Wingnuts Show Their Strength Again
This time in Boston, where they showed up in typical numbers for a laughingly named "Free Speech" rally this afternoon. From Fox News (no link for them, sorry):
And here they are; first the "protesters:"
And then the counterprotesters:
They could have just assigned five policemen to every wingnut to protect them, or to keep them from driving their cars into the counterprotest, I guess.
I loved some of the ways this was covered in the press:
15 to one...well, let's see; 15,000 divided by 100...I think that is more on the order of 150 to one. Only off by a factor of ten, Vox guys. Just a slip up, I guess. But wait:
Once again, for about the thousandth time, I have to note the discrepancy between the actual number of right wingers that ever show up for their hatefests, and the way they are treated by the mainstream press. A carefully organized event that still can't get over a hundred people is treated as equivalent to a more or less spontaneous march 150 times its size, as the press continues to pretend that this sort of event is a sign of a huge wellspring of right wingers who are totally behind the Republican platform of reducing them to poverty to enrich the Koch brothers, et. al.
Yeah, billions of dollars of rich guys' money spent on smearing Democrats still manages to get millions of suckers out on voting day to keep the criminals in office, but if they think there are really masses of armed lunatics ready to start shooting up the country to defend the rights of the rich, they are not basing it on any perceivable evidence.
"...dozens of rallygoers gathered at the historic Boston Common and were met with thousands of counterprotesters who had marched peacefully through downtown Boston...Only a few dozen conservatives turned out to the Boston rally, in stark contrast to the estimated 15,000 counterprotesters... an organizer has said he expected up to 1,000 people to attend.
And here they are; first the "protesters:"
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said Friday that 500 officers -- some in uniform, others undercover -- were deployed to keep the peace Saturday. "
They could have just assigned five policemen to every wingnut to protect them, or to keep them from driving their cars into the counterprotest, I guess.
I loved some of the ways this was covered in the press:
Vox: "counter-demonstrators — which, as Ward reported, were conservatively estimated to outnumber the Free Speech rally-goers 15 to one — filled the grounds outside a security perimeter, drowning out the speeches at the Free Speech rally."
15 to one...well, let's see; 15,000 divided by 100...I think that is more on the order of 150 to one. Only off by a factor of ten, Vox guys. Just a slip up, I guess. But wait:
CBS News: "Boston free speech rally: Thousands take to the streets in rival protests ..."
Newsweek: "BOSTON PROTESTS LIVE UPDATES: THOUSANDS TURN OUT FOR, AGAINST FREE SPEECH RALLY POST-CHARLOTTESVILLE"Well, at least Vox did better than CBS News and Newsweek, which didn't seem to notice the difference in the size of the crowds at all.
Once again, for about the thousandth time, I have to note the discrepancy between the actual number of right wingers that ever show up for their hatefests, and the way they are treated by the mainstream press. A carefully organized event that still can't get over a hundred people is treated as equivalent to a more or less spontaneous march 150 times its size, as the press continues to pretend that this sort of event is a sign of a huge wellspring of right wingers who are totally behind the Republican platform of reducing them to poverty to enrich the Koch brothers, et. al.
Yeah, billions of dollars of rich guys' money spent on smearing Democrats still manages to get millions of suckers out on voting day to keep the criminals in office, but if they think there are really masses of armed lunatics ready to start shooting up the country to defend the rights of the rich, they are not basing it on any perceivable evidence.
Comments
I met the first bona fide Nazi that I have ever encountered on-line. I have tangled with several racists and racist enablers over the years. But except for the one or two most fringe commenters, the bloggy hosts generally claimed to know, love and care about brown and black Americans. Their general argument was that liberals were the true racists, and black people were better off joining the conservatives.
I met a real, full-on Nazi. Some immature, bearded child who claims that his podcast is the most visited site on Aryan Radio dot com.
He is not the only idiot trumpeting that the non-violent Nazis and Klansmen are generally vastly out-numbered by the heavily armed Black Lives Matter and Antifa forces. Despite the widely reported facts that the Charlottesville protest organizers brought in several militias armed with guns, baseball bats, clubs and shields, not to mention tiki torches and heavy flagpoles, he claimed that the wonderful KKK-Nazis were vastly out numbered by the superior, armed counter protesters.
Truth has no meaning here.
After Charlottesville, we can all understand that these guys are all about violence and military style protests. I understand that the Freedom of Speech guys in Boston were not affiliated.
I am counting on the fact that all cities and municipalities will insist that all future permits for protests will specify that no person shall carry any weapons.
Hand weapons or guns. Just no weapons.
That's what I am counting on in San Francisco.