In the climactic scene of 1989’s “Batman,” Jack Nicholson’s manic, psychopathic Joker, who has poisoned thousands of innocent people and wreaked havoc on Gotham City, puts on a pair of spectacles after he’s cornered by Batman and says, “You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses?”
That’s pretty much the MAGA reaction whenever former President Donald Trump, his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, or one of their prominent pals says something so racist, inflammatory or dishonest that there’s simply no defending it. “Why are the media and Democrats and non-MAGA Republicans so hateful and divisive?”
The Joker, who has wreaked havoc on Gotham City, puts on a pair of spectacles after he’s cornered by Batman and says, ‘You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses, would you?’
This was plainly demonstrated over the past week. Trump allies and sympathizers waved off MAGA comic Tony Hinchcliffe’s jokes about Puerto Rico being a floating island of garbage, about Latinos as prolific baby-makers who come to America and don’t leave, and about carving watermelons with one of his “Black buddies.” They asked, “Why is everyone so humorless?” But just as quickly, Trumpists were aghast at the alleged incivility of President Joe Biden, who, depending on whom you believe, either referred to Trump supporters as “garbage” or mangled an attempt to describe the hateful sentiments coming from Hinchcliffe and other speakers at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally as “garbage.”
Even taking the least generous interpretation of Biden’s remarks — that the 81-year-old walking gaffe machine, a centrist Democrat known for working across the aisle over half a century in government, referred to tens of millions of Trump supporters as “garbage” — how does that measure up against the typical Trump and MAGA rhetoric that’s so vitriolic and pervasive it barely merits a headline anymore?
This would be a question best answered by those I call the civility cops. They are members of the self-avowed nonpartisan, centrist commentariat who insist that they’re “politically tribeless” or “disaffected liberals” — anything but Trump supporters. This, despite them primarily reserving their criticism for the progressive left, Democratic centrists, Never Trump conservatives and legacy media. Many of them came to prominence as part of the “intellectual dark web” and its “heterodox” cousins — their North Star being a commitment to civil discourse and good-faith debate across partisan tribal lines.
Sounds great. But over the better part of the past decade, this ostensibly antitribal political movement has regularly run interference for Trump and MAGA’s indefensible, bigoted and authoritarian commentary, while clutching pearls at every perceived insult to “real Americans.”
You could see it just this week at The Free Press — the flagship website of the civility cops — which had multiple articles focused on Biden’s “garbage” comment. One of them described Hinchcliffe’s racist comedy as a “a fairly offensive joke,” while another directly compared Biden’s line with Trump’s menacing warnings about an “enemy within.” The difference, of course, is that there are no published Free Press articles primarily focused on Trump’s “enemy within” statements (I did find one that briefly mentions them). That tracks with the publication’s tradition of ignoring or downplaying Trump’s and his allies’ rhetorical excesses.
This is the civility police’s sleight of hand: claiming to be above the partisan rancor and free of tribal bias while only seeing civility crimes of any consequence coming from “the other side.” You can see it all over Elon Musk’s X, where MAGA s---posters and fake centrists alike say awful stuff in people’s mentions, but reply with “wow, nice ad hom” when on the receiving end of a mean tweet.
It’s the Joker putting on eyeglasses.
This is the civility police’s sleight of hand: claiming to be free of tribal bias while only seeing civility crimes coming from ‘the other side.’
Musk is one the civility cops’ patron saints, despite calling Kamala Harris an “extinctionist” — which he’s defined on Joe Rogan’s show as someone “propagating the extinction of humanity and civilization.” He’s also often used the word “evil” to describe Biden administration officials, news publications and any number of his critics.
Megyn Kelly, another celebrity hero to the civility cop squad, falsely claimed Harris “slept her way into politics,” called pro-Palestinian student protesters “mealy-mouthed, weak-kneed, cross-legged, elbow-holding, mask-wearing lightweights” that no real woman would want to sleep with, and she seems singularly obsessed with mean girl-ing her way into a public feud with Taylor Swift.
Of course, there are many lesser-known civility cop internet personalities who compare Democrats to child molesters and liken them to vicious misogynists and demonizing bullies — but are “open” to voting for Trump, despite his being found liable for sexual abuse, calling immigrants “vermin” who are “poisoning the blood” of America and making innumerable racist, sexist and violent statements.
Though hypocritical, the MAGA right flipping out over Biden’s “garbage” comment is predictable partisan warfare. It’s in character with the cult of Trump — which has no principles or shame and barely even pretends to hold intellectual consistency. The civility cops’ pretense is that they’re above such hackery.
I’m all for civil and vigorous political dissent and debate. I consider myself “politically homeless” — the real kind, not the “vaguely liberal for Trump” kind. I’ve written extensively about the excesses of Democrats and the left, hitting them for censorious tendencies, double standards about “offensive speech,” unwillingness to take responsibility for the damage wrought by egregiously long Covid school closures and their counterproductive focus on reductive identity politics. I don’t have political heroes, am generally unimpressed by politicians and gurus and hold a healthy skepticism of the powerful — be they “elite institutions” or “populist” right-wing billionaires.
The media civility cops’ claims of evenhanded, nonpartisan political commentary deserve a blast of sunshine on the illusory image they’ve cultivated.
Think Biden and Harris are the real threat to freedom and democracy? Fine, vote however you like. But, please, spare us all the pretentious civil discourse cosplay if you’re going to treat Trump and his allies’ relentlessly vile words and deeds as oh-so-much-ado-about-nothing while intensely policing all of Trump’s opponents for problematic and “divisive” speech.