They’re hoping he’ll be the David who slays the Goliath, the latter being the pro-Second Amendment spirit as embodied by the NRA. But should anyone really be listening to David Hogg, the Parkland survivor vaulted to media-propelled prominence? And does most of America really know what he has said?
Talk-show host Laura Ingraham — currently the target of a Hogg-inspired sponsor boycott — and now actor Frank Stallone, have taken heat for leveling harsh criticisms at the newly minted activist. But the reality is this: If Ingraham had used on-air the kind of language Hogg has disgorged in media, she might have been off air long ago.
While Hogg is supposed to be representative of the Parkland survivors of the February 14 massacre, not only is this an illusion (there are almost 3,000 of them; Hogg reflects one faction), but some have a very low opinion of him. Just consider the tweet by student Patrick Petty, who lost a sibling in the shooting:
Patrick Petty @Patrickpetty23 Mar 29
I find it funny that @davidhogg111 wants people to show him love while being nasty and vile to others. Worse than that, he and his friends have not said a word to me since the shooting[;] considering my sister died on 2/14 don’t you think it would’ve been loving to reach out to me?
(Note: Petty’s Twitter feed is quite interesting and presents a perspective the mainstream media suppress.)
So what might Petty say is so “nasty and vile”? It’s not just that Hogg refused to accept an apology Ingraham extended, but also what he has revealed about his own character. Just consider a late March Outline interview with Hogg, in which the student exhibited arrogant ignorance lathered in viperous vulgarity.
Here’s a highlight (lowlight, actually), where he vents against parents: “When your old-a** parent is like, ‘I don’t know how to send an iMessage,’ and you’re just like, ‘Give me the f****** phone and let me handle it.’ Sadly, that’s what we have to do with our government; our parents don’t know how to use a f****** democracy, so we have to” (video below; relevant portion begins at 2:15).
Of course, Hogg’s comments about those who aren’t in lockstep with his anti-gun agenda aren’t any nicer — he calls them “f*****s.”
Caution: This video contains repeated f-bombs.
(Note that censor-crazy YouTube removed an edited version of this video — distilled down to the vulgar statements — because, supposedly, of the site’s “policy on harassment and bullying.”)
Petty isn’t the only Parkland student critical of Hogg. Another is Kyle Kashuv, who tweeted, American Thinker relates:
For some reason, David has no problem blaming every innocent person he wants to but has no problem defending the Coward of Broward for absolutely no reason other than to push his narrative. pic.twitter.com/qmz6RFurTI
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) March 29, 2018
and
**Thread**
It is difficult to think of someone who has focused more on fear and less on facts than @davidhogg111. https://t.co/A9kGjBqGRY
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKas
Hogg may actually agree on the latter point, as “Kashuv wanted to debate Hogg about gun control and Hogg refused to do it,” according to American Thinker.
Nonetheless, the media not only make Hogg their frontline spokesman and facilitate his firing of anti-gun salvos, they also claim that firing back is some kind of trespass against youth or victims or both. A good example is USA Today, which opined that Ingraham “blew it” because she is the “adult.” Huh?
Question: How is Hogg man enough to level harsh political criticisms but simultaneously too childish to endure them? Strangely, the Left apparently believes that people too immature to handle guns (the under-21 set) and take frontline flak are mature enough to be frontline fighters for its cause.
One man noting this is commentator Ben Shapiro, who mentioned Hogg’s censorious words and remarked, reports the Hill, “I was Hogg’s age when I started writing a syndicated column. I got hammered repeatedly — and some of it was justified. When you join the public discourse, you take on slings and arrows. That’s even more true if you decide to maliciously malign your opponents, as Hogg has.”
Of course, Hogg and the other Parkland activists are front men for big-money, pro-gun-control organizations (click here, here and here). But he’s also part of a ploy: The media use him as a human prop and shield, letting him throw the punches and then condemning the assailed if they dare defend themselves.
But as I wrote February in “The Parkland Kids: The Return of the Grieving Activist:”
Now, putting minors on the front lines is not at all unprecedented. The youngest U.S. naval captain was 12-year-old David Farragut, and the British would often have upper-class preteen boy officers aboard their warships, as accurately portrayed in the film Master and Commander. But could you imagine if, after firing some salvos at French vessels and receiving a proportionate response, a British captain bellowed, “What do you think you’re doing?! There are kids aboard this ship!” Ridiculous.
But it’s no more ridiculous than doing likewise in our political campaigns — and, mind you, “campaign” is a military term, applied here because at issue is political warfare. So put kids on the front lines if you wish, as the Nazis did in WWII’s waning days, but know they’re taking flak because you placed them in harm’s way.
Alleged grief should never be used as a weapon. When I was 12, my best friend was shot to death (and I witnessed a high-profile murder when in my 20s). I was sad but not traumatized — there’s a difference. And although neither I nor my parents would have consented to my playing such a role, should I have been thrust before cameras as a gun-control-propaganda prop?
As I also wrote in my February article, if “you want to grieve, grieve. If you want to play politics, play politics.”
“But my sympathy for grieving ends when the use of grief as a political battering ram begins.”
The sad reality, though, is that Hogg is a wholly fitting representative for today’s media, which relate a childish grasp of the issues and prefer tantrums to Truth and feelings to facts.
Photo of David Hogg: AP Images
