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August 13, 2017
Who would’ve thought the conlave of white supremacist groups in Charlottesville, VA would turn violent? Those legions of gun- and bat-toting manly men flaunting Nazi memes, Confederate flags, KKK gear and racist slogans simply wanted to raise their voices in peaceful unity and patriotism. And in protest against the removal of a statue that glorifies the South’s traitorous violent rebellion against its government in defense of slavery which had nothing whatsoever to do with slavery, it was about states rights. The Confederate flag is only about recognizing Southern heritage.
I guess the South has virtually nothing in its heritage to be proud of aside from the not-about-slavery Civil War. I’d gladly donate to a fund to remove all Confederate kitschware in public venues and replace them with likenesses of The Carter Family, Jimmy Rodgers, Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, Kitty Wells and Doc Boggs. The state rights rationale, as always, is a joke. Whenever federal law supercedes a much loved discriminatory law there are screams about states rights; it’s always a purely subjective tantrum. If Jeff Sessions decides to tear down the legalization of marijuana in states that have legalized it – the federal ban supercedes the state laws – will those Southerners against legalization scream states rights?
Aside from the melting pot of delusions that germinate these groups, what’s most disturbing about the violence in Charlottesville is the real time unfolding of what I’ve seen as a civil war being stoked for profit by Fox New and right wing talk radio and internet over the past 20 years. A notable benchmark on this path is Sarah Palin’s speechifying during the 2008 presidential campaign where she’d address her audiences in the South and Midwest as the real Americans. Stating flatly through my TV that I’m not a real American; I’m the enemy of real Americans. So are my friends and family members. This type of framing has become the norm. Half of America is the enemy of the other half.
We now have a president whose base is populated – in part – by the entire white supremacist movement that publically vows its allegiance to Trump. Trump publically acknowledged that mutual support when he refused to mention those groups as the instigators of the Charlottesville violence. These groups had been festering underground till Trump made it safe for them sieg heil in public view. The last thing we need is a media-enforced apology signifier: Apparently I misspoke. I’m sorry if my words inadvertently offended anybody. Only a masochist would take that as a move-on moment.
So we now have violent militias with a common articulated worldview – the white race as the sole entitled inhabitants of the USA – and a short list of enemies to conquer in the name of the patriotism, the Second Amendment, Jesus and the Master Race. They have the tacit approval of the president and at least one of his chief advisors. And they have the right to openly carry assault weapons in a number of states. They also have an expanding global media microphone.
The only thing about this movement that provides some comic relief is their claim to be doing their good works in the service of Jesus, a semitically swarthy pious Jew who had never converted from his pious Judiaism. Not exactly a carrier of Aryan Master Race DNA. Their fascist model back then would have been the Roman Empire’s overlords who ordered the crucifixion.
— Polar Levine, News Goo Dissection, August 13, 2017
© Polar Levine 2017 content should not be reproduced elsewhere without prior permission
