Posted on 08/14/2017 8:28:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
One of the things we've learned over the past year is that events like the violence in Charlottesville, Va., are often viewed very differently in different places. Places like rural white communities that make up President Trump's most loyal base. One such place is Mineville, N.Y., a tiny Rust Belt town in the Adirondack Mountains north of Albany, where on Sunday afternoon we found Christopher LaMothe sitting on a bench.
In these small towns, events like what happened in Charlottesville are also portrayed differently in the conservative media. When Trump first responded to the deadly violence in Charlottesville, he blamed the rioting and bloodshed on "many sides," failing to name the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who organized the march. It sparked a huge backlash even from many Republicans.
But the president's words sat just fine with LaMothe. "I think when he called for the unity of the country, that should have been what was pounded on," LaMothe said in between taking a drag on his cigarette. By pounded on, LaMothe meant respected. He loves Trump and says the president never gets a fair shake from the media.
He says he hates the idea of neo-Nazis and recalls when growing up, he had friends who were black. But now he thinks the white guys he saw on his TV marching in Charlottesville have some reasonable arguments.
"This is a different white supremacy movement than before, because I don't think whites are saying, 'Well, we're better.' They're saying why can't we be treated all as equal?"
LaMothe thinks affirmative action programs should be scrapped. He also thinks neo-Nazis who sparked mayhem in Charlottesville are no worse than a lot of activist groups on the left. "I didn't hear anything from Barack Obama about Black Lives Matter and that was another hate group," he says.
In fact, Black Lives Matter has no history of violence or racial bigotry comparable to America's far-right militias, neo-Nazis or Klan groups. But that's not how this plays even in fairly mainstream conservative media, where liberal groups are often portrayed as radical or dangerous.
"I think the president nailed it, condemned in the strongest possible terms hatred and bigotry on all sides," Pete Hegseth, co-host of Fox and Friends, said during a broadcast Sunday. He echoed the narrative that white nationalist groups have legitimate concerns and compared them to groups on the left.
"Antifa also ought to be called out, just like the violent aspects of Black Lives Matter ought to be called out," he said.
Antifa means "anti-fascist." It's a kind of catch-all name for far-left students and anarchists who often stage counterprotests in cities where far-right conservatives march or stage rallies. And their approach is confrontational. In Charlottesville, Antifa protesters chanted that people should "punch a Nazi in the mouth."
The left-wing movement is tiny, but it has become a major fixation for the far right. Over the weekend, a reporter from the media site Breitbart, which has close ties to the White House, urged Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe to criticize Antifa protesters, as well as neo-Nazis.
"Governor, will you condemn Antifa as well?" he asked repeatedly.
McAuliffe didn't reply.
People who speak for the Antifa movement acknowledge they sometimes carry clubs and sticks. They have clashed in recent months with police. But James Anderson, who runs an anarchist website, rejects comparisons between the militant left and white supremacists, pointing out that their goals and aims are far different.
"I mean the idea that we should organize against the Klan or stop the Klan or stand up to the Klan, most people would be like, 'Yeah, obviously,' " Anderson says. "The Klan is bad. It kills people; it lynches them."
But for many rural white conservatives, it's not that clear. Cultural and political lines that once seemed sharply drawn to a lot of Americans just aren't anymore. In their media and in their worldview, groups like Black Lives Matter seem just as radical as the Klan.
When asked if it wouldn't be better had Trump just condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville using blunt language, LaMothe shook his head impatiently.
"He's in a no-win situation," LaMothe said. "What he did do — and no one's giving him credit for that — he called for unity. I never saw Obama call for unity."
In fact, Barack Obama did call for national unity numerous times during his presidency, especially during times of racial conflict and violence. That message was often downplayed or ignored in much of the conservative media that shapes opinion in rural America.
NPR
What a crock of ....
NPR laments how “conservative media” shapes opinion????
Then do they accept the premise that the media try to shape opinion? Then if so, do they accept that liberal media, such as themselves, anchored as they are in the New York/Washington axis, try to shape opinion in a liberal direction???
Actually that could easily be true in that one side is not comparable to the other which is all that the sentence actually says. What is not true is the implicit claim that the NAZIs and the KKK are on the political right. The NAZIs are socialists and the KKK is historically Democrats.
Even NPR can’t completely write around the truth.
[In fact, Barack Obama did call for national unity numerous times during his presidency, especially during times of racial conflict and violence.]
Yes, usually after he ranked on the police and riled up racial tension at every opportunity
Who burned down Ferguson, Missouri and other places. I guess it was rouge Amish?
Remember when Trump said, “If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun.” Oh wait, I was wrong. That was Obama.
A man who loves his country doesn't try to divide it and set it against itself at every turn.
Obama To Supporters: "Argue With Friend and Neighbors Get In Their Face!" video
Obama Mocks Fox, "Teabaggers" video
Obama Mocks Republican 'Armageddon' Rhetoric (Again) video
Obama: Police Acted 'stupidly' in Scholar Arrest video
Obama On GOP Running On Repeal: 'Go For It' video
NRA: Barack Obama - "bitter gun owners" video
President Obama, No One in Arizona is Laughing video
Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, ... asked, "Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit' Democratic voters "and it will encourage the extremists." - Nov. 7, 2009
Jan Brewer: We Found Out the Obama Was Turning Us In To the UNHRC on Internet (video)
Top 5 Most Violent Obama Quotes Ever Including - "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun, because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl." (video)
Obama Tells GOP "They Can Come For The Ride, But They Have To Sit In Back" (video)
OBAMA TO LATINOS: 'PUNISH OUR ENEMIES' (Youtube audio-vid)
A President who uses his bully pulpit to mock and taunt Americans, who incites his followers to be confrontational, creates an atmosphere of incivility and violence.
In fact, they do--and the Marxists at NPR have a history of promoting their violence.
This IS news. However, I think he meant the left-wing voter base.
McAwful needs a prolonged wooden shampoo from hairdresser Lucille...
That's a half-truth, at best. If he did call for unity, he usually undermined it with a disclaimer that pretty much nullified his original call for unity. Not a peep after the cops were killed in Dallas, but he did have people indirectly responsible for those killings (BLM) to the White House, not to mention other extremists.
Obama spent 8 years ignoring the white middle class while wrecking the system that created it; any “calls for unity” were thinly veiled chastisements of whites (bitterly clinging to their guns and Bibles). Trump’s election was a direct result of Obama’s divisiveness.
Never heard Obama make a direct statement about us all being made by the same Creator either - that really pisses the Left off but they can’t figure out how to attack it w/o getting their own excrement all over themselves.
Bump, lest we forget.
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