Politics of Hate category archive
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Farron and Chauncey Devega discuss the overt racism of Donald Trump, his supporters, and his enablers.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Thom discusses how racism and racist violence have ramped up in the last few years and suggests that the unifying force on the far right is hatred.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
Tampa Bay Times columnist Bill Maxwell goes on a road trip and finds himself reliving his youth.
Facebook Frolics 0
Excuse me, would you like a cup of Facebookly-brewed tea?
Aside:
We are having municipal elections this year, and the news coverage is rather lacking. My local rag is a shadow of its former self (like many local rags), and I refuse to waste my time with TV what-passes-for-news.
A friend sent a notice of a local candidates forum (the best way to get to know the candidates in my city), so I attended and left with some disorganized first impressions and a list of candidates.
Then I went looking for information on the candidates. Some of them had campaign websites–rudimentary, but still websites. For many of them, though, all I could find was Facebook pages for their campaigns and sometimes not even that–just Facebook pages–forcing me to visit Facebook and soil my browser cache with the Zuckerborg’s tracking cookies (which I promptly deleted as soon as I was done).
It was most frustrating.
“A Nation of Immigrants” 0
Martin W.G. King writes of the conditions inside Donald Trump’s concentration camps for immigrants and asylum seekers. Here’s a bit:
(snip)
Trump has created a climate that has encouraged the mistreatment of migrants for his own political gain, and he’s done it, mostly, with impunity.
This is institutionalized cruelty.
Words fail me.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
Trumpled at the high school soccer game:
Her sister, Darcy said she also had racial slurs shouted at her.
“One person said, ‘Hey, number 20. I hope you’re embarrassed.’ I heard another one of them say, ‘Nice shot, n****,'” said Darcy.
Both girls said they brought the harassment to the attention of a referee and staff members, but nothing was done to stop it during the game.
Much more at the link.
Via Raw Story.
All the News that Fits, Foxy Lady Dept. 0
Thom muses on the current increase in hate crimes against the background America’s heritage of racism, as illuminated by Laura Ingraham’s recent rant.
Telling It Like It Isn’t 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., looks back at the white-wing violence in Charlottesville a year ago. He has tired of mealy-mouthed equivocations masquerading as “civility” and suggests that facts should not be subject to debate.
A snippet:
They turn intolerance into a sterile intellectual exercise, the fears and experiences of its victims reduced to irrelevant footnotes. We debate the meaning of “alt-right,” debate whether Twitter should give David Duke’s account the same credibility it gives Jim Acosta’s, debate whether Holocaust deniers should be on Facebook and never seem to get that in the very act of making hatred a “debate,” we legitimize it, give it a seat at the table.
(I would further argue that “civility’ refers to how you present an argument, not to the argument itself. Denying the holocaust, just to pick an example, is inherently uncivil, regardless how sweet the words or dulcet the tone; doing so denies not only a well-documented event–not only were there witnesses, but the Nazis kept records–but also the humanity of those who suffered it, as well as denying the inhumanity of those who perpetrated it.)
Flagging Interest 0
Jim Wright dissects the Trumplers’ rage at NFL players’ daring to kneel during the national anthem.
No excerpt or summary can do his piece justice. Just read it.
Jonesing for a Scapegoat 0
Starting with the recent kerfuffle over Alex Jones, Michael J. Socolow analyzes the appeal of hate-speech. After recounting a short history of hate-full-ness in American history, he posits some thoughts about why it finds a welcoming audience. Here’s a nugget:
And a large audience of disappointed people looking for excuses will always exist. Their civics textbooks and teachers taught them that hard work, diligence, obedience to authority and responsible living inevitably results in economic prosperity.
But it often doesn’t work out that way. They feel lied to, and InfoWars exists to confirm* their suspicions.
_______________
*I would have said, “exploit.”
“Sic ’em” 0
Farron dissects Laura Ingraham’s now notorious rant against immigrants.
In an item on the same theme, Monica Hesse offers a theory as to why why Alex Jones and his acolytes are so frightened of the Other (which “Other” keeps changing, but, take it from me, there is always an “Other.” I commend the entire piece to your attention. Here’s a key bit:
Jonesing Freedom of Screech 0
In a thoughtful piece, David considers whether Spotify, iTunes, et al., decision to remove Alex Jone’s material from their sites is in violation of the First Amendment. He also notes the irony that Jones’s vocal advocacy of free enterprise goes hand-in-hand vocal demands for free hosting.
