Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Trump: spot the racism, Guardian-style

My brother assures me that Mr Trump has, prior to his Presidency, shown racist traits in his employment practices and I never doubt his veraciousness.

Mr Trump uploads another tweet

But the latest prigs-on-steroids hoo-ha is far from a clear example, even as reported in the Guardian newspaper under the headline (they always find a cute angle) "'His only tool is racism': why Trump's bigoted tirade could be a vote winner."

If you take the trouble to click on the Q&A inserted in the story (why not in the main body?) you will find this concession to contextualising:

Q&A
What did Trump say in his racist ‘go back’ tweets?

On 14 July Trump sent a series of tweets saying:

“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”

The US president did not name his targets, but the attack was directed at congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York; Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts; Rashida Tlaib of Michigan; and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Only Omar, who is from Somalia, was not born in the US.

One cannot hope to attain the transcendent wisdom and moral purity of Guardian journalists in a single lifetime, but I have trouble finding the specifically racist element in this outburst - I see it more as defensively nationalist. Typically, the hypersensitive Trump has got some detail wrong, in this case place of birth (though do they see themselves as hyphenated Americans?), but he knows from which direction he - and Joe America - is being got at.

And I would like to see some more context - such as, what exactly these four people have been saying that provoked the so-easily-entrapped Mr Trump.

But it may not be safe for me to ask these questions. A series of video piss-takes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (aka AOC) by a young girl has been taken down by her parents because of death threats, in a country that has more firearms than people.

American conservatives, or violent, up-themselves SJWs? What a choice!

Perhaps, when I have more time and patience, I will look up what the four picadors were doing to enrage the bull.

Or maybe the Guardian will get round to telling us all, disinterested seekers after truth as they undoubtedly are.

8 comments:

Paddington said...

The young lady imitating AOC is an odd case, as investigations have uncovered zero evidence of threats.

Sackerson said...

Interesting - in which case, why stop?

CherryPie said...

When Trump first got elected I was shared an analytical viewpoint of his Tweets.

His controversial tweets are a way to distract from what he is trying to achieve as the American President.

Paddington said...

@CherryPie - that might be the case, if it were not for the fact that he apparently does almost nothing during the day. I am curious whose policies are being implemented.

Jim in San Marcos said...

Hi Sack

Not sure where everyone stands, but Trump is not a racist. It is tragic how the democrat party over here is attacking the President personally rather than for political beliefs.

wiggiatlarge said...

There are several phrases that help those who wish to know about Trump, the one I like, is, "he pissed on their veg patch", both Brexit and Trump have had parallel reactions from the status quo.

After both votes the stunned historical and comfortable parties with years, decades, of pretending to do things for man and country suddenly had a taste of those that thought there was a better way, and they didn't and don't like it, hence the non-stop barrage of all and everything that can be found or invented to stop what has been voted for happening.
As for doing nothing all day, on what do you base that assumption, he has so far despite the collective efforts of the senate against him done rather well, in fact I am amazed he has achieved anything with the whole establishment gunning for him 24/7

Paddington said...

@wiggiatlarge - What in the world are you talking about? Until January, the GOP had a majority in the House. They have had a majority in the Senate for some time, and are doing nothing which might upset Trump's base. In fact, they are basically doing nothing but approving federal judges. The US is about to exceed the debt limit faster than expected, because the tax cut for corporations did did not generate the anticipated revenue.

James Higham said...

Dangerous habit, reading the Guardian.