playing down the personhood of another.

The left does not understand the personhood of those on the right, for example, J. D. Vance’s book, Hillbilly Elegy turned Netflix movie got bad reviews. Why? According to leftist director, Ron Howard, critics didn’t like the conservative politics of Vance and their bias gave way to negative reviews. While this is certainly true, it is also likely that critics did not like that the dregs of society that elected Trump were seen in the movie in a sympathetic light. This is their biggest fear, that others may see the “deplorables” as people who deserve respect and a voice. This would lessen their power.

But the problem is that the main attraction of leftist politics is to put people down in order to feel powerful.

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