Politics of Hate category archive
All That Was Old Is New Again, Reprise 0
Soloman Jones channels Santayana:
If I have learned anything from watching this moment unfold, it is this: We must remain vigilant on the issue of race. Racism, after all, is America’s original sin. Its painful effects filter through the gaps in time, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation.
But racism isn’t the only thing that has brought us to a moment when the future will cede ground to the past. We are here, quite frankly, because of our tendency to forget the past.
Read the rest.
“If You Don’t Talk about It, It Must Not Exist” 0
At the Des Moines Register, Derrick Keith Rollins, Jr., reflects on how Donald Trump got elected, despite (or more likely because of) his blatant appeals to racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and all around hate-fullness. Here’s a bit:
First, we’ve refused to talk about it.
For the last 30 to 35 years, the strategy by mainstream popular culture — i.e. white culture — could largely be summed up as: “I don’t see color.”
Follow the link for the complete article. It is worth your while.
Finding Comfort by Overlooking the Obvious 0
The corporate media seem to have concluded that Donald Trump’s victory came from support by the “white working class.” The are using the phrase “working class” to avert the eye from the key word in that phrase: “white.” Chancey Devega explains:
Historically, to be white was to be the quintessential American. In the United States, whiteness also proceeds from an assumption that white people are always and forever to be dominant and consequently the most powerful of all racial groups. This is white identity politics as both a practice and ideology. It is also the not-so-subtle meaning of Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again!”
Follow the link for the rest of Devega’s article.
“Ku Kluck Dynasty” 0
Tony Norman marvels at the unreality of the now-defunct “reality” show about the Klan.
Newton Minnow characterized television as a “vast wasteland.” Today I suspect he would consider “septic tank” to be a more accurate metaphor.
Full Disclosure:
I wrote this post solely so I could steal Norman’s most felicitous phrase for the title.
A Never-Ending Story 0
At the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, John Gurda begs to disillusion Americans, who seem peculiarly unable to remember history beyond last year’s Super Bowl, of the notion that the United States has a history of welcoming newcomers. I urge you to read it; it brings to life the to-true-to-be-parody rewording of Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, as noted in this nugget from the beginning of the article:
The “again” part has raised numerous eyebrows. The implication that America was once a nation of haters strikes many people as simply inaccurate. Hasn’t the United States always been a country of newcomers? Didn’t we always open our door to “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”?
Well, no. In fact, hell, no. The vein of xenophobia that Trump has tapped to such great effect is as old as the republic. One group after another has tried to pull up the gangplank for everyone behind them, or at least to limit their freedoms.
Aside:
I’ve never quite understood the type of racism that shouts at African-Americans, “Go back to Africa!”
It not as if their ancestors came here willing–oh, never mind. Stupid is as stupid does.
Ideal vs. Real 2
Thoreau submits the thesis that, when you forget high-sounding theory, Today’s North Carolina is American democracy in practice, with ample precedent: petty, mean-spirited, vengeful, and power hungry.
Follow the link for his reasoning.
Festival of Frights 0
This is your country on Trump.
There are dark days ahead, my friends.
Afterthought:
The local rag had before and after pictures. Someone went to a lot of effort to be hate-full.
“It Was Joke, Son, a Joke” 0
Tony Norman marvels at the ability of those who get called out for racist remarks to discover suddenly that they were just trying to make a funny.
How Stuff Works, White Supremacy Dept. 0
Solomon Jones lays it out. A snippet:
Then, after doing so, the rich have routinely stood by as America’s working poor fought to protect their place in the pecking order.
That’s where hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan come from: The false belief that whiteness cancels out the reality of poverty. That whiteness makes one superior to a black person who is better educated and economically thriving. That embracing the notion of whiteness can turn back the clock to a time when one’s advancement was based on the color of one’s skin.
Do read the rest. He lays out the con quite nicely.
In a tangent thereunto, this morning before I got up, I was thinking about the long game: what happens if the United States chooses to violate its oft-stated, nay, ballyhooed position as a refuge for the poor, the tired, and you know the rest, its commitment to the rights of others and to expel immigrants and anyone else with brown skins?
“Why!” I realized, “they have to leave lots of stuff behind.” Whatever else the anti-immigrant movement is, it is most certainly a con so that haters can steal stuff.
The Art of the Con 0
Farron thinks that the Nativists are restless.
Afterthought:
One you open Pandora’s box, it does not close easily.
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 Art of the Con 0
Paul Krugman comments on the “populism” that isn’t. A snippet:
Follow the link to see why he said that.
Feeling “Aggrieved” Does Not Earn a Star for Self-Esteem 0
Helen Ubinas has had enough of the Magical Empathy Tour. She notes that, even if one feels “aggrieved,” that does not give one an excuse for evil. A snippet:
I am done with the empathy tour.
Done sitting with Trump supporters as they parrot the lies his victory was built on.
Done standing among the crowds for Trump’s “thank you” tour as they insist theirs is not a campaign of xenophobia and divisiveness, while rabidly chanting, “Build the wall!”
Done fielding the hateful, racist, and misogynistic phone calls and emails and comments, which they argue are absolutely not hateful or racist or misogynistic.
More at the link.
The Fakery Factory 0
In a column syndicated at the Portland Press Herald, Anne Applebaum, who was once herself a victim of a false news story originating in Russia, tries to understand why “fake news” has become a thing. She suspects that there is more to it than the lies and lying liars who propagate them or the gullible who gobble them up. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
The problem also lay with Hillary Clinton, who was hardly a trusted figure to begin with.
But it is also true that we are living through a global media revolution, that people are hearing and digesting political information in brand-new ways and that nobody yet understands the consequences.