Thread by @LOLGOP

A typically excellent and essential Adam Serwer piece that gives me a jumping off point to talk about Henry Ford, Tucker Carlson, and how willing denial is necessary for the mainstreaming of white genocide rhetoric.

https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/1106162369611345920

You probably missed this story about how the Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan recently tried to block distribution of a city-financed quarterly journal featuring a piece that exposes how Henry Ford's "anti-Semitism is much more than a personal failing.”

nytimes.com/2019/02/02/us/…

You probably know Henry Ford was a huge-antisemite and Hitler fan. But you may not know the scope. He used his vast riches, energy and credibility to spread hatred against Jews.

"[Ford] wrote four books attacking Jews and describing them as uniquely evil and dangerous...

In its first two years, The International Jew sold over 2 million copies."

aish.com/ci/s/Erasing-H…

The Mayor of Dearborn trying to squelch well-known facts about Ford's antisemitism is almost the municipal dogma of the city.

Ford is to Dearborn is like a mix of Walt Disney to Anaheim and Thomas Jefferson to Monticello.

Speaking of Monticello, it may be the best model of integrating the crimes of "great" figures by elevating the history of enslaved people to the forefront of Jefferson's story.

Meanwhile, the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village make almost no mention of Ford's antisemtism

*If it does, it's easy enough for me to miss it after 4-5 visits.

The acceptance of antisemitism up through World War II in the country should surprise no one. It went right along with the racism and anti-immigrant bashing. But Ford would have fit right in on Gab.
deadlinedetroit.com/articles/21513…

U.S. notions of "white genocide" inspired Nazism which convinced much of America to reject antisemitism after the Holocaust. It also focused civil rights opponents on dog whistles, "states rights" and later "welfare queens."

Until Trump literally retweeted "White Genocide"

Trump's elevation of Jeff Sessions -- a man who joked he was fine with the Klan until he found out they smoked pot and the world's biggest fan of the the Immigration Exclusion Act of 1924 -- was also a wink toward white genocide adherents.

theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

So to Tucker Carlson.

Story after story about how much White Supremacists love him for "the way he talks about immigrants" won't convince any of his fans that this thinly laced white genocide rhetoric has anything in common with racism & antisemitism. He loves Israel, after all.

Also, how could bashing diversity and the filth of immigrants and characterizing foreigners as America-raping threats be beyond the pale!?

The president of the United States does the same, after all.

Advertisers and networks aren't going to cancel a show because David Duke loves it. He could love House Hunters, but definitely not House Hunters International.

This is why tapes of Tucker off the cuff dehumanizing people of color and defending child rapists. really matter.

This is why conservatives are defending comments drooling over teenaged girls & calling Iraqis monkeys like they're they're the Gospel of Buckley.

Conservatives defend the mainstreaming of white genocide rhetoric because they have too. Their future depends on Carlson & Trump.

Just as it was crucial to defend "states rights" and "welfare queens" as fair rhetoric that just happened to turn off 90% of African-Americans, they need to defend talking about immigrants in terms that would have pleased the Klan of the 20s -- & now.

Denial makes this possible.

Apologizing for racism or sexualizing little girls -- which Tucker has not done and Trump never will -- is a tacit admission that they come from the worldview that saw the Charlottesville rally and thought, "Someone needs to stick up for the people who marched with neo-Nazis!"

Lots of Americans may relate to what Tucker Carlson said just as they related to what Dr. Ford said Kavanaugh did.

This is why clarifying moments of unfiltered racism, misogyny and antisemitism spark denial. Defending the "good" men whose behavior used to be accepted is key.

This is why seeing racism as a strategy that you can use even as you're employing scores of undocumented workers is key.

The masterwork on this is Dog Whiste Politics by @IanHaneyLopez

amzn.to/2XU3vv4

@IanHaneyLopez It's hard to prove Trump & Carlson are cynically stirring up the dangers of white genocide. The rhetoric is baked in plausible deniability.

But a copy of The International Jew or a TV star comparing a person of color to a monkey may have consequences. At least it did last year.

@IanHaneyLopez Anyway, that completes my Bar Mitzvah speech.

If you read this before you read Serwer's piece, my apologies.

https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/1106209901913751552