REPLY TO DAVID FUTRELLE

     David Futrelle, a Male Feminist and anti-Trump 'Resistance' writer published an interesting op-ed recently in The New York Times. In this article, Futrelle gives us his perspective on the saga of Juan Thompson, recently arrested for eight of the bomb threats against Jewish centers nationwide. Futrelle doesn't mention our site specifically, but he does decry pointing out the suspect's political leanings, which we in fact did. 

     The gist of Futrelle's argument seems to be that certain right-wing/conservative writers went to extremes covering Thompson's Leftist political connections; there is truth to that, with the usual suspects being guilty of it. He also argues that focusing on Thompson's politics detracts from the serious issue of cyberstalking; there is truth to that also. And many of the same writers who exploited Thompson's crimes are guilty of that too.

    Where is he wrong, however, is his implication that Thompson's politics are irrelevant to the story. There are two reasons why it is important.

     The first is that the Corporate Media has been trying to shovel all anti-Semitic crimes in the US onto the Trump Administration as part of their ongoing vendetta against him. Futrelle even states that "right-wing media outlets have seized upon Thompson's case to deflect attention from the very real---and thoroughly documented---resurgence of anti-Semitism that has accompanied President Trump's rise to power."

     But here is what the Anti-Defamation League says on its own webpage: "Our 2016 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents reported an overall increase of anti-Semitic incidents for the second straight year. While the rate remains historically low, the current numbers reveals disturbing trends...among the 941 incidents reported are disturbing trends, assaults have more than tripled since 2012."

     What this indicates is that anti-Semitic incidents are still at 'historic lows' but have been increasing steadily since about mid-way through the Obama Administration. In fact, the Obama Administration saw general increases in so-called Hate Crimes---including many against Christians. These types of crimes, anti-Semitism included, are not exclusively committed by the Political Right. Thompson's case was politically charged mostly because the Corporate Media made it so.

     For his part, President has denounced anti-Semitism and disavowed neo-Nazis like Richard Spencer. In December, Trump's then-nominee for US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, personally led an initiative in his native Montana to foil an attempted Nazi march against Jews in Whitefish. 

     The second problem with Futrelle's analysis is that it deflects attention itself from the very real problem of those on the PC Left fabricating hate crimes for political gain. Juan Thompson's politics are important for that very reason too.

     In a free society, there is no place for racial or religious discrimination, nor for cyberstalking of the type that Thompson engaged in. If the Corporate Media had been more responsible about its coverage of hate crimes, the problems that Futrelle raises wouldn't have existed. Maybe his focus should have been on The New York Times itself instead of Breitbart News.