As the right wing propaganda machine jerks and contorts their message to control the sheep, we see them trying to hijack the narrative of this tragedy so they can trot out another false claim of victimization, asserting this was an attack on Christians and Christianity.
The right wants to deny any racism exists, ever, especially when it is their own racism they're trying to pretend doesn't exist -- when it clearly does exist.
It was not a victimization of Christians. It is the old traditional Southern White Christians, of the far right "hatriot" variety, that are bent on attack. The kind that in the past burned down black churches and lynched black civil rights advocates.
It is the right wing extremists that are the greatest threat, more so than Islamic extremists, within our borders. It is also the largely conservative vigilante gun culture, the gun culture which promotes the notion that everyone should have a gun so that everyone can individually shoot it out with whomever they have a conflict. We also see that in the narrative hijacking from the right, including one particularly offensive black token asshat who is now insisting that black churches (or perhaps all churches) should be armed because of this incident -- and legal abortion, gay marriage, or because it is a day of the week that appears on a calendar. We see THAT hijacking of the tragedy narrative with lies about violence like the notion that gun free zones should be blamed for mass shootings. The factual evidence shows the opposite, but the right never lets facts get in the way of their narrative hijacking. It is essential to their identity and to their emotional status that they FEEL like they can shoot someone else if they want or need to do so ---- and THAT is arguably a part of this tragedy in so far as the shooter also felt that he could and should go shoot up the people in this church "for a good reason - the whole bullshit rape our women, taking over our country" pretext. THAT is straight up gun culture right wing nut thinking.
We do NOT live, in the 21st century, in a frontier shoot-your-food world anymore, other than for hobbyists. We do live in the 21st century, in a world of law, not vigilantism. Make no mistake, this was an act of terrorism, but it was also an act of vigilantism - taking individual violent action for what appeared to this individual to be legitimate grounds.
We will not end mass shootings by trying to understand individual motivation; that motivation is emotional and the reasoning behind it is not driven by fact, and operates on murky thinking. We will end mass shootings, and for that matter other kinds of shootings like murder suicides, by ending the premise that everyone should have a gun and shoot people when they feel justified in doing so. Our so-called gun culture is not culture at all, it is not civilized, it is not rational, it has no place in our world any longer.
During the shooting in the church, Dylann Roof was reported by survivors to have said:
Roof's motive seems pretty clear, and unambiguous, and not anti-Christian. It does reek of that far right hubris that this country is a white conservative religious entitlement, something to take away from others - as are women, another kind of owned property that belongs to them.
Roof (pronounced like cough)was known to be a pill-popper who frequently went about armed, wearing clothing with the flags of previously racist African nations, the South African flag from their apartheid era, and the flag of segregationist Rhodesia between 1965 and 1994, eras ending before his lifetime. Those flags are a modern symbol of 21st century white supremacists.
From the New York Times
A drop out, apparently unemployed, racist pill popper? Among conservatives too often that is no disqualification for gifting someone with a gun. They're just 'good ol' boys', 'you don't need education', 'one of us', we NEED a gun, appears to be the thinking, however badly flawed.
I personally, from my experience traveling in the south, have a problem with the Southern notion that kind of joke is 'ok', something to blow off as 'not serious', when it is ugly and racist. Too many conservatives in the south (and elsewhere) do not. Which all seems to me of a piece with white far right conservative South Carolina governor Nikki Haley supporting flying the confederate flag, a symbol of pride in traditions of white supremacy, and a symbol with which Roof posed for photos, apparently in support of the original use of the confederate flag, as push back in South Carolina against civil rights and as a gesture of opposition to segregation. It is associated with the worst excesses of slavery and racist persecution. It gives social cover, normalcy,tolerance and acceptance to things that should be anathema.
As Jon Stewart noted, even the roads on which people drive in South Carolina are named for confederate generals. It is time to stop glorifying racists, and to stop pretending that is an era of southern history that deserves honoring or respect. It does not. But so long as the south pretends it does, expect to see it contribute to racism among the right wing domestic terrorists with their guns.
Don't act surprised when it happens again, either racism or another mass shooting.
The right wants to deny any racism exists, ever, especially when it is their own racism they're trying to pretend doesn't exist -- when it clearly does exist.
It was not a victimization of Christians. It is the old traditional Southern White Christians, of the far right "hatriot" variety, that are bent on attack. The kind that in the past burned down black churches and lynched black civil rights advocates.
It is the right wing extremists that are the greatest threat, more so than Islamic extremists, within our borders. It is also the largely conservative vigilante gun culture, the gun culture which promotes the notion that everyone should have a gun so that everyone can individually shoot it out with whomever they have a conflict. We also see that in the narrative hijacking from the right, including one particularly offensive black token asshat who is now insisting that black churches (or perhaps all churches) should be armed because of this incident -- and legal abortion, gay marriage, or because it is a day of the week that appears on a calendar. We see THAT hijacking of the tragedy narrative with lies about violence like the notion that gun free zones should be blamed for mass shootings. The factual evidence shows the opposite, but the right never lets facts get in the way of their narrative hijacking. It is essential to their identity and to their emotional status that they FEEL like they can shoot someone else if they want or need to do so ---- and THAT is arguably a part of this tragedy in so far as the shooter also felt that he could and should go shoot up the people in this church "for a good reason - the whole bullshit rape our women, taking over our country" pretext. THAT is straight up gun culture right wing nut thinking.
We do NOT live, in the 21st century, in a frontier shoot-your-food world anymore, other than for hobbyists. We do live in the 21st century, in a world of law, not vigilantism. Make no mistake, this was an act of terrorism, but it was also an act of vigilantism - taking individual violent action for what appeared to this individual to be legitimate grounds.
We will not end mass shootings by trying to understand individual motivation; that motivation is emotional and the reasoning behind it is not driven by fact, and operates on murky thinking. We will end mass shootings, and for that matter other kinds of shootings like murder suicides, by ending the premise that everyone should have a gun and shoot people when they feel justified in doing so. Our so-called gun culture is not culture at all, it is not civilized, it is not rational, it has no place in our world any longer.
During the shooting in the church, Dylann Roof was reported by survivors to have said:
"You rape our women, and you're taking over our country. And you have to go," [and that he was there] "to shoot black people."
Roof's motive seems pretty clear, and unambiguous, and not anti-Christian. It does reek of that far right hubris that this country is a white conservative religious entitlement, something to take away from others - as are women, another kind of owned property that belongs to them.
Roof (pronounced like cough)was known to be a pill-popper who frequently went about armed, wearing clothing with the flags of previously racist African nations, the South African flag from their apartheid era, and the flag of segregationist Rhodesia between 1965 and 1994, eras ending before his lifetime. Those flags are a modern symbol of 21st century white supremacists.
From the New York Times
Dylann Roof, Charleston Suspect, Wore Symbols of White SupremacyFrom the same NYT article:
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Facebook profile picture chosen by Dylann Storm Roof in May is thick with symbolism. It shows Mr. Roof, a scowling young white man, against a distinctly Southern backdrop: a swamp dripping with Spanish moss. His black jacket is adorned with two flags — one from apartheid-era South Africa, the other from white-ruled Rhodesia — that have been adopted as emblems by modern-day white supremacists.
“He used drugs heavily a lot,” Mr. Mullins added. “He was like a pill popper, from what I understood. Like Xanax, and stuff like that.”Racism should NOT be something we blow off as normal, no big deal. Too often it is, as evidenced by right wing so-called editorial humor, and also by right wing very serious voter suppression against people of color.
Mr. Roof “had that kind of Southern pride, I guess some would say — strong conservative beliefs,” Mr. Mullins said. “He made a lot of racist jokes, but you don’t really take them seriously like that. You don’t really think of it like that.”
A drop out, apparently unemployed, racist pill popper? Among conservatives too often that is no disqualification for gifting someone with a gun. They're just 'good ol' boys', 'you don't need education', 'one of us', we NEED a gun, appears to be the thinking, however badly flawed.
I personally, from my experience traveling in the south, have a problem with the Southern notion that kind of joke is 'ok', something to blow off as 'not serious', when it is ugly and racist. Too many conservatives in the south (and elsewhere) do not. Which all seems to me of a piece with white far right conservative South Carolina governor Nikki Haley supporting flying the confederate flag, a symbol of pride in traditions of white supremacy, and a symbol with which Roof posed for photos, apparently in support of the original use of the confederate flag, as push back in South Carolina against civil rights and as a gesture of opposition to segregation. It is associated with the worst excesses of slavery and racist persecution. It gives social cover, normalcy,tolerance and acceptance to things that should be anathema.
As Jon Stewart noted, even the roads on which people drive in South Carolina are named for confederate generals. It is time to stop glorifying racists, and to stop pretending that is an era of southern history that deserves honoring or respect. It does not. But so long as the south pretends it does, expect to see it contribute to racism among the right wing domestic terrorists with their guns.
Don't act surprised when it happens again, either racism or another mass shooting.
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