Politics of Hate category archive
The Digital Deride 0
Josh Marshall muses on the effects of major internet platforms’ (Twitter, a number of hosting providers, Facebook, and the like) yanking the accounts of various Neo-Nazi white supremacist actors, or, to put it another way, returning the trolls to their rightful place–under the bridge.
After noting that the irony that much of contemporary American political discourse takes place via privately-held, monolithic, for-profit platforms, he makes this trenchant observation (emphasis added):
Do please read the rest.
Revolving Door 0
Alfred Doblin tries to draw conclusions from the departure of Steve Bannon from the White House. He is not optimistic that it portends substantive or positive changes. A nugget:
Judging from the president’s comments since Charlottesville, in which he has stood up for white supremacists and the Confederacy and, in response to terror attacks in Spain, continued to promote a lie about Gen. John Pershing, pig’s-blood-dipped bullets in the early-20th-century Philippines, and Muslim terrorists, Trump cannot help himself from being Trump. So I have limited hope that the removal of Bannon changes everything. But it is a start.
Cavalcade of Stupid 0
Lance Dotson, a Republican operative from Maine, offers his diagnosis of the Republican Party’s current pathology:
Follow the link for his reasoning.
The Hollow Men 0
Dick Polman reports that, as Trump administration spokespersons were not to be found on the Sunday yak shows, the networks turned to the D-list. He stands aghast at Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s, performance on Meet the Press. Here’s a bit from his column (emphasis added–follow the link for the whole article):
Ah, nope. Falwell replied: “I didn’t hear anything there that would offend somebody.”
Falwell sorta conceded that perhaps Trump could’ve been more sensitive to “my friends in the Jewish community,” that perhaps “he could be more polished and more politically correct.”
(Hang on a sec. Since when is it “politically correct” to condemn Nazis? Didn’t we conclude as a nation, on a bipartisan basis 75 years ago, that Nazis were bad?)
He goes on to report that Falwell asserted that Trump “spoke from his heart.”
If this is indeed the case, and there is no reason to doubt it, said heart is not a pretty place. Nor are the hearts of ones who would defend it.
From the “Party of Lincoln” to the “Party of Stinkin'” 0
As I’ve noted several times, today’s Republican Party is the creation and the legacy of Richard Nixon. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy,” his decision to woo bigots and racists during his second campaign drew them into the party and they have no commandeered it.
Leonard Pitts, Jr., sums it up; here’s a bit:
(snip)
Its machinations have delivered to the GOP the presidency and both houses of Congress. Yet seldom has a party controlled so much and looked so bad doing it. Republicans find themselves saddled with an incompetent president elected on an implicit promise to make America white again. Under him, they are able to accomplish exactly nothing. They cringe as he suggests moral equivalence between bigots and those who protest them. As if all that were not bad enough, a newly revived hate movement now arrives, looking to cash in its chits.
Continuous Campaign Cacophony 0
Farron scornfully points out the the Trump administration is already working on deceptive campaign 2020 commercials.
“Look in the Mirror, Boy,” Reprise 0
Der Spiegle devotes another editorial to Donald Trump, and this one is a barn-burner. I find this telling sentence:
Follow the link for the rest of the sentences.
Southern Twistory, Reprise 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear takes down the talking point that removing memorials to American traitors is somehow “destroying history.” (History can be misinterpreted, reinterpreted, explored, even forgotten, but it cannot be destroyed, for its fruits are all around us.) Here’s a nugget (emphasis in the original):
“Look in the Mirror, Boy” 0
In an editorial, Der Spiegel takes a look at Donald Trump.
It is not flattering.
Here’s an excerpt:
Follow the link for the complete article.
“No Irish Need Apply” 0
Writing from disgust, Robert F. Lyons protests Donald Trump’s and the Trumpkins’ immigration proposals by telling the story of his Irish immigrant ancestors.
Read it.
Recruiting Posers 0
Addendum:
As of today, there are conflicting reports as to the web location of The Daily Stormer. TPM reports that it has moved to the Dark Web. My attempt to connect to several variants of its name at a dot-ru address yielded a 404.
As I said earlier, I wouldn’t explore the Dark Web on a bet. It’s not that the Dark Web is all bad–it isn’t–but it’s not worth it to me to learn what’s safe and what’s not.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
This is your country on Trump.
“It was just something stupid that we thought would be funny, but it didn’t turn out to be funny at all,” the boy told Fox 13 Memphis. “It wasn’t supposed to be racist.”
Playing to Base Desires, One More Time 0
Alfred Doblin savages Donald Trump’s response to events in Charlottesville, Virginia, noting that he demonstrated that he values his rabid, bigoted base more than his country. Here’s a bit:
No mention of white supremacists. Later, during a press conference held at his golf club in Bedminster, the president said, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides.”
Many sides? There aren’t many sides to hatred, bigotry and violence, only one side: the wrong one.
Afterthought:
It appears that the resurgent racist right is receiving a reaction that it did not expect.
They are certainly not gaining new followers, and I suspect the push-back has taken them aback. If not for them, Confederate monuments that have been or are being removed in many cities the past week would likely still be standing and still be relatively uncontroversial, by which I mean, images in the background of day-to-day life, not issues in the foreground.
This is in no way to downplay racist right’s danger to the polity. Stupid, hate-full, angry men (and it’s mostly men) with guns (and nuclear codes) are inherently dangerous. Rather, it is to point out a tiny little ray of sunshine peeking through the thunderclouds.
Whether the clouds will break is a whole nother issue. So long as the Southern Strategy Republican Party maintains dominance via voter suppression, gerrymandering, and other dirty tricks, optimism escapes me.
The Inherent Violence of Supremacist Ideology 0
In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Chris Johnson argues forcefully that the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, traces back directly to the influence of white Southern culture and the racism in which is was conceived and which still undergirds far too much of it. Indeed, he goes so far as to posit that white supremacy (and, by extension, any ideology of supremacy), is inherently violent. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
Such an ideology is inherently violent, because someone who thinks that way is not going to tolerate “just getting along” with those he views as inferior if they are granted equal treatment under the law. Supremacists view that as a source of grave injustice. And a sense of injustice has always been a motivator for violent acts.
Freedom of Screech 0
In The Seattle Times, Angela Uherbelau discusses how fascists, white supremacists, and their dupes, symps, and fellow travelers would use the freedoms guaranteed in the United States Constitution to undermine this very fragile experiment in democracy.
White supremacists — whether they’re marching in the streets or drafting memos in the White House — cloak themselves in the mantle of free speech because they know that term strikes a deep chord, a patriotic chord, in countless Americans. They aim to twist one of our country’s most sacred rights into a weapon to destroy our fragile web of civility and common decency.
Afterthought:
The Constitution protects freedom of speech. It does not promise freedom from consequences.
