• Benkei
    7.1k
    As a Jewish US citizen, how do you feel about the appointment of Steve Bannon?

    Going on an interview of his on Mother Jones, for instance, he states Breitbart is the mouthpiece of the alt-right and that's pretty anti-Semitic. That doesn't necessarily mean he shares those views but makes it rather likely. Considering widely held opinion of him, he indeed is anti-Semitic but I can't accurately judge whether he is.
  • Wayfarer
    20.7k
    So much for 'draining the swamp'. Trump's just re-stocking it!
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    I just briefly searched for it in the last couple days, but I couldn't find anything: can anyone give some sources for Bannon expressing any of the views that people are troubled by?
  • Mongrel
    3k
    Well, we have Newt Gingrich's view: "Arf. Arrrrr... Rhaaafff rhafff rhaff arf arf grrrrr.. Arf!"
  • Buxtebuddha
    1.7k
    If he's anti-Israel, I'm all for him. But if he's anti-semitic in the conspiracy theory sort of way, then no.

    Although I only skimmed that article linked by Baden, I can't say I see too much wrong with his sentiment of some women on the left.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    Five seconds on Google turned this up:Baden

    Where are the actual Bannon quotes there that are at all racist, sexist, etc.?
  • Baden
    15.6k


    You asked for a source of views expressed by Bannon that people are troubled by. You got one. Those are some of his views. They trouble some people. Don't expect a running commentary on it. Read it and figure it out yourself.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    You asked for a source of views expressed by Bannon that people are troubled by. You got one. Those are some of his views. They trouble some people. Don't expect a running commentary on it. Read it and figure it out yourself.Baden

    What I was looking for was anything he said that was racist or sexist, etc.

    If that's it re what people are upset with, it just underscores what morons those folks are.
  • Mongrel
    3k
    White nationalists talk to each other in code when in public. "Law and Order" has been code for racism since the Nixon administration. That's why my jaw dropped when Trump used that terminology in one of the debates.

    You may deny that he was courting white supremacists with that language.. I think you might be right. However David Duke seems to have taken it that way.

    Don't get all huffy with me though.. 'cause I reeeeaaallly don't give a fuck.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    White nationalists talk to each other in code when in public. "Law and Order" has been code for racism since the Nixon administration.Mongrel

    Maybe it's the case that white nationalists talk to each other in code in public, and maybe one of the code words they use is "law and order," but that doesn't imply that someone is a white nationalist when they use a phrase like "law and order."

    And what--did you think this was a white nationalist television program?--Law & Order
  • Mongrel
    3k
    but that doesn't imply that someone is a white nationalist when they use a phrase like "law and order."Terrapin Station

    True. You have to look at who's saying it and in what context. They're taking advantage of the fact that the vast majority of us are complete morons.
  • Thorongil
    3.2k
    It's a good thing to be opposed to a sovereign nation state?
  • Thorongil
    3.2k
    'cause I reeeeaaallly don't give a fuck.Mongrel

    Ooh, what a tough guy.
  • Thorongil
    3.2k
    Trump is as much a white nationalist as I am a Martian.
  • Thorongil
    3.2k
    Sorry Baden, where are the damning quotes? I don't see them. I think Bannon is a scumbag, like other conservatives, but that doesn't mean he's really a racist or an anti-semite.
  • Buxtebuddha
    1.7k
    Israel's domestic and foreign policies are absurd. And I'm opposed to Israel's attitude just as much as I am with the US, Russia, Germany, etc. I also tire of Israel getting special treatment in America, simply because it's a Jewish state and supposedly represents itself as some Democratic stalwart in the region - which they are not.
  • Mongrel
    3k
    I was expressing apathy, but I don't think it was to you. Unless it's just one jerk with a bunch of sock puppets... Possible, I guess. Boring.
  • BC
    13.2k
    I thought young people were supposed to be just instinctively savvy about how to find things on the web. Anyway, here are 3 quotes:

    “Are there racist people involved in the alt-right? Absolutely,” he told Mother Jones at this year’s Republican National Convention. “Look, are there some people that are white nationalists that are attracted to some of the philosophies of the alt-right? Maybe. Are there some people that are anti-Semitic that are attracted? Maybe. Right? Maybe some people are attracted to the alt-right that are homophobes, right? But that’s just like, there are certain elements of the progressive left and the hard left that attract certain elements.”Steven Bannon

    “That’s one of the unintended consequences of the women’s liberation movement––that, in fact, the women that would lead this country would be feminine, they would be pro-family, they would have husbands, they would love their children. They wouldn’t be a bunch of dykes that came from the 7 Sisters schools.”

    “They’re either a victim of race. They’re victim of their sexual preference. They’re a victim of gender. All about victimhood and the United States is the great oppressor, not the great liberator.”

    But one has to read carefully. This quote is by his wife during (apparently) a divorce proceeding:

    “...the biggest problem he had with Archer [School for Girls] is the number of Jews that attend. He said that he doesn’t like Jews and that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiney brats’ and that he didn't want the girls going to school with Jews."

    One has to sift: here is a quote from the "Bustle" site:

    “Hollywood does not understand Middle America, and it certainly does not understand and, in fact, despises, the core values of the country,” Bannon said in a 2010 radio interview. Pushing that divide between "real" America and Hollywood is so perturbing because it's hard not to view it as a dog-whistle to anti-Semites. Hollywood is so often code for "Jewish" and the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories as under Jewish or Zionist control that Bannon's framing of Hollywood as the enmy is irksome.

    First we have a quote: "Hollywood does not understand Middle America" and then the exegesis:

    Pushing that divide between "real" America and Hollywood is so perturbing because it's hard not to view it as a dog-whistle to anti-Semites. Hollywood is so often code for "Jewish" and the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories as under Jewish or Zionist control that Bannon's framing of Hollywood as the enmy is irksome. — Bustle writer

    It seems like there has been a surge and a special usage of "dog whistle" just in the last few years. It's a handy term because "dog-whistle" is itself code. So we have coded allusions to coded allusions. One can get away with a lot that way--on both sides of the political spectrum.
  • BC
    13.2k
    It may be that there are not more quotes readily available for Steven Bannon because he has been a business executive and not an on-air, on-line, or in-print personality. (Wikipedia says he hosts/hosted a show on Sirius XM. Never heard it.)

    Being a business executive, of course, doesn't tell us much about his politics, but it explains why there isn't more of a scat trail behind him: He wasn't a "personality". You might loathe the New York Times, but you probably won't find a lot of editorial comments from Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., the publisher of the Times. However, Sulzberger and Bannon couldn't change places at Breitbart and the Times without affecting the product.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    I thought young people . . .Bitter Crank

    Geez, if you think I'm young I'm guessing you're maybe in your 70s?

    “Are there racist people involved in the alt-right? Absolutely,” he told Mother Jones at this year’s Republican National Convention. “Look, are there some people that are white nationalists that are attracted to some of the philosophies of the alt-right? Maybe. Are there some people that are anti-Semitic that are attracted? Maybe. Right? Maybe some people are attracted to the alt-right that are homophobes, right? But that’s just like, there are certain elements of the progressive left and the hard left that attract certain elements.”Steven Bannon

    How is that at all racist? (I'm just doing one at a time. If you don't feel that one is racist, we can move on.)
  • Benkei
    7.1k
    How is that at all racist? (I'm just doing one at a time. If you don't feel that one is racist, we can move on.)Terrapin Station

    That's assuming his summary was a fair assessment. Alt-right is a movement not a set of principles. It's made up of racists, xenophobes, mysogynists etc. (just look at the publications on Breitbart) and therefore alt-right becomes racist etc. For Bannon to pretend this causality is reversed and that people are attracted to some set of ephemeral principles is a simple sleight of hand. It's a smart move, you never get caught saying anything outright unacceptable, you just facilitate others to do it for you.

    So in that light, highly likely he has issues with for instance Jews.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    That's assuming his summary was a fair assessment. Alt-right is a movement not a set of principles. It's made up of racists, xenophobes, mysogynists etc. (just look at the publications on Breitbart) and therefore alt-right becomes racist etc. For Bannon to pretend this causality is reversed and that people are attracted to some set of ephemeral principles is a simple sleight of hand. It's a smart move, you never get caught saying anything outright unacceptable, you just facilitate others to do it for you.

    So in that light, highly likely he has issues with for instance Jews.
    Benkei

    So you're going to declare that he's racist whether he's actually said anything racist? Guilt by association in your view (and per your assessment of what "alt-right" refers to, etc.)?
  • BC
    13.2k
    you must facilitate others to do it for you.Benkei

    Exactly. And Trump is putting people in place who will do it for him. Nothing new in that -- presidents put people in place who will initiate and execute certain kinds of policy.

    We don't have to go looking for extensive quotes to think Bannon will act in a general way. Proof will or won't follow in due course.
  • Benkei
    7.1k
    So you're going to declare that he's racist whether he's actually said anything racist? Guilt by association in your view (and per your assessment of what "alt-right" refers to, etc.)?Terrapin Station

    Try again and first read what I wrote. Also, you're confused as to what guilt by association entails or at least applying it incorrectly if I had said what you think I said, which I didn't.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k


    As if I didn't read what you wrote. You could try to be more patronizing in your next reply to me, though. Maybe you'd succeed.

    What part of what I wrote don't you agree with? You weren't saying that he's racist?

    Here's a definition of guilt by association: "guilt ascribed to someone not because of any evidence but because of their association with an offender."

    Do you think that definition is confused? Because that's what I was referring to.
  • Baden
    15.6k


    I didn't use the word "damming". That would be me making a judgement. I provided a link to.views of his that people were troubled by. I haven't made any claims beyond that as yet.
  • BC
    13.2k
    Geez, if you think I'm young I'm guessing you're maybe in your 70s?Terrapin Station

    I am in my 70s. How old are you?

    Don't take it personally. The feeling that young people (say, under 30) aren't quite the proficient digitalists that media claim they are didn't start with you. People learn to use the Internet and other resources by using the Internet and other resources regularly.

    My apologies, by the way. I Googled Bannon and I didn't find as much as I thought I would either. Hence, the post explaining why maybe he hadn't left much of a quote trail.
  • Thorongil
    3.2k
    Israel's domestic and foreign policies are absurd.Heister Eggcart

    Explain.

    That you felt the need to express your apathy in the way you did betrays that you are apathetic to the degree that you implied. The truly apathetic person wouldn't respond like that and probably not even respond at all.

    Fair enough.
  • Mongrel
    3k
    That you felt the need to express your apathy in the way you did betrays that you are apathetic to the degree that you implied. The truly apathetic person wouldn't respond like that and probably not even respond at all.Thorongil

    I don't know you very well, but I note that you don't ask questions very often. It's just.. dictate dictate dictate. Maybe as if no one around you knows anything you need to ask about.. or maybe it's a touch of solipsism?

    This is something I'm not apathetic about... why are you like that? For my part.. it was just cracking me up.. the image of a person who goes around telling everybody that they're boring. I'm still laughing about it actually.
  • Thorongil
    3.2k
    And I was laughing at the post to which I responded. As for your question, I don't really understand it.
bold
italic
underline
strike
code
quote
ulist
image
url
mention
reveal
youtube
tweet
Add a Comment

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum!

Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.