To The Barricades, With Refreshments
Posted on August 12, 2017 Posted by John Scalzi 43 Comments
This morning on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/tomtomorrow/status/896365333245812736
https://twitter.com/tomtomorrow/status/896366881023590402
https://twitter.com/tomtomorrow/status/896367405135540224
It’s comedy!
But yeah, seriously though, those Nazis and KKK and other assholes congealing themselves in Charlottesville today to marinate in their bigotry can go fuck themselves.
Also, if you feel like donating to Charlottesville-area groups who fight this nonsense and/or represent people these shitbirds hate, here’s a helpful Twitter thread for you, with links.
Play nice in the thread, people.
Also, anyone who plays the “It was the left that made this happen” card is gonna get Malleted the fuck out of the conversation. Fucking Nazis didn’t need the left to come out in open. They needed a president who they feel is on their side. And they have one. So, yeah, don’t be bringing that weak-ass “Look what you made us do! You made us be public about our hatred!” shit here. Got no time for it.
Also, my personal favorite snarky tweet about the Nazis marching with their tiki torches last night is:
https://twitter.com/ILiveMovies/status/896250591206395905
Back in 1993 I was in Orlando. As I was being driven back to the airport, I saw a KKK member in full attire. I was so startled. My driver was a POC so asked him if that happened often. He said there was a convention at the convention center. I told him I found it disgusting. He chuckled. Being from the northeast I just didn’t come across that kind of racism (one of my family members was selectively racist but I’ve since educated them on thefolly of their ways.).
To hear of a group of Nazis doing this sickens me. Nobody should be hated for their skin color. Ever.
Last time you came to Europe to kick’em. It’s time we do the same. Hell, I’ll even bring Coke Zero and churros!!!
I live in Charlottesville these days. One of the notable aspects of life here is the wide array of do-good organizations and the commitment of C’villians to supporting them. This is a town where philanthropy is an important and beloved form of civic engagement. Fuck that Nazi bullshit.
This is all going to end in violence, which is exactly what the KKK want. You’re not going to change their minds yelling at them. Doing nothing and ignoring them doesn’t sound like a good plan, but this doesn’t seem any better.
I was a junior high school student in Brunswick, GA when they were just integrating the schools there. There were THREE black kids in my school. Coming from a Navy family, I was not aware I wasn’t supposed to talk to these kids. You can probably guess the names I was called. Things have gotten better since then, but there is still so much to be done.
We need to stop this. It won’t go away by simply waiting. We need keep working to make this behavior UNACCEPTABLE.
I made my donation to the Charlottesville NAACP just now. Do what you can, people.
Maybe they had a point.
(picture of slave covered in scars)
Maybe he had it coming.
#howwillweknowifwedontlisten
I send a bit of money to the splc every month. I think splc is a good anti-nazi organization. But maybe i need to add another one. Are the ingloriousbasterds still kicking?
Someone buy a replica of the dukes of hazard general lee and make a psa putting it in a car crusher. I’d put money to that too.
Maybe brad pitt could wear his ingloreous basterds outfit and talk in the psa with his accent. I would definitelt pay for that.
Last night, when I reiterated to my (white) mother, that I’ve already told my (white, European) husband that there may come a time when I send him and our (mixed race but can pass) child back to Britain for safety, she looked at me, the (mixed race black) woman as if I was insane.
Given today’s march in Virginia, our current administration, Steve Bannon et al, it amazes me that she thinks I shouldn’t be concerned, not only for myself, but for everyone who’s not a white, Christian, heterosexual person living in this country.
One more thing: the depths of fear felt by many* POC and non-black POC cannot be underestimated.
*many, but not all, which I can neither explain nor understand, but then I guess nobody ever thinks their neighbor would be more than happy to burn them at the stake…even though history is littered with examples of such…
Hey, wait; I have to take a train to get to the barricades!
I can bring extra sardonic commentary with a ladling of sarcasm and Trader Joes Maple Leaf cookies!
At least one thousand words, condensed:
Apparently IMG tags not allowed.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DHCaO6rVoAAzCGc.jpg
I’m there with slightly off-color remarks and diet Sunkist. And brownies. What’s a barricade without brownies?
Spell check wanted to make that Barracuda, but what’s a barracuda with brownies? Not quite the same thing.
I can’t stop crying
Anyone on the barricades want to taste-test a new-to-me cookie recipe? They’re filled with apple butter. I can also bring two sun tea jars and an assortment of teas to put in them.
@Miles Archer:
The primary purpose of anti-nazi protests is not to change the nazis’ minds, but to show them that whatever they do, they will be resisted.
Nazis carrying Nazi flags and giving Nazi salutes hold a torchlit rally in an American university town, and the President says nothing against it … because they’re his voter base, and represented on his staff. We’re less than seven months into this nightmare, and it’s not getting easier.
And now there has been at least one death when a car ran into a crowd of counter-protestors.
Apparently, folks need to start bringing spike strips too.
Goddam nazis…
I feel sick to my stomach today. Yay.
Barricades?
Took more than barricades to take Richmond in 1865…
The Union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitor, up with the star.
While we rally ’round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom.
So serious question. People are talking about Trump’s response to this (like I expect anything coherent from Trump at this point, shrug). What was the presidential response to the famous Skokie/Chicago lawsuit/march of 1977/1978 (as so famously parodied in the Blues Brothers). Given who was president then I assume he was not in favor, but I can’t find anything anywhere.
Actually never mind, I apparently can’t Google. “President Carter also issued a statement: ‘I must respect the decision of the Supreme Court allowing this group (the Nazis) to express their views, even when those views are despicable and ugly as they are in this case. But if such views must be expressed, I am pleased they will not go unanswered. That is why I want to voice my complete solidarity with those citizens of Skokie and Chicago who will gather Sunday in a peaceful demonstration of their abhorrence of Nazism.'”
I don’t even have words for horrible this is. Actual Nazi-supporters feeling so confident that they can hold a rally. The video of the car accelerating full speed into that crowd of counter-protesters is chilling. And we have a president who can’t condemn it except for bothsiderism. I’m torn between sadness, rage and fear.
I find a bunch of white guys in polo shirts marching along carrying Home Depot tiki torches to protest their ‘oppression’ so far into the surreal that I keep waiting for Rod Serling to show up.
Thanks for the helpful link to the thread about places where donations would most effectively piss off the Nazis. My spouse and I browsed the list, donated to several of the organizations listed, and passed the link along to family/friends who might be interested in doing likewise.
“White nationalists” – code for ‘we don’t have the courage to call the bigoted trash what they really are.’
Aww, host.
Did warn you it was getting hot, we don’t post otherwise.
Add two more deaths. The State of Virginia has said that the crash of a State Police helicopter, with pilot and passenger aboard, was related to today’s violence. No more details at this time.
Adding to the surrealty, consider these pissants are carrying fucking swastikas in the hometown of Frank Peregory, and the Virginia National Guard had to be deployed to help keep the peace…
Go back to Illinois.
An appropriate pairing of flags. One from the CSA, which tried in 1860 to tear the USA apart to preserve slavery forever, the other from Nazi Germany, which declared war on the USA on December 11th, 1941. Millions of Americans fought and hundreds of thousands died to defeat both those evil entities. Those carrying the flags are traitors as well as racists.
Its possible someone took a potshot at that helicopter and got a one in a million hit. But I’m assuming they had mechanical trouble. Helos can be damn finnicky birds. At least one report says a witness saw the helo flying “pretty low” and then started slowly spinning. I think there are 3 transmissions between the engines and tail rotor on the blackhawk, so any one of them goes and hello trouble. If it fails at speed, you can use the tail fin as a weathervane to help keep you straight and fly down a runway. At slow speeds, i think you have to immediately autorotate, but then youre pretty bjorked at the landing cause you have to pull colective to stop your descent which will make the bird spin and youve got nothing to stop it. If you dont autorotate immediately, torque from the engine starts you spinning, and then you’re really bjorked cause you got no tail rotor, and thats the only thing that stops the spins. And i dont think its possible to autorotate if youre spinning out of control. You need airflow going up throgh the rotors at a certain angle go get them to windmill. And reports say they crashed in woods, which basically means even if you did everything perfect, you’ll pull collective above the tree tops, stop your descent, then your rotors hit the trees and its free fall from there. Depending on the trees, maybe 60 feet.
Low, slow, tail rotor out, over woods. Thats like rolling four crit fails in a row.
I realize it doesnt make them any less dead. I just hope things havent gotten so out of hand that nazis are shooting down police helicopters.
Goddamn nazis
Anyone remember when Chump harped on Obama for not using the phrase “radical islamic terrorism”? The video at the top of this article has one example of Trump pulling this stunt on the campaign trail.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-address-muslim-leaders-will-say-radical-islamic-terrorism-185744294.html
Anyone have some video editing software? I would love a copy of that specific part of the clip, but with “radical islamic terrorism” very obviously dubbed over with the phrase “nazis and white supremicists”.
It would be a beautiful thing.
You’re not going to change their minds yelling at them.
The point is not to change their mind. The point is to resist and let them know they sure as hell don’t as much support as they think they do.
Changing their minds isn’t the point. We need to show that they are a sick minority. It is no longer acceptable to stand silent while this crap is done in our name. Call your elected officials, Senators and Congresscritters. I would like a unanimous resolution of condemnation of the Nazis and their ilk coming out of Congress. A rebuke of the Twittler by example, if you will.
Their minds aren’t changing. With hard work and some lucky breaks we can head off a bandwagon effect.
“You’re not going to change their minds yelling at them.”
These are people who simultaneously think the holocaust didnt happen and didnt go far enough.
What do you possibly think you could say to that that would change their minds?
If the real argument being made here is that the only way to change a nazis mind is to let them act as violent and awful as they do, but absolutely everyone else must remain perfectly silent and civil, well, then, you are giving the nazis a free pass while blaming everyone but them.
So say we all.
https://i.imgflip.com/1u0u0i.jpg
https://i.imgflip.com/1u0ugj.jpg
This is guys who came prepared with assault rifles, dressed up in wanna-be camo.
This is guys who came prepared with helmets, riot shields, shin guards, and cups, looking for a fight.
There was nothing peaceful about their actions.
No one is to blame for the violence but them.
These people didn’t just sprout like mushrooms after the election. They have always been here. The difference is that, before the election, through decades of hard work, we had convinced them that they were a small increasingly irrelevant minority that we wouldn’t tolerate pissing on everything. Now, they look at the Trumpites and think they were wrong about that. That maybe there are more of them than they realized. That it is safe for them to come out from under their rocks and start shit again
So, no, we aren’t going to convince them they are wrong anymore than you convince a split hose to carry water. What we need to do is to remind them that we won’t tolerate them pissing on everything again, and drive them back to their rocks.
(Mind you, I’m not adverse to duct taping Nazis. It can only be an improvement. But it is a temporary fix at best).
When I think the sacrifices made by uncle who fought in WWII, and my son in law who currently serves, in comparison to those … people … offended is just the least emotion.
So what to do? Vote. Vote often. Vote for ethical and moral representatives. Vote and remember who bled to allow your freedom to vote.
And before you vote, think about those who would love to take your freedom away, and the disguises they currently wear.
After seeing so many nazis with assault rifles, i hope the helicopter crash investigators look very thoroughly for bullet damage.
Also, cnn is reporting that the nazi who murdered with his car, was an admirer of Hitler in high school, didnt make it through army bootcamp, may have been living with his mother, and might not have had a job.
Lastly, southern poverty law center, a group who tracks hate groups, sent an instruction pamphlet out to college student groups on how to deal with nazis coming to campus. The main suggestion was to encourage peaceful counter protests.
The nazis use any example of violence against them as proof they are being oppressed. Ruby Ridge is deeply embedded into the right wing nut job history lesson as proof of a government conspiracy to wipe them out. Even though it was a nazi who committed murder, the nazis are still trying to say they were th persecuted ones. Hell, president trump is doing the false equivalence thing. So, violence against nazis is only going to feed their narative of being persecuted and help their recruitment.
I donate to slpc regularly, and I agree with their suggestions of nonviolence. But might I suggest an alternative to violence: some sort of cream pie.
Im not actually good with pies. I am thinking of a pie thats yellow on the bottom, whipped cream on top, and very soft and messy. Not sure what its called though. But yellow for cowardice and white fluff cause, ya know, white suppremicists.
Some might pie the nazis in the face, but honestly, i think peacefully offering the pie to the nazis would be even better. Put it on the ground in front of them, so that they’re like a minefield, a passive area denial weapon. They have to step in the pies to get in your face, and that would be hilarious.
The idea is violence feeds their persecution narrative, which helps recruitment. But pies is a way to mock them without helping their cause.