DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, AND ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: ‘Shame on you’: WaPo’s apology for tweet whitewashing Labour Party’s anti-Semitism arguably makes their initial offense even worse.
“The fact that they’re apologizing for the typo as opposed to the actual content of their tweet arguably makes their initial take even more offensive, because it appears that they’re going out of their way to avoid blaming the Labour Party’s anti-Semitism for the Labour Party’s reputation as anti-Semitic,” Twitchy notes.
And they’ve since deleted that tweet — the Post’s social media operation is really having a bang-up day today. Or as the Babylon Bee would say, paraphrasing Monty Python, “We apologize for the fault in the reporting. Those responsible have been sacked.”
Meanwhile The Root, the black identity politics-themed Website created under the watch of the Graham family, the former owners of the Post until Jeff Bezos bought it with money he found under his sofa cushion, is having a spectacular day as well: “Pete Buttigieg Is a Lying MF,” columnist Michael Harriot writes:
So, when a clip surfaced of Buttigieg explaining why negro kids fail at school so often, his answer made perfect sense.
“Kids need to see evidence that education is going to work for them,” Buttigieg explained whitely, when he was running for mayor in 2011. You’re motivated because you believe that at the end of your education, there is a reward; there’s a stable life; there’s a job. And there are a lot of kids—especially [in] the lower-income, minority neighborhoods, who literally just haven’t seen it work. There isn’t someone who they know personally who testifies to the value of education.”
I want to be clear: Pete Buttigieg is a lying motherfucker.
Or as Newsweek noted, “Buttigieg Slammed for ‘Racist Paternalism’ After Saying Minority Children Lack Role Models for Education.”
Harriot slammed the South Bend, Indiana, mayor for claiming that children from poorer, minority neighborhoods had no role models who testified “to value of education.” He also said the mayor’s remarks about minority and poor children were “bulls***tery” and “insidious double-talk” that camflouaged a real problem.
In a resurfaced 2011 TV interview with Buttigieg, which was picked up on social media Sunday, the then-South Bend mayoral candidate said there were “a lot of kids” from “especially low income, minority neighborhoods” that didn’t know someone personally “who testifies to the value of education.”
The Democratic primary candidate was scorched on social media shortly after the film surfaced, with commentators calling his argument “bulls**t bootstraps racist paternalism” and “victim blaming.”
The Root essay not only highlighted Buttigieg’s difficulty in connecting with black voters—a crucial Democratic demographic—but likely deepened it. He is polling strongly in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first caucus and primary states, but the battle for the Democratic nomination quickly moves (after Nevada) to South Carolina, where African-American support will be key.
To his credit, Buttigieg called and spoke with The Root columnist personally, as Harriot wrote in a follow-up column:
I figured one of his surrogates would argue with me for a few minutes and I could continue my day trying to be a thorn in the side of white supremacy (The third thing you should know is that I actually keep a small photo of the mouse from Pinky and the Brain beside my bed that says: “What are you going to do today, Michael?” The answer is always the same: “Fuck with white people.”)
Luckily, as soon as I agreed to take a phone call, the phone rang. The voice sounded vaguely familiar and I knew it wasn’t a surrogate or a campaign volunteer when the person said:
“I don’t think I’ve ever been called a ‘lying motherfucker’ before.”
It was Pete Buttigieg.
Well, I thought. Maybe he does want to fight.
* * * * * * * * *
“But do you disagree with the point I was making?” Mayor Buttigieg asked, listing a few programs designed to alleviate this specific problem. “Sometimes children don’t get to see the possibilities. Do you think the lack of positive examples of educational success can lead to mistrust and a lack of confidence in the system?”
“No…well, yes,” I answered. “But the lack of confidence doesn’t have anything to do with role models or support from parents, it’s because the shit is true!”
Look, I know I shouldn’t be using obscenities around the maybe-president (Please don’t tell my mother), but he said “motherfucker” first!
No actually, Harriot did. (I’m surprised his editors bothered to censor the word in his article’s headline.) So much for the left portraying Trump as a uniquely vulgar individual — but then, as James Taranto tweeted last year, “A lot of the complaints about Trump’s departures from norms seem to me to be justifications for the critics’ own departures from norms.”