Covington Kids Exonerated from Wrong-doing

[Guest]

Get my money back? I just sent more! It's that important in my opinion.

Perhaps you should start listening to Prgaer U - It might widen your currently narrow field of vision - and who knows, you might actually gain some much needed balance and wisdom.

I've watched Prager before. He's a dishonest bigot. Sorry if that impresses you. If you have money to burn I'm happy for you.

Here's something to add to your "fear of the left".

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/02/18/ ... y-gay-man/

nice, its shocking that a religious, overt Trump supporter is also gullible /s.

I think this fits here nicely.

https://clearcutpolitics.net/home/2019/2/10/modern-propaganda-prageru

"Every aspect of PragerU is designed to give the impression of authority to the viewers. As a result, their ridiculous claims are often accepted by the viewer without any further research. They offer opinions based on falsehoods and call them facts, and it works." - sounds like the perfect fit for blind trumpsters.

"Needless to say, these are nothing more than scare tactics. They never cite any sources, never refer to any of the left’s policy agendas, and never even clearly define what the left is. That is left up to the imagination, so that the viewers of this video will go out into the world and view every person whom they don’t agree with in suspicion, and wonder if they are secretly a member of the insidious left."

This sounds pretty familiar - people who choose to get their talking points straight from alt-right propaganda sites like Prager"U" (and then, for some reason, feel compelled to give prager"u", a for profit propaganda machine, money) seem to think its everyone else that's broken. Its also interesting that they happily fund the organization telling them how to think...no wonder religion and Trump support seem to go hand in hand. (It seems so self defeating and crippling but, hey, that seems to be the nature of trumpism):

"Their depiction of leftists as anti-America subversives doesn’t stop there. Benjamin goes on to say that the left has “pretty much taken over our educational system”, and that they are in the media, corporate HR departments, and the Democratic Party. The latter seems to be a contradiction of when they said that liberals were reasonable, until you realize that the goal was never to actually defend liberals. The goal was instead to turn the left into a bogeyman and then conflate the left with Democrats and liberals in general. They put up a facade of bipartisanship, but in the end it is only conservatives’ reputations that escape unscathed.

“Why you can’t argue with a leftist”, and just about every other video from PragerU, serves the purpose of portraying the world in terms of black and white. On one hand you have the left, a villainous and amorphous blob that hates America and wants to give your child a sex change. On the other hand you have the noble conservatives, bravely standing up against the existential threat of leftists. It is blatant fear mongering and shameless propaganda."

"Joseph McCarthy would be proud."

[_Ceeboo]

I've watched Prager before. He's a dishonest bigot.

Complete nonsense! But, calling folks a bigot - or a racist - or a fascist - or a xenophobe does seen to have a way to insight hysterical fear and to dismiss any opinion that differs from the one doing the name calling. As a matter of extreme and unfortunate fact, the radical left does this kind of thing on a daily basis and as far as their base goes, it works (an has been working) splendidly. I'm pretty certain that you just did precisely that.

Sorry if that impresses you.

I'm sorry that you believe that someone like Prager is a bigot - buy you're certainly not alone.

[_canpakes]

Once again, I think it was DoctorCamNC4Me who brought up a great point: Why are we so focused on these high school kids and a few of their racially insensitive gestures when just yards away was a group of Black Hebrew Israelites throwing out blatant, obvious, and advertent racist statements and insults?

Shouldn't the latter be the focus here?

It could be. But I think that folks are pretty desensitized to crazy street preachers and also don’t see them as representative of any significant slice of the public. Not so for other groups such as the kids - especially as they are kids, dressed in the trappings of partisan slogans or loaded acronyms - and maybe perceive a potential for how that might evolve down the road.

I’ll stick with my own initial conclusion. I had no opinion on the merry band of tomahawk choppers, but Hat Kid pulled a dick move. Maybe he didn’t realize it, or maybe he did realize it more than some folks are willing to admit. But if he didn’t, then there’s an alternative choice or two to be considered against what might be his present first or instinctual response for this situation.

Living in any place filled with crowds seems to impart certain lessons early to self-aware individuals. As example, when a crowd of people is moving towards your general direction and up steps, it’s probably not the best choice to place yourself in front of one of them and then remain within inches, unmoving. Picking an alternate response is part of understanding common social contract behavior, especially if one is going to claim later that they thought doing so seemed ‘respectful’, or that they believed that the other person’s intent was to give them their own personal concert at a range of under 6 inches. Most folks get this figured out by the time they breach 4 feet in height.

[_canpakes]

I've watched Prager before. He's a dishonest bigot.

Complete nonsense! But, calling folks a bigot - or a racist - or a fascist - or a xenophobe does seen to have a way to insight hysterical fear and to dismiss any opinion that differs from the one doing the name calling. As a matter of extreme and unfortunate fact, the radical left does this kind of thing on a daily basis ...

Not to ask a silly question here, Ceeboo, but how is your frequent use of and flippant classification of others as ‘radical leftists’ any different than what you’re complaining about?

[_Maksutov]

I've watched Prager before. He's a dishonest bigot.

Complete nonsense! But, calling folks a bigot - or a racist - or a fascist - or a xenophobe does seen to have a way to insight hysterical fear and to dismiss any opinion that differs from the one doing the name calling. As a matter of extreme and unfortunate fact, the radical left does this kind of thing on a daily basis and as far as their base goes, it works (an has been working) splendidly. I'm pretty certain that you just did precisely that.

Sorry if that impresses you.

I'm sorry that you believe that someone like Prager is a bigot - buy you're certainly not alone.

I used a short and accurate reference based on my own amply evidenced conclusions rather than a longer, more expository one. Really, if you can be so abusive of language as to routinely use such absurd, fantastic, monolithic fictions as "the left", you have no standing to accuse others of oversimplification and "name calling". Please. Your president is a master of the lying insult. I had hoped you would rise above him but if you defend him and Prager your values and perspective are clear.

Congratulations on so much actual discussion, by the way.

[Guest]

Once again, I think it was DoctorCamNC4Me who brought up a great point: Why are we so focused on these high school kids and a few of their racially insensitive gestures

Duh.

when just yards away was a group of Black Hebrew Israelites throwing out blatant, obvious, and advertent racist statements and insults?

It isn't possible for Black Hebrew Israelites to be racist - Haven't you been reading your own board for the last several months?

Shouldn't the latter be the focus here?

You would certainly think so but unfortunately we live in today's America - So no, the latter isn't even a mere consideration.

[_schreech]

Not to ask a silly question here, Ceeboo, but how is your frequent use of and flippant classification of others as ‘radical leftists’ any different than what you’re complaining about?

Its different because he is obviously right and everyone else is wrong....



At least that is what prager"u" has told him so he believes it with zero self awareness and without any attempt at introspection.

[_Ceeboo]

Please. Your president is a master of the lying insult.

He's not your president too?

I had hoped you would rise above him but if you defend him and Prager your values and perspective are clear.

My values and perspective are as clear as yours. While I do defend Prager, I do not defend Trump

Congratulations on so much actual discussion, by the way.

Wait, I'm not sure of you're being sarcastic? You don't think I'm discussing or you do and you're really congratulating me on what you believe is a foreign thing?

[_Jersey Girl]

It's all about the viral video for EA. But he won't buy my point in the other thread that watching that video did more harm than good. God forbid he look at any other evidence that might make him reassess his original position because that requires a little humility.

I don't really like talking about a poster when they're directly accessible to me on a thread. I've done it in some cases. But I do see your point.

I suppose that it does require humility. I see it as requiring a willingness to self reflect, give thoughtful consideration to one's own motivations and be open to revision.

I know exactly why I reacted to the video as I did and I don't mind saying why. First, there was the set up that was mentioned in that OP. Kids in MAGA hats and the description of little assholes. I think that's a direct quote from the OP in question.

When I watched the video this is what I saw and again, I admit it was the power of suggestion. Bear with me here.

I saw a white privileged kid ignorantly disrespecting a Native American on the National Mall of my country. My country that was established via massacre, oppression, and relocation of Native Americans.

So both the boy and the Native American senior held symbolic meaning to me.
Both were based on my own bias.

I didn't even know the Native American's individual background and yet I took his side for the simple fact that he was Native American.

Reacting on my own bias isn't useful to determining with any accuracy what I was actually seeing. I reacted. Period.

The Native American could have been a serial rapist/child abusing/murdering dirt bag and I wouldn't have known it. I literally took him at face value and I'm not proud of it.

I'm disgusted by myself about that. I have no problem saying so. It's a reminder to me to demand more proof of what took place and make an effort not to judge right out of the gate. I usually don't do that. I definitely did this time for the above reasons. I let myself be blinded by the appearances of both the boy and the senior.

That's how easy it was to sway me and what it tells me is that I am human and not exempt from bias.

If you can't admit mistake and be self honest, you don't grow.

[_Maksutov]

It's all about the viral video for EAllusion. But he won't buy my point in the other thread that watching that video did more harm than good. God forbid he look at any other evidence that might make him reassess his original position because that requires a little humility.

I don't really like talking about a poster when they're directly accessible to me on a thread. I've done it in some cases. But I do see your point.

I suppose that it does require humility. I see it as requiring a willingness to self reflect, give thoughtful consideration to one's own motivations and be open to revision.

I know exactly why I reacted to the video as I did and I don't mind saying why. First, there was the set up that was mentioned in that OP. Kids in MAGA hats and the description of little assholes. I think that's a direct quote from the OP in question.

When I watched the video this is what I saw and again, I admit it was the power of suggestion. Bear with me here.

I saw a white privileged kid ignorantly disrespecting a Native American on the National Mall of my country. My country that was established via massacre, oppression, and relocation of Native Americans.

So both the boy and the Native American senior held symbolic meaning to me.
Both were based on my own bias.

I didn't even know the Native American's individual background and yet I took his side for the simple fact that he was Native American.

Reacting on my own bias isn't useful to determining with any accuracy what I was actually seeing. I reacted. Period.

The Native American could have been a serial rapist/child abusing/murdering dirt bag and I wouldn't have known it. I literally took him at face value and I'm not proud of it.

I'm disgusted by myself about that. I have no problem saying so. It's a reminder to me to demand more proof of what took place and make an effort not to judge right out of the gate. I usually don't do that. I definitely did this time for the above reasons. I let myself be blinded by the appearances of both the boy and the senior.

That's how easy it was to sway me and what it tells me is that I am human and not exempt from bias.

If you can't admit mistake and be self honest, you don't grow.

We can all be punked. Good lesson.