Dan Savage may have apologized for calling Christian students “pansy-assed” for walking out on his anti-religious diatribe, that that’s not stopping his newspaper from pushing property destruction. Savage is editorial director of The Stranger, an alternative website; today, The Stranger ran a column subtly titled, “Why All the Smashy-Smashy? A Beginner’s Guide to Targeted Property Destruction.”
The author of the piece, Brendan Kiley, writes:
There are reasons why thoughtful people sometimes smash windows ….
Why would anyone use targeted vandalism as a means of political expression? It’s a very, very old tactic, dating back to Jesus smashing up the moneylenders’ kiosks in the temple. And it is still popular among some, but totally anathema to most, today.
Kiley provides three reasons why destroying property is fine. First, he says, it hurts businesses “where it counts,” and thereby gets “their attention.” Second, he says, it hits the right people: “We should note that the window-smashers today did not target mom ‘n’ pop corner stores or restaurants. They targeted Niketown and banks, presumably because they had some grievance against those institutions and not others. Their vandalism was not “know-nothing”–it was calculated.” Third, he says, “broken windows–and even arsons by the Earth Liberation Front–are a kind of fire alarm, designed to make us pay attention to what they see as accelerating economic, social, and ecological catastrophe.”
But, the media says, Savage isn’t a bully. And the White House continues to embrace him, even as the outlet he edits justifies mass property destruction.
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