Obviously this is horrendous, but I kind of wish that the conversation wasn't just "YOU DID A BAD THING" and then "I'm so sorry, I was bad, I'm a disappointment". I know the 24 hr news cycle doesn't do well with nuance, but maybe, people who did dumb racist shit 35 years ago could use these moments to say "this is why what I did was fucked up, these are the things I have done to be a less racist POS since then, racism is a deep, systemic sociocultural problem, and these are all of the things that should be done to try and make things better." Because it's not just about the individual shitty things people did, it's about the cultural context and the need for massive change and improvement. If people keep pretending that racism comes in these easily identifiable shitty moments, instead of imbedded in our culture in a million insidious ways, I'm afraid people will be too busy being outraged to see the bigger picture and make a functional difference.
It's not just the news cycle though. Influential people were outspoken against him immediately and made it clear there was no room for forgiveness. I don't know if he's still a racist idiot or not, but I bet he's matured in many of his beliefs and opinions since he was a college student.
And I don't want to defend him or anything, I just think that the conversation needs to be about more than the individuals' shitty actions and more about how to change the context and environment that made them think that was OK. This just seems like such an easy segue from the personal to the cultural because his medical school basically condoned it, and that's a huge problem, too. I don't think he should shift blame, I think he should take responsibility, then use it to start a more useful dialogue since there are still millions of people out there who refuse to acknowledge that racism continues to be a huge issue.
Go listen at 1:30. That’s quite literally what he’s advocating. The entire point of the bill on which he’s commenting is to remove the stringent requirements around immediate harm to the mother or baby for which the termination is to be performed. That’s an extreme position. And even then, studies have shown that oft-cited reasoning is not the actual reason why many late term abortions are performed.
What it feels like to me is that all the dems rushing to tell him to resign are doing so not because the think he’s still the same person as he was in those pictures, but they want to maintain the high road in circumstances like this and if they don’t call him out, they lose that credibility. They want to still be able to call out racism against the GOP so if they don’t dog pile on this guy, they won’t be able to anymore. He’s also not that important to the Democratic Party so him resigning or whatever isn’t a tremendous loss. It’s all shitty, because the higher up you are on the totem pole, the more forgivable bad behavior is. This guy is just an easy gnat to squish with relatively little consequence.
I think the goal of instantaneous absolutes, ignoring nuances and broader learning moments, is ultimately the plan to "change the culture" where it's not acceptable for x, y, z action. In reality this strategy just seems to be the way it is, particularly in politics, on either side of the coin. Each side has their vocal hardliners that only propose the "purist" of ideas for bills and legislation that eventually falls into the mushy center. Maybe letting the mob do this in a Machiavellian way will eventually pull the culture to where the ideal should to be. I don't really agree with it but it just seems to be the way it works.
This whole issue of points scoring and playing for keeps wasn’t a large of an issue before social media. Politics has always been shitty. None of it is done in good faith. Because you have to have instant sufficient public support, which lives and dies moment to moment because of mob justice, it leaves no room for nuance.
I had the exact same reaction. You have to be such an awful person to perform or get 9 month abortions without a really good medical reason, especially when you can just give the baby up for adoption. That's well past any "It's my body!" time frame. And if 'No true Scotsman gets a late term abortion without... yada yada' then I'm not sure why it needs to be legalized. But he wore something offensive 35 years ago! That's the real problem! People have seriously lost their minds. And let's be honest. Hardly anyone is legitimately outraged over the picture. When it comes to backlash over things like this it's just a misguided sense of obligation. How much are people supposed to pay for the crime of being offensive 35 years down the road? A lot, apparently...
Now he's saying he's not in the photo and won't resign. ETA: I forgot the link. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/...tion=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Well, if I learned anything from Dr. Ford it's that you can't just expect people to remember things they did. Such an unrealistic standard and all that.
My eyes just rolled into next week. Is this going to be like a John Edwards-style rabbit hole, where it just starts with his hair and ends up with him inpregnating Garth from Wayne’s World and making porn with her?
I mean what if he eventually doesn’t resign. Like he digs in his heels and says fuck you. What then? Is it enough that all the dems called on him to resign? And then shrug their shoulders when he doesn’t?
The lefts weapon here—as seen many times— is to whine louder and get more annoying and you basically irritate the person into quitting. That’s the thing- it’s all noise. And aside from making noise, what CAN they do? Tell him him his front lawn is “hot lava” and he can’t go to work anymore?
If I know any lawyer who has ever lived. he’ll skate because you can’t prove who is in the photo. You could just as easily prove it’s a still from the Spike Lee movie HonkyDevilBad.
The story is very confusing. I am 50 years old and I did a LOT of crazy shit in college, some of it that I regret and am quite embarrassed about. But, goddamn, I would absolutely be able to confirm 100% without a doubt whether or not I ever put on a Klan hood (I did not) or covered myself in black face (I did not). How the fuck does he not remember that? Ok, I guess throwing on a robe and hood doesn't take that long, but the dude in black face went all out, including the outfit, and the costume is clearly them as a pair.
That would be really funny. Impeaching someone over fake outrage (and yes 95% of the outrage here is definitely fake) would be a new plateau of social justice stupidity. I hate to restate the obvious, but anyone who feels like they need to destroy someone over something offensive from 35 years ago is probably an asshole. If he did this shit last week that would be one thing, but 35 years ago? Give me a fucking break.