Giant Meteor 2016

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This, like 100 thousand times or many more. The fact that DAVID DUKE and other KKK/neo-nazi scum are backing Trump is telling and it puts him in a whole different sphere of terrible. Itā€™s irrelevant whether or not Trump agrees with them or is himself an actual white supremacist ā€“ but disavowing their support is like a bare minimum of NOT BEING THE RACISTCANDIDATEā€¦ Like, itā€™s barely fucking good enough, in my view and only the first step on a long journey to not being a racistā€¦

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You are right about Trump, but it would be nice if Hillary would do more than the absolute minimum that is required to be the left wing of capitalism.

Also, vote Hillary or Trump will get in is not an argument to vote Hillary, itā€™s an argument for revolution (and I personally think that violent revolution is a bad idea).

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This. So much this.

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Itā€™s within that context - that Trump, the actual, literal fascist, is looking like he might just be the next president of the United States that this works, though. Every time I see someone talk about voting for Trump, every time I see how much support he has, that the rest of us allowed this to happen, Iā€™ll think of this, albeit in slightly altered form: ā€œGiant Meteor 2016: Itā€™s what America deserves.ā€

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I actually worry that, even if he loses in the fall, heā€™s unleashed some serious shit and that the racist right wing has managed to be reinvigorated in a way that even the election of Obama didnā€™t (which if you remember, some racist groups saw as a major recruiting tool for people straddling that racist fence).

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Oh so much this. The hate from the right wing for Hillary is like the Obama hate on meth. It is going to be a shit show unless the democrats take control of congress and even then it will be frustrating.

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The difference is that after Obamaā€™s election those running the Republican Party courted the wingnut fringe. Now theyā€™ve received a bad scare. Not just from Trump, but from Cruz coming in second. At this point only Trump election loss will stop them from losing the party altogether.

Youā€™ll see the GOP trying to take back the party from the Trump / Tea Party fringe. And that means the party itself painting them as wingnuts and trying to get them to shut up.

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Thereā€™s that, but thatā€™s not even what Iā€™m talking about, the right wing of the GOP. Iā€™m taking about the hard racist right wing that heā€™s seemingly activated. Think Tim McVeigh or just tons of small scale attacks like the shooting at Mother Emmanuel in SC. I hate to say that itā€™s a real concern, but I think it totally is something to think about.

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Also consider that to date Yā€™allqueda hasnā€™t received equal treatment to Muslim terrorism suspects. If law enforcement continues to give the likes of the Bundy gang slaps on the wrist a year after they pull some shit, itā€™s going to add fuel to the racist fire.

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I am torn on that one.
On the one hand I would have liked to have seen a firmer hand taken but they were gun shy after earlier screw ups and really didnā€™t want to make a bunch of martyrs for the cause.
They did arrest everyone eventually which is the best thing.
I kinda feel they agencies were in a dammed if the do, dammed if they donā€™t situation.

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They seem a-okay making martyrs for the cause of Daesh, though, both here (continued singling out of Muslims by a variety of LEO organizations) and abroad (bombing non-combatants, continued intervention in the middle east and support of brutal regimes, etc). I donā€™t think they are actually concerned with that issue in the slightest, given their behavior with other people who arenā€™t white, right wing terrorists. If thatā€™s what they were thinking, wouldnā€™t they treat black citizens with the same deference, due to fears of riling the black community as a whole?

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Oh I am totally with there being a whole giant boat of white privilege there too.

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Oh, I hear ya. Itā€™s a bad place to be, but a place made worse by the deferential treatment the feds gave the Bundys and their gun-toting supporters in the first incident. The second incident would likely not have happened if the feds had been swifter with handing down and executing arrest warrants as a bare minimum action.

I suggest step one is to classify violent white supremacists as the organized terrorists that they actually are.

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Hell, itā€™s already happening - thereā€™s been an increase in the acceptability of public displays of racism in the US, a huge shift in whatā€™s acceptable to say in political discourse (both in substance and style), his rise has already colored how the rest of the world sees us, etc. I shudder to think of what the future will bring, even if he loses. I canā€™t - or perhaps wonā€™t - even conceive of what things would be like if he wins.

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Agreed! Racism seems to be more acceptable now, and is often defended as ā€œfree speechā€.

Honestly, though, i donā€™t think itā€™s just Trump, as weā€™ve seen rises in ethno-centric jingoism elsewhere (Europe, Israel, even in places like Africa, with a pretty big split opening up between the more Arab oriented north and the blacker sub-Saharan south).

Iā€™d like to think itā€™s the last gasp of DuBoisā€™ problem of the 20th century, but it might not be. Itā€™s kind of scary how much of the writing on racism as a global problem is still just as applicable today. I think, if nothing else, the Cold War saw a means of addressing racism (in part because the Soviets made it an issue and we had to respond). The War on Terror is only bringing it back into the central location in the discourse.

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Why was it we donā€™t yet have a thread for Princess Pricklepants? :laughing:

Iā€™m petty much obligated to take them at their word on this stuff. I think people would say I was overreacting or dragging things into the mud if I brought up some of the specific, well-known cases.

To @IronEdithKiddā€™s point, itā€™s time folks started demanding the U.S. government take right wing terrorists as seriously as they take Daesh terrorists.

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So that we can have every thread be a Princess Pricklepants thread. :slight_smile:

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I prefer Zombie Richard Nixon to Robot Nixon.

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