What I have seen from his killing (and by the way, this isn't an "assassination." Go look up Chris Rock's bit about Tupac and Biggie and that's what think about using that term in this case) on my Facebook is the outpouring of shock and anger over this when those same people had nothing to say about (and this has been the assassination [and here the term is used appropriately because it involves a political figure murdered for political reasons] of Minnesota State Senator Melissa Hortman, her husband and her dog. That observation goes down avenues that should be addressed individually. First off, I am certain that most of the people who bitch about what happened and didn't say anything about the Hortman murders back in June are MAGAts who refuse to see how hypocritical they sound. There are also arguments of "No one should be murdered for what they said!" when they either are unaware or refuse to actually listen to his arguments, all of which have a universal theme of putting down and insulting anyone who isn't a White, Christian, hetero, cis male. When you add that his political organization made a list and subjected college professors to abuse for teaching subjects he didn't like to the point they were driven out of their jobs, it goes beyond free speech and into illegal action. Finally, there are those who are only thinking of her wife and children. I will give my sympathies to them, as I would to any human. But based on what he thought of empathy, I am in no mood to give to him what he said he would not give in turn.
But the sanewashing (I may have said this before here, but this is a great word that speaks to the madness of our times) of this man after he got taken out has reached a level of national and cultural resonance that scares the living shit out of me. Flags have been ordered at half-mast. OK, he did not hold any political office. That is what lowering flags to half-mast is for, not this asshole. And other Governors, especially Democratic ones like Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania doing the same in the name of "unity" is particularly gross. How could they? But there were moments of silence for this asswipe at the Tigers-Yankees and Commanders-Packers Games last night. Why? This guy was a podcaster, and a fucking racist, sexist, transphobic shit-stirrer. And we're holding a moment of silence for someone who spat at the existence of people who don't look like him?!
And another thing: I will bet you that there are a lot of people who have no idea who the hell he was. Which means that we are holding a moment of silence for some dude. Not anyone who has tried to make the world a better place, not someone you would have at least heard about if you watch the news from time to time, but some shitstain. But MLB and the NFL seemed to have bent the knee to Trump and Republicans in valorizing a man who thought Blacks were stealing White peoples' jobs, who believed that a woman's place is in the home, and who thought that everybody ought to carry a gun if they so choose. Well, look where that last belief got him.
That is what scares me so much. This paying of respects to a man who had no respect for people of color, women and the LGBTQ+ community seems to have been conditioned nation-wide. (Worldwide too -- I just saw what I think was a meeting of the European Parliament when someone called for a moment of silence to honor this man. What do Europeans give a fuck about what happened to this asshole in the United States? Left-wing Members of Parliament wouldn't shut up during that moment, and good for them.) And if the country has decided that this demagogue is indeed a martyr ... that means that the Republican mindset that anybody who doesn't toe their line is a danger to (their) America and should be eliminated becomes that much more acceptable.
I highly doubt that this shooting was part of some conspiracy. But Republicans and Trump are putting in place a plan to make this country a White nationalist one, and they are using every event to reach that goal. I was hoping that there would be some resistance to this slide into fascism. What I saw in the past 24 hours is more proof that there just ain't enough.
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