26 Comments
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John Hennigan's avatar

ALL CORPORATE-OWNED MEDIA IS CORRUPT PROPAGANDA.

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Patrick Phelan's avatar

You can see what he's saying. When a person knows that an act they commit might bring on a response of brutal violence, they don't commit that act any more. That's why no crime that could qualify for the death penalty has ever happened.

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Stephen Bernstein's avatar

Bekkkause the callous heartless stupid ignorant blatant spit-in-your-face racism is the point!😒🤪🎃🤡👻

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Linda1961 is woke and proud's avatar

I've heard of Kristallnacht, but hadn't heard of Wilmington until I read it here. That figures, as I grew up in the South. As for "The Purge," I never heard of it until now.

trump whining about rampant crime is rich, as he's the one with 34 felony convictions. And he's lying - here in Upstate SC, there is no looting going on, even though we are still digging out from Hurricane Helene. Most people are acting like decent human beings, not like selfish weirdos like trump himself. Besides, who can carry a refrigerator on their back?

As for the legacy media, they continue to debase themselves by sanewashing and catering to trump. My disdain for them continues to grow in proportion to their debasement in the name of trump.

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SethTriggs's avatar

Your comment really spoke to me, as it reminds me that these atrocities are memory-holed on purpose. I hadn't even heard of the Wilmington coup until a couple years ago, and Tulsa only a few before that.

And it is all on purpose, whether through Lost Cause propaganda, or the deliberate right-wing effort to hide it. It is so disgusting. I am glad you were able to get the information.

And of course, as for that fascist felon, it is okay for him to crimevas much as he wants.

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Bruce's avatar

I find it simultaneously enormously depressing and oddly hopeful that the Tulsa Riot basically did not exist in America's general counsiousness until it was a plot element of "The Watchmen" tv series, even in Tulsa Oklahoma, so thoroughly had it been memory-holed.

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Eva Porter's avatar

I’m going to say this. I hate him. I hate every ignorant thing that spews from his blow hole. I hate that people listen, clap like trained seals, and nod in agreement. I hate that the media pretends he’s got “policies” or “proposals” when all he really offers is fear and retribution. I hate that I HAVE hate.

Mostly I hate that this racist blowhard has a decent chance of being elected.

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SethTriggs's avatar

This is why this ticket is the worst and most dangerous in history, with two uniquely terrible people on it.

Judge the people voting for this ticket harshly. They see themselves as the ones getting to wild out.

My hunch as to why the Purge is used is the actual examples you gave will make the media owners look like assholes for glossing over what Klan Robe is doing.

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Andrew L. Erdman's avatar

Thanks for this thoughtful piece. And also, yes, the legacy (or, whatevers) media's toxic normalization. German and North American media did much the same in the 1930s.

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Suzie Greenburg's avatar

Thanks for this. You're right that Kristallnacht and Wilmington are better illustrations than The Purge, and I shall say so in my conversations with people.

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Brando's avatar

Yeah--"the Purge" hits a lot lighter, as it's fiction, and some may even think "not a bad idea!" because they assume it's just wiping out criminals.

But "kristallnacht"--"Nazi ethnic cleansing night of violence", etc.--yeah, that hits a lot harder. And reminds people that "this sort of thing actually happened, so it's not theoretical".

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Eva Porter's avatar

Also the Purge wasn’t for the police, it was for the population. He doesn’t want US to go nuts. He wants the police to beat the shit out of anyone they choose without repercussions.

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Bruce's avatar

No, this is the same kind of rhetoric being amplified in Rwanda in 1994. I shudder to thnk waht the outcome will be if he manages to get even a portion of his followers to take matters into their own hands...

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vorpal's avatar

Due to Qualified immunity, they can do that now.

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Sherry's avatar

Sad to say that as a NC native I have never heard this story about Wilmington. These stories are part of our painful history that we are doomed to repeat if we don’t remind ourselves of the absolute horror of it.

Look what happened in Alabama where the wypipo would not let a duly elected Black official as mayor of a predominantly Black town.

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John Hennigan's avatar

That’s why these NAZI MAGA/GQP/WCN Extremist Cult shitheads are so supportive of banning and burning books.

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ArgieBargie's avatar

"You have no choice. You're gonna lose your culture."

Not a big loss there. These MAGA Nuremderp rallies are attended by some of the most ignorant, hateful, uncultured people in the country.

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Eva Porter's avatar

What culture? These people have no culture

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Sherry's avatar

People don’t really know what culture means. In baking it’s a method of using something to enhance the growth of something else be it bread or my beloved beer. May I posit that what makes our culture is that very introduction of something else to enhance who we are.

Southern cooking and specifically Soul Food is that soupcon of hundreds of different groups of people from all over to create something tasty, unique and nourishing.

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Old Man Shadow's avatar

What he wants is to unleash death squads to kill "drug dealers", "gang members", "thugs", "criminals", "drug users", "deviants" "communists", and "traitors".

And in Trump's mind and the minds of his followers all of those things primarily mean: Black people, Latinos, LGBTQ, and Jewish people,

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John Hennigan's avatar

Yes, a new hitler in the making.

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Jenni Plumer's avatar

Cape Fear Rising, by Philip Gerard, for a complete history of the Wilmington massacre.

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Jenni Plumer's avatar

Cape Fear Rising.

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MzNicky in East Jesus, TN's avatar

“He thinks we need a law-and-order holiday, just one day out of life, where cops can beat the crap out of criminal suspects”

There was that one day out of life when Donnie could have unleashed every law-enforcement entity available to beat the crap out of criminal suspects: Jan. 6, 2021. For some reason, he just didn’t feel like it that day. Instead, he purposely thwarted backup for the greatly outnumbered Capitol and MPD police officers, leaving them vulnerable to vicious attacks and horrific injuries.

What a difference a day makes, huh?

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Froglooksfunny's avatar

Thank you for this. You are a clear and sober voice calling out the lazy and complicit who would gladly take us back to a more brutal and unequal time. May more and more people heed you.

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Brando's avatar

For anyone saying "The Purge" is more easily understandable to voters, I'd note that the word "Kristalnacht" is pretty well known, and anyone hearing a sinister-sounding German word like that is likely to at least look further if they don't understand it. We are past the point of it being ok to compare Trump to a Nazi, it's simply what he is, openly and unabashedly.

Every Democrat and talking head should just come out and say it--Trump is proposing Nazi shit, he's not "stoking division" or any other watered down euphamism, it's simply Nazi proposals to ethnically cleanse this country. Tell everyone to wake the fuck up, and figure out where they stand, this is the same moment Germans faced in 1933 when they had to decide what direction they were going to take. You no longer have to wonder what you'd have done in their situation back then--you're facing it now.

There are a lot of other, positive reasons to vote for Harris--she'd make a good president, essentially, and continue good policies we need right now that would enrich all Americans' lives, rich and poor--but there's also one key reason that should cut through everything else--this is your chance to help decide what the soul of this country is. This is your chance to stop fascism, right now, and it's as easy as voting.

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