Racism? What Racism?!

PS – My absolute favorite photo is of the Texan who can't even fucking SPELL nigger. There's racists, then there's stupid fucking racists I suspect.

It's a start. Now how hard was that? That's evidence of slurs being communicated by ten people among some crowd(s) somewhere, at least. That's ten too many. Those signs and that shout are disgusting, and the people responsible for them deserve every bit of condemnation and shame we can heap on them.

Were any of those photos taken yesterday or today at the Capitol? Were those sign-holding scumbags actual Tea Partiers, or were they kooks from other groups? Were any of them loony wanna-bes who unsuccessfully tried to glom onto the movement? What was the documented reaction of the majority of people who actually read the signs?

If those were typical signs, then we'd be justified in tarring the rest of those crowds. Alternatively, if any people in those crowds approved of (or saw and refused to condemn) those signs, then they're culpable too … even if they didn't hold the disgusting signs themselves. It's that familiar standard of a reasonable person in the crowd who “knew or should have known” about the scumbags' signs. If I attended a Tea Party event and saw a sign like that, and if I didn't confront and condemn the jerk holding it, you'd be justified to lump me in with the jerk. Same goes for my continued attendance at a rally riddled with scumbags holding those signs.

Ditto for whoever yelled the slur at Barney Frank, and for anybody who heard it and cheered (or stayed silent). That heckler would get an angry earful from me if I ever met him. I am not persuaded that his offensive outlook is shared by a significant segment of the Tea Party movement, but hey, if there's conclusive proof beyond this anecdote then please share it.

However, it's illegitimate to tar the entire Tea Party movement as bigots if:

<ul>
<li>disgusting signs/shouts were not a significant segment of the total; or</li>
<li>if the Tea Partiers were unaware of the signs/shouts (you can't hold someone responsible for refusing to condemn something they don't know about).</li>
</ul>

I'll follow the evidence where it leads, and draw reasonable conclusions accordingly. You've finally offered some anecdotal examples of bigotry here. That's a start, and it's at least better than the word of a politician. Can you take it the rest of the way?

Straightforward enough for ya?