This Is Trump’s Message: At his Madison Square Garden rally, Trump’s argument was hate and fear.; The Atlantic, October 28, 2024

David A. Graham, The Atlantic; This Is Trump’s Message

At his Madison Square Garden rally, Trump’s argument was hate and fear.

"We might as well start with the lowlight of last night’s Trump campaign rally at Madison Square Garden. That would be Tony Hinchcliffe, a podcaster who’s part of Joe Rogan’s circle, and who was the evening’s first speaker.

“These Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside,” he joked. “Just like they did to our country.” A minute later: “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” It took a few more minutes before he got to the joke about Black people loving watermelons. Novel, edgy stuff—for a minstrel show in 1874.

Other speakers were only somewhat better. A childhood pal of Donald Trump’s called Vice President Kamala Harris “the anti-Christ” and “the devil.” The radio host Sid Rosenberg called her husband, Doug Emhoff, “a crappy Jew.” Tucker Carlson had a riff about Harris vying to be “the first Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.”"

Think Outside the Box, Jack; The New York Times, May 30, 2020

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times; Think Outside the Box, Jack: Trump, Twitter and the society-crushing pursuit of monetized rage.

"The Wall Street Journal had a chilling report a few days ago that Facebook’s own research in 2018 revealed that “our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness. If left unchecked,” Facebook would feed users “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention & increase time on the platform.”

Mark Zuckerberg shelved the research...

“The shareholders of Facebook decided, ‘If you can increase my stock tenfold, we can put up with a lot of rage and hate,’” says Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

“These platforms have very dangerous profit motives. When you monetize rage at such an exponential rate, it’s bad for the world. These guys don’t look left or right; they just look down. They’re willing to promote white nationalism if there’s money in it. The rise of social media will be seen as directly correlating to the decline of Western civilization.”"

Obama Responds To Charlottesville Violence With A Quote From Nelson Mandela; Huff Post, August 12, 2017

Paige Lavender, Huff Post; Obama Responds To Charlottesville Violence With A Quote From Nelson Mandela

"Former President Barack Obama tweeted a quote from former South African President Nelson Mandela Saturday in an apparent response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia...

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite,” Obama tweeted.

The quote is from Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Obama’s series of tweets also featured a photo of him greeting children at a day care facility in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2011."

Prince William Appears on the Cover of Attitude, a Gay Magazine; New York Times, 6/15/16

Katie Williams, New York Times; Prince William Appears on the Cover of Attitude, a Gay Magazine:

"After meeting with a group of gay people who said they had been bullied, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, appeared on the cover of Attitude, a gay magazine, and urged young people to report instances of abuse to an adult.

“No one should be bullied for their sexuality or any other reason, and no one should have to put up with the kind of hate that these young people have endured in their lives,” Prince William said in an accompanying statement. “You should be proud of the person you are, and you have nothing to be ashamed of.”

The cover was planned weeks before a shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., killed 49 people, but the magazine said in a statement that the type of hatred exhibited by the gunman, Omar Mateen, begins at an early age.

“Such violence does not exist in a vacuum but snowballs from intolerance and bullying that begins in classrooms, too often comes from politicians, religious leaders and is often not treated with respect by the media,” the statement read.

For Prince William, the decision to meet with members of the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community appears to be a further venture into gay rights issues and an extension of a broader effort to combat bullying."

[Podcast] Looking Back At The 'Tremendous Hate' Of Bullies; NPR's StoryCorps, 1/7/11

[Podcast] NPR's StoryCorps; Looking Back At The 'Tremendous Hate' Of Bullies:

"Recent stories about bullying — and the people who have spoken out publicly against it — inspired Rob Littlefield to tell his own story of abuse, and how it affected his family."