I honestly bet Hoyer knows little to nothing about actual Israeli policies or the reality on the ground. I get the feeling he’s a committed ideologue who lives in a very small bubble. No doubt even critical Israeli coverage is kept out of that bubble. Reminds me of an older woman who ranted at me about reading Haaretz…

They’re a lot better than they look, and I say that as someone that’s pretty picky. Granted, I grew up where Krystal is very much a thing (East Tennessee) but it’s a fairly beloved localish franchise for a reason. 

As if he knows anything about history. Take a look around, it’s historians backing AOC because the record is unambiguous on this topic.

Anti-racism is entwined with the myths of modern American identity. Civil rights, WWII, spreading freedom, etc. It’s why even though many people are racist they don’t want to be perceived as racist. There’s a self-conscious desire to look like you’re above such crass behavior.

You know, there are thousands of people every year who “admit guilt” despite likely not being guilty. Set aside the horrifying malpractice of justice in the Central Park Five case, it’s a known fact people take plea deals even when they’re innocent because lawyers and judges encourage it. Because the system is…

The far-right is incredibly self-conscious about their intellectual credentials. It’s a common theme. So the appeal is less about “normies’ and more about supporting their own egos. There’s also a strong fetish for Enlightenment philosophers, though unlike the IDW charlatans who engage in slightly more deniable and…

There’s far too many confounding variables there, and I’m also not certain the time a minority has lived in a region is relevant at all. The first big Turkish migrations to Germany began in ‘61 with a guest worker program. Some of the heaviest immigration from North Africa to France happened in the late ‘60s and early…

That’s an outright neo-Nazi meme. You don’t just stumble across that on Twitter regularly unless you, like me, regularly flag far-right accounts.

That’s a good point I forgot to add. There is plenty of bigotry among European conservatives, like US conservatives. Against Muslims in France, for example, or Turks in Germany, or Roma basically everywhere. There are elite-set parameters on how you discriminate, and groups like the AfD or Front National violate that…

He did, supposedly due to a request from CENTCOM (I’m dubious), but that posturing is being directed by the Pompeo-Bolton axis of hardliners. Most of the thousand troops announced the other day are support, largely for existing bases. It’s really mostly posturing. 

Shanahan was reportedly a political coward, sending (usually) uniformed military to delay or contradict Trump’s political appointees or the administration’s hare-brained ideas. That was noted in the military/foreign policy watcher circles, and it really harmed his credibility. I can’t remember anything substantive he…

He spent a lot of time defending a neo-Nazi meme. A dozen tweets or so, before deleting them and apologizing. At best, he’s severely ignorant about anti-Semitism. But it’s more probable that he’s engaged in anti-Semitic circles, where he found that meme. 

I’m not entirely sure. Racism and actual populism has long been a feature of the European far-right, aka “social net but only for the right people”. They haven’t had wild successes. You could argue that’s apples to oranges maybe, but the far-right is an increasingly global interconnected phenomenon. Anti-Muslim memes…

Yeah, that wasn’t baseless. That’s a neo-Nazi meme. I’ve encountered it dozens of times in the wild. The imagery is neo-Nazi. The fake quote is from a white nationalist. “Who rules over us” is a reference to the “international Jew”.

The distinction has definitely been lost among a lot of the public, but there’s no doubt AOC is right on the merits. Historians talk about “concentration camps” well before WWII. I wouldn’t be surprised if Liz Cheney knows that and is just a mendacious ghoul looking for any chance to smear someone younger, more…

The quote is fake. The original comes from a white nationalist. That’s why that image and fake quote are widely shared on far-right social media. 

That image comes straight from neo-Nazi circles on social media. It doesn’t use an Israeli flag for a reason (and also I think the imagery and wording would be anti-Semitic regardless). 

That image and fake quote are extremely common on far-right social media. I’ve occasionally seem it used by anti-Semitic leftists, but I’d say 90% of the time it’s far-right.

Engaging in dishonest both-sidesism is probably “smart” for a corporation. It’s gross, but given all the awful things big companies do to maximize their bottom-line this sort of amoral “I just want to be friends with everyone” stuff is expected. I don’t know if there are that many people who really expect brands to be…

The simple reality is no one in this mess has the credibility to carry international opinion. Iran is a despotic regime with a long history of carrying out “plausible deniability” attacks like this. The Saudis are a despotic regime with a long history of carrying out misinformation ops and who have a habit of…