This diary refers to this incident.
The GOP trolls are at it again, this time with another one of their favorite logical fallacies: "No true scotsman"
How else could the GOP hecklers defend one of their own? They would like for all of us to doubt that a "real RNC attendee" carried out this cruel act, despite all of the nastiness against African Americans from Republican talking points and Tea Party types this year. I formulated a response to this line of attack on Politico.
Follow me after the orange hair of doom for more.
GOP trolls are using the "no true scotsman" logcial fallacy to try to sow doubt about this incident. They want you to think that "no TRUE Republican would ever do this," therefore, they will spend hundreds of posts harping on some "plants" or "infiltrators" or anything else they can find to raise doubt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
"No true scotsman" is NOT a valid defense against these allegations, for a few reasons:
1. It is nearly impossible to get into one of these conventions unless you have a Republican party affiliation, are an active member of a local Republican community, or have put in hours volunteering for the party. No "liberal" plant is going to spend time aiding their opponents just for a stunt like this. This kind of stunt would have happened OUTSIDE of the convention, where no pass was requi
red, if a plant was going to do it.
2. No liberal would do anything like this, because the potential consequences over being discovered far outweigh the media coverage from a successful operation.
3. Republican rhetoric against black people has ramped up in recent months.
a. Rick Santorum's "blah" people gaffe.
b. Mitt Romney's misleading anti-Welfare reform ad perpetuates the "welfare queen" racial stereotype.
c. Tea Party groups and other anti-Obama organizations have been found using imagery to threaten the President, and slogans like "Don't re-nig." The Souther Poverty Law Center has listed some of these groups as "hate groups" for the extremity of their rhetoric.
d. The KKK in NC has resurged in the last few months. There was a large KKK rally held recently in western NC. I'm sure other states have similar incidences.
e. Laws passed in multiple states by GOP legislatures have been designed to make it more difficult for minorities to vote, thanks to a Voter ID requirement that amounts to a modern-day poll tax on poor citizens. A Republican aide said that the Voter ID and other voter suppression laws were designed to "weaken the Democratic... read African-American... voter base" despite the official party line about countering "fraud," of which there have been nearly 0 cases in recent years.
The trolls also want to use a "straw man" logical fallacy, trying to pull in some false equivalency by harping about the racist Democrats before the Civil Rights era caused all of the racists to switch to the Republican party. Look at your history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Look at the totals by party. Democrats, especially in the north, voted FOR the Civil Rights Act. Both parties voted for the act. If you want to see a difference in voting, look at how politicians in the South voted compared to the north:
The original House version:
Southern Democrats: 7–87 (7–93%).
Southern Republicans: 0–10 (0–100%).
Northern Democrats: 145–9 (94–6%).
Northern Republicans: 138–24 (85–15%).
The Senate version:
Southern Democrats: 1–20 (5–95%).
Southern Republicans: 0–1 (0–100%).
Northern Democrats: 45–1 (98–2%).
Northern Republicans: 27–5 (84–16%).
0% of Republicans in the South voted for the Civil Rights Act. At least a few Southern Democrats voted the correct way. Regardless of the numbers above, the fact is that the actions of some GOP members are racist NOW, while Democrats are for equality and Civil Rights NOW.
But that is beside the point. When GOP trolls bring up these two points, YOU ARE WINNING! You are winning because there IS no logical defense of the racist actions that took place at the RNC, and the implication that they bring to the party. If the GOP trolls were smart they would condemn the person who did the action instead of trying to shift blame and promise to reign in the other supporters. Maybe offer an official apology or some sympathy to the CNN employee.
What you will see instead is another onslaught of ad hominem attacks and attempts to change the subject to focus on attacking the President, because these people cannot fathom the fact that an African-American President is one of the best US Presidents that we have ever had, and will continue to have for four more years!
********
I was thinking, we are getting to a critical mass in the number of racist statements, "dog whistles," and other offensive things that the GOP has done against African Americans in this election. It is hard for me to keep track of every specific incident, much less the general public. We follow the political blogs and news on a daily basis, but average Joe voter is not gonna be able to catch all of these "moments" and see that this kind of hate is indeed endemic to the majority of the party.
Is there a website, Facebook group, or other medium that is compiling all of these incidents in one place? DailyKOS is great for in depth analysis of the latest gaffes, but from what I can tell there is no way to have an easy to use list that rattles off "on day x Rick Santorum said 'blah people', on day Y this rep said 'this', etc." Anyone that wanted the full "narrative" of GOP racism would have to dig through a lot of past diaries to get the full rundown on these incidents.
If we can compile these onto a website or Facebook, then we can create PDF handouts showing ALL of these cases at once and really drive the point home. It is easy for GOP trolls to throw out logical fallacies or other nonsense to fight one of these at a time, but ALL of them at once? Anyone who wasn't completely brainwashed would "see the emperor for what he is" which might disgust moderate Republicans enough to jump ship and vote Libertarian or Constitution (I count that as a victory, since a Libertarian vote is a vote lost for Romney!)
So here's the plan:
1. Lets compile a list of the racist/dog whistle statements that have been said by the GOP in the last year. We will dig through old diaries to find the ones that document these statements.
2. Get the list of YouTube links, diary links, and news articles that document these statements.
3. Figure out what would be the most effective way to disseminate this compilation to voters (I'm thinking of a PDF + website combo)
4. Get the PDFs, links, or other forms of this reference to our local OFA offices. That way OFA operatives and volunteers will have this list when making persuasion calls or doing canvasing for the President.
5. Get the website or Facebook group advertised. Make the link easy to spread. Spread the info amongst Facebook friends.
1:18 PM PT: Mike Conwell has an excellent database of violence perpetrated by Conservatives up on a Google Fusion Table. We could definitely keep a database similar to this one with the racist statements as well.
https://www.google.com/...