We can't let myths take over

In October 2022, in an article in the Atlantic which skewered the hypocrisy of Trump-enamored evangelical Christians, David French wrote:

A partisan mindset is a dangerous thing. It can make you keenly aware of every unfair critique from the other side and oblivious to your own side’s misdeeds. I was indignant about attacks against Romney, for example, while brushing off years of birther conspiracies against President Barack Obama as “fringe” or “irrelevant.”

Then, of course, Republicans nominated Trump, the birther in chief, and the scales fell from my partisan eyes.

French is a former staff writer for the National Review. That is, he's a conservative guy. He hold views on abortion that privilege a zygote over a living, breathing adult potential mother. But he's also a morally serious member of the never-Trump center right who will argue that the contemporary Republican Party is a danger to majoritarian democracy. He knows his Christian comrades on the right and I find his explorations of that world thoughtful.

This excellent background has now earned French an opinion writing slot at the New York Times. I will read him with some interest, especially if his new digs don't cut him off from the grassroots Republican evangelicals I find so inexplicable. He seems genuinely interested in overcoming partisan strife.

But his introductory column includes a casual affirmation of a right-wing myth that no serious commentator should be peddling. He writes of "the riots of summer 2020" in reference to the Black Lives Matter protests over the police murder of George Floyd -- and of so many other victims. 

The notion that the protests of that summer were somehow widespread eruptions of deliberate mob violence -- on a par with Trump supporters' attack on Constitutional process on January 6 -- is propagandistic nonsense.  

93% of Black Lives Matter Protests Have Been Peaceful, New Report Finds

The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) analyzed more than 7,750 Black Lives Matter demonstrations in all 50 states and Washington D.C. that took place in the wake of George Floyd’s death between May 26 and August 22.

Their report states that more than 2,400 locations reported peaceful protests, while fewer than 220 reported “violent demonstrations.” The authors define violent demonstrations as including “acts targeting other individuals, property, businesses, other rioting groups or armed actors.” Their definition includes anything from “fighting back against police” to vandalism, property destruction looting, road-blocking using barricades, burning tires or other materials. In cities where protests did turn violent—these demonstrations are “largely confined to specific blocks,” the report says.

Sure -- there were a few locations where protests turned into violent chaos -- Portland and Kenosha come to mind. But mostly folks marched and demonstrated peacefully in cities and towns across the country. Getting the rage and grief out in the open threatened some people but engaged millions of others carefully and thoughtfully.

This small, mostly white, gathering on Martha's Vineyard was probably quite typical.

In the same issue where Mr. French's new column appeared, the paper is still following up on the New York's Civilian Complaint Review Board's report on the 750 complaints against the police that came out of the 2020 protests. Even this quite toothless body reckoned that, in some instances, police had used pepper spray indiscriminately and beaten protesters with batons while covering up their identifying badges. The Police Union is predictably wroth that any blame for violent episodes might be placed on the cops. I'm sure protesting New Yorkers think the report is a whitewash.

It's hard to credit writers who casually repeat partisan myths. We all have to be conscious of our partisan blinders.