IT'S SNOWING MEN:

The right often accuses the left of exaggerating victimhood, turning a blind eye to reality, and distorting language to do so. The left, it's often said, harbors "snowflakes" and the like who are beset by a victim complex. Lately, however, this frame of mind knows no party or political affiliation. Especially since the Capitol riot, assorted conservative figures have embodied a fragility of the right. [...]

Fox's Jeanine Pirro, for instance, compared the act of tech companies de-platforming Parler for harboring unfiltered right-wing terrorist propaganda to "Kristallnacht." Jews tormented on Kristallnacht would have interesting words for Pirro's view, especially since her ideological compatriots had just stormed the Capitol and left five people dead.

Fox's Tucker Carlson is also pushing right-wing victimization. He claimed that the insurrection was rooted in something as blunt as "the population" asking, "Listen to us!" with their leaders merely yelling, "Shut up and do as you're told." He ignored the clear-cut denialism about the vote count, and the fact that leaders are listening to that denialism and encouraging it. The notion that the insurrections represent the neglected and unheard is especially odd since the mob at the Capitol was not comprised entirely of impecunious people worried about their bank accounts, but included a great many financially stable, educated people.

Another exemplar of right fragility is Senator Josh Hawley, who recruited the term Orwellian to describe the cancellation of the publication of his upcoming critique of Big Tech. George Orwell's 1984 described a dystopia where the state refashioned language to make it impossible to harbor unwelcome thoughts. Simon & Schuster (a private company) canceled Hawley's book in a world where views of Hawley's kind are and will continue to be widely disseminated.

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