Civil War Cometh

       CBS decided to move the Overton Window in their series "The Good Fight", expressly using the phrase to explain why they were supporting open violence against speech they don't like. Keep in mind that this clip (and the whole episode, for that matter) had to have been approved by network executives, the network's standards committee, and, probably, legal department. The relevant clip is shown below:

"CBS' The Good Fight encourages Political Terrorism"--Culttture (1 min.)

It is my understanding that the clip was run as a promo for the show, but it is actually the ending scene to an episode, which lays it on even heavier. In the program, people that ostensibly are free speech advocates agree with the violence, as do two characters portraying Republicans who not only agree to the violence, but are complicit in covering it up. If you have time, Black Pill summarizes the main points from the episode:

"Dark Times Ahead"--Black Pilled (17 min.)

One thing not seen in the shorter clip, but that comes out in the episode (see Black Pilled's video) is that it is not just advocating punching someone on the street, but also doxxing someone--taking away their jobs and livelihood. How this differs from the German National Socialist Worker's Party persecution of Jews, I don't know.

       If you don't have time to watch the Black Pilled video, here is a short summary of the climax of the episode from Entertainment Weekly:

        Of course, the situation at the polling place takes a turn when the Red Jackets, a group of voter intimidating bigots, show up to the school and start scaring minority voters away. While Jay recruits his new girlfriend Naomi — a.k.a. Adrian’s former student-turned-journalist — to report on the racists, Lucca calls Diane and asks for her assistance. Diane, in turn, asks Resistance Group Polly for some help shutting the Red Jackets down. So, Polly asks Lucca to snap some photos of every Red Jacket so that she can dox them. Yes, this is another instance in which the show’s leftist contingent uses the other side’s methods and weapons against them. 

       As Lucca and Jay wait for Polly’s doxing to do its work, they watch Naomi interview the Red Jackets’ leader, who is pretty open about his racism. After the interview ends, Jay runs into him in the bathroom and actually ends up punching him. One of the Republican lawyers is in one of the stalls when this happens, but he covers for Jay and pretends like it didn’t happen. This camaraderie rears its head again outside of the school where one of the Red Jackets flips out over being fired from his job because of Polly’s doxing. Lucca admits she doxed him and the other Republican lawyer stands up with her, as do many others. And that ends up leading to an all-out street fight between the Nazis and everyone else. The Good Fight is a fairly cynical show, but it’s rather optimistic of it to show Democrats and Republicans uniting to beat up Nazis. Cars are flipped, windows are smashed[.]

The episode then ends with the character Jay's monologue, delivered directly to the camera:

Is it alright to hit a Nazi unprovoked? I was always taught never to throw the first punch, never to instigate. Defend, but don’t attack. But then I saw a video of the white nationalist Richard Spencer being punched in the face during an interview. I realized Spencer was in a pressed suit, wearing a tie, being interviewed like his opinion mattered — like it should be considered part of the conversation, like neo-Nazism is just one political point of view. And then I realized there’s no better way to show some speech is not equal. Some speech requires a more visceral response. It’s like Overton’s window — that’s the term for which ideas are tolerated in public discourse. Well, Overton’s window doesn’t mean shit unless it comes with some enforcement. So yeah, this is enforcement. It’s time to punch a few Nazis.

      This clip has garnered a lot of attention, and what should be regarded as prescient commentary. For instance, in today's Woodpile Report, Ol' Remus writes:

        In today's civil wars there are no rules, no front lines. 

        It's unrestricted warfare to take control of the government, armed horror actually, between peoples occupying the same land, even the same neighborhoods. They have no overt beginning, even in retrospect. They end when one side annihilates the other, or when both sides and the country itself are too exhausted to continue. Selco speaks of such war. 

        As I've said elsewhere, the notion of civil war in America seemed implausible to me a couple years ago. Since then it's moved to "improbable". And it's still moving.

 He cites, in turn, to an essay by Z Man about the video clip, that remarks:

        The video is a naked call for violence against whites. Even after all of the outrageous behavior we have seen from the ruling class the last few years, no reasonable person would have thought this was possible even a year ago. Even the Soviets at the worst were not exhorting people to commit acts of violence against enemies of the revolution.

* * *

       It’s why it is time think about what is impossible today, in terms of social breakdown, as it will most likely happen tomorrow. The blood lust of the ruling class for whites not obediently walking into the void, is now undeniable. Their response to the 2016 election was to declare war on white America. In their minds, it is a defensive war and they are fully justified to use any means necessary to win. There will be no point where they pull back, fearing they have gone too far. Instead they will always seek to go further.

       Again, America is a land where books are banned, people are given long prison terms for holding unpopular opinions and the livelihoods of contrarians are destroyed. This is a land where gangs of roving mobs, financed by billionaires, commit violence against citizens without consequence. Now we have a major television network calling for violence against whites and celebrating violent acts against a specific person. All of this was thought to be impossible ten years ago. What impossible thing will tomorrow bring?

Even the normally milquetoast Rod Dreher is shocked by the video clip and, especially, the monologue at the end, writing:

Keep in mind that this viewpoint is not rebutted in this episode, but sustained. The community of this show unites around the principle that punching people with offensive political views and then covering up for the crime is morally right. This is an extraordinary line for CBS to cross. What’s more, Richard Spencer is an actual person. A scripted network television show aired with approval a statement encouraging street violence against him, and against those who agree with him, in an effort to silence political speech.

As I had to remind my kids, the episode represents Clown World where everything is the opposite of reality. For instance, in the episode it is the neo-Nazi "red vests" (wonder what inspired that?) that arrive to block or interfere with polling, whereas in the real world, it was Republican monitors that were turned away from polling places, and armed and uniformed Black Panther members tried to intimidate white voters. In Clown World, it is the "red vests" that are violent, whereas in the real world it is groups like Antifa that are violent and Black Lives Matter that riot.