Comments on: Empowering Hate

By: Tennesseean

Tennesseean — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:40:01 +0000

Why thank you, Anomaly/Chester/Anomaly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5P5eQiKNQs

By: Anomaly100

Anomaly100 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:01:56 +0000

@Tennessean: You sure got me there with that quick wit & intelligent response! That was almost as swift as your, “I know you are but what am I?” comment that you spam on the comments. ;-)

By: Tennessean

Tennessean — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:06:36 +0000

Awwww Anomaly, don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re not really THAT twisted. Just really curved and bent a lot.

By: Anomaly100

Anomaly100 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:41:38 +0000

@Tennessean: For once, I agree with you. There is difficulty having meaningful dialogue between the differing idologies if one of them is, “narrow-minded & has a twisted view of the world.” I can finally say, we agree on something. I’m pleased you’re coming around. ;-)

By: Tennessean

Tennessean — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:00:08 +0000

mario says, “After all, the ‘Tennessean’ types need some place to turn to to feed their insatiable hunger for opinion that justifies their narrow-minded and twisted view of the world.”

And that my friends is exactly why there is difficulty having meaningful dialogue between the differing ideologies.

By: defolts

defolts — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:50:00 +0000

while I agree with much of what you say sometimes the word racist is used to much, when a guy like Joe Wilson given his history jumps up and say you lie, there probably is some deep seated hatred there, given his support of the confederate flag, his remarks on Strom Thurmond, and what he said the NAACP should be called,but if someone like John Boehner attacks you are probably just talking policy differences.
If someone is against illegal immigration does it make them a racist? I don’t think so, I personally don’t believe in some of the more punitive measures that some on the right advocate to stop illegal immigration but to say because you are opposed that you are racist or xenophobic is disingenuous, what people are generally opposed to is being told to change because someone moves here and often does not care about learning the language or just views this country as giant ATM. and for Latino advocates to say they didn’t cross the border the border crossed them assumes they have to be at least 161 years old and were living here at the time, highly unlikely, I live in southern California and have seen the changes, there are communities here such as Maywood, and a few others where they will not enforce traffic laws or code violations due to who lives there, when you have 5 or more adults living in an apartment it is going to drive up costs because 4,5 or more can pay more than one or 2, as far as I am concerned that is discrimination, not how we should live as Americans, when jobs ask you to speak Spanish what they are saying is everyone there must speak Spanish but not everyone needs to speak English, because why would you need to speak Spanish to work in say assembly or construction. there are whole classes of jobs even if you wanted to work or needed to the racial politics make them impossible, there is a saying you cant fight the bean without fighting the burrito, I have found this to be true,

By: Anomaly100

Anomaly100 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:09:53 +0000

@Mario: If we stand idly by & simply watch from afar this kind of behavior, with the pretense of it being a small opposing view, then we become part of the problem. As a kid in New Orleans, I was the only white person in my entire school. Later in high school, I was one of 10 white people in a student body consisting of 2,000 kids. I was not taught racism in our family so I didn’t immediately understand why I was hated. Then I started getting jumped after school on a daily basis. One day, 13 girls jumped me after school (for a dime). When people in the neighborhood saw what was happening, they locked their doors & shut their curtains, never calling the police. White people. They were now as guilty as the girls that jumped me, at least in my eyes. Only 1 person helped me. It was a girl I didn’t even know. As she walked by, without hesitation, she screamed, knocked on doors & pushed these girls off of me. The next day, she went to the Principal’s office to get them expelled. She could have been killed for doing that. She was black & she could have been ostracized by her peers at school. These days kids worry about whether they’ll be popular or not. Checking for weapons was unheard of back then, but not in my school. I know fully well, first hand how badly racism hurts. It is a parasite in society which exponentially increases if we don’t stand up against it. Ignorance, apparently is contagious. Who knew! When friends later in life found out about my experiences in school, they asked me why I didn’t become racist. The reason is obvious. I would never want another person to be hated for something so irrelevant as their skin color. Also, I met one girl that day, who stood up for me. That is what we are supposed to do when we hear about racism. We aren’t supposed to talk about hidden “agendas.” We’re supposed to do what you did Mario, & shine a light on this disease we call, racism.

By: MB

MB — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:50 +0000

@Tennessean – you make a nice paradoxical point that i think unfortunetly defeats your own arguement.

You tell us that Mario and co are trying to fan the flames of the outer fringe and mainstream radicalism with the end game of action against it. Is his end game A War On Right Wing Hate Groups?!?!

Oh wait dont we already have one of those just under a different guise – one you seem to be a firm believer in.

By: mario piperni

mario piperni — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:02:03 +0000

@Tommy – As you very well know, there is no quick fix for racist attitudes nor is there one for ignorance. A couple of hundred years if inbred bigotry is not going to change overnight.

Of immediate concern should be the politicians who flame the passions of hatred in people too ignorant to know better. It is these politicians we should call out at every opportunity.

As for the Becks and Limbaughs, again there is little we could do except call them out for what they are. But the truth is they’ll always be around. After all, the ‘Tennessean’ types need some place to turn to to feed their insatiable hunger for opinion that justifies their narrow-minded and twisted view of the world. For them, truth, honesty and integrity are not as important as knowing that they heard it on the Fox news teevee box, so it’s got to be true.

By: H M Bascom

H M Bascom — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:50:31 +0000

I wish we could just tune out the hate mongering – ignore them. But to do so could give the false impression that they are without opposition. The answer to hate speech is counter speech. We must call for tolerance, unity, peace, and acceptance. I think it is a grave error to dismiss any group as “fringe” or without influence.

It is impossible to engage in dialog when one side is unwilling to listen to alternative views. If we are to ignore any speech, let it be those who engage in ad hominem attacks, who make sweeping generalizations about entire populations, who engage in the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes, and who promote opinion as fact.

How can we tell when a person or group is engaging in this kind of harmful speech? They usually begin a sentence with the phrase, “You people . . . .”