By David Futrelle
Another mass shooting, this time at a Waffle House in Tennessee, leaving four people dead and the suspect still at large. Luckily, an extraordinarily brave customer was able to wrestle the shooter’s AR-15 from him, saving who knows how many lives.
The most infuriating thing about the whole story? The suspect had been arrested before, for trying to access a restricted area in the White House, and all of his guns were confiscated. Authorities ultimately gave them back to the suspect’s father … who gave them right back to his son. Who used one of them in the shooting today.
In other news, Kanye continues his Twitter rampage, Shania Twain comes out as a fan of Trump, and some dude plays Van Halen in a Guitar Center.
https://twitter.com/colbyklaus/status/988148570581762049
https://twitter.com/Rschooley/status/988178332503101440
This is the Waffle House hero, James Shaw Jr. He tackled the shooter and saved so many lives in the process. Thank you James. And thank you TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center for your wonderful doctors and nurses who quickly took care of his injuries. pic.twitter.com/kKORfI24G1
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) April 22, 2018
Hero took the Waffle House shooter down while he attempted to reload. THIS is why magazine limits are important: “I was just trying to get myself out. I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it.” https://t.co/eAw8le6u6p
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) April 22, 2018
The suspected shooter was white; his victims were all people of color, and it seems more than a little likely that this was an act of white supremacist terrorism.
The four victims killed in the Waffle House shooting in Nashville were under the age of 30:
– Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29
– Joe Perez, 20
– Akilah Dasilva, 23
– DeEbony Groves, 21https://t.co/C1dHwaGnmT— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) April 23, 2018
In somewhat lighter news, Kanye doesn’t seem to be too happy that people are dragging him on Twitter for his endorsement of alt-lite weirdo Candace Owens.
the god @EMlNEMOBAMA pic.twitter.com/ctMWYXaEwd
— super 🔮 astronomic (@superastronomic) April 22, 2018
Meanwhile, Shania Twain says that if she were an American citizen she would have voted for Trump, and gives the most ridiculous possible reason one could ever give for doing so: he seems honest.
During an interview with The Guardian, Canadian country singer Shania Twain revealed that she would’ve voted for Donald Trump: "I would have voted for him because, even though he was offensive, he seemed honest." pic.twitter.com/PgLxDQC4UA
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) April 22, 2018
Apparently Chris Cantwell isn’t the only one who sees women as property:
Wishing my beautiful daughter and her date *a violent reminder that I consider her my property pic.twitter.com/RDM7SpXBAE
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) April 22, 2018
One tough kitty:
Do not mess with this cat. pic.twitter.com/MZqjLuLnDx
— Bethany Onsgard (@bhoneyy) April 20, 2018
And a rock god:
I love guitar center pic.twitter.com/i1mC14Cjxj
— critch (@Critch7861) April 22, 2018
Then maybe Shania Twain shouldn’t have gone on Rupaul’s Drag Race to promote her latest album? Because gay men, many of whom are not white that dress in drag have got to top the list of people a lot of MAGAs would love to kill. And I do mean that literally. But hey, at least hate crimes are honest, right?
On the Waffle House shooter, I’m just waiting for the inevitable post here about the incels claiming him as their own. I’m pretty sure he’d qualify as non facial alpha manlet. I’m also wondering how much media praise James Shaw Jr. will get. Probably not anywhere near as much as he would if he were white. I’m also concerned the NRA superfan and/or Infowars superfan crowd will target him for harassment.
And I’m very glad my dad is not like that Jay Feely guy. Ick, ick, ick.
I know this is cliche, but: not all heroes wear capes, and I want a movie of James Shaw Jr. tomorrow!
@ Patty Thinkerer
I’d be worried about a movie about this brave young man. Not because I don’t think he deserves a movie, he definitely does, but because Hollywood doesn’t have a great track record of making movies about black people that don’t make them into stories about how white people taught the black people to do whatever amazing thing it was.
The whole “hero with a gun” is a big myth. But people stopping crazed gunners with mundane objects or sheer strength? Now that is true, and Shaw has proven it.
I hate this idea that honesty is the only virtue that matters, and if someone is full of hate and prejudice this is somehow made okay by them being honest about it.
If I had a choice between a bigot who’s really loud and open about it and a bigot who hides their bigotry and outwardly treat people decently, I take the latter any day.
I worry about that, like, all the time, so let me modify my previous statement: I want a movie of James Shaw Jr. that doesn’t turn into some White Savior/Magical PoC narrative tomorrow!
Not a movie about a hero, but I think it would be neat to have a remake of Candyman in which it isn’t told from the perspective of an upper class white woman investigating the Candyman legend but instead from the perspective of one of the residents of the housing project. I liked the original, but the story doesn’t actually need any white people in it at all.
I love that photo. There are others out there where he’s not scrunching up his nose (and is a very nice-looking young man, BTW), but this one just has so much adorable aw-shucks heroism to it.
But also, fuck, he grabbed the hot barrel of an AR while the shooter was trying to reload.
Smart, and also outrageously painful, I’d imagine.
It’s weird how so many people can interpret the least honest person in the world as honest, just because he says incredibly stupid things. It’s almost as if conservatives define honesty as the opposite of thoughtfulness, or alternatively they view honesty as synonymous with a lack of self-control. It’s not that Trump’s words are honest, but maybe there’s some level of honesty in that he always says what he feels like saying in that particular moment. He just happens to feel like lying very often.
Turns out the killer is a sovereign citizen. (He also thinks he’s being stalked by Taylor Swift, so… um). Strange that that report manages to avoid the term “right wing”.
I read about the prom photo. Apparently the girl’s been dating her boyfriend for over a year, the boyfriend and dad like each other and get along well, and everyone was in on the joke. The joke is still outdated and sexist and should still die, but IMO everyone being in on it makes this instance slightly less awful.
There are two types of honesty here and without wishing to defend Twain, it’s pretty clear that she didn’t mean that Trump is more accurate or closer to objective reality than other politicians. That’s one sort of truth telling and only the ideologically blinded can pretend that Donny Two Scoops says things that are true in that sense. In fact the whole ‘literally, not seriously’ thing was a tacit acknowledgement that his campaign was full of shit.
What Twain was talking about (as clarified in her apology) was honesty about beliefs and attitudes. Straight talk, not guarded answers designed to offend the fewest people. Speaking directly to everyday people. What you see is what you get. It’s possible to make a case that Trump is more honest in that sense, when you compare his full throated populism with Hillary rolling back on even a mild ‘racist Trump supporters are deplorable’ comment, even though it is clearly what she believes.
Of course, this argument falls apart once you look at Trump in office. He has failed to live up to what he said more than the career politicians he excoriated. He made promises he couldn’t keep (wall) and promises he made no serious effort to keep (Obamacare). He has made comments that utterly contradicted his base’s most cherished values (guns) and taken actions that opposed his stated beliefs (too many to list, most recently Syria). He is pure bullshit, to use Twain’s word.
There are all sorts of other fallacies to unpick there, about transparency and the privilege in not knowing much about politics but still feeling that you have the right to opine about it, but this comment is already far too long. Tldr: That don’t impress me much.
Jo: I think the normal definition of “honest” is a person who says what he/she sincerely believes, rather than saying what is objectively true. If we want to point out that someone said something true, we say “yeah that’s true” rather than “he’s honest”.
Twain’s comment is still really problematic though. First of all, as you point out, it doesn’t really seem like Trump says things he sincerely believes all the time because he’s been flipp-flopping so fast on many issues. Like with the trans bathroom issue, if I remember correctly he made a 180 on that one literally within the scope of 24 hours. That’s hard to square with him saying what he honestly believes all the time. Secondly, even if someone says what they honestly believe all the time that’s no good if their honest beliefs are fucking horrible. Having a horrible person who’s a bit of a hypocrite and try to virtue signal in various ways is preferable to having someone who’s just all out horrible and spew their horribleness out all day long.
@Jo
It is easy to mistake an outspoken narcissistic asshole for an honest person, especially if they appear to hate the same things you hate, whilst railing against “the establishment” and “the elites” and anyone else you’ve classified as fundamentally dishonest. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”, sorta thing (which is probably why so many americans who identify as evangelicals have wholeheartedly thrown their support behind someone who may as well be the earthly incarnation of Mammon).
The interesting question then becomes, what is it that she saw in Trump? She can backpedal as fast as she likes, but either a) she decided that how he said things was way more important than what he said or b) she liked what he had to say as well as how he said it. I’d like to think that she isn’t vacuous enough for (a).
Or you look at his decades-long history of greed, graft and incompetence
Anyway, why the fuck is honesty more important than anything else?
etc.
https://twitter.com/cavalorn/status/654934442549620736?lang=en
I’m in awe of that young man.
OT: Sean Hannity had Michael Cohen on his show without ever mentioning that Cohen was his lawyer. He had Ben Carson on his show without ever mentioning that Hannity owned houses that might benefit from HUD loans and he had Bill Lako write an article for the website berating Robert Mueller without mentioning that Lako was a principal at Hannity’s wealth management firm.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/apr/22/michael-cohen-sean-hannity-property-real-estate-ben-carson-hud
So given these genuine breaches of ethics in journalism, the Gamergate crowd are going to be all over it, right?
Re: Shania Twain
This always seems apposite these days.
Being honest about your faults is only okay when you’re making efforts to overcome, or at least compensate for them. Drumpf not only isn’t trying to overcome or compensate for his awfulness, he’s revelling in it. Supporting Drumpf because “at least he’s honest” about his offensive views isn’t any better than supporting Drumpf because you agree with those views. In many ways, it’s worse. You still helped to embolden white supremacists and neo-Nazis, destabilize the economy, and possibly even sell America out to the Russians, even though you knew better. “I know what he’s doing is wrong, I know it’ll have terrible consequences, but I’m going to support him anyway because AT LEAST HE’S HONEST.” Does that sound like a moral position to hold?!
It’s not whether the dad and boyfriend like each other, but whether they respect her agency. And yes, it’s still problematic as a joke.
I’m amazed moron dad didn’t shoot himself in the foot.
Also:
Next on Fox; SECOND AMENDMENT SUPPORTER ATTACKED BY THUG.
I’m sorry I don’t think I understand the joke about the girl who will go to her prom. which part says that she is a object? or it is only because her dad has a gun?
Dunno mate. Not quite sure why I’m supposed to be outraged by a joke picture either. Seems stupid. 🙁
@ wwth
a quote from a friend who saw “Black Panther”… “there sure were a lot of black people in it…” IT TAKES PLACE IN AFRICA!!!
re: Shania
HONEST?!?!? DONALD tRUMP??? ARE WE TALKIN’ ABOUT THE SAME PERSON???
E.T.A. @ Shadowplay
… yeah, it is a stupid picture….
I think it is silly and I think it is very inappropriate to make pictures with a gun and joke with guns infront of children. I just don’t understand which place says she is a object. but definately it isn’t funny but I am mostly confused.
The point is this: There’s this idea floating around in society that purity is important in women, and it’s up to dads to “protect” their daugthers against boyfriends who might have the nerve to try to have sex with them. The idea is not that her boyfriend might be a rapist (in which case it would make sense for a parent to try to end the entire relationship). The idea is rather that the girl needs “protection” even against consensual sex. I.e., the girl is not regarded as an agent who can make her own choices, but as an object which must be protected against getting dirty.
I agree the pic doesn’t imply any of that if you look at it in a cultural vacuum, but there’s so much of this more explicit “gotta protect my daughter, watch out for me if you wanna date my daugther” stuff in (mostly American) the culture, that most people could just see him holding the gun and infer that whole “protection” part.
thank you for your explanation Dvärghundspossen. now I understand – It seems like a so small thing to me, and I didn’t see what is hidden behind it, I thought it is mainly about the gun and then I didn’t understand why the gun means she is a object. but it is because he means he must protect her even from what she decides herself, like she has no control or judgement of what she wants.