Ultimately, we get to the gist of her argument:
Basically it’s just such a hysterical atmosphere at this point, that no one can conceive of a person who is against something but also willing to tolerate the expression of that thing....This argument might give me pause -- except that I know it comes from a representative of a conservative movement that disapproved of what a handful of ACORN employees said on videotape and responding by destroying the organization altogether. I know this movement is trying to destroy legal abortion in America, and government labor unions, and, ultimately, non-government labor unions. I know the movement wants to destroy Obamacare and the public school system and the Postal Service and Amtrak. I know the movement wants to hobble Social Security and Medicare until they cease to exist, and would abolish the minimum wage if that were politically feasible.
Listen, it’s great that we’re aiming to be an anti-racist society. That’s very, very good! But it’s bad that we are slowly forgetting how to dislike something without seeking its utter destruction.
Here's the Heine quote from Hemingway:
And how we manage these processes of disapproval truly is important for civil society. To quote Heinrich Heine, a man who definitely knew of what he spoke, “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning men.”If Hemingway objects to the "burning" of people, let me give her a list of names: Lani Guinier, the Dixie Chicks, Shirley Sherrod, Sandra Fluke, Graeme Frost, Van Jones, Dan Rather, Eason Jordan. And can we talk about the developers of the Park51 project, aka the "Ground Zero mosque"? I'd say they were singed. Did Hemingway have a problem with that?
No modern movement conservative has any standing whatsoever to lecture anyone else on intolerance. It's that simple.