Two quick thoughts today (both related to Dan Crenshaw*):

One

In a widely-denounced skit on SNL, SNL actor Pete Davidson recently made fun of Congressman-elect Dan Crenshaw for the patch he wears over his eye from an IED explosion in Afghanistan. Crenshaw, age 34, got blown up in 2012—the summer following my last summer in Afghanistan. In this piece, Crenshaw writes that, while he agrees with the criticism levied at Davidson:

“I also could not help but note that this was another chapter in a phenomenon that has taken complete control of the national discourse: outrage culture. It seems like every not-so-carefully-worded public misstep must be punished to the fullest extent, replete with soapbox lectures and demands for apologies. Anyone who doesn’t show the expected level of outrage will be labeled a coward or an apologist for bad behavior. I get the feeling that regular, hard-working, generally unoffended Americans sigh with exhaustion — daily. Was I really outraged by SNL? Really offended? Or did I just think the comment about losing my eye was offensive? There is a difference, after all. I have been literally shot at before, and I wasn’t outraged. Why start now?”

More:

“So I didn’t demand an apology and I didn’t call for anyone to be fired. That doesn’t mean the “war . . . or whatever” line was acceptable, but I didn’t have to fan the flames of outrage, either.”

Then, later in the piece, Crenshaw writes that as Americans, we should:

“agree that the ideas are fair game. If you think my idea is awful, you should say as much. But there is a difference between attacking an idea and attacking the person behind that idea. Labeling someone as an “-ist” who believes in an “-ism” because of the person’s policy preference is just a shortcut to playground-style name-calling, cloaked in political terminology. It’s also generally a good indication that the attacker doesn’t have a solid argument and needs a way to end debate before it has even begun.”

I won’t add any thoughts to this other than this: Bravo Congressman-elect.

Two

Check out this article. Crenshaw wants to make being a Republican cool. As the article mentions,you need to control pop culture to control politics. Conservatives have completely ceded pop culture to the Left. Perhaps no longer?

 

*I first heard about Dan on the Jocko Willink podcast in March of 2018. Check out the episode here.

Update: At work so I need to be quick, but I couldn’t even make it half a day without seeing something to ruin all the Crenshaw positivity:

Yep, that’s a female–I think–veteran wearing shirt reading “Dysfunctional Veteran LEAVE ME ALONE” on it. I saw her then get into her truck with “Wounded Veteran” license plates on it. This disgusts me. Talk about a victim mentality: Dysfunctional Veteran LEAVE ME ALONE. The comparison of Crenshaw and this Dysfunctional Veteran is striking. One is classy. One is ugly.

Vets, we can be better than this.

 

Update #2: A timely piece from Sir Roger Scruton called “The Art of Taking Offence” (not a misspelling, he’s British).