Another tale of two headlines.

‘Paper terrorism’: Parents against mask mandates bombard school districts with sham legal claims – NBC News

‘Beautiful, peaceful and diverse’: Thousands of protesters flood streets near White House – NBC News

The familiar narrative is one in which any political opposition to the leftist establishment, no matter how legal and non-violent, is defined as a form of terrorism, while the most extreme acts of violence by leftists are depicted as peaceful.

Or, famously, mostly peaceful. Another term for mostly peaceful would of course be, partially violent.

But it’s all a matter of whether the glass is half empty, half full, or as otherwise befits the political narrative.  

Here, from 2014 is how NBC News introduced this piece on the Ferguson riots.

Flare-Up: Ferguson Protesters Set Fire to Police Car – It had been a mostly peaceful, mostly quiet night of protest in Ferguson. – NBC News

Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?

It was a mostly peaceful and quiet night aside from when the mob set a police car on fire. 

If the parents against mask mandates had set a police car on fire, all their bank accounts would be frozen by now.

Repression has to be justified by propaganda campaigns. And we’ve seen that, whether in Canada or here, and the media’s job is providing the distorted framing that somehow makes the repression seem reasonable.

When in need of a pretext for justifying repression, just call parents using lawful legal tactics, paper terrorists. Even though the real paper terrorists are at the New York Times and the Washington Post.