Matt Shea

[Czarcasm]

@HurricaneDitka

If we’re going to start judging people for using insults, the SDMB is full of troubled fellows, as is much of the rest of the world.

Look, I don’t know Matt Shea, so perhaps it’s possible that he’s secretly plotting a coup and wants to install a theocracy. I’m skeptical though, and obviously-slanted reporting like the article from the OP does more to convince me that the reporter, and those who share his perspective, are more akin to Chicken Little than about Matt Shea’s sinister intentions.

What actual evidence do you have that the article is slanted?
Edited to add: This isn’t a Trump Rally, so you might have to do a bit more than declare it to be “fake news”.

[HurricaneDitka]

@Czarcasm

What actual evidence do you have that the article is slanted?

It quotes SPLC, for starters.

[Czarcasm]

@HurricaneDitka

It quotes SPLC, for starters.

So what? Got anything else, or is that your entire argument?

[Czarcasm]

I don’t think think anyone comparing a racist paramilitary group to the Boy Scouts has a leg to stand on when it comes to complaining about slanted reporting.

[HurricaneDitka]

@Czarcasm

So what? …

The SPLC publishes false information. You may have heard about how they had to pay out millions of dollars last year in a settlement for falsely labeling someone an anti-Muslim extremist. They aren’t an honest broker. They’re biased, and they’ve been busted for it.

[HurricaneDitka]

@Czarcasm

I don’t think think anyone comparing a racist paramilitary group to the Boy Scouts has a leg to stand on when it comes to complaining about slanted reporting.

I’m here on the SDMB sharing my own opinions on things. I’m not a reporter pretending to write a straight news piece for the paper. See the difference?

ETA: perusing this particular reporter’s previous work shows a pretty clear bias against Republicans / conservatives / right-wingers.

[wguy123]

@HurricaneDitka

I’m here on the SDMB sharing my own opinions on things. I’m not a reporter pretending to write a straight news piece for the paper. See the difference?

ETA: perusing this particular reporter’s previous work shows a pretty clear bias against Republicans / conservatives / right-wingers.

How about the article linked to in post 13?

[Czarcasm]

@HurricaneDitka

I’m here on the SDMB sharing my own opinions on things. I’m not a reporter pretending to write a straight news piece for the paper. See the difference?

ETA: perusing this particular reporter’s previous work shows a pretty clear bias against Republicans / conservatives / right-wingers.

Bias against? He might be biased against criminal behaviour…but shouldn’t he be?

[HurricaneDitka]

@Czarcasm

Bias against? He might be biased against criminal behaviour…but shouldn’t he be?

Try reading the post you quoted. I said exactly who I felt his bias was against there.

Is Matt Shea engaged in “criminal behaviour”? Is Team Rugged?

[wguy123]

@HurricaneDitka

Try reading the post you quoted. I said exactly who I felt his bias was against there.

Is Matt Shea engaged in “criminal behaviour”?

Yes: Legislator pulled gun during road incident | The Spokesman-Review

[HurricaneDitka]

@wguy123

How about the article linked to in post 13?

Yeah, that one quotes SPLC too, so you can probably imagine how I feel about it.

[Czarcasm]

@HurricaneDitka

Yeah, that one quotes SPLC too, so you can probably imagine how I feel about it.

Like you have an excuse to not talk about criminal and/or subversive acts?

[HurricaneDitka]

@wguy123

Yes: Legislator pulled gun during road incident | The Spokesman-Review

One dismissed charge from seven years ago? That has nothing to do with the OP or subject at hand? That’s what you’re going to hang your hat on? Alrighty then. Did someone at Team Rugged get a traffic ticket once too?

[HurricaneDitka]

@Czarcasm

Like you have an excuse to not talk about criminal and/or subversive acts?

We can talk about it, but it’s going to be a conversation along the lines of if someone had posted some Media Matters press release. Sure, we can discuss the subject, but let’s not pretend nor delude ourselves that the source doesn’t have an angle here.

[wguy123]

@HurricaneDitka

One dismissed charge from seven years ago? That has nothing to do with the OP or subject at hand? That’s what you’re going to hang your hat on? Alrighty then. Did someone at Team Rugged get a traffic ticket once too?

This is a thread about Matt Shea. I didn’t know the OP stipulated time limits on his discussion of Matt Shea. Thanks for setting me straight.

[HurricaneDitka]

@wguy123

This is a thread about Matt Shea. I didn’t know the OP stipulated time limits on his discussion of Matt Shea. Thanks for setting me straight.

Fair enough. One dismissed charge from seven years ago. Is that the extent of Matt Shea’s “criminal behaviour”? Or is there something else you’d like to present for our consideration?

[Skywatcher]

Speaking of Media Matters, look what Google found:

[Alliance Defending Freedom] allied attorney Matt Shea has served as Washington state representative for over a decade, and he touts his ties to ADF in both his campaign and government biographies. Shea is also a co-founder of the Washington Family Foundation, which is an anti-LGBTQ organization that later merged with the Family Policy Institute of Washington. The group is affiliated with the Family Policy Alliance and extreme anti-LGBTQ group Family Research Council. During his 2018 reelection campaign, Shea acknowledged that “he had distributed a four-page manifesto titled ‘Biblical Basis for War,’” which included violent language about people who flout “biblical law,” stating, “If they do not yield - kill all males.” It also condemned abortion and same-sex marriage. As a state representative, Shea has voted against multiple bills promoting LGBTQ equality, and he sponsored several anti-LGBTQ bills, including one defining marriage as between a man and a woman and another that would limit access for transgender people to facilities consistent with their gender identity. His extreme views expand beyond anti-LGBTQ rhetoric; Shea also has a history of working with anti-Muslim and militia groups.

[Guest-starring_Id]

@HurricaneDitka

Half the guys I know have played around with paintball, airsoft, or BB guns like this, mostly in our youth. But the reporter sure tries hard to string it all together into something sinister-sounding. I guess he lost me when he started quoting SPLC and not in jest.

Basically, I think the Guardian is mostly yanking libs’ chains. Have fun with that, I guess.

Were your paintball/airsoft/BB gun bros all hot for the biblical warfare thing?
If you can put aside your “oh-noes! Evil SPLC!!1!” pearl-clutching for a sec, was there anything specific about the SPLC in the article that you took issue with?
The Guardian is yanking our (not you) chains?

[asahi]

@HurricaneDitka

One dismissed charge from seven years ago? That has nothing to do with the OP or subject at hand? That’s what you’re going to hang your hat on? Alrighty then. Did someone at Team Rugged get a traffic ticket once too?

Whether Shea is a convicted felon or not, he has a history of very disturbing behavior that extends beyond just edgy political rhetoric.

Divorced candidate promotes family values

She said Shea insisted she walk on his left side because his sword, if he had one, would be on his right side. He said he knows nothing about that, but as a courtesy would walk between her and traffic.

Lisa Shea’s brother-in-law, Tino P. Vargas, swore in court documents that he saw Matt Shea yell at his wife, grab her arm “very hard and violently” and push her into a vehicle.

Lisa Shea said she moved out of the family home in fear, and a judge granted her a protection order.

Granted, it’s not a conviction. And granted, his road rage incident was conditionally dismissed, but the point, Ditka, is that the rhetoric, the violent language in his manifestos, his “civic” activities…are consistent with other allegations of violent behavior.

The rest of us need not prove violence in a court of law to conclude that someone is a violent person. Osama Bin Laden, as far as we know, didn’t personally engage in violence against the United States, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t deal in violence. He promoted it. He paid for it. He had a violent mind and spirit. And so do people like Matt Shea.

[Chronos]

By Shea’s own words, the purpose of his camp is to train kids to kill people. Boy Scout camps do not do that. Terrorists do. You know all of those “terrorist training camps” that right wingers are always up in arms about? This is one of them.