AntiFa ate my baby: Today in Tweets

@ opposablethumbs

it’s good news that they’ve been arrested for it

Indeed. And it’s a ‘prescribed organisation’ which means mere membership, or association with, is an offence in itself.

There is a bit of controversy here over that law because the only evidence required to prove membership or association is that a police officer of the rank of Inspector or above says you are. But groups like this are regarded as terrorist organisations and the theory is that if you have to give evidence in the usual way, that will either expose intelligence gathering methods or the presence of undercover officers or informers, or leave witnesses open to intimidation.

@Scildfreja Unnyðnes

I’m sorry for how west-centric the comments can be. It can be quite difficult to focus on things outside of that sphere here! The news basically ignores anything but the largest disasters outside of the west, and even those get sparse coverage. Canada’s not quite as bad as the US, but we could do much better.

It’s a huge problem! As well as how selective our broadcast media is about news from the other part of the world. If you watch some of this….. well, it doesn’t justify the xenophobic, racist attitudes elsewhere. But you can see how the machine churns out bigotry by amplifying division and hysteria.

I do consume US media, but I try to stick to news institutions with some tradition of excellence, rather than cable news. Cable news’ business model is to keep anxiety ramped up to 11 so you keep watching, so they can keep selling ads. And I try to work in reputable news sources with editorial slants that run counter to my biases. The Wall Street Journal as well as the Washington Post, so my basic assumptions are challenged. Echo Chambers are dangerous, after all. But even with the ‘Failing’ New York Times and it’s ilk you still get only Angloshphere-centric news.

IMHO, it’s worth putting a few outside sources in one’s news rotation cycle. I try to drop in some CBC, BBC and Al Jazeera. Especially with the latter, one comes quickly to realize that there’s a huge world out there we’re just not hearing about, but that absolutely is relevant all over the world. It’s sad that we have to actively seek it out, but we do. So, I do.

I have a bit of a soft spot for the BBC World Service.

@Bobbie – this was a UK case, but much the same applies (and although there is considerable overlap and significant US influence in this respect, we still have Hate Speech laws and it’s still somewhat less unthinkable to question the old Frozen Peaches :-s)

What’s really good is to have it straight-up acknowledged that a white supremacist organisation is a terrorist organisation.

Sorry to get the Necronomicon out, but I thought this was quite funny.

I got this fucking gem from a “friend” now blocked on facebook, who’s been wringing his lily-white hands over all the hateful rhetoric ” I promise you, white supremacists see you as just as evil, so saying violence against them is justified because they are evil does not get you off the hook.”

I’m fucking livid right now.

@Schnookums Von Ghostface Fancypants Killer:

I got this fucking gem from a “friend” now blocked on facebook, who’s been wringing his lily-white hands over all the hateful rhetoric ” I promise you, white supremacists see you as just as evil, so saying violence against them is justified because they are evil does not get you off the hook.”

I mean, the proper response to that is to drown the offending fuck in a well-used outhouse. But let’s look at it:
‘I promise you [yes, I see the you are well familiar with white supremacy],
white supremacists see you as just as evil [on account of being a Person of Colour, anywhere near LGBTQ, Jewish, leftist, Roma, disabled, middle eastern, etc.],
so saying violence against them is justified because they are evil [because they want to murder everyone who is a Person of Colour, anywhere near LGBTQ, Jewish, leftist, Roma, disabled, middle eastern, etc.] does not get you off the hook [with the people shielding white supremacists].’
Of course I’m not telling you anything you don’t know here, Schnookums, but some of our listeners might find some use of this ‘insertion of the unspoken words’-technique.

@ Old Besom
ISTR someone with a similar nym around here before, but I’m bad with names, so…

Also – Dali, Fiqah, you’re both really wonderful. I will try to be more like you, in my context.

Blushing furiously over here.

I read today in the newspaper that a white nationalist here in the UK just had his sentence reduced from 4 to 2 years, with the Judge stating the initial sentence was excessive, partly due to him being in his 20s. : / I suppose 2 years is still better than nothing and at least something seems to be being done over here, but…

@Besom
@Scildfreja Unnyðnes
No, not social anxiety disorder, that’s not what I said. OCD, and also panic disorder. It’s the OCD that makes me need to explain, with that it can be very hard to leave it even if you want to. Yes, it did trigger panic attacks for me, I find conflict very upsetting, but that’s not really the point. It should at least be apparent that I’m not yelling at anyone, and I have done as requested and listened even though people continued to respond.