An Irish magazine has taken provocation to an entirely new level with a controversial cover shot of U.S. President Donald Trump’s head in the cross-hairs of a supposed assassin.
Village February out today, Friday. Cover and editorial: why taking #Trump out would be unethical pic.twitter.com/Wr2lmgTtvx
— Village Magazine (@VillageMagIRE) February 3, 2017
Of course, they aren’t really calling for Trump’s actual assassination. They just want to chat about it for a bit – you know, analyze the ethical philosophies involved.
Like civilized folk.
In a piece that often sounds like something out of The Huffington Post, the Trump-hate starts from the beginning paragraph that describes the American president as “a purveyor of hatred, a contrarian: anti-liberal, anti-democratic and hostile to a free press, an anti-environmental, corruptible bully; a liar, a misogynist groper and a boor” who “holds the reins of power in the most powerful country in the world. He holds the nuclear codes, he can start wars, he can ensure nothing is done about climate change, so that civilisation itself is threatened.”
I mean, wow, with rhetoric like that surely no weak-minded leftist with an itchy finger and a thirst for fame would start comparing Trump to other “civilisation threateners” like Adolph Hitler, and themselves to Claus von Stauffenberg.
That would be crazy.
Despite the fact that the author, who I would lay down money betting is NOT a Christian, conjures up a St. Thomas Aquinas quote next – “He who kills a tyrant (i.e. a usurper) to free his country is praised and rewarded.” – that doesn’t necessarily mean they want anything bad to happen to Trump.
After all, it wouldn’t be “ethical.” The reason?
Trump “was elected very recently. Aquinas would be reticent about the degree of usurpation in this case.”
But…
On the other hand, Trump’s impulses are not democratic. If he pushes towards curtailing freedoms and minority rights it may legitimate for Christians to think about removing him.
Like Gollum talking to himself about his “precious” and what to do about the “fat hobbitses” who has been watching him closely on the way to Mordor, the Village can’t seem to make up its mind about what to ultimately do with Trump.
Finally, for legality’s sake (I’m guessing), the Village decides to let Trump live, for now:
On these bases, the Natural Law would wait to see democracy play its proper role, utilitarianism would say the backlash against an assassination would risk all it might achieve and lose the benefits that a democratic backlash would itself achieve. Rights-based theories would perhaps come closest to condoning violence against Trump but the right to life of Trump himself would weigh heavily.
More trivially, any would-be assassin, more even than von Stauffenberg, risks being uncovered and discredited – in person and ideologically…
The calculus is clearly against violence, even in the case of Trump. Stick to democracy, rigorously but applied, as necessary, stealthily and aggressively.
Thankfully, most of the Twitter reaction to the Village’s disgusting post were like the Tweets below:
@VillageMagIRE Wishing death on anyone is already obscene, but Trump is not a bloody bigot – that is liberal slander at its best.
— Jason A. Kinast (@JKinast18) February 3, 2017
@JKinast18 @VillageMagIRE “Why Not?” w/a rifle target on his head is a signal to his haters. Irresponsible, & Kerosene on the fire #ethics
— danmet! (@danmet) February 3, 2017
@danmet @JKinast18 @VillageMagIRE it’s called Journalism to the tolerant left, if it happened to Obama, it would be evil, racist, lawless
— Abandon Ship (@Kyles559) February 3, 2017
@Realityaddict11 @Kyles559 @JKinast18 @VillageMagIRE Nope, & I don’t remember magazines struggling with the ethics of assassinating POTUS
— danmet! (@danmet) February 3, 2017
@VillageMagIRE This cover is awful. It only proves Trump’s supporters’ worst theories about liberals, and it’s gross. You should apologise.
— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) February 3, 2017
@VillageMagIRE You should be ashamed of yourselves. Shops and distributors should refuse to stock such blatant incitement to murder.
— TJ McGibney (@TJMcGibney) February 3, 2017
@VillageMagIRE imagine the (justified) anger if a right-wing mag had run a pic of Obama in cross hairs with a cap just saying ‘why not’?
— Paulie Doyle (@BigPaulieDoyle) February 3, 2017
@BigPaulieDoyle @VillageMagIRE DESPICABLE. I hope you like hot weather. It’ll only feel like an eternity
— Alyssa Moss (@mossy_moss) February 3, 2017
Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BizPac Review.
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