Complacency will aid in the rise of anti-Semitism and racial bias

[Behind the Aegis]

As a Jew and proud American I am horrified and deeply offended by the increasing number of stories about the rise of anti-Semitism and racism both at home and abroad. Too often we get embroiled in unproductive debates about whether President Donald Trump is anti-Semitic and racist.

Moreover, to suggest that he is directly the cause of this hatred and violent activity misses the point and obscures a legitimate worry.

What is clear is that the president’s rhetoric and actions have at minimum emboldened and empowered those such as the neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists. The best examples of this are Trump’s repeated unwillingness explicitly to condemn and disassociate from racist behaviors since he came down the escalator and announced his candidacy for president, as well as his suggestion that there were good people on both sides of the Charlottesville protest — all of which was taken as a wink and a nod to extremist groups.


It is hardly surprising, therefore, that following his election these groups have come out of the shadows and are now a daily part of current events. The same is true in Europe as well, where the growing influence of nationalist leaders seems to be correlated with an increase in hateful discourse and behavior.

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[CousinIT]

1. These articles always leave out sexual bias/sexism

Both towards women & LGBT people.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. I haven't seem if there has been a big jump in sexism since "he" was slected.

I wouldn't doubt it, but I do know there has been a slight increase in anti-LGBT crimes.

[CousinIT]

6. There hasn't been a big jump in racism or anti-semitism either.

Those 'isms existed before Trump. He just emboldens them - they've come out from the shadows.

Racism greatly increased and sexism greatly increased when we had our first black President and almost had our first woman President. Neither had to do w/ Trump - Trump is a consequence of something that already existed and festered and boiled over during the Obama years and 2016 election.

When Hillary Clinton is demonized as she is, moreso since running for POTUS and is being written out of our history books as she is - sexism is oh so very alive and well and has increased since her POTUS run and Obama's term.

Again, Trump is a consequence of racism, sexism, anti-semitism, not the cause of it

It irks me to no end that we cry about racism and anti-semitism - both of which are major problems - but rarely about sexism - which is as big an issue. Articles that leave sexism out of the 'ism-based reasons Trump was "elected" are ignoring a huge contributor to his success.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Mention anti-Semitism and it almost always beings on "whataboutism."

[Nitram]

2. The fact that Trump's election has brought racists, anti-Semites, anti-LGBTQ bigots and misogynists

out of the shadows has been emphasized in numerous posts on DU and in the media. We all agree it is a problem and many of us are doing what we can to fight it. Don't worry, you are not alone.

[ROB-ROX]

3. THE ROACH KING IS ALIVE

All the with roaches see their king they come out of the darkest places to "ROACH" the country. I still do not know how they will get the stench out of the white house when the roach king leaves.......VOTE BLUE

[Haggis for Breakfast]

5. Remember to give credit where credit is due.

Read Malcolm Nance's book "The Plot to Destroy Democracy." He peels away the layers of Russian hacking to reveal just how vast and deep this goes. The disinformation/distraction campaigns are huge. I never realized just how pervasive this is. I recalled a story spread over the media last summer that seemed to come at us from out of the blue and I couldn't remember there being anything to it. Then in Nance's book he chronicled the story, revealing information about automated software being retasked to intervene and send messages to very specific sites to spread propaganda, moving from agents of influence to agents provocateur to chaos agents.

He used terms that were new to me, like "typo-squatting" and "agitation bots" and "VPN access" and he walks through the process of how these things work, how they are spread and the damage they can do. He talked about how #Pizzagate began and who helped push it into the MSM and how it got to the point where a man actually walked into the DC eatery and opened fire on people.

Now I cannot read a story without first following the string back to the source. And this stuff is just the tip of the iceberg. Russia is all over our communications networks and operating without scrutiny. I urge people to start looking at this. Nance paints a terrifying picture of what will happen if the US does not address this insideous assault on our networks.

Remember that Richard Clarke tried to warn us about this a decade ago and nobody listened.