When Trump Is Gone, Don’t Let Right-Wingers Pretend They Were Innocent

Like the Germans that lived near Nazi death camps, they will claim “We didn’t know.” BUT THEY DID.
Terrorism • Views: 34,963

A few years ago, after the marches in Charlottesville, I added (extinguisher of tiki torches) to my nym here. I’ve made various other changes over the years, such as when I snarked on the non-existent massacre at Bowling Green. But I kinda let this little comment ride, because it reflects how I feel about America right now, and our duty as decent citizens to unite against the growing white supremacist hate.

A day ago, it was noted that Trump cannot label these mass shootings as terrorism, because to do so would implicate his followers as terrorists, and himself as the inciter-in-chief:

“This is a clear manifestation of the political discourse that has taken place in the country over the past two years or so,” one Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told The Daily Beast. “It cannot be blamed on mental health. This is an ideology-driven hate crime. This is terrorism and the White House has trouble labeling it as such. It is very frustrating.

And then there’s this today:

“How far is it from Trump’s saying this ‘is an invasion’ to the shooter in El Paso declaring ‘his attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas?’ Not far at all,” Biden will say. “In both clear language and in code, this president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation.”

It is tempting to blame this all on Trump.

But Trump is just one man. It is the right-wing news media that give him cover by lying to their audiences. It is those audiences of gullible frightened old white people who eagerly drink up the hate.

What Joaquin Castro has done has to be just the beginning. We need to name-and-shame each and every one of Trump’s enthusiastic supporters. By this point they know.

They fucking KNOW.

No letting them cling to the excuses that the Germans living near the concentration camps, that they “didn’t know what was happening and now that they do, they are shocked.”

Generallismo Francisco Franco’s followers were allowed to live their lives openly, without fear of reprisal. This is being re-evaluated in Spain - FINALLY.

They must be held accountable for what they have done, for what they are doing, for what they will do. They must not be let off the hook for this. Not like the “pacto de olvido” in Spain that has allowed Franco’s sick & deviant supporters to pretend that while bad things happened, sure, that’s all in the past, and besides the Other Guys did bad stuff too…

We must drag these evil Trump supporters out into the full glare of media name & shame. We must humiliate them. We must hang Trump around their necks and stigmatize them so that they live their every day henceforth in a state of deep guilt and embarassment.

What Joaquin Castro is doing must be only the first step in this process.

REP JOAQUIN CASTRO: I’ve heard so many stories from folks the last few years, but in particular the last few months as his campaign has started to intensify, about how they don’t feel safe. These are brown-skinned people that can’t hide their skin color. They can’t hide themselves in public. He’s made them a constant target. they can’t get away from that. Every time they go outside, they’re fearful. So, yeah, you’ve got a lot of people in this country that are living in fear because of this president. And what I’m asking for is for people who are making contributions to that effort to think twice about it, and I’m directly asking the president to stop spending money on campaign ads that target an entire community and inspire shooters like the one in El Paso to go do what he did.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal
Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh
Why Did More Than 1,000 People Die After Police Subdued Them With Force That Isn’t Meant to Kill? An investigation led by The Associated Press has found that, over a decade, more than 1,000 people died after police subdued them through physical holds, stun guns, body blows and other force not intended to be lethal. More: Why ...
Cheechako
Yesterday
Views: 31 • Comments: 0 • Rating: 0
A Closer Look at the Eastman State Bar DecisionTaking a few minutes away from work things to read through the Eastman decision. As I'm sure many of you know, Eastman was my law school con law professor. I knew him pretty well because I was also running in ...
KGxvi
Yesterday
Views: 86 • Comments: 1 • Rating: 1