Cliven Bundy's racist comments ripped the scab off of the festering racism that, in 2014, seems to be associated with the Republican Party and its mouthpiece Fox News which makes millions off of its audience's fear and loathing of those scary black "takers." After Bundy's commentary ended his more than 15 minutes of Fox fame, another aging, rich white guy found himself in a bit of a situation involving what appear to be racist comments caught on tape. So, in a desperate move to show that not all aging, rich white guys are associated with the GOP, Fox Nation has posted, as a great, big lede on its website - "Clippers Owner Caught in Rant is a Democratic Donor." Oh, the horror, the horror. But as with most excrement on Fox News and Fox Nation, this is basically, uh, excrement!
The Fox Nation article links to the Daily Caller, a website run by the muy macho Tucker Carlson. The Daily Caller reports contributions, made to Democratic candidates by Donald Sterling, back in the 90's. But Mother Jones informs us that despite these relatively small contributions, Donald Sterling is - drum roll please - a registered Republican. You can even see a screenshot of the registration on Mother Jones.
Reality bites?!
Anyway, the process of socialisation is where children learn how to behave properly, what is acceptable in society and what is not. In the USA of today, racism, along with sexism, murder, mob-justice, hanging courts, theft and – increasingly – homophobia, are no longer acceptable if ever they were.
Sterling was punished by his own peers (i.e. not you or me) and that punishment may serve to complete the process of socialisation that he clearly missed out on. Call me optimistic if you will but one of the most effective instruments of socialisation there is is ostracism by one’s peers.
Racism is too ugly to be exposed in public and I have no patience at all with people who claim (mostly by screaming and shouting) that hate-speech is protected by the First Amendment. Tolerance for hate speech injects division and strife within the community, exposing the latter to disaster and annihilation. The Founding Fathers, who were civilised, thinking people having benefited from an effective process of socialisation called (I believe) The Enlightenment, were perfectly aware of that risk. They were not perfect but they were definitely way ahead of their times.
Such arguments are typically used by 3-5 year olds in a desperate attempt to justify doing something they are only just realising may be wrong.
When used by anybody older than that, they reflect a desperate wish to somehow justify some form of unethical behavior. That’s FNC, through and through.