8/5/2019

MASS SHOOTINGS/RACISM/TERRORISM/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The politics of American gun violence follow a predictable pattern in most cases: outraged calls for action from the left, somber gestures of sympathy from the right, a subdued presidential statement delivered from a prepared text — and then, in a matter of days or even hours, a national turning of the page to other matters. But after a white supremacist gunman massacred 22 people in El Paso, the political world hurtled on Monday [8-5-19] toward a more expansive, and potentially more turbulent, confrontation over racist extremism. Though the gun lobby was again on the defensive, it was not alone; so were social media companies and websites like 8chan that have become hives for toxic fantasies and violent ideas that have increasingly leaked into real life, with fatal consequences. Perhaps most of all, President Trump faced intense new criticism and scrutiny for the plain echoes of his own rhetoric in the El Paso gunman’s anti-immigrant manifesto.”

Alexander Burns, “Shootings Spur Debate on Extremism and Guns, With Trump on Defense,” The New York Times online, August 5, 2019