Race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and scapegoating.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

The process of scapegoating certain sects of society is as old as the day is long. It requires a collective consciousness blaming others for their ills. The SCAPEGOATER has time on their side not the reverse since thoughtless barbs are easily remembered by people out to find a source for all that ills them outside themselves.

The Republican party has FOR FAR TOO LONG benefited from this construct.

It is disconcerting for me to see people on the left using the same tactics thoughtlessly:

EG: Israel is to blame for our mideast policy
Gays will divide the center vote which we need
Immigrants (specifically Mexican immigrants) are the reason for the financial ills of many states.
Arabs are to blame for 9/11

Each of these constructs requires dismissal of macro events and each requires distortion of facts in order to prevail.

My own personal preference is if the LEFT IS GOING TO SCAPEGOAT..then SCAPEGOAT POOR REPUBLICAN POLICY FOR DIVIDING AMERICA and stop buying into the debate as framed by the right that all these other subgroups are to blame for reaching out for EQUALITY.

Buying into other arguments for scapegoating based on race, religon, gender or sexual orientation only serves THEM NOT US!

Together women who wish for the right to determine their reproductive rights, minorities, Catholics, Jews and gay people far outnumber RACISTS, SEXISTS and HOMOPHOBES...apart we all get scapegoated and fail.

[sangha]

1. Ok. So how do we

blame the Repukes for disco?

I hate disco.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. Just more scapegoating Sangha

;-)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

6. Whatever we do let's not comment on the point of the thread

[damnraddem]

4. Of course the GOP is to blame for Disco!

They used it to degrade the intelligence of the U.S. electorate, thereby allowing for the Reagan Era to occur. Jimmy Carter would have had a second term were it not for Disco. ;-)

[whoYaCallinAlib]

5. Disco and liesure suits and open silk shirts still give me nightmares.

Hairy chested middle-aged guys wearing three gold necklaces and offering the most lame pick-up lines are my ultimate visual for my disco days.

[Rich Hunt]

11. disco WAS a scapegoat

Racist, homophobic rednecks staged an anti-disco "demolition" at Comiskey Park in 1979 in which they blew up 10,000 disco records.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

16. I remember that

Damn you're good!

[buddhamama]

3. scapegoating is the oldest trick in the power play book

i was listening to Vandana Shiva yesterday speak about globalization and the affects it has had on India.

she spoke about the religious tension going on and how pols are deftly promoting it to keep the citizens pitted against each other and off the more important issues.

she referenced an election where the primary issue was 'globalization' in that election the pols who were for more corporate enslaving lost big.

however, in recent elections pols who were also for corporate enslavement were able to turn the focus towards religious upheaval they won big.

[buddhamama]

7. race was used

to pit Irish immigrants against African slaves.
and during the labor union wars race and gender were used.
the socialists and communists responded to this to include everyone.
of course, at this point white males were nervous so the propaganda worked on them and they excluded blacks and women, and went with the DEMs.

[buddhamama]

8. another scapegoat

is using economic classes.

the poor and the lazy welfare folks are going to take all your hard earned money. some poor don't want to admit they're poor or put themselves into the catagory and the middle-class want to be rich.

tax cuts and all that aside, people fall for the scapegoating/propaganda.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. kick

[Character Assassin]

10. flick

So do I understand correctly that you are maintaing leftists never turn to scapegoating? Or is this inaccurate?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. No I am saying they mostly get sucked into it unknowingly

unless you consider those that blame all people of fortune for the policies of the extremely greedy. I don't think in absolutes but I do think scapegoating consciously so as to create a calculated division is much more the province of the right in America.

One the left (which ultimately turned out to be the right in the long run) Mao was pretty good at it.

I am actually recommending the left consciously use scapegoating against a class of people called die hard faithful republicans.

[loudsue]

14. Excellent idea, NSMA....we need to turn the tables QUICKLY...

and the place to start might be "fighting fire w/ fire", and making the repukes to blame for everything from ANY economic problem to tooth decay.

The best place to start is with "privatization", and the evils thereof. Look what it's done to our election process!!!

Sorry some posters are trying to hijack your thread....I think your idea is good, actually.

:kick:

[Cheswick2.0]

13. Brava

You are correct. Solidarity is what is needed.

[robbedvoter]

15. W's scapegoats : women (international clinics), unions,

blacks (affirmative action) gays, handicapped (earlier SCOTUS decision), Catholics (Bob Jones, pope&church scandals) atheists (national day of prayer and others), Jews ("I'd tell them to go to hell" - remark in 1998 before visit to Israel), children (budget cuts, education mess) veterans, soldiers ("bring them on", cuts) low income families (no child credit), New Yorkers (stiffed on the 9.11 reconstruction money promissed)...
That off the top of my head. Posting lists like these will do wonders for solidarity.

[jpgray]

17. Sure. Simplify things to fire people up--oldest trick in the book

"This terrorist act is an attempt to change US foreign policy, and to pressure us to remove our bases from Saudi Arabia."

"These evildoers hate us for our freedom."

The first one leaves all sorts of unpleasant questions for your average voter: Why are we in Saudi Arabia anyway? What policies of ours would people feel strongly enough about to kill themselves over? The second one leaves no questions.

The statements you mention above are similar to Bush's line. It's a very effective political tool, so everyone will use it, Dem and Repub alike.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

18. All I am saying is STEAL it!

and place the blame where it might best fit

[dmr]

19. Great thread, NSMA

:kick: sending you a DU mail, too.