One dead in white supremacist terrorist attack in Charlottesville: Today in Tweets

@Troubelle : let’s use video game logic. The first contact other worlds should have of us should be of nicompoop bozos.

All my internet hugs to anyone who feels that they’ll help.

I’m British, so I associate vehicle attacks with ISIS, but then Nazis and ISIS are so very, very similar.

My Gods, this is horrendous! My condolences to the bereaved and the injured.

Gussie Jives
August 14, 2017 at 11:24 am

So the question for us white people is: is there some way for us to speak to other white people who have at least a semblance of an open mind to try to accomplish the same sort of thing that happened with gay rights. I spend a lot of time on other blogs arguing with people who say that Liberals need to get away from “identity politics” (as if white identity was not identity politics) and multiculturalism, but I’m not sure it has any effect. I mean, does it do any good to argue with someone who claims that the primary purpose of BLM is to murder police?

At this point… I don’t think so. The right-wing parties of the world have gradually grown so extreme over the past 40 years that the reachable people long abandoned them. Whoever’s left are the ones willing to elect a Donald Trump or a Marine Le Pen.

I will say this, however: the crowd opposed to “identity politics” tend to be those that don’t like being confronted with politics in places they think are divorced entirely from it. Think your Gamergater who got caught up in it because they thought feminism was “ruining” video games. What they don’t understand is that politics is everywhere and your every choice is a manifestation of your personal politics. Try getting them to understand this point. Once you have a sense of where their empathy goes, you’ll know if they’re salvagable or not. But as time goes on and more incidents like this happen… it just makes it harder to remain detached, and that’s part of what is fuelling the backlash.

I wrote something but the site ate it so I’ll try again….

I always try to look at the “silver lining” on everything and I refuse to succumb to fear and alarm.

The good thing is that the backlash against the backlashers is bigger (at least in The West). There are more decent people than bigots.

Most of the U.S.A’s reactionaries are older people and they’re slowing leaving this mortal plane of existence. The younger ones are a tiny but loud minority. Most of the youngsters in America reject bigotry and wingnuttery. If anything, the changing demographics will help put the kibosh on the wingnuttery.

The tide is turning for the better.

One thing’s clear: Trump’s approval rating in the next opinion poll will be a pretty clear indicator of the proportion of the US population that are explicit Nazis.

Gawd. : / That’s so depressing that they still support him. I don’t doubt they’re racist, but explicit Nazis, though? Isn’t there at least some Republican buy-in to the idea of the heroic US saving the day against the Nazis in WWII?

Mind, I never know how Republicans manage with their cognitive dissonance anyway, wouldn’t totally surprise me if some think that while still being Nazis.

@Leo
Well, many of them aren’t Nazis as such. Organised white supremacy in the U.S is much older than Nazism. But neo Confederates are no better, and indeed no different in any meaningful sense, nor are garden-variety white supremacists whose only allegiance is to the U.S. flag. And yes, all Republicans, every single one, falls into one of those three categories. Many Democrats fall in the third camp as well.

Intel’s CEO leaving the Man7facturing Council. That’s 3 now.

I always try to look at the “silver lining” on everything and I refuse to succumb to fear and alarm.

The good thing is that the backlash against the backlashers is bigger (at least in The West). There are more decent people than bigots.

Most of the U.S.A’s reactionaries are older people and they’re slowing leaving this mortal plane of existence. The younger ones are a tiny but loud minority. Most of the youngsters in America reject bigotry and wingnuttery. If anything, the changing demographics will help put the kibosh on the wingnuttery.

I wish I could be as confident in demography, but we are often a product of our environment. The faces I see at Charlotteville look like those who are sheltered, those whose families have not been visited by hardship. And they are young; that guy who is now lamenting his viral status is 20 years old.

For the most part, young people who live in diverse environments have black friends and Latino friends and gay friends and trans friends. These are the ones for whom the GOP is entirely a lost cause, because they’re hurting those that they care about. Gated-community dwellers and rural whites, those who gave in to white flight decades past, those are the ones that are more susceptible to this kind of white nationalist rhetoric.

The more people live in cities, I think that will expose people to a broader range of cultures. Granted, it will also come with more strain on infrastructure and wages are still stagnant, but it does have that silver lining.

Upon re-reading my previous comment it came across far more rude than was necessary. Feel free to ignore it.

DrSpleen, not every Trump supporter are members of those vile groups. But every member of those fucking groups are Trump supporters.