# Unite the Right Racist Scum **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 12, 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471 "2017-08-12T22:19:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 41
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/801 "2017-08-18T20:49:18Z")
I’m okay being a self-aware bot. Bot power! ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/802 "2017-08-18T20:54:15Z")
You humans had your chance. Bender in 2020. Death to all humans. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/803 "2017-08-18T20:58:17Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > You humans had your chance. > > Bender in 2020. > > Death to all humans. We have a great [starting pitcher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corey_Kluber) for our Bot Overlord Baseball Team, too. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/804 "2017-08-18T22:33:56Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > If the universe is s simulation, how do you know that you aren’t also a bot that just thinks that it is self aware? If the universe is a simulation, that makes most “other people” NPCs, surely? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/805 "2017-08-18T22:35:50Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > If the universe is a simulation, that makes most “other people” NPCs, surely? Lol. “No, _you’re_ an NPC!” 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/806 "2017-08-18T22:54:40Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > He said, ‘‘I knew they were white supremacists, that deep down behind the cloak of anonymity, they supported genocide, but I just can’t believe they would ever talk openly about it.’’ > > Maybe this is old hat to those alive in the 60s, but this is not comparable to anything my generation has ever seen before. It should be though…if it was being covered well and people were paying attention. It wasn’t and they weren’t. Even during the period of white nationalist groups dwindling, rallies/demonstrations with members openly participating and proclaiming their views were pretty frequent. The things your husband is surprised about have been going on across America during the entire span of your lives. This was big, really big (most don’t break 100 on the white nationalist side.) In general the issue has been getting a lot more attention since lst year and this specific event got a lot of national attention before it happened. The norm tended to be coverage in a more limited local area beforehand with some limited national stories if there was more than isolated violence. (There’s an argument that the free publicity may have helped turnout.) Public Nazi cosplay and hate spewing isn’t part of the change. That’s been there. The volume got turned up this time - both in size and media coverage. The song’s been mostly ignored background noise for your entire life. IIRC you are in the LP of Michigan. Do you remember the 2005 Toledo riot and the couple month later rally in downtown Toledo where the city was bracing for round two? How about the 2006 demonstration with uniformed swastika bearing Neo-nazis on the steps of the state capital? How about the Nazis coming back to Toledo for a small 30 person 2015 rally as a couple month early anniversary party of the riot? I’d bet you don’t even with them being close to you. Hear about any of these rallies that the [ADL lists](https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/styles/max_2600x2600/public/2017-08/White%20Supremacist%20Rallies%20in%20Past%20Decade%20Graphic.jpg?itok=c2r-UEPl) as among the larger in the US in the last decade? I’d guess no. The problem is definitely on the upswing. It’s getting absolutely hammered into the public consciousness. It’s not new, though, even for your generation. Ignorance **was** bliss. ETA - I feel a bit like I just murdered Santa Clause with the corpse of the Easter Bunny before declaring “Yes Virginia there really are American Nazis.” ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/807 "2017-08-18T23:00:25Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Lol. “No, _you’re_ an NPC!” 🆒 No, you’re a towel! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/808 "2017-08-19T06:34:08Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > …The things your husband is surprised about have been going on across America during the entire span of your lives. > > This was big, really big (most don’t break 100 on the white nationalist side.)… I am also aware that there is a long and continuing history of such piddling displays. Also recall hearing about how this particular time and place was widely broadcast over the nation, a rallying call for, ah, “patriots”. How many actually made the trip? For this Bizarro-World Woodstock? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/809 "2017-08-19T08:18:06Z")
In [this TouTube, CNN interviews prominent Republican Corey Stewart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USd4Bhp1cM) about Nazi hate and the killing of Heather Heyer. The very first words that spewed out from the vomit-hole of this despicable Trump-turd were [QUOTE=Corey Stewart] Well obviously it’s a great tragedy what happened and you know _ **what is even more tragic?** _ It’s that CNN tried to exploit this woman’s death … [/QUOTE] Dismissing a woman’s death with “more tragic is … libtards” without even a full stop to acknowledge a mother’s grief? Maybe it needs an emotion chip installed if it wants to pass for human. (But how dare a communist front like CNN report the news? We have it on the highest authority that Americans should get all their information from Trump tweets.) ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/810 "2017-08-19T17:46:03Z")
This is a really great, and funny, summary of the whole thing. I know the Trump supporters won’t manage to make it through it all because it doesn’t endlessly praise Trump but that’s too bad. They should really watch it, if nothing else you’ll get a good laugh. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/XwEzOaivNQ4/maxresdefault.jpg "President Donald Trump's White Supremacist Problem Is Deeper Than You Think - SOME NEWS") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwEzOaivNQ4) ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/811 "2017-08-19T17:54:56Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > In [this TouTube, CNN interviews prominent Republican Corey Stewart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USd4Bhp1cM) about Nazi hate and the killing of Heather Heyer. > > The very first words that spewed out from the vomit-hole of this despicable Trump-turd were > Dismissing a woman’s death with “more tragic is … libtards” without even a full stop to acknowledge a mother’s grief? Maybe it needs an emotion chip installed if it wants to pass for human. > > (But how dare a communist front like CNN report the news? We have it on the highest authority that Americans should get all their information from Trump tweets.) There is no reason Corey Stewart should work at _any_ news source. The fact he still has a job at CNN is absurd. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/812 "2017-08-19T18:00:51Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Yup, because they also want to be rid of the mentally ill, the handicapped, the LGBTQ people, the impure, those who question authority, etc, etc. > > They’ll get to you at some point. I read a comment on reddit where someone spoke to an actual SS veteran about the unite the right neo-nazis. The ex-SS officer laughed and said they would either have been purged on the night of the long knives, or used as cannon fodder on the eastern front if they were in Nazi Germany. So these people (the white male christian fascist neo-nazis) would be gotten rid of too eventually when their usefulness was done. They’d either be purged or sent into a war. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/813 "2017-08-19T21:01:14Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Agreed. > > I will reiterate some previous comments, though, that it’s important always to think “this is a damaged horrible person” but not “this is not a person.” We all have the instinct to distance ourselves from someone disgusting and that leads to calling them “monsters” or “vermin” or something that we are not. But that leads to the idea that the danger is the other, that no one normal could ever fall into extremism, etc. > > So we see a video with someone spewing contemptible things and we think “How unlike me that person is.” But (as we talked about yesterday) we see someone else in the video who is talking semi-coherently and that makes us uncomfortable because it’s harder to see why they could be so wrong when they have less obvious markers of being monsters. We want so very badly for monsters to be something separate from us rather than a variety of us. Good article about the problems in dehumanizing people, and how the alt-right excels at it: [Unite the Right 2018: The psychology of the alt-right - Vox](https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/15/16144070/psychology-alt-right) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/814 "2017-08-19T21:18:15Z")
I see what you’re saying, but I do think there is actual use in those words in illustrating just how far off they are. We already use other words for lesser issues, so we have to go deeper for the worst kinds of people. That doesn’t mean I actually think of these “vermin” or “monsters” as nonhuman. Monster, in particular, is a word I would ONLY use for humans (outside of some movie or something). I know there is the 1984 problem where words become reality, but I don’t think we need to police it so far as to not use those words. Just avoid the trap of assuming these people aren’t human, or that any nicer person you meet couldn’t be lured in by this stuff. Because, to be honest, what these people are showing is very much human. No non-sapient creature could actually do what these guys do. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/815 "2017-08-20T00:58:27Z")
My default is “reprehensible piece of shit.” I figure that’s a nice balance between saying what I really feel and honoring their humanity. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/816 "2017-08-20T02:11:15Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > _sigh_ > > Apparently Bricker thinks that Nazi websites encouraging members to burn synagogues is somehow protected Free Speech. > > I can’t even. ☹ “I can’t remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you’re saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it’s not literally illegal to express.” - Randall Munroe ([mouseover from this strip](https://xkcd.com/1357/)). ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/817 "2017-08-20T02:41:45Z")
Well, and I am not about to look into the specifics of the threats, because that would require me to look at Nazi websites. But I did ask the people over at Popehat, and they said if the threats were as specific as telling their people to burn the synagogues in Charlottesville while they were there, then no, it is not protected speech. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/818 "2017-08-20T02:48:56Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I read a comment on reddit where someone spoke to an actual SS veteran about the unite the right neo-nazis. > > The ex-SS officer laughed and said they would either have been purged on the night of the long knives, or used as cannon fodder on the eastern front if they were in Nazi Germany. > > So these people (the white male christian fascist neo-nazis) would be gotten rid of too eventually when their usefulness was done. They’d either be purged or sent into a war. They always remind me of the losers who call themselve Satanists and claim they’re going to rule in Hell with Satan. :rolleyes: No, you’re not going to rule anything. Do you think of all the people in Hell, you’re the strongest, most intelligent, most evil? You think he’ll make you top demons because you’re “cool”? No man, you’re fucking losers. You’ll burn in hell and spend eternity eating shit and screaming in terror. (Assuming there is a Hell, but you know what I mean.) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/819 "2017-08-20T04:11:11Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > “I can’t remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you’re saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it’s not literally illegal to express.” - Randall Munroe ([mouseover from this strip](https://xkcd.com/1357/)). Thanks for the quote and the comic GIGO, I’ve passed it on. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471/820 "2017-08-20T15:34:54Z")
Apparently the NYC Unite the Right organizers cancelled the rally, citing “alt left terrorist threats”. huh. Curious to see those cites. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471.md?page=40) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unite-the-right-racist-scum/793471.md?page=42)