After walking onstage at the Phoenix Convention Center to “God Bless The U.S.A.” for what was, effectively, a 2020 campaign rally, Donald Trump repeatedly ditched his TelePrompTer and went off-script as he ranted about being mistreated by the media in the wake of Charlottesville, relentlessly attacked an array of enemies including both of Arizona’s Republican senators, and portrayed himself as the true victim of a violent clash between white supremacists and counter-protesters that left one woman dead. Journalists and other social media commentators watched, stunned, as he proceeded to spend the rest of his hourlong speech unloading on the mainstream press, praising a CNN pundit who was fired for tweeting a Nazi slogan, and re-litigating his entire response to Charlottesville, line by line, in what has become a hallmark of the Trump presidency: a full-on public meltdown.
people who discuss martin luther king jr as a successful example of anti-violence should know they’re part of a pretty vast propaganda campaign that’s existed since the late 70s to whitewash the history of the civil rights era. as soon as king took aim at desegregating northern cities, especially chicago, hate for him exploded. according to gallup, he was actually reviled by 1966, with two thirds of the country saying they had a negative perception of him. the major responses to his assassination mostly track with governor ronald reagan’s assessment of him, that he deserved his own death. it was common to see letters in newspapers and in senators’ offices that said things like “It is my firm belief, and [that] of all my neighbors, that King should be taken into custody. … Today, the insufferable arrogance of this character places him on a pedestal as a dark-skinned Hitler…. When greedy Mr. Hitler started taking over other countries, people at first thought ‘give him a little more, then he will be satisfied.’ Give greedy Mr. King a little more freedom then he will stop. Isn’t that what we are being told today?… Is the ultimate aim the same as the Soviet Union when all property was collectivized?“ (all from nixonland, rick perlstein). white public opinion even blamed him directly for the riots going on in american cities, as in this cartoon:
this in response to his disagreement with the war in vietnam and his effort to ensure those selling their houses couldn’t refuse to sell them to black people because they were black. king preached non-violence, and white people despised him for it.
