Leftists like to claim they stand for tolerance.
Like most leftist claims, the opposite is true.
Leftists cannot tolerate that not everyone conforms to their politically charged opinions and preferences – and to leftists, everything is political.
A phrase describing the typical leftist activist attitude has been prevalent on the internet for years: “Your free speech is violence, my violence is free speech.”
The saying acknowledges leftist tactics like bullying and the redefinition of words.
It also suggests that in a battle of wits, the leftist is unarmed, and has to resort to lashing out physically.
Such an event took place Tuesday at the University of Iowa, during a presentation by Turning Point USA chief creative officer Benny Johnson.
?BREAKING: I was Giving a speech about MEMES at the University of Iowa tonight with @TPUSA.
A Kamala Harris Meme TRIGGERED the violent LIBS so bad they ATTACKED the *projector* and SMASHED IT to pieces.
I told you: The Left Can’t Meme pic.twitter.com/nTwm6ijnV3
— Benny Johnson | Meme-Attack Survivor ✊?✊?✊?✊? (@bennyjohnson) September 21, 2022
In the middle of a presentation, while Johnson was showing a video of a meme featuring Kamala Harris, a man attacked the projector showing it.
Johnson shared video of the incident on his Twitter account, where he updated his user name to “Benny Johnson/Meme-Attack Survivor.”
“BREAKING: I was Giving a speech about MEMES at the University of Iowa tonight with @TPUSA A Kamala Harris Meme TRIGGERED the violent LIBS so bad they ATTACKED the *projector* and SMASHED IT to pieces. I told you: The Left Can’t Meme.
The Post Millennial reported, “Johnson was speaking on the subject of memes when his presentation was disrupted by a young man wearing a green bandana on his head. Footage shows the man reacting to a Kamala Harris meme by yelling “Racist *ss b*tch! F*ck you!” after drop-kicking the projector.
“Footage taken outside the event shows the individual getting arrested and being escorted away by police.”
Do you think Johnson is right about leftists having “darkness in their souls?”
According to The Daily Iowan, the university’s student newspaper, the man was identified as university student Travell Wright. He was charged charged with disorderly conduct, disturbing a lawful assembly and criminal mischief.
He didn’t stop the presentation, though. According to TPUSA, the projector was quickly fixed and Johnson was able to continue.
The meme that led to the attack featured a doctored Kamala Harris Tik Tok video. It took old 2019 video of an enthusiastic Harris seeing her campaign tour bus for the first time and added a mariachi dancer as if that was what she was so happy to see.
Here is the offending Kamala Harris illegal immigration meme, courtesy of @NautPoso & @drefanzor pic.twitter.com/sIJRp0wnBF
— Benny Johnson | Meme-Attack Survivor ✊?✊?✊?✊? (@bennyjohnson) September 21, 2022
The meme references an event that occurred on Sept. 15. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent two buses to drop off illegal immigrants near the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s residence in Washington. This was after Harris declared that the border is secure.
Far from being glad to see the illegal immigrants, Harris seems to prefer to pretend they do not exist. The so-called “border czar” has mostly avoided her duties and the border itself.
Johnson often uses humor to comment on serious political situations.
Johnson appeared on “War Room” a podcast hosted by former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon, to talk about what he called the “the first ‘meme hate crime arrest in American history.’”
“This is a spiritual battle,” Johnson said. “And it’s a spiritual battle between darkness and light. And these people are so dark in their souls they don’t have humor. They have lost the capacity to laugh. They’ve lost the capacity to … have any enjoyment of life. They have darkness in their souls.
“So when they’re presented with us ridiculing them, and ridicule is, I think, possibly the most powerful political tool there is, when they’re presented with this ridicule of their heroes, they don’t know how to process it. They just snap.”
In his Twitter recap of the violent episode, Johnson used another prevalent internet phrase: “The Left can’t meme.”
Johnson suggests leftists are unable to communicate using the sudden sharp insights, humor and symbolism the best memes incorporate.
As brief and trivial as they might seem, memes are an important weapon in the information war we are in. Memes are entertaining, easily shared, quickly ingested little truth bombs chipping away at the progressive narrative imposed on society from the top down.
No wonder leftists can’t tolerate them.
