After the reelection of Donald Trump, the ladies of "The View" seem to have gone a bit more off the deep end than usual, which is saying a lot, seeing as how some of the things they've said in the past has been over the top. Yet, no matter how far they go, they keep managing to find sharks to jump over.
As Bonchie recently reported, "The View" got into a conversation about the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Sunny Hostin pointed out that many people in America believe violence against governments and corporations is justified, but said she's not surprised because America is a "very violent country."
"This country was built on violence," said Hostin. "We're a very violent country...And so, I'm not, unfortunately, surprised people are celebrating the use of violence."
"Today, in 2024, one in ten Americans say violence is justified right now against corporations and government," said Hostin.
Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sarah Haines said this was scary, and to be clear, the rest of the panel did denounce the killing of Thompson. They didn't go full Taylor Lorenz and say they felt joy over it. However, what's really awful about this is that Hostin is painting America with a very broad brush here. According to her, ten percent of Americans are just overtly violent.
Sunny Hostin excuses killing healthcare execs:
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) December 11, 2024
"[Few] Americans trust our healthcare system...This country was built on violence. We're a very violent country...And so, I'm not, unfortunately, surprised people are celebrating the use of violence...violence is justified right now" pic.twitter.com/MY9ydWoF2L
I looked into the poll Hostin was quoting to get see what the nuances were, and sure enough, the poll was done by the COVID States Project back in January 2022. The poll points out that Republican men were more likely to say protest against the government was justified:
● Republicans and ideological conservatives are most likely to say that violent protest against the government is justifiable right now.
● Among those who say it is justified to engage in violent protest against the government, most (two-thirds) say that the federal government is an appropriate target. Smaller shares think that their own state’s government (35%), another state’s government (20%), or local government (21%) are justifiable targets for violent protest.
● Among those who say violent protest is justified right now, Republicans are more likely to target the federal government than are Democrats (71% versus 62%) while more Democrats say violence against their state’s government is justified (43% versus 26%). Independents are more likely than Republicans to say violent protest against their state’s government is justified (38% versus 26%) and are more likely than both groups of partisans to say violence against their local government is warranted.
● Among Republicans who say violent protest against the government is currently justified, a larger share (37%) say violent protest against their state’s government is justified when that state is controlled by a Democratic governor than those who say it is justified in state’s controlled by a governor from their own party (18%).
This date adds some nuance. This was just around the time the lockdowns were being lifted in various states, while others were being enforced well beyond what they should have. Around this time, the Biden administration was enforcing vaccine mandates on federal workers and contractors, as well as certain private-sector employees under CMS regulations.
Churches were being shut down, people were being arrested, and tensions between the people and the government were at an all-time high.
With that nuance in mind, the numbers make a lot more sense. People saw a government that was getting too drunk on its own power, and we were ready to rise up if necessary to remind it where the real power was. Thankfully, we didn't have to get to that point, but the Founding Fathers made it clear that if things do get out of control, then violence should be the last thing we do, but definitely a thing we should resort to. This doesn't make people violent, it makes them defensive of something they should rightfully cherish.
Hostin left that bit out, and I have a notion that was intentional. She wants to paint America as something wrong, and a deeply disturbed and sick country.
We're not, but if Hostin and the ladies of "The View" can convince you we are, then you can be manipulated in all sorts of ways. They can make you feel ashamed of being an American and start demanding change that points in the wrong direction.
They're national smear merchants, and while I'd like to say they're a fringe group of women that are only good for demonstrations on how crazy the left is, understand that this a very, very popular program with millions of viewers (2.5 million per episode after November) and a rabid online following.
The View, and people like them, are part of an outrage economy. Outrage is a multi-billion dollar industry powered mainly by the internet. The ladies of "The View" or an equivalent program or personality say something bombastic, and that clip gets circulated around the internet, being posted to X on social media and websites like RedState. This drives interest, resulting in continued relevancy and attention.
Before you type in the comments "why doesn't RedState just stop talking about "The View" then," let me stop you. RedState ceasing to report on it won't make the problem go away. It won't suddenly make "The View" less popular. RedState not talking about things only means there's one less voice pushing back on their nonsense and claims. The internet would still be distributing these clips, and "The View" would still have millions of followers. Less pushback is not the answer.
However, it does feed into the outrage economy. Because it works to garner attention, the ladies at "The View" will continue to say things like they do, and thanks to their Hollywood bubble, continue to reinforce their own ideals, bubbling themselves ideologically and dragging them down further and further into insanity, dragging their audience along with them.
Their only hope is the truth spoken by people on the Internet and sites like RedState. It's a vicious cycle we're locked in.
How do we get out of it?
Like most radical leftists, they'll go so far that they eventually "crazy" themselves into irrelevance. I predict as the Trump administration gets going, "The View" will only become more insane. I don't think I'm the only one making that prediction. As Mike Miller wrote in mid-November, ABC is searching to add "pro-Trump" voices to "The View," in hopes to possibly tamp down or at least provide a foil to the madness it's currently infected by.
As usual, time is the answer, but until then, "The View" is going to be a bastion of insanity and a focal point of the narrative war.
