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YouTube Disabled Comments On Livestreams Of A Congressional Hearing On White Nationalism Because They Were Too Hateful (buzzfeednews.com)

Tuesday's hearing was meant to examine the rise of white nationalism and white supremacy and the role social media plays in its spread. Then the comments got hijacked. From a report: YouTube moderators disabled comments on livestreams of the House Judiciary Committee's hearing about hate crimes the rise of white nationalism on Tuesday, deeming them too hateful for the platform. The comment sections quickly flooded with hate speech and white nationalist memes before the hearing had even started. The comments included derogatory remarks about women on camera, anti-Semitic slurs, far-right memes with references to "white genocide," and pro-Trump slogans. The channels' comments sections were deactivated within an hour. [...] YouTube's disabling of comments is ironic: House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York, made special reference in his opening statement of the role social media platforms play in spreading hate speech and extremism in his opening statement.

54 of 431 comments (clear)

  1. Why this one video by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't know if these "You Tube Moderators" have looked around much, but you can find hateful comments on pretty much any video. Why block comments on just this one?

    If YouTube wants to block "hateful comments" why do they allow comments anywhere?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Why this one video by Freischutz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know if these "You Tube Moderators" have looked around much, but you can find hateful comments on pretty much any video. Why block comments on just this one?

      If YouTube wants to block "hateful comments" why do they allow comments anywhere?

      Because the quantity and hatefulness blew the scale?

    2. Re:Why this one video by Tyrannosaur · · Score: 2

      Oh hey you can see where this is going. Congrats

    3. Re:Why this one video by BringsApples · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seems proper to me. Here they are, the big-wigs meeting about the role that social media plays in fueling hate. YouTube, a social media platform would be super stupid to NOT turn off the hate in such a situation.

      --
      Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    4. Re:Why this one video by Crashmarik · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh that's hilarious. Truly hateful speech invalidates itself. It's why conservatives love it when totalitarians of all stripes open up their mouths.
      I would guess it's more a case of far too many accurate comments and questions.

      Examples:
      How do you raise the minimum wage to 15/hr while simultaneously allowing an endless flood of people in that will work for $5/hr ?
      If sexual preference is biologically determined, just how is gender a social construct ?
      Or the simple If it's OK for the U.S. to interfere in Russian elections, why wouldn't you expect them to return the favor ?

    5. Re:Why this one video by XXongo · · Score: 4, Informative
      I don't see any of those examples being removed from the comment section of Youtube.

      The removed comments are a lot more disturbing, stuff like Heil Hitler posts & death threats.

    6. Re: Why this one video by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No federally elected Democrat is arguing that,

      Multiple elected Democrats in the House and Senate are for totally open borders and minimum wage at $15.

      Just the facts, man.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    7. Re: Why this one video by randomaxe · · Score: 2, Informative

      Just the facts, man.

      AhahahahahahahaNo. Your source is bad, and you should feel bad.

      Just because they call themselves "non-partisan" doesn't mean that they actually are.

    8. Re: Why this one video by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Just the facts, man.

      AhahahahahahahaNo. Your source is bad, and you should feel bad.

      Just because they call themselves "non-partisan" doesn't mean that they actually are.

      Biased or not, his source cites the Washington Post, among others. Is that a right-wing rag to you?

      Facts remain facts regardless of the bias of the person stating them.

    9. Re: Why this one video by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Informative

      The facts, huh? Your link is an inaccurate summary of a WaPo story, which it actually links to but I'll repeat it here: https://www.washingtonpost.com...

      As anyone can read for themselves, it does not say that the Democrats want totally open borders. That is simply false, and in fact as the article notes they are willing to fund ICE.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    10. Re:Why this one video by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

      US support of a very unpopular Yeltsin and his neo liberal "shock therapy" ideas that left Russia even worse off economically.

      http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-meddling-in-1996-russian-elections-in-support-of-boris-yeltsin/5568288/amp

      Let us consider some of the consequences of Yeltsin's electoral win:

      -In the first years of the Chubais-Yeltsin privatization scheme, the life expectancy of a Russian male fell from 65 years to 57.5 years. Female life expectancy in Russia dropped from 74.5 years in 1989 to 72.8 years in 1999.

      -Throughout Yeltsin's terms as President, flight of capital away from Russia totaled between $1 and $2 billion every month.

      -Each year from 1989 to 2001 there was a fall of approximately 8% in Russia's productive assets.

      -From 1990 to 1999 the percentage increase of people living on less than $1 a day was greater in Russia and the other former socialist countries than anywhere else in the world.

      -The number of people living in poverty in the former Soviet Republics rose from 14 million in 1989 to 147 million in 1998. As a result of the 1998 financial collapse and the devaluation of the ruble, the life savings of tens of millons of Russian families disappeared overnight. Since then, the Great Recession and low oil pries have only made matters worse.

      -In the period from 1992 to 1998 Russia's GDP fell by half-something that did not happen even under during the German invasion in the Second World War.

      Under Yeltsin's tenure, the death rate in Russia reached wartime levels. Accidents, food poisoning, exposure, heart attacks, lack of access to basic healthcare, and an epidemic of suicidesâ"they all played a role. David Satter, a senior fellow at the anti-communist, Washington DC-based Hudson Institute, writing in the conservative Wall Street Journal, described the consequences of this victory of Democracy: "Western and Russian demographers now agree that between 1992 and 2000, the number of 'surplus deaths' in Russia-deaths that cannot be explained on the basis of previous trends-was between five and six million persons."

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  2. Re:There is only one kind of speech in America by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hey Anonymous Coward - Don't quote the constitution if you don't understand it.

    The constitution says THE GOVERNMENT can't censor your speech. Last time I checked, there was no mention in the constitution of private corporations like YouTube.

  3. And? by the_skywise · · Score: 4, Funny

    So it looked like the typical slashdot post comments then?

  4. Dumb-but-serious question... by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I understand what a "white supremacist" is. I understand what a "French Nationalist", or a "Argentinian Nationalist" would be. However, the term "White Nationalist" is semantically and massively wrong (but then, so would "Black Nationalist" or "Asian Nationalist"...) After all, what nation is titled as "White"?

    I get that stamping out racism is a good thing, but seriously, folks - at least don't mangle the language while you do it.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    1. Re:Dumb-but-serious question... by mcmonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      However, the term "White Nationalist" is semantically and massively wrong (but then, so would "Black Nationalist" or "Asian Nationalist"...) After all, what nation is titled as "White"?

      If someone was a nationalist, and thought their nation should be solely or dominantly one race, would it not be semantically and massively correctly to refer to them as a "[Race] Nationalist"?

      (Race being not a biological category, as humans are a single species, but a reference to skin color, geographical ancestry, or religion.)

    2. Re:Dumb-but-serious question... by slinches · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It also works semantically if someone is a nationalist, who happens to be white. Which provides a convenient way to conflate nationalism with racism.

      --
      Knowledge Brings Fear
    3. Re:Dumb-but-serious question... by sycodon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The problem is that when you say you are a Nationalist, as Trump did, the Left automatically adds, "White" to the beginning.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    4. Re:Dumb-but-serious question... by TimothyHollins · · Score: 2

      The entire field of genetics would disagree with you. Perhaps you haven't thought about it, but the whole reason there are so many biologists is specifically because there is a buttload of genetic variation within the human species, and figuring out how that affects us is pretty tricky. Throwing around numbers like 2% or 4% is popular when you don't understand that those 2% may be the switches that turn on or off or mutate the remaining 98%.

      For example, did you know that the difference between friendly, harmless, likeable bird flu that bothers no one and murderous, destructive, evil bird flu that kills the host is a single nucleotide. That means that two strains that differ by a single point in some 13.5 thousand points behave very differently. So 2% of that, or 270 points, can cause a lot of variation.

  5. It is kind of shocking by Lucas123 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm no babe in the woods (I completed my 100th trip around the block last week), but I've seen some comment threads on news sites that would convince you Neanderthals didn't go extinct; they're alive and well. You just hope the comments are more troll/bombastic in nature and not what people truly believe (OK, maybe I am still a bit naive).

  6. Re:There is only one kind of speech in America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Free Speech. Guaranteed by the first (foremost) amendment to the supreme law of the land.

    Anyone who would knowingly abridge it is an enemy of the United States of America.

    Period. Full Stop.

    All Trump supporters should be tied to a post and flogged with a clue stick whilst wearing a refrigerated steel butt plug up their fundament <- That was free speech, now mod me up for making use of the 1st amendment.

  7. They should see Starcraft II general chat! by King_TJ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seriously .... it's amazingly bad, how often online conversations or comments on social media devolve into utter garbage. I imagine in this instance, it was egged on because of the political topic of discussion. Furthermore? I'm fairly confident the vast majority of "white supremacist" comments were made by teenagers trying to get a rise out of people.

    I mean, sure -- you really DO have these racist hate groups around. But they're generally rather disorganized or lack enough membership to do anything significant. You have FAR more people who are just angry and like to talk trash than you do people who are truly committed to promoting neo-nazis or some kind of white supremacy movement.

    1. Re:They should see Starcraft II general chat! by LordAba · · Score: 2

      Absolutely, the amount of actual white nationalists on there was probably very small. Most people aren't racist. They might at worse grumble and hold some prejudice views, but wouldn't discriminate. A lot of trolls which... hey! Why not!

      I'm more worried about the left identitarian stuff. That has a bigger chance of actually implementing policy changes with far reaching consequences.

    2. Re:They should see Starcraft II general chat! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Um, actually, if you march carrying torches at night shouting Nazi slogans, then yes, you are a Nazi. Mike Godwin himself, author of that law, came out and publicly said "Go right ahead and call them Nazis, because they are!" AC

    3. Re:They should see Starcraft II general chat! by mcmonkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Guys, nobody is a Nazi.

      You generally have a good point, but the people marching with torches chanting "the Jews will not replace us" are nazis.

      Not everyone who disagrees with me is a nazi. Nor is everyone more conservative than I am or everyone who believes negative stereotypes based on skin color or religion.

      But that does not mean there are no nazis.

    4. Re:They should see Starcraft II general chat! by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      You dance with the one that brung ya.

      If these 4chan types are aping racist sentiments just because it pisses the adults off, well, in my view, at best that makes them deluded pricks. But it's worse than that, because if nothing else they act as an unwitting online army for the really nasty guys. Racism is still racism, whether it's just some attempt at a bit self-masturbatory humor. Even if it's some sort of satire, there's a way to do satire of racists that doesn't involve basically behaving exactly like a racist.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    5. Re:They should see Starcraft II general chat! by fafalone · · Score: 2

      Nah. They don't deserve nearly that much credit. At best they're nazi wannabes.

    6. Re:They should see Starcraft II general chat! by stealth_finger · · Score: 2

      To be a Nazi you would need to be a member of the national socialist german workers party (yep, thats right, Nazis were socialists..),

      Yeah, in the same way that North Korea is a Democratic Peoples Republic...

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  8. The timing on this is almost perfect. by slappynipsy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's nearly the 10 year anniversary of John Gabriel's groundbreaking theory. https://www.penny-arcade.com/c...

  9. Re:Oversight by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The narrative here seems to be "talk about white nationalists, and gangs of white nationalists show up to prove just how demented and determined to be assholes they are."

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  10. Re:There is only one kind of speech in America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Free Speech. Guaranteed by the first (foremost) amendment to the supreme law of the land.

    Anyone who would knowingly abridge it is an enemy of the United States of America.

    Period. Full Stop.

    All Trump supporters should be tied to a post and flogged with a clue stick whilst wearing a refrigerated steel butt plug up their fundament <- That was free speech, now mod me up for making use of the 1st amendment.

    So, modded down to -1 already, it's fun being censored by a bunch of Trump supporters who usually are the first to complain about being censored for hating on brown people in violation of their rights under the 1st amendment.

  11. Re:Oversight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... and their perspective of blatant discrimination got validated by YouTube promptly censoring them.

    "Oh, but it's a corporation, not the government censoring them" isn't a great argument when you also claim that corporations own the government, and in this case, I'd agree with you that Google has an amazingly large, malign, influence on the government.

  12. Re:There is only one kind of speech in America by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For the same reason the Government uses newspapers to advertise and TV networks for televised addresses. Just because the government can use private companies for providing services does not mean that private companies suddenly become branches of the government, and bound to the first Amendments.

    Jesus Christ, the utter lack of understanding on the part of some here just astonishes. This black and white thinking, this inability to comprehend nuance or complexity, and the fundamental ignorance that gets married to it, so that your lack of knowledge gets coupled with astonishing arrogance, that you become blind to how things are actually supposed to work.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  13. Re:There is only one kind of speech in America by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As usual, the dullards miss the teeny, tiny caveat to the First Amendment. It only applies to the government.

    As has been stated who knows how many times, a company is free to limit free speech if it so chooses. This is no different than if a casino doesn't want to provide service to someone. It's their property, their rules. Same with YouTube.

    It has nothing to do with being an "enemy" of the U.S. It has to do with a company doing what it wants on its platform. Don't like it? Don't frequent YouTube.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  14. Re:Oversight by lgw · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The narrative here seems to be "talk about white nationalists, and gangs of white nationalists show up to prove just how demented and determined to be assholes they are."

    That's certainly the narrative. I'd bet the reality is "the chans saw this as a wonderful opportunity to troll, plus some actual white nationalists (who were also channers).".

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  15. Humans and Great Apes differ by 2% by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Upwards of 4% of European DNA is Neanderthal DNA; black Africans have zero Neanderthal DNA.

    The point is not that one group is "better" than another, but this idea that all humans are clones of each other, and that race is a social construct, makes no sense; it makes no sense in the raw numbers, and it makes no sense in everyday life.

    People know it's bullshit.

    Now, look into average IQ measurements. Come on; you can do it. Stare into that deep abyss, and know reality for what it is.

  16. Isn't it ironic? Don't you think? by drew_kime · · Score: 3, Funny

    YouTube's disabling of comments is ironic

    If by "ironic" you mean "totally fucking predictable" then yeah, I suppose it was.

    --
    Nope, no sig
  17. Re:There is only one kind of speech in America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But the interesting difference between your lawn and google's lawn is google has opened their lawn to the public. For now you are correct but we do need to have a conversation about privately owned public spaces.

  18. Yeah no fan of that by Crashmarik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But I don't see anyone banning Che Guevara shirts.

    1. Re:Yeah no fan of that by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Probably because comparing Che Guevara to Hitler is ridiculous, and because we don't have a problem with Marxist revolutionary terrorism right now.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re: Yeah no fan of that by jwhyche · · Score: 4, Informative

      You know why the Nazi's of WWII are regarded more evil than Stalin or Mao? The Nazi's where better record keepers. It's easy to gloss over 20 to 80 million that Stalin had murdered, and the 80 to 200 million that Chairman Mao red revolution slaughtered, when it's all anonymous numbers on a ledger.

      But the Nazi's, now they new how to keep records over who they butchered. They had names, addresses, and a count of every item the took from jews before they gassed them.

      Yes, the nazi's where just better record keepers, but communist stand way taller on a mountain of anonymous dead.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    3. Re:Yeah no fan of that by Cederic · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Oh, you fucking make me laugh with https://fullfact.org/crime/eth...

      So more white people are arrested than any other single racial group. A whole 38% of arrests. It's almost as though 86% of the population are classed as 'white'.

      Of course, since you're the racist focussing on 'white' people, we can look at this another way: Even though 86% of people in the UK are 'white', 62% of terror arrests are for other demographics. Seems to me the white majority are being extremely tolerant of representatives of the 14% getting arrested for 62% of the terror.

      It depends how you slice it.

      I try to slice it in a way that doesn't demonise primarily innocent demographics. I try to slice it in a way that doesn't push a racist narrative. I try to slice it differently to you for both of those reasons.

      Who are these Marxists committing all these terrorist acts?

      Perhaps you should ask the US Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation, as they're the people that designated Antifa a terror organisation.

    4. Re: Yeah no fan of that by jwhyche · · Score: 3

      Except there is literally not a single written record of the Holocaust. I'm completely serious. Go ahead, look for one.

      Yes there are, you fucking dumbass.

      https://www.denverpost.com/201...

      It took me exactly 30 seconds to find that article. An I know these fucking records exist. The damn nazi's that kept them told the alias what they are. So go fuck yourself.

      People like to put holocaust deniers on the same level as the flat earthers. Laugh at them for their stupidity and move on. They shouldn't. The flat earthers are just harmless in their brand of stupidity. These holocaust deniers would have us believe that the systematic round up, record, and murder of 12 million human beings never happened.

      Yes, I'm feeding the troll.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  19. Re:Oversight by gtall · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because Google does have an amazingly large, malign, influence on the government?

  20. Re:Trump's latest government deform: #DWHS by gtall · · Score: 2

    Just look back at Trump's history, he's been a racist all along. Miller is as well, but Trump is a willing participant.

  21. Re:Sadly any place by LordAba · · Score: 3, Insightful

    any place at all where speech is truly free is going to be flooded with hatred trying to drown out everything else.

    It's unfortunate, and I don't have a solution, but it is an incontrovertible fact of life.

    I totally disagree. Sunlight is a great disinfectant, and more speech is always better. The issue comes in echo chambers that are cut off from one another either voluntarily or by force. These allow extreme ideas and sentiment to exist. Some of the best research on getting rid of extremism states that two people talking will do more than nearly any amount of censorship.

    It's a lot harder to use the n-word when a friend will smack you in the back of the head. It's a lot harder to breed resentment when people close to you say "not cool" when you post about white genocide. Virtue signalling usually gets you odd looks when you do it on the bus. But get into a community of like minded people who enforce such behavior and that all goes out the window.

    Being social and interacting with others is a muscle like any other (even the "brain muscle")... without training and exercise one can easily become an NPC.

  22. Re:Oversight by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's certainly the narrative. I'd bet the reality is "the chans saw this as a wonderful opportunity to troll, plus some actual white nationalists (who were also channers).".

    Don't worry, the media is currently all over the rainbow clowns(honkhonk) are really a white nationalist and neo-nazi symbol.

    The reality is, youtube doing this proves both sides right. YT is censoring some views(politically correct or not) and thus validating it. And the opposing side is "see look at all that hate! They were right!" Pure accelerationism all the way down, looks like the NZ nut was spot on.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  23. Interesting... by Big+Boss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I find it amusing and interesting that the "conservatives" want businesses to have rights and religion when they are discriminating against gays, but freak out when some business decides they don't want said "conservatives" as a customer.

    It's a bit like the "tolerance" groups that only have tolerance for the groups/religions/etc. THEY like.

    Left/Right, D/R, doesn't matter. They are all stupid. :)

  24. Re:Trump's latest government deform: #DWHS by shanen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hmm... I'm not certain. I am convinced that Trump thinks HE himself is (genetically and presidentially and otherwise) superior, but I think it is mostly at a personal, familial level rather than at a racial level. Rather I suspect Trump is so solipsistic that he has no real feelings about groups as such. Therefore I think Trump can be played by the racists, but he isn't nearly as sincere about it as Miller and Bannon. I think Trump has always been a puppet, and the only trick to pulling his strings is to convince Trump it was his idea in the first place. As long as you are pushing him from behind, Trump thinks he's leading.

    Having said that, I do have to agree that there is plenty of racist stuff in Trump's past. The Central Park Jogger stuff is especially bad, but there was some less racist stuff mixed in, too. For example, if a black celebrity could help him make some money, then Trump was much more concerned about the money than the race.

    I just don't think Trump was smart enough to come up with the idea of the Department of White Homeland Security, and his willingness is not that important. In fact, now he seems to be getting cold feet.

    If Trump had any imagination, then I'd think he was afraid of a protest mocking one of his own rallies. I still want to see the video of "Lock kids up, LOCK KIDS UP!" In my imagination, the protesters are in Trump face, and the video builds to an angry crescendo before collapsing into howls of insane rage.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  25. Re:There is only one kind of speech in America by smooth+wombat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Marsh v Alabama doesn't apply because a) YouTube set up rules of conduct regarding comments from the beginning. It did not single out one specific type of speech it would ban over another and b) YouTube also limits what can be posted as far as videos, and has done so from the beginning. Neither is an abridgement of free speech.

    The only ones outsourcing totalitarianism are Republicans who keep claiming the free market will fix everything, then turn around and use taxpayer money to prop up the free market and businesses. Or, in the current case, crawl into their holes while the corrupt con artist rides roughshod over them because they're too stupid and cowardly to do their duties as members of Congress to reign in his dictatorial ways.

    And for the record, I do agree that free speech should be defended. If nothing else, it reveals to the world the true nature of an individual. That said, there are limits, and a company has every right to censor speech on their site if that speech bumps up against their rules.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  26. Re:Thermodynamics by pauljlucas · · Score: 2

    How about it? Nobody is saying that social media platforms play the sole role in spreading hate speech. But right now, we're talking only about their role.

    --
    If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
  27. Dem Angry White Folks is Crazy by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There is an awful lot of anger out there.

    Those of Caucasian decent have been told for years that they are racists simply because of their skin color.
    They can't be discriminated against because they aren't the right color.
    They have something called " White Privilege " that, apparently, is some sort of " I win " button available on tap.
    They get turned down for jobs and education slots because the Company or University has to have enough minorities lest they be called racists too.
    Standardized tests are all racist because, apparently, minorities have issues with them. So they just get rewritten to make the numbers look better.
    Slavery is still their fault apparently, irregardless of the fact the last " slaves " in America were freed ~150 years ago.
    ( The reparations movement, and all the politicians using it to further their political career, can just f*ck off. )
    Starting a #WhiteLivesMatter movement would instantly be classified as some White Nationalist Klan Nazi Terrorist Group and the media would just lose it.

    Given the above:

    Is there anyone out there who doesn't think a very small percentage of impacted folks might be just a tad bit angry about it all ?
    Is there anyone out there who doesn't think an even smaller percentage of that small percentage might even be REALLY angry about it ?

    And of that laughably tiny percentage, a few folks might actually do something rather radical ?

    This is shocking why ?

    Maybe they're just tired of being the " Bad Guy " for nothing more than their skin color.

    1. Re:Dem Angry White Folks is Crazy by Lord_Jeremy · · Score: 2
      No serious* person in the Progressive movement has said anything remotely like what you enumerated. It sounds like you're erecting straw-men, but I'll bite and address things individually.

      Those of Caucasian decent have been told for years that they are racists simply because of their skin color.

      No one (serious*) is saying that. There is a strong believe for progressives that the mainstream American society goes out of its way to avoid recognizing or admitting that the history of slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation in this country has done serious damage to the social mobility and opportunity available to people of color. As shorthand, progressives will often say something along the lines of "the system is racist" and make the assertion that people who don't see or aren't willing to acknowledge this are practicing racism themselves.

      They can't be discriminated against because they aren't the right color.

      See above. Progressives are pretty clear that the issue is systemic racism, not individual racism. In the vast majority of places in society where race might be a factor, the systemic racism is biased against people of color. This is supported by statistics across the board. I hope you can understand that because of the huge disparity that exists today, progressives don't generally feel like there's much room to discuss racism against white people. We're generally in agreement that we should focus our energy on fixing the racism against people of color first, since the scale of problem and resulting social harm is so much worse.

      They have something called " White Privilege " that, apparently, is some sort of " I win " button available on tap.

      No one talk about an "I win" button. "White Privilege" is again a shorthand to refer to the natural outcome of so many functions in society being inherently biased against people of color. The simplest example is the outcome of the policy of redlining. The direct result of redlining was that even those people of color that were financially sound and otherwise prosperous effectively couldn't purchase real estate. This insulated the black community from potential gains in the housing market as real estate has exploded in value over the years. The trickle-down result which is often referred to as white privilege is that further generations of people of color are born into circumstances where their family wasn't able to build generational wealth to pass on and give their kids a boost. I don't know anything about you or your family, but I don't think it's far-fetched to assume that your parents eventually owned their own house. Maybe they willed it to you, or maybe they were able to retire comfortably after paying it off. That's a source of financial stability and opportunity that much much fewer black families have been allowed to have.

      They get turned down for jobs and education slots because the Company or University has to have enough minorities lest they be called racists too.

      People get turned down for jobs and education for all sorts of reasons. It's never really been about how hard you work, that's a piece of American mythology with little basis in reality. If your interviewer had a bad day, you might not be getting that job. If you happened to apply to a school that had a huge bump in applications that year, you might not be getting that acceptance letter. It's illegal to discriminate against an individual in an application process specifically on their race. It's not illegal, however, to discriminate based on some other innocuous qualities such as their name. Unfortunately, studies have shown that having a name associated with being of color will negatively affect your job acceptance, even when you have an identical resume to someone with a more white-sounding name. There's a

  28. White Nationalist means by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    someone who wants to form a whites only ethno-state. This is a thing that exists and is growing and therefore needs a name. What else would you call that? And how is it mangling the language?

    It reminds me of one of my mainframe buds who couldn't wrap his head around the concept of metadata. "It's just data!". Well, no, it's not. It's data about data. "But that's just data". Yes, but it's a kind of data, and it became increasingly common and important to discuss so we made a term for it so that we could discuss it more clearly and succinctly.

    Same thing here. I could say "Persons who advocate for a White Ethno-State" but if I'm going to be talking about them a lot "White Nationalist" is easier. Now, that I'm stuck talking about them a lot shows how bad things have gotten....

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  29. Um.. no, that's not the problem. by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Problem is that when you cut programs for fighting domestic terror in a country where white supremacists account for a disproportionate amount of attacks and then say both sides are bad when literal Nazis are rallying, well...

    There just comes a time to call a Spade a Spade. I don't care of Trump really drinks the Kool-Aid or is just doing it for the votes or even the lulz. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and hiel Hitler's like a duck, it's a White Nationalist. Sooner we stop living in denial the better. This will not end well for us otherwise. Ignoring reality never does...

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