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  1. goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    Lily Bart: People want change – and they want representation. And why shouldn’t they? Sure the ‘rowdies’ are out front now, but there are many good people supporting Trump. You cannot paint them all as ugly racists – remember, that is what they did to the more sedate Tea Party.

    I agree with you. There are some wierdos in all parties in this country. As for racism, it’s a word used by too many to paint someone with whom you disagree and has nothing to do with what is in someone’s heart.

    • #61
  2. Amy Schley Coolidge
    Amy Schley
    @AmySchley

    goldwaterwoman: I find the alt right completely distasteful and had genuinely never heard of them until they recently came up in this campaign.

    My uncle had no clue there was such a thing as a Pacific hurricane season and was convinced that the fact that we had a hurricane hit Florida and Washington within a week of each other was a sign of the apocalypse.

    Your prior ignorance of groups like this is not evidence they didn’t exist until you noticed them, any more than a hippie’s ignorance of Native American ecological devastation means they lived in peace with nature, or a global warming activist’s ignorance of the Roman and Medieval Warming Periods means that England didn’t have a climate to allow vineyards.

    None of us knows everything, after all.

    • #62
  3. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Jamie Lockett:

    How is the fact that the left fights dirty an explanation for racism on the right and violent threats directed at a conservative journalist by the alt-right?

    As said above, it is (in part) a response.  The Left fights dirty (government malfeasance, getting people fired from their jobs, mobbing their campus speaking engagements, etc.) and suffers no consequences (or worse yet, gets praised for their bullying).  They are especially vindictive against “traitors” within their midst (Brendon Eich, for instance) who dare voice heterodox thoughts.  This is the pattern, left or right we are all still human, so why should we expect people on the right to somehow be any different?

    French has been militantly and extremely vocally anti-Trump.  This makes him a “traitor” (and I should hardly need to cite people even here on Rico indulging in that term).  He has, therefore, gotten the traitors’ treatment from these lunatics in the same pattern used by the Left to purify its own ranks.

    Do you not see much the same even here on Rico?  Member A slams member B, the eds or mods do nothing about it (or at least nothing timely), so members C and D (friends of B) jump all over A in the same, or even a worse manner.  Should B later emphatically break ranks with C & D, he is condemned as a traitor and (within the bounds of the CoC) punished.

    • #63
  4. Mike LaRoche Inactive
    Mike LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    As soon as I hear the term “racist” brought up, I tune out. These days it simply has no meaning.

    • #64
  5. Sabrdance Member
    Sabrdance
    @Sabrdance

    skipsul:

    Jamie Lockett:

     

    As said above, it is (in part) a response. The Left fights dirty (government malfeasance, getting people fired from their jobs, mobbing their campus speaking engagements, etc.) and suffers no consequences (or worse yet, gets praised for their bullying). They are especially vindictive against “traitors” within their midst (Brendon Eich, for instance) who dare voice heterodox thoughts. This is the pattern, left or right we are all still human, so why should we expect people on the right to somehow be any different?

    French has been militantly and extremely vocally anti-Trump. This makes him a “traitor” (and I should hardly need to cite people even here on Rico indulging in that term). He has, therefore, gotten the traitors’ treatment from these lunatics in the same pattern used by the Left to purify its own ranks.

    1.) I think we’ve officially achieved a Skipsul’s Rule on this thread…

    2.) I fully get the desire to hit back -I fully get the desire to hit back, even if doing so caused the Republic to fall.  But we are not in so lofty a position that we can afford to attack what friends we have, and however much of a point the folks at Taki might have, they are a liability in the ranks -as likely to attack us as the Democrats.

     

    • #65
  6. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Note:

    Making it personal. Contrast with #71.

    Mike LaRoche:As soon as I hear the term “racist” brought up, I tune out. These days it simply has no meaning.

    If you read the French piece and the actions taken and the actual language used you wouldn’t say that, or maybe you would.

    • #66
  7. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Sabrdance: I fully get the desire to hit back -I fully get the desire to hit back, even if doing so caused the Republic to fall. But we are not in so lofty a position that we can afford to attack what friends we have,

    Agreed

    Sabrdance: and however much of a point the folks at Taki might have, they are a liability in the ranks -as likely to attack us as the Democrats.

    There are other sites I’d not defend, but Taki is mostly worth keeping around.  Alex Jones?  Heck no.

    • #67
  8. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    skipsul:

    Jamie Lockett:

    How is the fact that the left fights dirty an explanation for racism on the right and violent threats directed at a conservative journalist by the alt-right?

    As said above, it is (in part) a response. The Left fights dirty (government malfeasance, getting people fired from their jobs, mobbing their campus speaking engagements, etc.) and suffers no consequences (or worse yet, gets praised for their bullying). They are especially vindictive against “traitors” within their midst (Brendon Eich, for instance) who dare voice heterodox thoughts. This is the pattern, left or right we are all still human, so why should we expect people on the right to somehow be any different?

    French has been militantly and extremely vocally anti-Trump. This makes him a “traitor” (and I should hardly need to cite people even here on Rico indulging in that term). He has, therefore, gotten the traitors’ treatment from these lunatics in the same pattern used by the Left to purify its own ranks.

    Do you not see much the same even here on Rico? Member A slams member B, the eds or mods do nothing about it (or at least nothing timely), so members C and D (friends of B) jump all over A in the same, or even a worse manner. Should B later emphatically break ranks with C & D, he is condemned as a traitor and (within the bounds of the CoC) punished.

    Okay and what out of all of this makes it okay to use the term “niglet” to describe French’s daughter? Or subject his wife to a stream of pornographic and violent images?

    • #68
  9. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Sabrdance: 1.) I think we’ve officially achieved a Skipsul’s Rule on this thread…

    Not yet!  Not nearly enough flags thrown.  Give it a couple of hours.

    • #69
  10. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Jamie Lockett: Okay and what out of all of this makes it okay to use the term “niglet” to describe French’s daughter? Or subject his wife to a stream of pornographic and violent images?

    Jamie, you are again trying to twist an explanation into an excuse.  Did I say what happened to French was right?  Was moral?  You asked why leftist tactics were in use on the far right.  I explained.  I did not excuse, I did not justify.  Do not put words in my mouth on this.  

     

    • #70
  11. Frank Soto Member
    Frank Soto
    @FrankSoto

    Mike LaRoche:As soon as I hear the term “racist” brought up, I tune out. These days it simply has no meaning.

    So you don’t find this to be legitimately racist?

    I had just posted a short item to the Corner calling out notorious Trump ally Ann Coulter for aping the white-nationalist language and rhetoric of the so-called alt-right. Within minutes, the tweets came flooding in. My youngest daughter is African American, adopted from Ethiopia, and in alt-right circles that’s an unforgivable sin. It’s called “race-cucking” or “raising the enemy.” I saw images of my daughter’s face in gas chambers, with a smiling Trump in a Nazi uniform preparing to press a button and kill her. I saw her face photo-shopped into images of slaves. She was called a “niglet” and a “dindu.”

    • #71
  12. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    skipsul:

    Jamie Lockett: Okay and what out of all of this makes it okay to use the term “niglet” to describe French’s daughter? Or subject his wife to a stream of pornographic and violent images?

    Jamie, you are again trying to twist an explanation into an excuse. Did I say what happened to French was right? Was moral? You asked why leftist tactics were in use on the far right. I explained. I did not excuse, I did not justify. Do not put words in my mouth on this.

    Appologies, I phrased this badly. You explained why they are angry, what part of your explaination necessitates racism on their part?

    • #72
  13. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Jamie Lockett: Okay and what out of all of this makes it okay to use the term “niglet” to describe French’s daughter? Or subject his wife to a stream of pornographic and violent images?

    [withdrawn, venting]

    • #73
  14. goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    There is no way anyone can possibly justify French’s treatment. However, it’s a bridge too far to call them Trump’s trolls. Trump is no more responsible for the crazies who support him than Hillary is for the crazies who support her. Both Clinton and Trump must have secret service protection and wear bullet-proof vests. Movie stars get threats from crazies who don’t like the roles they play. Many prominent people who aren’t even political are forced to have body guards for protection. There are horrible people all over the world, some of whom will even cut off your head in the name of religion. In this country we have laws against the type of thing that happened to French and others. The trick is to identify them and put them behind bars.

    • #74
  15. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    skipsul:

    Jamie Lockett: Okay and what out of all of this makes it okay to use the term “niglet” to describe French’s daughter? Or subject his wife to a stream of pornographic and violent images?

    I should also add I am quite frankly offended by the notion that the mere observation of behavior is somehow tantamount to endorsement of it. Demanding that I defend these attacks is as utterly underhanded as my giving a bystander witness statement about a drunk-driver car crash then being yelled at by the family he hit and held accountable for his drinking.

    You were offering an explaination for the behavior of those on the alt-right. I want to know how your explaination of the source of their anger leads to racist comments and threats of violence.

    My answer is pretty simple: they are racist monsters.

    • #75
  16. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Jamie Lockett:

    skipsul:

    Jamie Lockett: Okay and what out of all of this makes it okay to use the term “niglet” to describe French’s daughter? Or subject his wife to a stream of pornographic and violent images?

    Jamie, you are again trying to twist an explanation into an excuse. Did I say what happened to French was right? Was moral? You asked why leftist tactics were in use on the far right. I explained. I did not excuse, I did not justify. Do not put words in my mouth on this.

    Appologies, I phrased this badly. You explained why they are angry, what part of your explaination necessitates racism on their part?

    The lunatic fringe of the right has a lot of racists in it, as does the lunatic left.  But the lefty racists are allowed to spew their bile in public, so the ones on the right feel justified in doing the same.  Lacking any viable mainstream outlet, they instead go after unsecured comment sections on websites, spam emails, etc.

    That French was able to deal with much of it through IP blocks suggests (albeit not conclusively) that a lot of it probably came from just a few sources.

    Take a look at the comments on Facebook, where NRO posted a link to the same article, much the same bile on display there too.

    • #76
  17. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    skipsul:

    Jamie Lockett:

    skipsul:

    Jamie Lockett: Okay and what out of all of this makes it okay to use the term “niglet” to describe French’s daughter? Or subject his wife to a stream of pornographic and violent images?

    Jamie, you are again trying to twist an explanation into an excuse. Did I say what happened to French was right? Was moral? You asked why leftist tactics were in use on the far right. I explained. I did not excuse, I did not justify. Do not put words in my mouth on this.

    Appologies, I phrased this badly. You explained why they are angry, what part of your explaination necessitates racism on their part?

    The lunatic fringe of the right has a lot of racists in it, as does the lunatic left. But the lefty racists are allowed to spew their bile in public, so the ones on the right feel justified in doing the same. Lacking any viable mainstream outlet, they instead go after unsecured comment sections on websites, spam emails, etc.

    That French was able to deal with much of it through IP blocks suggests (albeit not conclusively) that a lot of it probably came from just a few sources.

    Take a look at the comments on Facebook, where NRO posted a link to the same article, much the same bile on display there too.

    None of this explains why the Alt-Right has newfound legitimacy and power in this particular election cycle.

    • #77
  18. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    goldwaterwoman:There is no way anyone can possibly justify French’s treatment. However, it’s a bridge too far to call them Trump’s trolls. Trump is no more responsible for the crazies who support him than Hillary is for the crazies who support her. Both Clinton and Trump must have secret service protection and wear bullet-proof vests. Movie stars get threats from crazies who don’t like the roles they play. Many prominent people who aren’t even political are forced to have body guards for protection. There are horrible people all over the world, some of whom will even cut off your head in the name of religion. In this country we have laws against the type of thing that happened to French and others. The trick is to identify them and put them behind bars.

    The difference I think is that the right has long, and rightfully, condemned the race hucksterism of the left. This particular election cycle has revealed that many of the claims of those race hucksters about people on the right have some validity. There’s a reason why the Alt-Right is ascendant with the Trump candidacy – not because Trump is racist, but because he is so opportunistic that he refuses to disassociate himself from them. Heck the man running his campaign is the publisher of the pretty face of the Alt-Right, Brietbart.com

    • #78
  19. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Jamie Lockett: None of this explains why the Alt-Right has newfound legitimacy and power in this particular election cycle.

    OK, that’s a different issue though.  It’s one thing to say why something happened, it’s a different discussion on why it matters or what it means (one I’ll have to unpack later, though, as I’ve got to take care of things at home).

    • #79
  20. goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    Amy Schley: None of us knows everything, after all.

    I will certainly grant you that. My only justification in having never heard of the alt right is that I spend a lot of time on the internet reading news site like the NY Times, London Telegraph, LA Times and the Washington Post as well as Real Clear Politics and am usually fairly aware of what’s going on in the world.

    • #80
  21. goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    Jamie Lockett: Heck the man running his campaign is the publisher of the pretty face of the Alt-Right, Brietbart.com

    I seldom go to Brietbart since Andrew Brietbart died. Is the man running it now a racist for sure?  The racism cries didn’t  begin with this campaign. In fact, we’ve had more cries of racism since Obama became president than we have since the 60’s.

    • #81
  22. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    goldwaterwoman:

    Jamie Lockett: Heck the man running his campaign is the publisher of the pretty face of the Alt-Right, Brietbart.com

    I seldom go to Brietbart since Andrew Brietbart died. Is the man running it now a racist for sure? The racism cries didn’t begin with this campaign. In fact, we’ve had more cries of racism since Obama became president than we have since the 60’s.

    That’s not what I meant, but Brietbart has become more comfortable with the alt-right since he took over.

    • #82
  23. Douglas Inactive
    Douglas
    @Douglas

    Mike LaRoche:As soon as I hear the term “racist” brought up, I tune out. These days it simply has no meaning.

    Same thing with Nazi/National Socialst/Fascist. They’ve been thrown around so fast and haphazardly that they’ve lost any real meaning. We should replace the tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf with The Boy Who Cried Hitler.

    • #83
  24. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Douglas:

    Mike LaRoche:As soon as I hear the term “racist” brought up, I tune out. These days it simply has no meaning.

    Same thing with Nazi/National Socialst/Fascist. They’ve been thrown around so fast and haphazardly that they’ve lost any real meaning. We should replace the tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf with The Boy Who Cried Hitler.

    Did you read French’s piece?

    • #84
  25. Lily Bart Inactive
    Lily Bart
    @LilyBart
    • #85
  26. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Perhaps a post about how the Alt-Right have bombarded a man and his daughter with words like “niglet” is not the place to make your stand about the word racist losing all meaning.

    • #86
  27. Frank Soto Member
    Frank Soto
    @FrankSoto

    Jamie Lockett:Perhaps a post about how the Alt-Right have bombarded a man and his daughter with words like “niglet” is not the place to make your stand about the word racist losing all meaning.

    Really.  Going to assume they did not read the piece, as the alternative is grim.

    • #87
  28. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    No one should go through this on either side. Kids should not be threatened or scared. These are the tactics of the Mob.

    Republicans in power should act to stop these sorts of attacks. If we can find IP, we can find the people. Attackers like this on the left and right should be prosceuted.

    • #88
  29. Lily Bart Inactive
    Lily Bart
    @LilyBart

    Just to make myself clear:  I cannot condemn what was said and done to Mr. French, his family and the others cited in the linked piece strongly enough.   It was vile, disgusting and possibly illegal (?).

    But some here seem to want to condemn a group for the disgusting actions of individuals.  Condemn the guilty.   But make sure you’re not lashing out at others who don’t share the guilt in your own frustration and anger.

    A lot of people are angry and acting out, sometimes inappropriately as anger sometimes drives us to act in ways we are not proud of.  But I’m not sure I believe that most of the Trump ‘rowdies’ are participating in the behavior cited here.   There have been many Trump rallies, and this behavior doesn’t seem to be systemic among the group.  But I’m glad Mr. French has revealed what happened, so that others in this “Alt-Right” group can check their own behavior, and condemn those responsible, if they know any of them.

    But people like this have always existed.  The internet just gives them a vehicle for their hate.

    • #89
  30. Douglas Inactive
    Douglas
    @Douglas

    Jamie Lockett:

    Douglas:

    Mike LaRoche:As soon as I hear the term “racist” brought up, I tune out. These days it simply has no meaning.

    Same thing with Nazi/National Socialst/Fascist. They’ve been thrown around so fast and haphazardly that they’ve lost any real meaning. We should replace the tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf with The Boy Who Cried Hitler.

    Did you read French’s piece?

    What about it? The fact that some people were nasty to French doesn’t change what I said one bit: some people… a lot of them, actually…  have so gone off the deep end throwing words like Racist around that it’s lost it’s meaning.  Because someone was nasty to French doesn’t mean that I have to suddenly agree that Hitler is hiding behind every rock ready to fire the ovens back up.

    • #90
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