Posts

Insurrection GRITS

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New year, new… WTF. Aftyn and Anna are back for season 4 in the wake of the pro-Trump QAnon furry hat wearing insurrection identifying the Tennessee culprits and grappling with how to humanize those involved. BONUS: tips on how to talk to your people who believe in conspiracy theories

LINKS

Sign this petition to take down Steve Berger,

Gov. Lee’s extremist pastor at Grace Chapel

How to speak to people who believe in conspiracy theories

Republican Attorney Generals launch robocalls

Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver’s Tennessean patriot profile

FULL PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you like to listen.

Tennessean Insurrectionists and the Importance of Antifascism

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Journalists Abby Lee Hood and Matt Bastin join to talk about Tennesseans’ involvement in the undemocratic coup attempt by MAGA insurrectionists that took place at our Capitol last week. We explore the moment we are in and where to go from here, including how it is more important now than ever to include antifascism into everything we do. Not only is supporting antifascism the right thing to do, but we will never pass a Green New Deal or any other progressive legislation if we don’t both practice antifascism and push for democratic reforms.

Read Matt and Abby Lee’s piece in Tennessee Lookout that inspired this episode

Support Abby Lee

Support Matt

Read Angela Davis’ Abolition Democracy Beyond Empire Prisons & Torture

Sunrise Tennessee Interest Form

Join DSA

Volunteer for The Equity Alliance

Find out what Native Land you are living on

Follow Sunrise Tennessee on Twitter and Facebook.

FULL PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts and wherever else you like to listen.

Sen. Johnson: “GET OUTTA MY FACE”

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Williamson County Senator Jack Johnson was unenthusiastic about discussing the role a letter from Tennssee state legislators encouraging Tennessee reps to challenge Biden’s win played in the deadly attack on our Capitol by Trump supporters.

 

Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver: “I DID NOTHING WRONG”

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Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver ducks questions about her presence in DC during the deadly Trump insurrection (which she posted fondly of afterward) as her husband INITIATES PHYSICAL CONTACT with our reporter.

 

“You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself for Belittling What Happened at the Capitol”

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On WZTV FOX 17 News, the Holler’s Justin Kanew skewers Tennessee Republican Party EC member Michelle Foreman for deflecting blame from Trump (onto city mayors…) and denying systemic racism.

 

Rep Jim Cooper on Experiencing the MAGA Insurrection

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“I have to admit It was pretty scary…the police seemed overwhelmed, outnumbered, and sometimes complicit.” Representative Jim Cooper on the attack on the Capitol, how easily it was breached, and how “out of control” it got.

PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you like to listen.

 

Proud MAGA Hat-Wearing Crybaby Gets Facts Wrong

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In the Tennesseean today, a guy named Ryan Moore who doesn’t even live in Tennessee – but who claims to work at a Tennessee-based nonprofit – wrote a woe-is-me op-ed about how wearing his red hat gets him all kinds of “death threats and racist comments” from people he interacts with on social media.

While we don’t condone any kind of threats, we do take MAJOR issue with one claim he makes:

Ryan Says:

MAGA Hats Are the Symbol of Putting America First… White men are the most hated and discriminated against group of people in the USA now. If you don’t believe that, you simply aren’t paying attention or looking at it objectively.

Say what now? Since Ryan challenged us to “look at it objectively”, we did. And guess what? He’s completely wrong.

According to the most recent FBI data:

Racial/ethnicity/ancestry bias

Among single-bias hate crime incidents in 2017, there were 5,060 victims of race/ethnicity/ancestry motivated hate crime.

  • 48.6 percent were victims of crimes motivated by their offenders’ anti-Black or African American bias.
  • 17.1 percent were victims of anti-White bias.

Big WHIFF there, Ryan. What about religion?

Religious bias

Of the 1,749 victims of anti-religious hate crimes:

  • 58.1 percent were victims of crimes motivated by their offenders’ anti-Jewish bias.
  • 18.6 percent were victims of anti-Islamic (Muslim) bias.
  • 4.3 percent were victims of anti-Catholic bias.
  • 3.3 percent were victims of bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group).
  • 2.3 percent were victims of anti-Protestant bias.
  • 1.8 percent were victims of anti-Other Christian bias.

In other words: NOPE. “Objective” means “not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts”.

Sorry Ryan. You may get your feelings hurt when you turn on your phone, but other races and religions have it far worse.