NBC News’s Think opinion website was plastered with hateful op-eds against the right Thursday targetting everyone from the Covington kids to Karen Pence. Contributing writer Noah Berlatsky revealed the media's end game in his op-ed for the site, which was that the truth of what happened didn't really matter--this was all about the Make America Great Again hat students were wearing.
Not everyone who wears a #MAGAhat is a member of a far-right gang. But everyone who wears a MAGA hat should know they are associating themselves with Trump's exclusionist rhetoric, writes @nberlat.
— NBC News THINK (@NBCNewsTHINK) January 24, 2019
The key context missing from the Covington kids debate:https://t.co/nTMm8d9aU8
Berlatsky got right to the point smearing 16-year-old Nick Sandmann, and anyone who wore a red hat as “sending an aggressive political message,” which sounds similar to MSNBC’s talking point yesterday that wearing a red hat “invites confrontation.” He elaborated, saying Sandmann had “insulted people of color” already by donning the red hat, which the media has aggressively spun as a symbol of hate.
Berlatsky admitted that even if the original media spin wasn't accurate, what really mattered was that hat:
Context is key; this is something both conservatives and liberals can agree on. But in this case, that context must include what the teens were wearing — and what that apparel has come to represent...Sandmann and his classmates were making a political statement as soon as they wore their MAGA hats in a public space. Aligning oneself with Trump's movement is an aggressive political statement.
Berlatsky’s proof? Left-wing organizations’ “research” that cite highly dubious accounts of people who allegedly experienced strangers saying racist slurs to them the day after Trump was sworn into office. First of all, these stories are nearly always later shown to be fabrications, but even if they were true, how does that in any way suggest that wearing a MAGA hat means you’re a racist bigot who wants to go back to segregation or slavery?
“Everyone who wears a MAGA hat should know that many marginalized people see the hat as a symbol of hate,” he wrote, adding,
You can insist that you don't see it as a symbol of intolerance. But you're essentially daring people to disagree with you. You're daring people to be offended. This affects the nature of any encounter even before words are exchanged.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Berlatsky claimed that anyone who wore one wanted minorities hurt or worse:
Remember what MAGA means: "Make America Great Again" is a call for an America without all the people Trump despises...America was great when Trump fans could hurt others — especially non-white others — with impunity.
He ends his article by hammering home again that the left will police what political apparel you are allowed to wear.
“Sandmann wants us to believe that he was merely a silent, innocent bystander during the confrontation. But the hat he was wearing spoke hate,” he wrote.
The frightening new reality is that the media has gone from excusing harassment, intimidation and violence from the left to admitting that it's deserved, if you’re wearing the “wrong” political apparel.
