When WSJ rightist writer Barton Swaim screamed two years ago about "elitists" and the "expert class" e.g.
WSJ's Barton Swaim Attacks The "Expert Class" -
I more or less took it with a grain of salt given the guy is a known Trumpie Troll. His latest screed ('The American Left's Fantastic Threats', p. A11) takes journalistic gaslighting to new heights, trying to portray the "American Left" (a misnomer given there is no unilateral "left") as a gaggle of effete paranoids. That is, scaredy cats who are simply inventing a hodgepodge of threats from the Right - from its patented white supremacy, to the yen to cut or kill Social Security, to banning abortion access nationwide. But how plausible are Swaim's claims? Let's take a deep dive look into his WSJ piece. He writes:
"Mr. Biden is worried about book bans. The American Library
Association recently claimed in a report that 2,571 books were “challenged” in
American libraries last year. These challenges the ALA calls “attempted book
bans,” nearly all of which involve a request by a patron that a public library
or school library remove a book from its shelves because it is obscene or
otherwise offensive."
Swaim makes light of the book bans, but none other than young poet laureate Amanda Gorman isn't laughing. After her book, The Hill We Climb was challenged by one kook (Daily Salinas) in Florida, it was relegated to "restricted grade" use at Bob Graham Elementary. Effectively this was a ban given students who once may have seen it on library shelves, now didn't, and wouldn't even know of its existence to request it. This basically applied to all the book removals and restrictions which Swaim treats lightly. Let's also be aware that the rubric "obscene or otherwise offensive" is a catchall used by the culture warrior Right to restrict any book that touches on sex, LGBTQ issues or even racial violence. In other words, it is censorship plain and simple, no matter how they choose to spin it. According to PEN America, 565 books were banned in Florida schools in the 2021-22 school year.
Swaim goes on to carp about the Left fretting over endless "horribles" marking the Trump years but as is his wont tiptoes over the worst: the vile incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. And the torching of our democracy with his vile lies - i.e. that he actually "won" the 2020 election. Thereby setting his maniac traitor zombies off on their domestic terror binge, e.g.
Of course, the viral infection of white supremacy was at the core of much of this deranged treason, but Swaim belittles that too as little more than "tilting at windmills" e.g.
"The preoccupation with white supremacy in
progressive media— an outgrowth of claims about “systemic racism,” “white
privilege” and “implicit bias”—has the advantage of unfalsifiability. The
plain reality is that racism, except in its progressive “antiracist” varieties,
has no purchase in American life. Tilting at the windmill of white supremacy is
evidence of delusion."
One may be excused for wondering how he pulls this excrement ("evidence of delusion") out of his ass given what we've beheld since Trump was catapulted into power with the help of the Russians in 2016. But let's give Swaim the benefit of the doubt that his memory just suffered some temporary lapses while he was scribbling his bunkum. So we can begin by reminding him of the "Unite the Right" march in Charlottesville in August, 2017 which saw hundreds parading Nazi style across the U VA campus bellowing "Jews will not replace us!" E.g.
Then there were also the attacks by white supremacists during the 2 day event especially when Antifa members sought to protect elderly black people who had been on campus for a church get together and were set upon by racist thugs:
Evidence of delusion? Racism has no purchase in American life? How about Swaim's brain just runs off the reservation and that fact has no purchase with what he writes in his WSJ columns
Or how about the Nazis that showed up here in Colorado Springs to voice support for the Nazi Charlottesville imps and Trump's support for these "very fine people" e.g.
What can we also say about Swaim's delusional claim regarding progressive media's obsession with "systemic racism" or "white privilege"? Maybe we can give the guy a break and imagine he just never read the actual news story on page A3 of the same issue where one reads:
"Strict residential zoning laws have a deeply unsavory origin. In the early 20th century, many cities enacted racial zoning policies that forbade Black people from buying in white neighborhoods....Since passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, racial segregation in housing has fallen by 30%.."
But more than 3 in 10 U.S. urban areas are still subject to a form or redlining, or restricting available minority housing to areas located near chemical factories, oil refineries, waste dumps or similar unsavory, unhealthy zones.
Swaim then goes on to assert, in respect of Social Security:
"Some of these unnervings arise intermittently and briefly—the
idea, for example, that the GOP would “cut” Social Security if given the
opportunity, an outcome that has as much a chance of happening as I have of
earning an award from the American Library Association.."
Which has to make one wonder what MJ edibles he's consuming with his brewskies, or if (less generously) he's vying with Trump to be the biggest Reep liar in these United States. Maybe Swaim simply didn't do sufficient due diligence in his research, failing to note all the Reepo legislator deficit hawks who've gone on the record in their plans to cut Social Security, e.g.
But at least Swaim does redeem himself in a minor way near the end of his twaddle after initially claiming the left is hysterical regarding the GOP "dictating what healthcare decisions women can make". This is when he finally admits:
"At the outset I asked the reader to leave aside Mr. Biden’s line about Republicans “dictating what healthcare decisions women can make.” Even if all the other threats mentioned earlier were make-believe, the attempt to regulate abortion is real. "
Jeezum, thanks Swaim for admitting at least one GOOPr threat is real and not a figment of our (progressive) imaginations. Sheesh! Will Swaim ever change? Not bloody likely after seeing this chestnut at the very end:
"May I suggest to my friends on the left that they permit
themselves the happiness of ignoring imaginary threats?"
Yeah, well, maybe Swaim, when you cease soft soaping the real threats and gaslighting us into letting our guard down. Oh, and maybe lay off the MJ candy before submitting your next pile of WSJ fish wrap.
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