Hate-speech in 140 characters or less
Stories about conservative public figures disseminating racist “jokes” have grown in the past six months. And thanks to a story in the MJS we can now add the conservative MacIver Institute’s resident blogger Fred Dooley to the list.
Via Twitter, Dooley wrote:
“Got my stimulus package in the mail today. It contained watermelon seeds, cornbread mix, and ten coupons to KFC.”
Light on wit, heavy on the racial stereotypes.
Dooley blamed the post on a combination of pain killers and anesthesia from gall bladder surgery.
Um. Yeah.
Is it any wonder that with events like this and efforts by groups like Americans for Prosperity to bomb the airwaves and mailboxes of Wisconsinites with anti-immigrant messages that white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups look to those organizations to recruit new members for their own groups.
Take the Tea Parties put on by Americans for Prosperity. According to the Anti-Defamation League, ‘Stormfront, the most popular white supremacist internet forum, is home to discussion between extremists eager to influence the [Tea Parties].’ ADL has a good sample of Stormfront posts from racist activists calling on other activists to go to Tea Parties and distribute their literature and recruit new members. Here’s some lowlights:
‘Take these Tea Party Americans by the hand and help them go from crawling to standing independently and then walking toward racialism.”
“A big crowd of irate White folks protesting the government seems like the perfect time and place for us… to promote our cause.’
‘We intervene to shape the new pro-White grassroots agenda from within the crowd. We intervene for active effect at the event, for advancement of White racial consciousness and solidarity, and for the growth of the organized grassroots White mass movement and the most perceptive racially aware activist element.’
It should come as no surprise that the message of hate propagated by conservatives like Fred Dooley of the MacIver Institute and those attending Americans for Prosperity events attract the most openly racist and hate-filled Americans still lingering in our society.
Or maybe it’s just from the pain killers.