Rugby Saint II

I just want for one thing to come out of the elections. Get that racist Trump out of the White House and get the Republicans out of power in the Senate. Can you believe that the Republicans refuse to outlaw lynching?

Obama did great things for this country and Trump has worked hard to roll back everything that Obama accomplished to protect the people and the planet.

WillMacKenzie

Rugby, do you honestly believe any of these Senators or Congressmen are for lynching? Even I have a hard time believing that, and I'm pretty cynical lol. Murder is already illegal, and so are hate crime acts.

This is another ridiculous phenomenon of politics: introduce a huge list of items that the majority of people agree with, except for 2 or 3 suspicious items -- then market the bill failure as an endorsement, by the opposition, of whatever it is the bill was purporting to "fix." Both sides do it. It's the nature of being captive to the lies that got them all elected. (you have to continue lying to maintain such a system)

If you read the bill, it's pretty clear to me that Congress is trying to establish broader interpretations of hate crimes, as well as federal authority to punish even the "conspiracy" of a hate crime as if the act had actually been done.

In my opinion, that makes us all LESS safe, not more safe.

Think about the implications of being accused of the conspiracy of hate crimes. Anyone on Twitter or Facebook would easily be capable, with enough things taken out of context, to frame just about anyone. Even on this board. It's all in writing.

Smollet could've had 2 innocent guys put away for 10 years by accusation alone.

Getting too caught up in the hate crime thing is dangerous, because motives are hard enough to prove as it is, and now throw in a highly emotionally charged environment, and you might literally be charged with a hate crime for trying to stop a protestor from vandalizing your business.

Lets not get to the point where we can so easily accuse someone of being a racist with no credible proof of such a thing. The only thing we'll accomplish is more paranoia and a positive feedback loop of doubling down on things that neither of us can prove except for damaging our own respect for each other.

Not trying to argue with you, just trying to express what I think is a real dangerous road with some pretty scary consequences.