You haven’t met my neighbors.
Regards,
Shodan
Never attended a protest? Never witnessed a wrong, an injustice, that would move you to do so? Viet Nam war was perfectly OK with you? The Iraq War, no problem with any of that? Black people are just making shit up about the way the police treat them? No problem with any of that, but blocking traffic!
You got kids, love 'em? If you had to eat a spoonful of shit every day of your life, and you look at them and realize that will happen to them, sure as you’re born… What would you be willing to do? Maybe even block traffic?
I live in Minnesota. I am your neighbor.
From the end of your article:
I was going to ask if I missed an election but now I realize this is just a state Senator in Washington. Doubt this is going to go anywhere.
Yup. Barely a week out from the election, and already they’re testing the waters of public opinion on the internment of Muslims. “It would be legal to do it. We’ve done it before. Which was horrible, of course! But still, we want to do it, and this shows we could. Which would be good, somehow, even if that other thing we did in the past was horrible.”
Granted, this douchenozzle is “only” the spokesperson for a pro-Trump Super PAC, not actually directly connected to Trump. Still shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that at least some of these assholes already have the possibility squarely in mind.
Again, I’m not suggesting Trump is going to take office and start trying to round up Muslims the next day. While he’s probably stupid enough to try, those guiding him are not. They know there needs to be an inciting incident, so they will quietly start setting the stage to take action once one occurs – doing everything they can to continue poisoning the well of public opinion against Muslims, putting people who agree with their way of thinking in key positions, attacking laws that would stand in their way when the time comes.
Sooner or later in the next four years, they will get what they’re hoping for – some kind of domestic incident they can link, however tenuously, to “Radical Islamic Terrorism.” If it’s big and/or scary enough, they will seize on the ensuing panic and set their plans into motion – and it will happen very quickly, before the public has a chance to calm down.
Some people will undoubtedly speak out against this as it happens, and Trump’s ilk will be ready. Anyone else remember how anyone who protested or spoke out during the lead-up to Gulf War 2 was branded as cowardly and un-American? (“Of course we have proof that Sadam has WMDs! They wouldn’t go to war over nothing!”) That was during a period when the country was far less divided than it currently is, and it worked very well for the powers that be at the time.
Is this scenario outlandish? Sure. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen. We just elected Donald fucking Trump as President. He and his minions have promised – many times – that they will “register” Muslims and “round up illegals.” They WANT to do this. Given the rhetoric they’ve spewed since the election and the appointments Trump has already announced, they have every intention of doing it. The only thing standing in their way is the collective decency of the same country that was just stupid enough to vote them into office. Forgive me if my confidence in the ability of the American people to stand up for what’s right isn’t exactly overflowing at the moment.
Great! So, its just that one guy then? Whew! What a relief!
I’ve been to rallies and events before, some of them probably even labeled protests. I’ve never felt like smashing windows at a car dealership, or burning down a Little Caesars would be to anyone’s advantage or accomplish any of my goals.
Hell, these guys would find an excuse to round up Muslims after a Timothy McVeigh type bombing, or a takeover of federal lands by sovereign citizen types like Bundy’s gang.
Of course, it would only be for “muslim’s safety”. Riiiiight…
Neither have I. But I should stop, because of the risk that some asshole might take advantage? I’ll let that guy steal my right to protest? And the guy who says I should…that’s you?
And this?
That sounds kinda…flexible. The one’s I went to were protests, no ifs, ands, or buts. But the ones you went to, maybe sorta kinda would be “labeled” as protests. Doesn’t include Monster Truck Rallies on Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Just so you know.
It might just be conservatives’ aversion to the word “protest”, with its negative connotations of dirty hippies smashing windows.
Dr. Milgram would like a word with you.
It wasn’t the drop of a hat. It was the culmination of a prolonged campaign of ethnic hate mongering, with the final spark coming when the Rwandan president’s plane was shot down.
An untold number of civilians went from going to work and making dinner and tucking their kids in bed one day to hacking people to death the next. Ordinary people.
In the dark days, it was just us, yes. Then it was Methodist ministers, and teachers, and doctors, and carpenters. And then, veterans.
But not you.
Clearly, you’ve never eaten at Little Ceasars.
At least the pizzas were properly cooked.
In today’s NYTimes online:
The idea of registering Muslims is a violation of America’s liberal values. To be more inclusive the government should register all citizens from birth and track them using computer chips. Just to be safe.
You never noticed that tiny scar on your right temple?
Citizen Unit running coach has malfunctioned. Reboot, and download corrected personality. You have fifteen seconds to comply.
The people did not support this. The dumbass electoral system does.
Unfortunately, the prophecies seem to be true.
In this book, the author said that one factor is that Rwandans are taught from infancy to never question authority, so when TPTB announced that the Tutsis were cockroaches who needed to be killed, they were, and that was that.
Similar unquestioning deference to authority led to this tragedy. The kids were told to stay below deck until they were instructed to leave; those who defied that order were rescued and the ones who didn’t drowned.