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The ACLU always gets attacked when they defend reprehensible free speech. The trouble with free speech of course is that it doesn't need defending when it's po
by moxious 9y ago
The ACLU always gets attacked when they defend reprehensible free speech. The trouble with free speech of course is that it doesn't need defending when it's popular and accepted. So naturally they're going to take some heat for this.
Charlottesville was a bloody mess and mix-up of different factors though. Some were nut jobs who were exercising their right to free speech. Some were violent and inciting riots. The exact same applies to the counter-protestors. Groups of people in public are always messy amalgams that usually don't have one clear goal and message, so you'll always be able to paint the best of them with the actions of the worst of them. It works that way on both sides.
- Navarr 9y agoI would be careful of assigning false equivalency considering a domestic terrorist act occurred against the counter-protesters.
- briandear 9y agoWas Reginald Denny’s attack during the LA riots considered a terrorist act? How about the Baltimore riots? We are really quick to label “domestic terror” when it suits our politics but rarely is it used to describe events such as the Baltimore riots or the Michael Brown riots. There is a double standard and I think that double standard is why we get a president like Trump. People are sick of being labeled racists, bigots or “extremists” because they don’t agree with left wing politics. No excuse for white supremists of course, but there ought not be an excuse for anti-white rhetoric either. The very term “White privilege” is racist to the core. Ideas like “black lives matter” or “La Raza” are racist by definition.
- Navarr 9y agoIntentionally driving a several thousand pound death machine into a group of people with the intent to harm, murder, and frighten them doesn't deserve any other label. I can't make any comment on the Baltimore or LA riots - I don't know enough.
- dandersh 9y agoNo, you are excusing white supremacists, first by employing whataboutism and then incorrectly equating movements that are meant to lift up groups of people with ideas that are meant to hold down groups of people. "Terrorism" is being applied because it has been used on multiple previous occasions to describe the act of driving an automobile through a crowd of people. The only double standard employed here is the one you are utilizing to not apply the definition of "terrorism" because the perpetrator was an overly sensitive white male who is easily triggered by left wing politics. Trump happened because a culture of spoiled, self-entitled people can't grow up and adjust to a world where not everything revolves around them. Instead of playing the victim and crying about being called a racist or a bigot, maybe people should stop acting like racists and/or making excuses for them? Just a thought.
- valuearb 9y agoTerrorism is "the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims". It doesn't have any specific ethnic label attached to it.
- tptacek 9y agoAn idea like "black lives matter" is obviously not racist by definition.
- tomjakubowski 9y agoNo, sorry, there is really no equivalence between the two groups. The right wing marchers weren't rammed repeatedly by a speeding muscle car. They didn't suffer death or critical injury at the hands of their opposition. The counter-protestors did. The counter-protestors didn't surround anyone and beat them with flaming torches. The counter-protestors didn't gang up on a bystander to beat hil with metal poles, presumably for no reason other than that he was black. A few punches were thrown and a few white supremacists got pepper sprayed.
- briandear 9y agoThe counter protestors did start fights and threw a rock at the car – which provoked the ramming. No excuse for the reaction, but let’s not pretend the counter protestors were peaceful. They were inciting with equal fervor. Protestors on either side have zero right to violence, regardless of provocation. Freedom of speech isn’t just freedom of speech with which we agree and violence is violence regardless of the perpetrators.
- SAI_Peregrinus 9y agoThe video of the start of the incident does not show any rocks being thrown. That happened after he'd driven into a crowd of people. As the car in question isn't a DeLorean I don't think he had a time machine, so your version of the story is wrong.
- zo1 9y agoThere's now video from behind showing someone hitting the car with a baseball bat before the ramming occurred. No idea how authentic it is. http://www.departmentofmemes.com/article/protesters-attacked-charlottesville-drivers-car-baseball-bat/ http://www.departmentofmemes.com/article/protesters-attacked...
- SAI_Peregrinus 9y agoThat video is as he's driving by, doing the ramming.