Hate Sells category archive
Misdirection Play, Thought Police Dept. 0
Clarence Page, in a longer article about attempts to ban books and shove ideas under the rug, sums up the current, exptremely popular misdirection play on the part of the right-wing. He even mentions our own Governor Trumpkin:
Follow the link for context.
Afterthought:
I share Page’s opinion of Huckleberry Finn.
Despite the prolific use of the n-word, as was common in the time that the novel was written, the arc of the story is a powerful indictment of racism; Huck chooses friendship and humanity over bigotry. Those who are distracted by the n-word miss the message of the missive.
Mark Twain understood America, and he understood the stain of its original sin.
(Spellink erorr corexed.)
Descent into the Maelstrom 0
Thom and David Corn discuss the Republican Party’s decades long descent into extremism.
Florida Man 0
I think that Florida’s Governor DeSantis has plucked Grung_e_Gene’s last nerve.
Methinks he is onto something.
After all, I’m a Southern Boy who grew up under Jim Crow. I am familiar with–er–DeSantis’s type.
The Disinformation Industrial Complex 0
Joe Pierre, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, is less than optimistic about the role mistrust and misinformation play in dis coarse discourse. Here’s a bit of what he says; follow the link for the rest (emphasis added).
Now, why is there so much misinformation out there? Misinformation and disinformation—the deliberate spread of falsehoods—is a for-profit industry where the pay-offs are financial and political.
Those sitting atop of the disinformation food chain are masters of exploiting the normal cognitive machinery that we use to process information, taking full advantage of our propensity for confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, and motivated reasoning that all act in the service of preserving a stable sense of self where ideology and identity are fused.
Monetizing Sadism 0
Republicans are fundraising on being mean for the sake of mean.
The irony is that, unless they are descended from Native Americans, they are descended from immigran–oh, never mind. They are beyond irony.
They are, indeed, beyond caricature.
We are a failing state.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
Thom and Chris Lehmann of The Nation discuss the possible implications of Florida Governor DeSantis’s kidnapping and transportation of immigrants who were legally seeking asylum in the United States.
Thom is less than sanguine.
While we’re on this topic, the editorial board of the Las Vegas Sun offers its opinion.
Suffer the Children 0
As Michael in Norfolk points out, that’s the policy of our own Governor Trumpkin.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
Writing about Florida Governor DeSantis’s kidnapping and transportation of immigrants (again, most of whom, if not all, were legally seeking asylum and abiding by the rules), Leonard Pitts, Jr., gets to the heart of the matter (emphasis added).
Follow the link for the evidence.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
Just when you think America’s bigots and racists have reached the bottom of the pit of vileness in which they dwell, they dig deeper.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
At AL.com, Roy S. Johnson suggests that Florida’s Governor DeSantis’s stunt of kidnapping and transporting refugees who fled to the United States to escape tyranny and oppression* (and who were here legally, by the way) may have backfired on him.
_________________
*Only to find themselves kidnapped by a tyrannical oppressor, but that’s a topic for another day.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
At the Orlando Sentinel, Scott Maxwell raises a question (emphasis in the original):
Why did the governor of Florida use migrants from Texas for his political theater?
Florida, after all, is chock full of undocumented citizens — an estimated 800,000 or more. So instead of playing games with migrants from Texas, many of whom were reportedly legal asylum-seekers, why didn’t Florida’s governor choose some of the many people known to be illegally living and working in his own backyard?
Probably because that would highlight an embarrassing reality for DeSantis — that Florida is a hotbed for illegal immigration, thanks partly to GOP lawmakers who have given companies the greenlight to employ and exploit undocumented workers here.
Follow the link for details
Unchecked and Unbalanced 0
Read about the Stanford Prison Study and consider, does it remind you of any dynamic in our recent news? (The link I posted is to an article at the Britannica; a web search will turn up many more references.)
I would argue that it exemplifies why the Founders placed a high value on “checks and balances” in governance and why it is important to respect the rights of the disadvantaged on par with the rights of the advantaged.
Forced Bussing 0
I’m so old that I can remember when racist bigots were against forced bussing.