Thing is, many of those folks, like Miller and Bannon, were never really 'fringe'. Or, to paraphrase @tressiemcphd, elite White folks have always believed in race scientism and phrenology.
What Trump did was bring to light the wide acceptance among White folks of explicit and blatant White Supremacy - as well as weaponize such bigotry for the goal of gaining and keeping power.
Center-Whites may have wanted to believe that such bigotry was limited to militia group members. But anyone who watched the conservative reaction to Waco and Ruby Ridge (as well as the sparring over control of Sierra Club) knew full well the extent bigotry was accepted.
Folks like @JamesSurowiecki spent time blaming states and municipal governments for not doling out the vaccines quickly enough. Yet forgot that the federal government is in charge of vaccine distribution - and didn't buy enough vaccines to start.
By the way: We knew that the feds, under the Trump regime, would mess this up. It was reported back in December that the Trump regime didn't buy enough of the Pfizer vaccine, even after the pharma offered to supply more. cnbc.com/2020/12/14/cov…
Except that @AOC asked for the $2,000 after the $600 payout was negotiated by House Democrats, Senate Republicans and the Trump regime. Which was never enough to start. Now Biden is still not providing the $2,000 when folks need the money.
You can argue that AOC shouldn't have taken to media to make her case. But she's a Member of Congress and can use any of the tools at her disposal to do so. In any case, she is correct that what Biden is proposing isn't nearly good enough. Also, Biden only responds to pressure.
It is only B.S. to you because you are more-aligned with Biden and his wing of the Democratic Party than with AOC's wing.
Should we really be surprised that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who hates Mambo Sauce and is trying to get Black kids killed by reopening school buildings in the midst of a pandemic, also seems uninterested in making it easier for Black residents in her city to get vaccinated?
I try not to beat up on other Black people because we can have the same goals and yet disagree on the means. But Bowser's public health czar, LaQuandra Nesbitt, is being real tone deaf in this case.
Now let's note that Nesbitt also has a point: Vaccine distribution is hard enough when you prioritize based on age, pre-existing conditions and type of employment (which is what's happening everywhere). Adding zip code to the mix can make this even harder.
From my experience, there are a lot of White Supremacists in newsrooms. They're often just the polite kind who would never say the N word, but use other terms and stereotypes that are just as pejorative.
This happens a lot. Often, this highly-connected editor is a straight-up bigot and incompetent to boot. But because he is well-connected, falsely claims Indigenous ancestry, and the hiring manager doesn't want to admit error, that guy oversees 'diversity'.
Eventually, after blowing up spots throughout the newsroom, he gets moved around to other jobs. Such as editorial page editor. Where he creates more havoc and the staff mutinies (knowing full well that this will cost them dearly).
Certainly that's an issue. On the other hand, there's not a lot you can do with folks who literally want to murder their fellow Americans, especially those who are Black and Brown as well as the White folks the supremacists consider to be race traitors.
Prison abolition and the end of incarceration all sounds good. But there are going to be a few small instances in which long-term incarceration is the only solution.
Especially since using surveillance as a form of incarceration (which is already done for sex offenders) can actually be even more cruel and inhumane (and also traps others, including relatives who weren't responsible for what the terrorist did).
Folks out here really mad because a Black woman who worked damned hard for her position in life demands that you show the same respect to her as you do to White people you wouldn't dare address without their formal salutation.
Even when I write emails and letters to my closest friends, I still use 'Dear'. Because it is about respect and good manners. Especially when you don't know the person.
Not everyone comes from a home with professionals who write formal communications. So it is understandable when a first-generation collegian errs in formal greeting.
But some folks out there, who know better, just don't want to use their home training.
In general, I agree. Just give everyone money and vaccines. At the same time, keep in mind that the result of folks 'cutting in line' is that those with the most will get vaccinated while the marginalized (especially Black, Latino, and Indigenous essential workers) get screwed.
The ultimate solution to that problem is for the federal government to be competent in vaccine distribution as well as stemming the pandemic (and community spread) overall. The latter would make it easier for most folks to wait their turn for vaccination.
If we're are all being honest, the deliberate failure of the Trump regime to stem the pandemic (as well as provide money for folks to stay home and avoid infection) is the single-biggest factor in folks trying to jump ahead of folks in most need of vaccination right now.
The facts themselves may or may not stand scrutiny based on what underpins them. A study can offer one conclusion, but if its dataset is limited or is based on a highly flawed element (such as self-reports), it is still a 'fact', but not necessarily useful.
If the 'fact' is made up, it isn't a fact at all. It's just fiction.
But in general, when based on actual information, facts are facts. Whether or not they are relevant in a context is another story. As is whether the conclusions gleaned from them are or aren't disputable.
1) Many private schools have high COVID infection rates, yet don't always report. So parents are paying good money to endanger the lives of their kids and themselves. 2) If the federal government did its job and stemmed the pandemic, public school buildings would be open.
As folks such as Kenya and I have pointed out, growing evidence shows that 1) youth get COVID, 2) the infection rates for youth under 18 is now often higher (double) the rates for the population overall, and @DrStevePerry
In countries where school buildings have remained open, notably the United Kingdom, teachers are getting infected with COVID at rates higher than the overall population. @DrStevePerry
The plantation was the pre-modern concentration camp. Death and depravity happened there. But a lot of what was done within them was working enslaved Black people to death. The same way the Nazis did with Jews and others at Auschwitz a century later.
The mistake most folks make is thinking that all concentration camps were only for committing immediate genocide. Not true. Most of Auschwitz's 31 subcamps were factories where Jews and others were worked to death for profit. Just like the average American plantation.
How about we also expel the rest of you Congressional Republicans because you have spent four years abetting and aiding the very insurrection Trump has fomented?
"Take the 1898 Wilmington insurrection, an all-American white nationalist riot also aimed at seizing state power, only it succeeded... what happened this week was not a case of chickens coming home to roost. The chickens had simply never left." nplusonemag.com/online-only/on…
Of course, some fool libertarian thinks that Trump should be allowed to continue fomenting coup attempts and violence against fellow American citizens.
Almost-unfettered cartel control over social media and ultimately, the Internet itself, is something we should end. But the folks complaining about Trump's ban from Twitter and Facebook don't care about any of that.
They're just mad that their God-MC was deplatformed.
Two benefits of this week's coup attempt: That we see in full display how policing is ineffective in stopping violence. And that policing in America is White Supremacist to its core.
