Victor Davis Hanson The third psychodramatic day that rendered great dividends was the buffoonish January 6th riot at the Capitol. Somehow the Left turned a few hundred out-of-control idiots, some replete with cow horns, painted faces, and sloganeering signs into a cabal of sophisticated revolutionaries seeking to storm the Capitol, hold it, and prompt a […]
Victor Davis Hanson Soon the affluent woke went even further in their hubris. More statues were toppled, more names changed, more dangerous laws passed. Somehow in the mass madness of iconoclasm even the statues of Cervantes and Frederick Douglas were to be desecrated, along with monuments along Washington’s National Mall. The common denominator apparently was
Victor Davis Hanson Imagine this counterfactual—what if a President Donald Trump had released Viktor Bout from a U.S. prison? He is the convicted, notorious international arms dealer, who had supplied sophisticated weapons to help kill Americans abroad. And further imagine he gave up Bout in exchange for just one white, male, conservative athlete, known for
Victor Davis Hanson A second seminal false narrative psychodrama followed the death of George Floyd. No sooner had Floyd died while in police custody than his deified image began appearing in street art with a halo and wings. We may have given the Taliban billions of dollars in invaluable military equipment, a billion-dollar embassy, and
Victor Davis Hanson Of the hundreds of psychodramas of the last decade, perhaps three have changed the course of history. All were either outright misinformation, half-truths, or remained obfuscated with the full details suppressed. The entire COVID narrative of early 2020 ended up all but destroying the Trump administration, ruining a robust economy, and likely
Victor Davis Hanson For every pre-election October surprise, there is always a post-election November psychodramatic “bombshell.” This year, right after the vote, there was the sudden announcement that a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate Donald Trump—on grounds of purported complicity in the January 6 riot and the hysterias arising over his presidential papers. But
Victor Davis Hanson The Brawley-Sharpton legacy can help to explain these latter psychodramas like the Smollett caper and the Duke Lacrosse lies. Fabricated “racist” physical or verbal attacks on innocent people of color feed national hysteria. They are usually followed by the embarrassing truth that causes no embarrassment, much less apologies. Instead, again for the
Victor Davis Hanson Do we remember the Duke Lacrosse and more recently the Duke Volleyball fake news accounts? If we do, it is likely in the context that while both were fake news stories, they remain important because their falsities served as teachable moments simply because they can remind us that they could in theory
Victor Davis Hanson What follows is an extended analysis of how the Left obtains power without agendas that win popular support, and how such aggrandizement inflames social relations and national unity. The progressive media—which constitute the majority of print newspapers, network news, public radio and TV, Google/Apple/Yahoo news, and the best-funded online venues—have fused with
Victor Davis Hanson 3) Boarding passengers should be greeted with “Put all cell phones away until seated.” How many times, reader, have you watched someone with one hand on the phone talking, the other trying to slam a too-large carry-on into an already stuffed overhead? (Or how many times has a passenger blocked the aisle,