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.
@Popehat @msbellows Yougov found that 1 in 4 Republicans found the insurrection “justified”. Monmouth found in July that 3 in 5 think it was a “legitimate protest”.
@Popehat Perhaps the problem here is an unexpected ambiguity in the terms "acceptable" and "public conduct." What's acceptable in a teachers-only meeting wouldn't necessarily be acceptable in the classroom. And while I agree with the Court that in this case the hat was free speech, I'd argue that "legally protected" ≠ "acceptable" under common social standards (which is why the employee chose to "troll" by wearing the hat to a diversity training in the first place).
I'd call this "legally protected socially revulsive conduct."
@Popehat For most of this country’s history, more than the equivalent proportion of that 74M voters voted for Jim Crow and Chinese Exclusion laws, sterilization, and euthanasia of undesirables.
That hat is a symbol of the same thing.
You have to wonder why we react viscerally to it?
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@Popehat Wow, I didn’t think the implications of MAGA support flew over your head when you wrote that article. I think the details about dogwhistling and the comparisons with the swastika and the hood and robe have been pretty well stated by others at this point.
Overall, I think regardless of legality, if 47% show support for unquestionably authoritarian and exclusionary ideas and figures, it’s probably a society dangerously close to collapse. Speaking from outside the US btw.
@Popehat You're right, of course. There's just no sane set of rules that allows that.
That said, it's worth remembering that "tens of millions should be treated as outsiders" is a core MAGA value.
@Popehat I think the other aspect of this is the Jan 6 insurrection. It's now clear that event was planned and that Trump intended to retain power despite losing the election.
Some conduct has to suffice outlawry. Insurrection against duly constituted authority, and present expressions of support for such, would seem to qualify.
(Yes, long history of coddling the slaver's rebellion faction as having been sincere and heartfelt. That was a mistake then and it's plausibly enough a mistake now.)
@Popehat
showed it, constantly & in public, especially the former president.
Any wonder why, if someone not of the MAGA ilk, would seriously worry about anyone, especially an educator(!), who willingly & vehemently wears a MAGA hat, then sues (& wins for gawd's sake)?
Proudly wearing that hat shows one is full of hatred & racial bias, plain & simple.
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