Thugs

By now you've heard and seen (how could you not?) the horrific scenes coming out of Charlottesville, VA showing the clashes between a bunch of white supremacist assholes and a bunch of folks who wanted to confront them violently and cause news and harm.  Well, they all have gotten their 15 minutes of fame.

The white supremacist assholes have been able to spew their repugnant and dangerous bullshit.  You know, the Confederacy will never die, white people are the new oppressed race, we need a pure society, blah, blah, blah.  We've all heard it before and it is nauseating.  That they have a right to meet and rant a bunch of crap is without doubt.  That they should is not.  They shouldn't.  It incites hate and is despicable.  Supposedly it was to protest the city's decision to take down or relocate a statue of Robert E. Lee.  I won't go into the whole debate about this new phenomenon of moving Confederate statues as I posted about it a few months ago when New Orleans was doing it.  Bottom line is that generally I'm in favor of moving them to a more appropriate place (a battlefield memorial) than a city park.  But that's just me.  But I think this was just an excuse for these white supremacist assholes to cause hate and discontent.  They are low lifes.

But then there are the protesters on the other side.  There is little doubt that they were pissed and wanted to get some attention.  Most of them are generally pissed off most of the time and have been pissed off since Trump won.  I think this was really just a good excuse to get out there and throw a few punches.  They are usually a far left crowd that has little in common with the average American. But they are arrogant, aggressive and relentless.  They mostly don't want to engage in dialog.  They just want to call names and throw punches.  Well, today they got what they wanted.  It was a full on free for all.  And ultimately, one of the white supremacist assholes got in a car, plowed into them and killed someone.  Tragic.  Tragic all around.  That Americans would do this to each other is nothing short of tragic.

A couple of things come to my mind when thinking about this whole situation.  First is I wonder how many people were really involved when you take away all the media idiots and the police.  I bet it wasn't enough to fill a medium sized stadium.  Second, is the treatment that the media gives something like this.  On cable it's an inundation of coverage with views from every angle and talking heads, so-called experts and useful idiots offering 'analysis' on and on and on.  Third, the ultimate goal of the protesters has been met.  They got attention (a lot of attention) and they got the media to blame President Trump.  He came out and condemned the violence, but was immediately crucified for not blaming the white supremacist assholes more vigorously.  But the truth is that there was plenty of blame to go around.  But that will never get out.

And fourth, and this is probably most important, is that the protesters didn't really want what they claimed to be seeking.  What they wanted was attention and to blame Trump.  Because if they really wanted to make a statement there are plenty of examples they could have followed.  Think Martin Luther King, Jr.  Think Nelson Mandela.  Think Rosa Parks.  Think of so many others who have shined the light on violence, prejudice and oppression.  If the story is about you, it's not about the white supremacist assholes.  The light doesn't get shined on them because the media is too gullible and stupid to see the reality. And that is a shame.  Because the reality is that this small group of white supremacist assholes who in no way are reflective of America today, would fade into oblivion if a bright light was shined on them.