The newest craze from Trumpkins not only includes mainstream reporters, but liberal activists like Neera Tanden and bloggers like...me.
Buzzfeed's Rosie Gray tweeted this video over the weekend of supporters shouting the term Lügenpresse! at her.
After the rally finished, one man approached the press pen and shouted insults, accusing the media of being in the tank for the Clintons and being “bought and paid for.” Another man, wearing a Make America Great Again hat and holding a sign with the same slogan, walked up beside him and began yelling at the press that we were “lügenpresse,” adding that the phrase means “lying press” in German. The first man started shouting it too, then turned to the second and made a self-deprecating remark about not pronouncing it right.
After Gray's tweet, some Twitter Trumpkin trolls decided they would make "The List" of writers, activists, and just about anyone they could identify as being on the left, including yours truly.
As jarring as it is to see your picture with an "X" through it and Nazi terminology next to it, the danger isn't to me, or to any of the others they targeted.
The danger is to all of us. By adopting and co-opting terms from Nazi Germany, they are trying to mainstream the imagery and language of fascism in order to desensitize people to it. That's dangerous for the nation and for democracy.
White supremacist Richard Spencer told Gray he sees use of the term as "classic alt-right; the proud “shitlords” of the movement take pride in embracing edgy terminology, the more anti-PC the better."
It is happening more often every day.
Meanwhile, the hatred toward the press among the larger population of Trump supporters grows increasingly pronounced nearly every day. In these final weeks of the campaign, at nearly every rally, Trump riles up his audience against the press as reporters sit in the media pen, easy targets for vitriol. Reporters disembarking the press bus at Trump’s rally in Naples, Florida, on Sunday, the day after the “lügenpresse” incident, were immediately greeted by boos and shouts of “Tell the truth!”
This election cannot be over soon enough. But even when it is over, there will be more and more of this, especially if the election is close. But even if Clinton wins in a blowout, they're not going to give up and go away, as long as they can use venues like Twitter to continue their campaign of hate.
Twitter owns some of the responsibility for mainstreaming hate, too. Their refusal to deal with identity in a serious way, to allow people to create hundreds of accounts used for nothing but trolling others, and their decision to elevate celebrity over true identity has created an environment where hate thrives.
It has already scuttled a buyout deal for them, and I suspect will continue to as long as they continue to provide a safe space for abusive, hateful, cowardly people to harass others.
So. The first solution is to vote and deliver an overwhelming landslide in our election. Secondly, disengagement post-election cannot happen. We have to stay involved, and fight not only against hate like this, but also to promote OUR ideas and OUR agendas. It's vital that they don't capture the narratives and keep us from getting things done.
As for white supremacists, they can take their "economic anxiety" and shove it.
