I feel quite strongly that disliking something, even disliking something strongly, is not reason enough for that thing to cease to exist.
And if there's one place where the current left-wing culture (with which I generally identify) goes overboard, it's in the rush to presume that something it doesn't like is harmful. It isn't that a joke makes you feel bad; it perpetuates a stereotype that enables violence. It isn't that watching someone play a video game distrubs you; it's that it causes children to be aggressive. All too frequently this is wrapped up with a bow of "common sense", enabling the claims to be made with little or no relation to proven cause and effect.
(You aren't against common sense, are you? That would mean you're irrational, and that's one more reason to immediately dismiss anything else you have to say.)
What's really frustrating is that it ought to be enough to start a discussion that something makes people feel bad. We're capable of empathy, right? We don't want people to feel bad, right? We're capable of being that promised, idealized culture of inclusion that recognizes people are different without leaping to the conclusion that their "outsider" nature makes them somehow dangerous, right...?
(You know, much like jumping to the conclusion that that thing which makes you feel bad must also be dangerous...?)
...But no, we have to jump in with both guns blazing. Middle ground? What's that? Respect? Not due to the enemy! You have to come from a position of strength, and you never come to the table with anything less than a thundering, denunciatory how dare you?!
Park misused her power. I'm not going to call her some derogatory term for being female or Asian, but I'm not going to couch things with "there are a lot of rotten people 'defending' Colbert" or the presumption that she's usually right and righteous. In this case, she's multiple layers of wrong. She jumped to conclusions without bothering to gain context, she assumed it was her right to destroy the thing that made her uncomfortable, she's apparently stuck to defending a wrong-headed conclusion, and she's hollowed out her own side's ability to rally the next time there's something actually dangerous that needs to be addressed.
To my mind, she doesn't deserve excuses for her actions, regardless of how sickening some of her attackers may be. She needs to have that stick she's lashing out with wildly taken away and given to someone responsible.
The zealots for a cause, however righteous, are capable of doing far more damage to that cause than its detractors. We need to stop making excuses for people who are on our side badly. We need to stop being glad for their additional numbers, their rousing fury, their fire.
If you want to burn books, I don't care with what brand of martyrdom you choose to paint yourself. I don't want you on my side.
