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Theories Abound Over Meaning of Trump’s ‘Many Sides’ Remark
New York Times ^ | August 15, 2017 | JEREMY W. PETERS

Posted on 08/15/2017 8:23:39 AM PDT by Hadean

There is no shortage of theories about why President Trump was so cagey in blaming “many sides” for the white supremacist-fueled violence in Virginia.

Some suggested the president did not want to alienate whites who voted for him out of a sense of racial grievance. Others said he was offering his white nationalist supporters a wink and a nod. Yet another concluded advisers like Stephen K. Bannon must be influencing the president in dark ways.

But there is an alternate explanation, one that is espoused by many on the right...

In this version, a violent and dangerous left fringe is ignored by news media that would rather elevate far-right extremism as the nation’s more urgent threat. This view of the left as unhinged and anarchistic has become popular with some Republicans who insist that Democrats still refuse to accept Mr. Trump. They seek to stoke powerful emotions behind perceptions of excessive political correctness and media bias.

In his reluctance to pin the blame on any one element of the protests, Mr. Trump seems to have concluded what many other conservatives did about the tragedy in Charlottesville, Va.: As tragic as it was, it was incited by a small, unrepresentative group of bigots purporting to speak for the right whose antics would be exhaustively covered in the news.

“They think there were 300 or so racists who showed up to a rally, and who got exactly what they wanted: Violence, and violence in a way that inspires the nation’s elite to double down on iconoclasm in a way they hope grows their movement,” said Ben Domenech, the publisher of The Federalist, an online magazine.

A headline on The Federalist on Monday summed up that sentiment: “White Supremacists Were Not the Only Thugs Tearing Up Charlottesville.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antifa; manysides; neonazis; radicalleft
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To: Sacajaweau

“He used the right words. It included everyone.....there were antagonists on BOTH sides.”

Exactly. Nothing confusing about it unless you are the one trying to confuse the issue. That being the NYT.


21 posted on 08/15/2017 9:00:21 AM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: Hadean

For the NY Crimes there’s only one side that is virtuous - all leftist, communists, BLM, Antifa, liberals, democrats etc.


22 posted on 08/15/2017 9:00:51 AM PDT by Lent
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To: Hadean

Oh good we’ve all been waiting for the latest dispatch from the New York Faggot Times.


23 posted on 08/15/2017 9:00:57 AM PDT by TTFlyer
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To: Hadean
The New York Times acts as if the riots in Ferguson, Berkeley, Baltimore, Charlotte,and elsewhere never happened. They act as if Rep. Scalise and a dozen other Republicans weren't shot at by a Bernie supporter, thy act as if a BLM guy didn't kill 5 Dallas cops, they act as if a Portland parade wasn't cancelled because of threats of violence against Republican participants.

They act is if speeches by conservatives on college campuses haven't been threatened, attacked, and cancelled by violence or threats of violence. They deny that the left in Charlottesville showed up armed and looking for a fight, and that a similar demonstration by pro-Confederate people in another city was completely non-violent because counter-protesters didn't show up to protest.

This is what we are up against: a flat denial of reality by major media.
24 posted on 08/15/2017 9:01:50 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Hadean

They want to turn it into another covfefe moment; I could tell precisely what he meant. I guess they are disingenuous or dense.


25 posted on 08/15/2017 9:03:21 AM PDT by GnuThere
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To: Louis Foxwell

Or a biased mind that won’t accept its own responsbility


26 posted on 08/15/2017 9:08:15 AM PDT by A_Former_Democrat ("Liberalism is a mental disorder" On FULL Display NOW! Boycott Mex/Can, nba NFL PepsiCO Kellogg'sB)
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To: All

stuffing words into President Trump’s mouth, refusing to name Antifa, and taking the left’s narrative and regurgitating it as gospel truth...


27 posted on 08/15/2017 9:08:15 AM PDT by SteveH
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To: Hadean

KKK, Antifa, BLM, they all be hatin.
Trump communicates poorly. He needs to call them ALL out and let them ALL squeal.


28 posted on 08/15/2017 9:09:40 AM PDT by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our one and only true hope.)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Possibly. Could also be that the left reacted to a march and took advantage of the situation to send in armed resistance. We have to be able to deal with either possibility.


29 posted on 08/15/2017 9:10:26 AM PDT by plain talk
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To: Hadean

Antifa started this current cycle of violence. The white nationalists were happy to respond in kind. But take Antifa out of Charlottesville, and it would have been a non-story. And then there is the violence of BLM, against which Obama only gave tepid condemnations at best. Yet we didn’t hear shrieks from the media about that. Makes you believe that the media is ok with violence as long as it is done by groups they agree with.


30 posted on 08/15/2017 9:30:09 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: Hadean
There is no shortage of theories about why President Trump was so cagey in blaming “many sides” for the white supremacist-fueled violence in Virginia.

Maybe he watched the video of both well armed sides beating the crap out of each other without any police intervention...

31 posted on 08/15/2017 9:34:00 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Hadean

“white supremacist-fueled violence”

Fake news.


32 posted on 08/15/2017 9:44:35 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: Hadean
ah maybe he used the term many sides because there were many sides

oh yes the New York Times Reporter that tweeted out that the left was being violent in Charlotte ...had her mind corrected later on Twitter

oh and you might want to talk to that right-wing group the Virginia ACLU that got these people permission by order of a judge to allow this March and said the cops were stood down by the mayor and cause the whole thing

1984 stuff daily

the thing is you can be sure there will be lawsuits and its will not be the neo-nazis that are just sued ... the city's going to get sued

33 posted on 08/15/2017 9:49:06 AM PDT by tophat9000 (Tophat9000)
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To: Sacajaweau

“He used the right words. It included everyone.....there were antagonists on BOTH sides.”

Really? Because it looks to me like one side had a permit and was exercising its constitutionally protected right to free speech, while the other side presented itself with the specific intent and purpose of denying the first side its constitutional rights by attacking them violently.

What places the first side on the same moral plane with the second? Is exercising constitutional rights morally equivalent to denying them by violence?

Even if the first side moved to defend itself after the felonious assault by the second, that was just the exercise of another of their rights.

No, the only way the first side is at fault is in holding and speaking opinions that others find objectionable. That’s it. That’s the only thing they did wrong.


34 posted on 08/15/2017 9:57:22 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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35 posted on 08/15/2017 10:40:07 AM PDT by HokieMom (Pacepa : Can the U.S. afford a president who can't recognize anti-Americanism?)
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To: dsc

Well-reasoned and right on point. However will be lost on the millions of owners of deaf ears, who’ve been indoctrinated into the elitist club of White self-hate.


36 posted on 08/15/2017 10:47:29 AM PDT by 4Runner
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To: 4Runner

If it is at all useful, everyone is invited to pass it along.


37 posted on 08/15/2017 10:50:27 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: Hadean
Why do we elevate the words of unelected media persons we have no vetting of to be trustworthy in this country? Particularly when the words construct opinion or conjecture?

Today's media is worse and more dangerous than internet bloggers. The public's appetite for national political and social entertainment instead of real credible "news" is something we fought a war in the 40's to put a stop to.

Every story we are told in the media needs a long pause and a "We'll see" period of analytics inside each head before it's validated. Nine out of ten turn out to be something other than that which is told.

38 posted on 08/15/2017 10:50:48 AM PDT by blackdog
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To: dfwgator

The president has always been a blue-collar populist and Democrat supporter. It’s in the record. He’s never been anything like a conservative. Don’t expect him to magically morph into William F. Buckley, Jr. It isn’t going to happen. Years ago in New York there used to exist Democrats who were true blue labor union pro-American. They are gone now. So in a sense DJT is an anachronism. It was a large part of his appeal at the ballot box in 2016. But a conservative he’s not.


39 posted on 08/15/2017 10:53:51 AM PDT by 4Runner
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To: dsc

One lit match near to seven tons of dynamite next to a welders torch is a “match fueled catastrophe” in the eyes of the media.


40 posted on 08/15/2017 10:54:11 AM PDT by blackdog
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