2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumYou’re in Denial if You Think Steve Israel Is Wrong About GOP Racism
Michael Tomasky
Not a month goes by without a GOP racial gaffe, racist vitriol fills conservative websites comment sections, and the party refuses to take on the issue. Of course Steve Israels right.
Some time back, whenever a big racial controversy erupted, I trained myself into the habit of reading about it at FoxNews.com, just for the unbelievable comment threads. Lets put it this way: If my friends and I went out to a bar and started playing a lets write the racist FoxNews.com comment thread drinking game, our efforts couldnt begin to approach what I read there.
I wasnt alone. Liberal websites started feasting on these threads. And so, a couple of years ago, Ailes & Co. got wise. Stories about race were, at least in my disheartened experience, closed to comments.
Fox acted, I recall, back in February 2012, when the thread on Whitney Houstons death made even many conservatives a little jumpy. Heres a taste: Whitney is just an inferior lo w life ni gg er that needed to go, no tragedy, no loss
Any death is a tragedy you heartless bastard
not nignogs their death is a plus
Well, at least there was that person in the middle there! But these threads were poisonous, and they didnt appear just on Fox. Theyve been all over conservative websites and have bled into some mainstream ones, too. Lord, the things I read in comment threads on North Carolina newspapers sites in their stories about the Moral Monday protests. Believe it or not, conservative readers, I dont go flinging the r-word around loosely. But these comments, hundreds, thousands of them, were just thuggishly racist. Nothing else to call them.
more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/14/you-re-in-denial-if-you-think-steve-israel-is-wrong-about-gop-racism.html
Mz Pip
(27,404 posts)It never ceases to amaze me the number of vitriolic racist posts that fill the conservative Facebook pages. I have a Teabagger "friend" from high school who always posts Right Wing and Tea Party and Conservative pages. I scroll through the comments of the not anonymous posts and the racial based hatred for Obama, Michelle, Sharpton, Holder, pretty much anyone who is Black other than Ben Carson, Mia Love and Herb Cain, is obvious.
I guess they rationalize away their racism because they have a couple of Black conservatives they can wave in front of them. "See! We're not racist! We have a Black friend."
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)I always try to get a look at what they do & say in public first, and the moment I see any "Obama = Marxist" or "All Muslims/Jews/Hindus/etc. are evil" type crap, I write them off, even if they pull the typical "I have a black friend" crapola. And I won't befriend bigots of any other skin color either.
Basically, if someone is a decent person, regardless of your nationality, or ethnicity, religious affiliation, etc., then I will be glad to accept them into my circle of friends. It's character that counts.
Mz Pip
(27,404 posts)is to see the the propaganda the Tea Party puts out. I rarely respond. No one does. He seems to be pretty much alone in his beliefs.
kimbutgar
(20,874 posts)I see more racism now then I have ever seen in my 58 years. The reich wingers in this country are unhinged and foaming at the mouth. The incident in Nevada this past weekend has really churned up the haters and racists blaming the Obama administration for an executive order signed into law by Reagan in 1986 executive order 12548 grazing fees
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)because it is just so "disheartening" to not be able to "feast" on racist comments of others.
Straight up admits it - he WANTS to see racism. He revels in it.
"I don't go flinging the r-word around loosely."
After he just admitted that he loves being able to see it, so that he can throw that word and feel all righteous and superior. Why else is it so disheartening to not be able to see it?
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Okay, it may possibly be true that there are indeed a few people who really do go too far with trying to find racism and such.....but I doubt Steve Israel is one of them.
I'm sorry if you've been disillusioned by a lot of the crap that's been thrown around on this site lately, re: "white privilege" and such. Believe me, I can't blame you for that.
But I'm just not convinced that Steve Israel has any hidden agendas in that regard. I believe what he says is what he really thinks.