Hate Sells category archive
The Bullies’ Pulpit (Updated) 0
At the Las Vegas Sun, Vicki Larson wonders where the civility went.
And, elsewhere in the same paper, sportswriter Ray Brewer laments similar issues in high school athletics.
Addendum:
For many years, my brother has umpired baseball games, mostly for high schools, but also for youth leagues. He gets a little bit of money for it, but he does it mostly because he loves baseball.
He tells me that umpires for amateur and scholastic games are in increasingly short supply and that one of the primary reasons for this is the behavior of parents, fans, and coaches.
Wall-Eyed Pikers 0
El Jefe offers an object lesson.
If the Truth Hurts, Make It Go Away 0
In the midst of the current who-shot-john over whether students should be taught the truth about American’s history, Leonard Pitts, Jr., offers some thoughts on National Banned Books Week. A nugget:
That’s something worth remembering here in Banned Books Week, a yearly observation sponsored by the American Library Association to call attention to that crude human impulse that, with apologies to the Tennessee moms, stands against liberty of knowledge and ideas. There is, after all, a reason one of the first acts of the Nazi regime was a massive book burning — 25,000 texts consigned to the fire — and it wasn’t to celebrate freedom. The spirit of that atrocity lives on in Tennessee. And in Pennsylvania. And in America.
The Climates They Are a-Changing . . . 0
. . . and, after looking at America’s response to the COVID pandemic, AL.com’s John Archibald is less than optimistic. An excerpt from his article:
Profits always trump prophets, and we’d rather kill each other than do what’s required to save us all.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
At Chron.com, Dan Carson reports that Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick appears to have embraced the “great replacement” theory promoted by white supremacists. A snippet; follow the link for the rest.
“This is trying to take over our country without firing a shot,” Patrick said.
Patrick’s remarks sound strikingly like “Great Replacement” theory talking points — an old line of rhetoric used by white supremacist groups around the world to whip up fear using the specter of encroaching minority hordes. It warns of a future where white nations are overrun by black and brown immigrants, emphasizing cultural purity and the “securing” of the white race. And it’s had a disturbing renaissance of among conservative pundits in the Trump and post-Trump age.
They’re not even trying dress the racism up in Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes any more.
Maskless Marauders in Vaccine Nation 0
David marvels at the depth and craziness of the COVID conspiracists.
We are a society of stupid.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Mona Charen warns that the party of the new secesh poses a clear and present danger.
Afterthought:
It all boils down to America’s original sin of chattel slavery, the racism which was created to justify it, and the racists whose self-esteem rests only on the color of their skins.
Maskless Marauders 0
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Bill Torpy is not sanguine. Here’s a bit from his article:
(snip)
Months ago, I thought civil discourse had bottomed out when self-deputized members of the Stop the Steal crowd stalked, yelled at and menaced election workers. But this new brand of madness is more loathsome and its perpetuators border on being domestic terrorists. They aren’t trying to undo an election. They’re playing with people’s lives.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
My professor for the history of the early federal period (roughly the early 1800s) when I was in graduate school (where my most significant learning was that I was not cut out to be an academician), Dr. Shade, was fond of saying that “history is irony.”
Here we have persons protesting the teaching of the existence of systemic racism–something not being taught–proving the existence of systemic racism.
There are none so blind as those who will not look.
The Me! Me! Me! Generation 0
David Horn is fed up with the “Me! Me! Me!” generation. Here’s a bit of his article in The Roanoke Times:
Follow the link for the rest of his screed, and a well-deserved screed it is, I must say.
School Daze 0
At the Idaho State Journal, Chris Huston discusses recent spate of threats and acts of physical and verbal violence directed at school boards, faculty, and even students over common-sense precautions against pandemic, including–indeed, primaril–mask requirements. Here’s one example; a web search will turn up many more.
Here’s a bit from his piece; follow the link for the rest:
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
Multinational Facebook frolics fakery.
Those Who Ignore History . . . . 0
A Random Memory:
I remember standing outside my workplace in the smoking area (it was right outside the back door and, yes, I freed myself from that addiction over a decade ago, thank heavens) with my boss at the time (he was, by the way, a really good boss and a pleasure to work for), a veteran army NCO who, among other things, had participated in “drug interdiction” efforts in Central America.
He was enthusing over President George the Worst’s proposed war in Irag, saying that he was glad “there is a Texan in the White House.”
All I could say in reply was, “I have a bad feeling about this.”