Yes.
Who cares?
I’m sure the Nazis said all the same thing we did. I’m glad we smashed them and killed them.
Pfffaw. You need an ED-209.
Next time we overcome racial supremacist and fascists, let’s try crushing the fuck out of them. No more bringing back together for unity’s sake, no more treating like a respected adversary, no more making them into an ally of convenience against the next threat. Smash them. Tell them they are not Americans. Tell them the “way of life” they “defended” deserved to perish.
And, I must say, masterful whooshing indeed, Smapti.
You should care. You should if you think you can fight them without understanding them, because you won’t win that way. Know your enemy. They’re going to be fighting just as hard as you, harder maybe. Be prepared. To them, they have the moral right of it, so there’s no reason to hold back. Remember: they think they are about to be ‘wiped out’. Be prepared, or don’t bother.
And remember: the more people they get on their side, the more they will have the right of it, in their minds. There’s strength in numbers, as the saying goes.
ETA: Aye; gotta give some props to Smapti eh.
But what does that have to do with what either of them said? Neither said “we don’t need to understand them.” Obviously we must understand our enemy to fight them.
It seems your problem is with declaring this a fight of good vs. evil. But what does that have to do with the rest of your post? Understanding evil doesn’t make it less evil. Understanding why people turn to evil doesn’t make it less evil.
We still have to fight to defeat evil. The fact that other side considers us to be evil and may fight harder is only more reason we must fight. Understanding people doesn’t win battles on its own. I wish it did.
No, but it helps come up with winning strategies. Know thyself, know thy enemy, know the field of battle, Hulk Smash.
In retrospect, I missed “we need to unite and move on”, “let the families grieve privately”, “gun control wouldn’t have prevented this”, “God works in mysterious ways”, and several other Very Important Platitudes that are ritualistically uttered by people who want to avoid discussing the problem.
Nah, your post was perfect as it was.
:: Prayers for America ::
My new favorite: “We need to speed up the Death Penalty!”
Also, “#PittsburghStrong”.
It does, but more than that, I don’t think y’all understand the depth of commitment that a lot of people are going to display here. They think they’re about to get ‘wiped out’, ‘taken over’, ‘overrun’… they think this is imminent. And they know that they’re right: they are God’s chosen people.
When you see a group of 30 people beating up on 2 or 3 others, what are you prepared to do?* I think people should stat asking themselves questions like this now, before it happens.
Look, I’m not quite as vocal about it all as asahi, but I’ve said before: I don’t think he’s wrong.
*ETA: Royal you, not you, Nava; you’re cool.
I know Las Vegas stands with Pittsburgh. Stay strong, brothers & sisters.
Now that we’ve thoroughly parodied the platitudes that get thrown around as a way of avoiding talk of actually doing anything to prevent the next such incident, my favorite not-so-platitude is courtesy of Mother Jones (the actual person, not the periodical/website):
Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.
The killer’s “screw your optics, I’m going in” may have been a reference to this:
Three weeks ago, Rudy Giuliani retweeted a tweet that said, “Follow the money. I think Soros is the anti-Christ! He must go! Freeze his assets & I bet the protests stop”
The Guardian has an article here.
The Guardian reports more nastiness in the same vein.
As regards his politics:
The guy seems like a serious nutjob.
In less than 3 hours I have to drop my 10 year old off at Hebrew school. At a synagogue that occupies the same kind of position as the Tree of Life. In the same kind of neighbourhood as Squirrel Hill.
We’re in Canada, but Trump’s rhetoric leaks up here too. The number three candidate in the Toronto mayoral race was Faith Goldy, a known white supremacist and anti-Semite. She only won 4% of the vote, but that means that of every 25 people I walk past as least one harbours these kinds of views.
I shouldn’t have to explain to a 10 year old that people hate her because of her ancestors.
That’s just a pretext: it’s because she’s different. It applies to race. It applies to sex. It applies to skin colour. It applies to politics. It applies to sexuality. It applies to intellect. And so on. If you’re different, there’ll be a group of people who hate you.