Friday, January 26, 2018

Quotes of the Day: White Supremacist Ideas Must Be Challenged, Not Ignored



"Though [Milo] Yiannopoulos may reject the white nationalist label, he is frequently cited espousing adulation for certain alt-right ideas and cavalierly refers to the racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric of the alt-right as merely deliberately offensive ways to poke fun at social norms. Notably, Yiannopoulos was permanently banned from Twitter in July after his followers launched an onslaught of racist attacks on “Ghostbusters” actor Leslie Jones.This clever rebranding of white supremacist ideals as “alt-right” allows adherents to obscure the horrid nature of their beliefs, promulgate their ideas with minimal public scrutiny, and rise in prominence through “think tanks,” online publications, forums like 4chan, and the promotion of spokespersons like Richard Spencer.To ignore the influence that these new Neo-Nazi “leaders” of the alt-right can have on young, impressionable minds—particularly minds that have not been exposed to superior ideologies—is irresponsible and naïve. There are untold numbers of individuals who have the potential to do exactly what Dylann Roof did—namely, take vitriolic rhetoric about the inferiority of other races to its violent, logical conclusion." -- Kareim Oliphant