The MSM and the Atlanta massage parlor murders
Andrew Sullivan gets this story mostly right:
We have yet to find any credible evidence of anti-Asian hatred or bigotry in [the killer’s] history. Maybe we will. We can’t rule it out. But we do know that his roommates say they once asked him if he picked the spas for sex because the women were Asian. And they say he denied it, saying he thought those spas were just the safest way to have quick sex. That needs to be checked out more. But the only piece of evidence about possible anti-Asian bias points away, not toward it.
And yet. Well, you know what’s coming. Accompanying one original piece on the known facts, the NYT ran nine — nine! — separate stories about the incident as part of the narrative that this was an anti-Asian hate crime, fueled by white supremacy and/or misogyny. Not to be outdone, the WaPo ran sixteen separate stories on the incident as an anti-Asian white supremacist hate crime. Sixteen! One story for the facts; sixteen stories on how critical race theory would interpret the event regardless of the facts. For good measure, one of their columnists denounced reporting of law enforcement’s version of events in the newspaper, because it distracted attention from the “real” motives. Today, the NYT ran yet another full-on critical theory piece disguised as news on how these murders are proof of structural racism and sexism — because some activists say they are…
This mass murderer in Atlanta actually denied any such motive, and, to repeat myself, there is no evidence for it — and that has been true from the very start. And yet, a friend forwarded me the note swiftly sent to students and faculty at Harvard, which sums up the instant view of our elite:
“Many of us woke up yesterday to the horrific news of the vicious and deadly attack in Atlanta, the latest in a wave of increasing violence targeting the Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander community … This violence has a history. From Chinese Exclusion to the nativist rhetoric amplified during the pandemic, anti-Asian hostility has deep roots in American culture.”
And on and on. It was almost as if they had a pre-existing script to read, whatever the facts of the case!
Almost? I assume Sullivan is being sarcastic here. But actually, they don’t need a script anymore. They know the playbook by heart.
Much more at the link, most of it good. One predictable flaw is that Sullivan thinks that Trump’s “China virus” statements have contributed to anti-Asian bias here (I’ve not seen any evidence for that; Trump was talking about China proper, not Asian-Americans), although Sullivan doesn’t go so far as to link these murders to it, and Sullivan also blames elite academia for its anti-Asian bias.
I think you mean ‘Atlanta’, not “Arizona”.
Art Deco;
Ooops, thanks! I guess my brain was thinking “category of US place names beginning with ‘A’ and ending with ‘a’ and having seven letters.”
Weird.
When are you going to simply admit that all bad things that happen anywhere are because of deep, historical, and structural racism and hate baked deeply into the very being of America? Reject your baseless narratives, and embrace the warm righteousness of the movement, and strive to begin reparations for the victims. And quit hating, hater. Do you know how tiring it is to have to write these same articles and university community communiques again and again? Work with us here, people.
Since Trump is in so many of these woke authoritarian’s heads, he should tell them to jump off a bridge-too bad the dems would try to charge him with murder.
How many leftist feminists care at all about the issue of the trafficking of Asian women into these establishments, where, even if they are abused or mistreated, they have little recourse, being very often neither legal immigrants nor, in many cases, fluent in English? How many Asian-Americans are willing to acknowledge the undeniable fact that, for many decades, almost all the violence against them has been perpetrated by black street-thugs? How many people are willing to criticize the absurdity of believing that, because the former president stated, accurately, that the virus originated in Wuhan and spread globally as a result of the policies of the CCP, random American criminals are attacking others of Asian ancestry? How many leftists will ever discuss the societal problem of material which was once only available at some expense and with some difficulty now being free on any smartphone in unimaginable quantities? The MSM can always be counted upon to lie, brazenly, for ideological and political advantage.
Did Sullivan ever come right out and state that we needed to get rid of Trump in order to placate the crazies and let sanity resume? Or was it just something that he obviously believed but never came out and admitted?
Either way, I’ve already had enough of people like Sullivan pretending they really care about any of this stuff. Because they conclusively proved that when the rubber hits the road, they really don’t.
Mike
Sullivan thinks that Trump’s “China virus” statements have contributed to anti-Asian bias here
So did Democrats’ Russian collusion” claims contribute to anti-Russian bias here?
I’d add that the older Chinese-American murdered in Oakland, also cited as a ‘bias crime,’ was the victim of a black guy with a history violence against the elderly, not specifically Asians.
https://abc7news.com/oakland-asian-attack-lake-merritt-crime-man-attacked/10408599/
@je:
‘Trafficking’? You seriously think they don’t know what they’re signing up for? Seriously now? You don’t make your way to America by being a naive little ingenue.
Human Trafficking NGOs are big business and the surest route to cash and prizes in the rare event that some Quick Time Floozy gets busted is to claim ‘I was trafficked’ — bingo here come’s a Soros NGO and a quick and easy plea bargain courtesy of a Soros Prosecutor and a Soros Judge.
Guy who shot them up in this case just looks like a poor conflicted loser who didn’t even have the wit to be up front with himself about his personal peccadilloes.
Wider issue of crime against Asians…. of course it’s mainly Blacks committing violent crime against them. In CA and PNW there’s likely also an element of psychotic homeless whites attracted there and allowed to run amok without legal consequences by the Democrats.
The take home about Asian Immigrants is that when SHTF they will play along with the dominant narrative. They damn well know who is robbing, mugging, and raping them, but they’re not going to let that fact get in the way of some Whitey Bashing. Sorry, CivNats :).
Fighting ‘Human Trafficking’ is a good racket to be in. Imagine being *paid* to hang out in Chiang Mai and stuff yourself with Khaosoi every day. Bliss!
Clearly and no doubt among others, the NYT, WAPO and Harvard are guilty of Hate Speech. Let them be Canceled.
“So let it be written, so let it be done”.
Charlaine,
No offense but your assertion requires a major correction;
“When are you going to simply admit that all bad things that happen anywhere are because of deep, historical, and structural racism and hate baked deeply into the very being of [white] America?”
Didn’t you get the memo? Non-whites are incapable of racism.
White person kills a minority, for any reason or none at all. – Racism and white supremacy to blame.
Minority kills a different minority, for any reason or none at all. – Still racism and white supremacy to blame.
Minority kills a white person, yelling “I hate whites and I want them to die!’ – Random act of violence, motives unclear.
This is all about the narrative and countering the stories of discrimination by the left’s favorite colleges against Asians. We are entering a period when medical schools are going to be under pressure to admit and graduate blacks, regardless of ability. My advice to everyone is to choose an Asian doctor.
Well, any uncertainties he once had about going to Hell, seem now to be resolved.
Not to be outdone, the WaPo ran sixteen separate stories on the incident as an anti-Asian white supremacist hate crime.
There’s just another excellent illustration of Michael Anton’s picture of two of the current regime’s propaganda weapons – the Narrative and the Megaphone – and even a quick peek at the third – the Muzzle – as a WaPo columnist: one of their columnists denounced reporting of law enforcement’s version of events in the newspaper, because it distracted attention from the “real” motives.
Another Take Home (and hopefully I don’t need to draw a diagram):
Next time you get out of the shower, take a look in the mirror. Yes, that’s your Birthday Suit. But it’s also something else: it’s your Uniform for the coming Adventure.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Instead of blaming it on trump for calling COVID the China virus, why not blame it on xi for spreading COVID around the world and then trying to blame America as the originating ground zero of the outbreak to give trump no choice but calling spade a spade to defend America’s innocence. Stupid to blame the messenger instead of the culprit, xi and his role in spreading the virus around the world to make sure China wasn’t the only country suffering the devastating economic consequences of covid is responsible for every hate crime against Asians in America
My wife is Korean and she hates blacks. That is because most attacks on Asians are by blacks.
It’s the same pattern as the Chauvin case. Is there any evidence that police treated Floyd differently because he was black? Is there any evidence of a pattern of anti-black sentiment among those four police officers? So far as I know, the answer is “no” to each question.
What the shooter said, combined with his history of therapy for “sex addiction,” says why he did this horrible thing.
If the killer had not been white, the story would have been about guns, and the blame would still have been assigned to white people, though maybe not quite as explicitly.
I’ve run into the theory that Asians are feeling the sting of Critical Race Theory as CRT favors blacks over whites and Asians in college admissions and corporate positions.
All that hard work doesn’t pay off when proportionate numbers of blacks must be admitted/hired in spite of lower scores and qualifications.
So, it’s time to scare Asians back into the Democrat fold with the narrative of white anti-Asian bigotry.
Makes sense to me.
You can almost hear the relief. Thank God, finally a white guy. Spiking all those stories about blacks being the perps was getting tough.
Last fall the NYT noted that, among the substantial number of attacks on observatn Jews–those who could be distinguished by dress–no white supremacists or neo nazis could be found.
call me Charlaine on March 19, 2021 at 5:16 pm said: —
Titania, is that you??
* * *
Mac is almost correct: “If the killer had not been white,” the story would not have been told; if the victims had not been in a minority group,* “the story would have been about guns, and the blame would still have been assigned to white people, though maybe not quite as explicitly.”
He did get the last part right.
*Sullivan notes that not all the victims were Asian, some were white.
He also points out, as others have, that, for the left today, Asians are only a minority victim group when they aren’t being classified as “white” themselves.
“The issue is never about the issue; it’s about the agenda”
Mac, if the killer had not been white, the media may have focused more & solely on Trump (– the left’s go-to “guilty”, & a white man, to boot). They would happily skip the killer’s color/race, if it meant attacking Trump quicker –plus glibly also blaming Trump supporters.
MK Ultra usually has the shooter kill themselves, with or without aid like the JFK guy.
The coordinated megaphone certainly exists and its reach is extensive. As an example, here’s the first two paragraphs of an email sent out by the Austin school district superintendent on the 17th:
“Dear Austin ISD families,
We know that for our families and staff, the news of senseless and terrible shootings in Georgia has cast a long and dark shadow. Our thoughts, grief and sympathy go out to the victims, their families, and the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
We know that attacks targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander communities have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic. Simply put we must stand up and condemn this violence and the hateful rhetoric that leads to it.”
Facts apparently have little do with education anyway . . .
Andrew Sullivan ?
Ten chef’s kisses to call me Charlaine who wrote:
“When are you going to simply admit that all bad things that happen anywhere are because of deep, historical, and structural racism and hate baked deeply into the very being of America? Reject your baseless narratives, and embrace the warm righteousness of the movement, and strive to begin reparations for the victims. And quit hating, hater. Do you know how tiring it is to have to write these same articles and university community communiques again and again? Work with us here, people.”
Right on cue, DeBlasio “said a visit from NYPD could have a ‘sobering impact’ on people expressing anti-Asian beliefs.” (https://disrn.com/news/de-blasio-said-a-visit-from-nypd-could-have-an-educating-impact-on-people-expressing-anti-asian-beliefs/) DeBlasio is so stupid he’s fun.
Also worth emphasizing here is the fact that progressives really get off on this kind of thing. I’ll assume that they are genuinely disturbed by the crime itself. But they’re also very happy to have such a good reason to indulge their hatred of their enemies and congratulate themselves on their own virtue.
CB, re the “coordinated megaphone”: local college issued substantially the same statement.
CB, re the “coordinated megaphone”: local college issued substantially the same statement.
Quite hive like. If you begin with the understanding that people who work in such environments tend to be other-directed fad chasers, it makes more sense.
If the killer had not been white, the story would have been about guns, and the blame would still have been assigned to white people, though maybe not quite as explicitly.
The whole point of the gun control discourse is to stick the blame for urban mayhem with small town and rural gun hobbyists, instead of with the feral young men who are shooting at each other and at hapless people in their field of vision. There are, of course, effective means of reducing urban mayhem, but they are unacceptable to the narrative pushers because they incorporate (1) deterring and punishing feral young men by (2) hiring deplorables and deploying them optimally. Academic sociologists and social workers hate this because it assumes personal agency, does not improve the employment prospects of social workers and sociologists, and violates their sense of status – having low status people (police officers) empowered to impose the norms of low-status people (that’s us) on the clients of high status people (those in word-merchant occupations).
Oriental women are the most desirable on dating site. men find them attractive. Were the killer interested in beauties like Stacey Abrams or Big Mike he would have shot up a massage parlor of mostly blacks.
Do massage parlors with Big Mikes exist?
I wonder what it takes for the Asian community to gain the support that blacks received in 2020. Let’s see –
Global health pandemic breaks out from China.
Trump: It’s called the Wuhan Flu.
The Press: That’s racist. You’re encouraging violence against Asians.
America: Mostly silent.
Reports of anti-Asian sentiments rise in Canada and America.
COVID-19: Millions of people die.
Some deranged guy targets Asians in Atlanta; the press thinks Trump was an influence.
The Press: Trump did this.
Asians: Supposedly we’re still getting beaten in the streets and the Ivy League has put a cap on us.
Some Idiot Cop from Minnesota: I’m going to put my knee on your neck.
Black guy: Ouch.
Black guy dies.
America and select Western European countries mobilize and destroy stuff.
UberEats and Uber prioritize black businesses and drivers
Social lefty businesses declare they’re anti-racist.
People put small black squares on their social media page.
Universities delve deeper into their Wokedom.
Oscars & Emmy Awards: There aren’t enough black people being nominated.
Trump: It’s called the Wuhan Flu.
The Press: That’s racist. You’re encouraging violence against Asians.
America: Mostly silent.
But, as Mollie Hemingway pointed out, it’s perfectly ok to talk about the “South African strain” of the virus, or the “UK strain.”
Art Deco: “Quite hive like.”
Indeed. As you probably know, back in the ’80s Joseph Sobran started describing the Democrat-media complex as being a hive mind. A perfect description, I always thought. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s actually worse than that, because it’s automatic and only partly conscious.
(Disclaimer: I know, Sobran took a bad turn toward anti-Semitism. But in his prime he was one of the best among pundits.)