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  • February 22, 2019

Symbols of hate

January 30, 2019 By SomervilleTom 13 Comments





Symbols of hate

Multiple sources report that Jussie Smollett, star of “Empire”, was attacked in Chicago in what police describe as a “possible (sic) hate crime”(emphasis mine):

Jussie Smollett, one of the stars of the Fox television show “Empire,” was attacked in Chicago early Tuesday morning by two people who yelled racial and homophobic slurs and wrapped a rope around his neck, according to the police, who said they were investigating the incident as “a possible hate crime.”

Smollett, who is black and publicly came out as gay in 2015, was walking on a downtown street when two people approached him and yelled the slurs, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department. The attackers then began hitting Smollett in the face and poured an “unknown chemical substance” on him.
…
In a follow-up interview later in the morning, The Sun-Times reported, Smollett told the police that the attackers yelled “this is MAGA country,” a reference to President Trump’s campaign slogan.
…

Let’s run the instant replay on that last quote:
the attackers yelled “this is MAGA country”

This exemplifies why we must not let the hate-speech of Donald Trump, Trumpists, and those who support and enable the toxins that this hat symbolizes to go unchallenged. This is why we must not be squeamish about calling out this hate.

The MAGA hat is not even a dog-whistle any more — it is an outright racist epithet. The bigotry and hate that the MAGA hat symbolizes is the same whether its targets are Hispanic, Latino, Black, Gay, or all of the above. The result is racist mobs and roving bands of racist thugs who kill and maim whatever scapegoat catches their attention.

We must call out our mainstream media who dutifully report without comment the explicitly bigoted hate-speech from the Oval Office. We must call out news headlines that cite the irrelevant immigration status of alleged perpetrators of violent crime.

We must exorcise these bigoted racist thugs from our government and our courts. We must eradicate this cancer that is still spreading among the US body politic. We must make the public display of a MAGA hat as repellent as a Swastika (I elided the Swastika from my thread-starter in deference to Godwin’s Law).

The MAGA hat is a potent symbol of hate. We must treat it as such.

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edgarthearmenian
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edgarthearmenian

Let’s wait til we have all the facts, please. We do not need another Covington Catholic fake news story.https://pjmedia.com/trending/shifting-stories-cloud-claims-of-alleged-hate-crime-attack-targeting-empire-actor-jussie-smollett/

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22 days ago
SomervilleTom
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SomervilleTom

I’m glad you brought up the Covington Catholic story. Your characterization of it as a “fake news story” echoes the Trumpist distortions. The behavior of the MAGA-hat wearing teens was a key factor in what happened there. That ugly confrontation was disgraceful, regardless of how individual participants were or were not characterized or mischaracterized. The adults who were supposed to be chaperoning those teens failed miserably in their responsibility by allowing or encouraging the group to wear this offensive symbol of hate.

Unlike that story, there is no question of the basic facts here. Mr. Smollett was attacked. The coverage has reported the statements he made to police, and there has been no dispute about the accuracy of those reports.

Certainly this can be revisited if Mr. Smollett recants any of his statements. That did not happen in after the Charlottesville, VA riot and murder. I think it’s unlikely here.

Do you insist that we we “wait til we have all the facts” when a cross is burned? When a victim is strung up? Are you asserting that Mr. Smollett is lying?

Or do you perhaps not want to admit the truth about how reprehensible this movement truly is?

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22 days ago
fredrichlariccia
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fredrichlariccia

MAGA is creepy fascism.

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22 days ago
fredrichlariccia
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fredrichlariccia

Mussolini said : “If you pluck a chicken one feather at a time nobody will notice.” Sounds MAGA to me.

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22 days ago
petr
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petr

Let’s wait til we have all the facts, please

What would be the range of possible facts available to us?

Either an openly gay African-American man was assaulted or he was not. If he was attacked, and the Chicago Police believe he was, then it’s clearly a hate crime..

If, however, he was not attacked, we should examine the utter plausibility of the charges before exonerating anyone…

and pajamas media is at the very tail end of the list of places able to fairly arbitrate these issues…

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21 days ago
Christopher
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Christopher

Sometimes I think our side should co-opt “Make America Great Again” because we would actually mean it, and would have lots to do in that regard since Trump has done so many things which have resulted in the precise opposite of making America great.

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22 days ago
Charley on the MTA
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Charley on the MTA

I have to plead the case of the humble Tiki torch, which surely did not ask for this kind of guilt-by-association.

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20 days ago
SomervilleTom
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SomervilleTom

In my view, the brand of torch misses the point. It is the racist thug carrying said implement that is the symbol.

Shall we object to including the Klan robes because cotton sheets are an everyday household item?

Is the upraised arm of the man in the center of the bottom image just a coincidence?

A angry mob carrying torches has been a symbol of hate for generations. It is no different today.

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20 days ago
Charley on the MTA
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Charley on the MTA

Tom. It was a joke.

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20 days ago
SomervilleTom
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SomervilleTom

Sorry, I missed the sarcasm.

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20 days ago
petr
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petr

I am beginning to feel the same way about the color red.

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20 days ago
Steve Consilvio
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Steve Consilvio

Hate is in the eye of the beholder. The big issue isn’t about guilt by association, scapegoats or symbols, but how we perceive others and project ourselves. In other words, it’s about doublethink, hypocrisy and contradictions.

More than likely, Trump would not approve of a bunch of thugs attacking a single individual for no reason. The fact that the thugs associate themselves with Trump does not mean that Trump associates his beliefs with their behavior. Obviously, Trump has many contradictions, but that does not make their contradictions his. We need to see everyone as an individual, because when we fail to see the individual, all we really see are our own projections. The world is screwed up because of how we make connections, real or imagined.

Take the flag, for example. Some progressives see it as a symbol of imperialism and hypocrisy. Others see the flag as an embodiment of the ideals of equality and liberty. They see the nation in the context of the struggle of history. WWII veterans see it as a symbol of might and moral superiority over fascism. Black Lives Matter might see it as a symbol of betrayal or disappointment that its ideals are still not practiced (I should point out that BLM protest is really against white complacency and duplicity, not against the flag or nation and certainly not soldiers). For others it is the child-like rote memorization of repetition, indoctrinated in the daily pledge by repeating words without having any understanding of their meaning. Local pride is a thing. People love their roots, too.

I am doubtful that it is possible to “exorcise these bigoted racist thugs from our government and our courts.” To kill a bad idea, it must be replaced with a better idea. Changing the person doesn’t really change anything, which is one of the two fatal flaws of democracy. (The other is the blind follow the blind, so the majority (quantity) can be of very low quality).

Hate cannot be defeated with hate.

Consider how much hate stems from complaints about authority. The American Revolution was a complaint about authority, as is BLM, the Confederacy, Trump’s rise, the attacks on Trump, Hitler and anti-hitler. People want authority to reflect their contradictions, but real progress comes from overcoming the contradictions.

Violence is an easy separating point between virtue and vice, but not so easy in practice. If we give the State the right to be violent, we also give contradictions great power that lead to its opposition. The only way forward is through consensus, and quality.

We live in a branded world, where everything is symbol without much substance behind it, and is easily corruptible in even the best case.

“As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don’t hate nothing at all
Except hatred

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred” -Bob Dylan

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20 days ago
SomervilleTom
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SomervilleTom

Thanks for posting

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17 days ago
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