An editor from that den of vipers at Vox News has been suspended for tweeting that maybe people are justified in attacking Trump supporters.
Advice: If Trump comes to your town, start a riot.
— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
It's very simple: All violence against human lives and bodies is categorically immoral.
Property destruction is vastly more negotiable.— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
The point, as always, isn't "Is violence OK?" It's the folks who want first and foremost to delegitimize the fear and rage of the oppressed.
— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
It remains unclear to me what people believe the appropriate response to fascism is. Say "fascist, fascist, fascist", people will freak.
— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
If Trump *isn't* a fascist or an existential threat to democracy, fine. But then let's stop saying that he is.
— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
Here’s more from Fox News:
An editor with the website Vox was suspended Friday for a series of tweets encouraging protesters to “start a riot” at Donald Trump rallies – shortly after the Republican candidate’s supporters were attacked outside a San Jose rally the night before.
“We welcome a variety of viewpoints, but we do not condone writing that could put others in danger,” the site’s founder, Ezra Klein, said in a statement announcing the suspension of Emmett Rensin.
Rensin, deputy editor for the site’s first-person section, had taken to Twitter as reports first emerged of the chaotic scenes Thursday night outside the California rally, where protesters confronted supporters of the presumptive GOP nominee as they departed. Supporters were punched, and one woman was seen on film being hit with an egg and other trash.
…”Listen, if Trump is Hitler then you’ve got no business condemning rioters. If he isn’t, you’ve got no business pretending normal is better,” he argued.
Several bloggers, including Ed Morrissey of the conservative Hot Air, criticized Rensin’s comments, but it was not until Friday afternoon that Klein chimed in. A frequent commentator on MSNBC, Klein left his position as a Washington Post columnist to start Vox in 2014.
In announcing Rensin’s suspension, Klein asserted he welcomes debate, but that “direct encouragement of riots crosses a line between expressing a contrary opinion and directly encouraging dangerous, illegal activity.”
Meanwhile, Trump commented on the San Jose chaos during a rally Friday afternoon in Redding, Calif., calling some of the protesters “thugs.”
It really does sound like he’s justifying the wretched violence perpetrated on innocent Trump supporters, and that cannot be excused. On the other hand, his theoretical, philosophical point is debatable – you cannot say that violence should not be a part of politics. Wasn’t that exactly what the American Revolution was? If you accept that principle, then the real debate is whether any specific political movement rises to that level of threat. But these protesters don’t seem like geniuses with a political science degree – they appear to be dumb thugs who have been whipped into a frenzy by the media to attack innocent people. It’s stupid for anyone to encourage that kind of stupidity – no matter what political agenda they’re advocating, left, right, or toupee-populism.