Is this what liberalism has become?
Edg had a thought-provoking essay the other day about tearing down monuments, that was soon followed by Vice calling for blowing up Mount Rushmore.
Obviously we are on the edge of going from a logical response to an insane response.
Another response that appears to be an over-reaction is this one.
At least four people have lost their jobs and several more are under scrutiny following the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.
Social media users, most prominently Logan Smith and his Twitter account Yes, You’re Racist sought to identify those who participated in the rally.
Before I throw in my two cents, let me show you TYT reporter Michael Tracey's take on it.
Again, they clearly engaged in repugnant speech, but this raises complicated questions about the employer/employee power dynamic.
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 16, 2017
It's certainly tempting to say "F them", and that is my first reaction.
But two things stand out:
1) These guys were fired from Mojo Burrito, Uno Pizzeria and Grill, and Top Dog. These guys are on the lowest rung of society. There is something wrong with this. It's like throwing rocks at a homeless, feral dog because it bit someone you know.
2) The other thing that stood out was this video.
I like David Doel and I generally agree with his views, but this is an exception.
David's point is that Nazism is more than just political speech because it is so "repugnant" and dangerous.
But when I listened to him say that I couldn't help but remember that this was the EXACT same reasoning used in the Red Scare of the early 50's.
Not "similar" reasoning, but the exact same reasoning that was used to destroy the careers of countless public school teachers and such.
So in the end David left me more convinced of the opposite of what he was trying to say, Michael is making strong point.
The impossibility of attempting any kind of rational public dialogue is really disconcerting. https://t.co/3CvJJOIy6r
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 16, 2017
Liberals are spending way too much time and energy in unhelpful exercises.
Neo-McCarthyism, tearing down monuments, and getting minimum-wage workers fired are all negative responses.
Liberals should be using all that energy to build a positive movement for a better world. Then there will be something to show for their efforts in the end.
And then there is this problem.
Comments
It's disconcerting, but...
I can't really feel sorry for neo-Nazis getting fired from their jobs. Getting fired because you think people who don't look like you are subhuman? Oh, well.
These job that these people are getting fired from are not government jobs. If I was running a business, I would shitcan any employees who I discovered are neo-Nazis, no doubt about it.
It's time to drive these folks back into the political wilderness, back to jerking each other off in the woods.
Unless the government is rounding people up and sending them off into concentration camps for their beliefs, that's a cause to be worried.
@Ravensword So you're OK, in this
So you're OK, in this day and age, living under this police state which is absolutely in bed with the corporate bosses, setting the precedent of a person getting fired because they go to a rally? And the justification is that they believe hateful things?
Do you know how easy it would be for the media to concoct a pack of lies about protesters on the left, suggesting that WE believe hateful things? And do you know how easy it would be for either the media or some random person with a cell phone to ID us, and get US fired?
In this age of misinformation and hatchet jobs, you can't rely on the fact that your beliefs are good and true, while these Nazis' beliefs are a steaming toxic load of murderous shit. Because lies are the currency of the culture we're in.
Giving up the idea that people have the right to their opinion is extremely dangerous under these conditions. If you believe that the horrible quality of Nazis' opinions justifies them being fired, remember that those of us who opposed the Iraq War were portrayed as being terrorist sympathizers and traitors. It wasn't true, in our case, and it is true that Nazi opinions are poisonous crap. But the truth is not a defense under current conditions. We are not in a reality-based system. We are in a system where people at the top decide what story to push and then they push it and then they use it to justify the toxic shit they do.
Furthermore, I remember after 9/11 that we were all told we had to give up our moral principles because Bin Laden (and later, Hussein) were an expression of such totalitarian evil that we couldn't afford such things.
This is the left's 9/11. Are we going to fall for the same tactic that the right did?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Spare me the melodrama.
I didn't know you felt so strongly about people who venerate the ideology and folks who fought to keep slavery alive in America, or another ideology that held that one group was a master race, while the other was the reason for all the problems in a nation.
I don't like the false equivalency you're making between anti-war protestors and neo-Nazi scumbags. You want me to feel bad for these assholes losing their jobs for showing up to a rally to spew their toxic beliefs and vile hatred.
This may help.
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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
I will make a bold assertion based on my anecdotal evidence.
I have heard more stories of liberals/leftists getting fired over their political beliefs than right wingers. Corporations and many business owners are very conservative/reactionary. I remember reading once in a forum where a guy who ran of business having 12 employees openly admitted that he fired anybody who said they voted for a democrat.
While the exposure around the firing of American neo-Nazis maybe getting alot of press now, the hidden fact is that more people on the left have been fired for their political beliefs. Shit, one estimate I read said that 1-in-5 union organizers can expect to be fired for actions which are legal and protected.
What the Rational National purposes is to essentially doing is giving corporations and business owners more control over their employees to satisfy a political itch to see the Nazis laid low.
This is something that will bite leftists on the ass more than it bites Nazis.
And yes, this is unproductive hole to go down.
Edit: minor for phrasing.
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