So, THIS Is the Point Where It Should Stop

There is a coffeehouse in the Boston area where the 23-year old daughter of the owner posted some cop-hostile comments on Facebook. The over-the-top response to that has, apparently, led to the shop having to close down, due to lack of customers.

The mother, horrified about the comments from her daughter, immediately insisted that she take down her comments. She also reached out to the local cops, to assure them that they were welcome.

Too late. The online mob had already gotten some people with nothing better to do stirred up. Protests gathered at the business, customers stayed away, and the business went down the tubes.

The comments to the story in the Boston Globe are varied, passionate, and copious.

So, what is the take-away from this?

1. If you are planning to start a business, or already have a business, make sure that your entire extended family knows that political/cultural/social commentary that is controversial, and could be linked in ANY way to the business will result in immediate expulsion from the family.
2. Have what is called in the South a Come-to-Jesus moment with all Liberals in the family. Introduce them to the foreign concept that ALL people, even those who disagree with them, have a right to express non-violent opinions. Those opinions may be discussed - in civil terms, and with logical arguments - but may not be responded to with threats against their person, livelihood, or home.
3. For that matter, this is a case wherein non-Liberals of passionate conviction need to be confronted with the same concepts.
4. For those too lazy, or deliberately stupid to get the point: Political/Cultural/Social disagreements are not to be used as excuses to enforce one's opinions with violence or threats.

I find myself asking the same question that many asked themselves at the start of the Civil War (otherwise, and perhaps more properly, known as the War Between the States) - how the hell did we get to this point?

The answer: Over time, and with relatively small breeches of the common decency. Those violations of protocol on public expressions of controversial opinion built up over time, until some parts of society cannot be in near proximity to other parts without feeling the compulsion to scream, rage, throws things, and physically attack.

I do have to say that, although much of this escalation is the responsibility of Liberals/Progressives/Leftists, the extreme Right also holds some blame. Consider the timeline:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B15AwfsEwz75ejd4T1c1NnZ0SFk/view?usp=sharing

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