Dave Winer’s Post on Huffpo: My response to comments
The first commenter on Dave Winer’s latest Huffpo post just couldn’t resist suggesting that a “real Christian” wouldn’t say “God damn America”, ignoring the context of Wright’s statement, just like nearly 100% of the political commentators did, by accident or design. (Note: CNN will be running a special tonight where they claim to put context around the quotes of Dr. Wright). Here’s my comment:
Rev. Wright’s statement is a conditional statement. Here is the exact text:
“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strike law and then wants us to sing God Bless America. Naw, naw, naw. Not God Bless America. God Damn America! That”s in the Bible. For killing innocent people. God Damn America for treating us citizens as less than human. God Damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and she is Supreme.”
This is the climax of an argument Wright is making for the failure of governments, beginning with the Romans, continuing to the British Empire, the Germans, the Japanese, and finally, the US. His point is not that America should be damned. His point is that governments who assume the role of God will be damned, because governments change and fail, and God doesn’t.
White ministers have made the exact same argument for at least 20 years, saying that tolerating abortion and homosexuality wll damn this nation to the same fate as the Roman Empire. When white ministers make it, they’re applauded. But if a black minister makes it, the clip is hacked up by Faux News and made into something much, much more than it is.
If people actually spent some time looking at the bigger picture, they might understand the manipulation they are allowing themselves to be subject to. The Wright ‘flap’ was pure propaganda, worthy of Nazi Germany, so when Dave poses the question about how it might be if he lived in Germany, it’s not altogether out of line.
As long as the propagandists keep spinning and their adoring, willing public keeps buying the crap that Hannity, O’Reilly and others continue to spew, the Nazis won’t change. They’ll just keep brainwashing us into believing that Jeremiah Wright called for the damnation of America, blacks are scary and evil, and it’s okay to justify slave ownership and over 300 years of suppression of an entire race in the name of white supremacy.
When do we get over that? When we start admitting it, owning it, and learning to discard obvious attempts to fan the remaining embers.
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