"The personal is political."
It started as a slogan used by feminists in the 1960s. Like most slogans, it falls apart if you examine it long enough, but it's generally understood to mean that, women and minorities, the struggles they face are directly connected to the patriarchy. It has since come to take on many more meanings, but mostly it's a way of saying "my feelings = truth."
Now, the personal is so political that the political has become personal. It's everywhere. Thanks to the radically-left-leaning forefathers of postmodernism, every single word is political. So if anything we say offends someone on the Left, it is not just personal, it is a political act. Even worse, having a difference in opinion can be seen as a personal insult.
We're seeing it constantly. Ted Cruz heckled out of a restaurant. Sarah Sanders kicked out of a restaurant. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi chased out of a movie about Mister Rogers. The entire Kavanaugh confirmation hearing, for that matter. And it's escalating. Verbal abuse isn't good enough, as seen last week with the Antifa protestors who broke down Tucker Carlson's front door and screamed threats.
Yesterday, Michael Avenatti claimed on Twitter that he is investigating Tucker Carlson for "alleged assault" on a "gay Latino immigrant." Sounds about as plausible as Avenatti's ridiculous claims that Brett Kavanaugh was a serial rapist in high school, Carlson responded.
As is expected, Avenatti wasn't telling the truth. Officials from the Farmington Country Club, where the incident happened, have confirmed it. They revoked the man's membership. Turns out he was the aggressor. Turns out Tucker Carlson was at dinner with two of his kids and some friends, when a middle-aged man called Carlson's 19-year-old daughter "Tucker's whore" and said she was "a f----g c—t."
When Carlson approached the guy, he proudly admitted that he'd said it. Carlson wrote:
I love my children. It took enormous self-control not to beat the man with a chair, which is what I wanted to do. I think any father can understand the overwhelming rage and shock that I felt seeing my teenage daughter attacked by a stranger. But I restrained myself. I did not assault this man, and neither did my son. That is a lie. Nor did I know the man was gay or Latino, not that it would have mattered. What happened on October 13 has nothing to do with identity politics. It was a grotesque violation of decency. I've never seen anything like it in my life.
The political is personal. A middle-aged man feels so personally insulted and outraged by Tucker Carlson's political views, his different opinions, that he responds with a personal insult to Carlson's daughter.
The c-word.
Is this the world that those early feminists—with their "the personal is political signs"—is this what they wanted? How have things gotten so turned around that it's considered progressive that a grown man can call a teenage girl the c-word, the most heinous and degrading word used to demean women?
Not everything is personal, not everything is political. That's the reality.
Tucker was right to restrain himself. It's the best response. Violence is not the answer. We have to keep our heads. It is unbelievably hard sometimes. It gets a little harder every time we see something like what happened to Tucker. But it's the only way. Not everything is personal, not everything is political. That's the reality. And hopefully, if we keep our composure long enough, we can prove it. Hopefully they find a better slogan, one that calms people down instead of inciting outrage.
In the meantime, can we all agree that nobody—no one at all, especially a grown man—should verbally assault a teenage girl because her daddy hurt his feelings?