There’s a rather telling detail in a piece in Politico on the reactions of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to the attacks on 9/11.
In a television interview only a few hours after the twin towers collapsed in flames, Trump managed to work in a strange little boast about his real-estate empire:
“40 Wall Street,” he said, referring to his 71-story building blocks away from the now-collapsed twin towers, “actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan … And now it’s the tallest.”
Trump will always be Trump, I guess.
But the Politico story does note that aside from this little bit of brand-building, Trump was actually rather restrained in his response that day, at least by normal Trumpian standards:
A decade and a half before pledging to “bomb the shit out of” ISIS and proposing a deportation force and a Muslim ban, Trump didn’t talk about retribution or leap to conclusions about who was responsible. In fact, he avoided identifying potential enemies—any terrorist organization or Muslims in general.
We live in what is, in many ways, a much uglier America today, and Trump has been one of the leading enablers of this ugliness.
As Mic noted in a post yesterday, Islamophobia is much worse today than it was on 9/11/2001, and hate crimes against Muslims are on the upswing.
Immediately after 9/11, there was a significant rise in anti-Muslim activity.According to the FBI, in 2001 anti-Islamic hate crimes spiked by 1,600 percent with 481 incidents. CAIR noted another surge in 2006 — the reason for it remains unclear. Another spike followed the Park51 controversy in 2010, in which New York City considered building a Muslim community center and mosque near Ground Zero.
But the highest concentration of anti-Muslim crimes came at the end of 2015. According to CAIR’s latest report, 78 mosques were targeted for vandalism that year — more incidents than they had documented in any one year since they started tracking in 2009. Compare this to 2014, when CAIR only documented 22 similar incidents, or 2013, when they documented 20. The 2015 spike came after the attacks at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris and around the same time Donald Trump infamously proposed that the country should ban Muslims from entering until we “figure out what’s going on.”
Similarly, the Southern Poverty Law Center found that in 2014 while the rate of hate crimes overall had fallen compared with the previous year, hate crimes against Muslims saw a 14 percent increase.
Emphasis mine.
The vicious attacks against Muslims have continued apace this year. The latest: an attack on two Muslim mothers in Brooklyn last Thursday. The New York Daily News reports:
A bigoted Brooklyn woman launched a sickening attack on two Muslim women pushing their babies in strollers — punching them in the face and trying to pull off their hijabs, prosecutors said Friday.
Emirjeta Xhelili, 32, hurled Islamophobic insults as she pounced on the two victims near her Bath Beach home about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.
“Get the f–k out of here,” Xhelili, 32, allegedly yelled at the pair, according to prosecutors. “Get the f–k out of America, b—–s.” …
Brooklyn prosecutors said her attack included an attempt to knock over a stroller carrying a 15-month-old baby.
Happily, the baby (and both mothers) are ok, and Xhelili was quickly arrested.
The alleged attacker is, of course, a Trump supporter. The Daily News notes that
Her vile social media musings include several bizarre tweets cheering the candidacy of Donald Trump.
“America is the ark of Noah,” one reads. “Trump’s gonna win.”
Such is life in America fifteen years after 9/11.
H/T — Raw Story/Liberaland for highlighting the Trump quote.
Thanks to @WWTH, I need more gifs from Vampire’s Kiss.
http://lakefrontrow.com/gazebo/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Vampires-Kiss-madison-wisconsin-wud-film-e1413577324585.png
I’ve never been quick enough to ever ninja before!
*Happy dance*
Seriously, though, I wonder if he’s actually visited here before? Does he not know how much Mammotheers like cute pictures of animals doing cute animal things?
@Oogly
No, it’s ‘Ganbatte kudasai, Mig-sama!’
‘San’ is just not gonna appropriately massage his bruised ego? He’s an engineer, dammit! Show some deference
(Sidebar, those poems were choice. The later ones had a kinda semi rap flow going. Awesome)
Re: trollpic
That dog looks a bit like my aminal friend, and I love cows! I’ll treasure this gift always
My gosh, Brony, those two videos were extremely emotional. Thank you, they’re beautiful. Luna’s always been close to me, for some reason.
@Sinkable John
Ouch!
You need to visit the IER (ironic emergency room).
You’ll still have an ironic emanation for a while. Don’t cook in cast iron until it dissipates. And of course no ironing.
@Scildfreja
I’ll see what else I can dig up tomorrow.
@Kat
Thanks, I was afraid I might die ironically.
Ugh. Too many trolls today. Plus this one really pissed me off with his bullshit “I pay for your welfare” rant.
Wow, a tech support guy with a comically inflated sense of self-importance. Never seen one of those before.
Sorry, you’ll have to work harder to contribute more to society than AAAAALVAAAAA!
Is the Midge-brain gone yet? If not…
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YUt8yOcaL.jpg
Pffft.
And in case those other two are still hanging around:
Pffft. Pffffffft.
There. That oughta freshen the air nicely…
@WWTH
The cornerstone of capitalism. *Ba-dum-tsssh*
Seriously though, I just read the like 5 pages of comments with the Migtoe dude, and boy, does this attitude describe him to a T. “Bigots aren’t that bad because their bigotry doesn’t affect me!” “My field of work exists to make me feel superior to everybody else!” etc, etc. The underlying mindset is “screw you, I’ve got mine”.
@Migtoe
If you’re still reading this: Work isn’t something us “leftists” hate. I’m pretty far left even by northern European standards, and I enjoy work. Intellectual, physical, organizational, productive, academic, you name it. Personally, I work best when I feel that the work I do benefits others as well as me. That does make me bad at surviving in a market economy, but it is not something I could reasonably change and still be able to live with myself. You working to earn yourself a better standard of living while deriding work done to improve the lives of those less well-off than you does not mean you work harder than others, it just proves you primarily care about yourself and no one else. That’s not something that gives you the right to feel any kind of moral superiority.
All that said, work is not a value in itself: What we value is what the work brings about. You may dismiss minimum wage workers as stupid moochers or whatever Randian bullshit you can come up with, but without their labour, society would collapse pretty quickly, as they’re the ones usually doing the most productive and essential work. In comparison, we have many well-paid jobs that do not accomplish anything of productional value, and whose absence would not cause major ripples in the economy. As a “leftie” (more specifically an anarchist, if of the philosophical variety), I think we need to re-evaluate the concept of work altogether, and eliminate the need for ‘work for the sake of work’. As in, we, as a society, should work smarter, not harder.
All that economic bullshit is incidental, however, to the more pressing issues of social injustice. Economic inequality is largely a product of social ills caused by harmful cultural systems. Brocialists (or manarchists, depending on your flavor) ignore the effects that racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and the like have on the collective consciousness: They’re all manifestations of a hierarchical mindset where some (cishet white able-bodied neurotypical men) are more equal than others. Trying to change an economic and/or political system without first addressing the underlying problems with privilege and power just results in a change in power, not in a real structural change.
So, for all your bravado, you and other “there’s nothing wrong with bigotry” types are just cogs in the machine that would progress society. You know, the ones who will forever remain in history books as the resistance faced by those who would bring about change. Well done, I hope you’re proud of yourself.
Finally, your self-pity does not excuse your behavior, quite on the contrary; You realize you have flaws, but you refuse to make the effort to change. That is indefensible. As a certain well-known Western philosopher put it:
You accuse others of misanthropy, yet you yourself are most bitter and resentful. Not that I’m surprised, MGTOW is pretty much an exercise in bitterness. Take a good, long, hard look at yourself and ask yourself if your attitude might be the reason you’re so obviously unhappy.
Huh. WHTM does attract a very particular brand of trolls, doesn’t it? It always seems to be the “Special Snowflake, I’m smarter than everyone, LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME” trolls.
You know, some days I am happy and some days I am sad, but on my very worst days I can at least take comfort in the fact that I’m not the sort of person who feels compelled to seek out reasons to throw an online shit-fit at strangers. I’ve known people in my life who were so unhappy they felt the need to go to bars and try to pick fights with people just to get out their destructive impulses. Online trolls always remind me of those people, except they are less brave and less tolerant of physical violence.
@Anarchonist
Thank you.
@Ktoryx
They’re less drunk too. Drunk people picking fights are funny, to an extent. It’s the part before the fight that’s funny. I’m a peaceful drunk, so I only enjoy that part.
Trolls would be funnier if they were drunk. Paul Elam makes a good demonstration on youtube.
@Ktoryx
I know, right?
MrAl was a perfect example of that. Alternately (or sometimes simultaneously) petitioning for advice and sympathy, presenting as the detached logical observer, melting down in fits of verbal abuse, changing personal details mid-thread, fixating on certain regulars, and always ALWAYS coming back after the ban hammer went down.
Maybe I’m overestimating the time and energy dedicated to trolling but it always seems too much for whatever return.
@POM ‘Civil engineering is the best, though.’
That made me feel surprisingly good. I’m a CE and get no respect at all in my current job.
Also–I posted this on a previous post, but it may be worth posting again for anyone who missed it–a study on what some jobs are really worth to the economy:
http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/entry/a-bit-rich
@All That Migging and Towing
Whoa! You’re getting all worked up because you’re pretty sure we’re not Jesus.
And you followed that with a spirited defense of bigotry.
I have a terrible feeling that your arguments only go downhill from here.
Just read this entire thread in one go. Oh my god, I haven’t laughed so hard in ages.
That’s a shame. I hope you are at least making good money, because it’s hard work and the stakes are sometimes high.
Y’all, I’m totes sure that Mig is an engineer. That last tantrum, fists flailing and feet kicking, is what convinced me: only a 329-year-old engineer would lob a string of juvenile insults at us. I admit it. I was wrong. Mea culpa. What is my penance?
@migging
While I disagree with pretty much everything you said, I’ll give you this:
“…you’re not entitled to a world where people like this don’t have the right to exist.”
True. We need to earn it daily by reminding “people like this” that just because they have the right to be intolerant, doesn’t mean they should. I cherish their existence – I abhorr their outlook.
PoM:
Your penance is to read up on the works of Balthasar Neumann, notable German engineer and architect who was born in 1687 and maybe never died.
@Moggie Now that’s creepy.
And as I pointed out on a similar Reddit thread, Trump’s boast there wasn’t even true. It became the 4th tallest building in Manhattan after 70 Pine Street, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building.
Well, he specifically said “downtown” Manhattan – or, as David’s headline puts it, “lower” Manhattan. I assume, in this context, these refer to the part of Manhattan that’s not as high up. Of all the buildings that are close to the ground and distant from the sky, Trump’s is the tallest.
But does Trump have any uptown top ranking buildings?
@ moggie
I love that song. It also has to be the world’s most serendipitous number one single. The girls didn’t even mean to make a single, they were just messing around singing over another track but the tape was running. Then the record was played by accident by John Peel (he was aiming for another track). Guess Fate likes reggae.
ETA: does anyone else remember listening to John Peel with your finger poised over a tape cassette record button?