There are bad people in the GOP who were literally on both sides!
They are still part of government, and they were part of the insurrectionists storming The Capitol.
Not to mention, police officers and military personnel, who swore the Oath of Office, and also took part in the insurrection.
#5 | POSTED BY SNOOFY

In the least, we've proven that the deplorables were in hiding this entire time. All the racists, anarchists, and authoritarians reared their little heads for all of us to recognize. It's the one thing I believe social media will be used for the good: a giant bulletin board where we can post pictures of the insurrectionists and racists and anarchists so that the process of public shaming can have a legitimate impact. These ------- people thought being from across the country would mask them (see what I did there?) from accountability. Not in the 21st century, morons! Criminal accountability is not enough; they deserve public derision. There's no way to stamp out these people or their mentality. All we can hope to do is prosecute, force them to be held accountable for their crimes, then shame them BACK INTO THE ------- HOLE THEY CAME FROM!

I find it hard to believe someone with a Master's in Criminal Justice isn't acutely aware of the racist and fascist overtones of contemporary police work.

You should find it hard to believe, because I am. Apologies for conveying otherwise.

I mean come on, who's the one person trying to get BOAZ to read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness that provides objective evidence of exactly what you describe, so much so that it can be described as systematic.

The bold is exactly what I'm referring to.

It will only make them Back The Blue even harder.
#7 | POSTED BY SNOOFY

I don't doubt it. And that's what I've resigned myself to: there is no changing of minds or curing any disease. The problems here are symptoms of choice, a choice to view and perceive reality in a way that lacks objectivity. Publicly shaming this group and it's leaders into acknowledging some basic tenets of reality or risk social, political, and capital ostracization would be the appropriate path moving forward. No doubt they'll maintain their erroneous believes in private, but the rhetoric will be no longer as public as it has been.

I believe that's the best we can hope for, sadly. I'm far more pessimistic than I am optimistic that we'll even get back to this once again being buried.

#9 | POSTED BY AMERICANUNITY

That's beautiful and prime context of what I was envisioning. Does make me wonder if a tool like this, built by a college kid, is actually being utilized by the feds in their investigation. Or, do they have the man-power and know how to build a system just like it. It sounded as though they were relying heavily on the public to help identify the insurrectionists, but curious to hear whether they were smart enough to build a system like this kid did.

For my money, the way to do this is to have the United States join the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Interesting idea, I'll look more into that.

So, we shouldn't be okay with just waiting for the next Trump to make it okay again.

Agreed, yet I feel it's an inevitability considering the America's history of cultural development. The pendulum will once again swing back the other way.

And it's those immigrants and liberals who took those better jobs that you never tried to get.
#14 | POSTED BY SNOOFY

This was the exact sentiment offered to me by some random bar patron in rural Minnesota as he called me an Irish n***** while poking his finger in my chest. No, there is no pulling people like that back from the brink simply because there are too many of them.

A very interesting study that I'm still working through actually highlights this example:

Conflation of economic and cultural insecurity

The study is peppered with racialized language,
regardless of who the participants voted for. This
was particularly true when participants discussed
neighborhood change, economic decline, and
blame for societal problems. Recollections
of the past are seen through a period when
neighborhoods and cities were largely white and
working class, crime was low, and there was an
expansive pipeline from school to work, which
enabled the white working class to comfortably
support their families. This nostalgia sits in jarring
contrast with the current situation. Narratives
about demographic change link social and
economic decline with higher levels of crime and
greater competition for jobs. The American Dream
feels unattainable, with participants lamenting
disruption and loss of working-class spaces as well
as voice.

More than once participants mentioned
"strangers" in their own communities. People were
disconnected and disrupted by the conflation of
economic and cultural change. They felt less secure
about their economic situation and were concerned
about demographic changes that impacted local
and national security as well as what it means to
identify as an American. This "perfect storm," allied
with the loss of political voice, was the basis for
disconnection and rage against the establishment.