2020 archive
Complicit 0
A recurring phenomenon during the Black Lives Matter protests has been the appearance of white supremacists and other far-right agitators at otherwise generally peaceful protests in order to foment violence.
At Psychology Today Blogs, Rosemary Sword and Philip Zimbardo explore the minds and motivations of white supremacists. They start by citing an interview with former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official Elizabeth Neumann, then go on to delve what motivates the embrace white supremacy and that embrace affects the behavior of the embracers.
It ain’t pretty.
Here’s a bit about the Neumann interview; follow the link for the rest of the discussion.
Neumann states further, “White supremacy groups are emboldened by the refusal (of the president and vice-president) to condemn them. The extreme fringe on the right believes the country should be white and controlled by white men…As recruitment occurs, there’s more violence; which we’ve seen the last three years.”
E-Skipping Class 0
From El Reg:
The unnamed 16-year-old was arrested and charged with “computer use in an attempt to defraud,” a third-degree felony, and “interference with an educational institution,” a second-degree misdemeanor.
Details at the link.
QOTD 0
Kerry Greenwood:
Cec: He must be like that bloke on the radio, the Shadow, that has the power to cloud men’s minds.
Miss Eliza: Not a lot of power needed there.
Greenwood, Kerry, Murder in the Dark (Scottsdale, AZ: Poisoned Pen Press, 2009), p. 174
Dropping (What’s Left of) the Mask 0
Afterthought:
The American ideal has always struggled against the American real, and never more than today.
Individual Blights 0
Many seem to forget–or ignore–that one of the phrases in the preamble to the United States Constitution is “to promote the general welfare.”
At the Idaho State Journal, Leonard Hitchcock points this out in the context of a failure to do just that. A snippet (emphasis added):
The willful stupidity of those remarks is astonishing. It’s true that we, as citizens of a democracy, enjoy a wide range of personal freedoms, some of which are spelled out in our Constitution. It’s also self-evident that exercising those freedoms entails personal decision-making and that we can do what we want as long as we are not harming (or are at high risk of harming) someone else.
Maskless Marauders 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Sara Gorman and Jack M. Gorman explore the reasons why persons choose to refuse to wear masks in these viral times. Here’s one of the possible reasons they explore; follow the link for the others.
Base Desires 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear takes a close look at Donald Trump’s base and suggests the economic anxiety is secondary to his cultural factors in his appeal thereunto. A nugget (emphasis added); follow the link for the rest.
The fundamental issue beneath this cultural anxiety is that the country is changing in ways that Trump’s people don’t like. It’s becoming less white, less rural, less Christian. Trump voters are concerned that they will no longer be the unquestioned norm in American life. This is why “cancel culture” is such a potent meme for them. This is why my trip to an Italian deli in mid-June included an old white guy yelling a profanity-laced tirade at the owner about statues being toppled.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The hunt for politeness continues.
Howard and the woman were dropped off near a wood at an open field — about 150 yards from each other — when a short time later a buck ran across the field between the two, DNR said.
The woman shot at the deer twice, but one of those shots struck Howard in the chest.