The Power of Making Someone Feel Despicable..

Picture a world where violent, armed bank robbery was so much a part of the social landscape that some hard left cities actually created “sanctuary” provision for it. This, of course, would represent even greater chaos than we now endure: capital would disappear, banking operations would assume combat mode, and the economy would morph into third-world, black-market status.

In this world of false compassion for bank robbers, some pastors would fret over “judging” the bandits, and story-tellers who demonized them would be guilty of hate speech.

Then along comes a former bank robber who tells an uplifting story about how she finally realized she wasn’t just helping her family with the money she robbed from banks — she was hurting other people. She tells the powerful, beautiful story of how she understood her own sin and began to change. It’s a real tear-jerker. People talk about it. We are treated to pictures of the former bank robber lady standing next to the forgiving paraplegic she wounded in one of her raids. Everyone has a good cry.

Bank robbery declines by 3%..

(..for a year or so, and then starts climbing back up beyond former levels.)

In western history, there’s certainly a place for positive stories. We need them, but we actually fight EVIL by making it so socially stigmatic, so culturally reprehensible, that anyone who considers it faces the possibility of becoming an “untouchable,” an outcast. We didn’t end slavery, primarily, by telling positive stories about slave-masters who gave up their human assets voluntarily. We ended it with prophetic rebuke and human blood. We shunned and shamed.

Ponder what some have called today’s “alt-sex” political agenda. A few years ago, a teacher friend of mine looked away from his student orchestra to see a student come in the door, demanding he find a place for his stack of “Gay Safe Zone” signs. Any teacher who didn’t perform this public virtue-signal would face shunning, shaming, and possible discipline. The LGBTQ^ crowd isn’t about a positive messages of tolerance; they are about assigning untouchable status to anyone who doesn’t cheer vigorously. They properly understand that the IRS doesn’t collect taxes by virtue of our inherent good will for the greater good. They collect money by instilling fear.

Most conservatives fail because they apply this shaming and shunning internally, to maintain their high standards, but fail to direct it at the real evils we face. Young Americans shun and shame Michelle Malkin, when they should be shaming the “bake-the-damn-cake” crowd. Chick-Fil-A made the Salvation Army untouchable, when they should have been making GLAAD a social leper. Some pro-life groups can’t stand pictures of the dead babies because women will feel judged, so they shame the activists who tell the truth, and comfort those who kill children.

How’s all that positive energy working out, folks?

Share