tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640470443420164863.post2666974440370920902..comments2024-03-26T10:26:51.288-04:00Comments on Jim Leff's Slog: Trump Apologizes for US Intervention on Serbian GenocideJim Leffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007232702717055047noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640470443420164863.post-46747479260130989792016-10-13T12:32:44.198-04:002016-10-13T12:32:44.198-04:00Just for one example, the black woman being shoved...<br />Just for one example, the black woman being shoved isn't at the rally to stand up for her right to go to school or to live an equal existence or otherwise stand up for her rights. She's there to disrupt a private rally (I happen to support her aim). And, on the other side, they're pushing her out not because they think black people are beastly subhumans who need to be excluded, but because they don't want their rally interrupted. I could imagine Clinton supporters doing likewise if the frequency/fervor of disruption ever hit this point (perhaps, worse, depending on what was being shouted....liberals are very touchy about language). Juxtaposing this with scenes of shameful racial oppression is entirely inappropriate, asymmetrical, and cynically feeds reciprocal extremism on the left....all in order to push political buttons. Ugh.<br /><br />Yes, there are edge cases of full-throated racist belligerence in the Trump crowd. But every campaign/movement has edge cases which some point to as the inevitable outcome of the candidates message. The left has been painted with such brush for a very long time ("Commies", et al), and should know better. I detest seeing them use the same tactic. Yet again: will we human beings ever learn to react to extremism with enlightened moderation rather than with reciprocal extremism? <br /><br />To be clear: I do believe Trump himself is operating troublingly few degrees of separation from the mindset of the sort of atrocities we see in the historical video. I, myself have defied Godwin to compare him to early Hitler! But don't assume that when Trump says things in which we hear toxic echoes that his supporters are hearing/feeling/wanting that - that they're licking their chops for a chance to water cannon black children, etc etc etc. The division is getting more toxic than ever, with people like you and I painting nearly half the country with that brush, and that's dangerous and untrue: (http://jimleff.blogspot.com/2016/09/deplorability-and-surprise-of.html)<br /><br />It's tempting to do this, much as it was tempting at one time to paint liberals as commies. Just cuz the welfare state is fewer jumps to Communism than other stances doesn't make liberals commies, and just because Trump echoes stances that bring mayhem in the extreme doesn't make his followers fascist wannabes....even if Trump, himself, is exactly that.<br /><br />TL;DR: It's fine to harsh Trump, but a mistake to harsh his followers.<br />Jim Leffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00007232702717055047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640470443420164863.post-38773841512964704832016-10-13T11:53:20.879-04:002016-10-13T11:53:20.879-04:00Not just Bosnian Moslems. Kosovar Albanians, who a...Not just Bosnian Moslems. Kosovar Albanians, who are also largely muslim.<br />BTW, I cannot agree with your assessment of the new Clinton commercial as cynical. As I know you know we now have a presidential candidate who has called on the imprisonment of his opponent, and this add is not twisting anything he says, it is reminding us of what a world where legalized racialized brutality was condoned. Does it help heal racial divisions? certainly not, but it may possibly get some people for whom Trump is seen as a lesser evil to think about what that lesser evil really is, and it is not like Trump hasn't himself opened the door to this. is it a necessary ad, I'm not sure, but I can't bring myself to call it cynical.vhlivhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014847502010321186noreply@blogger.com