CSotD: Lies, errors and other forms of sabotage
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Juxtaposition of the Day
(Tom Toro, June 2012)
And let me add that those who pretend to study history talk about the riots of 1968 in terms of the tumultuous demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention that summer.
Which were not riots except in the sense of “police riots,” stirred up by Mayor Daley who explained it with one of the most memorable Freudian slips in modern politics:
But Hizzoner had a less amusing role in the actual riots of that year, which came about in the wake of the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., when he famously ordered his police to “shoot to kill” anyone attempting arson and “shoot to maim” looters.
It’s not so much an issue of the importance of stopping such actions, but, rather, of announcing in advance a policy that allows police to push the limits, and, well outside that particular event, Daley’s police force already had carte blanche to suppress “hippies” and Negroes and other disruptive types.
Which brings us to the current day, and a leader who, instead of attempting to bring resolution to a crisis, says this:
MAGA is making America great again. By the way. They love African American people. They love the black people.
We should be glad he has finally unmasked the fact that his Deplorables are, by intent and design, white. And his statement reminds me of a joke that I am 99% sure is from Dick Gregory:
I love negroes. My family always owned several.
Which also puts me in mind of a related quote from Uncle Remus about white trash (his phrase, not mine):
Dey allers did hate niggers kase dey ain’t had none, en dey hates um down ter dis day.
Anyway, stop talking about the riots of 1968, because the “Long Hot Summer” riots were in Newark and Detroit and across America the year before and the “Burn Baby Burn” riots were in Watts in 1965, and you should learn your history before you open your mouth and spread your ignorance.
And Robert Ariail is correct that Facebook and Twitter are spreading manure at a rate we’ve never seen before.
It’s not just individuals repeating and retweeting and sharing unchecked misinformation, though that’s a huge factor right now.
Our on-line news culture makes news organizations and politicians so eager to be first with the facts that fact-checking becomes secondary if it happens at all.
For instance, the Mayor of Minneapolis was quick to announce that the most destructive rioters were from out of state.
It did sound like an old-line segregationist grousing about “outside agitators” back in the Sixties, and Channel 11 didn’t simply trust the announcement. They pulled up the arrest records and checked it out:
Meanwhile, the head MAGAt provided his own unproven theory of reality and justice:
He’s wrong about the DC Police — they were there assisting at the White House.
But he burnished his credits with his Deplorables by citing the use of “vicious dogs” to keep undesirables under control, like they did in the good old days.
In case you ever wondered what Make America Great Again meant, the gloves are now off.
And Adam Zyglis is correct that, however much @jack may pride himself for having finally stood up to Dear Leader, correcting one presidential misstatement and masking another, he is bailing water with a pitchfork.
While across the street, as Michael de Adder pictures it, Mark Zuckerberg is fiddling away, pocketing billions while the world burns around him.
Zuck even had the gall to criticize Twitter for reining in the lies and distortions, though you should look beyond that to see what is really going on: Zuckerberg had dinner with Trump, along with one of Facebook’s directors, a Trump supporter who happened to fund the lawsuit that shut down Gawker.
Zuckerberg wouldn’t disclose what was discussed, claiming it was a “private” meeting, an asinine concept which could signal arrogance or ignorance but is, either way, a betrayal of the public interest.
While, as Bill Bramhall says, a President who fails to be frank and honest with the public is doing a great deal more than simply picking a fight with a social media platform.
And, as noted here before, Nixon and LBJ were both deeply disturbed when demonstrators confronted them in front of the White House. But the above Tweet indicates that Trump was only concerned about his personal safety, not the content of the protest.
And, as David Rowe suggests, he sees the riots as a handy distraction from his grotesque mishandling of the coronavirus crisis.
But let’s not risk dislocating our shoulders by patting ourselves on the back: This video of a man breaking windows at an Auto Zone led to his “identification” on social media not simply as a police officer but as a specific person, named and shamed by Facebook vigilantes.
Except that, according to the St. Paul police, the man named was on duty and in the company of several other officers, which would be an airtight alibi except that people who get very upset if you refer to them as “social justice warriors” insist that police lie and so obviously the cops are wrong and they’re right.
The SJW crowd insists the provocateurs are police plants and the White House insists that they are Antifa and all we really know is that they are from out of state.
Only now we know they aren’t, but don’t count on that documented fact gaining a toehold in this hurricane of unverified, cocksure rumors.
Meanwhile, police departments around the nation are calling for responsible action by their colleagues, while peaceful protesters wonder, as always, why the squeaking wheel gets the coverage.
Certainly, however, no newscast ever reported the number of people who weren’t murdered that day or the number of buildings that didn’t catch fire or the number of airliners that landed safely at their destinations.
Still, a little context might be nice.
If nothing else, we might see fewer wannabes and riot groupies drawn to the streets.
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