Adam Serwer has an excellent read on the racist hysteria generated on the far right about the migrant caravan that led directly to the horror at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday:
The Tree of Life shooter criticized Trump for not being racist or anti-Semitic enough. But with respect to the caravan, the shooter merely followed the logic of the president and his allies: He was willing to do whatever was necessary to prevent an “invasion” of Latinos planned by perfidious Jews, a treasonous attempt to seek “the destruction of American society and culture.”
The apparent spark for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in American history was a racist hoax inflamed by a U.S. president seeking to help his party win a midterm election. There is no political gesture, no public statement, and no alteration in rhetoric or behavior that will change this fact. The shooter might have found a different reason to act on a different day. But he chose to act on Saturday, and he apparently chose to act in response to a political fiction that the president himself chose to spread and that his followers chose to amplify. (our emphasis)Leading the racist hysteria as part of that political fiction were those vicious organs of the Big Lie -- Fox "News" and Fox Business "News." Here's a snippet of Josh Marshall's take:
I managed to involve myself this weekend in a tiny eddy in the storm around the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. As you can see below, early yesterday evening I happened upon this interview on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business News show in which a guest, Chris Farrell, claimed the migrant caravan in southern Mexico was being funded and directed by the “Soros-occupied State Department.” This is, as I explained, is straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the foundational anti-Semitic tract, first circulated and perhaps authored by the Czarist secret police in the first years of the 20th century.Here's what Marshall is referring to (video embedded in tweet):
Political scientists are generally not massive Fox News fans, but in our efforts to come across as relatively unbiased, I actually think we downplay the extent to which it is a force for the absolute worst impulses of racism, illiberalism, and extremism in American society. https://t.co/dMKTMERmLB— Steven White (@notstevenwhite) October 28, 2018
There are National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) ads still running using George Soros ("Connoisseur of Chaos") as the boogeyman responsible for the caravan and other heinous activities.
It's an entirely unsubtle conjuration of the hoary and hateful lie that wealthy Jews are the puppet-masters of the left, because of course, decent white folk would never espouse liberal beliefs unless they were getting paid to do so. It's totally disgusting, but Republicans are waging an internal arms race to see who can plaster the most bigotry on the airwaves. Right now, the NRCC is winning.
These are lying, vicious agitprop droppings intended to divide by telling us to fear "the other" -- whether brown, black, Jewish, etc. The rotted out Republican Party is immersed in this stinking garbage. Remember that for as long as you live. And vote, goddammit!
In a column written before the arrest of the #MAGAbomber and before the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, Leonard Pitts, Jr., writes about the key instigator of violence in America today and his cultists:
This ongoing insult of reality, this daily denigration of truth, is epidemic among Trump’s people. Unable to face what is, they live in a kingdom of lies, seek sanctuary down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Indeed, Trump cultists — Lou Dobbs, James Woods, Rush Limbaugh, Candace Owens and more — have already suggested the bombs were part of a Democratic plot to sway the coming election. [snip]
Meantime, this guy, this morally deformed 72-year-old brat, had a theory of his own. After bombs were sent to people he has spent years insulting ( “low IQ,” “crooked,” “ignorant”) and to a network he has spent years condemning (”enemies of the people”), Trump tweeted that the “anger” in our society is a result of media’s “false and inaccurate reporting.”
So in other words, if reporters would just stop challenging him, stop questioning him, stop behaving as if words have meaning and people, memories, all will be well. He probably even believes that.
But the issue here is not news media. Nor is it civility or Republicans being yelled at in restaurants.
No, the issue is reality and the fact that it becomes no less real because you don’t acknowledge it. That’s what the Trump cult has never figured out. Reality will always have the last word. And you may run from it, but you can never escape.
Not even down a rabbit hole, not even in a kingdom of lies.As of this morning, the vile shitgibbon is still at it. Surprise!
We close as usual with our recommendation to check out the excellent blog link round- up at Infidel 753. He takes care to find some really interesting items that you might otherwise never hear about. Always thought- provoking.
