Raise your hand and…
By Primo Encarnación y Hachecristo
Those of us of a certain age remember well the counter-culture caveat “Question Authority.” The concept is in no way new: it is the basis of empiricism and baby-daddy to the Enlightenment. But in modern political terms, the toppling of the most powerful nutcase in the world, Richard Nixon, horrified the authoritarians in America and, since then, they have whispered soothingly to the “silent majority” to stay silent. “Relax. We got this,” they coo. “Vote for us, and you’ll never have to think hard again.”
Or, really, start thinking in the first place.
Authoritarians leapt for joy when it turned out that all the authority questioners a.k.a. liberals were wrong, Wrong. WRONG! and owed a collective apology to everyone who knew right off the bat that Freddie Gray was a criminal who committed suicide in the paddy wagon, just to make the authorities look bad.
Hannity’s rage-gasm as the pro-authoritarian leak made its way into the lazy mainstream media is only the most egregious example of someone who is just fine leaving the thinking to his “betters,” so long as that thinking agrees with his prejudices. A rumor from authorities reprinted by the “liberal” media as “news” (as opposed to, you know, “fact”) is precisely the confirmation his bias needed to fully justify disconnecting his brain lo, these many years ago.
Confirmation bias – it’s mothers’ milk to the right wing nutjobs. Without it, not a one of them could get elected, and President Gore and his liberal Congress would have solved global warming a decade and a half ago.
When the WaPo leak came out, we liberals knew exactly how many holes there were in that particular story about suicide by paddy wagon. We questioned the motives of the leaker. We questioned the rigor of the reporter. We questioned the veracity of the witness account. We questioned the details of the leak. We questioned the plausibility of that wound happening in that manner.
We questioned authority.
And we were right to do so. The leaker’s beneficiaries are now defendants. The witness claims that was not what he heard, saw or said. The details of the leak were wrong. But the reporter, and Sean Hannity, still have jobs and fame and honor, as do so many other people who have lied us into war, lied us into climate catastrophe, lied us into insolvency, lied about Obamacare, lied about immigration, lied about poverty, lied, lied, lied, lied, lied and then lied some more.
But the comfort of non-logic, the peace of letting someone else do the thinking, the satisfaction of confirmation bias, the appeal to authority, so long as that authority tells us what we want to hear, has brought this country to the brink of madness and death.
Question authority. It’s our only chance.
Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts. And btw, we wouldn’t mind if folks paid a little attention to what folks are doing. Police aren’t supposed to bang people around and neither is anyone else. Scary.
1The ” death by paddy wagon” leak was so obviously a desperate attempt by police to cast the blame elsewhere that it landed with a thud, a huge steaming pile of it. It was another insult to the black community and an affront to anyone with a brain.
2Accepting it as truth without question shows where one’s interests really lie: getting to the truth or turning your back on it once again.
Not to disparage Señor Encarnación’s remarks or the lies of the rightwing, I feel compelled by a sense of fairness to mention that confirmation bias can be found on the left as well. I admit to flipping with a sigh past another article about the Clintons’ questionable financial dealings but focusing with laser intensity on a column about what a p***k Scalia is.
But yes, if a black man in police custody is said to have killed himself to make the cops look bad, question the hell out of that sucker.
3What heinous crime was this guy killed over? I forgot- he ran from the police. Now he is dead. Never mis-underestimate the inventiveness of thugs that run in packs and swear to uphold the law while defending the public from………………?
4It has been proven that Freddie carried a regular pocketknife that the cops said was a switchblade, which is illegal in Baltimore. The cops lied and falsified their report!
It was reported on MSNBC that 5 of the arresting officers are now in custody and the driver of the van has yet to be arrested. The Mayor did not take questions, so no one knows where that 6th cop is — the driver!
There are manslaughter charges against them and a couple other charges … but Freddie Gray did NOT kill himself in that police vehicle and the coroner’s report states as much!! And the Mayor will have no more of this cop BS from any of the Baltimore force! Period!!
5Ya learn something new every day. Sometimes what you learn does nothing to lift your spirits. I had never heard of the “rough ride” tactic pulled on only certain occupants of the paddy wagon. Its not hard to understand how an already injured person could get more seriously, even lethally, injured if not strapped in to a seat and the vehicle is maneuvered on purpose to inflict injury and pain.
As for Hillary Clinton and the Canadian donors, Canada has one of the most complicated privacy laws known to mankind. It is second only to the old liquor laws inflicted on pubs. For example, men could come in one door only. Women had their own door. Single women entering a pub were not encouraged to stay. If there were 2 or 3, nothing was said but they had to sit on “their” side of the bar. Does this start to sound like a synagogue? The discrimination was supposed to somehow protect the women from the men in the bar while in the bar. There is more to it than I just illustrated but I’m hungry and I haven’t had lunch yet. Let’s just say that not even my Canadian cousins are going to tell me if they donated to Hill’s campaign to begin with, let alone the amount. And frankly my nose and I don’t want to know. Those Canadian boundaries were imprinted on me as I grew up. Frankly, the screeching coming from the RWNJ’s sounds like frikkin’ jealousy. God knows they don’t want anyone to know how much they are getting from the Koch brothers et al. Good luck with that. Anyone can follow the $$ trail on the internet.
6Funny thing: President Obama is, by nature of his office, an “authority” – yet conservatives feel quite comfortable in questioning everything he says or does (including things they only imagine he said or did).
It seems as though they have certain tribal leaders who they follow unquestioningly, and reject anything which contradicts what that tribal leader proclaims.
After all, if you can’t trust Big Brother, who can you trust?
7Those cops in Baltimore are going to get their karmic ‘rough ride’ payback!
8Eykis, and all because of a good woman, State’s Attorney, Marilyn Mosby. Imagine that, a woman and black from a family with 3 generations of cops. That is personal integrity at its finest. To contrast that pasty white schlepp from Ferguson who assured us he had “no conflict of interest” and would apply the rule of law. Oh yeah, I can do this he assured us.
Whereas Ms. Mosby did her job and showed us.
I’d also like to extend credit where credit is due, to the youngsters of Baltimore. When the media placed a microphone in their faces, they spoke well and eloquently expressed their thoughts. Mr. Allen whom the police tried to frame as a snitch and put some real smack in his mouth did particularly fine and with remarkable restraint. He didn’t call them liars, but he sure made it clear that the police were lying. Well done, Mr. Allen!
9The sad thing is, the RWNs will start flatulating how thrilled we liberals are that this exposure of police brutality has occurred. They just don’t understand that what we want, and need, is for that young man to still be alive, and the police to be protecting ALL of our residents.
10Old Fart, the thing I find scariest are that the Republicans would have us repeat the worst of human history and our own American history.
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” ~ Martin Niemöller
Today they have come for the trade unions, the poor, minorities and the young & old. But thanks to social media and The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc., we will prevail over the fascist Republican/Tea Bag Evangelical theocratic un-American ammosexuals.
11I was reading LTEs in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune by people with Anglo sounding last names, who were saying they could understand the demonstrations in Baltimore. However, and they were adamant about this, there is Never an excuse for Violence!
Yes there is! Their children are being murdered! Violence is called for!
I recognize that some of the looters are just taking advantage of an opportunity for thievery, but I do not counsel, nor expect, patience any longer. The 1960s proved that violence is sometimes the only thing that works. While I have enormous respect for the positive results of Ghandi, MLK, and Archbishop Tutu, violence played a role in the last two.
I think it’s unconscionably cruel to chastise the violence in service to stopping the deaths of their children.
12Those of us who worked for IBM for many years will remember their (possibly unofficial) motto, “THINK.” I’m trying not to lose my belief that most Americans are capable of that very simple word — think.
Sorry, Debbo, but — just on the surface — I can’t agree with you. I agree that violence is sometimes predictable, but I really can’t condone it. Sorry. It may be a symptom, but I doubt that it’s a solution.
13With respect Primo Encarnación y Hachecristo, you are greatly mistaken near the end of your article.
Sean Hannity still has a job and fame, but he has no honor. He lost his honor so long ago that he doesn’t even know such a thing exists.
14If you have followed Breitbart and/or his protege, O’keefe you would know there were/are times when the violence was precipitated by a third party so a salient point could be made to fit a right wing narrative. This also fits the stereotype of wingnuts love of violence and death as long as they are not personally violated or killed.
The problem with violence as a result of injustice is wingnuts will use this as a tool to turn public opinion against the real victims of racial injustice. Before long,the victims are the perpetrators and black is white,up is down-that is how winguts manipulate people.
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