After Paul Pelosi was attacked in the San Francisco home he shares with his wife, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’, the support for the politician and her family poured in — but that didn’t stop the nastier among us from posting hateful memes, including this one from Carl Higbie, a Greenwich Republican who loudly supports George Logan, who wants to unseat Rep. Jahana Hayes in D.C. The meme was then reposted by a Haddam P&Z commissioner (an elected official), Dan Luisi, when someone shared it with me.
I have posted some ignorant and hateful crap to social media, myself, but then when you start to see the result of that kind of nonsense, you stop (or so one would hope). I went to social media and posted this meme with a shame-on-you for Luisi, but I sometimes wonder if this is the proper approach for Dan’s and Carl’s peculiar kind of soul-less nastiness. Our political rhetoric needs to cool. Does it help to point out when it hasn’t? Do we ignore this until it goes away? Is there a particular way to react to this? I’m all ears.
Yesterday I was driving to do an errand. On my vehicle I have a decal memorializing Sgt. Hamzy and Lt. DeMonte who were ambushed by a crazed person with an AR-15. I passed a truck with the same decal but then I saw he also had a decal with a character peeing on "Biden." Of course I see it and am filling with angst. I agree with the need to lower the temperature of our debates BUT I have no idea how to get through to those who are so dug in to conspiracies - the attack on Paul Pelosi cannot even bring gQp leaders to speak with unity and force to condemn the attempted murder. Those like Laura Ingraham continue to call Officer Fanone a "crisis actor"! Many still call the Sandy Hook massacre that happened in our backyard a hoax! How do we ignore those people? I think it is incumbent upon us to call them out, expose them and try to be voices of truth and reason. However, I am drowning from pi**ing up that rope for the last 5+ years?!?
I'm pretty sure ignoring it is not the way to go. We've seen more than enough to know that it's not all going to blow over one day. It has to be called out for what it is.
It's in too many places to make it go away. I think calling it out in candidates or people who hold public office is helpful. Voters should know. Calling it out among family & friends/acquaintances is helpful, because they might listen or care about what you say. Calling it out with random people online seems rarely helpful. They seem to also enjoy being provocative just so they can channel their hate further with a random, faceless person. The discussion is almost always useless, IMO, and a waste of time. Anyone who would post something as awful as that in the first place is unlikely to suddenly show compassion, self-reflect and show remorse. They are more likely to delight in riling up "the liberals". In those situations, I ignore.
I think the title of your post says it all. Many years ago, the vast majority of people would have reacted to this with scorn and disdain. But with TFG's brand of politics becoming more the norm, this is seen as an acceptable response. It is vile, cruel, and unacceptable.
But even then, we were missing a lot of news. It was slanted then, as well, in ways we finally figured out were hurtful on a different level. I respect and love Walter Cronkite and I will forever, but the news in those days was so very white-centric and we missed a lot of important things.
Yeah, I've been thinking about that for some time. I am still not sure what's the best of the none-of-them-great solutions.
Don't repost, and allow baddies and their dupes to claim that they aren't nyuh-uh doing that, they're Good?
Repost and expand their reach?
It's true that when people weren't so overtly hateful the hate and violence were still festering in obscurity. But OTOH they weren't recruiting as successfully.
I wish we could get to a change of Zeitgeist. To where goose-stepping of various sorts doesn't get the feverishly giggle some response it now does. To before young (and not-young) men being assholes wasn't automatically accepted as bold and hilarious.
Precisely this. But since we can't turn the clock back, what's the solution for now, when asshole behavior is viewed as you say, as bold and hilarious?
Yesterday I was driving to do an errand. On my vehicle I have a decal memorializing Sgt. Hamzy and Lt. DeMonte who were ambushed by a crazed person with an AR-15. I passed a truck with the same decal but then I saw he also had a decal with a character peeing on "Biden." Of course I see it and am filling with angst. I agree with the need to lower the temperature of our debates BUT I have no idea how to get through to those who are so dug in to conspiracies - the attack on Paul Pelosi cannot even bring gQp leaders to speak with unity and force to condemn the attempted murder. Those like Laura Ingraham continue to call Officer Fanone a "crisis actor"! Many still call the Sandy Hook massacre that happened in our backyard a hoax! How do we ignore those people? I think it is incumbent upon us to call them out, expose them and try to be voices of truth and reason. However, I am drowning from pi**ing up that rope for the last 5+ years?!?
Nor do I. I always was taught if you ignore this, it goes away. It didn't. But engaging on that same pissing level is fruitless.
I'm pretty sure ignoring it is not the way to go. We've seen more than enough to know that it's not all going to blow over one day. It has to be called out for what it is.
I suppose calling it out will be it, then. I have to remove myself from the notion that calling it out makes it go away.
It's in too many places to make it go away. I think calling it out in candidates or people who hold public office is helpful. Voters should know. Calling it out among family & friends/acquaintances is helpful, because they might listen or care about what you say. Calling it out with random people online seems rarely helpful. They seem to also enjoy being provocative just so they can channel their hate further with a random, faceless person. The discussion is almost always useless, IMO, and a waste of time. Anyone who would post something as awful as that in the first place is unlikely to suddenly show compassion, self-reflect and show remorse. They are more likely to delight in riling up "the liberals". In those situations, I ignore.
I think the title of your post says it all. Many years ago, the vast majority of people would have reacted to this with scorn and disdain. But with TFG's brand of politics becoming more the norm, this is seen as an acceptable response. It is vile, cruel, and unacceptable.
We are awash in so much hate and lies that we don’t know what to do. I agree with those who say we must call it out.
The other day I told my husband, I miss the old days of three news networks telling us the news and that was it.
But even then, we were missing a lot of news. It was slanted then, as well, in ways we finally figured out were hurtful on a different level. I respect and love Walter Cronkite and I will forever, but the news in those days was so very white-centric and we missed a lot of important things.
Yeah, I've been thinking about that for some time. I am still not sure what's the best of the none-of-them-great solutions.
Don't repost, and allow baddies and their dupes to claim that they aren't nyuh-uh doing that, they're Good?
Repost and expand their reach?
It's true that when people weren't so overtly hateful the hate and violence were still festering in obscurity. But OTOH they weren't recruiting as successfully.
I wish we could get to a change of Zeitgeist. To where goose-stepping of various sorts doesn't get the feverishly giggle some response it now does. To before young (and not-young) men being assholes wasn't automatically accepted as bold and hilarious.
Precisely this. But since we can't turn the clock back, what's the solution for now, when asshole behavior is viewed as you say, as bold and hilarious?
When you figure it out, let us know?
In the meanwhile I at least periodically point out the stance and its poverty.
Some of the goofballs that I know that post stupid or hateful memes always seem to stop in their tracks when I tell them that they are fake christians
Some stopped posting memes
Some unfriended me so they could post their hate without feeling guilty
That's interesting. I mean, it WOULD make you pause, if you were paying attention.