If You Promote it, They Will Come

IF YOU PROMOTE IT, THEY WILL COME

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last night covering the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia focused on how and why these events represent a turning point in the nation’s moral quandary regarding the leadership of our current President of the United States. She pointed out that while hate crimes and gatherings of neo-nazis and other white supremacists have been present since Civil War days, this recent outbreak was different for several important reasons.

Few rational observers would argue that the President’s baiting of supporters at his campaign rallies to attack peaceful protestors was not a major factor in the rise of hate crimes and other acts of intolerance and violence inflicted against people on the other side of the political spectrum. Research by social scientists has outlined how the individual’s behavior can change once they become part of a larger group. “Safety in numbers” they say, and that includes the ability to hide. You’re not one person expressing your anger, you are part of a larger organism, a “mob.” Most individuals who hold unpopular beliefs not only hide behind the mob, they wear bandanas around their nose and mouth, or hoods or masks. The Klu Klux Klan is a shining example of regular people running amok in bed sheets with eyeholes cut out.

What made Charlottesville so different was the fact that these “Alt Right” marchers, part of a mob for sure, were not afraid to show their faces. Faces lit up by the Tiki Torches and streetlights of the downtown. They were not only unafraid, but proud to be counted in with their fellow white, predominantly male companions.

I recently posted a piece about Pedophiles. I described how Pedophilia, the sexual exploitation of innocent children is so egregious, so horrific, that no one would admit their deviant predilection, they remain in the shadows, in the deepest recesses of the Dark Web. Should a respected leader, say a President of the United States come out and put known pedophiles on his staff and in his cabinet, and spoke freely of the joys of pedophilia, encouraging, enabling others of similar ilk to perpetrate acts of perversion against small children, don’t you know the vast majority of moral man and woman would be disgusted and angered, but there would be an increase in the crimes against children, and pedophiles would walk out in the open proclaiming the righteousness of their cause.

I would maintain that Donald Trump’s silence, his surrounding himself with people of questionable motives, and his encouragement, his incitement of neo-nazis, white supremacists, and others who think they are better than people of color, refugees fleeing oppressive regimes, immigrants seeking a better future in the land of opportunity, individuals with different religious or spiritual beliefs, or even people with disabilities are, as someone wrote, “Children of a Lesser God.” Like their leader, they believe “might makes right” and like any number of third world dictators force their ideas on anyone who has the nerve to voice an opinion different than their own. In your wildest imagination did you ever think a man like this could make it to the Oval Office?