One of the long-standing complaints of media critics has been the double standard applied to liberal and conservative figures voicing controversial viewpoints. For example, columnists celebrated the firing of former Sen. Rick Santorum at CNN for making insensitive or false comments about the influence of Native American culture on the United States. When racist statements, however, are made by those on the left, there is no such hue and cry. The latest example is MSNBC regular Elie Mystal, who launched into a racist diatribe against Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker who is African American.
Mystal is the “justice correspondent” for the Nation Magazine and has also written for the website, Above the Law.
During a segment on “The Cross Connection,” Mystal suggested Walker was supported because he does what Republicans “want from their Negroes.”
“You ask why are Republicans backing this man who’s so clearly unintelligent, who so clearly doesn’t have independent thoughts, but that’s actually the reason. Walker is going to do what he’s told, and that is what Republicans like. That’s what Republicans want from their Negroes: to do what they were told. And Walker presents exactly as a person who lacks independent thoughts, lacks an independent agenda, lacks an independent ability to grasp policies, and he’s just going to go in there and vote like Mitch McConnell tells them to vote.”
Mystal has previously caused uproars for controversial claims from accusing a senator of wanting to murder Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to his continued attacks on a high school student even after he was cleared of a false race-based story. He has called the Constitution “trash” and previously stated that white, non-college-educated voters supported Republicans because they care about “using their guns on Black people and getting away with it.” He has also lashed out at “white society” and explained how he strived to maintain a “whiteness free” life in the pandemic.
Many clearly relish Mystal’s race-baiting takes on issues on MSNBC. The issue, in my view, is not why Mystal is allowed to continue to make such comments on a network but the clear double standard applied to such commentators.
We have seen the same double standard at universities. For example, Women’s Studies Professor Donna Hughes was publicly condemned by the University of Rhode Island for writing an op-ed that criticized what she called the LGBTQ ideology. Yet, the university has largely remain silent on the writings of Director of Graduate Studies of History Erik Loomis, who has defended the murder of a conservative protester and said that he saw “nothing wrong” with such acts of violence. Loomis also declared that “Science, statistics, and technology are all inherently racist because they are developed by racists who live in a racist society, whether they identify as racists or not.”
I have defended faculty who have made an array of disturbing comments about “detonating white people,” denouncing police, calling for Republicans to suffer, strangling police officers, celebrating the death of conservatives, calling for the killing of Trump supporters, supporting the murder of conservative protesters and other outrageous statements.
Yet, liberal professors continue to enjoy the full protection of academic freedom and free speech. Indeed, at the University of California campus, professors actually rallied around a professor who physically assaulted pro-life advocates and tore down their display.
The fact is that most faculty hold liberal views and do not feel threatened by such biased, content-based approaches to free speech and academic freedom. Others remain silent to avoid being the next tagged in the next campaign.
The support enjoyed by faculty on the far left is in sharp contrast to the treatment given faculty with moderate, conservative or libertarian views. Anyone who raises such dissenting views is immediately set upon by a mob demanding their investigation or termination. This includes blocking academics from speaking on campuses like a recent Classics professor due to their political views. Conservatives and libertarians understand that they have no cushion or protection in any controversy, even if it involves a single, later deleted tweet. At the University of North Carolina (Wilmington) one such campaign led to a professor killing himself a few days before his final day as a professor.
Mystal knows that he has a license to speak that is denied to those on the right on platforms like MSNBC. He wrote an April column calling Walker’s campaign a “political minstrel show.” He later attacked New York mayor Eric Adams bizarrely as a “conservative” and then added “these tokens who are out here right now shucking and jiving for their White handlers.”
Obviously, such attacks on liberal black figures would not be tolerated by the media and a commentator would be barred by many platforms as persona non grata. Again, I believe that we all benefit from having an array of different views, including controversial views like those of Mystal and Santorum. The worst approach is to maintain a double standard where racist or controversial commentary is celebrated from the left while condemned on the right.
Thank you again. I didn’t know you were so interested in the lawlessness.
#5/21
Illegal ballot harvesting in Wisconsin. Gableman also exposed an extensive vote collection operation, known as ballot harvesting, in nursing homes in which third-party activists illegally collected the ballots of vulnerable residents, some of whom lacked the mental or physical capacity to vote or were forbidden from voting by guardianship agreements. State election regulators “unlawfully directed the municipal clerks not to send out the legally required special voting deputies to nursing homes, resulting in many nursing homes’ registered residents voting at 100% rates and many ineligible residents voting, despite a guardianship order or incapacity,” Gableman wrote in his explosive report.
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Comment auto deleted by Anonymous the Stupid
ATS, I forget more on a daily basis than you even knew. That doesn’t mean I am the smartest person, but it does mean you are downright dumb.
ATS has no imagination and his responses are banal. Even now he is having difficulty responding so he makes sure what he says disappears from the net. He feels he needs to say something, but doesn’t know what.
====
>>“He hates that I proved him spiteful and uncaring of others. He hates when his comments are put in his face because he thinks he is totally anonymous.”
>lol
S. Meyer is projecting again.
RE: ““He hates that I proved him spiteful and uncaring of others. He hates when his comments are put in his face because he thinks he is totally anonymous.” Some of the conversations in these pages remind one of a JHS boys locker room during changing after gym class. Just whip out the ruler and see who has what! “Good grief”, Charley Brown! What ever happened to respectful disagreement and constructive criticism?
RE:”Hey, Meyer. Your mommy is calling you. She’s saying: “Meds and bed, little guy. No more playing on your computer, today.” Meyer is doing just fine,
Thanks, ZZ.
Anonymous the Stupid is just living up to his name. His response to Ashli Babbitt’s murder was “stupid woman”. That is the type of fellow he is. Be careful posting under his anonymous responses because many times he does that under a different address that he knows will be deleted along with everything else written brothers underneath.
He hates that I proved him spiteful and uncaring of others. He hates when his comments are put in his face because he thinks he is totally anonymous. Below is a link to one of my proofs that he controlled a lot of his deletions. One can search around that link for a better understanding. I predicted which one’s would be deleted.
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/08/03/msnbc-remains-silent-after-elie-mystal-unleashes-racist-attack-on-herschel-walker/comment-page-2/#comment-2209760
Anonymous the Stupid self deleted again but repeated himself. I won’t. More lawlessness from 2020.
#4 Alleged Bribery. The former state Supreme Court justice appointed by the Wisconsin Legislature to investigate the 2020 election concluded that millions of dollars in donations to election administrators in five Democrat-heavy municipalities from the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life violated state anti-bribery laws and corrupted election practices by turning public election authorities into liberal get-out-the-vote activists. “The Zuckerberg-funded CTCL/ Zuckerberg 5 scheme would prove to be an effective way to accomplish the partisan effort to ‘turnout’ their desired voters and it was done with the active support of the very people and the governmental institution (WEC) that were supposed to be guarding the Wisconsin elections administrative process from the partisan activities they facilitated,” Justice Michael Gableman wrote.
Illegal ballot harvesting in Wisconsin. Gableman also exposed an extensive vote collection operation, known as ballot harvesting, in nursing homes in which third-party activists illegally collected the ballots of vulnerable residents, some of whom lacked the mental or physical capacity to vote or were forbidden from voting by guardianship agreements. State election regulators “unlawfully directed the municipal clerks not to send out the legally required special voting deputies to nursing homes, resulting in many nursing homes’ registered residents voting at 100% rates and many ineligible residents voting, despite a guardianship order or incapacity,” Gableman wrote in his explosive report.
RE:”Justice Michael Gableman wrote…” I watched that Wisconsin Supreme Court hearing last year. A newly minted Justice was an Obama/Biden minion. The Chief Justice roasted them over the coals following the decision they handed down. One of them caved. A total embarrassment. Now the truth is out.
Anonymous:
Would you please link the report, if you have it handy? Would like to read it.
When all else fails, they call you names.
Its tribalism really. If my tribe does it its ipso facto ok
This is all the left has in their kit anymore. Reality has left the dems open and vacant of morality , ideas , truth. This Romanesque bread and Circus show the dem party and it’s media dogs are putting on is chock full of insanity , hate & shit stirring as they have nothing of substance to run with or on. When the spoxidiot of the biden regime can not put together a coherent let alone reality based position , and the VP of the admin can only produce low mental order word salads of dumb and dumber…how is potus supposed to fix that insanity…especially when the current potus is as feeble minded and partisan. America is in a bad place with such weak feckless leadership. We may never recover from this damaging admin in the worlds eyes.
Racism, in all its forms, is evil and ugly. It’s so disappointing to see the normalization of racism against black conservatives. Critics need to stick with policy arguments.
Indeed. How dare you go off and do what the conservatives tell you to do, black man. You have no ability to think for yourself. You should stay with us and do what the other 90% of us black people are doing Does this idiot even see the hypocrisy and what he spews? #lettheplantationthinkforyou.
RE:”Does this idiot even see the hypocrisy and what he spews?..” “Holy, Sowell, Steele, Woodson, Riley, and Owens, Batman!!” Nor do others of his ilk as well!!
Jonathan: Voters spoke out loudly in Kansas yesterday by saying they like the protection for abortion in the state’s constitution just as it is. But some in the anti-abortion crowd, including in this chatroom, are trying to put lipstick on a pig. They say not to the disappointed: “Hey, guys, the vote in Kansas was actually a victory for Federalism. There will be wins and there will be losses. All that happened in Kansas is that the status quo ante has been preserved. There was no victory for the pro-abortionists! Keep your eyes on the prize. We will have other opportunities to ensure that even a 10 yr. old girl will get the opportunity to experience the joy of motherhood”.
Sorry to rain on your parade folks but the vote yesterday was a barnburner–especially in a very “red” state like Kansas. The anti-abortion initiative backers had to lie to voters by claiming a “Yes” vote on the initiative was a pro-abortion vote. Women voters in particular saw through the lie. In fact, voter turnout yesterday in Kansas was at historic highs–and the margin was huge with 62% voting against the initiative. Voters were motivated to come out and vote in such large numbers because of the anti-abortion initiative. The pro-abortion vote in Kansas yesterday is also driving and effort now to put an initiative on the Missouri ballot to roll back the state’s “trigger” law. Success breeds success. The vote in Kansas yesterday showed that most voters believe every woman should be able to decide what is in her personal well being–her body should not be controlled by politicians. This is the first evidence of a major backlash against the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs. It probably will not be the last!
Dennis,
You said; “But some in the anti-abortion crowd, including in this chatroom, are trying to put lipstick on a pig. They say not to the disappointed: *** “Hey, guys, the vote in Kansas was actually a victory for Federalism. There will be wins and there will be losses. All that happened in Kansas is that the status quo ante has been preserved. There was no victory for the pro-abortionists! Keep your eyes on the prize. We will have other opportunities to ensure that even a 10 yr. old girl will get the opportunity to experience the joy of motherhood”.*** “
Please explain to us who you are quoting. Or is this something that you just made up?
You know, I’ve never realized it before now but it does appear that you put forth your best effort at mimicking Rep. Adam Schiff. Look at you, you have the completely nailed his ability to combine pseudo-melodrama with false claims to present a narrative that simply must be believed, the facts be damned.
The only question that remains is whether you have also mastered the ability to make your eyes bulge out while making your proclamations. Of course, this probably does not matter unless, like Schiff, you also have an impossibly large head precariously perched on an impossibly small neck. You have to have both to make a good, in person, impersonator.
As I heard a bit of Kansas news was voters didn’t fully understand the language in the Abortion bill. It wasn’t clear to me.
It’ll be back & rewritten to be clear to everyone.
AKA: Contract Law:
If you’ve read it 2 or the 3 times & it doesn’t make sense, it could be an accident, a scam maybe even “Inducement to Defraud”.
If you handed the jury your car insurance policy/homeowners policy could any one of them understand it!
Ok, maybe one out of 5000 jury members, but he’s a frickin oddball, maybe take him out & whack the crap out his back side with a switch until he’s learned English Comp! LOL;)
This was a victory for the people to make this decision, not the almighty federal government in DC.
Ray in SC: Yeah, the quote was all made up. I suppose I should have prefaced the quote by saying something like: “This is probably what the anti-abortion crowd will be telling their supporters…”. or something similar. But I expected most readers with brains bigger than a pea would understand the context of the hypothetical quote. When I put things in quotes I usually give attribution. But the substance of the quote was expressed by spokesperson for the anti-abortion crowd in Kansas and elsewhere. “Value Them Both”, the group that backed the amendment in Kansas, said the loss was a “temporary setback”. Other backers said pretty said much the same thing. Kansas AG Derek Schmidt, who is running for GOP governor, said the vote was disappointing but the Dobbs decision now allows voters to decide and he will abide by the decision. He has no “choice” in the matter unlike the women in Kansas.
There are some in this chatroom who think the vote in Kansas was flawed because the voters didn’t know what they were voting for. Oky1 says the abortion initiative language “wasn’t clear to me”. Phergus calls it a “Kamala word salad”…”designed to confuse and obfuscate”. The initiative to do away with the state’s constitutional protection for abortion was quite clear. In fact, it was the backers of the initiative who engaged in “confusion” and obfuscation by telling voters a “Yes” vote meant preserving abortion in the state. It appears you are not the only one with a pea brain!
But back to my comment. I particularly like the part of my quote about the 10 yr girl. That was not my invention, although when the story first broke Fox News and many in the GOP said it had been “invented” by the Dems. It was a reference to the Ohio girl who was forced to travel to Indiana for an abortion. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed his state’s abortion ban that makes abortion illegal–even for 10 yr. old girls. National Right to Life thinks abortion means what it says. No exceptions. Apparently they, and Mike DeWine, think a 10 yr. old girl should also enjoy the experience of childbirth.
No, I stand by my hypothetical quote. It reflects the views of many in the anti-abortion movement. And, no, Adam Schiff did not help me with my comment. So here’s a Q for you. Had my hypothetical been an actual quote from someone in the anti-abortion crowd would you have objected? I don’t want to put words in your mouth on top of an impossibly large head and impossibly small neck. So let’s hear from the guy with a pea brain!
Dennis,
“Yeah, the quote was all made up. I suppose I should have prefaced the quote by saying something like: “This is probably what the anti-abortion crowd will be telling their supporters…”. or something similar. But I expected most readers with brains bigger than a pea would understand the context of the hypothetical quote.”
That is very similar to the excuse offered by Schiff when he was caught making up quotes. Beyond that, your attempt to insult me lacks a logical basis because I clearly knew that you were lying, that is why I called you out.
Dennis , have you read the question on the ballot about Abortion that was proffered up in Kansas ?…have you ?. It’s a Kamala word salad of stupid. Lawyers are even commenting on how it reads so incredibly confusing – it’s intent no doubt to be so and muddy the issue and voters up. So please dont be smug and assume you know what the people of kansas wanted and what they voted for. Read that of which was put to the voters and you will see govt apparatchik word salad designed to confuse and obfuscate that issue.
The vote is a loss for those in Kansas that wish to restrict abortion.
But it is a win for Dobb’s.
The people of Kansas were able to make a choice.
maybe they understood what they were voting for.
maybe they were deceived.
Regardless they made a choice.
That is what Dobbs was about.
That’s what the Dobbs decision was all about. It is not a backlash. This is how it is supposed to work. It is up to each state to decide if they are for killing babies and if they can kill them even post birth.
BUT,,, the pure beauty of Dobbs, Those that disagree can elect new representatives and VOTE again.
RE:”That’s what the Dobbs decision was all about…” Precisely, and now Biden will endeavor, by executive order, to circumvent the SCOTUS ruling, and that will have to be tested further as to whether his doing so is in violation of Medicare guidelines preventing the use of Medicare dollars for facilitating access to ‘abortion services’. Around, and around we go, dead babies notwithstanding.
Has absolutely nothing to do with the point of Mr. Turley’s article.
Being silent after racist attacks is standard for JT. What is the problem?
Elie Mystal is a good example of putting lipstick on a pig.
if you see photos of him without the drag queen afro wig, he looks like he has anencephaly (microbrain). This may explain some things….
🤔
https://famous-celebrities.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Elie-Mystal.jpg
About the only thing good about this guy is he’s got great head to place to start a mattress factory.
“You ask why are Republicans backing this man who’s so clearly unintelligent”
Pot.. kettle…
..we suppose the same could be asked of the Dems.. why would they back a man who was known for often helping himself to the Church (of which he was the ‘minister’) collection basket … we suppose his ability to get away with it defines him as ‘intelligent…………………..’
Hutu vs Tutsi. Mandela’s Xhosa vs Zulu. Kenyan elite vs deplorables. Chinese Han vs other races vs Uighurs, Taliban vs women and girls. there are diverse precedents for diversity [dogma] exploited for leverage to suppress, abort competing interests from the womb to the stage to the pulpit to the battlefield.