George Takei  🏳️‍🌈🖖🏽Aug 27, 2023
White supremacy, racially motivated hate crimes, and the murders of racial, religious and sexual minorities don’t happen in a vacuum. They are encouraged, given life, and ultimately driven by leaders who knowingly deploy the terror to advance and increase their own power.
Show threadLouis IngenthronAug 27, 2023

@georgetakei Idk, I feel like that takes too much responsibility away from the people who actually commit the deed.

Those leaders and their rhetoric are just the excuse that these folks use to deflect responsibility for their actions.

Show threadMark M. EvansAug 27, 2023
@LouisIngenthron Are you suggesting that we ignore hateful rhetoric? Or that politicians othering marginalized people does not embolden violence? Because history suggests otherwise.
Show threadLouis Ingenthron

@markmevans No, I'm suggesting that we should be far more concerned with, and spend more resources addressing, the fact that the demand for this rhetoric exists, rather than attacking the supply. I believe this for two reasons:
1) The war on drugs should show anybody that attacking the supply of a highly-demanded product doesn't do shit except further raise the demand and profits.
2) Trying to deal with such speech at the government level gives the government the exact powers over subjective speech that actual fascists need to take control.

I'm not sure what the short term solution is (or if there even is one), but I truly believe the long term solution is massive investments in education, with a focus on teaching kids critical thinking and how to determine the reliability of sources.

Aug 27, 2023 at 6:00pmWeb