So much was left unsaid last week about Charlottesville, that we need to continue the discussion. It was only last Tuesday since Trump ranted about fault on both sides, but this is old news in the age of Trump. While the news has moved on to Afghanistan and Arpaio, we will take the time to look at the origins of the conflict in Charlottesville.
If you have not already seen it, there is a documentary from Vice News that shows the violent nature of right wing extremist. Clips from this documentary have been used in other news programs as evidence that these groups were primarily to blame. Because of its length, we will not show it at the meeting, but we will discuss it. Here is the link if you have not yet seen it:
While the Vice News piece countered Trump's assertion that there were good people on the Right, it did not address Trumps's other claim that there was bad people on the Left. Another piece from ABC 20/20 takes a more balanced view, showing extremism on both sides. We will review the 20/20 piece at our meeting. Here are the three parts:
- Who are the white nationalists and Antifa
- White nationalists on their controversial beliefs
- White nationalists, counterprotesters prepare for Kentucky rally
--------------------------------- Updated 8/24/17 --------------------------------------------
These are the other videos that were shown at the meeting:
Perhaps you have heard of my town in northern Idaho? https://timeline.com/white-supremacist-rural-paradise-fb62b74b29e0
ReplyDeleteAnd here is a local blog that has received numerous comments, many of which misunderstood the blog - https://hocomd.cc/2017/08/18/get-to-know-some-of-the-unite-the-right-rally-participants-and-sympathizers/
ReplyDeleteMark Twain is reported to have said that history may not repeat itself, but it sure rhymes, and it seems to me that the rhyme here is the evil that emerges when we project our existential fear onto others. The fear that one’s life counts for nothing is what motivates us to seek groups of the like-minded, a phenomenon that happened naturally in tribes and clans throughout most of human experience. And when that fear is intense enough, some people resort to killing or dying in an attempt to give validity to their life-sustaining worldview. This is the frightening place where many of the “white” groups seem to be. There may also be some among their opposite who are in a similar place, but for reasons too complex to explore here, the very ideology that drives them (i.e. their worldview) discourages such violence.
ReplyDeleteNoting the litany of groups to which the alt-right (for lack of a more coherent identifier) directs their ire, it seems clear that they are motivated by something internal. For the only commonality among the groups they identify as their enemies is that “they” are not “them.” In their rants they include all “non-whites,” but exactly who is “white” is not made clear. They also include both “commies” and capitalists, Muslims, leftists, and so on. And of course, many among these latter groups would be considered “white,” so for example to chant that “Jews will not replace us” is not just scary but nonsensical.
History’s rhyme is clear in its message that groups variously described as enemies can materialize from a mere wisp of imagined difference. The Khmer Rouge murdered three million of their fellow Cambodians because they didn’t like the way they carried themselves or the fact that they wore glasses (and appeared to be intellectual).
As many have pointed out, it’s fear that we need to worry about and hope that we can figure out an effective way to reduce it before more innocent people are robbed of their lives.
A french perspective on the situation
ReplyDeleteJust FYI
France-Amerique magazine The ultra-white-president-trump
I left out that you have to Google the article. I don't have the exact www.http address.
ReplyDelete