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2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Hillary DID call black kids Super Predators, here is a Wash Po article that covers it all [View all]DirkGently
(12,151 posts)59. Worse, Clinton participated in a pattern of manufactured fear.
The super-predator theory was alway bullshit, criminal justice researcher Franklin Zimring of the University of California, Berkeley, told BuzzFeed News. It was political rhetoric cloaking a movement that wanted to lock more people up.
Even in 1996, when Clinton made her remarks, Zimring and other criminologists suggested that the idea of an ever-increasing homicide rate was based on a fallacy that somehow some kids were just born criminals, and that children under 13 were somehow included in this cohort of super-criminals. They are worried about desperados in diapers, he wrote that year in the Los Angeles Times.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/danvergano/superpredator-theory
It's a pattern I associate with conservatives.
1. Find / create bogeyman, preferably an outsider / "other" suitable for framing.
2. Whip up hysteria, utilizing false information and preying on the human foible of imagining monsters under the bed.
3. Use this as a basis to increase police power, curtail personal freedom, and most importantly,
4. FUNNEL LOTS OF MONEY TO PRIVATE INTERESTS.
5. When it begins to become obvious the threat never existed, declare victory, claiming the abusive, exploitive "cure" is what worked.
6. Wash, rinse, repeat.
What bothers me most is that it demonstrates that Clinton's leadership "style" is to simply exploit whatever is available to gain and hold power. She does not swim upstream, but rather finds the current and jumps in.
This is not leadership. It's exploitation and power mongering. It's exactly why things improve so slowly, and sometimes get worse. People who think this way and utilize these techniques are not trying to actually accomplish anything but negotiating power structures for their own benefit. If allies need money, a reason to send them money will present itself. If a vulnerable population can be demonized to generate the fear / repression / profit model noted above, they will be so demonized.
It's not uniquely Hillary Clinton. She is not especially awful. But she is not any different or any better, either.
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Hillary DID call black kids Super Predators, here is a Wash Po article that covers it all [View all]
peacebird
Feb 2016
OP
I hardly see any difference between the psyche and tactics of Hillary supporters
Broward
Feb 2016
#3
Sure. Call me progressive, but I've always felt sympathy for kids growing up in horrible conditions.
eomer
Feb 2016
#10
It appears they don't care what she called them or that they were ordered "brought to heel."
Vinca
Feb 2016
#8
I'm aware of the useage in dog training. And that doesn't bother people of color???
Vinca
Feb 2016
#69
This is posted in GDP while the pro-Hillary argument is posted in a protected HRC fan group
Feeling the Bern
Feb 2016
#20
Saying “We have to bring them to heel.” is worse than calling them Super Predators, right?
krawhitham
Feb 2016
#42
She didn't use the word "black". She didn't say "African American". She used the word "gangs".
Nye Bevan
Feb 2016
#48
if that is what you have to tell yourself in order to be able to sleep with your decision
notadmblnd
Feb 2016
#56