By David Futrelle
Perhaps the most heartbreaking and enraging moment of Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony before the Senate came after Senator Patrick Leahy asked her to recall her most indelible memory of the night she said that now-Supreme-Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her. Ford replied without hesitation: It was, she said, “the uproarious laughter” of Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, two aggressive adolescent boys ““having fun at my expense.”
So it is perhaps not surprising that Kavanaugh’s supporters have responded to the accused would-be-rapist’s confirmation to the highest court in the land with their own cruel laughter — and a Twitter hashtag designed to memorialize the fun they are now having at Ford’s expense.
Let’s take a quick tour #BeersForBrett hashtag, celebrating the Supreme Court confirmation of a man facing credible accusations of alcohol-fueled sexual assaults that the GOP was happy to ignore and that the White House blocked from being properly investigated. The hashtag began before the final vote on Kavanaugh, but has picked up steam since his confirmation,
In it, Kavanaugh’s fans are happily gloating over their victory, mocking their opponents, often to their faces.
While many using the hashtag are simply posting pictures of their own alcoholic celebrations (with predictably gloating captions), others are coming with the memes:
There’s much gleeful talk about “triggering” liberals and women.
There are the inevitable jokes about “liberal tears.”
Many of those on the hashtag have revealed themselves to be as vindictive, as eager for retribution, as Kavanaugh himself seems to be.
Some are directing their cruelty at Christine Blasey Ford herself:
As the tweets directed at Ford suggest, the whole hashtag stinks of misogyny, with many tweeters taking special pleasure in the suffering of women.
For even more blatant displays of misogyny, see this horrifying thread.
Still, not all of those posting in the hashtag are overgrown frat boys; there are numerous women as well, reminding us that the overwhelming majority of Republican women supported Kavanaugh. (White supremacy is a hell of a drug, I guess.)
Misogyny isn’t the only form of bigotry on display. (I censored the first image somewhat.)
But the people supporting this hashtag aren’t just internet trolls and alt-right Nazis. Far from it. Not only are a wide spectrum of Trump supporters posting in the hashtag; prominent conservative publications — and politicians — are getting into the action as well, with the Daily Caller going so far as to troll anti-Kavanaugh protesters by trying to give them beer.
Ironically, despite the sneering disingenuousness of the Daily Caller’s tweet, it did manage to get one thing right. All these beers for Brett are intended to bring people together. Just not all people.
In a powerful essay in The Atlantic several days before the Kavanaugh vote, journalist Adam Serwer compared the Trump fans who laughed at the President’s mocking of Ford at a rally in Mississippi last week to the “respectable” white citizens caught on camera in 90-year-old photographs of public lynchings, standing only feet from the bodies of murdered black men, with huge grins on their faces.
“Their names have mostly been lost to time,” Serwer writes,
But these grinning men were someone’s brother, son, husband, father. They were human beings, people who took immense pleasure in the utter cruelty of torturing others to death—and were so proud of doing so that they posed for photographs with their handiwork, jostling to ensure they caught the eye of the lens, so that the world would know they’d been there. Their cruelty made them feel good, it made them feel proud, it made them feel happy. And it made them feel closer to one another.
Trump and his supporters are in many ways the contemporary equivalents of these men. While “[t]he Trump era is such a whirlwind of cruelty that it can be hard to keep track,” Serwer notes, Trump’s cruelty towards Ford, and the mocking laughter of his supporters, is going to remain indelible in the collective hippocampus of rape survivors for a very long time, to paraphrase Dr. Ford.
As the laughter at the rally made clear — and the collective gloating that is the #BeersForBrett hashtag has further underlined — for Trump and his fans, cruelty towards others is bonding experience, just as lynchings were for so many racist white men and women in the early 20th century.
As Server argues,
The cruelty of the Trump administration’s policies, and the ritual rhetorical flaying of his targets before his supporters, are intimately connected. As Lili Loofbourow wrote of the Kavanaugh incident in Slate, adolescent male cruelty toward women is a bonding mechanism, a vehicle for intimacy through contempt. …
We can hear the spectacle of cruel laughter throughout the Trump era. There were the border-patrol agents cracking up at the crying immigrant children separated from their families, and the Trump adviser who delighted white supremacists when he mocked a child with Down syndrome who was separated from her mother. There were the police who laughed uproariously when the president encouraged them to abuse suspects, and the Fox News hosts mocking a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub massacre (and in the process inundating him with threats), the survivors of sexual assault protesting to Senator Jeff Flake, the women who said the president had sexually assaulted them, and the teen survivors of the Parkland school shooting. There was the president mocking Puerto Rican accents shortly after thousands were killed and tens of thousands displaced by Hurricane Maria, the black athletes protesting unjustified killings by the police, the women of the #MeToo movement who have come forward with stories of sexual abuse, and the disabled reporter whose crime was reporting on Trump truthfully. It is not just that the perpetrators of this cruelty enjoy it; it is that they enjoy it with one another. Their shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to one another, and to Trump.
As the headline of Serwer’s piece puts it: “They cruelty is the point.” Indeed, reading through the #BeersForBrett hashtag, it is hard not to conclude that for many of Trump’s most fervent fans, the cruelty — and the privilege it is designed to celebrate and protect — is practically the only point.
Trump’s fans don’t care if his reputation as a self-made business genius is utter bullshit, built on tax fraud and money from daddy (and possibly decades worth of money laundering). They don’t care if he gushes over Kim Jong Un, the brutal boy dictator he once threatened to nuke off the face of the earth. They may not even care if he never builds his infamous wall. They just like to watch him go off on “uppity” women, on people of color, on anyone outside the magic circle of white male supremacy. As long as Trump is “triggering the libs,” many of his fans don’t even care if his policies are screwing them over.
But by making this collective cruelty such a central — and such a public — part of their exercise of power, Trump and the GOP have ignited a righteous fury in the hearts of all of us who oppose him. The cruelty and gloating that accompanied Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Supreme Court is bringing this fury to a head.
We were angry before; for many of us the 625 days since Trump’s inauguration have been a rollercoaster of rage and despair. But I’ve never seen so many people so angry before. The midterms are a month away. We need to win them, to push back against every obstacle that Trump and the GOP put in our way, to take back every seat we can and then some, so we can begin the process of tearing down Trump’s empire of cruelty.
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@Allandrel
Do you interpret @Alan Robertshaw’s initial comment about giving no quarter to be made in the literal sense of being in a military conflict against fascists, and was that what prompted you to invoke the laws and customs of war (which, as their name suggests, only apply in wartime)?
@Alan Robertshaw
Alan, did you mean for your comment to be interpreted in the sense of a shooting war, or in a figurative sense (e.g. for the deplorables to be able to take as much as they dish out on Twitter, etc.)?
I’m asking because there seems to be two related, but distinct discussions being had here; one regarding how to treat fascists in capital-W War, and the other regarding how to treat them in the here and now, in the figurative war for the political future of America (or at least in online forums).
The rules of engagement for both are very different, and should not be conflated.
@ ariblester
That is a very good question; and I’m not sure I have a good answer. My thoughts are all over the place on this. I can say I was very angry when I wrote that post; I still am. Now that of course raises another question as to whether someone who’s completely out of the firing line even has a right to be angry about all this. I do though have an almost pathological hatred of Nazis. My politics is really pretty simple; I hate bullies and cowards. Everything else flow from that really. I don’t want to trigger a big debate here, nor breach the comments policy; so perhaps if I just share some of the thoughts buzzing through my mind and you can get some insight from that?
After WW2, Churchill just wanted to deal with the Nazis by way of a bill of attainder. It was Stalin who argued for the Nuremberg trials. And of course they did expose the truth about the Nazis to the world. It also gave the Nazis a chance to make their case; (which is why I don’t believe they’re entitled to a voice now, we’ve heard everything they had to say).
On the ground however, the liberators of the death camps did engage in summary executions, or handed over Nazis to their former prisoners. Was that wrong? We’ll all have our own views on that.
I am very mindful though, of how many attendees to the Wannsee Conference went on the successful and respectable post war careers.
So whether it’s Sean Spicer making appearances at comedy awards, or Tiki Nazis taking off their polo shirts when confronted, and pleading the “I was only in it for the lulz” defence, something does stick in my craw that fascists expect and demand a lack of consequences when the tables are turned. That’s a consideration they’d never grant to their victims when they hold the reigns.
So is it justice, vengeance, or just plain ensuring they’re no longer a threat? These are considerations that go through my head, and I am conflicted. My wishy washy liberal ‘rule of law’ sentiments pull one way; the thought of what Nazis would happily do to people I care about, and everyone generally, pull the other.
@Ariblester
Yes, that was my take on it. I’ll let Alan speak for himself as to what his intention was.
Yeah, okay, so we’re doing this, then.
I took a crack at writing this, then threw it all away. Here’s another go.
(I don’t want to start a proper argument or anything divisive here, but I can’t let these opinions slide without comment – it’s important to speak your beliefs and intentions clearly at a time like this. So Im’a comment. I will try to be clear, because it’s basically impossible to discuss these things with nuance. Any mention of blunting the edge of the blade is treason to a hawk; any sharpening is sin to a dove. There’s not a lot of room here. That said – take it how you will.)
I’ve heard this before. “We need to consider violence a tool in our tool belt.” And it’s right – we need to be able to punch predators until they leave good people alone.
Funny thing, though, I’ve only ever heard this “violence and cruelty are tools” from people who want that to be our only tools. Our first resort. Our tool belt should be full of tools, because we have a world to fix. We need everything at our fingertips. You’ve got your hammer, and by the line quoted above it sounds like you’re pretty scornful of the level and compass.
Know that saying, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”? See, some of our problems are nails. But some are screws. And if you’re a hammer surrounded by screws it’s awful tempting to bash one’a them fuckers in. You know, to make some headway on the problem. Pretty soon you’re happily smashing away – at least you’re doing something, right? But in doing so you’re destroying the flooring, the beams, the rafters, and just making the problem harder to solve.
We need people with full tool kits to build a worthy future. The hammer’s going to be in there, but it’s got to be one of many tools at our disposal. This cruel authoritarian swagger isn’t going to get any play here. It’s more in common with Putin than progressives.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
Quick addendum, thank you anonymous person who poked me about it.
Cruelty isn’t a tool.
It’s a motivation. It’s a reason to do something, not a thing to be done.
Cruelty, applied outwards, is abuse.
I don’t think that’s a tool we should use. Abuse only makes more abusers and makes more suffering. Aside from the fact that, you know, abusing people is evil.
@Allandrel
Cool. I’m all for that. But what do we do about the fascists before we manage to overturn the entire fricking institution? Or do we just leave them be and think that they’ll learn their lesson once they get humiliated a bit? Didn’t seem to slow down Chris “crying nazi” Cantwell.
I don’t condone death if there is any other alternative. That said, these are fucking nazis, and they need to be stopped from doing harm in whatever way possible. Their power needs to be stripped away. Make them unemployable. Make them ostracized from all supports. Make people unwilling to rent to them, unwilling to provide services, unwilling to assist them. Take away their weapons. Physically stop them from harming others. Make them ashamed and afraid to ever show their festering nazi faces anywhere. Leave them helpless and alone.
Maybe, if someone is feeling particularly merciful, give them an opportunity to renounce their old ways and take up the cause against their former brethren. Though, honestly? I wouldn’t trust them. Maybe someone else will, though.
@Catalpa
No, it didn’t. But as I said above, when talking of “mercy” I’m talking about armed conflict, where the institutions have failed. In non-violent conflict:
All this. This is, in my book, dealing with enemies non-violently and mercifully. Lack of mercy would be kangaroo courts, enslavement, or summary execution – in other words, treating them the way they would treat us.
Nor would I. There’s a difference between being merciful and naively trusting the supposedly repentant.
Hm, I suppose the conflict between us lies in the interpretation we have of the word “mercy”, then. Because I will bet good money that, if/when the nazis ever face even a portion of the comeuppance that I outlined in my previous post, they’ll be wailing and begging for mercy within the hour. And, like Alan said, they’ll be granted no mercy from anyone who has even the slightest inkling of how fast the nazis will revert back to form if they’re granted reprieve.
@Catalpa
That probably isn’t as encouraging as you’d like it to be.
Hmm? Which part isn’t encouraging? The implication that nazis will go right back to harming others the second they feel that it is safe to do so, or the implication that not everyone who opposes the nazis will realize this? Granted, neither are very desirable things, and unfortunately I do not believe either are false. The former, well, we have plenty of evidence catalogued on this very site.
The latter, yeah, I would have liked to end that sentence with just “they’ll be granted no mercy”, unappended. But too many people seem to be squeamish about making the nazis uncomfortable (far more than they seem to be concerned about the victims of those nazis being uncomfortable), so…
I want to focus on all this “triggering” that people like that are gleefully chuckling about all the time. I wonder what all that will mean to a future generation of millenials (and under) who have been horribly traumatized by all this cackling cruelty.
I know that I’ve been experiencing a great deal of emotional fatigue and all this “nasty, triggering bullsht” is part of the reason why. JEEBUS, , but I’m just fckling TIRED!!! I’m just fckling tired of White people right now. Not all of them, but enough of them that I wish that every single person in those tweets, their friends, family and loved ones, were swept from the face of the Earth in a strong hot wind!. I’m not normally a vindictive person, but I’m telling you, I’m so very very gotdamned tired of these people. Every day brings some new fresh shit they’re tracking all over the internet.
So, I’d hate to know what it’s like for marginalized people suffering from various mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. How y’all holding up? (If you need virtual hugs or puppies, lemme know, cuz dayyum!)Psychiatrists have already said they’ve experienced a spike in the number of patients they’ve been seeing since Trump got in office. And this kinda sht, retraumatizing sexual assault victims, does not help.
I just want to say, that the time for them celebrating themselves will be over soon. They’re gonna pay the price for this. I don’t know what it is they’re sowing because I don’t know the future, but it’s gonna be really really bad, because Regimes like this don’t last. There’s gonna becrepurcussions. A backlash to the traumatic backlash were going through now.
In these tweets, in social media, all over the internet, a new generation is truly seeing the true and ugly faces of their friends and family and coworkers, of white supremacy and cruelty and evil, and I’m trying not to get demoralized by watching a subsection of Americans happily, nay gleefully, running towards being their worse possible version of a human life. I’m trying to keep my eye on the “long game”.
But I worry about how the trauma of this time period is going to play out in the next few decades as the Millenials age. How will it manifest? And what will that mean for us as a nation?