For York's audience of conservatives, life is about fear. They're afraid all the time. For them, it's only a matter of time before you, me, everyone is a victim of violent crime.
That's one of the reasons why they're absolutely obsessed with guns. Because they're terrified of everyone else, and especially of minorities. A classic example of the type is a business acquaintance of mine. He lives in rural South Carolina, and there is essentially no violent crime in his area. But he and everyone he knows is armed to the teeth because the [Blacks/Mexicans/Haitians/Crips/Bloods/MS-13] are one the way! When he comes to visit me in rural Vermont, he brings at least one handgun. Because you never know!
I can't imagine going through life that terrified all the time.
2021 had the mishugas of Covid quarantine and stresses on front line workers none of which could have contributed in any way to any increase in crimes. It's not just the "conservatives" pushing this line of shit but the mainstream as well. Amongst all the flaws of establishment reportage -- political fantasies passed off as reality, economic disinformation, etc. -- reporting on crime trends is right up there.
And one tell here is that the spike involves whatcha call your crimes of passion: an increase in people cracking from increased stress.
As a dotard, I'm finally understanding our loss of patience with all the bullshit the media spew. I mean, how much patience does one need to have with a torrent of destructive lies?
Of course “crime” is shorthand for “Black people” and York really doesn’t attempt to hide that fact.
You almost have to give him credit for his directness. Rightwing mouthpieces seem to usually put in some qualifier like “of course racism is evil and everyone should be against it” and then go on to argue that no actual people, policies, or institutions are ever in fact racist. So what exactly do they think racism *IS*? An unavoidable act of god like a hurricane or an earthquake, destructive and regrettable, but what can you do?
“ I believe York threw this in just because it made him feel damn good, like he had his knee on someone's neck.”
I’ve always thought that image of Chauvin nonchalantly kneeling —with his hands in his pockets and a smug smile on his face— on the neck of a dying black man is exactly what white supremacists want. It could be a poster on the wall for these people.
Behold the racist stylings of Byron York, former CNN producer, contributor to the Atlantic, Huffington Post, NPR, Meet the Press... more proof that no one on the right is too rancid to be denied access to the so-called liberal media.
I agree with you in general but am not sure about your property damage comment regarding the George Floyd unrest. Over 700 buildings in Minneapolis were damaged, 31 had walls or roofs collapsed, and 53 were written off as total losses.
This is an unpopular opinion, but I don't think "Defund the police" is a good slogan. Despite what Twitter leftists might make you think, a normal person thinking "defund the police" means taking their money away and reducing the number of cops without redistributing those funds to social programs (those dealing with mental health, homelessness, domestic abuse, etc.) and worrying what might happen is not "imagining a guy that doesn't exist." It's a real issue that, if we're serious, we need to deal with.
I remember someone saying "Republicans run on defunding schools, but people still vote for them, so why are you afraid of the phrase 'defund the police'?" And the thing is, Republicans *don't* run on the phrase "defund the schools." They run on "school choice." Just how their union-busting efforts are put under the guise of "right to work," or their anti-abortion efforts under the guise of "pro-life" (but healthcare, of course, isn't part of that, so it's fine if a 12-year-old child dies of a tooth infection).
I know messaging isn't everything, but it's something, and as much as I, too, want to defund the police, we have got to come up with a phrase more palatable---even if that involves tricking people.
As a current resident of said Urban Hellhole, I have lost count of the number of co-workers, family members, friends in distant localities who have swallowed this utter bullshit and regurgitated it back to me. The majority of people who have done so are not conservatives, which is not surprising since you correctly noted that the horrible communist America-hating MSM has been breathlessly reporting how NYC and other cities are sliding back to the Bad Old Days.
At first, my response was to calmly explain that, anecdotally, I haven’t felt any more unsafe on the streets than I did two years ago, four years ago, ten years ago. Also, nobody understands statistics. If someone wants to press the issue, I can always pull the Grizzled NY’er shit of “I first moved here over 30 years ago. Ask me about crime and urban blight compared to back then.”
Because it’s true! I still have that “always be aware of your surroundings and the people around you” mindset, but I can’t remember the last time I felt unsafe anywhere in the city. I’m not stressed out if my wife goes out at night. I am not aware of much more petty crime here. I get that everything has ticked up a bit, but that’s also what you should expect when a pandemic hits and there’s not much of a safety net in place.
It made me feel good to read the final sentence of this piece, as well as the lede. The kind of glib pronouncements about those people and how their statistical behaviors justify treating them as less than human just come too readily to the lips of others who want to deny there is inequality at all. Going step by step does not seem to help. The bigots start and finish in their rationalized fear, both of the dark folks and their own doubts about themselves as good folks who earned every privilege they try also to deny they have.
Of course, year-on-year comparisons of crime rates between 2020 and 2021 without noting that the vast majority of city residents were in lockdown and not interacting is willfully misleading at best. Yor knows this as does everybody else but it doesn't serve his larger point so he ignores that huge elephant in the room.
In the 1970s we used to joke about our Florida relatives' supposed fear of even setting foot in the City. Then again, after having been refugees from Poland and then from Cuba, they may just have been continually on-edge.
We talk about their being "constantly afraid," but could it, in some cases, be something else? Like projection? They don't so much fear violence being done to them, as harbor desires to do violence to others (minorities; women; modernity itself), and so unconsciously ascribe that rage to others? We said "it's always projection with these people" all during Trump's admin, after all.
They are t..h..i..s close to just dropping the final ostrich fan and letting it all hang out, but I think a big part of the game (and it is a game for them) is being able to misrepresent with a you-know-what-I'm-saying-and-I-know-you-know whaddayagonnadoaboudit smirk. It's an echo of 80's Reaganism with fear and resentment replacing the Morning In America optimism, and owning-the-libs the only joy left for them. Another sunny Reagan might lead them to legitimate power, but the right-wing ecosystem is so saturated with fear I don't think it would let him/her have a shot.
For York's audience of conservatives, life is about fear. They're afraid all the time. For them, it's only a matter of time before you, me, everyone is a victim of violent crime.
That's one of the reasons why they're absolutely obsessed with guns. Because they're terrified of everyone else, and especially of minorities. A classic example of the type is a business acquaintance of mine. He lives in rural South Carolina, and there is essentially no violent crime in his area. But he and everyone he knows is armed to the teeth because the [Blacks/Mexicans/Haitians/Crips/Bloods/MS-13] are one the way! When he comes to visit me in rural Vermont, he brings at least one handgun. Because you never know!
I can't imagine going through life that terrified all the time.
2021 had the mishugas of Covid quarantine and stresses on front line workers none of which could have contributed in any way to any increase in crimes. It's not just the "conservatives" pushing this line of shit but the mainstream as well. Amongst all the flaws of establishment reportage -- political fantasies passed off as reality, economic disinformation, etc. -- reporting on crime trends is right up there.
And one tell here is that the spike involves whatcha call your crimes of passion: an increase in people cracking from increased stress.
As a dotard, I'm finally understanding our loss of patience with all the bullshit the media spew. I mean, how much patience does one need to have with a torrent of destructive lies?
Shorter Byron York: "The only good n***** is a dead n*****."
Of course “crime” is shorthand for “Black people” and York really doesn’t attempt to hide that fact.
You almost have to give him credit for his directness. Rightwing mouthpieces seem to usually put in some qualifier like “of course racism is evil and everyone should be against it” and then go on to argue that no actual people, policies, or institutions are ever in fact racist. So what exactly do they think racism *IS*? An unavoidable act of god like a hurricane or an earthquake, destructive and regrettable, but what can you do?
“ I believe York threw this in just because it made him feel damn good, like he had his knee on someone's neck.”
I’ve always thought that image of Chauvin nonchalantly kneeling —with his hands in his pockets and a smug smile on his face— on the neck of a dying black man is exactly what white supremacists want. It could be a poster on the wall for these people.
Behold the racist stylings of Byron York, former CNN producer, contributor to the Atlantic, Huffington Post, NPR, Meet the Press... more proof that no one on the right is too rancid to be denied access to the so-called liberal media.
I agree with you in general but am not sure about your property damage comment regarding the George Floyd unrest. Over 700 buildings in Minneapolis were damaged, 31 had walls or roofs collapsed, and 53 were written off as total losses.
This is an unpopular opinion, but I don't think "Defund the police" is a good slogan. Despite what Twitter leftists might make you think, a normal person thinking "defund the police" means taking their money away and reducing the number of cops without redistributing those funds to social programs (those dealing with mental health, homelessness, domestic abuse, etc.) and worrying what might happen is not "imagining a guy that doesn't exist." It's a real issue that, if we're serious, we need to deal with.
I remember someone saying "Republicans run on defunding schools, but people still vote for them, so why are you afraid of the phrase 'defund the police'?" And the thing is, Republicans *don't* run on the phrase "defund the schools." They run on "school choice." Just how their union-busting efforts are put under the guise of "right to work," or their anti-abortion efforts under the guise of "pro-life" (but healthcare, of course, isn't part of that, so it's fine if a 12-year-old child dies of a tooth infection).
I know messaging isn't everything, but it's something, and as much as I, too, want to defund the police, we have got to come up with a phrase more palatable---even if that involves tricking people.
Why doesn't York just come out and say "Floyd deserved to die", since he clearly thinks so.
As a current resident of said Urban Hellhole, I have lost count of the number of co-workers, family members, friends in distant localities who have swallowed this utter bullshit and regurgitated it back to me. The majority of people who have done so are not conservatives, which is not surprising since you correctly noted that the horrible communist America-hating MSM has been breathlessly reporting how NYC and other cities are sliding back to the Bad Old Days.
At first, my response was to calmly explain that, anecdotally, I haven’t felt any more unsafe on the streets than I did two years ago, four years ago, ten years ago. Also, nobody understands statistics. If someone wants to press the issue, I can always pull the Grizzled NY’er shit of “I first moved here over 30 years ago. Ask me about crime and urban blight compared to back then.”
Because it’s true! I still have that “always be aware of your surroundings and the people around you” mindset, but I can’t remember the last time I felt unsafe anywhere in the city. I’m not stressed out if my wife goes out at night. I am not aware of much more petty crime here. I get that everything has ticked up a bit, but that’s also what you should expect when a pandemic hits and there’s not much of a safety net in place.
It made me feel good to read the final sentence of this piece, as well as the lede. The kind of glib pronouncements about those people and how their statistical behaviors justify treating them as less than human just come too readily to the lips of others who want to deny there is inequality at all. Going step by step does not seem to help. The bigots start and finish in their rationalized fear, both of the dark folks and their own doubts about themselves as good folks who earned every privilege they try also to deny they have.
Of course, year-on-year comparisons of crime rates between 2020 and 2021 without noting that the vast majority of city residents were in lockdown and not interacting is willfully misleading at best. Yor knows this as does everybody else but it doesn't serve his larger point so he ignores that huge elephant in the room.
In the 1970s we used to joke about our Florida relatives' supposed fear of even setting foot in the City. Then again, after having been refugees from Poland and then from Cuba, they may just have been continually on-edge.
We talk about their being "constantly afraid," but could it, in some cases, be something else? Like projection? They don't so much fear violence being done to them, as harbor desires to do violence to others (minorities; women; modernity itself), and so unconsciously ascribe that rage to others? We said "it's always projection with these people" all during Trump's admin, after all.
Wow, so depressing to have a window into the dumpster fire that is Byron York’s mind.
They are t..h..i..s close to just dropping the final ostrich fan and letting it all hang out, but I think a big part of the game (and it is a game for them) is being able to misrepresent with a you-know-what-I'm-saying-and-I-know-you-know whaddayagonnadoaboudit smirk. It's an echo of 80's Reaganism with fear and resentment replacing the Morning In America optimism, and owning-the-libs the only joy left for them. Another sunny Reagan might lead them to legitimate power, but the right-wing ecosystem is so saturated with fear I don't think it would let him/her have a shot.