Monday, October 10, 2022

RIGHT-WING BLACK CELEBRITIES LEARN WHAT GOP POLITICIANS ALREADY KNOW ABOUT TRIBAL IMPUNITY

A couple of hours ago, I spotted this juxtaposition of stories at the news aggregation site Memeorandum:


Late Saturday night, Kanye West posted anti-Semitic comments at Twitter and Instagram, both of which suspended his accounts.


The Washington Examiner column cited by Memeorandum was written by Mike Gonzalez of the Heritage Foundation. It appeared this morning, more than a day after West's outburst -- yet it doesn't mention the anti-Semitic comments. It confines itself to West's defiance of Black Lives Matter, after he wore a "White Lives Matter" shirt during Paris Fashion Week.
With his support for former President Donald Trump, Christianity, and the family and his opposition to the rigid ideological straitjacket being imposed on the creative world, Kanye has become dangerous.

... West appears to have correctly fingered BLM as one reason why society, especially culture, has become so politicized, why the exigencies of critical race theory, and its related diversity, equity, and inclusion mantras, have been pushed down everyone’s throats with such ferocity since BLM came together in 2013 and especially since the 2020 riots.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, also on Thursday night, West ... called the enforcers of the leftist ideology the "group mob — liberal Nazis."

...anyone challenging BLM on the cultural front must be canceled.
The Times story is about the evangelical right's embrace of Herschel Walker.
It was the morning after the Republican senate candidate’s ex-girlfriend came forward to say he had paid for her to have an abortion, though he supports banning the procedure without exception. Dozens of people gathered in a fluorescent hall of First Baptist Atlanta, a prominent Southern Baptist church. Pastor Anthony George sat on a platform, with Mr. Walker at his right hand.

The pastor recalled God’s protection of King David, the ancient Israelite king, and claimed similar promise for Mr. Walker. The candidate shared a testimony of how Jesus changed his life. The pastor invited people to the front to pray for him.

They surrounded him and extended their hands toward the former football star.

“This is the fight of his life, holy God,” the pastor prayed. “And we call forth your ministering angels to be his defenders.” The people clapped and gave shouts of amen.
We learn, among other things, that Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council hadn't endorsed Walker until now, but on Friday -- after we all learned about the abortion -- he announced his endorsement.

If you're a liberal or moderate Democratic politician in America, you'll get decent coverage from the so-called liberal media some of the time, but the same reporters will turn on you in a heartbeat. (Did any positive stories about President Biden appear in the top "liberal" news outlets between the fall of Afghanistan and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act?) And if you're a Democrat enmeshed in scandal, it's quite likely that you'll lose the support of your voters as well as previously supportive media outlets -- maybe that wasn't true of Bill Clinton in the previous century, but ask Anthony Weiner, Eliot Spitzer, and Andrew Cuomo if it's true in this century.

However, if you're a Republican in good standing, there's an excellent chance that no one in the right-wing bubble will give you a hard time for, for instance, making bigoted and conspiratorial pronouncements like Marjorie Taylor Greene, or being involved in sexual abuse of teenagers like Jim Jordan. And don't get me started on Donald Trump. If you have the full support of the tribe, no one in the right-wing media will ever say a discouraging word about you.

The Black press writes critical stories about Walker and West. Sports outlets publish negative pieces on Walker; the music press regularly criticizes West. But in the Republican oasis, it's all good: West is a fearless truth-teller, and Walker is a humble, upright man of God.

I guess I can't blame the two of them for wanting to take that deal. Life is so much easier when no one holds you accountable.

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