Selective Outrage: How the left's agenda trumps genuine concern for human suffering

Human rights are a concern of the organization Human Rights Watch

writes Christopher Cook

....just not the their main concern.

…Why is it that Human Rights Watch and other human rights NGOs, the media, and the Democrats are strikingly uninterested in the complete collapse of freedom and severe erosion of human rights in Venezuela, but they seem fascinated by—and oh so very concerned about—the human rights situation in Colombia? Simple.

Colombia's government is center-right. This makes it an enemy of the left.

Venezuela's government is hard left. This makes it an ally of the left. It doesn't matter how authoritarian the government is. It doesn't matter if it's slightly left or far left. An ally is an ally.

For a more detailed exegesis of this pattern, along with some striking examples, see Selective Outrage: How the left's agenda trumps genuine concern for human suffering

…From a human rights standpoint, [there is] a serious imbalance unsupported by the facts surrounding real human rights abuses in the world. Looking at it that way, it makes no sense.

If, however, you look at it the way HRW does—through a filter of the left's best interests—then it makes perfect sense.

Il n'y a aucun ennemi du côté gauche.