Running AOC thread (CURRENTLY: Trump's controversial tweets)

There's one thing about this that gnaws at me.

My wife can be highly critical of America (though she does acknowledge our postal system kicks ass!). If someone hears her bitching about America and tells this pasty white person to go back to Russia . . . is that "racism"?

Seems easy to call it that when we're telling brown people to go back to their brown countries. But the line blurs a little if you're telling a white person to go back to their white countries.

There's one thing about this that gnaws at me.

My wife can be highly critical of America (though she does acknowledge our postal system kicks ass!). If someone hears her bitching about America and tells this pasty white person to go back to Russia . . . is that "racism"?

This is a very smart thread of tweets that explains so much of the behavior of so many conservatives, particularly a few of a our friends on this board.
We might as well call it the Pallister/Old Tony Doctrine.





"Did Donald Trump rape E. Carroll Jean?"

For a Republican, the answer isn't yes or no, it's: "who gives a shit?"

The next step is finding the reason not to give a shit.

Any reason will do.

They don't care so much, they resent even the suggestion they should care.

They use the fact that people think they should care as a reason to not care.

Again, any reason will do.

It's not about the reason. It's about not caring.

The appeal of Trump is permission to not care.

We can't understand how every single awful boorish stupid uncaring callous and downright hateful thing he says doesn't torpedo him

It's because that's the whole appeal. The fact that he doesn't care about the harm he does is license to not care

More: to not even have to pretend

What we're learning is just how many people have been pretending at the most basic human decency

They've HATED feeling compelled to pretend. They so love the license to stop

They can't imagine anybody isn't pretending

When they run into virtue, they call it "virtue signalling"

Most fine qualities have their corresponding sneering epithet, designed to allow the person viewing it to avoid the natural conviction toward decency, another excuse to avoid caring:

Empathy? "Snowflake."
Inclusivity? "Safe Space."
Integrity? "Social Justice Warrior"

The entire framework rests on a bedrock assumption, that some people matter, others don't, and it's perfectly fine to say or do anything you want to defeat those that don't matter, for whatever value of "defeat" you can get away with being seen making yourself comfortable with.

This is how you can tell. Ask them if they care about [thing any human should care about]

Answer: OBAMA DID IT FIRST

What is that?

I'll tell you what that is.

It's permission to not care.

Is it true Obama did it first? Answer: So what?

Even if true (usually not), so what? Do you, human being I'm talking to, give a shit?

Answer: No. They don't. Their only program is to convince themselves YOU don't.

So they can go back to not caring

"DEMOCRATS FOUNDED THE KKK"

What is that? It's permission to not care about racism today.

It's license to not give a shit about the KKK, or confederates, or those who would ally with them, or where those people align ideologically, today.

Any excuse will do.

Don't forget that Pressley's background is even more damning in this sense than AOC's. Her parents are from Chicago and Ohio. 

We've seen people make stupid pseudo arguments here that Puerto Rico is somehow not actually part of the United States (the President, actually) but there is really nothing you can say about Pressley that makes are less "American" than Trump other than, I guess, she's black. 

Where was the liberal outrage when the fab 4 insulted Israel?