If Tea Partiers = Racist, and Terrorists = Racist, then Tea Partiers = Terrorists?

If al Qaeda and other terrorists groups are racist, as the White House asserts …

… and "elements" of the Tea Party are racist, as the NAACP asserts …

Is the Tea Party, by the transitive property, a terrorist group? That may be the subliminal message Obama & Company are hoping the American people are stupid enough to absorb from the dizzying narrative being spun by sympathetic members of the legacy media. But don't count on it, Mr. President. Media magnet Sarah Palin is on the case, leaving 'em scrambling as she disintermediates legacy venues via Twitter and Facebook. Not to mention the best-defense-is-a-good-offense leading lights of the Tea Party movement itself.

Update: How could we have missed this delicious tidbit from totally awesome Twitterfriend Andrew Malcolm's LA Times column "Top of the Ticket"?

However, Ben Jealous, the association's newly elected president (see photo below), was an outspoken critic of the political protest movement this week, saying it divides the country and "represents a small and dying demographic." Jealous added: 'It's time for the Tea Party to be responsible members of this democracy and make sure they don't tolerate bigots or bigotry among their members."

Who's jealous of whom? You're projecting again, Ben.

Update II: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link! and this zinger:

It’s a tried and true tactic of worn-out grievance-mongers: When you can’t find evil enough enemies to blame for your problems, manufacture them.

Update III: Juliette Akinyi of Baldilocks and ourselves are on the same wavelength:

So, when President Obama calls al Qaeda terrorists racist (true, but who cares? dead is dead) and his minions in the NAACP call the Tea Party movement racist (untrue), they are attempting to plant seeds in the minds of the uninformed and still evaluating. They are attempting to paint the Tea Party movement as a terrorist movement in the arena of public opinion.

Update IV: Instalanche!:

But Sissy Willis has figured out that it’s all about domestic American politics: If Tea Partiers = Racist, and Terrorists = Racist, then Tea Partiers = Terrorists? Haven’t they tried that one already? It’s pretty early in the term to be repeating the playbook. But it’s not like they’ve got many plays in there . . . .

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[goomp]

Are politician and liar synonyms?

[Dante]

You're just as big of an idiot here as you are at Dan Riehl's site.

[Rorschach]

it all depends on your perspective. To Obama and his merry band of thieves, we ARE terrorists because they are TERRIFIED of us. That means we are doing exactly what we need to be doing. The government SHOULD ALWAYS be afraid of it's citizenry, because when they stop being afraid, tyranny is the ultimate result.

[Sissy Willis]

Dante: Yah, so? What did you expect as I post identically in both places for the most part?

[Sissy Willis]

Rorschach: Brilliant observation! In this case, if we throw the bums out, the terrorists will have won. :D

[Teresa]

I see that "Dante" just scorched you with his "Inferno". A scathing comment, just scathing. Such insight and telling arguments. Wittiness jumps off his keyboard.

...

Sorry, I shouldn't make fun of someone who flunked Remedial Rhetoric.

[baldilocks]

Thanks for the link, Sissy!

The other Dante had much to say about Sowers of Discord...

[Kevin]

Your argument is clearly flawed, on several levels.

Transitive property, as defined by your own link, does not make the Tea Party a terrorist group:

"Transitive Property of Equality

The following property: If a = b and b = c, then a = c"

The relationship you describe would instead be:

If a = c and b = c, then a = b.

This looks correct stated in mathematical terms. However, when you apply this logic to an example from everyday life, it's clearly flawed:

I have legs. A chair has legs. Therefore, I am a chair.

It's arguments like this that prevent people from taking the Tea Party seriously. Just because Obama is a terrible President doesn't mean everything he says, thinks, and does has some secret, coded agenda behind it.

[Sissy Willis]

Kevin. I'm funnin' ya. Get it?

[RightKlik]

Linked!

http://www.rightklik.net/2010/07/naacp-wishing-tea-party-dead.html

[Tom the Redhunter]

Sissy, you nail it. You know the leftists are losing the debate when they pull out the "racist" card. It's the only way they know how to debate. Pathetic, really.

[Toby]

@kevin, we're not talking logic here, but spin and narrative to befuddle the minds of the rubes who voted this turkey and his pals in in the first place. it worked in 08 and it could work again.

[Teresa]

Kevin, I realize you read the title of the post, but from your argument (which is certainly logical if completely devoid of any humor at all) you didn't read the rest of the post.

"That may be the subliminal message..."

And thus it is that the actual post is questioning something that has been pushed by the liberal side of the news media for some time. It is the little hints, the little pushes, and the small digs by many in the press and by the President himself that add on each other.

Every lie told about the tea party becomes lodged in the minds of people who read only headlines or hear only sound bites and don't stop to either question the analogy or think if it makes any sense at all.

As many of the press have decided to become an arm of the Administration's propaganda machine, it also behooves us to wonder if suggestions have been dropped into waiting ears. At the very least, those who call tea partiers "racist" or "terrorists" deserve to be laughed at and ridiculed - loudly.

After all - there is no logic at all in the following:

Tea Party: Stop passing bills you haven't read.
Liberal: Racist!

Tea Party: The health care bill is a bad idea, it's bad for medicine and bad for the economy.
Liberal: Terrorist!

Tea Party: We want accountability in our government.
Liberal: Racist terrorist!

If there is a logic there - it is that the liberals keep repeating their mantra until the majority of marginally informed people start to believe it's true. In order to combat that, one has to get the attention of sketchy readers and listeners first.

[Bill Johnson]

Kevin,

You are no math major. If b = c, then c = b, and we proceed with Sissy's column. Sit down.

[halfastro]

Kevin,

You miss the point entirely. Of course the Tea Partiers = Racist, and Terrorists = Racist, then Tea Partiers = Terrorists is illogical. But that doesn't stop the Obama administration from using this illogical argument to impugn the motives of the Tea Party movement. It's not the Tea Party using flawed logic, it's the Obama administration.

[Kevin]

@ Toby, Teresa, & halfastro:

My point is that I haven't seen anyone on the left make this analogy in a serious argument. I have, however, seen Tea Partiers argue that it is the argument that the left is trying to suggest. If they actually make the argument, then refute it intelligently, as has been done by some here. But to make the argument for them before they make it, using flawed logic at that, screams paranoia, and is what turns many people away from the movement. Most people can see through the tired argument that Tea Partiers are fueled by racism. But when they see you hysterically turning the Obama Administration's every last statement and/or action into some grand conspiracy, it turns people off. People firmly planted on the left or right side may be entertained and excited by the screaming heads on radio & TV, but the majority are turned off by such nonsense.

Bill: Of course you are correct; however, nowhere in the relationship is it necessary that c must equal b, so that's irrelevant. Also, as I stated, the relationship does add up mathematically. It just does not follow linguistically.

[Dr. Applebreath]

Dincha y'all get the email before the election? The ONLY reason not to vote for Obama was RACISM!

Of course, the same guy who sent me that email thought the most important thing to do after 9/11 was to ask ourselves what we did to make them so mad at us.

[KingShamus]

Sissy, I think you nailed it.

Obama's "Tea Party Folks are Terrorists" talking point in 3...2...1-

[massaRenolds]

"What is racism?

Racism is racial prejudice that has been incorporated into the activities and procedures of major institutions, corporations, social systems (such as those related to housing, education, and health), and other arenas of major social activity (such as politics, the media, finance, and banking). Racism serves both to discriminate against ethnic minorities and to maintain advantages and benefits for White Americans."

"...Psychologists have found that we put energy into various mechanisms that help us maintain our view of the world. For example, we can seek out and pay attention to information that supports our views. Evidence suggests that the More strongly we hold a stereotype, the more we tend to remember confirming information about the group. There is a kind of circular process here: For example, the more we believe stereotypes about gay men being effeminate, the more likely we will remember incidents which seem to support these views. We also discount or rationalize information that is contradictory to our beliefs. The Black person who is intelligent and articulate, the gay man who is not effeminate, or the Jewish person who is not pushy become exceptions to the rule, but the rule remains. And we may look more closely for grammatical mistakes in the Black person=s speech than in a White person=s; or that the Jewish person is especially clever in working his or her exploitive influence behind our back..."

"...the new racism describes a more elusive, political, almost abstract language of race which avoids blatantly negative racist statements in favor of political codewords and symbols. This new racism is partly based on a view of racial discrimination as being outdated and puts the onus of achievement and equality on African Americans and other ethnic minority people. If African Americans would, for example, stop clamoring for special treatment and simply work harder, they could achieve the American Dream. The idea is that it is African Americans= own deficiencies B whether they be greed, laziness, violence, and so on B that are the cause of their problems, not the history of slavery, segregation, discrimination, prejudice, and racism which is assumed to have come to an end...."
Excerpts from what was Written by ..., PhD
At the request of the American Psychological Association
Public Interest Directorate

[massaRenolds]

"Pitfall # 1: Defining Racism as Pathology or a Mental Disorder
A common myth that many hold is that racism is the result of extreme pathology, that it is a "sickness", "unhealthy" and a function of disturbed minds. Some have even argued that racism should be classified in DSM�IV�TR as a mental disorder and "racists" should be considered mentally disturbed. Indeed, it is possible to argue that White Supremacists are filled with such hatred and bigotry that they see the world in delusional terms. While I entertain the notion that those who perpetrate hate crimes may suffer from some form of mental disorder, they represent a very small fraction of the racism problem. Studies suggest that racism is very pervasive, that it is present in nearly everyone, and that it is the more subtle and unintentional expressions, racial microaggressions, that truly do the greatest harm to persons of color. To equate racism with pathology, unfortunately, diminishes the widespread nature of racism and allows us to escape entertaining the notion that we all harbor racist attitudes and engage in discriminatory behaviors, not just the mentally disturbed.

Pitfall # 2 � Belief that Racism is Not Normative or Widespread
The near unanimous public outcry against hate groups and the condemnation of these acts may seduce us into the belief that we are not bigoted because we are not hate mongers. We now understand that racism is, in many ways, very normative, an everyday occurrence, and generally invisible in our lives. They occur almost constantly in the form of racial microaggressions; invisible and outside of conscious awareness. Their frequency in everyday interactions suggests that racism functions as a default standard. By making racism invisible, we unintentionally enable and empower its manifestation. The result is that we preserve our self�image as a good, moral and descent person, and allow us to deny its existence in ourselves, our family, and our friends.

Pitfall # 3 � Belief that White Supremacists Are the Ones Who
Perpetrate the Greatest Harm to People of Color

Hate crimes represent only the tip of the racism iceberg. The more insidious, damaging and harmful forms of racism are expressed through the everyday, unintentional, and unconscious racial microaggressions perpetrated by ordinary citizens who believe they are doing right. It isn't the White Supremacist who controls the tools which result in educational, economic and political disparities that work to the detriment of Persons of
Color. In fact, these overtly racist individuals affect only a small part of my life. It is people we elect to office, teachers who educate our children, business leaders who carry out the policies and practices of their corporations, government leaders, law enforcement officers, physicians, dentists, construction workers, our family, friends, and neighbors. It is ordinary citizens who experience themselves as good, moral and descent individuals, who consciously believe in democracy, and who would never consciously discriminate.

Pitfall # 4 � Racism Only Harms People of Color
Many White Americans are unaware of how racism also harms them. They live a false racial reality and operate within a "matrix" that allows them to see the world through "rose colored glasses" and prevents them from seeing the ugliness and reality of racism. In some respects, our White people are also victims of racism. Their victimization however is different from People of Color. Whites have been fed a racial curriculum based upon falsehoods, unwarranted fears and in the belief in their own group's superiority. As a result, they have unwittingly conspired with a part of the system that advantages them, while disadvantaging people of color. Most Whites were socialized into oppressor roles, yet taught concepts of social democracy, fairness, justice and equality. Recognizing the polarities of the democratic principles of equality and the unequal treatment of persons of color is not pleasant for White Americans.
Being an oppressor (even unknowingly) means the dimming of perceptual awareness and accuracy. Allowing the degradation, harm and cruelty to Persons of Color mean the diminution of one's humanity, and lessening compassion toward others. At some level, oppressors become callous, cold, hard and unfeeling toward the plight of the oppressed. It means separating yourself from others, seeing them as lesser beings, and in many cases subhuman aliens. From this perspective, racism serves as a clamp on one's mind, allowing for the systematic mistreatment of others by perpetuating a false illusion of one's racial superiority. To continue allowing systems of injustice to exist and to deny complicity in the oppression of others means denying reality."

excerpt from COMMUNIQUÉ
SPECIAL SECTION: PSYCHOLOGY AND RACISM
Ten Years After the Miniconvention AUGUST 2008
...American Psychological Association

[massaRenolds]

so we do live under Judaic-Christianic terrorist rule... except the citizens of Jewish and Christian sects consent.

No wonder Michelle Obama keeps her hair straightened.

The only parts of the Constitution that is supported by juridical, congressional, and executive terrorists are the parts from which they suck their authority.