Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Self-Defense Time

John Knefel / Media Matters for America:
Conservative pundits are increasingly open about who they think should be killed  —  Right-wing media cheer DeSantis' expansion of the death penalty and try to justify the extrajudicial homicide of Jordan Neely  —  Right-wing media figures are celebrating both Florida's expansion of the death penalty for people who have sexually assaulted children as well as the extrajudicial homicide of Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man killed by a white former Marine on the New York City subway on May 1. The two stories illustrate a growing trend in right-wing media to argue that the deaths of marginalized and criminalized populations are not only justified but actually desirable, whether those killings are carried out by the state or by vigilantes.

Bloodlust is nothing new in right-wing media. From the proto-fascist Father Charles Coughlin through Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, conservative pundits and writers frequently fantasize about violence aimed at their political opponents or marginalized people. In 1989, Donald Trump, who was a media personality for decades before entering politics, called for the execution of the wrongly convicted Central Park Five, a group of Black and Latino teenagers railroaded into false confessions by the New York Police Department. The conservative ecosystem made a celebrity of Kyle Rittenhouse — who killed two people and injured a third during an August 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin — and tried to justify the killings of Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, and Eric Garner.
Matthew Chapman / Raw Story:   Republican presidential candidates flooding Daniel Penny with cash: report
And now, a bit of civility from the fake news. Note demeaning & violent imagery.
So who ya gonna believe, the F.B.I. Director or some Nazi wanna-be who types for Townhall? Not to say the F.B.I. is anywhere near the model of probity, but do remind me, when was the last time "Antifa" killed anyone in cold blood? Or killed anyone? Let alone set anyone on fire?

No More Mister Nice Blog is willing to say more about this than the pathetic media, who will no doubt be among the first up against a wall.

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