Congressman Adam Smith says ‘totalitarian’ protesters are ‘trying to silence anyone who dares to disagree with them’
accidentally posted this in world news before bcs i forgot about the no internal US news rule by accident
Congressman Adam Smith says ‘totalitarian’ protesters are ‘trying to silence anyone who dares to disagree with them’
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.”
I was outraged by the headline, but he said protestors should be arrested in the context of protesting outside of someone’s home. While I don’t think I agree with that, I can at least understand why he would feel that constitutes intimidation.
Yeah his whole tirade is ludicrous and he sounds like an absolute asshat, but someone reportedly vandalized his home, and that's crossing a very big line. He should shut the hell up about whatever he thinks "leftwing fascism" is, and they should stop vandalizing people's homes.
Aren't there harassment laws that should already cover this? Protesting outside of a business should be fine. But protesting outside of living areas feels like targeted harassment.
This is the most incoherent thing I've ever seen...
By speaking out, these "totalitarian" protesters are silencing everyone else and challenging representative democracy? And to stop them from silencing others, they must be arrested to prevent them from speaking?
Dude, this couldn't have sounded good in your fucking head...
This is beyond double speak. It doesn't even need to make sense anymore. As in, like, they don't even need to form a complete, coherent sentence anymore.
They don't need to. They've had far more success with the big lie than anyone ever expected, I believe.
Strange .. I don't remember storming a capital building trying to subvert our democratic process....
All I suggested is that not everyone in Gaza is Hamas. That 6 year old girls are way to young to understand what a Nazi even is.
And that Israel's tactics for a hostage situation is deplorable. Considering they used more Bombs in a week then the USA dropped in Afghanistan in a year.
We have anti-genocide parties. The problem is not enough Americans are willing to vote for them or organize for them as alternatives to the Democrat and Republican parties. Plus the coffers for the Democrats and Republicans are filled by corporations, so it's grassroots funding vs multi-billion dollar industry donations and super PACs.
What an absolute dickbag. He even complains about silent protests that are 100% peaceful. Maybe if your stance is so weak that silent protestors are enough to derail your plans, you should rethink your stance. He even downplays children being killed.
Also, if we are talking about silencing opposite points of views, how many pro-Israel people in the US have been kicked out of school, arrested, vilified in the mainstream press, or fired from their jobs?
Are Zionists disrupting a lot of learning institutions?
And it's not about pro-israel VS. Pro-palestine. The issue is much more nuanced. You people realize a terrorist organization is the representative government of Palestine, right? They chant "death to america" and their founding charter calls for the eradication of all jews. They still have, and are probably still torturing and raping hostages. You're cheering for the scum of the earth.
Both sides have done shitty things, but things will never get better as long as Hamas controls the territory. They have no interest in peace.
What is the ratio of Hamas members getting killed to civilians getting killed? That is the problem people have.
You’re cheering for the scum of the earth.
You are such a fucking ignorant dipshit if you really think people are cheering Hamas. Either you are an unbelievably stupid fucking moron if you actually think that, or you are an evil piece of shit who is lying to defend what you think is justified genocide. Nobody is cheering Hamas. Even the people of Gaza, who haven't voted for Hamas as their representative government in 17 years because they aren't allowed to, aren't cheering Hamas. Nobody is cheering anything, honestly. People are outraged at the number of civilians killed and the US's continued support of a government that is perpetrating the mass killing of civilians. Hamas killed 1200 people in a horrific, evil, awful, unspeakable act in October. Israel has so far killed 33,000 Palestinians in response. Of that, 13,000 were children. People aren't cheering Hamas, they are outraged that Israel has killed 13,000 children in response to 780 civilians being killed. Israel has killed more journalists, health, and aid workers (803) in Gaza than all civilians killed by Hamas.
Are Zionists disrupting a lot of learning institutions?
People have been kicked out of school and fired from jobs at learning institutions for speaking out against Israel's actions. So yeah, Zionists have disrupted learning institutions.
Hani Na’eem School of Agriculture,
Abu Tammam’s Basic School,
Hayel Abdel Hameed School,
Mahdeya el Shawa School,
Subhi Abu Karsh School,
The Shujayea Martyrs School,
Beit Dajan School,
Ali Bin Abi Talib School,
Shujayea Basic School,
Abbas Secondary School,
Jamal Abd el Nasser School,
Moaz Bin Jabal School,
Mahatet Miyah el Karamah School,
Caesarea School,
Sukina Bin Hussein School,
Khawla Bint el Azur School,
Rudolph Filter School,
Ibn Zaidun School,
El Bareej School,
Fathi el Balawi School,
Maari School for Girls,
Maari School for Boys,
Ibn el Nafis School,
Absan New School,
Ghassan Kanafani School for Girls,
Ghassan Kanafani School for Boys.
Are Zionists disrupting a lot of learning institutions?
More than 350 Schools in Gaza have been fully destroyed or severely damaged. The 7 universities of Gaza have been destroyed. 26 Hospitals have been destroyed, leaving no hospital standing to be a place for teaching new doctors.
And that is not talking about the thousands of students, teachers, professors, doctors and other education personnel that was killed.
If we look outside of Gaza, we see Zionists demanding legitimate protests to be shut down, protesting students to be denied access to education, among other places in Germany and the US. In Germany the state of Berlin has imposed a new law that demands universities to throw students out, if they are accused of "antisemitism" regardless of there being a criminal conviction or comparable level of proof.
Pretty standard perspective for a politician that has been in office since the 90s.
When you really haven't felt accountability for decades, it probably feels intimidating. He might have to, you know, represent these opinions from his constituents somehow.
We used to have a centrist and far right party. And before that, for a brief time, we had a liberal and a Conservative party.
One party makes outrageous and unreasonable demands that only move to the right, and the other party is happy to negotiate with those demands, and so the country moves further and further to the right.
We're told the only way to stop this is to keep doing what we've already been doing.
From an outside perspective you have a an economic far right party with gay rights and systemic racism and genocidal imperialism as well as a fascist party w.o. gay rights
I can't wait to vote him out of office. He has done little for the state and district, and clearly doesn't give a shit.
I like how he said intimidation is the tactic they're using (while calling them fascists) and in the same breath says the protesters should be arrested. He's literally complaining about fascism while supporting it himself.
Arresting people who break the law is not fascism. Do you not think it should be illegal to totally disrupt government assemblies and college campuses? Or do you only think it's ok when you agree with it? What if all these protests were anti-abortion protests, would you still be OK with them setting up shanty towns on campuses and disrupting classes?
Lefties are getting as bad as Republicans with diluting language.
"the ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee"
Oh you mean the guy who almost certainly is being paid by the military industrial complex to keep arms sales going as much as humanly possible? That tracks.
Get fucked Smith. Hope your "totalitarian" base votes you the fuck out.
This is your daily reminder that the Democratic party is right wing and are just as ignorant of the mere definition of “leftist” as the Republican fascists are.
Fucking Orwellian ghoul. Shit like this only helps Trump. What the hell is he trying to accomplish by calling anti-genocide protestors fascists? Who does he think is going to believe it?
What he means is, they're challenging this fucked system that doesn't represent people equally. 2 senators per state, gerrymandering, and the electoral college. This guy is a fascist himself, and that's why he immediately calls his opposition fascist. Imagine calling people who want a ceasefire fascist? That is something Joseph Goebbels would have said I bet. We don't have a representative democracy.
Don't you get it? If they want to save the hostages they need to flatten the buildings they're in and cut off the supplies of food and water that Hamas are feeding them with, oh and they also need to shoot the unarmed Israeli civilian hostages because they thought they were unarmed Palestinian civilians!