"I don't care how much you hate, I can hate more!"
"The issue for me is how David Hogg, specifically, seems to have triggered all these snowflakes on the Right. I'm fascinated by how they are so activated by the Parkland students and him in particular. I can't quite put my finger on what it is the Right finds so intimidating about these children. I wonder if it's their idealism or when you see young people this motivated, this organized, it's the biggest threat to the standing order." - Anna Marie Cox on 'All In'.
"The bottom-feeders of the right-wing ecosystem, of course, haven't held back at all. Alex Jones has equated the Parkland survivors to Nazis, suggesting they intend to murder gun owners. "Alt-right" sites are spreading fake images of the kids and spreading conspiracy theories, including claiming that the students are actors or that no massacre happened at all. Breitbart has joined in, trying to convince readers that Parkland student David Hogg threw a Nazi salute during last weekend's March for Our Lives. (He didn't.)" - Amanda Marcotte, salon. com
It was bound to happen. The degenerates on the Right had become more and more brazen about mounting spurious bullshit attacks on the Parkland shooting survivors, especially the articulate and passionate David Hogg. As Janice asked this morning, after reading about the Right's latest collective assaults on Hogg and fellow Stoneman Douglas survivors in a salon.com piece by Amanda Marcotte: "What's wrong with these people? What are they afraid of?"
I answered that this was precisely the issue: The Right's minions were pissing in their panties and terrified of Hogg's command of the language and media prominence, and they feared his ability to make inroads on gun control. We also know when certain humans are overcome by fear, their innate weakness causes them to lash out at those viewed as threats.
Such has been the case with FOX News' Laura Ingraham and her "Ingraham Angle" in which she launched one of the most ill advised twitter attacks ever, e.g.
David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.)
The ill-conceived attack instantly brought retribution including from Hogg's 14 year old sister, Lauren, e.g.
"How low are your ratings @IngrahamAngle that you have to start attacking my brother’s grades to get attention? If you ask me, he is more articulate than you and has far better character. Man, that’s real low even for you. Coming from a 14 year old, please grow up. #NeverAgain https://t.co/CgUVeGRfxP"
David himself then followed up: with a tweet to his nearly 600,000 Twitter followers identifying Ingraham's sponsors, e.g.
Pick a number 1-12 contact the company next to that #
Top Laura Ingraham Advertisers
1. @sleepnumber
2. @ATT
3. Nutrish
4. @Allstate & @esurance
5. @Bayer
6. @RocketMortgage Mortgage
7. @LibertyMutual
8. @Arbys
9. @TripAdvisor
10. @Nestle
11. @hulu
12. @Wayfair
Top Laura Ingraham Advertisers
1. @sleepnumber
2. @ATT
3. Nutrish
4. @Allstate & @esurance
5. @Bayer
6. @RocketMortgage Mortgage
7. @LibertyMutual
8. @Arbys
9. @TripAdvisor
10. @Nestle
11. @hulu
12. @Wayfair
The tweet was flooded with replies from Hogg’s supporters, some of whom pasted images of their messages to the companies in question,. Ingraham herself was deluged with responses including many taking her to task for stooping so low. This prompted her to finally yelp 'Uncle!' tweeting:
Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA —incl. @DavidHogg111. On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland.
Note she acknowledged his 4.2 GPA and also the record shows he attained a 1270 in the SAT. Not getting into the college of his choice is no mystery, given as the WSJ noted today (p.A3) there is a crush now with college applications and the Millennials feature the biggest contingent ever- bigger in numbers than the Boomers. So, Hogg will definitely gain entrance to a good school, just perhaps not his first choices.
What has provoked the savage Right wing attacks, including Ingraham's? Well, during a TMZ interview Hogg had simply expressed disappointment about letters of rejection from four schools (in the Univ. of Calif. system) he'd applied to, but said it has been difficult to focus on college lately. The Right, always hyper -macho in a distorted way (which is why they embrace a gun identity), took this admission as weakness and whining then went full bore mad dog on the kid. "How dare this punk talk like a kid?!" Of course, at other times they were whaling. on him as a veteran "bully" fighter who takes no prisoners.
At least one Media Matters spokesman quoted in Marcotte's salon.com piece asserted the "Right felt it had no choice" other than to attack the Parkland survivors as they were getting way too much media traction. They also had Republicans "rethinking" their positions on the gun issue, and FLA governor Rick Scott even signing a new gun safety law. And with Reepos, woe betide anyone who thinks too much or signs new gun laws, say that increase the age to access AR-15s. So these dregs like Ingraham and others felt they had to unload on Hogg especially - as one of the most outspoken. Even writing fake news trash that he left school years ago and came back for the moment. (Tomorrow I will look at Malaysia's punishment for fake news spreaders and whether we need to adopt them here.)
At least one Media Matters spokesman quoted in Marcotte's salon.com piece asserted the "Right felt it had no choice" other than to attack the Parkland survivors as they were getting way too much media traction. They also had Republicans "rethinking" their positions on the gun issue, and FLA governor Rick Scott even signing a new gun safety law. And with Reepos, woe betide anyone who thinks too much or signs new gun laws, say that increase the age to access AR-15s. So these dregs like Ingraham and others felt they had to unload on Hogg especially - as one of the most outspoken. Even writing fake news trash that he left school years ago and came back for the moment. (Tomorrow I will look at Malaysia's punishment for fake news spreaders and whether we need to adopt them here.)
The reaction to the Right has been equal rage-filled snark from the Left who are flabbergasted these knuckle draggers have the balls to go after school shooting survivors Since the tweet was posted, Ingraham herself has received backlash on social media, including castigating her as a mother who "ought to know better than attack a child."
Many of us have viewed her recent actions — the latest in a slew of right-wing attacks against the Parkland survivors — as particularly appalling, given that she is a parent and theoretically ought to know better.
In all of this there is an object lesson about having basic respect for victims of a mass shooting, especially victims who have found their voice and are prepared to speak out. As for the trope that Hogg and his followers are "bullying" Ingraham and the Righties, that's really choice - given they have been hammering at the Parkland kids including stupid conspiracy BS about "child actors" the past 4 weeks
At this writing, online travel website TripAdvisor said it will stop advertising on Ingraham's show after she attacked Hogg. The company joins Florida pet food brand Nutrish which also has responded to Hogg’s boycott call, tweeting Thursday morning “We are in the process of removing our ads from Laura Ingraham’s program.”
Footnote:
Seven advertisers have abandoned Ingraham's show after her apology - deeming it inadequate. David Hogg himself pointed out she only delivered it after she began to lose advertisers and found herself approaching a crisis similar to O'Reilly's before he was booted. So she only proffered the apology to save her sorry tail. The advertisers leaving now include the two already mentioned, plus: Expedia, Wayfair, Hulu, Johnson & Johnson, Stitchfix and Nestle. Eight others remain incuding AT & T and we must see whether they can find their consciences assuming they have any. Meanwhile, the WaPo's Eugene Robinson has predicted Ingraham will soon offer a second, more heartfelt apology - minus the "Holy Week" babble. We will see. For the Right, this ought to be an education: Do not fuck with these kids!
See also:
Seven advertisers have abandoned Ingraham's show after her apology - deeming it inadequate. David Hogg himself pointed out she only delivered it after she began to lose advertisers and found herself approaching a crisis similar to O'Reilly's before he was booted. So she only proffered the apology to save her sorry tail. The advertisers leaving now include the two already mentioned, plus: Expedia, Wayfair, Hulu, Johnson & Johnson, Stitchfix and Nestle. Eight others remain incuding AT & T and we must see whether they can find their consciences assuming they have any. Meanwhile, the WaPo's Eugene Robinson has predicted Ingraham will soon offer a second, more heartfelt apology - minus the "Holy Week" babble. We will see. For the Right, this ought to be an education: Do not fuck with these kids!
See also:
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