Ken WhiteJan 14, 2023

I got more pushback than I anticipated on one argument in my post about the Ninth Circuit decision about the MAGA-hat-wearing-teacher: the idea that a MAGA hat is not self-evidently outside acceptable public conduct.

I certainly have a reaction to seeing someone in a MAGA hat — I figure they’d probably hate me, and I probably wouldn’t care to hang out with them — and I know some people have stronger reactions. But . . .

Show threadKen WhiteJan 14, 2023
…I can’t wrap my head around the concept that openly supporting a former President, who got 75 million votes last time, who is still hugely popular among Republicans, is not only completely acceptable in my social circle or yours, but is completely unacceptable in a way that the law should enforce. It’s just not in the realm of reason. It’s one of the more striking examples I’ve encountered recently of in-a-bubble thinking.
Show threadDarwin Woodka
@Popehat well the dude certainly showed why he needed to be at cultural sensitivity training didn't he
Jan 14, 2023 at 8:00pmWeb
Show threadKen WhiteJan 14, 2023
@darwinwoodka Does supporting a candidate who got 75 million votes, 47% of voters, mean you require cultural sensitivity training? This is exactly what I’m talking about.
Show threadDarwin WoodkaJan 14, 2023
@Popehat I would assume there were other reasons he was there as well. But he insisted on being an asshole about it, too
Show threadKen WhiteJan 14, 2023
@darwinwoodka Would a teacher who wore a Biden hat be an asshole? How about an Obama hat?
Show threadDarwin WoodkaJan 14, 2023
@Popehat well probably not, but if they were I would hope they wouldn't generate a lawsuit over it claiming the hat was the only reason they were yelled at.
Show threadDarwin WoodkaJan 14, 2023
@Popehat I mean, kids get disciplined on what they wear ALL THE TIME. My son wore a shirt with a cute cat on it that read "mean ass kitty" and a HS teacher took offense at the word "ass" and made hime cover it. He was pissed off, but we didn't sue the school and he didn't wear the shirt again. This guy was obviously using the hat as a provocation, knew it was offensive to some and did it anyway. How is it different? Why did he keep wearing it? It's the behavior that matters, not the hat.
Show threadKen WhiteJan 14, 2023
@darwinwoodka Well, pre-college kids are treated differently than adults and adult government employees.
Show threadKen WhiteJan 14, 2023
@darwinwoodka If a principal allowed and even encouraged MAGA hats but yelled at a teacher for wearing a Biden hat and threatened them with discipline, that would be a completely legitimate basis for a lawsuit.
Show threadDarwin WoodkaJan 14, 2023
@Popehat he wasn't yelled at for wearing a hat. He was yelled at for provoking other people with it. Deliberately, Continuously, after being told to knock it off.
Show threadDarwin WoodkaJan 14, 2023
@Popehat I don't care what hat a teacher wears. I care about the example they set. And this guy was an asshole, plain and simple.
Show threadDarwin WoodkaJan 14, 2023
@Popehat and the fact he feels he has a RIGHT to be an asshole is why we now have a country where half of us are denied basic rights to our own bodies while two men who treated women like crap are on the SCOTUS.
Show threadKen WhiteJan 14, 2023
@darwinwoodka Okay. Are 47% of voting Americans assholes?
Show threadDarwin WoodkaJan 14, 2023
@Popehat maybe, I don't know. I know that I don't bother talking to my GOP former friends any more after being told I was "just showing off how educated and politically correct" I was for telling them to stop using the phrase China virus. So yeah, maybe. At any rate that's how we head down the slippery slope, when people feel entitled to display offensive behavior. And how we end up with Trumps as presidents and Thomases and Kavanaughs as SCOTUSes.
Show threadJeanJauresJan 14, 2023
@Popehat @darwinwoodka At least.
Show threadPatty KimuraJan 15, 2023
@Popehat @darwinwoodka When are Americans not assholes? That's not the bar. You do, however, conflate 47% of Trump voters who mostly do not wear MAGA slogan paraphernalia with persons who may or may not have voted for Trump who do wear MAGA paraphernalia.
Show threadNatanael ⚠️Jan 14, 2023
@Popehat @darwinwoodka if those hats carried the meaning that anybody who disagreed with their belief deserved terrible things, sure
Show threadKim ScheinbergJan 14, 2023

@Popehat @darwinwoodka
My kids were attending PS3 in 2008, a NYC K-5 public school in Greenwich Village, surely among the most liberal in the country.

We let one kid accompany each of us into the voting booth and pull the lever for Obama that year. Also, I campaigned for him (then didn't vote for him in 2012, but I digress).

And nevertheless, any of the pro-Obama stuff inside the school in '08 made me a bit queasy. I understood having them watch the inauguration in class, but...

Show threadSpicewallaJan 14, 2023

@Popehat @darwinwoodka

Equating a maga hat to a biden hat is a dril tweet.

Show threadKen WhiteJan 15, 2023
@Spicewalla @darwinwoodka If you’re indifferent to context and the course of the conversation.
Show threadSpicewallaJan 15, 2023

@Popehat @darwinwoodka

It genuinely seems that the context is "american political symbols are anodyne, detached from the ideology of the movements they represent."

Maga represents a movement that includes an organized violent faction, that say a Bush or a Romney hat does not.