REPUBLICANS TURN WHITE NATIONALISM HEARING INTO A G.O.P. PITY PARTYQuote:
Democrats hoped to investigate how hate speech spreads on social media. Republicans just wanted to "trigger the left."
The House Judiciary Committee's hearing about white nationalism on social media got off to a poor start Tuesday when the YouTube livestream fell victimto the very problem Congress hoped to investigate. Hundreds of anti-Semitic comments, racist missives, and declarations of white supremacy flooded the YouTube page for the hearing"Anti-hate is a code word for anti-white," wrote one user. By the time Google's representative began speaking, commenting on the livestream had been disabled altogether.
In what turned out to be a perfect metaphor for the hearing, even this news proved divisive. "This just illustrates part of the problem we're dealing with," said Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, after The Washington Post reported that the YouTube comments had been taken down. Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert shot back in Trumpian fashion and in the most conspiratorial terms. "Could that be another hate hoax?" he asked. "Just keep an open mind."
Indeed, a hearing meant to address a deadly serious topicdata show a surge in fatal attacks by far-right extremists in recent yearswas instead derailed by Republicans veering off topic to rage about their own perceived ideological persecution at the hands of Facebook and Google. As proof, they summoned Turning Point USA communications director Candace Owens, a young black conservative who says Democrats represent a "plantation" mindset, to air her grievances about the hearing's very existence. "The hearing today is not about white nationalism or hate crimes, it's about fear-mongering, power, and control," Owens said, suggesting at one point that Democrats "blame Facebook, they blame Google, they blame Twitter, really [Democrats] blame the birth of social media, which has disrupted their monopoly on minds."
This was a hearing about White Nationalism on social media. So the GOP get Candance Owens to play Aunt Tom, tried to use the race card to defend racism, white natioanlism...core Trump supporters. Not ironically this is exactly what the OP intended as well. Straight from the Wing Nut Playbook:
A) Distract, deflect, move the goal posts
B) Blame the victim, play the victim
C) Lie, disinformation, make **** up
D) Divide, sow division and hate
E) Attack, attack, ATTACK
F) Rinse, repeat