It's not nothing, because of the warnings. When I google "Day of Hate," I see no news of the actual day, when, apparently, nothing happened, but the warnings about it:
I want to see not merely the news of what, if anything, happened but also the investigation of how these warnings came into being. Did the authorities get conned by some internet trolls? Are the Russians afoot? Does our own government seek to control us with racial paranoia?
ADDED: I blogged about the warnings, yesterday, in a post that highlighted a joke tweeted by Ben Shapiro, but I said something in the comments that I want to front-page now:
I saw the warnings yesterday and wondered if it was real. I'm optimistic enough to be skeptical, but it could be real.
And:
Here's what one government official sent us through a neighborhood email list:
"I want to make you aware of something, not to alarm you, but to keep you vigilant. Tomorrow, Saturday February 25, has been dubbed a “National Day of Hate” by anti-Semitic white supremacist groups. Online chatter, monitored by federal agencies, has described calls for supporters of anti-Semitic white supremacist groups to “shock the masses with banner drops, stickers, fliers, and graffiti” and take photos of videos and participants engaging in these activities to spread on social media. I want to stress that, at this time, authorities are not aware of any specific activities planned in Wisconsin to support this horrible agenda, but if you see anything worrisome, please do NOT confront individuals distributing propaganda, conducting banner drops, or spraying/stenciling graffiti. Please call 911 and report what you see. The Madison Police Department is aware of this initiative, and is ready and able to respond accordingly. And, if you can, try to do something with your day that is meaningful and loving. That will be the best defense of all."
Online chatter, monitored by federal agencies...
Exactly what is being talked about, I wondered. Also, I found it creepy to be told by a government official to "try to do something with your day that is meaningful and loving." Try to mind your own business, government. I'll decide whether to use my freedom to pursue love and meaning. If I want to think about things I hate or fritter my time away on nonsense, that's my prerogative.
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68 comments:
Our Madison alder sent out an email warning of the 'Day of Hate', supposedly perpetrated by "anti-Semitic white supremacist groups". "Stay vigilant", she said.
I don't doubt her good intentions, but who believes this drivel?
"Did the authorities get conned by some internet trolls? Are the Russians afoot? Does our own government seek to control us with racial paranoia?"
IDK how these warnings came into being, but I do know who benefits from them. Our own government and the left, two groups with significant overlap.
"Does our own government seek to control us with racial paranoia?"
You better tread lightly, Ms. Althouse.
A discussion of this very question is what got Scott Adams cancelled yesterday.
Adams' thesis is that our government is absolutely attempting to control us with racial hatred and that this is starting to show up in polls, where black people are saying ... out loud mind you ... that it's NOT OK to be white.
Our government is determined to teach everyone that white people are disgraceful racists, responsible for everything wrong and bad in the world. This narrative has trickle-down effects we are now starting to see.
You had better tread lightly in exposing this, or you too will be cancelled.
They didn’t bother to send emails to warn us about the coordinated, government sponsored, election season Sunday night riots and they we in on them. Lazy bastards…
"A discussion of this very question is what got Scott Adams cancelled yesterday."
False.
He got what he got for overinterpreting a dumb poll to mean that black people, as a group, hate white people and then leaping to idea that white people should just stay away from black people. Maybe he thought that was funny. Hyperbole, playing with ideas. Whatever. Most likely, stirring the pot, churning.
What I am doing is just about the polar opposite. I'm objecting to pot stirring and cranking people up about race. I'm saying keep your wits about you, observe reality and stay grounded it, and keep calm and behave sensibly.
maybe the Feds didn't get their overtime approved, or perhaps the expense item for appropriate winter gear was nixed
maybe a reschedule for when it's warmer. or the budget gets passed
"Emergency! Emergency! Everybody to get from street!"
A hundred dollars says it never existed. Pure media invention.
I think Scott Adams is decompressing hatred by pointing out that we do not have to listen to the literal messages and ambitions of these fascist DEI enforcers and is thus telling the whole truth and attempting to diminish their power over us. I think you're both doing the same thing using different tactics. He is taking them at their word, accurately recognizing their power, and showing how absurd and increasingly dangerous their agenda is. You are recommending we go about our lives pretending they aren't tearing society apart.
I think your tactic has no chance of succeeding and his might have some chance.
I recommend his last cartoon: he knew it was his last cartoon. How did I see it? The Atlanta Journal Constitution ran an hilarious grey-screened, black boxed important editorial denouncing Scott Adams at the center of the front page today. This layout is ordinarily reserved for wars and assassinations of presidents. They huffed and they puffed and they called him a racist, then they shamefacedly said they would be running his cartoon today because they had already printed it, BUT NEVER AGAIN!!!!
Two questions: if they could alter the front page overnight, why couldn't they remove the cartoon? Also, why couldn't they at least remove it from their electronic edition by hitting a bloody button?
If they had debated his points instead, maybe they'd still have their last subscriber. Me. But don't piss down my leg and tell me you can 'stop the presses' to preen about your moral superiority on the front page, but you can't remove a comic strip on the back page. Don't tell me you can't alter a digital layout on a two day old story. Liars.
Also if they really feel this strongly, they should return all the approximate revenue he has earned them, minus syndication costs.
btu but but... FBI Boogaloo!
and don't you dare release the footage of the INSURRECTION! because we got Trump supporters rotting in jail and killing themselves because they dared to step foot in Nancy's house.
I'm saying keep your wits about you, observe reality and stay grounded it, and keep calm and behave sensibly.
Which seems to be more than enough to get you canceled, just look at what is happening to JK Rowling.
The Biden admin is no different than a Russian Bot.
Adam Schitt(D) could be a Russian Bot.
I went looking for examples of what Scott Adams was talking about last night, but then I remembered Matt Taibbi saying in his podcast how linking to something got people listed as Russia bots foreign agents. I’m not making myself out to be some important big guy like James O’Keefe, but it is abundantly clear that it is far easier to crush a nobody… I’m just saying.
Ann Althouse wrote: "I'm objecting to pot stirring and cranking people up about race. I'm saying keep your wits about you, observe reality and stay grounded it, and keep calm and behave sensibly.
That's exactly my point, Ann. And that was ALSO Scott Adams' point.
Our government WANTS you cranked up about race. Our government is, by design, stirring the pot. And they don't want you pointing that out. They WILL destroy you if you point out what they're doing. Adams pointed out the RESULT of teaching people that white people are, to this day, systemically racists. It causes black people to say it's NOT OK to be white.
Our government is doing that. It has a design to pit Americans against each other for political gain. It's dangerous and it's going to get worse because ANYBODY who points out what our government is doing is going to get #Cancelled.
You've been warned.
Turns out that there is video of the Russians planning this operation.
https://youtu.be/El03KPUeQc4
Does our own government seek to control us with racial paranoia?
Of course they do.
Next question?
"where black people are saying ... out loud mind you ... that it's NOT OK to be white."
Wasn't the poll being answered that way by people who were familiar with the *slogan* "It's OK to be white"?
Come on. Understand the context. It's like if the question were asked "Do you approve of the statement 'All lives matter'?" People who said "no" wouldn't be saying they don't think all lives matter. They'd be saying people who say that are missing the point of the other slogan, "Black lives matter."
This feigned ignorance is in bad faith. Or it's not feigned and it's just ignorant, which is unlikely in Adams's case.
Something did happen, a successful propaganda op increased division, fear, suspicion, outrage and self-righteousness.
"Which seems to be more than enough to get you canceled..."
Maybe. But I've taken that risk, eyes open, for 18 years, and it's the least bit of courage I can display, having lived a low-risk life over all and having if not "fuck you" money, a financially secure life. I can't be fired. I can't be denied employment or even a raise.
This is hilarious. BLM endless riots, destroying lives and livelihoods is peaceful protesting, but a few white-supremacist people possibly handing out fliers and creating graffiti require a nation-wide warning. Just because they were talking about it on social media. Our government and media think we’re complete idiots.
Let’s see these actual social media posts that are so scary, not the news and government pronouncements of them. I want the proof.
"Our Madison alder sent out an email warning of the 'Day of Hate', supposedly perpetrated by "anti-Semitic white supremacist groups". "Stay vigilant", she said"
Here's a clue. Let's imagine there really are "anti-Semitic white supremacist groups" that want a "Day of Hate".
They would not call it a "Day of Hate". They would call it "Solidarity Day" or "Preservation Day" or "People United Day" or something else with words that have a positive association.
The phrase "Day of Hate" is pretty much proof the whole business is just made up from nothing.
I'll say again today what I said yesterday:
Anti-Semitic white supremacists.
I wonder how many of them there are in the USA?
I smell a rat.
He got what he got for overinterpreting a dumb poll to mean that black people, as a group, hate white people and then leaping to idea that white people should just stay away from black people.
So go walk down Halsted Street in South Chicago. Alone. Unarmed.
And I’ll bet that Madison is no different from Columbus, Ohio, or Champagne, Illinois, in having neighborhoods where white or Asian people cannot safely go.
I tweeted yesterday that this was some kind of set up, a hoax, and, based on experience, assumed it was a malicious, calculated fraud by government agents.
Anyone who genuinely believes cancel culture (which is censorship) is wrong, should consider canceling their subscriptions to any publications that cancelled Adams, not in defense of what Adams said, but in defense of his right to say it.
Tim in Vermont - Love that movie! I’ll have to watch it again, if the library has it.
I noticed something of the sort in Israel: if you leave the “common” people alone who just want to live their lives, they get along. Throw in politicians and extremists and it all goes to heck.
It's way past time for people to start thinking rationally instead of reacting to hoaxes based on their own prejudices. Think about this: when was the last time that any group, fringe or mainstream called its planned events "hate" anything? Wouldn't that be very counterproductive to their agenda? Moveover, it takes a really gullible person to see an email from some political entity and take it at face value. This is almost assuredly the one of the first shots in a long and slimy political campaign.
While I have no evidence of trolling in this situation, people will look back on our early Social Media Era with wonder at a few humor websites: 4Chan, Reddit, and 8Kun (formerly 8Chan). Remember classifying the "OK" symbol as hate? Remember Pepe the Frog as hate? Remember the pizza restaurant basement conspiracy?
When a culture simultaneously bans sarcasm/criticism/absurdism and places blind faith in dubious online sources, they can be led around by the nose. This applies equally to anxiety-driven teenage girls, Donald Trump, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the establishment media / Twitterverse. Beware of clever psychopathic manipulators and oligarchs. They may not be what they seem to be and are certainly driven by ulterior motives.
The Day of Hate was comprised of the fear mongering about the “Day of Hate” from the “meaningful and loving” woke-industrial complex.
OMG haters on parade (right wing unnecessary redundency)!!!! Outrage, panic, hate them!!!
It was a crisis that never existed and fizzled quickly. Some will forever believe the first reports. Others will drift back off to sleep (ironically these are the woke).
No further news coverage required.
"I'm objecting to pot stirring and cranking people up about race. I'm saying keep your wits about you, observe reality and stay grounded it, and keep calm and behave sensibly."
Tell it, Althouse!
Althouse said…
Try to mind your own business, government. I'll decide whether to use my freedom to pursue love and meaning. If I want to think about things I hate or fritter my time away on nonsense, that's my prerogative.
As said before, you will be made to “care.”
Althouse said…
Try to mind your own business, government. I'll decide whether to use my freedom to pursue love and meaning. If I want to think about things I hate or fritter my time away on nonsense, that's my prerogative.
As said before, you will be made to “care.”
Adams and Althouse are saying exactly the same thing. Keep your head down, go about your business, and stay out of the fray. Adams is just suggesting that given the increase of black on white street crime being reported in the media daily, "keeping out of the fray" might require some physical separation. Is it racist for me to avoid the closest city to me as much as I can, or is it self-preservation? It has been over two years since I've crossed the city limits. There has been nothing there worth the risk.
Adams's meandering style was a target-rich environment for those who wanted to discredit him. I can't listen to him for more than about five minutes before I lose patience. But if a syndicated cartoonist wanted to torpedo his own career, he could not have picked a surer vehicle.
This is what works today:
We are all alike but we are different. Oppressed people don't really need advantages because we are all equal but oppressed people of color deserve advantages because they have been oppressed. This is called equity. Oppressed people of color are owed an apology and some money from the government for things that happened to some but not all of their long-dead ancestors. Skin color is more important than anything else when making decisions.
If you don't agree with this, shut up--but more importantly, don't disagree with this.
Scott Adams was a duck swimming on top of a rain barrel. He made it too easy for his enemies, which included the newsrooms and editorial offices of most of the newspapers in which his cartoons appeared.
Althouse said, "Wasn't the poll being answered that way by people who were familiar with the *slogan* "It's OK to be white"?"
How do you know that?
"This feigned ignorance is in bad faith. Or it's not feigned and it's just ignorant, which is unlikely in Adams's case."
I've never heard the slogan "it's OK to be white." If someone out of the blue asked if I agreed with that statement I'd probably say "sure". If it's allegedly a slogan for white supremacists, maybe I don't know that because I don't hang out with white supremacists?*
I think Tina Trent's comment above was excellent. Scott Adam's is pushing back against those who are trying to divide us along racial lines. In order for his attempt to be effective he has to get attention. And he did that.
* The only white-supremacists I know are the neo-racists in the mainstream media that peddle bullshit to young minorities that success traits like showing up on time are "acting white". And I stopped paying attention to them a long time ago.
I am going to let you in on a little secret- the Day of Hate is tomorrow.
Our government, our schools, our media, and Hollywood all want us to believe that this country is rife with White Supremacists behind every shrub. Our DoJ, shortly after Joe Biden took office, declared domestic terrorism and White Supremacy as their #1 area of focus, apparently not noticing our own border, our cities, and the rest of the world coming at us.
As a Jew, I take it seriously when I see the wannabe Nazi morons getting together, shaving their heads together, clamoring to be the one holding the bullhorn, to get to shout things at an old Jew. But I know the actual numbers of White Supremacists in this country vs the number of White Supremacists our government wants us to believe is there is very different. I'd go so far as to say that the number of White Supremacists probably is equal to, or less than the number of Black Supremacists in this country.
I haven't received my emails on the Black Supremacists yet this week.
I don't scoff at the Day of Hate thing. I see they got their message out, got their megaphone of national press. And through it, I'm sure they'll get a few more recruits. But I had my doubts we'd see anything. And...we saw nothing. Still...I know there are nuts out there and all it takes is one. So, I know I, for one, stay vigilant in what I see, and sometimes, where I go.
PS- As an aside. I was in Israel a week ago. That's a breed of Jews over there these wannabe Nazi groups would not want to run into. But that's another story for another time.
DIEversity or class-disordered ideologies with "benefits". I stand with albinos, Amish, babies, and grannies, too.
Bill R said...
Nailed it.
If it's all about spreading antisemitism and white supremacy then it sounds an awful lot like the Democrat party.
"This feigned ignorance is in bad faith."
We're seeing so much of this now. It's reminding me of Games People Play by Eric Berne, which my high school psych teacher used it as a text because it was so influential at the time.
I've forgotten which game it was, where you ostentatiously pretend to be offended or not understand. There must be a regular psych term for it.
But it's a tiresome game. Since Adams pivoted on vaccines to mollify his nutty audience I suspect much the same here.
Identity politics are the left’s bread and butter. Since Democrats own every federal agency, expect to see more and more of this. Those pots of racial animosity aren’t going to stir themselves.
Has anyone who received the communication from their friendly local government official responded with a terse email (or post card) saying "What day of hate?"
We live in a part of PA that is solidly red, so our state legislator and House Representative would not be likely to send us such a warning. Senator Fetterman was unavailable for comment.
It didn't happen? What a ripoff.
I was looking forward to the FBI rounding up all those very bad awful people and putting them in jail where they belong.
What is this country coming to when there aren't enough Right Wing Haters to round up at least a few dozen to make a public example of?
Is it even possible that this was a hoax? They would never lie to us about something so serious.
"Hyperbole, playing with ideas. Whatever. Most likely, stirring the pot, churning.
What I am doing is just about the polar opposite. I'm objecting to pot stirring and cranking people up about race. I'm saying keep your wits about you, observe reality and stay grounded it, and keep calm and behave sensibly."
It's always so hard to figure out when you are just pot-stirring, or objecting to pot-stirring.
Shorter Althouse: Who is the author of this disinformation campaign?
Temujin I agree with your take right up to “they got their message out,” to which I’ll note “they” are most likely FBI and “their message” alternates between “fear whitey” and “hate whitey” and this was more of the latter but it’s all SOP for our FBI.
Regarding my comment at 8:11. Yes, I know it’s Champaign, Illinois. I earned a bachelor’s degree and an MS there (a long time ago!). Damned, stupid, autocorrect and shame on me for not being a better proofreader.
P.S., a bunch of us warned that this was a hoax ginned up from nothing. Terry McAuliffe and Richard Spenser did it way better with their “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.
They held a day of hate and nobody showed up.
What is wrong with these right wing Semites?
Next year the FBI will be on the ball to plan and fund the acts of hate to make sure they actually happen.
Anti-semites not semites
Ann Althouse said...
"A discussion of this very question is what got Scott Adams cancelled yesterday."
False.
Nope. He and Derbyshire got cancelled for the same reason and everybody knows it. You just can't mention it.
Ann,
Did Adams over-interpret the poll or did you? Did most respondents actually understand the question within the context you assume? Unless Rasmussen polled only college campuses that seems unlikely. Don’t get me wrong, I think Adams intemperate rant was I’ll-considered, but the poll itself should be the real lede, along with the media ho hum response to it.
I was thinking he may have looked at his tax return. In California he gets to keep maybe 40% of his earned income. If he wants to sell his house or some of his long term investments, he needs his income low enough to avoid capital gains. Once he's relocated he can take a few years to get his income back up by self-publishing.
this is starting to show up in polls, where black people are saying ... out loud mind you ... that it's NOT OK to be white.
A lot of White people are saying that too. People who answer questions in polls bring their own context to the questions. They don't ponder the actual questions. They figure out which answer their side would give and answer accordingly. The polltakers have agendas of their own and frame the questions accordingly, but even without that people give answers that they haven't thought out and don't really believe. And since cell phones replaced landlines, polls are even more inaccurate.
The phrase "Day of Hate" is pretty much proof the whole business is just made up from nothing.
Very true. They would have called it "Day of White Solidarity" or "White Pride Day." A group large enough to pose a major threat wouldn't say that hate was their prime motivation. Maybe a paid informant was just giving the FBI what he thought they wanted to hear. After nothing actually happened, one wonders if there was anything to the rumor at all.
I'm pretty sure you could put all the White Supremacists and all the Antifa in America in a football stadium with room for spectators.
Gee. I am beginning to think that the Left is race baiting in order to create racial strife rather than ameliorate it.
I guess they learned a lot from Obama.
Tina Trent,
Your take on Scott Adams is pretty good.
Not sure I buy yours on Althouse, though. My own take is that she would have been telling Paul Revere and his buddies to calm down.
And Althouse, how can you possibly feel secure in your retirement income? Unless you've got a lot of Krugerrands or Maria Theresa thalers buried on your property... Justin Trudeau has shown just how weak a reed funds in a financial institution are.
"The phrase "Day of Hate" is pretty much proof the whole business is just made up from nothing."
Yep. Bogus from the git go.
"And Althouse, how can you possibly feel secure in your retirement income? Unless you've got a lot of Krugerrands or Maria Theresa thalers buried on your property... Justin Trudeau has shown just how weak a reed funds in a financial institution are."
She has a pension from a state institution. The state of Wisconsin will see that every farmer, foundryman and roofer is taxed to their knees before they cut a cent from a public pension.
Feds just learned it is damned hard to start a new holiday.
"Unless you've got a lot of Krugerrands or Maria Theresa thalers buried on your property . . "
SHHH!
Rusty, you completely miss the point of the second half of my comment. It had nothing to do with the solvency of the state of Wisconsin.
Rather, it has to do with the fact that there is probably nowhere that Althouse can go to get her monthly pension distribution directly from the state in cash. And if the authorities de-bank her, what is she going to do?
Ann Althouse said: "I want to see not merely the news of what, if anything, happened but also the investigation of how these warnings came into being."
I can't shake the nagging feeling that we're in worse shape than we think. News reporting has declined in quality so much that obvious questions -- questions I feel surely would have been asked a generation or more ago, despite the journalistic flaws that already were apparent then -- are not being asked at all by people who call themselves "journalists."
I don't know what is worse: the idea that "journalists" don't want to ask these questions or he idea that the questions never even occur to them.
Regarding the poll, it wasn't silly. It is entirely common to poll racial attitudes. In fact, it happens nonstop for all sorts of reasons, many electoral. Rasmussen is a quite credible source in that it publishes its methodologies, intent, and questions.
A vast percentage -- more or less half -- of black people polled said it was not right to be white. If that doesn't disturb you, you're not paying attention.
This saying has been around for decades. You used to be able to (and might still) buy bumper stickers stating it in Charis Bookstore, the famous feminist bookstore in Atlanta. I've seen it plastered on (white) students' books and frequently on signage while monitoring protests. National NOW adopted it some time ago.
Maybe you would take it seriously if you didn't live in a cossetted monoculture and if your words could lose you your tenure or pension. Those are choices the vast majority of us don't have. You have, wisely I would say, chosen a path in life for avoiding certain ugly realities. But don't dare assume those of us who couldn't are exaggerating the dangers to our speech, employment, and very lives -- especially because the tenured elite kept their heads down at work when the purges of others started.
Those with the most power to speak said nothing that would endanger themselves.
Kirk Parker: I don't think anyone missed your point, they just thought it was a silly one. Her pension is solid and no one is going to freeze her bank accounts. Take a deep breath and regain your composure.
"Rather, it has to do with the fact that there is probably nowhere that Althouse can go to get her monthly pension distribution directly from the state in cash. And if the authorities de-bank her, what is she going to do?"
My point, however clumsily portrayed, was; there is nothing she can do as a former state employee that can get her "un-banked".
“Objectivity has got to go,” said Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle. This is, and has been, a shibboleth in our shameful national media.
Yet, warning of a Day of Hate, planned by whatever extreme right wing group you want, is, imo, genius. Pure Charles Foster Kane.
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