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Leftists cannot handle dissent

By Scott Tibbs, December 10, 2013

The following comment was posted on Herald-Times Online in response to one of my comments last week:

You are a monstrous and disgusting liar. You have spewed your putrid bigotry enough on these pages. Go away now. There are places on the internet for people like you, but a community forum is not one of them.

This type of comment illustrates the tendency of the Left to not just disagree, but to actively try to silence those who hold an opinion Leftists dislike - especially on social issues. It is much easier to silence opposition than to engage on the field of ideas, and namecalling is much easier than logical argumentation. Anonymity encourages this behavior.

Some calls for self-censorship do not even make sense. A comment on my letter to the editor last month went like this:

Scott go away and stop try to force your beliefs on everyone else... Believe what you want but STOP trying to force it on everyone else... Get a life of your own and get out of ours!

The amusing thing here is that is exactly what I was advocating in my letter to the editor. I am taking a pro-choice position, while the Monroe Counbty Democratic Party is taking an anti-choice posiution. If someone wants to donate to Planned Parenthood, they can write a check instead of forcing everyone to do so. But rather than engage on the issues, the response is "Shut up! Stop posting! Stop writing letters to the editor!"

Sometimes, the reaction is depraved and perverted obscenity in an attempt to bully conservatives into silence. We saw this nationally with MSNBC personality Martin Bashir, who suggested that someone should urinate and defecate in Sarah Palin's mouth after a comment she made criticizing Barack Obama.

Some people compared Bashir's despicable suggestion to Rush Limbaugh's remarks about Sandra Fluke in early 2012. There are two critical distinctions here. Limbaugh called Fluke names, while Bashir suggested that someone violently assault Sarah Palin in a dehumanizing and degrading manner. Bashir's remarks were exponentially worse than what Limbaugh said. The other distinction is that Limbaugh's remarks were off the cuff, while Bashir's remarks were prepared in advance. He knew exactly what he was going to say well before he said it.

If the Left's ideas are superior, let's leave this perverted depravity behind and hear some logical argumentation.