Posted on 08/18/2017 7:12:09 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Responding to this editorial:
Protesting the Racist Violence in Charlottesville
Which linked to, end endorsed, this extreme anti-Trump view from BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40948812
Hello Consistent Life Friends,
This is worth a look:
I have to say the CL response to the Charlottesville Violence did not display your usual careful, disciplined sense of accuracy and justice.
It seems strange to me that when the alt-right guy's car plowed into the crowd, causing horrible injury and death, it took a nanosecond for the media to determine that it was deliberate and motivated by race-hatred, an instant judgment apparently accepted by CL as well.
But when a Muslim shouting "Allahu Akhbar" does the same, we hear "What could possibly be the motivation?" "Was it terrorism? Homesickness? Mental illness? Disappointment? Unemployment? Reaction to European climate and cuisine?" "We may never know!" --- followed by a judicious caution about the grave error of thoughtlessly linking Islam to Islamism.
I do not know for a fact that the Charlottesville killing was murder. I grant you, it looked like second-degree murder to me at first glance, but we do not judge at first glance, do we?
There are observers who studied the video, seemingly pixel-by-pixel, who say there are indications the driver hit the breaks before his car hit the other vehicles and the crowd. Is this true? I don't know. I have no idea. But the point is, neither do you. If it IS true, it would change everything. Isn't that why we have trials, forensic evidence experts, and juries before we pronounce on an accused perpetrator's guilt?
The idea that there was a huge moral gulf between the alt-right protesters and the ctrl-left counter-protesters also seems rather spurious.
As far as I can make out, on the Right, there was a spectrum ranging from KKK and Nazi to Sons of the Confederacy, Southern Partisans, culture-and-heritage groups, various curators/conservators of civic, historic and gravesite monuments, and free speech advocates. (All listed by the SPLC as hate groups, of course. SPLC also lists the Family Research Council, Fidelity Press, and Catholic Family News.)
They had worked together with the police for weeks in advance to try to insure a peaceable, orderly assembly. They had a city permit.
(Interestingly, the United the Right coordinator, Jason Kessler, was ---according to SPLC--- also involved with Occupy Wall Street and the Obama campaign. Is this true? Well, maybe, maybe not, depending on whether SPLC research can be followed through all the zigs and zags!)
On the Left, there was CPUSA, Revolutionary Marxists, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, Unidos US (formerly La Raza), Black Bloc anarchists, and various wannabe felons (legit protestors don't bring cement-filled beverage cans, ball-bats wrapped with barbed wire, bike chains and and steel-shot-weighted gloves) plus liberal Democrats, peaceful race harmony people, and again, free speech advocates.
According to the article listed above, it is not a grotesque or ignorant fringe, but a plurality of Americans surveyed, who believe (despite the unbroken drum-beat of media bias) that the Right was not solely responsible for the violence. The numbers were that 40% said there was blame on "both sides," 9% said "it was mostly the Left," and 46% said "mostly the Right." That's 49% said "both sides + Left," vs. 46% saying "it was just the Right."
The accuracy of these perceptions or the significance of these numbers may be debated, but one conclusion you can draw is that Trump's remarks deploring violence "on both sides," was not an ominous, pro-KKK-Nazi stance. It reflected what many or most people saw and thought.
With sincere good will,
[signed]
Class, discuss.
I think you meant “brakes,” not “breaks.”
From a structural standpoint, I think it would be stronger if you went through the idea of waiting for a verdict, as opposed to an instant assessment of intentional killing, and after that, brought in the information about the reaction to Islamist killings.
Beautifully written and rational response to the knee jerk reactions of the MSM and progressives. God bless you.
great points...
the female who died was an Antifa activist and was not an innocent bystander...her own mother said they killed her to shut her up...she was a spokesman for Antifa ???
its possible she was also participating in the mayhem...
the friend’s fiancé who was so called injured started a gofundme and collected $100,000...there are photos of him carrying a baseball bat earlier in the day...
hopefully Jeff Sessions can find out all the truth in his investigations...
Nice job.
Excellent!
Blessings!
hopefully Jeff Sessions can find out all the truth in his investigations...
Brakes.
You are right.
Maybe alt-right.
I’m sure you didn’t mean that like it sounded, she says, having already arranged to have that sentiment on her tombstone ...
I already sent this to CL, but I suppose I'll do a little copyediting before I put this in the hands of my pro-life, kinda CL-like, liberal pastor, the very fair-minded Fr. Pete.
Usually Don-o copyedits for me. This time I just churned it out and sent it, because I was indignant and much in a rush. €:√O
The perp was a diagnosed schizophrenic and the Va police have only charged him with 2nd degree... which means they don’t have probable cause at this point in their investigation to say it was terrorism.
There were also news reports quoting anonymous march organizers who implied that the march route was kept secret and that if it had not been for the death car looking like a cop car, it would not have been given access to the street. So either the driver had accomplices scouting for him, or the driver found himself on the street rather by accident.
It’s not wrong, other than the “breaks,” it’s just that, with the school year starting, I’m in hyper-edit mode.
This is the year (she says, again) in which Patrick (Calculus II at 15) is going to learn to write a paragraph in less than a day, without threats of starvation or *never programming again*.
There were two other cars on that street that were blocked by alt-left protesters after the main event. If you watch the drone video it looks like the protesters were disassembling and going their own way until the first of the two cars, a minivan hit, one or two of the protestors and was stopped. That stopped the white car immediately following. Protesters surrounded both cars blocking the view of the oncoming Dodge.
True, but I think it’s clear the Dodge hit people directly, and not just indirectly through the other cars. Not sure where Ms. Heyer was, precisely, which may be a relevant point at trial.
It’s going to be interesting. Someone hit his car before he drove into the crowd. One video showed him braking. At his age, I wonder if he had the presence of mind needed. He hit people directly and indirectly. One of the videos showed the white car hit someone after being hit by the Dodge. It looked like they may have been sandwiched between the white car and the minivan front.
http://blog.adw.org/2017/08/sin-rash-judgment-seen-commercial/
These remarks by Msgr. Pope apply to the situation.
There is no talking sense to the Left. It’s gone beyond the point of talking anymore. This is war.
"The Left" is not a monolithic thing. Don't forget that 8% of black voters, 29% of Hispanics, and and over 40% of the white working class in the (big D) rust belt/ snow belt states, most of them registered Democrats, and many of them former Obama voters, voted for Trump.
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