The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left by Kim R. Holmes

Author:Kim R. Holmes
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781594038525
Publisher: Encounter Books
Published: 2016-04-11T16:00:00+00:00

NEIGHBORHOOD BULLIES, TWITTER TROLLS, AND OTHER INTOLERANT PEOPLE

Deborah Vollmer doesn’t like mansions.59 She really hates “McMansions” of the kind her neighbors, Linda and Arthur Schwartz, were building next door, so she tried to stop it. Starting in 2009, she sued the Schwartzes and the town of Chevy Chase, Maryland, five times, costing the city $50,000 and resulting in arrests, two misdemeanor charges, anger management classes, and a no-contact court order. It is not as if Vollmer were a pauper and had the proletariat’s disdain for the rich. A retired lawyer who has been active in progressive causes, she is wealthy herself and like her neighbors lives in a million-dollar house. A child of the Sixties, Vollmer’s backyard is rough-hewn and overgrown, while the Schwartz lawn is manicured. She drives a Prius; her neighbors have a Mercedes-Benz. In keeping with her old hippie values, Vollmer argues her aesthetic choices are about equality and not being “bullied” by rich people. “I just want equal control over the use and maintenance of a shared driveway,” she says, although what she really wants is control over her neighbor’s property. As in that old leftist adage, “think globally, act locally,” Vollmer sees herself as acting out a grand progressive cause, and she seems to enjoy it. “If you can’t take enjoyment out of these things,” she tells a journalist, “you’ve got to at least find it interesting.”60

Welcome to quarrelsome America. From neighborhood property wars to Twitter battles, the country is in a churlish mood. Tempers are set on a hair-trigger release. Arguments are like gladiator contests where only one side prevails and losers bleed to death in the dust. Whereas people used to shy away from appearing loathsome in public, today a hateful rant attracts millions of Twitter followers. People once thought neighborhood bullies were a pain in the neck. Today they are celebrated as working-class heroes. A protester can scream that the phrase “all lives matter” is a racial affront and get sympathetic coverage on CNN and MSNBC.61 A presidential campaign can be waged on the premise that political enemies need to be demeaned and ridiculed and called names.

The cantankerous mood is part of our polarized political landscape. But it is not solely caused by politics. It is also caused by changes in our social values. As scholars from Robert Putnam to Charles Murray argue, the communal spirit in American society has been in decline for years.62 There are many sociological reasons. Community-building institutions are weak. Suburban life can isolate people. The breakdown of the nuclear family has contributed to social ills. Economic disparities and the unequal distribution of social and economic capital have driven people apart. Even technology works against us. At the same time that social network sites like Twitter and Facebook bring us together, they also foster an insular anonymity that fuels the crabby temper of the country. The overall effect is to tolerate social malevolence as something other than what it really is: an indulgent narcissism masquerading as social concern.

Look, for example, at the phenomenon of Twitter trolls.

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