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.”"

Trump at the Garden: A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism; The New York Times, October 27, 2024

Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Haberman and Michael Gold , The New York Times; Trump at the Garden: A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism

"Later, the television host Phil McGraw, known as Dr. Phil, lectured the crowd on why Mr. Trump did not fit the definition of “a bully” because a bully requires “an imbalance of power,” seeming to ignore the fact that Mr. Trump has enormous power as a billionaire and former president...

David Rem, a childhood friend of Mr. Trump, called Ms. Harris “the devil.” Grant Cardone, a businessman, declared that the sitting vice president had “pimp handlers.” Sid Rosenberg denounced Hillary Clinton as a “sick son of a bitch” for linking the Trump rally and a pro-Nazi event at the arena of the same name decades ago.

Mr. Rosenberg called the entire Democratic Party “a bunch of degenerates, lowlives, Jew-haters and lowlives. Every one of them.”

When the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made his remark about Puerto Rico, there were groans from many in the audience.

On the same afternoon, Ms. Harris was in Philadelphia, courting Pennsylvania’s significant Latino population and stopping by Freddy & Tony’s, a Puerto Rican restaurant.

“Timing is everything,” David Plouffe, a top Harris adviser, wrote on X, posting clips of the two side-by-side.

In his White House bid, Mr. Trump has banked on winning uncommon shares of Black and Latino voters, in part by leaning into culture wars that split the Democratic Party."

Tucker Carlson tells Georgia rally ‘dad’ Trump will give Harris a ‘spanking’; The Washington Post, October 24, 2024

Hannah Knowles , The Washington Post; Tucker Carlson tells Georgia rally ‘dad’ Trump will give Harris a ‘spanking’

[Kip Currier: Res Ipsa Loquitur:

The bizarre nature of Tucker Carlson's campaign rhetoric at an October 23 Trump rally in Duluth, Georgia speaks for itself.]

[Excerpt]

"Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson warmed up the crowd at Donald Trump’s rally here Wednesday night with a dark metaphor, bashing Vice President Kamala Harris and declaring that “dad” was coming home to mete out discipline.

“He’s pissed!” Carlson said to extended cheers. “Dad is pissed. … And when dad gets home, you know what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now.’”

“‘And no, it’s not going to hurt me more than it hurts you,’” Tucker added. “‘No, it’s not. I’m not going to lie. It’s going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me. And you earned this. You’re getting a vigorous spanking because you’ve been a bad girl, and it has to be this way.’”"

A Republican Candidate Said He Hoped I Got Raped; Daily Beast, 9/6/16

[Graphic Language] Olivia Nuzzi, Daily Beast; A Republican Candidate Said He Hoped I Got Raped:

"In an additional statement to The Daily Beast, the West Deptford Executive Board said, “We have been informed he is resigning.” But the fate of political discourse in America is less certain.

News publications (including this one) have made a big show of eliminating comments sections in recent years, arguing, correctly, that they are little more than safe spaces for bullies. But increasingly every other public forum is becoming like that, too.

And in the age of Trump, bullying has been rebranded as telling it like it is.

Using obscene or threatening language is a point of pride, proof that you’re beholden to nothing but the truth. And anyone who can’t handle that? Well, they’re just a politically correct loser."

The alt-right attacks sci-fi: How the Hugo Awards got hijacked by Trumpian-style culture warriors; Salon, 8/23/16

Amanda Marcotte, Salon; The alt-right attacks sci-fi: How the Hugo Awards got hijacked by Trumpian-style culture warriors:

"Since 1955, the Hugos have been awarded through a fairly straightforward process: Members of the World Science Fiction Convention nominate and then vote on their favorites in a variety of categories. Past winners have included luminaries like Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Connie Willis, Robert Heinlein and George R.R. Martin.

That all changed two years ago, when a group of conservative sci-fi fans and writers, believing that sci-fi had been taken over by “social justice warriors” who supposedly emphasize diversity and progressive themes over quality, revolted and set out to take over the Hugos so that the nominees and winners were whiter, more male, and more conservative.

Two overlapping groups of conservatives — deeming themselves the Sad Puppies (more standard conservatives) and the Rabid Puppies (more alt-right and white supremacist) — began publishing suggested ballots, prior to the Hugo nominations, so that their people could vote for finalists as a bloc and crowd all other potential nominees off the ballot. Collectively, they are known as the Puppies, a choice which not coincidentally makes them sound cuter and sweeter than a nest full of reactionaries and outright bigots has any right to sound."

Social Media, Where Sports Fans Congregate and Misogyny Runs Amok; New York Times, 4/28/16

Juliet Macur, New York Times; Social Media, Where Sports Fans Congregate and Misogyny Runs Amok:

"DiCaro said she recorded the video of the mean tweets with the hope that it would change some people’s minds about harassing others on social media. She has two teenage sons, and she wants them and the younger generation to know what’s acceptable — and what’s not.

How does this abuse end? DiCaro said there needed to be more diversity in sports media. She lamented that sports was still a man’s world, and would be at least for the near future, leaving the few women in it as targets for some men who don’t want them in their boys’ club.

“It’s sort of like separating a weak antelope from the pack,’’ she said. “I think guys recognize that.”"

Not all comments are created equal: the case for ending online comments; Guardian, 9/10/15

Jessica Valenti, Guardian; Not all comments are created equal: the case for ending online comments:

"Comments sections also give the impression that all thoughts are created equal when, well, they’re not. When Popular Science stopped publishing comments, for example, it was because “everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again...scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to ‘debate’”. When will we see the humanity and dignity of women as a fact, rather than an opinion?

It’s true, I could just stop reading comments. But I shouldn’t have to. Ignoring hateful things doesn’t make them go away, and telling women to simply avoid comments is just another way of saying we’re too lazy or overwhelmed to fix the real problem.

Websites and news sources are increasingly moving forward without comments because they find them unnecessary and counterproductive. In my perfect world, more places would follow their lead – at least until publishers find lasting solutions to making comments worth it. Worth it for readers and for writers. Because the nastiness on our doorstep has piled too high for too long, and I just want to get out of the house."

Web Trolls Winning as Incivility Increases; New York Times, 8/14/14

Farhad Manjoo, New York Times; Web Trolls Winning as Incivility Increases:

"But Dr. Phillips, of Humboldt State, pointed out that many efforts to curb trolling ran into a larger problem: “To what extent do you want to make it harder for people to express themselves on the Internet?” she asked.

“This is not the good-faith exchange of ideas,” she said. “It’s just people being nasty, and if anything, it might encourage marginalized groups to not speak up.” She added, “On the other hand, by silencing that valve, there’s a lot of other stuff that is important culturally that might also be minimized.”

If there’s one thing the history of the Internet has taught us, it’s that trolls will be difficult to contain because they really reflect base human society in all its ugliness. Trolls find a way.

“It’s not a question of whether or not we’re winning the war on trolling, but whether we’re winning the war on misogyny, or racism, and ableism and all this other stuff,” Dr. Phillips said. “Trolling is just a symptom of those bigger problems.”"