Last week I saw that a family friend ‘liked' a graphic a conservative FB warrior posted calling the ‘Democrat Party’ a hate group. Oh really.
I have written before about my disdain for these ‘Facebook warriors.’ I don’t like that site as a venue for debate, I don’t like it as a venue for the sharing of these pissy viewpoints, for the cowardly wilding hordes, I don’t like it for its callous treatment of facts. As a general rule I don’t engage there, mostly because I don’t think it is a good use of political energy. There are places where its application is very productive, places where it is not productive and places where it is counterproductive. I think it is almost never productive there, and I think it is often counter-productive.
That does not mean I am unwilling to debate ideas that appear there.
More below.
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board.
Here is the graphic in question.
Right?!
I know, for such a short piece of shit it’s hard to know where to start. (Absolutely that’s by design, courtesy of the tr0lls who created it.) Right away one has to question the idea of success. Certainly this last election did not reflect that.
We all know the trend that graphic represents. It is sophisticated on the order of ‘I know you are, but what am I?’ Because of its phobia about the hate label attached so rightfully to their movement. Proliferation of reflecting back labels of hatred and racism are commonplace for them, while they do NOTHING to invalidate the criticisms within their own circles. Nothing to counter the racist, hate-filled practices and initiatives, nothing to repudiate KNOWN hate groups and their support. They do nothing to try to understand what a hate group even is.
Per wikipedia:
A hate group is an organized group or movement that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other designated sector of society. According to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a hate group's "primary purpose is to promote animosity, hostility, and malice against persons belonging to a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin which differs from that of the members of the organization."
By no standard does the Democratic Party meet that definition. We simply do NOT advocate or practice hatred, hostility and violence. That is not to say that no Democrat ever does or ever has. We are not perfect as human beings. But as a party, those things have never been true, and I believe (and INTEND!) that they never will be true. Our primary purpose has never been to promote animosity or malice toward any race, to any religion, to any disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity, not LEAST because our party is so diverse already. Because we consciously and intentionally support minorities and outgroups, victims of discrimination.
I can’t say that our party does not sometimes contain people who hate, but in almost every case (in every case that I know of) the hatred those people carry is a reaction to hatred already laid upon them. The hatred doesn’t originate with them, it is a response. I’m not defending it, but neither do I experience the discrimination and obstacles and vicious treatment that they do. This is not a chicken or the egg thing. For example, our LGBT brothers and sisters never chose hatred, they never chose to discriminate against others. They asked solely to pursue what the Declaration of Independence promised as an ‘inalienable right:’
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
Nothing more. Nowhere in their lives, in their hope for liberty, in their pursuit of happiness is the idea of being hated, of being targeted, of being discriminated against, of being attacked. The exact same is true for our brothers and sisters of color, and for women. There are entrenched elements in our society dedicated to denying them those rights, yes, even the right to LIFE. With very few exceptions, those elements vote Republican. Those elements are validated, encouraged and reinforced by Republicans. They are SOLICITED by Republicans. They are welcome under their umbrella.
Yet even for those on ‘our’ side who do experience hate within themselves, our party does not encourage that hatred, it does not feed it, much less feed OFF it. It does not endorse violence, it does not endorse hate speech. In fact, our Party decries violence as a path for expressing hatred, as a path for expressing dissent.
And anyone with ANY sense of reality understands that. Which tells you just how far off the rails the Republican Party has taken them. For one purpose: POLITICAL ADVANTAGE.
As for co-opting journalists … please tell me who?! If there are many, then why is it that only Christiane Amanpour seems to be an outlier?!!! (And perhaps Dan Rather. That makes two.)
As she wrote in her editorial on Wednesday:
We cannot continue the old paradigm -- let's say like over global warming -- where 99.9% of the empirical scientific evidence is given equal play with the tiny minority of deniers.
I learned long ago, covering the ethnic cleansing and genocide in Bosnia, never to equate victim with aggressor, never to create a false moral or factual equivalence, because then you are an accomplice to the most unspeakable crimes and consequences.
I believe in being truthful, not neutral. And I believe we must stop banalizing the truth.
And we have to be prepared to fight especially hard for the truth in a world where the Oxford English Dictionary just announced its word of 2016: "post-truth."
First, BLESS YOU, Christiane Amanpour! Exceptionally well said!
For isn’t that what those ‘liking’ the above graphic do? Equate victim with aggressor?! Create false moral AND factual equivalence?!
What other journalist even uses the term ‘false equivalence?!’ They avoid it like the plague, lest it be perceived as the confession it actually is. I can’t remember the last time I heard a journalist use it. Can you?
The Democratic Party is not and never will be a hate group. I understand that intellectual cowards wish it so, but it simply isn’t. A huge percentage of our energy is devoted to working with and supporting VICTIMS of hate groups. And the percentage needs to be higher still. As does the success quotient, that distresses us all so much these days.
On to tonight’s comments! Formatted by brillig!
TOP COMMENTS
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down. Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From John M Webb:
LeftLeaner dropped this bit of knowledge on why we read the comments here in the Wreck List post by James Protzman. I would hate to see the Rule for Internet Sanity extend to my beloved DK.
From Angela Marx:
This comment by Rashaverak in this story by Walter Einenkel because I'm a punster and love puns. This one is particularly good, considering the story it was spotted in.
From TrueBlueMajority:
This comment by Rosencrantz. Angry racists have been holding in their hate with their teeth clenched. Drumpf's election makes them feel they no longer have to censor themselves.
Frankly, I'm always glad when people say up front who they are. I can deal with openly expressed hatred better than someone (unsuccessfully) trying to paper it over.
Highlighted by Onomastic:
Was this thread between Onomastic and JoanMar, that I liked because it was such sweet, fine sharing between friends.
Top Mojo for yesterday, November 27th, 2016, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
Top Pictures for yesterday, November 27th, 2016. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!