AOC’s “Stolen Riot Valor”

Bryan Preston of PJMedia writes:

AOC’s Stolen Riot Valor Reveals Her Heartless Cruelty Toward the Rest of America

[after citing several examples of riots all over the country in the past year…]

I bring all of this up not to rehash the past year, but to wonder again if the synapses in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s brain ever make the most obvious, elementary connections. Or if there is anything genuine or honest about her at all. Does she experience empathy for anyone other than her extremist squadmates?

AOC’s tactics by now are well established. When she wants to put out a purposeful message she goes to social media and posts a video monologue. She can speak there unchallenged by questions, reporters, or facts. Commenters and followers fawn over her every word, like, reply, and spread her message virally for free. Journalists tend to report what she says uncritically, amplifying her chosen message and lending her undeserved credibility, then they wait for responses to report. It’s easy work. Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em journalism. When pushback arrives from pundits or other members of Congress, AOC doubles and triples down, often accusing them of what she has done to deflect from whatever weaknesses or deceptions her critics have exposed.

When called out, AOC doubled down, saying her critics exploited people’s misunderstanding of the layout in D.C. But she did that in her initial video — most Americans haven’t been to a congressional office and don’t know much about the underground tunnels or where congresscritters make their nests.

Giving AOC every benefit of the doubt — which is something she never gives anyone who disagrees with her — her mind should have made a very simple and obvious connection, one that would have altered her thinking about the past year and the one ahead.

If she feared for her life that day, what about the millions of Americans whose cities were plagued by deadly riots for days, weeks, and months? Did we have any less reason to fear than she did? No, we had more reasons to fear than she did. AOC and her ilk were cheering on the “defund the police” activists during active, violent riots.

Are they all sociopaths?

The article’s author, Bryan Preston, went on to equate a parallel to Stolen Valor…

There’s a term for those who claim heroic military service when they either never served or never saw the combat they claim: stolen valor. AOC’s claim to fear during the Capitol riot is a species of stolen valor. She may have feared the chaos, but it evidently didn’t get to her doorstop and didn’t force her into hiding in a bathroom. She is trying to claim and weaponize a moral authority that her actual experience doesn’t merit, in order to bludgeon her opponents and smear all Republicans in Congress. Her aim is not truth, but more raw power. That’s disgusting in and of itself, but it’s hardly a disqualifier among Democrats. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Democrat from Connecticut, used to claim combat service in Vietnam. He served during the Vietnam war, but it turns out he never left the United States. That’s stolen valor. He keeps winning elections anyway.

Some have compared AOC to Jussie Smollett and his claim that he was jumped and beaten by Trump supporters.  It is interesting to say the least – once proven false, the issue seems to pivot to the claim that it doesn’t matter if it’s true, we are told that it is the premise that we should focus on. *sigh*

Another interesting fallout from this is that Snopes.com, the fact-checking website, has been ridiculed for backing AOC’s claim and it is being suggested that they have a bias.

Fact-check site Snopes panned for ‘weird’ post about AOC’s Capitol claim

The liberal fact-checking website Snopes raised eyebrows for appearing to contradict itself regarding the controversy surrounding the Capitol Hill riot story from U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Politics, Stolen Valor