Re: Charlottesville

[luzribeiro]

Yeah. It had to boil over at some point. And now people are asking themselves, what went wrong? And also, will white pastors finally take racism seriously? I mean the one they've been preaching from the pulpit?

Ultimately, church or no church, white or black congregations, none of that matters to Trump. His "brand" is all about sticking it to the other guy. He is like a shark; no morals, no ethics, no rules that apply to him.

Actually, it doesn't take a palm reader to see into the Trumpian future: since he takes such delight in vanquishing his foes, once he, at least in his mind, has vanquished the liberal crowd who have tried to enact and enforce regulations on Trump, he will need another enemy. He's already shown he is more than ready to go after the likes of McCain and McConnell, so the rest of the moderate GOP will be in his crosshairs. After that, he'll still need to be the hawk looking for a field mouse, so his own supporters are next.

When he "eats his own" that surely will be his downfall. It will be quite the show when the Trumpist crowd realizes what a tiger they've had by the tail.

Comments

[garote]

Sure, but, will that happen in 4 years? 8? That'll be just enough time anyway then.

[johnny9fingers]

I think white nationalism isn't really very much to do with the Churches in America apart from a very small sub-set. If you look at the comments about dating apps, I believe Grindr has few church-goers, and white racism appears to be pretty prevalent there too. Media led, internet led, networked and marketed as hard as possible. The Neo-Nazi websites talked about the future being young people, therefore college campuses too. In this sense it is unlike radical Islam, which is nurtured to some extent in the places of worship. The Pastors and Preachers and Reverends who have personal racist views I'm sure don't hold back, but the structural underpinning is the internet and media. It's partly how you frame the question, as we know from that perfect "Yes Minister" episode.

The rise of the Far Right began with the withering away of the Klan (and it's various associates) when the disaffected white racists no longer had a popular focus. But Timothy McVeigh provides a marking post proving this isn't just some new thing. What has changed is the way funding and support can come from across the web, and other interesting facts of web-manipulation which mean that according to todays Guardian:

"However viewers of Peterson’s videos arrived at his YouTube channel, research by the Guardian suggests they can quickly be pulled into alarming content.

Within just a few clicks of supposedly “related” content, a viewer watching a [Professor Jordan] Peterson lecture can end up on a video entitled “How Savage Are Blacks In America & Why Is Everyone Afraid To Discuss It?”"*

Now I'm not going to accuse the internet of being systemically racist... But algorithms are written by people. It has taken me quite a long time to realise the extent of racism inherent and embedded in our culture, even when individuals aren't necessarily racist at all. How to manage the Neo-Nazis into civilisation is a big question, but it has to be done. Because, alas, they are people too, and in America, too big a minority to merely sideline, ignore, or use police brutality to keep in check. Besides which the police all ready have their hands full in shooting and oppressing other folk of significantly less criminality.

* https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/13/james-damore-google-memo-youtube-white-men-radicalization

[nairiporter]

This was a natural consequence of all the words of actions the Divider In Chief has done until now.

[johnny9fingers]

More on this.

In Blighty we have an establishment church which is anti-racist, anti-sexist and actually quite decent.

We also have Roops. And the Sun. And Rothermere and the Daily Mail, and the Barclays and the Telegraph.

Guess which group,are doing most to demonise minorities?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/15/tabloid-hate-sun-advertisers-trevor-kavanagh

[luzribeiro]

Once more, the invisible hand of the free and infallible market steps in to sort things out!

[johnny9fingers]

Alas, it's taken over 50 years to rein in Roops gutter-tabloid, and even then only in Liverpool after the Sun insulted every Liverpudlian, and told blatant and egregious lies about the victims of Hillsborough.

Any boycott by advertisers would be welcome, but still insufficient.

[johnny9fingers]

Well, I stand corrected.

Some Pastors and Preachers, some Black Pastors and Preachers too, really support Trump no matter what.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/18/donald-trump-evangelicals-charlottesville

Good ol' Christians, hey. [Vomits into mouth.]