Don't try to pigeonhole me, please...and wowzers. 1. Do you need acknowledgement to stop mentioning the post-election protests, ffs? If so, you've been acknowledged. I like you fine, man, but this insinuation that Antifa is why the Proud Boys are here is based on what? Antifa is a reactionary group, that has been around since the 1920s. 2. Have you been paying attention? I never said Nazi, but Richard Spencer gets it: Things are barely (or not) veiled these days and it's disgusting. These are racist times whether you see a swastika or not. Besides, it's the age of the dog whistle. 3. Trump is laying the blueprint for this shitty behavior on a national scale, and in shrugging our shoulders or scratching our heads, or as is commonplace, denying it, we are all complicit, classic liberal and classic conservative and all the rest. We have abandoned class and integrity for this tribal garbage. We should be running the Proud Boys and Antifa out of town ourselves.
I mean no disrespect, and I awknowledge and agree with many of your points. I dislike Trump a lot, so dont take this as a defense of him. I think Trump’s “figure-head” as some Far Right racist gets kind of over played. This country was no less Racist 20 years ago then it is today. Just my opinion, but I hear he’s “emboldened”, racists and all that and maybe to some extent thats true, but I just think that many people now have a “figure” they can point too. For years it was the KKK, and Hitler, or Stalin, etc, when we have “one” guy to blame, it seems like it’s easier for people to rationalize and gives them a name to attach to their feelings. It seems to me, that Trump is at the point with many people that literally everything he says, someone will say oh it’s racism, or homophobic, or whatever. I think just as much as he’s created a target for his back, there are those who have played into that and its like just the fact he said something will make them mad. Edit: I think politicians have been making racists feel at home for far too long, and it has happened for years long before Trump.
Well you know, the OK sign was started by one of the astronauts that went to the moon, people have been widely using it for years now. Just because these dudes want to usurp it, if that is what they have in mind, does not mean they own it. People that wish to be offended will always find a way to be offended. It is an OK sign to me, and I have no idea what these guys think, many here think they do, but I do not.
It’s fake. Now they have fooled you. They hide behind these fake shields like the flag, the Bible, things that give them an excuse. “We just love America”. No you don’t. You don’t love America. You love white people. You don’t love the Bible. You hide behind it as well. You don’t do unto others as you would have done unto you. You’re fake. They can throw up a flag or a Bible or a hand gesture it is just a way to throw to express themselves as the cowards they are.
Yes. That’s what you get when you say racist and dumb shit. Everything you say going forward will be taken as racist and dumb. If you don’t say racist and dumb shit, then people don’t jump to those conclusions. We cannot have people justifying any of this shit.
Im not trying to justify what he’s saying. Frankly though thats not the way I view things. I thought Obama said some dumb stuff, but I still listened to him, I cant think of a single person who hasnt said something dumb it doesnt mean I view everything they say as dumb. I guess the issue I see, is that when all of a sudden, we started throwing stones every time someone says something, it waters down the truly crazy, racist stuff thats actually being said. It seems like everyday or so Trump says something and people get riled up about it, sometimes its more than worth being upset, sometimes its not. However because its literally everyday that someone is upset about what he’s said, its made it really hard to remember the really bad stuff he’s sad, which theres a long list of that too.
Yeah, I get it. You want to use the fact that they are trolling to excuse their behavior. Everything can be excused as just trolling. Nazis were just trolling their enemies by wearing swastikas. We were just trolling when we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. I'm just trolling you with this post, just as you were just trolling me with yours. Words and symbols have no meaning. They exist only if you react to them. Even the physical world is just god trolling you, putting mountains or oceans in your way to see how you react. Or... maybe you are just making excuses for neo-nazis. barfo
This is why the current fascist groups are doing so well. They are very very smart. Everything they do can be called "trolling" or just a silly internet meme. It is like instant plausible deniability for anything they do. It is planned that way for a reason.
Check it out: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2019/08/14/trump-and-racism-what-do-the-data-say/ Here are some things Trumps has said (aided by the internet): -He called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations "shithole countries" and said all Haitians "have AIDS" and that once Nigerians saw the US they would never "go back to their huts." -"...laziness is a trait in Blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not something they can control." -He called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in a full-page ad regarding the Central Park Five, the black and latino teens who were found innocent (!) of a rape and murder, and when they were exonerated, completely exonerated, Trump still says they are guilty. -All that Pocahontas stuff with Elizabeth Warren is crazy racist wow. -How about the attempt at a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States"? Wtf. -"An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud." -How about saying Mexicans are bringing drugs and crime and calling them rapists?!?!? Trump said of a federal judge from Indiana(!), Gonzalo Curiel, whose parents are Mexican, who presided over the Trump U lawsuits, "He’s a Mexican," he said. "We’re building a wall between here and Mexico." Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan called the remarks a "textbook definition of a racist comment." -Telling Tlaib and Omar to "go back" to the "broken" countries they come from. Geez. Texbook, again. -The US department of Justice sued Trump for discriminating against blacks in their renting practices. What does Trump say to the Justice Department lawyer during his deposition? "You know, you don't want to live with them either." -He pardoned Joe fucking Arpaio who was determined by the US Department of Justice to have overseen the worst pattern of racial profiling in US history, which included "extreme racial profiling and sadistic punishments that involved the torture, humiliation, and degradation of Latino inmates." Trump called him a "great American patriot" and pardoned him! There is so so so much more, but I'm worn out. Trump is worse than other people. He has been worse than other people and so that target that you mention is well deserved. The benefit of the doubt on him ran out in the 1970s. EDIT: In my haste I forgot the treatment of the immigrants and the separation of children from parents (how inhumane is that?!?!). And all the infestation talk. People hear words like "infestation" and they get it.
Here are some real quotes from Gavin McInnes, the founder of Proud Boys: "I love being white, and I think it's something to be very proud of. I don't want our culture diluted. We need to close the borders now and let everyone assimilate to a Western, white, English-speaking way of life." "I think a lot of accusations about me are inaccurate, but to call me a xenophobe is an accurate criticism." "Trump personifies this sort of freedom to get back to: not literally making America great again but making America proud of its greatness again." "Dead white guys built this country. Show some gratitude and show some reverence. But as far as slavery, yeah. It's part of history. And you know what? It's something we should be proud of." "Fighting is fun - fighting solves everything." "I'm becoming anti-Semitic." "I want violence. I want punching in the face. I'm disappointed in Trump supporters for not punching enough." I can keep doing this. Keep on supporting these assholes.
