the alt-right

In any case, confronting a group of rowdy teenagers to try to stop a potentially violent situation is admirable behavior no matter how you do it. That dude is the only actor in the scene who is wholly sympathetic. The kid was part of a mob of racist douchebags and the shittiness people have read into his smile is probably not too far off the mark—his friends were mocking philips. I just wonder if it’s a good idea to single out specific adolescents on a national stage ad symbols of evil—there is a clear element of mob mentality at play here too.

Fred OTM here, except for the weird misreading of the Treeship post.

I never mentioned Treeship in that post and you should stop jumping to conclusions and give me the very most generous interpretation of what I wrote because it could clearly be interpreted in a way where it all made perfect sense, and if you aren't willing to do that then what the fuck is wrong with you all?

Sorry, I'm just so fucking tired of this shit. I honestly do apologize if it seemed like I was aiming at you when I was mixing much broader attacks in there.

It’s fine dude, i don’t hold grudges

But to clarify, Treeship, I don't think the problem is mob-mentality in general. There's racism, and there's the protection of numbers. Both are 'mobs' but they're very different mobs.

What age is this little prick anyway?

Apparently a high school junior so 16 or 17 most likely

We've already established that age is just a number and that mob mentality isn't a problem when it echoes our own beliefs.

Talk about shitty interpretations.

Showing off in front of your mates is something men are stupid enough to do at any age.

Well you're basically espousing a zero-sum game approach: who gives a fuck about this shitty kid, there are so many other more important things to worry about, nuance is a waste of time in this instance. It's a legitimate point of view, but one I can't get behind it, sorry.

xp

Scratch that last 'it'.

The impasse that keeps coming up is that the right wing in america in 2019 is so hateful, so radical, so irresponsible and so dishonest, that at any point critiquing the shortcomings of the left feels bizarre, like complaining about a broken window when the house is on fire. I get this position. But i also think it’s important to keep ourselves to a higher standard of conduct. So my critique of the excesses of call out culture and other things come from that standpoint.

There's nothing nuanced about a MAGA-cap, and attempting to get a nuanced reading of MAGA-cap-wearing people is nonsensical. It's completely breathtaking to read the statement from the kid, who not once mentions the fact that they were wearing caps swearing allegiance to a racist, sexist piece of shit. The gall to constantly wonder why on earth anyone would choose to attack us poor white Trump'ers, when we clearly have no hate in our hearts and our little heads wearing hateful hats.

I don't know about you, but a 16 or 17 year old wearing a MAGA cap doesn't elicit the same reaction from me as an adult doing the same. That's what I mean by 'nuance'.

16 year old in a MAGA cap makes me angrier because they're young enough to know better

Yeah, except this is Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, KY we're talking about. All-male to boot.

You should be old enough at 16-17 not to wear a MAGA cap. It's not hard. Gillette explained it recently.

lol

Look, it's really pretty simple: You show up at the March For Life wearing a MAGA hat, you've already revealed yourself as human garbage. You don't have to have any kind of interaction with a member of a minority group to further prove your human garbage status.

Why single out this kid who's not even old enough to vote, then, out of everyone who goes to pro-life rallies or wears MAGA hats?

think it all boils down to the dude's smug and exquisitely punchable face honestly

yeah but it is a kid and he's fucking blowing up all over the internet. idk.

NO QUARTER FOR THE CHILDREN OF OUR ENEMIES!

i would honestly rather be burned alive than be subject to the ire of a nation. i would never wear a MAGA hat so i am not at risk of *this* kind of anger, but people are getting called out all the time and sometimes there is gratuitousness to it and cruelty

I thought the guy being called out and getting death threats was the wrong guy and it was another guy.

the thing is, death threats should just in no case be happening

who are the death threat senders? it's usually not MAGA teens getting death threats, it's like feminist bloggers and things.

think it all boils down to the dude's smug and exquisitely punchable face honestly

I think this is part of what creeps me out: he's targeted for not being photogenic enough.

he's a meme, he captures a certain feeling too well

is that justifiable though?

the way the media singles out, pours attention onto & judges individuals generally is very bad, this case is not exceptional though imo

That hat represents a million jobs taken hostage in the name of white supremacy, thousands of brown kids separated from their families, "Pocahontas" being thrown around as a slur, the 'right' to commit any criminal action you see fit so long as you're rich and white - his face just perfectly captures everything reprehensible about the MAGA movement, "what are you going to do about it??" Like, I don't think the kid 'deserves' this, but then I think about Christine Ford and just go, "whatever, fuck him"

I don't think the kid 'deserves' this

U&K

lol the only thing that scans as to me is "Undertaker and Kane"

I assume it's because he's a kid that this has captured so much attention. The whole image is more conflicted and painful this way.

Same! :) xp

I can maybe give middle aged dudes in red hats some benefit of the doubt - they may really hope or think that trump will make their lives better, which of course means that they aren’t all that smart or are terribly desperate or deluded (especially in 2019).

Whereas I imagine a teenager with one is guaranteed to be a smug trolling asshole at best and a virulent racist at worst.

i agree jmm. it raises the specter of a new generation of right wing nationalists, which is more upsetting than seeing trump as the last gasp of a fading generation.

just sitting here imagining a group of black or hispanic male teens shucking their shirts, hopping around chanting, mugging for the camera outside of the Lincoln monument.

i'm sure the MSM would be bending over backwards to see some "nuance"

Tit-for-tat, always the best strategy, amirite.

i don't know what the media would do, but i wouldn't want a 16 year old individual from that hypothetical group singled out for special condemnation xp

ftr i'm not singling out the main twerp; the whole group is deplorable. particularly any adults from Convington who were there to "chaperone".

and yeah, the BHI dudes are total assholes. all what, 4 of them?

I don't even know what the argument is at this point. "The original narrative we were righteously outraged about was probably wrong but, eh, fuck him anyway"?

This is a long but interesting Twitter thread. (TL;DR: the school that produced these MAGA-hat fucks should be burned to the ground, as it's a breeding ground for racists and rapists.)

The MAGA kids’ school seems extremely and consistently horrible pic.twitter.com/fSsPpOigvn

— pizza roll heiress (@christapeterso) January 20, 2019

"The original narrative" was just the 2-minute clip. I don't think people were particularly interested in what "started it"

yeah there isn't really any nuance here? this kid sucks.

The original narrative was that a mob of white students were harassing and intimidating an elderly vet during the Indigenous People's March, which context doesn't really support. No one was calling for expulsions over a hat or attendance at the March for Life. xp

or over other bad things that happened at their school involving other people