The Politics of Affliction

New York City’s progressive leaders apparently believe that it is their mission to disrupt the comfort of their constituents.

Seth Barron December 17, 2020

There was no shortage of suffering in New York in 2020. With the Covid-19 pandemic, economic hardship, rioting, and street violence, there’s been plenty of misery to go around. But according to some prominent elected officials and bureaucrats, the fun’s only getting started. They seem to see it as part of their job—really, their duty—to make sure that New Yorkers feel the pain.

At a Brooklyn rally in early June, commemorating the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams gave an impassioned speech. Before a crowd of thousands of mourners—who gathered en masse despite the risk of exposure to Covid and the city’s state of emergency forbidding public assembly—Williams denounced critics of the protesters. “The people who have been affected the most have been uncomfortable for 500 years!” he thundered. “If one person is comfortable, we all should be comfortable. But if one person isn’t, we all shouldn’t rest.” As a prescription for society, this standard of comfort would be hard to universalize. But Williams elaborated: “We must always, always comfort the afflicted. But in order to get justice, we must afflict the comfortable.”...........To Read More......