All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[shooshoomanjoe]

IMO, if the republican party doesn't admit that it has a racism problem then nothing will be done about.

[Adam Allen]

To go with specific examples, it could be the time Laverne Cox's friend was attacked by an idiot who asked if Cox was a boy or girl.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/laverne...griffith-park/

As a specific example of online abuse, model Munroe Bergdorf frequently gets threats to her safety.

https://time.com/5710466/transphobic...-online-study/

I don't mean to highlight celebrities. Their stories get more coverage than those of others.

It appears that people made up a story about eight trans youth committing suicide after Trump won the presidential election. The most generous interpretation is that people made stories normalizing suicide to score political points. The worst is that it was intentional trolling of members and loved ones of a minority group with high suicide rates.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tr...2016-election/

Aimee Stephens of Detroit is a specific person who was fired for being trans.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-...ks-out-n634406

So, just trying to understand your perspective on the topic, so please let me know if I misunderstand. It seems like meeting the threshold for "transphobic" for you needs to be ... specifically targeted, mainly? The funeral home outright told Aimee Stephens it was why she was being fired, Bergdorf has high visibility as a model who is both trans and a person of color, so gets targeted for both, and Cox's gender was outright questioned before the guy became directly violent with her friend.

The Snopes one is more complicated for me to understand, honestly. If we take the definition of transphobia that Google spit out, "dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people," what makes the Snopes story stand out as transphobia, for you? Note, this is not me saying that I think it was okay. The scoring political points thing would not be okay; I guess I'm not clear on the trolling part? You're saying that you think this story was created/shared/spread with the deliberate intent to make trans people feel bad?

[Adam Allen]

IMO, if the republican party doesn't admit that it has a racism problem then nothing will be done about.

Oh, that won't ever happen. They're too busy saying Democrats and antiracist activists are the "real racists".

[WestPhillyPunisher]

IMO, if the republican party doesn't admit that it has a racism problem then nothing will be done about.

And risk losing those all important white supremacist voters? Perish the thought!

[worstblogever]

IMO, if the republican party doesn't admit that it has a racism problem then nothing will be done about.

Not gonna happen as long as voices on Fox News features three white nationalists every day like Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham. And Waters. Doocy. Hegseth. The network won't allow such a push back, and neither will the nuts they currently have elected, either. Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Louie Gohmert, Trump still lurks in the weeds...

The right-wing media and GOP have themselves an ouroboros, they eat themselves, and it's gotta taste like white supremacy.

[wjowski]

IMO, if the republican party doesn't admit that it has a racism problem then nothing will be done about.

It's not a bug, it's a feature.

[Kirby101]

Today's GOP, come for the racism, stay for the lynchings.

Here is a list of all Republican lawmakers who condemned Chip Roy's anti-Chinese rant and endorsement of lynching.
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[Mister Mets]

So, just trying to understand your perspective on the topic, so please let me know if I misunderstand. It seems like meeting the threshold for "transphobic" for you needs to be ... specifically targeted, mainly? The funeral home outright told Aimee Stephens it was why she was being fired, Bergdorf has high visibility as a model who is both trans and a person of color, so gets targeted for both, and Cox's gender was outright questioned before the guy became directly violent with her friend.

The Snopes one is more complicated for me to understand, honestly. If we take the definition of transphobia that Google spit out, "dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people," what makes the Snopes story stand out as transphobia, for you? Note, this is not me saying that I think it was okay. The scoring political points thing would not be okay; I guess I'm not clear on the trolling part? You're saying that you think this story was created/shared/spread with the deliberate intent to make trans people feel bad?

I should note that I generally try to avoid anecdotal data. We know the problems with that as a way to discuss politics, as it's easy to lose perspective and its use can be potentially exploited by all sides. That's part of why I'm more likely to discuss data or theoretical situations.

You did ask for specific examples, but that it's not going to be all-encompassing. Anecdotes about celebrities are more readily available than anecdotes about ordinary people, so that was the main reason I referenced Munroe Bergdorf. I'm sure there's similar abuse directed at a trans professor I've never heard of, but celebrities are able to have a platform to discuss the abuse. According to your standard, if I'm aware that something likely happens but not the specific example of it, it's theoretical.

You could have situations in which people are bigoted against trans people without targeting any specific trans people. If the owner of a store in a small town makes it abundantly clear he will never hire a trans cashier, I would certainly view this as transphobic even if no trans person becomes aware of it. I'm well-aware that is a theoretical example, but we're unlikely to hear about scenarios that don't get any coverage. A non-theoretical example might be people going out of their way to indicate that they're super-straight (would never be attracted to someone trans.)

As a pedantic point, the question I was responding to was about bigotry as opposed to transphobia, and bigotry can be a broader category. Someone might argue that they're not transphobic (which is more about motives) if they're doing something harmful, like firing someone who is trans because they think it may hurt a business or their standing in the community. In this discussion, it's largely a distinction without a difference.

I think it's possible that some of the people who spread what appears to be a made-up story (in that it references discussions in a public forum involving events that would attract the attention that no one has provided evidence of in the more than four years since) did so to make trans people or people supportive of trans rights feel bad. I did describe that motivation as the worst case scenario since I'm not sure if it was the case. The other possible explanation is that someone who wanted to score political points made up that story, but given how it's well-known that irresponsible coverage of suicide increases the prevalence of suicide, that scenario still shows a callousness towards trans lives.

https://jech.bmj.com/content/57/4/238.info

Today's GOP, come for the racism, stay for the lynchings.

Here is a list of all Republican lawmakers who condemned Chip Roy's anti-Chinese rant and endorsement of lynching.
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Chip Roy's comments were about punishing those who perpetrated violence against Asian-Americans.

That said, the rule of law is preferable to vigilante justice.

[Kirby101]

Chip Roy's comments were about punishing those who perpetrated violence against Asian-Americans.

That said, the rule of law is preferable to vigilante justice.

That is the most anemic pushback against lynching I have seen. I found it horrific, you would rather they didn't lynch when possible. And BTW lynching has nothing to do with justice.

And Trump blaming the Chinese for the Corona virus is where the increase in anti Asian hate crimes came from. So maybe telling your constituency that we should hate the Chinese isn't the best way to stop it.

The nuance would be lost on them.

[numberthirty]

https://news.yahoo.com/breyer-mum-li...041056692.html

Breyer mum as some liberals urge him to quit Supreme Court

With spring comes the start of the period in which many justices have announced their retirement. Some progressives say it is time for Breyer to go, without delay. Other liberal voices have said Breyer should retire when the court finishes its work for the term, usually by early summer.

“He should announce his retirement immediately, effective upon the confirmation of his successor,” University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos wrote in The New York Times on Monday.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

That is the most anemic pushback against lynching I have seen. I found it horrific, you would rather they didn't lynch when possible. And BTW lynching has nothing to do with justice.

And Trump blaming the Chinese for the Corona virus is where the increase in anti Asian hate crimes came from. So maybe telling your constituency that we should hate the Chinese isn't the best way to stop it.

The nuance would be lost on them.

The brainless knuckledraggers who support Trump and the GQP couldn't spell nuance, much less understand the meaning of the word. Meanwhile, being an African-American, NOBODY, least of all Qpublicans should mention lynching because it was my people who suffered exclusively from it.

[Kirby101]

The brainless knuckledraggers who support Trump and the GQP couldn't spell nuance, much less understand the meaning of the word. Meanwhile, being an African-American, NOBODY, least of all Qpublicans should mention lynching because it was my people who suffered exclusively from it.

But Mets agrees lynching isn't preferable.

[worstblogever]

That is the most anemic pushback against lynching I have seen.

Not nearly with the vigor we see used to defend transphobia or Stephen Miller from accusations of white nationalism.

Hmm...

[Tami]

Texas Museum Puts Donald Trump Wax Statue in Storage Because People Kept Punching It

Donald Trump’s detractors appear to be taking out their frustrations on a wax replica of the former president.

The San Antonio Express-News reports that the replica had to be placed in storage after multiple visitors attacked it. The statue is located at Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks in San Antonio, Texas, a branch of the Ripley Entertainment Corp.

“When it’s a highly political figure, attacks can be a problem,” Clay Stewart, the regional manager of the museum told the publication. After realizing that patrons had an issue with the statue, employees first moved it to the front lobby so security could watch over the replica. However, that didn’t prevent visitors from “punching” and “scratching” the model, which left deep cuts on its face. Ultimately, the museum was forced to remove it from the floor altogether, where it’s been for the last four years.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Texas Museum Puts Donald Trump Wax Statue in Storage Because People Kept Punching It

I'm surprised punching was all that happened to the damn thing. By the by, just like the real McCoy, the statue is ugly as sin.