To hear some tell it, you’d think we were one step away from being 1905 Alabama again, which is ridiculous. The occasion of this thread is a rather polemical AP opinion piece making the rounds, “2 Trials, 1 Theme: White Men Taking Law Into Their Own Hands”. Frankly I see this as another example of Derangement Syndrome, of which there are plenty on both the left and the right of the political spectrum.
Coming from another thread, I immediately feared the San Diego Padres were bringing back their old uniforms.
As for polemics, especially the more insane varieties (got a link to what you’re referring to?), I focus instead on cultivating my garden
Here, I think:
One quote that stands out:
After some difficulty finding a non-crappy link, <ninja’d>
? I read that article, and I don’t see where it’s arguing that we’re “one step away from being 1905 Alabama again”. Nor do I see what you consider “deranged” about it.
It seems to me like a pretty bog-standard overview of the historical roots and persistent influence of white-supremacist vigilantism in the US. What specifically did you think was alarmist or “polemical” or “deranged” in the article?
I hear similar things whenever I hear about private groups organizing book-burnings.
And I always think about a quote from Blue Oyster Cult’s Eric Bloom, regarding record-burnings in the 1970s and 1980s: “We don’t care what people do with our albums, as long as they pay for them.”
Twenty-five years ago it was unthinkable to me that millions of Americans would either ignore or outright approve of a mob breaking into the capitol in an effort to support a would-be tyrant who lost the election. While I acknowledge there are deranged individuals on the left, at this moment I’m concerned with the ones on the right who have demonstrated that they have no scruples.
I don’t see any “derangement syndrome” here. What I see is two trials of murderous white vigilantes that concluded about a week apart. In one of them, the vigilante got away with it and became a right-wing hero; in the other case, a trio of vigilantes very, very nearly got away with it – in fact, they very nearly succeeded in never getting charged at all.
The Jan 6 insurrection is a whole other story, but not a happy one, either.
Confused me too. I wondered if someone had confused U-Day with Alliance Day. I was muttering to myself that last week was gorram Alliance Day, U-day happens in September.
Twenty three years ago at the Neighborhood Watch organization meeting, the Liaison Officer and the Neighborhood Leader had the following exchange:
NL: When exactly do we start an alert to report something suspicious. Does a crime need to be in progress.
LO: No. If you see someone who doesn’t belong in the neighborhood you should alert people.
NL: What do you mean “doesn’t belong”?
LO: Someone who doesn’t live here and isn’t visiting someone who does.
NL: There are 240 houses, we can’t possibly know everyone who lives here, never mind all their possible visitors.
LO: You know the kind of people who don’t belong in the neighborhood.
NL: I think we get that you are saying something you can’t say.
The Neighborhood Watch was never instituted. With a large proportion of the neighborhood being gun owners, and a very low crime rate, it was an accident waiting to happen. At the time the neighborhood was something like 85% non-Hispanic white, 10% Asian and a handful of Hispanic and Black families. Mostly middle class to upper middle class, professionals. The fear was that some innocent black teenager would be shot by a panicked homeowner or a misinformed cop.
The Liaison Officer also advised anyone shooting an intruder to make sure he was dead. “Then you only have one side of the story. It’s your house, you’re presumed to be justified. Don’t leave any opportunity for that presumption to be challenged”
Based on the behavior of my neighbors and the local police during the BLM protests last year, I would expect that in a similar meeting now, the cop would be cheered, not challenged.
We almost re-elected a president who openly praised nazis and the klan, there are videos posted regularly of white police officers blatantly harassing and even murdering black people, and the GOP is successfully implementing voter suppression measures on black communities and the OP has the temerity to suggest that concern over the state of affairs is hyperbolic panic? I think that the greatest ally the fascists have is the comfortable white who tells himself there nothing to worry about.
…not to mention those zany ne’er-do-wells who were going to kidnap and murder the gov of Michigan and various death threats against anyone who was simply doing their jobs and promoting truth and reality.