Thursday, February 26, 2015

Cantwell: Muh Branding!

Just because I'm bored and feel like stirring some sh*t. Quoth my favorite undercover gender studies postgrad ...

Instead of checking facts or refuting statements, Buzzfeed and MSNBC decided to brand Ron Paul a racist ...

Here's a link to the Buzzfeed article. Allegations of, or even references to, racism in the article: 0.

Here's a link to the MSNBC article. Allegations of, or even references to, racism in the article: One kinda, sorta, a little bit, if you hold your sheet and hood just right ("the notion that Congressional Black Caucus members were only skeptical of wars because of food stamps is racially charged").

Maybe I paid just a little too much attention in my elementary school English classes, but my understanding of the word "brand" is that it's a pretty strong term. In order to "brand [someone] a racist," I'd need to do go a little bit beyond laying out some facts that tend to lead you to my desired conclusion. If I wanted to "brand" you a racist, I think I'd at least make the effort to say something like "[your name] is a racist," or "wow, what [your name] did/said is really racist."

Yeah, yeah ... I know, they want you to think to yourself that Ron Paul is a racist, but they also want to be able to deny they called him one. They've been up to that game for decades.

Just like Ron Paul wants you to think to yourself that black people only oppose war if there's food stamps in it for them, but also wants to be able to deny saying it. He's been up to that game for decades too.

No comments: