| > It’s the constant moving of the goal posts and redefinitions.
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> Is the argument that Trump is racist or right wing? They aren’t the same. I see three points in the "grandparent" comment: 1. “The guy had armies of white supremacist supporters and advisers.” 2. “He told right-wing extremists to “stand by” on national TV.” 3. “Every time you gloss over this, you give a pass to it and to those who knew about it and supported him anyway.” I would consider these the arguments being discussed in this comment tree, not "Trump is racist" or "Trump is ... right wing". > You can argue Proud Boys are right wing if viewing it in relation to Antifa for instance, but they aren’t racists. They are pretty diverse as a group, they just may not hold your values. I don't think that even the proud boys would dispute a label of "right wing". I don't really know how to respond to the claim that they aren't racists. Gavin McInnes is on the record with NBC in 2017 as saying "I’m not a fan of Islam. I think it’s fair to call me Islamophobic." and Islamophobia is anti-Muslim racism. More recently, Enrique Tarrio has said they're not racist, but they've just gotten more careful with how they express their racism; they use dog whistles and veiled references. If you look through archives of their early 2019-era merch store, you'll see things like multiple versions of the "Honkler" incarnation of Pepe the Frog — commonly used as a neo-nazi dog whistle, a picture of a black silhouette with the caption "Don't monkey this up, America!" — a reference to the racial slur that Ron DeSantis experienced backlash for using in late 2018, references to lynching, references to QAnon, and a joke about Muhammad being a Pedophile. (You'll also find a pile of sexist and transphobic content.) > KKK and Neo Nazis are not right wing, but they are very racist. From the wikipedia page on Neo-Nazism: "Neo-Nazism is considered a particular form of far-right politics and right-wing extremism." (citing: https://www.verfassungsschutz.de/en/fields-of-work/right-win...) |