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 . . .
@Popehat On the broader, more realistic scale, you're right.
But the obvious counterexample of the white hoods of the KKK are inherently treated as racist, when they are just pieces of cloth- and you can probably say that 'not all KKK members are racist'- it's just formally in line with their policies.
Of course, maga hats and similar are not there yet, and have time to veer off still. But equating it simply to 'supporting trump' is, I feel, disingenuous, because there is a lot of baggage now
@Oggie @Popehat consider exactly 100 years ago.
White pointy Klan hoods were new, having been invented by a recent blockbuster movie where the Klan were the good guys. Politicians proudly announced their affinity for the Klan.
How society should have responded to racist headgear then is how society should respond to racist headgear now.
Ken White
Oggie
joedobner