Enough With the False Equivalence!

Dana Hunter

When Jerry Coyne said,

While it does seem that this kind of violence is whipped up more by conservatives than liberals (viz. abortion-doctor killings), conservatives too can be the targets of gun-equipped crazies. (Remember John Hinkley, who tried to kill Ronald Reagan just to get the attention of Jodie Foster?)

I realized it’s time for a handy guide to determining if the left is equivalent to the right in terms of inciting violence.  So here we go:

1.  Is the violence recent?  

Incident less than ten years old – provisionally equivalent.  You may proceed to the next question.

Incident more than ten years old – NOT EQUIVALENT.  Full stop.

2.  Did the violence take place in a pervasive atmosphere of eliminationist rhetoric spewed by liberal political leaders, media outlets including network news channels, and activist groups embraced by elected leaders?

Yes – provisionally equivalent.  You may proceed to the next question.

No –  NOT EQUIVALENT.  Full stop.

3.  Is there more than one example of such violence?

Yes – you managed a miracle.  Please provide evidence to back up your assertion, because no one else has been able to find any.

No – NOT EQUIVALENT.  Full stop.

Perhaps someone with some time and more skill with graphics than I’ve got could whip us up an easy-to-use reference chart.

Outside of the false-equivalence quibble, which in this case was weak tea anyway, and the over-reliance on the “but he was ker-azy!” trope, the rest of Jerry’s post is wonderful and thought-provoking and definitely worth reading in full.  I shall be returning to it later in the week, in fact.

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Enough With the False Equivalence!

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3 thoughts on “Enough With the False Equivalence!”

  1. george.w
    1

    More, related to point 2: Is the rhetoric to which you point some commenter on DailyKos, or is it a Congressman or Senator or candidate thereof, or major media personality? No? Not equivalent, full stop.

  2. Jerry Coyne
    2

    To be fair, I DID say that the violence was whipped up more by conservatives than liberals, so there isn't really any "equivalence." All I was trying to do was urge caution before we ascribed this action to Tea Partiers.

  3. Woozle
    3

    Aren't conservatives always disparaging liberal pacifism? …until something like this happens, and then it's all "but liberals are violent too!"

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