If David Hogg Doesn’t Like to Debate, He Should Quit Political Activism

By David Harsanyi

Monday, April 04, 2022

 

Anti-gun activist David Hogg spent the weekend tweeting out his usual half-baked nonsense about guns. “If you need a license to kill deer why don’t you need one to kill humans?” and “Uteruses should not be more regulated than guns,” and other similar gems. Hogg, now a student at Harvard, is apparently under the impression that the Second Amendment sanctions murder and that pregnant women are subjected to background checks. It’s nearly impossible to engage in any genuine debate with emotionalist arguments so untethered from reality.

 

That didn’t stop Marjorie Taylor Greene. And, as you might imagine, the discourse — “try hanging out with actual deer hunters” to be “more masculine” and “learn about how we will get our food supply when Biden’s inflation makes buying food unaffordable,” the Georgia congresswoman argued — was not exactly elevated. Events then unfolded as they always do when someone challenges Hogg. “Marjorie Taylor Greene Harangues School Shooting Survivor Over Gun Stance” read one Newsweek headline, and CNN’s Alisyn Camerota had Hogg on her show to demand that Greene apologize to the families of victims of gun violence.

 

Many liberals seem to believe that using the opinions of either a young person, such as Greta Thunberg, or someone who experiences trauma, such as Cindy Sheehan, as a proxy for their pet issues demands default admiration and exemption from any political criticism.

 

“Harangue,” for example, intimates that Hogg is being singled out and harassed because of his experience at Stoneman Douglas High School rather than his vocal position on gun ownership. I’m no MTG fan, to say the least, but Hogg was using a public forum to smear gun-rights advocates as terrorists and murders. Hogg has over a million followers. He’s afforded glowing media attention because he spearheads a political movement that aligns with the mass media’s ideological position. He’s at Harvard very likely because of this activism. Hogg lived through a mass shooting. It gives him personal insight into that murderous rampage and tragedy. It does not, however, imbue him with (an even a rudimentary) understanding of history or of gun laws. And even if it did, the rest of us would still get to disagree with him. If Hogg doesn’t want to be “harangued” on the gun issue, he might think about quitting activism.