Friday, May 26, 2017

DOES VIOLENT RHETORIC PRODUCE VIOLENT ACTION IN WHITE MEN?

Yes.

It always has.

And it doesn't matter if they are rich or poor, large or small.

When Ronald Reagan started talking about "Black-On-Black Crime" (as if White-On-White Crime isn't intra-racial at exactly the same rates most years); "Welfare Queens;" and "Young Bucks" buying steaks with welfare checks; white violence toward black and brown increased dramatically in this country. 

Ronald Reagan and White Mob Violence

Ronald Reagan may have been gone from office, but his mouth should still be considered the backdrop against which THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE were arrested. Five young teen aged black and brown boys were jailed for years for doing absolutely nothing after being brow beaten and tricked into confessing (Laws on how to handle minors was changed as a result of this case).

One man, already in jail, eventually confessed to raping the white woman that all five of the boys were accused gang raping. 

Donald Trump called for the black and brown boys accused to be put to death --took out an ad in the New York Times as I recall. And Trump never apologized for that.

Donald Trump's bone deep alt-Right-KKK hate for black and brown people (except for exceptional sell outs) is decades old and it burns hot -- no matter how relatively unruffled he looks on the outside.  And he used that hate to take pot shots at black and brown people when he started running for president. 

And his obsession with undoing everything Obama did is part of that hatred.

Trump tested the water for how much white racism he could tap into by using the Birther Movement. When that worked, he got bolder and bolder with the white supremacy.  Each time the white liberal press thought he'd said something too racist, his popularity increased....with his white racist base.  


And now that Trump has won the the White House, the white racists feel victorious. White hate group memberships have soared.
HATE GROUPS INCREASE 
FOR THE SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR 
AS TRUMP ELECTRIFIES THE RADICAL RIGHT

Donald Trump has been angrily taking pot shots at reporters, calling them liars for repeating his own lies. Trump probably couldn't believe everyone on the planet didn't want to kiss his butt before he was president. Now that he is president? Trump cannot figure out why people are spinning things the way he wants them spun. 

His vitriol toward the press has been constant and you can hear the tone of entitlement every time he speaks. 

Is it any surprise that white republicans are beginning to follow Trump's cue that the press are the enemy? 

Is it any surprise that a white man who is running for office in the very, very white state of Montana feels completely entitled to body slam and punch a reporter when he feels disrespected?  

     FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

Greg Gianforte would like to be the next Republican congressman from Montana. He is also facing a misdemeanor charge of assault after allegedly body-slamming a reporter who tried to ask him an [embarrassing question about the CBO Report on Trumpcare 2.0 on] the night before the state’s special election.
The reporter, the audiotape of their exchange and the first-person account of the entire incident by a Fox News journalist all tell a similar story: Gianforte slammed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs to the ground after he asked him....Jacobs was persistent but calm, according to the audiotape. The Fox team who witnessed the incident said the reporter showed no signs of “physical aggression” toward the would-be congressman. 
But this Grand Old Party white man reached out and grabbed the reporter by the neck and threw him to the ground
 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/05/25/how-a-gop-candidates-alleged-body-slam-of-a-reporter-played-out-on-the-trump-internet/?utm_term=.b7598e2173ce


It occurs to me that Rush Limbaugh, the conservative hate-baiter talk show host, used to call his followers "Ditto Heads." Though I despised Limbaugh and his followers, I felt humiliated for them They were too lame to be embarrassed by the implication that they do not think for themselves.  In fact, some of white boys I saw interviewed on the Gianforte Body Slam have that same pride.

They are proud of not reading, or not being informed. For years, Faux News has been telling white conservatives all these conspiracy theories that it's hard to believe a 12 year old would believe. Faux News has them trained to believe that only they were telling the truth for years. And that message was basically that black and brown people plus the femi-nazis were taking over America. 

An unintentional outcome of Faux News' tendency to produce Hoax News has been that many white racists have been conditioned to not believe the news period.  Of course, you can't just believe everything you read. If you read my blog, you know my problem with the news is what's being left out and what's being misinterpreted or covered up. 

I don't watch read news; hear some that sounds like Gianforte slamming a reporter to the ground on audiotape; watch interviews of people who were in the room say it happened; then know the police charged Gianforte with a crime THEN tell people, "It probably didn't even happen."    

I just watched a white man who looks to be old enough to vote, say "It probably didn't even happen." 

   Montana Voters are voting tonight for the Republican Body Slammer or the democrat.  Pundits are saying most people in Montana vote early (by mail?) So this election might have been over before it began today. But I wish the body slam had happened earlier so we could watch the republican win anyway -- without saying a thing about his arrest that makes any sense.

When black people are violent they are defective. When women are violent, they are defective. When white men are violent? There's a show put on about how "this is unacceptable." But for the most part, against the patriarchy backdrop, when a white man strikes another white-ish man his virility quotient goes up and not down.

And in the very, very white state of Montana a reporter named Ben Jacobs with the Jewish sounding last name might not be quite white enough for the WASPY white voters to see Gianforte as having done something bad.
Whiteness is a social construct and the construction is changing all the time. Whiteness in this country is exclusiveness (Example: If you have one drop of black blood you're black until recently) But the boundaries of whiteness change when it needs to so as to hold onto power.  
Whiteness is a funny thing that way.  The Irish weren't white at first, then they adjusted their clothing and accents and were let in. The Italians weren't white for a while either. But the Jewish people were last pale group allowed into whiteness last, right? 

In some corners of the country, things change slowly. It could be in places as white as Montana the reporter, Ben Jacobs, is seen as an ethnic outsider. 

And it just so happens that alt-Right founder(?) Richard Spencer lives in Montana part time. And in January, some of the white people of his town planned an anti-semetic March for Martin Luther King's birthday.


And don't forget, there have been increases in anti-semitism since Trump has been elected too. The white supremacists are feeling themselves right now. 

So doesn't that mean Gianforte is living in an atmosphere where reporters are the enemy and not-white is the enemy too?
Nearly fifty-six percent of Montana voted for Trump.  Therefore, I think Gianforte is representative of the place he comes from. And thought ought to mean he'll win the election. 

If this body slam had happened a month before the election, I think he'd have gotten even more votes --not less. I think Gianforte would have won by a larger margin despite the misdemeanor charge. That because he'd have experienced a Trump effect. 

The more vicious and white-macho the hate filled comment (or action) the more the white racist voter likes it. Trump proved that over and over again during his campaign.

I hope I'm wrong about Montana. I hope the democrat wins. But I'm not holding my breathe.

It would have been more interesting if Montana voted today sans any early votes, just having heard about Trump 2.0 creating 23 million more uninsured people and also having heard about Trump Budget 1.0 which makes it clear Trump is out to snatch the rug out from under anybody not rich

Then again, Faux News has probably got 56 percent of white folks in Montanta trained to ignore all new information. So maybe that wouldn't have made a difference either.

Like I said, I hope I'm wrong about Montana. I hope the democrat wins. But I'm not holding my breathe.


Update 05 26 17: Gianforte won. Now I guess we get to wait and see if he goes to jail for the assault. Once again, I'm not holding my breathe

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