Charlottesville.

[Blacksalt]

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/charlottesville-faces-its-own-dark-past-after-rally-turns-deadly-n792166

Thoughts? 

Anyone know anyone effected by this tragedy? 

Personally, one of my wife's best friends was there during and throughout this and it's shaken both of us even though we live in Western Canada. 

[Kuato2084]

My take is that anyone who doesn't have the capacity to understand equality is mentally ill.

[raizablade]

The world has gone terribly, terribly wrong. White supremacy in 2017? For fuck sake. We have been there already. Why waste a perfectly good Dodge Challenger over this. I bet this fucking human waste is a hero for these Alt-Right fuckers. Hope he gets the chair.

[v9733xa]

I have too much to say about this, and other political things, to just keep a nuanced position or opinion.

So i'll post other stuff other people say or do instead.

I will say, though, that if any of you want to start with that false equivalency bullshit about how both sides were/are violent and we need to condemn hate "on all sides" as our numbskull President said... just quit life.

[stayxgold]

My english isn't good enough to properly express my opinion. But nothing makes my blood boil as much as white supremacy. The world is a scary place.

[v9733xa]

John Dingell is a 91-year-old former Congressman. Check out his Twitter game.

[sirmoshington]

As a german seeing these waste of human life yelling Heil Trump, doing the nazi salute and waving the swastika my blood is fucking boiling. Fucking lowlife pieces of shit. Witnessing the "alt-right", the neo-nazis and all these other fucktards growing stronger in the US, Germany and all over Europe the last couple of years leaves me completely baffled.

[Glitch]

Can't express the sadness and anger I'm feeling after reading and viewing it all. This world is punked. How the fuck can people be so narrowminded? Resorting to violence because you're feeling better... what the hell.

[stuartoxlade]

That Handmaids Tale TV series doesn't look too far fetched now that this type of stuff is going on in the States. Who do you point the finger at? Trump used these people to get into office and now doesn't really know how to handle it.

[stuartoxlade]

I think that saddest part about all of this is that it doesn't surprise me one bit. It's not like this type of event hasn't been coming for a long time. All of the 'black lives matter' campaigns probably have been winding up white supremacists for a long time now and they're acting out as a result.

[trashgrind]

I feel like we're on the brink of a civil war. oh yeah and world war 3

[clandestine]

This whole situation is fucked up and the fact the guy is only facing 2nd degree murder is insulting.

[chainbreaker]

my main thing is... i dont even really understand what they are protesting for.. or what they want.. whats in there manifesto...you know.. what is there policy on things.. tell me about there things.

I think this specfic case they were talking about some statue of a racist guy and pulling it down? and i was like.. i guess I can see why somebody would be annoyed at pulling down a statue, i seen some words thrown round like "history". Cos obv im not a knob, history is important. But then i was thinking to myself, wouldn't it be a good idea to pull the statue down(cos its a racist guy) and move it to a museum so there can be some sort of story?

After thinking all this, i then read that this is what they wanted to do? ppl are dumb.

someone pls explain 2 me what they want. pls.

Opinion != Fact, no matter how many people you have to back up your opinion. (I blame the internet for this one)

These people seem confused and I haven't seen a rational arguement for what they say/do/act, so i guess i would like to read them.

edit: i live in jolly ol' england eating tea and crumpets with the queen and though i've never been to one of these weird protest things, ive seen my fairshare of racists get knocked out.

[v9733xa]

chainbreaker so, like, originally the protest here was just about the Robert E. Lee statue. Remember from your History classes that General Lee was of course the Dukes of Hazard boys' car in the TV show... no actually he was the head general of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War, which he led from the summer of 1862 til April 1865. Naturally, the South lost, duh.

Anyway so after the nation briefly healed in the Reconstruction period, then completely fell apart thanks to a corrupt bargain in the Election of 1876 and Compromise of 1877 which let a Republican president (different party back then) take office during a disputed ballot with the exchange of removing the federal troops/control of the readmitted southern states (all 11 of them)... the South was essentially left alone for the next 75 years to do whatever the fuck they wanted without any northern/federal interference. Of course, crackers gonna cracker, so that means oppressing and disenfranchising and convicting and also lynching black people. It also meant honoring their heritage, or as i call it their treasonous war against a democratic republic.

So early in the 20th century, but especially later from the 1940s to early 1960s, as a backlash against some of the gains African Americans got through federal legislation and just generally to troll anybody who didn't appreciate Southern Pride and old timey Confederate-lovin bullshit, they started to erect statues and monuments to hundreds of soldiers and generals and politicians from the CSA. To this day, for example, there are more monuments and state markers (and state forests, wildlife refuges, etc.) to guys like Nathan Bedford Forrest (KKK founder), Jefferson Davis (president of the CSA), and of course Robert E Lee then to all other historical figures combined in those states.

To any objective observer, these are horrible reminders of racism, war, slavery, oppression, cultural hegemony, state-sponsored disenfranchisement, and terrorism of minority peoples. To southern apologists and white supremacists, they are simply "history," and honoring their legacy and their forefathers who fought and died.

Now that states and local municipalities and towns have started to take down statues, you get a backlash, as the proverbial underserved white working man is finally saying he's just had enough of this privilege he and his ancestors have enjoyed for centuries at the expense of black and brown people.

And hate groups (or, alt-right, white supremacist, neo-Nazis) decided to rally together to assert their strength in numbers, i guess. Can anyone be surprised that they were met with a counter-protest?

[v9733xa]

VICE News is a great show on HBO 4 days a week. They put their whole episode online tonight, which is cool.