The Totalitarian Leftist Tactics against the Right

There is a reason why the right-wing has nothing intellectually effective to answer with, but it's not because of anything related to childhood films and books. It's simply because, on the whole, right-wingers are notoriously incapable of mustering real evidence to support their position.You say it's an "accusation of racism." Yet the racism among right-wingers is real; you would have us believe that the overt racism of conservative, right-wing America in the 50s and 60s simply disappeared overnight -- a notion that runs counter to all evidence.- The "All Lives Matter" trope sprung up from conservative, right-wing America as a response to the "Black Lives Matter" movement. It wasn't a phrase after 9/11, or after Hurricane Katrina. It was specifically formulated after the Black Lives Matter movement gained traction; it's a reaction from right-wing America that seeks to minimize and erase the impact of #BlackLivesMatter. That's racism, because it's used as a cultural and social tool to suppress a legitimate movement for racial justice.- When right-wing America seeks to eliminate Affirmative Action policies in university admissions, that's racism, because it disenfranchises blacks and other PoC to the (unearned) advantage of whites. And when right-wing college kids whine about not getting into the school of their choice "because of Affirmative Action," that's racism, too.- When right-wingers complain about the Confederate flag's removal from South Carolina's state capitol, that's racism.- When my sister's right-wing mother-in-law says the 60s were a dark time for America because of the Black Panthers and American Indian Movement, that's racism, too -- and it's a view held by many right-wingers who are so fundamentally blind (or refuse to see) to the violence of state-sanctioned racism that they abhor the Black Panther Party of the 60s.The right-wing is actually replete with racist ideologies, and that's not an accusation but an observation built on years of accumulated evidence.And when the right-wing demonizes those who identify as LGTBQ+ and seek to enforce their own view of morality through legislation, that's a lack of empathy and humanity. When right-wing America turns to a populist demagogue for salvation when their wallets take a hit, instead of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps like they've long told PoC to do, that's hypocrisy. When right-wingers accuse the Left of political correctness, while burning the jerseys of a football player who wouldn't stand for the national anthem, that's also hypocrisy.And when they vote for a candidate who's entire campaign was launched with the lie of immigrant criminality, that's ignorance and bigotry.You're right. Right-wing America doesn't have anything comparable to hurl at the American left.

You're making this up. The Right has plenty of emotion-laden slogans aimed at character assassination. More stuff you're making up. Faith, you need to back up your claims with real evidence which establishes a standard for what constitutes "discussion," and then goes on to demonstrate that right-wing America is more geared to discussion than the left. Racism is an empirical reality, so marginalizing the term to "nothing but Political Correctness" is in itself a defense of the current social and institutional structures which uphold racism. The Black Lives Matter movement is not racist. It is anti-racist. Your critique of their methods only shows the extent of your white privilege, wherein you believe you hold the answers to what the appropriate approach to fighting oppression is. Blacks are getting killed by cops, by a racist legal system which incarcerates blacks and destroys their communities; this is state-sanctioned violence with very real and very lethal effects. Your obsession with MLK Jr.'s methods vs. those of, e.g., Malcolm X shows your obsession with keeping the racist status quo in place so that white, right-wing America doesn't have their lives disrupted by BLM protesters (the cultural sanitization of MLK Jr.'s approach notwithstanding). Sure, and the American revolutionaries of the 1700s were also a band of murdering thugs. Look, the Black Panthers were fighting (racist) state violence with violence. It seems that that's acceptable for white America to do (Revolutionary War, the Alamo, etc.), but not for blacks. And that ideological hypocrisy is a manifestation of your racism. "Right-wing America can't be anti-LGTBQ+ because Trump isn't" sounds awfully like "America can't be racist because it has a black President." Even if Trump is authentically in support of LGBTQ+ rights, that doesn't mean that right-wing America as a whole is. That's the whole point of the fight for transgender rights. You can't make little girls -- who happen to be transgender -- feel comfortable in a bathroom where men/boys are allowed. "You can just take your business elsewhere, boy, nobody's forcing you to use a whites-only business."Yeah, that's what you sound like. "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."Trump said specifically that Mexican undocumented immigrants are rapists. He assumes that "some" are good people. This is a complete reversal of empirical reality. If his campaign was built more on a model of truth, and not lie, he would have said something like: "They're good people. And some, I assume, are rapists."It's the right-wing base that cheered Trump for his demonization of undocumented immigrants. That's ignorance, and that's bigotry. Oh, c'mon. If Trump was actually concerned with national security instead of scapegoating an entire religious group, he'd put up a Male Ban. The gender of an individual is a far, far greater predictor of violence than religion; so if Trump and right-wingers were concerned with national security, they'd at least champion "extreme vetting" for ALL males entering the country. That'd be based on empirical evidence instead of scapegoating.But nope. You right-wingers love your scapegoats. Edited by Genomicus, : No reason given.

Faith, I have no problem raising my fist on a university campus in a black power/Marxist/solidarity/whatever-the-freak you want to call it symbol, in front of a line of riot cops and Trump supporters. But yeah, sure, I'll sit for an hour and listen to the same whitewashed, right-wing claptrap I've heard since I was a child.

I listened to Horowitz's speech. It's, sadly, a textbook example of ignoring empirical reality to suit political agenda. Nothing new there, and I was hoping for so much more.Anyway, now maybe you can explain why:- You (presumably) think it's okay for American revolutionaries in 1775 and beyond to use violence against the state, but Black Panthers in the 60s are branded as "thugs" for resisting state-sanctioned violence with violence.- You think it's okay for Trump to launch his entire campaign by painting undocumented immigrants as rapists and criminals, which flies in the face of reality.- You think that national security is better preserved by banning or instituting "extreme vetting" of Muslim refugees instead of putting in place extreme vetting for all males, regardless of religious identity or national origin. The "national security" argument for barring or limiting Muslim refugees is egregious nonsense because the predominant predictor of violence is the gender of an individual, and not religion or national origin.

First, of course, I must highlight the irony -- as Dr. A did -- of suggesting that the right has no organized weaponry of character assassination, when your whole response could be used as a case study in the art of character assassination.And you're wrong, of course: the right has its own armory of political correctness. That's why UNM professor Richard Berthold received death threats and was pressured to retire because of an "unpatriotic" quip he made to his class on 9/11; Mohammad Rahat of the University of Miami was suspended and fired from his university job; Jonnie Hargis of UCLA was suspended for an email critical of U.S. policy in Iraq and Israel; Columbia University professor Nicholas de Genova was roundly criticized by the public and members of the U.S. House of Representatives for his antiwar comments; and on and on.This just a small sampling of the political correctness that the right seeks to enforce. This does not take into consideration the broader, historical "political correctness" from right-wing America, which was used, e.g., in the 90s to fire and suspend university faculty for presenting material that discussed homosexuality and gay rights.And, of course, the right-wing can rely on more than just character assassination: if they don't like what you're saying, they can just deport you (e.g., the case of Daniela Vargas). This is all a rather far-cry from Horowitz's bizarre, truth-inverting portrayal of right-wingers as preferring a more analytical, "accountant style" of discussion. Nothing about Milo Yiannopoulos' speeches at universities are "analyses of problems." They are, instead, emotionally-laden and fact-free content that urge people to "purge local illegals" from campus by reporting them to ICE. In fact, Milo Yiannopoulos' and his fanboys routinely use character assassination and shaming to silence and intimidate e.g. trans folks. No, racism is a system of power and (unearned) privilege afforded to one racial group of people to the detriment of other racial groups. No, the problem isn't the Left. The problem is racism. And racism-blind people like you who, because of your white privilege and apparent incapacity to break through your delusions, are blind to the systems and institutions which continue to uphold and enforce racism. No, you have respect for laws that systematically give you unearned advantage.Malcolm X's methods worked. Are you done with your "OMG-that's-so-vile-I'm-going-to-throw-up" routine?If you consider the Black Panther Party just a "band of murdering thugs," then one can consider the American revolutionaries a band of murdering thugs, too. I mean, I'm sure John Roberts -- a loyalist Charleston minister who was tarred, feathered, and murdered by an American revolutionary mob -- would agree with me on that. No, the Black Panther Party was fighting a system of racial injustice that routinely disenfranchised and killed black folks. Yes, I do know what he meant. He meant that when Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.That's what he meant. Do you know what he meant? The "civilized" right prefers to deport, incarcerate, and kill the people they don't care for. I mean, who needs to be bad-mannered when you can just deport, incarcerate, and kill the people who don't fit the dimensions of your ideology, right? Lol. Yes, Trump has demonized undocumented immigrants. Milo has demonized undocumented immigrants. John Arpaio has demonized undocumented immigrants.But you're not undocumented, so you wouldn't know what that routine, systematic demonization is like. Wat. I know that Islam is a multifaceted, non-monolithic religion with hundreds of millions of people around the world with vastly different beliefs and social structures. I know that none of the many Muslims I personally know are seeking to kill me or convert me, despite the fact that I am not Muslim. I know that these Muslims have close friends in the LGBTQ+ community, in the Christian community, in the non-religious community, and many are strongly feminist.So what do you know about Islam?Edited by Genomicus, : No reason given.

No, just a never-ending epidemic of right-wing cisgenderness.

No, Faith, you may not obscure the point I was making about political correctness, which IS an organized, systematic arsenal of weaponry of character assassination on the Right.I'm not seeing you present any evidence that the Left's version of "Political Correctness" is more organized and systematic than the Right's version of PC.

Political correctness as an idea doesn't have a concrete, singular origin. The Right has just as much PC-ness as the Left, and uses its version of PC to enforce a particular strain of "correct" ideology on the public and culture.

That you think that the Black Panther Party was a "band of murderous thugs," while the American revolutionaries were not, is a hint of the deep well of racism from which you continue to draw from. You apparently consider the existence of the white power structure of the 60s and 70s not deserving of the violence that British troops were subjected to in 1775 and beyond. One wonders why.Your critique of anything that is unapologetically pro-black and anti-white-supremacy (e.g., Black Lives Matter) is another clue to your racism. Racism isn't just hurling epithets and discrimination against an individual; it can also manifest itself in the defense of white supremacy, power, and privilege, and that's something you routinely do.

You're a weird one. As others have noted, this very nicely describes you: you are sure you are right, and can't imagine how you aren't. Conservatives have just as much a strain of haughty moral certainty for their position as "Leftists" do. Conservatives have just as much (if not more) willingness to destroy their opponents. You're living in a world of delusion, Faith. Well, get of your Offended Wounded Victim horse and start engaging with the real arguments that have been put forth against your position. No need to make yourself out to be a special little snowflake.

No, Faith, you are either a liar or incredibly easy to manipulate and incapable of presenting reputable evidence. For example, one of your videos features "Muslims attacking a Christmas tree." This didn't happen; this is reality distortion. The actual event took place in a Cairo mall, and it wasn't even an anti-Christmas affair. See here: http://www.snopes.com/offended-muslims-attack-christmas-treeYou have repeatedly been shown to lack the ability to discern good sources of evidence from laughably ridiculous sources of evidence, so where's the work ethic, Faith? Why don't you put in the work to actually vet your sources?

No Jim Crow Laws stipulated that all businesses had to be whites only. These laws did enforce discrimination in public accommodations -- but private businesses also had the liberty to only accept whites if they so chose, as Randall Kennedy alluded to in his essay "The Civil Rights Act's Unsung Victory":"The drive took us into territory that featured signs distinguishing 'colored women' from 'white ladies,' signs indicating whether a business served blacks, signs designating which toilets or water fountains or entrances African Americans were permitted to use. In those days it was legal throughout the Deep South for privately owned places of public accommodation to exclude people on the basis of race colored not allowed or to discriminate against them in other ways colored served only in the rear. This reality prompted Victor H. Green, of Harlem, to publish The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide to establishments throughout the United States that served black travelers. He understood the anxiety that beset African Americans as they sought to obtain elementary decencies on the nation’s highways."The comparison, then, is entirely fair.

These "vaunted freedoms" you speak of only existed for a specific subset of individuals in the United States. Trump's supporters wants to reinforce that exclusion. That's the problem. If you had more concern for the plight of undocumented immigrants -- which is an actual humanitarian concern -- then maybe you'd understand why a comedian holding up a severed head pales in comparison to what the right-wing is doing.

They are all for restricting the freedoms of undocumented immigrants. I mean not all of you Trump supporters. I was having a discussion on Quora the other day where this Trump supporter proposed rounding up all undocumented immigrants and forcing them to do free labor. You fundamentally do not understand the degree of vitriol that undocumented immigrants face on the regular from many Trump supporters. What is the problem, exactly, of granting a pathway to citizenship to someone who was brought here at 2 years of age and has been in the United States ever since and has been thoroughly "Americanized"? And the rightist opposition to understanding the plight of undocumented immigrants and what systems create that plight borders on inhumanity.Could care less about treason if it means doing something that's actually humane and fosters a respect for human dignity.Edited by Genomicus, : No reason given.

And insane societies criminalize people for reasons rooted in fear, bigotry, and anti-humaneness. Which is what U.S. society has been doing for around 2 centuries. So it's not like we're starting out with a sane society in the U.S. in the first place. So, ergo, you're all for restricting the freedoms of these people. Therefore, Trump supporters are indeed in favor of restricting the freedom of several millions of people. That's my point. You can try to provide all the justification you want, but my point still stands. This is why it's always okay to punch a Nazi. Undocumented immigrants who have actually contributed a great deal of value to society (as most of them have) deserve their rights a whole lot more than some Middle America kid who didn't do anything but pop out through an American citizen's birth canal. Because a great number of laws are designed to protect the interests of a particular group of people while engendering the institutionalized oppression of others. The law isn't sacrosanct. No, their anger results from their knee-jerk fear of brown people. And their fear of losing their thoroughly unearned privileges. It's far, far from righteous anger.