Protesters calling for Israel to cease fire in its war with Hamas who have disrupted US public events and infrastructure are practicing “leftwing fascism” or “leftwing totalitarianism”, a senior US House Democrat said, adding that such protesters are “challenging representative democracy” and should be arrested.
“Intimidation is the tactic,” said Adam Smith of Washington state, the ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee. “Intimidation and an effort to silence opposition … I don’t know if there’s such a thing as leftwing fascism. If you want to just call it leftwing totalitarianism, then that’s what it is. It is a direct challenge to representative democracy now.”
Smith was speaking – before the outbreak this week of mass protests on US college campuses, many producing arrests – to the One Decision Podcast and its guest host Christina Ruffini, a CBS News reporter.
inb4 “But Trump…”
Dems will let 10 billion people die with their tax money instead of holding Biden accountable.
The US only has one viable choose at the ballot box: supporr the genocide.
The US is not a democracy if it inkybhas one party
“…a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.”
“You come to our town hall meeting, it’s one thing to try to get attention. They got their attention. But literally, they wouldn’t stop screaming insults at me. They wouldn’t … even let me answer the very questions they were raising.
“I got two words into it and they started screaming at me again. So this is a different thing than your standard protest. In my view, the solution to it is if they are committing a crime – which by the way, shutting down a freeway, shutting down an airport, intimidating people, there’s a crime – [they] ought to be arrested.”
Protesting at public figures’ homes should also be subject to arrest, Smith said.
“The point of it is intimidation. And I think it is harassment. It’s a crime, and I think [they should] be arrested for it.
It sounds like what he is complaining about is protestors not being civil, not letting him speak at his own event and going to his house. I don’t know if that’s a fair complaint given the circumstances, but a little different than the headline implication that he’s broadly accusing people objecting to Israel’s actions of being fascists.
When every answer starts with blaming Hamas for the IDF continuing a genocide you’re going to get shouted down.
The point of a Town Hall is to see what your constituents want. I think they made it very clear.
Removed by mod
The part about letting him speak might be reasonable. Let the man speak and see if he’ll say something helpful.
Everything else… well, boo-hoo, being harassed at your home certainly beats having your children murdered by drone attacks.
Democrats are the party of genocide and mass murder.
Isn’t it funny how when both sides are actually the same, suddenly it’s only Democrats?
they are the ones currently commiting the crimes.
Democrats are not sitting in their office ordering aid trucks to be blown up. They’re neoliberals funneling public funds to private businesses because that’s what neoliberals do.
I’m all for dismantling the military industrial complex and prying greedy neoliberals out of positions of power but voting Republican (or not voting at all) just isn’t going to achieve that.
Senior democrat who has never read the Constitution and thinks he’s in the Duma.
So… is he desperately dishonest or insane?
Because none of that hysterical gibberish made even the slightest bit of sense.
I dunno, he said he wasn’t sure it was a thing and the headline decided he said it was.
Yes - he framed his statement with one of the stock phrases that people use when they want to be able to say something, then later, if necessary, claim that that’s not really what they said
I don’t think a news source has a responsibility to include that bit of transparent rhetorical trickery in a headline.
“I’m not a bigot, but…”
Yep.
The goal is to be able to say something while evading responsibility for having said it.
<Sees protests with popular support> “That’s totalitarianism, not democracy!”
Christ, what an asshole.
Make nazis afraid again
leftwing fascism
hmmm, so does he mean “leftwing rightwingers”?
lemmy user (clueless): Gosh, could you imagine if the other guy wins and starts calling for arrests of people opposing the genocide?
You may remember this guy (Adam Smith) from every other time Israel comes up…
Likewise, AIPAC gave Seattle-area Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), who has also failed to call for a ceasefire, more money than any other donor this year. Open Secrets found the defense industry and pro-Israel groups earned the top spots for Smith donors.
Dudes getting bribes from AIPAC and pretty much every major defense corporation.
He’s taking the money both ways.
This person would 1000% call MLK a left wing fascist, fuck this guy
More like Malcom X, but you have a point.
He would call malcom x a fash too.
But don’t forget that MLK was hated by most people during his time, especially white liberals and conservatives. Liberal democrats and conservatives alike seem to have a nasty habit of opposing the current struggles for freedom and equality. If you want to see what people thought of MLK, here is a political comic from the time
Notice the similarities between this and BLM? If you replace the concept of violent civil rights marches with antisemitic pro-palestine protests, you’ve got another instance of a struggle for freedom and a struggle against genocide being defamed while it is currently happening.
The fact of the matter is liberal democrats support all social justice movements but the current one. In 20 years I will cringe at what democrats say about the plight of the Palestinians, knowing that many are opposed to it right now.
He wasn’t exactly subtle about it himself.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Thanks. This quote explained a lot about people who insisted that I be “more inclusive.” I always replied “well, I am inclusive, but there must be another way!” I guess they were referring to this concept which Dr. King very eloquently expressed. Shame on me. Thanks.
Thanks for the history lesson. Today I learned.
MLK definitely supported rioting as a legitimate form of protest.
I had no idea. I’ve been schooled. Thanks.
