Tag: Trump hate speech

Colbert Shows How Trump’s Racist Lies Led To Spa Shootings In Damning Supercut

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“The Late Show” host called the former president “a hateful man who left a stain” on the nation.

Stephen Colbert says former President Donald Trump bears a “particular responsibility” for amplifying the racist hatred that led to this week’s deadly shootings in the Atlanta area. 

Police say a sex-obsessed gunman fatally shot eight people, including six women of Asian descent, at three massage spas. 

Colbert noted the attack comes after Trump spent much of 2020 using anti-Asian rhetoric and slurs in front of his cheering throngs in an attempt to deflect blame for his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.  Continue reading.

Mental health expert explains why Trump must be convicted

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The Trump presidency may be over, but Donald Trump’s dangers continue. This is because we have yet to contain the number one emergency, which is the spread of mental pathology.

Without addressing this mental health pandemic, even the Biden administration’s admirable efforts to contain the viral pandemic may meet with obstacles. Similarly, without conviction and prosecution, which is the first step to containing this mental health pandemic, hopes for “reconciliation” and “unity” may also be for naught.

Mental health professionals knew from the start that Donald Trump had the psychological makeup to become very dangerous with presidential powers. Following our 2017 assessment, I and thousands of my colleagues at the World Mental Health Coalition issued more than 300 pages of letters, petitions, and statements asserting that Donald Trump’s dangers would spread and erupt. In March 2020, we issued a “Prescription for Survival,” stating that the president’s removal through the 25th Amendment, impeachment, or resignation—or at least removal of influence—was essential to avoiding widespread unnecessary deaths. Continue reading.

Silicon Valley is getting tougher on Trump and his supporters over hate speech and disinformation

Washington Post logoBut civil rights activist and other critics say Facebook and other tech companies are still too timid

The nation’s technology industry has begun taking a harder line against hate speech, misinformation and posts that potentially incite violence when made by President Trump and some of his most extreme supporters after years of treating such issues gingerly for fear of triggering the wrath of the nation’s most powerful politician.

The moves, such as labeling false posts by Trump and banishing forums devoted to supporting him after years of policy violations, have taken place across the industry in recent weeks, with actions by Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitch.

Even Facebook, which long has given wide latitude in allowing problematic posts by Trump and his followers, on Wednesday closed down a network of more than 100 accounts and pages affiliated with Trump confidante and felon Roger Stone. The action came years after his use of social media first came under the scrutiny of federal investigators and involved issues dating back to 2015 that the company said it had unearthed only recently. Continue reading.

Trump’s newest assault on America’s public schools: They teach kids to ‘hate their own country’

Washington Post logoPresident Trump started his administration with a dystopian inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 2017, in which he talked about “American carnage” and said the country has “an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.”

This year, in his Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota on Friday, he changed that narrative: Now, in his view, schools are teaching kids to “hate our country” with a “far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.”

“If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished,” he said. Continue reading.

Reddit bans The_Donald forum as part of major hate speech purge

Axios logoReddit says it is banning its controversial subreddit channel r/The_Donald, one of the company’s largest political communities and a longstanding hub of support for President Trump, along with 2,000 other subreddit groups and users that violate new content policies aimed at hate speech.

Why it matters: Reddit becomes the latest social media platform, in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests, to take action against Trump or his supporters for violating rules or misleading users.

What they’re saying: In a conversation with reporters, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that the company tried everything it could to avoid outright banning The_Donald subreddit channel for years, but the group continued to violate the site’s content policies. Continue reading.

Backlash erupts at video depicting Trump killing media, critics

The Hill logoA video depicting President Trump shooting and stabbing media organizations and some of his most prominent critics drew widespread backlash after The New York Times reported it was played at a conservative conference over the weekend at Trump’s Doral resort.

Democrats and media organizations warned as the video circulated on YouTube and social media that it could incite further violence, with some calling on Trump to speak out and condemn the clip.

“At a conference of Trump supporters, they played a video of our president murdering journalists in a church. Last year, a Trump supporter sent bombs to CNN—and a shooter entered a church yesterday. This video isn’t funny. It will get people killed,” tweeted former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.

View the complete October 14 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

‘We can’t stop being horrified by things like this’: Trump attacks Omar and Somali refugee community at Minnesota rally

AlterNet logoAfter President Donald Trump launched unhinged and racist attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar and Minnesota’s Somali refugee community during a campaign rally in Minneapolis Thursday night, Omar quickly responded that Trump’s hate-filled rhetoric and policies can and must be defeated by a grassroots progressive movement.

“At his rally just now, Trump called me an ‘America-hating socialist’ and a ‘disgrace.’ He shouted xenophobic conspiracy theories about me. He scolded my district for voting for me,” Omar tweeted. “His hate is no match for our movement.”

During the rally inside the Target Center in Minneapolis, which was surrounded by thousands of protestors, Trump once again smeared Omar as an al-Qaeda sympathizer and an anti-Semite and parroted conspiracy theories spread by a right-wing blogger.

View the complete October 11 article by Jake Johnson from Common Dreams on the AlterNet website here.

Police Arrest Trump Supporter Who Threatened Racist Massacre Of ‘Latin Peoples’

A Trump fan was arrested Friday after making an explicitly racist death threat aimed at a Hispanic immigrant and vowing to kill millions of other non-white residents, the Miami New Times reported Tuesday.

Eric Lin, a Washington resident, made threats over Facebook to an immigrant from Spain, according to the charging document.

A few days later, Lin continued his praise of Trump and called for more violence.

View the complete August 20 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Trump and the culture wars: Here are the divisive themes the president will focus on as his economic policies crumble

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump, in recent weeks, has been stressing both economic themes and culture war themes. The economic themes were evident during a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire on August 15, when Trump tried to frighten 401(k) owners into reelecting him and insisted, “You have no choice but to vote for me because your 401(k), everything is going to be down the tubes (under a Democratic president). So whether you love me or hate me, you’ve got to vote for me.” But if the U.S. does go into a recession in the months ahead, Trump will have a harder time selling himself as the salvation of the American economy — in which case, he would likely become even more aggressive in pushing divisive culture war themes.

Although Trump is wildly unpopular in heavily Democratic areas of the U.S., he is still quite popular among his hardcore base — and one saw that playing out in the 2018 midterms. Democrats enjoyed a net gain of 40 seats in the House of Representatives, but Republicans slightly increased their majority in the Senate thanks, in part, to Trump’s ability to rally his base in conservative areas. And Trump’s rally-the-base approach has been painfully evident in recent weeks. Continue reading “Trump and the culture wars: Here are the divisive themes the president will focus on as his economic policies crumble”

Even amid recession warning, 2020 will hinge on the culture war

Washington Post logoIt is often argued by those on the left that Democratic candidates are proposing ideas that would actually better serve the working-class and middle-class Americans who are backing President Trump. But this argument assumes that it is the president’s economic policies that draw his supporters to him. Data doesn’t suggest that was the case in 2016. And that idea will be put to the test as Trump heads into 2020 facing uncertainties about the economy.

“It’s the economy, stupid” is a popular saying in political circles, intended to suggest that Americans vote based on how well the economy is doing. And part of the 2016 narrative suggested that was true. Economic anxiety was regularly touted as one of the main reasons Trump supporters chose him over Hillary Clinton.

As a result, Trump regularly points to what many economists have labeled a good economy when trying to convince voters that they are doing much better under his administration than they were before his election.

View the complete August 15 article by Eugene Scott on The Washington Post website here.