Hate Sells category archive
Facebook Frolics 0
At The Seattle Times, One of organizers of the #StopHateForProfit campaign to boycott Facebook to encourage it to clean up its act writes that Mark Zuckerberg just doesn’t get it.
Our meeting made one thing clear: Zuckerberg has an extremely limited understanding of systemic racism and the ways it has infiltrated his company.
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
The Denver Post, in an AP article, explores the role of “social” media in promoting anti-social behavior in these viral times.
All the News that Fits 0
Steven M. looks askance at the slanted news coverage emanating from (primarily) right-wing news corporations (I’m not talking about Twitter twits or Facebook frolickers or wacky websites here), particularly Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting.
But that’s only part of the story.
Con artists cannot succeed without easy marks, and the United States has more than its share of persons willing to believe anything that props up their prejudices and bolsters their bigotry, despite the evidence of objective reality, sometimes despite the evidence of their own eyes.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
At The Roanoke Times, John Long makes a compelling case for adding an “anti-” to “social,” as in media.
Methinks he is onto something. Follow the link and read for yourself.
The Trumpling Goes Viral 0
This is your–our–country on Trump.
(snip)
But as a bus rolled past, the man again yelled out, this time screaming at the driver to “run them all over,” Zhu said.
He turned to her and she knew it was coming.
“Please don’t,” she said.
“Right after I said that, he spit on me,” Zhu said. “I didn’t really know what to do.”
The story goes on to describe a web site being created to track such hate-full incidents.
Words fail me.
“Because It Sells” 0
Sheila Kohler explores the appeal of mongering hate as a political tactic.
Fear and Mongers of Fear 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Arash Javanbakht explores the “politics of fear.” A snippet:
When one person kills a few others in a city of millions, which is of course a tragedy, major networks’ coverage could lead one to perceive the whole city is under siege and unsafe. If one undocumented illegal immigrant murders a U.S. citizen, some politicians use fear with the hope that few will ask: “This is terrible, but how many people were murdered in this country by U.S. citizens just today?”
Stray Thought 0
Republicans no longer have a “political party.”
They have a hate group, and the sad truth is that hate sells.
Snowflakes 0
(If the embed doesn’t work, click here. And, no, I don’t know what the problem is. The code looks fine.)
And this surprises you how?
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
At The Seattle Times, a holocaust survivor sees parallels between Germany then and the Unites States now. Here’s a bit of the letter he sent to his Senators and shared with columnist Jerry Large:
Wassermann wrote that the entire Nazi ideology is in place and wonders how far it will go here. “We can hope that our government of checks and balances will be more resistant than the Weimar Republic was. Don’t count on it.”
Follow the link to learn more.
Do not follow the link if you wish to pretend to yourself that today’s events are politics as usual.
The Rebranding, Reprise 0
Badtux points out that nothing beats calling something new and improved, when all that’s new and improved is the label. A snippet:
(Open tag fixed.)
Hate Is Not an “Illness.” It’s Hate. 0
At The Roanoke Times, Maurice S. Fisher explains the differences. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
I don’t think the demarcation is quite as sharp as Mr. Fisher makes it. Nevertheless this is a newspaper column, not a scholarly work, and he has a point.
Hate may sometimes be an outgrowth of illness, but it is also its own thing with its own dynamic. If hate is an illness, almost the entirety of the white South has been mentally ill and needing to be put in a “home” since 1619.
In related news, Leonard Pitts, Jr., takes down those who would pretend that Dylan Roof was not motivated by pure racism.
Blood Lust 0
In The Guardian, Ed Pilkington ruminates on the rationale for Utah’s return to the firing squad and America’s fascination with the death penalty.
Just read it.