Al Jeezera English explores the troubling correlation between marginalized ideological extremists like “disenfranchised” neo-Nazi white supremacists and the angry populism of the “Tea Party” insurgency.
It’s hard not to think that a powerful undercurrent of racism and bigotry doesn’t help drive the furious outrage that characterizes the desire of these highly motivated activists to “take their country back”…
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I’m half-expecting the next Teabagger rally to have Horst Wessel Lied played as the music.
When is al Jezeera English coming to Canada..anybody know?
Soon, I think. It’s had quite an uphill struggle against the concerns of various Jewish interest groups that initially opposed it, but finally got CRTC approval late last year. I’d certainly rather watch that than many of the other basic cable channels. I think AJE is far more “fair and balanced” than a lot of other news outlets.
Almost all of the hysterical fear of the public sector in America, of government programs at all (At least until they come online and people discover how much they like Social Security and Medicare.) is the gnawing pathological terror that somewhere, somehow somebody dark-skinned will benefit from them.
White Americans have an uncanny ability en masse (While often being very realistic in the individual.) to put different kinds of government spending in different boxes. So massive corporate welfare and agriculture welfare good, welfare that helps people living in poverty, particularly dark people bad. Endless increases in defense spending and the parallel military adventurism required to justify such spending good, much, much less spending just to provide universal healthcare like every other developed country on Earth bad.
But their comforting illusions are becoming increasingly unsustainable.
Additional:
The most clear expression of this is the South Carolina Republican Lt. Governer who suggested aid for the poor was like encouraging stray animals to breed more by feeding them.
Yeah, I noted that article last week. The sad part of it was that a lot of people in that state support him. What might be horrendous gaffe for some, is actually a winning strategy in the deep south.