BY BEN PENSANT

The last two weeks have been the most joyous for progressives since that glorious fortnight when Jeremy Corbyn RATTLED the BBC by accusing them of airbrushing his beret. Because the disappearance and murder of Sarah Everard gave principled leftists a rare opportunity to do what we do best – exploiting dead people to score points against something we don’t like. Or rather, four things: the police, men, men, and the police. And men.

Naturally, news of Sarah’s disappearance was initially met with sour-faced right-wing nuggets predictably suggesting she was partly responsible for walking home alone. Which was met with sensible points from level-headed people attacking such rank victim-blaming. Which was met with a tsunami of rage from principled leftists furious that the narrative was being controlled by right-wing nuggets and sensible level-headed people, smothering both with the kind of hysterical scaremongering and good-natured misandry not seen since oppressed CEO’s daughter Caroline Criado-Whitehouse got her non-consensual knickers in a twist over a toy elf with teabags for knackers.

Because we can’t simply say women should be free to walk wherever they like without being raped or murdered. No, we have to say that every time they leave the house they’re dicing with death, despite the fact that attacks on women are mercifully rare.

We can’t simply say that the onus should be on men not to assault, rather than on women to avoid being assaulted. No, we have to say that all men are responsible and it’s their job to stop assaulters assaulting.

And we certainly can’t say that conviction rates for rape are higher than most other violent crimes and this should be used to encourage victims to come forward. No, we have to say that if you’re raped you won’t be believed, and your attacker will walk free so you might as well hide under your bed because if you show your face in public you’re asking for trouble.

But mainly you have to avoid saying anything with substance and churn out a never-ending stream of vague generalities then cry when you’re asked to elaborate. The most popular of these is the oft-repeated “Men need to step up and stop men killing women!” and its equally banal variants, “It’s on men to stop men killing women!” and “If you’re not stopping men killing women then you’re just as bad as them!”

Fortunately, there is no duty whatsoever to explain what this actually entails. As anyone who’s glanced at Twitter recently knows, the age-old question “How does a normal bloke with zero superpowers or detective skills stop wife-beaters and sexual sadists from murdering women?” is the ultimate headscratcher: a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, buried beneath a self-righteous tweet from a joyless blur-tick harpy who hasn’t a clue what she’s talking about.

Ah, complicity: the modern leftist’s favourite word-bomb in the war against people we disagree with. Because there’s nothing more satisfying than holding millions responsible for the actions of a minority; breaking our own rules to gleefully embrace our inner bigot and blame men, Tories, white people, Leave voters, lesbians, landlords, fishermen, glassblowers, and anyone who isn’t Black, trans or Muslim for stuff they had bugger all to do with.

That this came in the same week Queen Megan broke the nation’s heart with her tale of woe made it all the more special. Because as awful as Sarah’s ordeal must’ve been, it was nothing compared to the trauma of marrying into the most privileged family in Britain. Sure, getting kidnapped and murdered is devastating but is it really as bad as being asked an inappropriate question about your baby’s skin colour by some unnamed aristo? Imagine the horror of learning that the snooty, archaic institution you’ve married into boasts one or two people with snooty, archaic views? And imagine being a time-served SJW and finding out your new family are every bit as obsessed with pigmentation as you and your befuddled husband?

A brilliant fortnight for the Left.

Further Ben Pensant material can be found here.