lmao
We have a president who can't denounce Nazis. That officially makes him "Not My President".
First time I've actually used that phrase.
It just keeps getting worse. Trump is just making things worse.
That last guy nailed it: Trump has lost touch with the majority of the country, left, right and in between; he hasn't done anything in the 7 months since taking office (my god, is that all it's been?); it's not about his cronies and niche voting group, he needs to be the country's president and leader.
Supporting Nazis is the new patriotism on the right. Could things get weirder?
The Nazis should have won World War II, The South should have won the Civil War because slavery is a good thing and Russia is our puppet master. That's the new right wing?
...No, Trump won't be a crazy president. I'm just over reacting...
This guy some people call their president is a despicable man. I don't see how anyone can see him as a good man or a good leader.
It just keeps getting worse. Trump is just making things worse.
That last guy nailed it: Trump has lost touch with the majority of the country, left, right and in between; he hasn't done anything in the 7 months since taking office (my god, is that all it's been?); it's not about his cronies and niche voting group, he needs to be the country's president and leader.
Seriously, it already feels like years. At this rate I weep for the state of our country after only a few years under this loon. I hate this man beyond my ability to articulate.
This Press Conference only goes to exemplify how begrudgingly Trump came out and called out the white supremacists, KKK, and alt-Right by name. That he only did so because he was pressured to, not borne of any genuine sentiment. He felt compelled to come out and rant his frustrations about being coerced to adopt a stance promoting any degree of a moral standard and good values. Trump is so repugnant it's honestly difficult to fathom. There's not a doubt in my mind that if extremist Muslims were having a peaceful gathering to preach Jihad and counter protesters came in and acted violently, Trump would be screaming to the heavens to kick all of the Muslims out of the country, encouraging the violence against them, and that the counter protesters were blameless victims and in the right. But when it's Nazis and those preaching white power? Nope, moral equivalence. "Where's the responsibility of those violent Leftists standing against the Nazis for their role?", yada yada yada....
What a transparent scumbag.
People always used to bemoan Obama for dividing the country, but he was nothing compared to this lunatic. Trump seems insistent on driving a wedge between people and pouring salt into the wound. Does he want us at each other's throats? How can he sit there and equivocate instead of taking a stand for moral clarity? This is so fucking depressing. America's going to tear itself apart with this piece of human sewage as our "leader".
This man constantly and vociferously lambasted Pres. Obama for not using the phrase "Islamic terrorism". However when a clear act of domestic terrorism is perpetrated he doesn't use the "terrorist" word by name?
When David Duke is publicly supporting your stance you have chosen the wrong side.
I thought he placed blame on both sides? Sounds fair to me. I'm pretty sure both sides were violent.
@thomasrl101: dude...you do not take sides with people with Nazi flags and are armed to the teeth in a peaceful protest. You lose the argument no matter what. This technicality is base less because there is no good people on the nazi /alt right side. They are all automatically wrong.
I'm at a loss for words for what is happening at the minute. Equating other protesters (whether they are being violent or not) as being as bad as those supporting Nazi symbols and spewing religious and racial hate is beyond me.
Trump is worse than Hitler.
Just no, stop.
Unbelievable. I mean how in the world can someone just keep getting worse and worse like this. Leave it to Trump to find a way. I also agree with others in here in that it feels soooooo much longer then what Trump's presidency has actually been.
This guy some people call their president is a despicable man. I don't see how anyone can see him as a good man or a good leader.
I don't see him as a leader period at this point. Everyone has the opportunity in life to be a leader, and Trump is abdicating both the opportunity and duty to do so.
@Serraph105: He is your president.
If he can't denounce nazis I'll denounce him. My grandfathers both fought in WW2 and one was captured for a good while during the war. Neither would accept a man as president who couldn't condemn the ideology they were risking their lives and fighting against, and I won't either.
I thought he placed blame on both sides? Sounds fair to me. I'm pretty sure both sides were violent.
One side sprayed mace into someone's face. The other side tried to massacre protesters by ramming a car into a crowd. They're not the same, they are not equal, they do not deserve equal blame.
One side believes in the removal and/or extermination of others. The other side believes "lolno that sounds like a bad idea". They should not be treated equally.
Trump is worse than Hitler.
He needs some more work. Like years worth of work.
So is his ratings dropping even more now?
I don't know if he's dropped more, but the RealClearPolitics average says 38 approve, 56 disapprove
Even recent Rasmussen, which is right leaning, has him at only 40% approval. Gallup has him at 36% after the weekend
I don't know if he's dropped more, but the RealClearPolitics average says 38 approve, 56 disapprove
Even recent Rasmussen, which is right leaning, has him at only 40% approval. Gallup has him at 36% after the weekend
Maybe he has misunderstood this rating system. You're trying to get a high approval rate, not disapprove.
@thomasrl101: dude...you do not take sides with people with Nazi flags and are armed to the teeth in a peaceful protest. You lose the argument no matter what. This technicality is base less because there is no good people on the nazi /alt right side. They are all automatically wrong.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
I don't know if he's dropped more, but the RealClearPolitics average says 38 approve, 56 disapprove
Even recent Rasmussen, which is right leaning, has him at only 40% approval. Gallup has him at 36% after the weekend
Maybe he has misunderstood this rating system. You're trying to get a high approval rate, not disapprove.
Well, he does play a lot of golf. Maybe he's shooting for a low number? I dunno - makes as much sense as anything else.
@thomasrl101: dude...you do not take sides with people with Nazi flags and are armed to the teeth in a peaceful protest. You lose the argument no matter what. This technicality is base less because there is no good people on the nazi /alt right side. They are all automatically wrong.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
Showing up with Nazi flags is pretty much begging for it.
@thomasrl101: dude...you do not take sides with people with Nazi flags and are armed to the teeth in a peaceful protest. You lose the argument no matter what. This technicality is base less because there is no good people on the nazi /alt right side. They are all automatically wrong.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
Showing up with Nazi flags is pretty much begging for it.
Well unfortunately you just have to deal with people having radically different opinions to yours without resorting to violence. Regardless of how annoying their opinion is. That's part of what makes the west great.
@thomasrl101: dude...you do not take sides with people with Nazi flags and are armed to the teeth in a peaceful protest. You lose the argument no matter what. This technicality is base less because there is no good people on the nazi /alt right side. They are all automatically wrong.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
Showing up with Nazi flags is pretty much begging for it.
Well unfortunately you just have to deal with people having radically different opinions to yours without resorting to violence. Regardless of how annoying their opinion is. That's part of what makes the west great.
As a European, Nazists aren't people that you are going to give leanway in the name of free speech and expect nothing bad to come out of it. People have made that mistake before, more than once.
@thomasrl101: dude...you do not take sides with people with Nazi flags and are armed to the teeth in a peaceful protest. You lose the argument no matter what. This technicality is base less because there is no good people on the nazi /alt right side. They are all automatically wrong.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
Showing up with Nazi flags is pretty much begging for it.
Well unfortunately you just have to deal with people having radically different opinions to yours without resorting to violence. Regardless of how annoying their opinion is. That's part of what makes the west great.
Denouncing them isn't that hard.
He defended the friday night KKK marching and said it had many good people. Lmao.
@thomasrl101: dude...you do not take sides with people with Nazi flags and are armed to the teeth in a peaceful protest. You lose the argument no matter what. This technicality is base less because there is no good people on the nazi /alt right side. They are all automatically wrong.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
Many people care?
To present a picture of moral equivalence of those who hold abhorrent values against those who stand against them simply because violence has erupted is repugnant and utterly morally bankrupt. Trump has effectively taken the side of the alt-Right by failing to take a side at all, and they came out and thanked him for it. Is that not evidence enough for you? They feel legitimized and emboldened by his moral ambiguity. They are no longer belittled and marginalized as they should be, they now feel equal in the eyes of their president and government to those who are taking the morally correct stance. His half-assed condemnation of the Nazis and white supremacists was only done under immense political pressure, which is even more apparent because he felt compelled to come out and double down on his initial statement with his rant (and man alive was it a rant) that targeted mostly the counter protests. Those standing in the right.
Absolutely disgusting. He was 100% wrong to do this.
@thomasrl101: dude...you do not take sides with people with Nazi flags and are armed to the teeth in a peaceful protest. You lose the argument no matter what. This technicality is base less because there is no good people on the nazi /alt right side. They are all automatically wrong.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
Showing up with Nazi flags is pretty much begging for it.
Well unfortunately you just have to deal with people having radically different opinions to yours without resorting to violence. Regardless of how annoying their opinion is. That's part of what makes the west great.
As a European, Nazists aren't people that you are going to give leanway in the name of free speech and expect nothing bad to come out of it. People have made that mistake before, more than once.
Making certain ideas illegal is a bigger mistake than letting them compete on the market of ideas. Better to have the ideas seen and decimated than to push them to the sidelines. You should have more faith in people. The great majority of people aren't being persuaded by Nazi rhetoric. Setting the precedent that certain ideas aren't allowed may also back-fire on you because some other leader will come along decide that your opinions are also too extreme. And now that you've given the government the power to ban ideas, the new regime can use it against you.
@thomasrl101: dude...you do not take sides with people with Nazi flags and are armed to the teeth in a peaceful protest. You lose the argument no matter what. This technicality is base less because there is no good people on the nazi /alt right side. They are all automatically wrong.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
Many people care?
To present a picture of moral equivalence of those who hold abhorrent values against those who stand against them simply because violence has erupted is repugnant and utterly morally bankrupt. Trump has effectively taken the side of the alt-Right by failing to take a side at all, and they came out and thanked him for it. Is that not evidence enough for you? They feel legitimized and emboldened by his moral ambiguity. They are no longer belittled and marginalized as they should be, they now feel equal in the eyes of their president and government to those who are taking the morally correct stance. His half-assed condemnation of the Nazis and white supremacists was only done under immense political pressure, which is even more apparent because he felt compelled to come out and double down on his initial statement with his rant (and man alive was it a rant) that targeted mostly the counter protests. Those standing in the right.
Absolutely disgusting. He was 100% wrong to do this.
The amount of mental gymnastics people will do in order to frame Trump as the evil guy astounds me. "Trump has taken the side of the alt-right by failing to take a side at all". This isn't about the ideas. Trump was condemning the violence, which manifested on both sides.
And by the way, just because the counter-protesters were against alleged Nazi's, doesn't mean they were "standing in the right". No, antifa are ironically quite fascistic and pro-communist. So it's not like we're talking about a clear good guys vs bad here.
@thomasrl101: dude...you do not take sides with people with Nazi flags and are armed to the teeth in a peaceful protest. You lose the argument no matter what. This technicality is base less because there is no good people on the nazi /alt right side. They are all automatically wrong.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
Many people care?
To present a picture of moral equivalence of those who hold abhorrent values against those who stand against them simply because violence has erupted is repugnant and utterly morally bankrupt. Trump has effectively taken the side of the alt-Right by failing to take a side at all, and they came out and thanked him for it. Is that not evidence enough for you? They feel legitimized and emboldened by his moral ambiguity. They are no longer belittled and marginalized as they should be, they now feel equal in the eyes of their president and government to those who are taking the morally correct stance. His half-assed condemnation of the Nazis and white supremacists was only done under immense political pressure, which is even more apparent because he felt compelled to come out and double down on his initial statement with his rant (and man alive was it a rant) that targeted mostly the counter protests. Those standing in the right.
Absolutely disgusting. He was 100% wrong to do this.
The amount of mental gymnastics people will do in order to frame Trump as the evil guy astounds me. "Trump has taken the side of the alt-right by failing to take a side at all". This isn't about the ideas. Trump was condemning the violence, which manifested on both sides.
And by the way, just because the counter-protesters were against alleged Nazi's, doesn't mean they were "standing in the right". No, antifa are ironically quite fascistic and pro-communist. So it's not like we're talking about a clear good guys vs bad here.
Trump doesn't have to take a side to condemn the white nationalist terrorists, he could condemn them both but he wont. He was asked numerous times about if he would say anything against them and he refused to do so every time. The guy who called out Arnold for having lower fucking TV ratings than him on the same show would not call out the white nationalists.
I swear people like you have to be insanely good at mental gymnastics to not see what is going on.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
Many people care?
To present a picture of moral equivalence of those who hold abhorrent values against those who stand against them simply because violence has erupted is repugnant and utterly morally bankrupt. Trump has effectively taken the side of the alt-Right by failing to take a side at all, and they came out and thanked him for it. Is that not evidence enough for you? They feel legitimized and emboldened by his moral ambiguity. They are no longer belittled and marginalized as they should be, they now feel equal in the eyes of their president and government to those who are taking the morally correct stance. His half-assed condemnation of the Nazis and white supremacists was only done under immense political pressure, which is even more apparent because he felt compelled to come out and double down on his initial statement with his rant (and man alive was it a rant) that targeted mostly the counter protests. Those standing in the right.
Absolutely disgusting. He was 100% wrong to do this.
The amount of mental gymnastics people will do in order to frame Trump as the evil guy astounds me. "Trump has taken the side of the alt-right by failing to take a side at all". This isn't about the ideas. Trump was condemning the violence, which manifested on both sides.
And by the way, just because the counter-protesters were against alleged Nazi's, doesn't mean they were "standing in the right". No, antifa are ironically quite fascistic and pro-communist. So it's not like we're talking about a clear good guys vs bad here.
Trump doesn't have to take a side to condemn the white nationalist terrorists, he could condemn them both but he wont. He was asked numerous times about if he would say anything against them and he refused to do so every time. The guy who called out Arnold for having lower fucking TV ratings than him on the same show would not call out the white nationalists.
I swear people like you have to be insanely good at mental gymnastics to not see what is going on.
He condemned what he called 'white supremacists' and the 'alt-left'. "There's blame on both sides". He's done exactly what you wanted. How are you in denial about this? It took me less than a minute to find him condemning both sides on Youtube.
He didn't take the side of the alt right. He condemned both sides because they both caused mayhem and violence. And he was right to do so. Who cares about the beliefs of one side vs another if they're both crossing the threshold from peaceful protest to violence.
Many people care?
To present a picture of moral equivalence of those who hold abhorrent values against those who stand against them simply because violence has erupted is repugnant and utterly morally bankrupt. Trump has effectively taken the side of the alt-Right by failing to take a side at all, and they came out and thanked him for it. Is that not evidence enough for you? They feel legitimized and emboldened by his moral ambiguity. They are no longer belittled and marginalized as they should be, they now feel equal in the eyes of their president and government to those who are taking the morally correct stance. His half-assed condemnation of the Nazis and white supremacists was only done under immense political pressure, which is even more apparent because he felt compelled to come out and double down on his initial statement with his rant (and man alive was it a rant) that targeted mostly the counter protests. Those standing in the right.
Absolutely disgusting. He was 100% wrong to do this.
The amount of mental gymnastics people will do in order to frame Trump as the evil guy astounds me. "Trump has taken the side of the alt-right by failing to take a side at all". This isn't about the ideas. Trump was condemning the violence, which manifested on both sides.
And by the way, just because the counter-protesters were against alleged Nazi's, doesn't mean they were "standing in the right". No, antifa are ironically quite fascistic and pro-communist. So it's not like we're talking about a clear good guys vs bad here.
Trump doesn't have to take a side to condemn the white nationalist terrorists, he could condemn them both but he wont. He was asked numerous times about if he would say anything against them and he refused to do so every time. The guy who called out Arnold for having lower fucking TV ratings than him on the same show would not call out the white nationalists.
I swear people like you have to be insanely good at mental gymnastics to not see what is going on.
He condemned what he called 'white supremacists' and the 'alt-left'. "There's blame on both sides". He's done exactly what you wanted. How are you in denial about this? It took me less than a minute to find him condemning both sides on Youtube.
If by condemned you mean he vaguely mentioned them and stuck to broad talking points and when asked to go further he refused to, then ya he did. But if you want to believe that he condemned them so hard that they came out and said they were happy with his comments then by all means keep telling yourself that, you just don't get to talk about mental gymnastics anymore then.
"when i make a statement i like it to be correct"
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL he didn't utter those words did he??
The amount of mental gymnastics people will do in order to frame Trump as the evil guy astounds me. "Trump has taken the side of the alt-right by failing to take a side at all". This isn't about the ideas. Trump was condemning the violence, which manifested on both sides.
And by the way, just because the counter-protesters were against alleged Nazi's, doesn't mean they were "standing in the right". No, antifa are ironically quite fascistic and pro-communist. So it's not like we're talking about a clear good guys vs bad here.
Trump doesn't have to take a side to condemn the white nationalist terrorists, he could condemn them both but he wont. He was asked numerous times about if he would say anything against them and he refused to do so every time. The guy who called out Arnold for having lower fucking TV ratings than him on the same show would not call out the white nationalists.
I swear people like you have to be insanely good at mental gymnastics to not see what is going on.
He condemned what he called 'white supremacists' and the 'alt-left'. "There's blame on both sides". He's done exactly what you wanted. How are you in denial about this? It took me less than a minute to find him condemning both sides on Youtube.
If by condemned you mean he vaguely mentioned them and stuck to broad talking points and when asked to go further he refused to, then ya he did. But if you want to believe that he condemned them so hard that they came out and said they were happy with his comments then by all means keep telling yourself that, you just don't get to talk about mental gymnastics anymore then.
I see, so you don't actually have a problem with Trump failing to condemn the alt-right, you just have a problem with the severity of condemning. A bit of a petty point to get all indignant about to be honest. I just don't see the point in spending forty minutes condemning the Nazi's, as if no one knows that Nazi-ism is a bad thing, when you could use some of that time to make a point about the fascistic communists on the other side of the chaos, causing just as much damage and violence, yet are treated as if they are good guys by the media. But regardless of which side you think requires more time and intensity in condemning, he did condemn both sides because they both caused damage and injury. So I don't see a good reason to be so out-raged. He made a fair analysis.
Has anyone even listened to those press conferences? He clearly said he didn't support neonazis, racist, white supremacists, etc. He was sticking up for the 1st amendment. I hate all those racist people too, but they had a permit to be there. They coordinated with police. They exercised their freedom of speech, even though it was disgusting. If you watch any of the footage you'll see people fighting with gear on, on both sides. Those racist scum didn't go there to start a fight, just to make a statement. Getting back to my point, Trump wasnt supporting that group, he was supporting their right and anyone else's right to Free speech. He condemned the violence that occurred from both sides. People need to just ignore the racist scum. This whole thing lead to 3 deaths and made the KKK get the press and attention they wanted. The city or whoever granted the permit should be at blame or held accountable also.
Also, just wanted to add. My daughter just started kindergarten at Robert E. Lee elementary. Do I need to worry because of the name? Lol (There's 190 public schools with that name also)
The amount of mental gymnastics people will do in order to frame Trump as the evil guy astounds me. "Trump has taken the side of the alt-right by failing to take a side at all". This isn't about the ideas. Trump was condemning the violence, which manifested on both sides.
And by the way, just because the counter-protesters were against alleged Nazi's, doesn't mean they were "standing in the right". No, antifa are ironically quite fascistic and pro-communist. So it's not like we're talking about a clear good guys vs bad here.
Trump doesn't have to take a side to condemn the white nationalist terrorists, he could condemn them both but he wont. He was asked numerous times about if he would say anything against them and he refused to do so every time. The guy who called out Arnold for having lower fucking TV ratings than him on the same show would not call out the white nationalists.
I swear people like you have to be insanely good at mental gymnastics to not see what is going on.
He condemned what he called 'white supremacists' and the 'alt-left'. "There's blame on both sides". He's done exactly what you wanted. How are you in denial about this? It took me less than a minute to find him condemning both sides on Youtube.
If by condemned you mean he vaguely mentioned them and stuck to broad talking points and when asked to go further he refused to, then ya he did. But if you want to believe that he condemned them so hard that they came out and said they were happy with his comments then by all means keep telling yourself that, you just don't get to talk about mental gymnastics anymore then.
I see, so you don't actually have a problem with Trump failing to condemn the alt-right, you just have a problem with the severity of condemning. A bit of a petty point to get all indignant about to be honest. I just don't see the point in spending forty minutes condemning the Nazi's, as if no one knows that Nazi-ism is a bad thing, when you could use some of that time to make a point about the fascistic communists on the other side of the chaos, causing just as much damage and violence, yet are treated as if they are good guys by the media. But regardless of which side you think requires more time and intensity in condemning, he did condemn both sides because they both caused damage and injury. So I don't see a good reason to be so out-raged. He made a fair analysis.
The thing I have a problem with is how he clearly tried his hardest to not condemn them too much since he knows they are a large part of his voter base. One side plowed a car into a crowd of people and people like you are like "well I mean they both were violent, no need to focus more on the side that tried to kill as many people as they could."
Many people care?
To present a picture of moral equivalence of those who hold abhorrent values against those who stand against them simply because violence has erupted is repugnant and utterly morally bankrupt. Trump has effectively taken the side of the alt-Right by failing to take a side at all, and they came out and thanked him for it. Is that not evidence enough for you? They feel legitimized and emboldened by his moral ambiguity. They are no longer belittled and marginalized as they should be, they now feel equal in the eyes of their president and government to those who are taking the morally correct stance. His half-assed condemnation of the Nazis and white supremacists was only done under immense political pressure, which is even more apparent because he felt compelled to come out and double down on his initial statement with his rant (and man alive was it a rant) that targeted mostly the counter protests. Those standing in the right.
Absolutely disgusting. He was 100% wrong to do this.
The amount of mental gymnastics people will do in order to frame Trump as the evil guy astounds me. "Trump has taken the side of the alt-right by failing to take a side at all". This isn't about the ideas. Trump was condemning the violence, which manifested on both sides.
And by the way, just because the counter-protesters were against alleged Nazi's, doesn't mean they were "standing in the right". No, antifa are ironically quite fascistic and pro-communist. So it's not like we're talking about a clear good guys vs bad here.
In this instance, the enactment of violence is birthed from the vehemence of ideological conviction. Violence is intrinsic and inseparable from that which grants it impetus, and the failure to explicitly condemn or attempt to equivocate the actions of those who predicate that violence upon a morally bankrupt position to those who predicate it upon the moral high ground is again, morally bankrupt in itself. Which is exactly what Trump has done, and has doubled down on no less. Don't delude yourself, this is about ideas, and violence in no way stands in exclusivity from those ideas that enable them nor can Trump absolve his sorry ass from the responsibility of failing to take a principled stance towards moral clarity by delineating the two. If ideas were not the problem, there'd be no controversy over Trump's statements nor opposition to what he's done by those in his own party.
And yes, in relative terms the counter-protesters were in the right. That you could even begin to see them as equal--one group advocating an ideology whose historical atrocities are nigh unfathomable in their severity to those who, while they may be unsound in their tactics, at least are fascists against such hate--tells me enough as to why you stand in Trump's defense.
He condemned what he called 'white supremacists' and the 'alt-left'. "There's blame on both sides". He's done exactly what you wanted. How are you in denial about this? It took me less than a minute to find him condemning both sides on Youtube.
If by condemned you mean he vaguely mentioned them and stuck to broad talking points and when asked to go further he refused to, then ya he did. But if you want to believe that he condemned them so hard that they came out and said they were happy with his comments then by all means keep telling yourself that, you just don't get to talk about mental gymnastics anymore then.
I see, so you don't actually have a problem with Trump failing to condemn the alt-right, you just have a problem with the severity of condemning. A bit of a petty point to get all indignant about to be honest. I just don't see the point in spending forty minutes condemning the Nazi's, as if no one knows that Nazi-ism is a bad thing, when you could use some of that time to make a point about the fascistic communists on the other side of the chaos, causing just as much damage and violence, yet are treated as if they are good guys by the media. But regardless of which side you think requires more time and intensity in condemning, he did condemn both sides because they both caused damage and injury. So I don't see a good reason to be so out-raged. He made a fair analysis.
The thing I have a problem with is how he clearly tried his hardest to not condemn them too much since he knows they are a large part of his voter base. One side plowed a car into a crowd of people and people like you are like "well I mean they both were violent, no need to focus more on the side that tried to kill as many people as they could."
You might have a point with the first sentence. But I don't think you can say that "this side wanted to kill as many people as they could". That's just wrong. Certain people in group A wanted to hurt as many of their ideological enemies as possible, but most people in group A didn't.
@Nick3306: As far as I've heard, that dude acted alone in driving his car into the crowd. Not that I want to support that "side"... But it wasn't a coordinated attack by the group, as far as I know. I'm curious how people would be acting if the other "side" drove the car into the racist group. Just because you don't agree with someone, violence is never ok.
Many people care?
To present a picture of moral equivalence of those who hold abhorrent values against those who stand against them simply because violence has erupted is repugnant and utterly morally bankrupt. Trump has effectively taken the side of the alt-Right by failing to take a side at all, and they came out and thanked him for it. Is that not evidence enough for you? They feel legitimized and emboldened by his moral ambiguity. They are no longer belittled and marginalized as they should be, they now feel equal in the eyes of their president and government to those who are taking the morally correct stance. His half-assed condemnation of the Nazis and white supremacists was only done under immense political pressure, which is even more apparent because he felt compelled to come out and double down on his initial statement with his rant (and man alive was it a rant) that targeted mostly the counter protests. Those standing in the right.
Absolutely disgusting. He was 100% wrong to do this.
The amount of mental gymnastics people will do in order to frame Trump as the evil guy astounds me. "Trump has taken the side of the alt-right by failing to take a side at all". This isn't about the ideas. Trump was condemning the violence, which manifested on both sides.
And by the way, just because the counter-protesters were against alleged Nazi's, doesn't mean they were "standing in the right". No, antifa are ironically quite fascistic and pro-communist. So it's not like we're talking about a clear good guys vs bad here.
In this instance, the enactment of violence is birthed from the vehemence of ideological conviction. Violence is intrinsic and inseparable from that which grants it impetus, and the failure to explicitly condemn or attempt to equivocate the actions of those who predicate that violence upon a morally bankrupt position to those who hold the moral high ground is again, morally bankrupt in itself. Which is exactly what Trump has done, and has doubled down on no less. Don't delude yourself, this is about ideas, and violence in no way stands in exclusivity from those ideas that enable them nor can Trump absolve his sorry ass from the responsibility of failing to take a principled stance towards moral clarity by delineating the two. If ideas were not the problem, there'd be no controversy over Trump's statements nor opposition to what he's done by those in his own party.
And yes, in relative terms the counter-protesters were in the right. That you could even begin to see them as equal--one group advocating an ideology whose historical atrocities are nigh unfathomable in their severity to those who, while they may be unsound in their tactics, at least are fascists against such hate--tells me enough as to why you stand in Trump's defense.
As far as I can tell, the counter-protesters in large-part consisted of a combination of fascists and communists. How can you possibly say that the alt-right side advocated an ideology whose historical atrocities are nigh unfathomable, while failing to even acknowledge the atrocities committed in the name of the Marxist ideology advocated by Antifa. "At least [they] are fascists against such hate". Are you really that historically blind? Or is over one-hundred million deaths over the twentieth century as a result of class hate completely fine as long as it's not the racist type of hate? There's no ideology in this clash that's clearly more diabolical than the other. Unless you want to just count the dead bodies. In which case, the Marxism that Antifa advocates is far worse.
And to say that you should assign more scorn to one side because it's violence that's predicated on what you perceive to be a nastier ideology, is just wrong-headed. The violence is the problem here, not the belief. Having your own belief doesn't harm others. Violence does harm others. There's a clear barrier.
No one has the perfect ideology, or set of moral and political ideas, or a perfect moral compass. This is why most people have agreed to let the ideas battle it out on the marketplace and condemn those that degenerate into violent behavior. Ideology and violence are not inseparable. You can be deeply ideological without degenerating into physical damage to people or property. Most ideologues don't go around beating people up because they still have that barrier that stops them from being so arrogant that they think their ideas are so right that they are morally correct in injuring people.
Please Log In to post.
Log in to comment