West Virginia Corrections Staff That Gave Fascist Straight Arm Salute Are All Fired

Another article that I probably should have published late last year when it first came out, but did not, because I was making a point of taking a break from political posts, as a kind of holiday gift to myself, an effort to minimize stress.

Well, it is January, and stress is strong at this time of the year. Winter storms and cold weather more generally, broken resolutions, and many people are still only recovering financially from the holidays.

So it is back to the grind, and now I publish this:




This kind of thing seems to be happening a lot more recently, particularly since the political rise of Donald Trump.

Not a shock, really. I remember once that Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter were asked about what they felt about Ronald Reagan, after a few years of being in the White House. And she responded by saying that Reagan made people comfortable with their prejudices.

While I agree with that, at least to some degree (remember, Reagan was discovered to have made a blatantly racist joke during a phone conversation with Richard Nixon), it seems to me that this is even more true in particular of the man who currently - and tragically, for the country - occupies the White House.

Yes, there has been a rise of hate crimes since Trump's political rise to prominence. And there have also been a spike in the presence of hate groups and sentiments. It also seems to me that there has been an increase in those "just joking" kinds of instances that, frankly, betray barely concealed racism that comes out often times in a passive-aggressive kind of joking that betrays the xenophobic world viewpoint of those making the "jokes."

After all, Trump himself uses this "humor." He was just joking, of course, when he mentions how he might like to be president for life, or how his supporters might demand that he gets a third term (even though he not only did not win a second term yet, but lost the popular vote for the ridiculous excuse for his first term. He makes pretty blatantly racist, xenophobic, and ignorant comments pretty much all of the time, to the point that you could be forgiven if you believe that, in fact, this speech is the only line of communication for this pathetic man.

We seem to be witnessing ever more incidents of blatant racism and/or xenophobia by people who might not have been so willing to display these prejudices not all that long ago. But in this age of Trump, the bar for standards has pretty much been set so low, that you could be forgiven to think that there is actually a complete absence of standards.

Witness this story, about a group of corrections officers in West Virginia who apparently thought it would be hilarious to give the fascist (often regarded specifically as Nazi) straight arm salute in a photograph where they were assembled together.

This was one of those instances where the participants thought it would be just hilarious to do something a little offbeat, and so of course they picked the Nazi salute.

And who could possibly have foreseen, in this age of the internet and all sorts of things going instantly viral, that this might wind up not going so well? They surely were shocked - Shocked! - that there was a serious reaction to their "joking around."

Think about it: these guys are public officials, on the taxpayer dollar. And they decided to use at least some of those funds to make a photograph of them doing the Nazi salute. It was all in good fun, though, and not really racist, right? I mean sure, they were all white, and presumably none were Jewish, either. They were just joking, and cannot understand why it was taken the wrong way, and why everyone now thinks of them as racist. Surely, there are many people out there - particularly Trump supporters - who probably also think that this was just a joke, and that all of these people getting offended should just lighten up.

Was it really racist?

Well, ask yourself one question: if there was anyone who was black or Jewish (or intelligent, frankly), would they have gone ahead with this "joke?" This is exactly the kind of humor that racists use freely when they are talking amongst fellow whites, but who then are mysteriously mum on these same jokes when there are blacks or other minorities present.

Perhaps when looking at it through this prism, they might understand a little better why so many people were up in arms and assuming - rightly, I believe - that these guys were participating in an overtly racist action. Yes, even if they thought that it was "just a joke" and that everyone should just lighten up.

Maybe they are not all racist, for that matter? Who knows?

But again, can we believe that not one of them are actually racist? After all, of all of the goofy things that they could have done to show some humor, to illustrate a lighter side all in good fun, they opted to do the Nazi salute, and at a time in our country's history when there have been so many damn instances of police officers betraying their racism. Frankly, I do not think that happens by accident. My suspicion is that there were a few Trump supporters who get pissed off at all of these liberal media types, pointing out the racist behavior of some good cops who, they believe, understandably engage in stereotyping, because some things are just true. And they wanted to make a point to really stick it to the libtards, and thought that this would be the quickest way to get under the skin of those damn liberal Socialist/Commie bastards. 

Are they all truly racist?

Perhaps not. But none of the people pictures could possibly have been too bright, if they did not realize that something like this might actually start to get noticed, and that perhaps, this might lead to trouble down the road. And now far down the road, either.

West Virginia governor fires corrections officers over Nazi salute By Kenneth GargerDecember 30, 2019:

 https://nypost.com/2019/12/30/west-virginia-governor-fires-corrections-officers-over-nazi-salute/