The Jussie Smollett case is another example of how the Left wants to keep the nation racially divided. Those of us with a brain know we are more alike than different. What is disgusting is that Smollet and the rest of the liberal rage mob would have been perfectly happy to see two innocent white dudes go down for something they did not do. As a conservative, you must realize you are at war.
The lies and hate continue.
Another report from the dubious Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which allegedly tracks white supremacists and other extremist groups, claims that there has been a 30 percent increase in “Hate Groups”. They once again claim that this uptick coincides with Donald Trump’s campaign and
This is normal for this group. Right after Donald Trump’s election, the SPLC was responsible for stoking panic in the left. As it turned out, many of the supposed hate crimes turned out to be made up. A review:
A pro-gay Episcopal church in Indiana was vandalized w/“Heil Trump,” a swastika, & an anti-gay slur. Turns out it was the gay organ player who did it. He was only charged w/a misdemeanor.
Days after the Pittsburgh massacre, Trump supporters were blamed for Nazi vandalism at a Brooklyn synagogue & fires in a Jewish community. Turns out the perpetrator was a gay black man who had worked with city council on an initiative to fight hate crimes.
One week before the presidential election, a black church in Mississippi was burned in an arson attack. “Vote Trump” was written on the building. After much panic, an investigation revealed that the man responsible was a church member.
In Nov 2016 a Muslim student at the University of Louisiana said two white racist Trump supporters brutally assaulted her, ripped off her hijab, & robbed her. The story went viral. It was a lie. Media never identified her by name after hoax was revealed.
Trump & his supporters were blamed for a spate of anti-Semitic, KKK & Nazi graffiti on the campus of Nassau Community College in Long Island in late 2016. The student responsible was Jasskirat Saini.
In Dec 2016 a Muslim woman said she was attacked by 3 white Trump supporters in NYC on the subway. She said they tried to rip off her hijab. Yasmin Seweid lied. CAIR said Muslims are under tremendous “stress & pressure” resulting in incidents like this.
In Sep. 2018 a black woman in Long Island said Trump supporters confronted her & told her “she didn’t belong here.” Her car tire was slashed the next day & a hateful note was left behind saying “go home.” Adwoa Lewis made up the whole story.
In Nov 2018 students at Goucher College demanded social justice training & safe spaces after racist, Nazi, & KKK graffiti was found on campus. Someone even wrote the names of black students. Trump was blamed. Fynn Arthur, a black student, was responsible.
In 2017 Saint Olaf College was roiled by mass protests in response to anti-black notes found across campus. Class was cancelled & admin caved to demands. An investigation found that Samantha Wells, a black victim of one of the notes, fabricated the incident.
In Nov 2016 a Philadelphia neighborhood was rattled when property was vandalized with pro-Trump and anti-black messages. William Tucker, a black man was identified as the vandal through CCTV footage.
In Nov 2016 a black female student at Villanova in PA said a group of white men yelling “Trump!” knocked her to the ground on campus. However a police & university investigation was halted because the student didn’t want to pursue the matter.
In Nov 2017 near Kansas State University, a black man’s car was vandalized with racist messages. Class was cancelled & students held demonstrations. Dauntarius Williams later admitted to police that he did it himself. Police did not charge him.
In autumn 2018 also at Kansas State, a note was left on an apartment that read “Beware n***ers live here! Knock at your own risk.” The “victim” admitted to police that s/he did it himself. This was the 2nd time s/he had fabricated a hate incident in 2 years.
University of Michigan student Halley Bass told police a Trump supporter attacked her by scratching her face in Nov 2016. She said she was targeted for wearing a pin in support of UK Remain. As her story fell apart, she admitted to scratching herself.
2016: Muslim student at Michigan also claimed she was attacked by a white man who threatened to burn her hijab. It never happened. CAIR said the attack is “just the latest anti-Muslim incident reported since the election of Donald Trump as president.
One day after 2016 election, Eleesha Long, a student at Bowling Green in Ohio said that white males wearing Trump shirts threw rocks at her & hurled racial slurs. Alleged incident sparked rage on campus, & uni hosted a “town hall.” Long made it all up.
On election night, Canadian Chris Ball said he was beaten by anti-gay Trump supporters in Santa Monica. His friend shared a photo on social media (notice the immaculate watch). Police said he never filed report & he didn’t go to any hospitals in the area.
Charlotte: April 2017 Curtis Flournoy set an immigrant business on fire & left note saying “Trump is our nation builder for White America.” When CCTV showed that perpetrator was black, some sites said it was a white Trump supporter in disguise.
Nov 2016: Students at Williams College dumped fake blood on campus & wrote “AM KKK KILL.” Campus police notified FBI & state police. Investigation found that perpetrators did it “to bring attention to the effects of the presidential election.”
2016: A message was written at Elon University that read “Bye bye Latinos hasta la vista.” Students raged, saying the campus was unsafe & racist. Admin panicked. Investigation found that a Latino student wrote it as “commentary” on the election.
2 students at Babson College drove thru campus waving flag to celebrate election. Peers said they spat on someone, yelled racist & anti-gay slurs. This was a lie, but everyone believed it. They were kicked out fraternity. Investigation cleared them of wrongdoing.
In Nov. 2016, a man in Malden, MA told police he was confronted by two racist white males who made a reference to lynching & said it is “Trump country now.” He fabricated the whole story.
So it goes.
Jack Trump says
I am a white conservative registered as an independent voter. I certainly do agree that any and all of the situations and created racist dramas stated here are disgusting. While being forced to accept my disgust with the human condition, and having to accept that any and all of this can and does happen, I disagree with the writer and will not accept the state of mind that I am in a war.
I also won’t give any liberals the out, or excuse, of saying that these things are happening because so many thousands of times in the country, when a crime was committed, that crime was blamed on 2 black men when that wasn’t true either.
What is wrong, is wrong. What is right, is right. Both sides of the above equation are carried out by extremist angry people for whatever sad reason they wish to conjure up. They are not carried out by the average Sally or Joe who is a much more centrist and calm individual. Those centrists are the core of this country and make America the great land she is. The buck stops with each and every one of us. Each of us has the responsibility to break the chain of such sick activities carrying on.
The emotional state of mind of war is a very angry place. I have said it here before and I will say it again now. Anger never assists any situation in a positive manner. I choose to take the high road.
Chas Cornweller says
Coming from the other side of the equation, I, too, would like to step up alongside Jack Trump and add my agreement that I do not believe we are in any kind of left/right war. If anything, it is a cultural skirmish at best. With the loudest voices coming from the fringes of both sides and emotive states of minds from hundreds of thousands frothing at the mouth mostly inane and false information.
But I disagree with the author that the “uptick” coincides with Donald Trump’s election. The “uptick” began many years prior with the beginning of Barack Obama’s campaign and subsequent election in 2008. The hateful rhetoric came off the back burner and was pulled front and center of the stove and the heat turned up high. The creation of the Tea Party and rise of anti-social programs enfolded with racial innuendo was just the beginning of the rise of exposure of the numerous hate groups already in existence. These little-known hate groups are a blight on our society and have been around forever. But the Tea Party began as a sensible and determined group to fight public health care implementation or ACA by the Obama administration. It was quickly hi-jacked by those who would rather fight Barack Obama and his re-election than fight his policies. Later, the Astroturfing of the Tea Party lead to a political take over from politicians firmly planted to the right. I watched as many of my conservative friends began to wonder what happened to their movement. They saw it change from a moment that represented the middle class and its working-class conservative values to something altogether different and frankly, chilling. The marches turned ugly and racial epithets and crudely suggestive racial posters appeared within the crowd. But racism has been woven within the fabric of this nation’s society since its inception. That is indisputable. It has only come to the fore lately due to social media, strong media attentions and the spot light on certain and specific instances that are backlit to intensify the division. Where all this racial tension is coming from, is anybody’s guess along with their personal perspective. I am sure I will be attacked as saying the Left should take the fall. I don’t disagree, but, the Right bears responsibility as well. Charlottesville is a good example. It was a teaching moment for all of us. But the president mis-handled it and frankly I wasn’t too proud of how the left reacted either. The rhetoric escalated and, if anything, racism became cemented into our public conscience. And now, here we are.
Lastly, I would like to point out…that the number of hoaxes is not tracked formally, but the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said that of an estimated 21,000 hate crime cases between 2016 and 2018, fewer than 50 reports were found to be false. The center believes that less than 1 percent of all reported hate crimes are false. So, the false hate crimes or hoaxes perpetrated against any victimized group or persons is getting more traction than actual hate crimes themselves. Such is the state of journalism today. Again, more of the solidifying of division and less of listening and understanding one another. Racism and hate are not a one-side issue. And hate comes in all colors and creeds. Social media has amplified the echo chamber and most folks are just too lazy to seek out the facts for themselves. It is just so much easier to push on down the line a rhetorical statement or meme that portrays what we feel ourselves. But, we bear no consequence of our actions, no consequence of being beholden to the truth and reside in the added benefit of remaining anonymous (sometimes) in doing so. If anything, the media, social media and computers, with its magic of information (right or wrong – you decide) at our fingers have made us weaker. Together, they have isolated us, divided us, pigeon holed our thoughts and our desires and enabled us to be human garbage without consequence. Welcome to the Upside Down. And to quote one George Orwell “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” Jack Trump, I applaud you and your stance. And I agree, anger does not assist in any situation to the positive. Reason and empathy are the high road. Wrong is wrong and right is right. On that I agree. And truth, truth always finds a way.
Paul Plante says
Speaking of truth always finding a way, Chas Cornweller, which is not at all true, isn’t it true that the black folks out there dehumanize themselves by their insistence that they are a separate race from people with white skin, who happen to be members of the human race?
Isn’t it true, Chas Cornweller, that in this nation today, all of our laws and constitutional protections are for human beings, not people, if that is what they are to be called, or beings, who belong to some other different race than the human race?
So isn’t it true that if the black people are really another race than human, that they would be outside the protection of our laws and constitution?
Jack Trump says
I’ve always complained to folks that this media lacks depth and dimension. In face to face or phone conversation I/we can hear/see tonal changes and can catch on to whether something is serious or satire.
I see words being slung at people like arrows here from folks who think the rhetoric needs to be toned down. Names being bounced off folks like the one their parents gave them was way off base. Ridicule being served up like it’s the special of the day at Kelly’s. This is discourse ?
Please do me a favor, if your comment in here is satire, please let me know. Please plainly state it at the beginning or end of your opinion piece. I don’t want to have to write someone’s opinion off as waaaaay to far out there. The extremist side of right or left if it is comedy. For example, someone has espoused that black folks are trying to claim they are a race separate from folks of white skin. I may not have the words exact, so please don’t parse words with me to make a point. My point is that I have never, EVER heard any person of any color make that point seriously, that folks of different skin colors are a different race. Not someone who wanted to be taken seriously. Therefore I see that as absurd to be stated in here as what appears to be a serious comment. I don’t see how absurdity is a positive influence in this, or any discussion. Science/medicine has certainly disproven that racial divide/notion many billions of times over. IF anyone ever represents that we’re talking about 2 different human races in here, that is satire and comedy, right ?
In that light, yes we all do get our news/opinions from many different places/sources. Thank our founding fathers for that. I don’t make fun of any of them. Yes they got their point across. We read it or bought it, didn’t we ? I read what I want, pour it all together into the primordial soup of my brain matter and see what drips off my tongue and fingers. I believe it’s called discourse.
In conclusion, I may take exception to what many of these opinion/news sources have to say, and I certainly agree with some more and some less. I do not, however, dislike Mad Magazine in any way. Satire is one of the most important means of communication we have ever created. It often slides points in through the side or back door of people’s minds so that we more easily understand we are witnessing the theater of the absurd, rather than what should be real life. In addition, I met and spent many Friday nights with Charlie Kadau decades ago when all Mad let him publish, or have credit for, was the tiny pencil characters in the center columns by the staples. Tiny cartoons stuck into the mini pages of life.
I met Joe his fellow write/editor a few times and those guys work at their tales and plow the fields of their brains like our farmers plow their fields. They work hard at what they do. No they are not always really funny, but fields don’t always have bumper crops either. I haven’t seen those guys for decades but they are solid Americans working hard at their satirical craft, and have been doing it honestly, and in their openly stated satirical manner for years. They take my money for a subscription honestly, unlike many of the opinion writers out there that tell us it is news when it is actually misleading opinion.
Long Live Bill Gaines, the way he treated his employees, and the way his alter ego, Alfred E. Newman taught me that “What ? Me Worry ?” was an extremely important way to look at so much of life.
Paul Plante says
All in all a very touching and heart-felt piece, Jack, thanks for sharing.
As to whether something is satire or not, Jack, you really need to check in with Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Del. Lamont Bagby who certainly implied, if not outright stated that the alleged rapist Fairfax belonged to a different race in a USA TODAY article entitled “Virginia’s Fairfax compares himself to lynching victims in surprise speech” by Alan Suderman, Associated Press, published 4:46 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2019, as follows:
But black lawmakers did not object to Fairfax’s speech.
Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Del. Lamont Bagby said he’s heard similar rhetoric from his constituents, who have expressed concerns that Fairfax is being treated unfairly because of his race.
end quotes
Dude sounds serious to me, Jack, but hey, what do I know about it?
If you can make contact with him to check further on whether he was being satirical or not, could you let us know?
As to satire, Jack, your point about knowing Mad magazine is satire proves that you don’t need to be doing anything more than reading the entirety of someone’s words, in the context in which they were written, to know whether or not something is satire.
I have read, for example, The Satires by the Latin author Juvenal written in the early 2nd century AD, and despite the fact that both he and Rome are long since dead, there is no mistaking the satirical nature of his writing.
As you may remember, Jack, Juvenal’s writings are in the Roman genre of satire, which, at its most basic in the time of the author, comprised a wide-ranging discussion of society and social mores, which is what we do in here today, in the same spirit that Juvenal did his writing 2,000 years ago.
Back then, which is an indication of how much we have lost over the centuries, Roman Satura was a formal literary genre rather than being simply clever, humorous critique in no particular format.
It was in that tradition that Juvenal wrote, a tradition which originated with Lucilius and included the Sermones of Horace and the Satires of Persius.
In a tone and manner ranging from irony to apparent rage, which again mirrors what we do in here today, Juvenal criticized the actions and beliefs of many of his contemporaries, providing insight more into value systems and questions of morality and less into the realities of Roman life.
Thus we learn about what came before us, Jack, so we can more accurately gauge where it is that we are today
In his satires, Juvenal made constant allusion to history and myth as a source of object lessons or exemplars of particular vices and virtues in Roman times, and the Satires are concerned with perceived threats to the social continuity of the Roman citizens: social-climbing foreigners, unfaithfulness, and other more extreme excesses of their own class.
Today, we do that here in the Cape Charles Mirror!
So have people really changed all that much, Jack, do you think?
Paul Plante says
For an example of what I am talking about, Chas, I refer you to the USA TODAY article “Virginia’s Fairfax compares himself to lynching victims in surprise speech” by Alan Suderman, Associated Press, published 4:46 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2019, as follows:
But black lawmakers did not object to Fairfax’s speech.
Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Del. Lamont Bagby said he’s heard similar rhetoric from his constituents, who have expressed concerns that Fairfax is being treated unfairly because of his race.
end quotes
Correct me if I am wrong, dear friend and fellow American patriot and secular humanist Chas Cornweller, but isn’t Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Del. Lamont Bagby telling us there that Fairfax belongs to some other race than the human race?
Ray Otton says
The full text of Mr. Trump’ comments regarding the Charlottesville riots. Scroll about 1/3 of the way down the page and read the comments. They don’t match up with main stream media’s take, a shocker I know –
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/15/full-text-trump-comments-white-supremacists-alt-left-transcript-241662
Also, a couple of days ago Ed Gillespie spoke about race at a Heritage Foundation event. At the event, the moderator asked Gillespie, who was in the audience, to talk about how responsible citizens in Virginia should respond to the recent revelations about the governor.
Read the article and then think about the fact that he lost to Northam by 9 points mostly because of racist smears.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/02/25/ed-gillespie-gives-master-class-republicans-discuss-racism/
Nice going Virginia.
Chas Cornweller says
Nice deflection guys. Once again, no one directly responds to my informative and fact-based statements, but instead, expects me to respond to their off the wall and slanted comments. I’m not playing that. At least dispute what I said. If you can’t (or don’t) then sit down and shut up. I’m tired of the games played here. I.E. Paul’s comment: “So, isn’t it true that if the black people are really another race than human, that they would be outside the protection of our laws and constitution?” Really? REALLY, Paul? Are you serious? What DOES race mean to you? You eugenics folks are all over the map here. And Ray, you state that Trump’s comments don’t match up with main stream media’s comments. Whose main stream media? What MAIN stream media? When are you all going to realize that the news is like Chevrolet or Ford or Toyota or Honda or Harley Davidson? They are selling product, not the truth! If your news feed is Politico, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times or Fox News, you are getting the Right news slant (not necessarily the correct or a purely conservative news slant) and if you watch MSNBC, CNN, Washington Post (my favorite news feed), Slate or the New York Times, your news feed is slanted left. And for everyone’s information, I watch both Fox and CNN. I read both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. I read Politico and Slate. I also watch BBC and read the Guardian. Hell, I sometimes watch Al Jazeera, listen to NPR and even read The Onion and Mad Magazine. Does that make me wishy-washy and ill-informed? I think not! In fact, I think I am better informed because I am getting multiple sides to these stories. Kind of like getting to test drive a Cadillac, a Lincoln, a Volkswagen, a Camaro, a Mustang and Mercedes all in the same day. You know guys, the mind is like a parachute. It works best when it is open. So, don’t try to drive and steer me with your rhetoric, respond to my writings first. Then maybe, when you have something competent to say, I will respond to yours. Um-Kay?
Paul Plante says
Memo to Chas Cornweller:
Dear Chas, since the early-1900s, and especially since Nazi Germany, it has been a firmly established FACT that regardless of skin color, there is only ONE Race of people on earth, and that is the HUMAN RACE.
So when he talks about the alleged rapist Fairfax being of some other race, plain and simple, Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Del. Lamont Bagby is talking like an ignoramus (an ignorant or stupid person, as in “assume that your delegate is an ignoramus and explain everything to him”) and a moron (fool, oaf, nincompoop, clown, dunce, dolt, dullard, simpleton), and that is the answer, quite frankly, I was looking for from you.
Paul Plante says
Chas, you are a rip, plain and simple with this statement of yours @ FEBRUARY 28, 2019 AT 2:36 PM that :
“Once again, no one directly responds to my informative and fact-based statements, but instead, expects me to respond to their off the wall and slanted comments.”
end quotes
You are slapping yourself on the back so vigorously there Chas Cornweller, that people are very fearful that you are going to break your arm in multiple places, and then where are you going to be?
As to your question, “When are you all going to realize that the news is like Chevrolet or Ford or Toyota or Honda or Harley Davidson – they are selling product, not the truth,” my answer is that I realized that back in 1969 when you were still in short pants peddling newspapers that slanted the truth as a paperboy in your neighborhood, and in turn, I wonder when it was you came to that same realization?
And does reading Mad Magazine for your news feed make you wishy-washy and ill-informed?
Personally, I think not, but hey, that is just me!
You know, Chas, the mind is like a parachute and if you are falling or jumping out of an airplane, it works best when it is open, so that if Mad Magazine serves to open your mind for you, then Chas Cornweller, my thought is go for it, but don’t just be seduced by Mad Magazine – as entertaining and informative as it is, don’t forget that there is also Politico, the Wall Street Journal (paywall), the Washington Times, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, the Washington Post (“democracy dies in the darkness of the bull**** peddled by the Washington Post”), Slate, the New York Times, the BBC, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, NPR, The Onion, the Albany, New York Times Union and the Sacramento Bee.
Chas Cornweller says
Right, now that is what I am talking about. And Paul, yes learned people realize this. Even though some of the structures and outward look of our personal selves are different, from one person to another person, we are all of the same species of primate, Homo Sapiens. But the race that Chairman Del. Lamont Bagby speaks of, and of this I am pretty sure, is a classification to relate to those to whom he is speaking. Within politics, groups of people are things to be collected or lost. And in my thinking, politics is not the highest calling a person can achieve. People, too, are not the highest order to be served within politics. It’s all a game and most of the games today are being played in swamps.
By the way, Paul, as you may recall, Fairfax is not the first man of color to use the term “lynching” in their testimony nor the first play the “race” card in their defense. So, that street has been cruised before. And as I believe you believe (correct me if I put words in your mouth) until we grow beyond this “race” issue and start seeing one another as sentient human beings consisting of a divine spark and consciousness, we will never move beyond this pit we been put down into. Anyone who believes otherwise is just fooling themselves. There are no magic strings or chants that will lift us out of here. It is incumbent upon each and every one of us to find our own way up and out. And once you find that, lift up another. No matter their facial structure or color of their eyes or arm.
Paul Plante says
Amen is all I can say, Chas!
And let me add that the “mentally emancipated” black people I know and respect, including a local police chief, find that kind of talk coming out of Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Del. Lamont Bagby to be quite demeaning and insulting, as it makes them into an “other,” which they are not, being as human as you and me.
And no, Chas, I do not recall that Fairfax is not the first man of color to use the term “lynching” in their testimony nor the first play the “race” card in their defense.
And besides, it is irrelevant – first of all, Fairfax isn’t a “black man” – he happens to be the Lt. Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, so the shade of his skin don’t mean doodly-squat.
The Constitution of the Commonwealth does not differentiate between people with white skin and people with black skin in that office in terms of accountability to the people of the Commonwelath, who are certainly within their rights to ask him to resign
So it is melodramatic, dear friend Chas, to indulge ourselves, adults as we are, in a fantasy world pretending that Fairfax is getting lynched by anyone, and especially those two women, who, if their skin had been white, and Fairfax would have been a white Republican, would have been treated like Christine Blasey Ford was in the Kavanaugh hearings, but since their skin is black, and the alleged rapist Fairfax is a Democrat, they are being disregarded, which is to say, very much disrespected.
Paul Plante says
And Chas, let’s go back to your stern admonition @ FEBRUARY 28, 2019 AT 2:36 PM that, “Once again, no one directly responds to my informative and fact-based statements, but instead, expects me to respond to their off the wall and slanted comments,” and your further even sterner admonition in the same post where you say, “At least dispute what I said, if you can’t (or don’t) then sit down and shut up, I’m tired of the games played here,” which takes us back to your post @ FEBRUARY 26, 2019 AT 11:48 PM, where you say “Coming from the other side of the equation, I, too, would like to step up alongside Jack Trump and add my agreement that I do not believe we are in any kind of left/right war,” and let’s stop right there for the moment and try to parse out what meaning you intend to convey when you talk about a “left/right war,” as if those terms had any concrete meaning in our times today.
Where do the terms “left” and right” come from in the first place, Chas, and why do you attach relevance to them today?
Checking in on the History website, in an informative article by Evan Andrews, we have this information to consider:
Today the terms “left wing” and “right wing” are used as symbolic labels for liberals and conservatives, but they were originally coined in reference to the physical seating arrangements of politicians during the French Revolution.
The split dates to the summer of 1789, when members of the French National Assembly met to begin drafting a constitution.
The delegates were deeply divided over the issue of how much authority King Louis XVI should have, and as the debate raged, the two main factions each staked out territory in the assembly hall.
The anti-royalist revolutionaries seated themselves to the presiding officer’s left, while the more conservative, aristocratic supporters of the monarchy gathered to the right.
“I tried to sit in different parts of the hall and not to adopt any marked spot, so as to remain more the master of my opinion,” one right-wing baron wrote, “but I was compelled absolutely to abandon the left or else be condemned always to vote alone and thus be subjected to jeers from the galleries.”
The divisions only continued during the 1790s, when newspapers began making reference to the progressive “left” and traditionalist “right” of the French assembly.
The distinctions later vanished for several years during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, but with the Bourbon Restoration and the beginning of a constitutional monarchy in 1814, liberal and conservative representatives once again took up their respective posts on the left and right of the legislative chamber.
By the mid-19th century, “left” and “right” had entered the French vernacular as shorthand for opposing political ideologies.
Political parties even began self-identifying as “center left,” “center right,” “extreme left” and “extreme right.”
France’s “left” and “right” labels filtered out to the rest of the world during the 1800s, but they weren’t common in English-speaking countries until the early 20th century.
The terms are now used to describe the opposing ends of the political spectrum, but their origins are still evident in the seating arrangements of many legislative bodies.
end quotes
Then we have Wikipedia which tells us that the left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions, ideologies and parties, from equality on the left to social hierarchy on the right.
Left-wing politics and right-wing politics are often presented as opposed, although a particular individual or group may take a left-wing stance on one matter and a right-wing stance on another; and some stances may overlap and be considered either left- or right-wing depending on the ideology.
In France, where the terms originated, the Left has been called ‘the party of movement’ and the Right ‘the party of order’.
end quotes
Getting more specific, Wikipedia continues as follows:
The terms “left” and “right” appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president’s right and supporters of the revolution to his left.
One deputy, the Baron de Gauville, explained: “We began to recognize each other: those who were loyal to religion and the king took up positions to the right of the chair so as to avoid the shouts, oaths, and indecencies that enjoyed free rein in the opposing camp”.
However, the Right opposed the seating arrangement because they believed that deputies should support private or general interests but should not form factions or political parties.
end quotes
Note, my dear friend friend Chas, all these other terms we have entering the discussion, terms such as “ideology,” and this is with respect to your statement above that, “If anything, it is a cultural skirmish at best, with the loudest voices coming from the fringes of both sides and emotive states of minds from hundreds of thousands frothing at the mouth mostly inane and false information.”
An “ideology,” of course, is a collection of normative beliefs and values that an individual or group holds for other than purely epistemic (relating to knowledge or to the degree of its validation) reasons, and there, dear friend Chas, is a very important distinction quite relevant to the points you are making above in your post about a bunch of mindless, yammering idiots in this country, including members of the “press,” and media, especially, taking over the political discourse in this country.
If these mindless, yammering idiots who now monopolize the political dialogue in this country have values and beliefs they are holding for reasons other than knowledge, my dear friend Chas, then what is left, other than pure emotion?