Photo via Raw Story Videos/YouTube
December 23, 2021, 12:24 pm
Far-right figureheads have been increasingly calling for violence in order to get what they want as they cry their way through the Biden years, and Donald Trump Jr. was never going to be an exception to this.
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During a recent speech at an event held by Turning Point USA, the right-wing propaganda machine founded by Kyle Rittenhouse #1 fan Charlie Kirk, Don Jr. called on his followers to reject that part of the Bible that tells them to be peaceful in the face of what they consider to be violence. Yes, he was talking about cancel culture.
“We’ve turned the other cheek and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference, I understand the mentality but it’s gotten us nothing,” he told the cheering crowd. “Okay? It’s gotten us nothing while we’ve ceded ground in every major institution.”
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You’d be hard pressed to find any recent example of a Republican or other right-wing individual turning the other cheek, but they do very often try to claim that they’re the ones who follow Christianity in spite of constantly acting against the teachings of Christ. What is on brand for Don Jr. is saying that he “sort of” understands this well-known part of the Bible in which Jesus tells his followers that if someone hits them in the face, “turn the other cheek” rather than hitting back.
This has widely been taken as an instruction to remain peaceful in all situations, and it’s pretty clear that today’s Republicans have a major issue with this. This TPUSA “AmericaFest” event was the same one in which they invited Rittenhouse to speak, greeting him with roaring fanfare, fireworks, and his own theme song, earning them accusations of worshiping violence rather than rejecting it.
While these remarks from Don Jr. by themselves might not be so alarming, they’ve come on the heels of several other frightening incidents of far-right talking heads and/or their fans getting caught on video encouraging violence against political opponents. An undercover video released Wednesday shows Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn stating that “Second Amendment solutions” may be necessary in the near future, confirming to the person he thought was a fan that he thinks the nation is “headed in that direction.”
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U.S. conservatives have further responded to just about anything they don’t like, include made-up issues like the idea that Master’s level courses on race and racism are being taught in elementary schools, with violence, swarming school board meetings and threatening people. And, of course, who can forget the great cheek-turning of January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol.
As the nation braces for year three of a global pandemic with a new, hyper-contagious strain ripping through the states and almost no progress on the issue of gun control for decades, rhetoric like this has a lot of people feeling nervous about 2022.
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*First Published: December 23, 2021, 12:24 pm
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