Whataboutism
Whataboutism
Happy Monday!
Hate crimes have doubled in the last two years. Two years ago I wrote a blog post on how to treat Trump that included this image with a sign, "Your Vote Was A Hate Crime."
https://irreni.blogspot.com/2016/11/terrorist-how-to-treating-trump.html
Just a reminder that this blog is not just about punditry, but real solutions, Irreni solutions.
Over the weekend I read, watched and listened to many conservative media outlets and their response to the mail bombing and the Jewish synagogue shootings.
The overall response was whataboutism. What about Hillary's comments about civility, what about Nancy Pelosi's use of collateral damage, what about Louis Farrakhan?
Are we all on the same page with hate? Is everybody doing it and justifying that hate based on a mutual climate of hate? Can we all just recede to our respective political boxing ring corners and just regroup, ready to come out swinging fresh again?
No. One-hundred percent in the doubling of hate crimes since Trump took office is on Donald Trump. Whataboutism is a moral failure of conservatives.
How so?
Let's take Louis Farrakhan. Louis Farrakhan has been an anti-Semite for forty years. In those forty years how many black followers of Louis Farrakhan have committed anti-Semite hate crimes? To believe the whataboutism of conservative media this weekend one has to believe:
None of these are true. If main stream media were responsible for the doubling of hate crimes in America in the last two years then it would not be an increase, it would be the same.
I was listening to NPR this morning and an official in the Department of Homeland Security was interviewed about the two-year spike in hate crimes. The demagoguery of Trump was elicited was responsible for the attempted assassination of a Republican Representative of the House. This is because demagoguery increases violence on all fronts, not just the front being pushed. This is a known historical fact. Ergo the sign at the beginning of this blog. Demagoguery incites violence on all sides, both reactions for and against. The violent reactions against Trump, including recent main-stream media, are because of Trump calling the press the enemy of the people, because of Trump calling Democrats the enemy of America.
Trump is responsible for all of it. Not Louis Farrakhan, not Hillary Clinton, not Nancy Pelosi. Trump. Not the main-stream media. Trump.
But Trump is merely a manifestation, a symptom. The root cause of Trump is only getting worse. All conservative media is hate media. Liberals need to get their head's out of their collective asses. Trump is just a manifestation of Rush Limbaugh calling Democrats enemies of the people since 1995. Trump is just a manifestation of Rush Limbaugh calling liberalism a mental disease since 1995. Trump is merely a manifestation of all of AM Hate radio programming its millions of audiences for thirty straight years that Democrats are communists, evil, and mentally deranged on a pace that is non-stop and twenty-four seven.
Removing Trump needs to happen but the underlying problem is not going to go away. Hate media that is conservative media is not going to go away. We are in for a non-stop succession of Trump-like, cult-of-personality candidates until the underlying root cause is addressed: hate media, conservative media.
I am a free speech absolutist but not just at the government level, but all levels. This includes threats and the current conservative hate media. Why?
Ultimately in a free society the responsibility falls on the people as individuals, and no more so is this true than speech. Speech cannot hurt someone directly no matter how inflammatory and threatening. However, the most vicious of speech, the most destructive of speech, can be used to diagnose a problem. If someone makes a direct threat on a woman, a judge, a President, or anyone then we have that information to act on.
Imagine if an emergency room doctor was only allowed to treat gun-shot victims by only looking at the least offensive, least traumatic parts of the body. This is what we are doing by limiting the worst of speech.
If we opened up speech at all levels to absolute free speech than every form of hatred and mental instability would rise to the surface immediately. And we could address it as citizens.
NPR this morning also interviewed the ambassador to the United States from Mexico. The Mexican ambassador addressed the caravan of refugees from Central America as a humanitarian crisis. This is in stark contrast to conservative hate-speech media that labels the people in the caravan a horde and an invading force.
Pure hate speech.
The fact is the U.S. turned away 300,000 people at the border last year. The three-thousand number is well within our existing capabilities to turn away.
We should treat Central American refugees as a humanitarian crisis, just like as Syrian refugees. We should be working with the governments of Central America to set up U.S. aide and immigration services on close, friendly government sites no different than what we have for Syrian refugees in Europe.
We as American people have come to believe our only civic duty is to vote, be a public servant, or commit to an NGO like Doctor's Without Borders.
Not true. When it comes to free speech we are obligated to police each other, one-on-one, person-on-person.
If we had absolute free speech that allowed death threats then speech outlets would not allow anonymous users as a matter of conscious. That is the point. We the people as people have a responsibility to each other if we do not want the force of government as the only solution.
Disallowing the worst of speech, death threats, gives a pass to indirect hate speech. Hate speech such as calling Democrats un-American, the main-stream media the enemy of the people, or liberalism a mental disease exists because those of us opposed to hate speech are told that only direct, life-threatening speech needs to be addressed. We don't need to censor indirect hate speech, but we need to address it as surely as direct threats result in violence. Indirect hatred is more insidious because it is indirect and has the cover of impossible to prove directly.
Trump is responsible, but so are his voters. His voters chose the hate-speech demagogue out of a field of sixteen. Trump's campaign sky-rocketed when he called Mexicans rapists and murderers. When Trump said "they are sending us" then Trump impugned all Mexicans.
Societal ills cannot be addressed by the government. Societal ills must be solved by we the people helping each other, loving each other.
Two-thousand years ago western culture pivoted from an eye-for-eye to forgiveness and love your enemy.
We've regressed. Recently left-wing has fallen in league with conservative hate media and matching outrage with outrage.
But only recently.
I like to say that conservative media drove right by liberal-media bias and straight into the ditch of right-wing hate. There are no conservative-media bias outlets today. Even the National Review of William Buckley's creation has fallen in line vocalizing hatred of Democrats, hating Americans.
How do we see our way through this?
Hate in this country is not new. When this country was founded in 1787 approximately forty-five percent of Americans were Tories, British Sympathizers. These people still considered themselves citizens of the crown. The Tories actively worked in treasonous ways to overthrow the new government. What was the response by the new government? In general the response was to do nothing as the existing generation would eventually die and the new generation would come to see themselves as Americans, eventually. How many generations did it take though?
How many generations has it taken the cultural feuds of the Middle East to resolve in peace and harmony?
What if I were to tell you that freed slaves after the U.S. civil war hated the U.S.? Are former slaves justified in that hatred? Should we be sympathetic? How many generations would it take for children of former slaves to get over that level of hatred?
I remember when Obama ran for office conservative hate-media made a big deal about Reverend Jeremiah, Obama's reverend. Video of Reverend Jeremiah screaming, "God damn! America!" made the conservative hate-media rounds.
You know what I don't remember? Any compassion. Any compassion by conservatives for generations of children of slaves who have just cause to hand down hatred of this country. I also don't remember historical awareness that cultural divides within the some countries of the Middle-East and elsewhere are centuries old, Millennium old. We run the risk of our cultural divide lasting Millennium just like such Millennium old divides still exist today in older countries. Only a history denier would believe cultural hatred cannot last centuries.
To this day we do not have a scientific grasp on why cultures have centuries of hate, why some cultural animosities can last Millennium.
What we do know, however, is how to get past them. We got past our founding Tory hatred. We got past our Yankee hatred. We can get past our former-slave culture hatred by proven methods. However, conservatives demonizing that hatred is not the solution. Conservative media fights hatred with hatred, by hating Reverend Jeremiah. Conservative media is going to ensure we will never heal as a nation because conservative media has no compassion for the children of former slaves, the culture of former slaves, the generational hatred for America of former slaves that tracks with the generations love of country of the former slave owners.
We have roughly thirty-to-sixty million Americans consuming conservative hate media daily. That's a problem. It is a problem though for we the people to solve together, not the government. We need to love each other by confronting each other honestly, like I'm doing here.
I'm sad to say that liberal media has recently joined with conservative media in being outrage machines. This is problematic because there now exists just enough whataboutism with liberal outrage media to make a case in conservative hate-media to ring true, everyone is doing it.
But it is still not true as a general case. Not yet anyway.
There are two recent examples of how liberals still prefer the liberal bias media such as NPR as opposed to the outrage, hate media that is conservative media.
The first example is Air America. Air America was established as a counter-punch to the outrage media of the right. Air America only lasted a few years? Why? Because liberals in general are not interested in outrage media, but instead biased media like NPR and the New York Times.
The second example is fake news. Trump is ignorant, stupid and a liar when he calls CNN or New York Times fake news. That is not how fake news is defined. Fake news is non-news outlets posing as news outlets. Nothing more, nothing less.
Facebook was ground zero for fake news outlets posing as news outlets. One of the primary sources of fake news was a single fellow in San Diego. He was making good money posting fake news on Facebook. His only interest was making money. Therefore he posted fake liberal news and fake conservative news. However, he soon quit posting fake news for liberals as he wasn't making any money on liberal fake news. Why? Because fake news sells best as tabloid news, as outrage news, as sensationalism. Liberals still prefer bias, not hate.
New liberal media on Youtube and other alternate media platforms have given rise to liberal outrage for money though. And liberal outrage media is gaining audience. We cannot let this happen.
So what is the Irreni solution?
Hate sells. Hate is click bait. News for profit makes the most profit when one piece is sold to the largest audience. Selling one piece to the largest audience is not difficult intelligent news, but easy emotional news -- hate news.
Hate news is a capitalists dream come true. This is why Fox News is number one.
So what is the Irreni solution?
We the people. That's it. We the people must take responsibility as people. We must engage each other minute-by-minute, person-to-person to encourage love not hate. There is no other way.
Irreni promotes civil engagement by flipping the power structure on end that requires we the people to engage we the people on all levels, not just with free speech. Irreni will federate sovereign power from one government for three-hundred million people in the U.S. to one-hundred thousand governments of thirty people. Everyone will have day-to-day responsibilities to govern. Once a pattern of day-to-day responsibility is upon us then diagnosing dysfunctional speech and treating the root cause will become common place.
This is not going to happen overnight, for sure. The Irreni plan is a two-hundred year plan, a multi-generational plan. It has to be. Today we feel our only government responsibility is bi-annual voting. Two-hundred years from now it will be day-to-day governing.
It is impossible to solve hate speech freely using central government or central corporations. Central entities can only use the crudest of hammers made of tyranny and oppression. We the people must fine tune our hate response case-by-case as we the people power. This is we the people duty to help each other understand why each individual hates on a case-by-case basis. There is no other option.
We must engage self-governing in the information age where any hate message by Trump can be heard around the world day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and minute-by-minute.
We must upgrade Democracy now.
It is also worth pointing out the Christian community is failing, yet again, by its own standards. Christians unequivocally put Trump in power, chose Trump out of a field of sixteen candidates precisely because Trump is a hate monger.
Christians are suppose to engage in forgiveness. If right-wing Christians truly believed liberals had a mental disease they would practice compassion and not hate. Christian doctrine requires that they minister to those less fortunate, suffering from illness, and lacking overall due to a lack of belief in Christianity and suffering from wickedness in their view. That is Christian doctrine. That is not what Christians are doing. Instead Christians demand we treat Christians as an unquestioned model society. Christians demand that we must bow down to their every demand or suffer their wrath. Christians use their religion as moral cover to be immoral, to hate, and to destroy their enemies, not love them.
When are going to wake up to the fact the Democracy needs an upgrade where Christianity is the root of today's political failure, today's hate, and that Christianity must be relegated to a personal community and removed completely as political remedy. The Bible teaches that forgiveness and love are to replace an eye-for-an-eye, and yet an eye-for-an-eye is used to justify today the whataboutism of Louis Farrakhan.
They are not Christians based upon their own doctrine.
Freethinkers unite!
Freedom!
Party On!
Let's get cracking!
Voluntarily Reject Demagoguery!
Politics as Science!
Demand Irreni World Scale!
Anti-theism is feminism!
Think disruption!
Empathy for all!
Moral relativity: think it, breath it!
Prove it or lose it!
Conversations equal consensus!
Welcome to the 21st century!
Scale your empathy, scale the world!
Find your tribe!
Be sexy people!
The future is coming!
Innovate at a rapid pace!
Slow speed ahead!
Well come! and well met!
Happy Monday!
Hate crimes have doubled in the last two years. Two years ago I wrote a blog post on how to treat Trump that included this image with a sign, "Your Vote Was A Hate Crime."
https://irreni.blogspot.com/2016/11/terrorist-how-to-treating-trump.html
Just a reminder that this blog is not just about punditry, but real solutions, Irreni solutions.
Over the weekend I read, watched and listened to many conservative media outlets and their response to the mail bombing and the Jewish synagogue shootings.
The overall response was whataboutism. What about Hillary's comments about civility, what about Nancy Pelosi's use of collateral damage, what about Louis Farrakhan?
Are we all on the same page with hate? Is everybody doing it and justifying that hate based on a mutual climate of hate? Can we all just recede to our respective political boxing ring corners and just regroup, ready to come out swinging fresh again?
No. One-hundred percent in the doubling of hate crimes since Trump took office is on Donald Trump. Whataboutism is a moral failure of conservatives.
How so?
Let's take Louis Farrakhan. Louis Farrakhan has been an anti-Semite for forty years. In those forty years how many black followers of Louis Farrakhan have committed anti-Semite hate crimes? To believe the whataboutism of conservative media this weekend one has to believe:
- Louis Farrakhan has been an anti-Semite for forty years and yet just in the last two years his rhetoric has magically taken hold.
- Louis Farrakhan has millions of followers and his demagoguery has been national.
- White people committing anti-Semite crimes are following a black man.
- Black people following Louis Farrakhan are committing anti-Semite crimes.
None of these are true. If main stream media were responsible for the doubling of hate crimes in America in the last two years then it would not be an increase, it would be the same.
I was listening to NPR this morning and an official in the Department of Homeland Security was interviewed about the two-year spike in hate crimes. The demagoguery of Trump was elicited was responsible for the attempted assassination of a Republican Representative of the House. This is because demagoguery increases violence on all fronts, not just the front being pushed. This is a known historical fact. Ergo the sign at the beginning of this blog. Demagoguery incites violence on all sides, both reactions for and against. The violent reactions against Trump, including recent main-stream media, are because of Trump calling the press the enemy of the people, because of Trump calling Democrats the enemy of America.
Trump is responsible for all of it. Not Louis Farrakhan, not Hillary Clinton, not Nancy Pelosi. Trump. Not the main-stream media. Trump.
But Trump is merely a manifestation, a symptom. The root cause of Trump is only getting worse. All conservative media is hate media. Liberals need to get their head's out of their collective asses. Trump is just a manifestation of Rush Limbaugh calling Democrats enemies of the people since 1995. Trump is just a manifestation of Rush Limbaugh calling liberalism a mental disease since 1995. Trump is merely a manifestation of all of AM Hate radio programming its millions of audiences for thirty straight years that Democrats are communists, evil, and mentally deranged on a pace that is non-stop and twenty-four seven.
Removing Trump needs to happen but the underlying problem is not going to go away. Hate media that is conservative media is not going to go away. We are in for a non-stop succession of Trump-like, cult-of-personality candidates until the underlying root cause is addressed: hate media, conservative media.
I am a free speech absolutist but not just at the government level, but all levels. This includes threats and the current conservative hate media. Why?
Ultimately in a free society the responsibility falls on the people as individuals, and no more so is this true than speech. Speech cannot hurt someone directly no matter how inflammatory and threatening. However, the most vicious of speech, the most destructive of speech, can be used to diagnose a problem. If someone makes a direct threat on a woman, a judge, a President, or anyone then we have that information to act on.
Imagine if an emergency room doctor was only allowed to treat gun-shot victims by only looking at the least offensive, least traumatic parts of the body. This is what we are doing by limiting the worst of speech.
If we opened up speech at all levels to absolute free speech than every form of hatred and mental instability would rise to the surface immediately. And we could address it as citizens.
NPR this morning also interviewed the ambassador to the United States from Mexico. The Mexican ambassador addressed the caravan of refugees from Central America as a humanitarian crisis. This is in stark contrast to conservative hate-speech media that labels the people in the caravan a horde and an invading force.
Pure hate speech.
The fact is the U.S. turned away 300,000 people at the border last year. The three-thousand number is well within our existing capabilities to turn away.
We should treat Central American refugees as a humanitarian crisis, just like as Syrian refugees. We should be working with the governments of Central America to set up U.S. aide and immigration services on close, friendly government sites no different than what we have for Syrian refugees in Europe.
We as American people have come to believe our only civic duty is to vote, be a public servant, or commit to an NGO like Doctor's Without Borders.
Not true. When it comes to free speech we are obligated to police each other, one-on-one, person-on-person.
If we had absolute free speech that allowed death threats then speech outlets would not allow anonymous users as a matter of conscious. That is the point. We the people as people have a responsibility to each other if we do not want the force of government as the only solution.
Disallowing the worst of speech, death threats, gives a pass to indirect hate speech. Hate speech such as calling Democrats un-American, the main-stream media the enemy of the people, or liberalism a mental disease exists because those of us opposed to hate speech are told that only direct, life-threatening speech needs to be addressed. We don't need to censor indirect hate speech, but we need to address it as surely as direct threats result in violence. Indirect hatred is more insidious because it is indirect and has the cover of impossible to prove directly.
Trump is responsible, but so are his voters. His voters chose the hate-speech demagogue out of a field of sixteen. Trump's campaign sky-rocketed when he called Mexicans rapists and murderers. When Trump said "they are sending us" then Trump impugned all Mexicans.
Societal ills cannot be addressed by the government. Societal ills must be solved by we the people helping each other, loving each other.
Two-thousand years ago western culture pivoted from an eye-for-eye to forgiveness and love your enemy.
We've regressed. Recently left-wing has fallen in league with conservative hate media and matching outrage with outrage.
But only recently.
I like to say that conservative media drove right by liberal-media bias and straight into the ditch of right-wing hate. There are no conservative-media bias outlets today. Even the National Review of William Buckley's creation has fallen in line vocalizing hatred of Democrats, hating Americans.
How do we see our way through this?
Hate in this country is not new. When this country was founded in 1787 approximately forty-five percent of Americans were Tories, British Sympathizers. These people still considered themselves citizens of the crown. The Tories actively worked in treasonous ways to overthrow the new government. What was the response by the new government? In general the response was to do nothing as the existing generation would eventually die and the new generation would come to see themselves as Americans, eventually. How many generations did it take though?
How many generations has it taken the cultural feuds of the Middle East to resolve in peace and harmony?
What if I were to tell you that freed slaves after the U.S. civil war hated the U.S.? Are former slaves justified in that hatred? Should we be sympathetic? How many generations would it take for children of former slaves to get over that level of hatred?
I remember when Obama ran for office conservative hate-media made a big deal about Reverend Jeremiah, Obama's reverend. Video of Reverend Jeremiah screaming, "God damn! America!" made the conservative hate-media rounds.
You know what I don't remember? Any compassion. Any compassion by conservatives for generations of children of slaves who have just cause to hand down hatred of this country. I also don't remember historical awareness that cultural divides within the some countries of the Middle-East and elsewhere are centuries old, Millennium old. We run the risk of our cultural divide lasting Millennium just like such Millennium old divides still exist today in older countries. Only a history denier would believe cultural hatred cannot last centuries.
To this day we do not have a scientific grasp on why cultures have centuries of hate, why some cultural animosities can last Millennium.
What we do know, however, is how to get past them. We got past our founding Tory hatred. We got past our Yankee hatred. We can get past our former-slave culture hatred by proven methods. However, conservatives demonizing that hatred is not the solution. Conservative media fights hatred with hatred, by hating Reverend Jeremiah. Conservative media is going to ensure we will never heal as a nation because conservative media has no compassion for the children of former slaves, the culture of former slaves, the generational hatred for America of former slaves that tracks with the generations love of country of the former slave owners.
We have roughly thirty-to-sixty million Americans consuming conservative hate media daily. That's a problem. It is a problem though for we the people to solve together, not the government. We need to love each other by confronting each other honestly, like I'm doing here.
I'm sad to say that liberal media has recently joined with conservative media in being outrage machines. This is problematic because there now exists just enough whataboutism with liberal outrage media to make a case in conservative hate-media to ring true, everyone is doing it.
But it is still not true as a general case. Not yet anyway.
There are two recent examples of how liberals still prefer the liberal bias media such as NPR as opposed to the outrage, hate media that is conservative media.
The first example is Air America. Air America was established as a counter-punch to the outrage media of the right. Air America only lasted a few years? Why? Because liberals in general are not interested in outrage media, but instead biased media like NPR and the New York Times.
The second example is fake news. Trump is ignorant, stupid and a liar when he calls CNN or New York Times fake news. That is not how fake news is defined. Fake news is non-news outlets posing as news outlets. Nothing more, nothing less.
Facebook was ground zero for fake news outlets posing as news outlets. One of the primary sources of fake news was a single fellow in San Diego. He was making good money posting fake news on Facebook. His only interest was making money. Therefore he posted fake liberal news and fake conservative news. However, he soon quit posting fake news for liberals as he wasn't making any money on liberal fake news. Why? Because fake news sells best as tabloid news, as outrage news, as sensationalism. Liberals still prefer bias, not hate.
New liberal media on Youtube and other alternate media platforms have given rise to liberal outrage for money though. And liberal outrage media is gaining audience. We cannot let this happen.
So what is the Irreni solution?
Hate sells. Hate is click bait. News for profit makes the most profit when one piece is sold to the largest audience. Selling one piece to the largest audience is not difficult intelligent news, but easy emotional news -- hate news.
Hate news is a capitalists dream come true. This is why Fox News is number one.
So what is the Irreni solution?
We the people. That's it. We the people must take responsibility as people. We must engage each other minute-by-minute, person-to-person to encourage love not hate. There is no other way.
Irreni promotes civil engagement by flipping the power structure on end that requires we the people to engage we the people on all levels, not just with free speech. Irreni will federate sovereign power from one government for three-hundred million people in the U.S. to one-hundred thousand governments of thirty people. Everyone will have day-to-day responsibilities to govern. Once a pattern of day-to-day responsibility is upon us then diagnosing dysfunctional speech and treating the root cause will become common place.
This is not going to happen overnight, for sure. The Irreni plan is a two-hundred year plan, a multi-generational plan. It has to be. Today we feel our only government responsibility is bi-annual voting. Two-hundred years from now it will be day-to-day governing.
It is impossible to solve hate speech freely using central government or central corporations. Central entities can only use the crudest of hammers made of tyranny and oppression. We the people must fine tune our hate response case-by-case as we the people power. This is we the people duty to help each other understand why each individual hates on a case-by-case basis. There is no other option.
We must engage self-governing in the information age where any hate message by Trump can be heard around the world day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and minute-by-minute.
We must upgrade Democracy now.
It is also worth pointing out the Christian community is failing, yet again, by its own standards. Christians unequivocally put Trump in power, chose Trump out of a field of sixteen candidates precisely because Trump is a hate monger.
Christians are suppose to engage in forgiveness. If right-wing Christians truly believed liberals had a mental disease they would practice compassion and not hate. Christian doctrine requires that they minister to those less fortunate, suffering from illness, and lacking overall due to a lack of belief in Christianity and suffering from wickedness in their view. That is Christian doctrine. That is not what Christians are doing. Instead Christians demand we treat Christians as an unquestioned model society. Christians demand that we must bow down to their every demand or suffer their wrath. Christians use their religion as moral cover to be immoral, to hate, and to destroy their enemies, not love them.
When are going to wake up to the fact the Democracy needs an upgrade where Christianity is the root of today's political failure, today's hate, and that Christianity must be relegated to a personal community and removed completely as political remedy. The Bible teaches that forgiveness and love are to replace an eye-for-an-eye, and yet an eye-for-an-eye is used to justify today the whataboutism of Louis Farrakhan.
They are not Christians based upon their own doctrine.
Freethinkers unite!
Freedom!
Party On!
Let's get cracking!
Voluntarily Reject Demagoguery!
Politics as Science!
Demand Irreni World Scale!
Anti-theism is feminism!
Think disruption!
Empathy for all!
Moral relativity: think it, breath it!
Prove it or lose it!
Conversations equal consensus!
Welcome to the 21st century!
Scale your empathy, scale the world!
Find your tribe!
Be sexy people!
The future is coming!
Innovate at a rapid pace!
Slow speed ahead!
Well come! and well met!
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