Scapegoating of Tarantino is a classic right-wing tactic
Here’s a classic piece of right-wing sophistry for you: The bad analogy.
Right-wing US commentator Bill O’Reilly warned Quentin Tarantino that he has “ruined his career” after the Oscar-winning film-maker spoke at a protest against police brutality in New York this weekend.
Fox News stalwart O’Reilly criticised Tarantino for appearing at the rally a week after 33-year-old NYPD officer Randolph Holder was fatally shot in the city.
Speaking on his The O’Reilly Factor show, the conservative commentator, who has been strongly criticised over his coverage of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, highlighted comments by Tarantino about the unarmed 18-year-old black teenager Michael Brown, who was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, last year.
In a subsequent discussion with the University of Baltimore criminology professor Jeffrey Ian Ross, O’Reilly added: “This Tarantino character, I think he destroyed his career, because anybody hearing that’s going to think: ‘You know what? Maybe I’m not going to see his movies’.”
Source: Quentin Tarantino has ‘destroyed his career’ says rightwing host Bill O’Reilly | Film | The Guardian
Quentin Tarantino doesn’t need an obscure blogger to speak up for him, but the similarity between this O’Reilly fellow’s tactic and those employed by right-wingers here in the UK make this story handy.
The only known similarity between the late Randolph Holder and the perpetrators of the brutality against which Mr Tarantino was speaking is that they were all police officers.
But there is no suggestion that Officer Holder ever committed unwarranted acts like the Ferguson shooting and therefore the attack on Mr Tarantino is unjustified. These are two completely different things.
O’Reilly then launches a call to action – suggesting that, on the basis of his (false) argument, people won’t want to watch Mr Tarantino’s films any more.
Maybe some weak-minded adherents of his programme will follow his lead. But nobody with an ounce of intelligence in their head would do so.
We get this kind of attitude all the time, here in Blighty.
So I’ll tell you what – here’s a bit of homework for you: Tell This Blog about the most outrageously bad analogy made by a politician, with the most ludicrous call to action attached.
Whoever sends in the best example will receive the most ludicrous non-prize This Writer can devise in return.
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Sounds like a return to Joseph McCarthy and his “Red Scare” nonsense of the 1950s.
There’s been a lot of hysteria from the Republicans and their media stooges on Fox News, like Billo the Clown (copyright John Stewart of the Daily Show), who’ve spoken out in the support of Black Lives Matter. Those ranting against it include, unsurprisingly, Donald Trump, the far-right Republican presidential candidate, who wants to turf out even the children of undocumented immigrants.
They’ve attacked Black Lives Matter for being, supposedly, anti-White and anti-Police. There have also been fine displays of Godwin’s Law, with right-wing pundits like Billo accusing the campaign of being ‘Nazis’.
The campaign’s been a response to the shooting of unarmed Black people, including children, by the police. It’s a fact of life that Black parents have to explain to their children how to behave when approached by cops, as the slightest misstep will result in their death. The progressive American internet news show, The Young Turks, has done numerous features on this issue and Black Lives matter.
As for Billo the Clown, he’s told so many lies that it’s astonishing he’s still broadcasting. Really. Mother Jones, the American left-wing publication, caught him out telling various untruths about being present on the ground during the Falklands War, when in fact he was miles away in Buenos Aires, as well witnessing sectarian violence in Ulster – he didn’t. He also claimed he on the doorstep when one of the witnesses to Jack Ruby’s killing of Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK’s assassin, was shot. That was complete rubbish as well. As for being, ‘fair and balanced’ reporting, an independent media analyst calculated that Fox told the truth only about a quarter of the time or less. So it’s another smear from the Murdoch Broadcasting Corporation.
Of course, what really frightens them is the fact that Tarantino is a very popular director, responsible for Django Unchained, whose hero was an escaped slave. That was an extremely controversial movie, as some said it presented slavery in a positive light. But this is obviously frightening the Republicans, because Tarantino has some kind of authority on the issue of violence against Blacks through his movie. It may not be good, or historically informed authority, but that’s never bothered the Republicans with their utterances either.