charlottesville antics

[Ben]

so, we are a week out from the latest political hubbub- this one hits me a little bit close to home, considering i happen to live in the lovely city of charlottesville, VA

more specifically, i live in the city center of charlottesville. most specifically, i can see the controversial park from my workplace and could run there in fewer than 10 minutes from where i currently sit in my apartment

the recap, as told from my memory:

there is a local alt-right crazy that, rumor has it, lives in a house with others suffering from some disability or another (not to shame them, but to wonder what disability this guy has) named kessler. we recently (within the last few years) elected a somewhat belligerent vice mayor named wes bellamy

wes bellamy calls for a park in the center of the city, Lee Park (named for robert e lee) to be rededicated, and for the statue to be removed. kessler sees this as a thread against his pro-white agenda and digs up some gross, anti-white tweets from bellamy to justify removing him

a few weeks ago, there was a KKK demonstration that i was witness to (waiting for a bus, i swear) to show support for keeping the statue. it was not terrible (i mean, apart from the obvious) and was held during the day

last weekend, though, the wal mart nearest us was shut down due to some folks bringing in guns and as i was out on the downtown mall, i saw people walking with knives and the now-iconic tiki torches

come saturday, way more people came out to protest the removal of the statue than expected and so the permit to protest in that park was moved. at this point, the protesters were therefore illegally gathered at the park and were also chucking their torches and etc at the counterprotest. in the mess, one person managed to plow their car into some others and killed a girl. there are a few memorials now around for her, im sure you heard

[Ben]

anyway- this has been pretty crazy around here. my perspective on the statue issue has ranged from a libertarian sort of "why are we paying to make statues and then paying to remove them, just to pay to replace them? who makes these decisions" to "well, removing this statue is just part of the civil war that lives on and so we should do it" to "looks like we have to discuss what free speech means" to "ok i guess we arent clear when its appropriate to ram your car into human beings"

my question for anyone is, what have you heard? what do you think about the broader issue as well as the actual events as they have transpired?

[Ben]

included also is trump's inability to have a strong opinion on the subject

[Kentucky Fried]

my question for you is have you punched a nazi yet?

[grue]

weird times

so, we in the old continent deal with the ocasional far-right protest now and then. it's always been the case, noone really gives them much credit. sometimes, one or two get arrested for beating/killing a black guy, for arms dealing etc., and they're jailed for 15+ years so effectively they're put out of commission. the far-right is fringe and in my eyes not much different from any other violent gang. so yeah, dangerous, but not in the political sense. the most repulsive thing they do from a political standpoint is freely join the militarized police, as it is a way for them to harass immigrants without consequence. currently there's a major cracckdown on that going on.

even then I don't consider them worthy of my times from a political organization standpoint. they're just scum.

what makes this issue interesting to me is this orwellianesque newspeech kind of deal that we're facing nowadays, since trump allied himself with a special brand of far-right that specialized itself in, uhm, linguistic warfare? there's an army of youtube pundits, right-wing media journalists, political agents and now of course the president in what seems to be a semi-orchestrated effort to subvert conventional meaning and thriving on that dumbing down for political gain.

I mean seriously, fake news? alt-right? alt-left? antifa? does anyone know what these words mean in a material sense? no. and they are taking advantage of the fast-paced media consumption to throw shit out there and then just move on before any serious enquiry can take place. there's literally no point nowadays in writing an exposé on a particular youtube pundit, pointing out the stacking logical fallacies, lack of research and outright lies and manipulation, because by the time you're done he's moved on to a different issue. the damage is done.

and the worse thing about it sthat this is trickling upwards to the arguably most powerful man in the planet. he himself is playing that game. there hasn't been one coherent idea coming out of that man's mouth or fingers ever since he started his political campaign. his tweets and press conferences are a stream of nothingness.

it's only in this millieu of bad ideas that i can understand why your average chinless turd would even contemplate marching alongside armed nazis shouting blood and soil and tell himself that he's got nothing to do with that. how?? how can ANYONE buy into that rhetoric? am I going crazy?

I'm not going crazy. this is a purposeful, orchestrated fucking erasure of meaning. and yes, before you think it, I saw the exact same thing with hillary clinton, except she would support other fringe crazies on the left. the fact is that what is important is not that nazis or moron anarchists are marching the streets, but that our cultural paradigm isn't allowing people to get a fucking grip about it. this is a nightmare. words are dead. fucking hell.

[fat lesbian]

i mean white supremacists murdered a woman i don't think there's much discussion to be had about how people are really failing to recognize these people for what they are and isolate them and stop this liberal freeze peach nonsense

[fat lesbian]

a professional sports organization literally condemned white supremacists before and better than the president so really what is there to discuss. white supremacists aren't a topic for debate they're a blight and need to be taken care of swiftly and harshly

[grue]

yeah just lke last time I was at this gathering of people, and then the armed militias came and I though oh nice, these guys nevver really go out much it's a good oportunity to socialize, right? well THEN some dudes with the KKK - that as it turns out helped organize the whole thing - they show up, which I thought was a little excessive but who am I to judge, right? so some other dudes at the front were like alright this is my jam so they take out their nazi flags, like full-blown swastikas, and I thought huh, kinda rude? so there I was, the KKK on one side, the nazis on the other, I'm feeling a little spaced out to be honest but they start handing out torches! neat, so that's a fun activity. and there were chants, something about blood and soil, don't know what that's about. and then they were singing about the jews which I don't really agree with, you know me, I'm not a jew hater, but I guess when in rome... right? so I sang along, now suddenly for no reason these violent thugs come along - now I know they were thughs because they were, uhm, ethnic? they come along and ruin a perfectly nice evening of torch waving, hate chanting, white pride party time. what gives?

anyway, that's when I said woah dude, let me get out before someone gets hurt! I don't associate myself with this violent alt-left, a man needs some standards in his life. I brought the torch home with me, though, as a keepsake!

[risbolla]

fuck wypipo nd fuck drumpf !!!

[fat lesbian]

anyway, and this is definitely an @ so take it how you will, enabling white supremacy through your tone, your words, and your actions (including using the most negative phrasing ie "gross" for... """anti white""" tweets, as if that's even a thing) is telling and disappointing, but not surprising ?

[fat lesbian]

tfw in a post about white supremacists murdering a woman at a rally that included members of the kkk and proud boys the only explicit condemnation is of "anti white" tweets
whose side are you on, again?

[grue]

can't I advocate for an all-white neighbourhood without the globalists shoving gay marriage down my throat specifically? hillary's emails

[grue]

"Stop letting cops kill black people with impunity!"

wow uhm first of all stop ALL deaths am I right? *mindless crowd clapping* yeah I thought so. let's compare your message to the holocaust for just a second: do you think george washington died just so that you could try to silence my support of the police? The Constitution. this nazi flag is my right to speak, I can show any symbols I WANT - woah woah what are you doing with that sicle and hammer, motherfucker? let me compare you again to another prominent jew killer. what, don't like it? The Market. what do you mean, I'm losing my job for supporting the holocaust? help me Trump

[Ben]

tfw in a post about white supremacists murdering a woman at a rally that included members of the kkk and proud boys the only explicit condemnation is of "anti white" tweets
whose side are you on, again?

I'm on the side of the people trying to stop the literal nazis who have invaded the city in which I live. I don't have "I disagree with nazism" tattooed on me because it goes without saying. I kinda wanted a discussion rather than bait so please refrain in the future

Obviously I hate kessler, Richard spencer, the alt right, the pro white weirdos, trump, nazis, people in polos yelling with torches, people who think keeping the confederacy alive means "teaching history", and especially people who ram their car into crwds practicing the rights outlined by the man who fathered this awesome city of charlottesville. But I said anti white lol lock me up

anyway sorry, to defend my coldness in the OP without snideness: i really just wanted to present the barest, boringest facts so that people felt free to come forward with whatever. i am literally livin this nightmare and have had to fear for the safety of my self and friends so theres no need to get preachy to me in particular. carry on.

[fat lesbian]

but does it actually go without saying Ben