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marmar

(76,991 posts)
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 10:30 AM Jun 2016

The Two Sides of Hate


from Dissent magazine:


The Two Sides of Hate
Michael Kazin ▪ June 21, 2016


The late philosopher Richard Rorty once credited the protest movements of the 1960s and ‘70s with one singular achievement: reducing the amount of sadism in American life. Thanks to the welcome ruckus stirred up by civil rights, feminist, and gay liberation activists, women, LGBT people, and members of racial and ethnic minorities came to be treated more fairly and respectfully than ever before in U.S. history.

In much of the United States, that is still true—although most Americans probably don’t recognize the activists who helped catalyze the change. But more recently, sadism has come roaring back. During Obama’s first term in the White House, hate crimes surged in number, and the public sphere remains fouled by all manner of attacks on vulnerable minorities.

Omar Mateen’s horrific mass murder last week in Orlando and Donald Trump’s vicious campaign for president demonstrate the peril we face. The orange-maned billionaire and the Orlando killer—who both grew up in Queens—would have despised one another. But they shared a common animus: both assaulted—literally or rhetorically—groups of people to which they did not belong (although Mateen may have been seeking to purge his own gay desire) and whom they believed were mortal threats to an order that no longer exists.

.....(snip).....

As with all forms of authoritarian fundamentalism—secular or religious—such beliefs lead to awful consequences. Of course, there are differences between the bigoted bluster of Trump and Mateen’s act of mass slaughter. But the Republican nominee-to-be has already made his animosities seem legitimate to tens of millions of Americans and would be in a position to act on them if elected. Mateen’s hateful act was inspired, although not led, by a jihadist brigade fueled by genocidal nihilism and curdled anti-imperialism masquerading as authentic Islam. Trump, for his part, has become a hero to and unintentional recruiter for white supremacist groups. ...............(more)

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/two-sides-hate-orlando-pulse-omar-mateen-trump





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