That’s precisely what happened in the 90s… the white supremacists groups that many Republicans were already cultivating as supporters (albeit not quite as openly as today) were ignored, except where they broke the law (like going after groups like the Hammerskins only when they were drug running).
Oddly enough, the US government had absolutely NO problem going after Muslims doing nothing illegal, except what some believed was riling up people to commit acts of violence… That was fine, but going after white men doing the exact same shit is a problem now?
Groups like Islamic State and Al-Shabab got their messaging tactics almost straight from people like David Lane, radicalized people just enough to get them to go out and blow up federal buildings, but not have strong connections to himself or other leaders of the white supremacist movement. We just ignored all that and sure as shit did not push back against the coded racism that was being employed by the GOP since Nixon. These chucklefucks did not go away, they just radicalized young men, made them into gangsters, and got them to do the violent work. It’s a tactic, and you can’t ignore the now incredibly strong connection between the MAGA movement and these other movements that have been stewing since the civil rights era… We absolutely need to highlight it, call it out for what it is, get as many people to see it for what it is, and let them know it’s not acceptable.
People are already getting killed because of these ideologies, and the notion that we can just “ignore it and it will fade away” is a very privileged one that pretty much is only heard from people who are not directly in the crosshairs. What people with privilege NEED to be doing is calling this shit out, shouting it down, and pushing back as hard as we can to ensure that we can get this out of our political discourse. Genocidal ideologies do not have any place in a democratic society. Is it not one side of normal political discourse, but is an aberration from it. It only ends in one way and that way is with mass violence.
TLDR - you can’t ignore a fascist movement or they can more easily take over. You confront it, and do what you can to deradicalize those within it.
Absolutely. That’s just speaking the truth, which is what the media should be doing about them.
But apparently, those groups should just “ignore” them… Sadly, far too often it’s the SPLC that gets ignored more than it should… although they were on top of the Moms for Liberty story with the SPLC adding them to their list of hate groups!
These days we have to acknowledge that a lot people secretly want history to repeat. Sure, they get upset when some of their fellow travellers aren’t as subtle and sneaky as they themselves are and ask everyone to ignore them, but their own views are just as toxic as those of the blowhards.
The good news is, they’re not as clever as they think they are. They tend to take advantage of people who are put into a position of assuing good faith as the default (e.g. teachers*), but they always eventually slip up.
[* I’ve heard several variations of this story from college professors I know. They all eventually get a smug conservative student in the class who JAQs off and keeps testing the limits of the discourse. It’s obvious to the other students, but if the right-winger isn’t being blatant it takes time.]
You know, like the 1950s, because Jim Crow. Or the 1890s, because Dickensian workhouses. Or the 1850s, because slavery. Or the 1780s, because the Ancien Régime and the Georgian Inclosures.
Those ones are easy to recognise and deal with --so easy that the oily cowards who try harder to hide their bigotry and authoritarian tendencies urge everyone to ignore them. Biff and Carlson and EmptyG may embolden other racists and fascists, but they also turn off a lot of the “moderate centrists” who are needed to implement the programme.
But yes, ultimately they all want to return to (or, more accurately, perpetuate) a world in which white cis-het men over age 40 backed by firearms got to call the shots and everyone else had to defer to them.
one hopes for the benefit/education of the folks on this thread I so obviously justifiably
Seeing as they seem mighty insistent, here are some more edifying images:
I dunno but I admit the pink sparkles are fun the background is a subtle pink, every clickable thing is also pink, the bars are pink. It’s a lot of pink but well designed. I’ve been impressed by all the still shots and trailers of the movie doing so much pink but making it work. Serious talent
Unfortunately my kid is too young for this movie. Might go see it with a friend instead
You are aware that BB has literally no control over all of the rest of the media, and by providing a space to discuss this stuff to a largely centerist-to-left-wing audience, it’s not giving it oxygen, it’s informing us of events that we can use to better understand the people who wish to make the country a fascist one, yeah? Even if BB never posted anything but tech articles, and weird crypto-critter stuff, and stuff about culture, this stuff would STILL be happening and would still be discussed in other outlets?
Yeah, but unless you think they were actually proposing to literally suffocate right wing Evangelicals – which would be a pretty non-charitable reading – it was a joke based on that figurative meaning. In which case it’s still worth pointing out that the figurative meaning is nonsense.
I imagine this like I’m a little dog on a leash chained to a tree on a cliffside and the cliff is falling into the ocean with the tree… and me… and the dog-- my avatar, my little helpless icon of identity-- is frantically trying to get the chain to break before the last claim to firm ground slips from under my toe beans… and then that guy from the “but you still live in society” meme pops out of a well and is like “I wish you’d ditch the politics…”
the background is a subtle pink, every clickable thing is also pink, the bars are pink. It’s a lot of pink but well designed. I’ve been impressed by all the still shots and trailers of the movie doing so much pink but making it work. Serious talent
