Parkland high school student and mass shooting survivor David Hogg has happily become the face of the current gun control movement. Hogg, now famous for calling nearly everyone who disagrees with a bigot who just wants children to die, has several times had to hide behind his status as a teenager to avoid scrutiny — his boycott of Laura Ingraham being the latest example.
There’s a certain level of hypocrisy behind what Hogg and other high-profile survivors-turned-activists are doing. To be clear, it’s worth noting that these students have every right to be upset with what happened to them and their peers, and they also have every right to speak out politically for whatever reason.
But there’s a catch all of us have to deal with when we make that decision: once you step into the public market of ideas, criticism is fair game.
As figures on the right have been forced to point out on a near-daily basis at this point, surviving a tragedy does not denote any expertise on public policy — regardless of how egregious or traumatic the experience was.
Hogg and his contemporaries can and should be held accountable when they speak out. If anything, they should be taught to see this as an opportunity to sharpen their debate skills — something you would think Hogg would appreciate given that he’s an aspiring journalist. Sadly, the mainstream media has been happy to give them the kid glove treatment, ironic considering how seriously they wish to be taken.
~ Facts Not Memes