Even if it means antagonizing the newspaper that publishes my columns, there are times when taking a moral stand becomes necessary.
I write about hate speech. About the bully pulpits of animus and injustice that surround us. I write about pols and trolls and new millennium brown shirts who scapegoat innocent people and paint them with the brush of guilt. Guilt by color. Guilt by race. Guilt by religion. Guilt by association. Guilt according to the news headlines de jour.
Blood libel. Do you know the term? It refers to a medieval superstition that accused Jews of drinking the blood of Christian children. Blood libel lead to pogroms and the mass murder of Jews by Christians throughout Europe. It lead to centuries of anti-Semitism culminating in the Holocaust.
Hate speech laced with blood libel inflames lynch mobs. It turns unhinged people into frenzied insects who swarm online with words of hate and scorn. Swarming insects feasting on blood libel.
The blood libel of medieval Jews is now the blood libel of American Muslims. There have been numerous hate crimes committed against Muslim citizens in recent months. Intimidation. Vandalism of homes and places of worship. Beatings. Gunfire. This weekend, a Muslim man was beaten in the parking lot of a local Mosque.
Good citizens, husbands and fathers, people who pay taxes and fulfill their civic duty who happen to be Muslim Americans … all are turned into objects of ridicule and scorn. Blood libel. It makes no difference what they do. Blood libel. Hate speech is not free speech when innocent people are forced to live in fear, in their homes, in their communities and places of worship. Blood libel.
Meanwhile, bigots wrap themselves in raptures of pretend patriotism and phony piety … and inflame public opinion with toxic blood libel. Here a letter addressed to the editors on my local newspaper:
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To the Editors of the Scripps/USA Today newspaper chain:
If a Neo-Nazi group submitted an anti-Semitic hate screed, would you print it? If a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan submitted a racist hate screed, would you print it?
If the answer is “no” to the above questions, then why do you countenance these comments online:
Jim Matthews (See Percy Kepfer letter @ 9:20 AM): “Shouldn't we keep stone age barbaric MoonGod Allah devil worshipers ... from infiltrating modern civilization??”
Jim Matthews (See Gerald James letter @ 9:08 AM): “Stoneage Barbaric devil worship belongs back in their own stoneage caliphate ... totally incompatible with any modern society!!”
William Addeo (see Gerald James letter @ 9:15 AM): “It's time to play Cowboys and muslims.”
William Addeo (see Mohammed Malik column @ 1:40 PM): “You are the enemy Pat Griffis … That's called treason.”
Andrew Treacy (see Anthony Westbury column @ 9:03 AM): “See you all at the next Biker rally” [ note provocation].
William Addeo (see Mohammed Malik column @ 5:56 PM): “Here goes; big mouth, it's time to eat your words … Can a good muslim be a good American? NO, BECAUSE HIS ALLEGIANCE IS TO ALLAH, THE MOON GOD OF ARABIA … What part of this don't you understand? The answer is simple. You are one of THEM. May Jesus Christ, the only God [my bold], bless America.”
Please note the irony (and hypocrisy) of the last comment: “My only God trumps your only God,” and “Freedom for me, but not for thee.”
If your answer is “no” to publishing hate screeds in your newspaper, then your online edition has failed miserably:
William Addeo (see Jack Bergstressor letter @ 1:13 PM): “Hollywood is controlled by Jews … It's all about power and money and control of the masses.”
Note: This comment trades on old shibboleths that equate Jews with power and world domination — straight from the pages of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the book that inspired Hitler’s persecution of the Jews. What next? Crude jokes about ovens of the Holocaust or lynched bodies hanging from Cottonwood trees? If you disavow hate screeds, why then do you allow anti-Muslim comments to flourish unchecked online? Speaking of double standards …
There have been numerous reprisals against Muslim citizens in recent months. A Muslim woman profiled by police was strip searched in public. Intimidation. Vandalism of homes and places of worship. Beatings. Gunfire. This weekend, a Muslim man was beaten at the Fort Pierce Mosque (((but no hate crime according to Sheriff Mascara))).
For Anthony Westbury, the “Patriot Cruise” around the Fort Pierce Mosque is an act of intimidation. He says: “As a community, we need to nip such divisive efforts in the bud before they escalate into hate crimes and cause irreparable damage.” Why then do you countenance hate speech online!
Addeo and Matthews are predatory trolls. They dominate, disrupt, and overwhelm online discussions. They target specific topics and writers for bullying and treat readers with rude ad hominem insults. Please note:
Trolls do not make fools of themselves. When you enable them, they make fools of you.
Recently, I contributed two guest columns on hate speech: (1) “With freedom of speech comes great responsibility” [May 12, 2016], and (2) “Merchants of hate in a moment of crisis” [June 25, 2016]. It is especially galling to devote time and attention on an urgent moral message only to see these efforts undermined by the very same newspaper that hosts bigots and allows its online discussion boards to be used as a medium for hate speech and incitement.
No audience deserves harangues and verbal abuse. What steps will you take to clean up your cesspool? When will you establish a disciplined standard of civil discourse? With comment moderation? And the removal of abusive trolls? I want answers.
July 3, 2016
Another bravo is due, but I'm afraid we know those answers already: fear, greed and a bit of panic about the fading importance of newspapers. All the major news outlets seem to be following the Fox model by airing anything that gets attention, because all attention is profitable. They enable the ignoble mob and they do it for money and justify not countering it by talking about freedom. And all the churches we have here! What a great echoing silence!
ReplyDeleteI'm aware of those particular vermin you mention, and I admire your tenacity and I think it does inspire others to stand up against the horror of America's "patriot" losers and would-be crusaders.
I was disgusted by that "patriot" ride and I'm relieved to say I heard not one whisper of invitation from the Harley Owners Group I communicate with. I do remember when hundreds of bikers showed up here to chase that Cockroach Phelps away from a soldier's funeral, but harassing people in a place of worship and refuge and community is part of the same masked tradition of the Klan and the Brown Shirts and worst of all, when we do these things and when we look the other way THE TERRORISTS WIN. ISIL WINS. AL QAEDA WINS AND WE LOSE.
The words Silent Majority comes to mind. I believe the majority of Americans agree with you (O)CT(O)PUS and articles such as this helps to direct focus on where our focus ought to be.
ReplyDeleteAllowing a virulent and dangerous minority, whether educated or uneducated, to control the national (or state/local) agenda is a threat to all decent freedom and liberty loving people.
With a great deal of tenacity and a little luck just maybe, someday, these verminous purveyors of evil will be vanquished. We must never give in to the evil you address. To remain silent is to give up the fight. "Evil prevails when good people do nothing."
Thank you for this post.
UPDATE: Today, Wednesday, 12:31 PM.
ReplyDeleteI just checked the comment sections under various letters and opinion columns. It appears all the FrankenTroll (William Addeo) is gone. His comments have disappeared ... presumably removed by the editors.
More to go. I am still determined to task the newspaper with cleaning up its act. The news media has turned a common troll (Donald Trump) into a presidential candidate ... and turned a lotta people into brown shirts. I gotta keep up the heat.
Engaged in research and some sleuthing about today, I discovered the source of Jim Matthew’s’ propaganda garbage. My posted comment (at TcPalm) says it all:
ReplyDelete“It appears Jim Mathhews gets his data and talking points from Jihad Watch — listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-Muslim hate group. Jihad Watch is co-founded by Robert Spencer, along with Pamela Geller.
According to SPLC, “Spencer engages in fear-mongering through steady reference to theories like “stealth jihad,” eminent “Islamization of America,” and the infiltration of Congress by “Muslim spy interns.”
Spencer and Geller are BANNED from entering Britain. Spencer is known to have associations with European racists and neo-fascists.
ANDERS BEHRING BREIVIK, THE NORWEGIAN TERRORIST WHO SLAUGHTERED 77 PEOPLE IN OSLO AND THE NEARBY ISLAND OF UTOYA ON JULY 22, 2011, REFERENCED SPENCER’S WRITINGS DOZENS OF TIMES IN HIS 1,500-PAGE MANIFESTO.
Jim Matthews is a predatory troll. He targets specific writers and topics for bullying and treats readers with insults. His purpose here is to dominate and disrupt these online discussions.
He has been reported before by various people for inappropriate behavior. I am taking it upon myself to report him again.
My comment in the newspaper appears here:
http://www.tcpalm.com/letters-to-the-editor/letter-time-to-see-peaceful-muslims-stand-up-against-those-who-bring-so-much-pain-362d4d16-3677-02eb-385496831.html?page=1#
Aha! Investigative journalism -- we could use more of it. In a way it's comforting to realize it's not really my neighbors spewing this garbage, but an organized hate group. Part of their power comes from seeming like a group of sincere and concerned citizens and not the vermin they are.
ReplyDeleteOur local newspaper of note (The Tennessean) has its own legion of right wing bigots performing troll duties after every comment from sane people. It's as if they have been programmed to bark at every passing reader, to let them know (if there might be doubts) that the mouth breathing knuckle draggers are watching from the troglodyte section of the stands.
ReplyDeleteThe same usual suspects are found, day in and day out, hectoring anyone who has a fair word to say about Obama, progressives, liberal political ideas, gays, or environmentalists. Thank someone for a well written letter to the editor, and you can count on two or three hateful comments bashing your ancestry.
The fact that the newspaper doesn't seem to take an active interest in enforcing its own stated standards is disheartening, but not at all surprising, given their limited resources and obvious lack of give-a-shit toward decent customer service.
But really, if you go online and follow any comment thread you can see the same patterns at play. The right has a steady supply of willing and useful idiots who seem to have nothing better to do than lash out with vindictive glee at anyone who dares to have a kind word to say about anything that isn't to the right of the John Birch Society.
It's enough to chase people away. And obviously, that's the idea.
Indeed, and as I've long suspected, some of this is organized and scripted and payed for by shadowy entities. What we see in blogs and papers is like the scum on the surface of a deep cesspool.
ReplyDelete