10-10-2017, 01:41 PM
(10-10-2017, 01:31 PM)bfine32 Wrote: This was the impetus of my original comment. Nobody gave these folks the spotlight they crave and their "protest" went largely unreported. It is in Matt's local news right beside the Piggly Wiggly sale ad.
Yet, there are those that are motivated to not let them die the slow death that they will; they must make it news; thereby, increasing their resolve.
I suppose some would be happy if the President tweeted that these SOBs should not protest the removal of these statues. That would probably stop it. Look how it has worked on stopping the kneeling and removing it from the news cycle.
There are several reasons for this. First, racial "tension" provokes extreme responses/emotions from everyone. You're either the ethnicity being oppressed in the story, which naturally provokes a visceral response, or your the ethnicity identified as the oppressor, which provokes a visceral response. Humans are, by nature, tribal animals and we will rally around the figurative "tribe" when we feel attacked. I'm not talking about physically, I'm talking about psychologically, even subconsciously. The news media is in turmoil as they inexorably lose their century plus long grip on the dissemination of news and opinion. They are resorting to ever desperate, and loud measure, to remain relevant.
Secondly, there are people like Al Sharpton and Sean Hannity who make their very living by stoking these fires. Without racial polemics both of them would be on the scrap heap. As much as he is appreciated I have to throw Ta Neshi Coates into this category. I've read his stuff and it reeks of a person who had a conclusion and then went looking for evidence of it. Trump, of course, also benefits from this for obvious reasons.
