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97) I just believe his sort of principled rigidity on free-speech issues blinds him to the real-world effects of fascism – particularly how it manipulates free-speech principles in order to destroy them. Fascists use people like Greenwald to leave a trail of wreckage.
98) It’s not about whether or not he’s racist – which, after all, would indeed make the whole issue one of guilt by association. That’s not the point of all this. Nor do I believe for a moment that he is.
99) No, this is a question of judgment: If you’re so short-sighted that you can’t see how your ethical choices wind up enabling harmful behavior, then exactly how astute is your judgment in any event?
100) It’s not guilt by association, it’s the guilt _of_ association: People in responsible mainstream positions who lend legitimacy to people from far-right hate groups – whether Klansmen, skinheads, neo-Nazis, or militiamen – are exercising profoundly poor judgment.
101) Lending them that legitimacy not only normalizes them, it empowers them. It helps fuel the twisted psychology of the far right that inevitably, like a law of physics itself, produces violent horrors and ruptured communities. Ask the folks in Billings, or in Illinois.
102) The closest anyone has come to getting an answer out of Greenwald about the questions about judgment raised by his work on Matt Hale’s behalf was in an interview in Rolling Stone in 2013. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/snowden-and-greenwald-the-men-who-leaked-the-secrets-104970/
103) His answer was typically self-serving and indicates a lack of any regret: “To me, it's a heroic attribute to be so committed to a principle that you apply it not when it's easy ... not when it supports your position ... but when it defends and protects people that you hate."
104) All very noble-sounding of course, but it hardly squares with the reality of how he conducted himself. Glenn has never voiced a hatred of Hale or WCTOC in any of his dealings with them; but his expressions of hatred for Center for Constitutional Rights and SPLC were vivid.
105) Over the ensuing years, he’s manifested this blind spot, and supremely bad judgment, many times. Remember how he tweeted out an ad by the Oath Keepers, soft-pedaling them as “a coalition of former police, military and public officials”?
https://thedailybanter.com/2013/09/the-single-worst-thing-ever-to-come-off-of-glenn-greenwalds-keyboard/
106) More recently, of course, he has appeared frequently on Fox News with Tucker Carlson. Carlson’s record of promoting white-nationalist causes and ideas clearly doesn’t bother Greenwald. https://psmag.com/news/lol-stop-going-on-tucker-carlson
107) In the process, of course, he has become exactly what he once derided caustically: a “Fox News liberal,” one whose appearance on the network is mainly used to help forward right-wing talking points and destroy the left. He’s now a Useful Tool. https://www.salon.com/2007/09/28/estrich/
108) And now he is defending his fellow faux progressives as they join Carlson in his campaign to minimize and defend fascist white nationalism as Not Really A Problem.
109) But apparently it is only a problem in Brazil. Because Glenn lives there and he is seeing the consequences in person. Perhaps Greenwald should try living in the States again, so he can experience firsthand that the consequences are here too. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/11/14/fbi-recorded-surge-hate-crimes-last-year-it-undercounted-by-lot/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dbbe982472dd
110) Indeed, he probably should have to face these consequences, since his record of minimizing, normalizing and empowering the white nationalist right in the USA contributed to the problems we are facing now. Thanks for nothing, Glenn. https://www.vox.com/2019/4/4/18295358/fbi-white-nationalism-christchurch-usa-violence
@threadreaderapp unroll please
