Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas blasts progressivism as threat to America
Clarence Thomas on Wednesday delivered a televised broadside against progressivism, a political philosophy he described as an existential threat to America and the principles that founded it 250 years ago.
“Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government,” Thomas said in a speech at the University of Texas Austin Law School pegged to the nation’s upcoming milestone birthday.
A spirit of “cynicism, rejection, hostility and animus” toward America -- by Americans -- has taken hold, Thomas said in remarks carried live on CSPAN.
https://abcnews.com/Politics/supreme-court-justice-clarence-thomas-blasts-progressivism-threat/story?id=132084353Open linkView original on lemmy.world359
Comments99
Is this man aware he is black?
Back in the day, certain slaves were "house slaves" who were still treated like shit and beat. But were "allowed" to do work in the plantation house instead of the fields.
They were often more racist then the slave owners. The only way they could build themselves up was by tearing their brothers and sisters down.
The worst the slave owner consider them, the better the ones in the house seemed by default.
While Thomas should be aware of all that as a "legal scholar" who would have had to study shit like this for years...
The mentality isn't relegated to just slavery.
Pick any random minority, and you can find a member who does similar.
So he probably wouldn't mind if slavery came back, because in his head he'd still be one of the "valuable exceptions" and has done the mental gymnastics to think he'd even hold onto his position.
Understanding how they think is important to stop them.
He should ask the Jews for Hitler how it went for them
See Latinos for Trump.
Their
leader/founderprominent cameraman/journalist(?) got deported this past week.Leopards eating good.
This unfortunately, too real, truth nuke. It’s really unfortunate that people who have mentality exists no matter their skin color or ethnicity
Black people can be conservative, even Trumpists, and stupid, too.
They're not a hivemind.
They're a cult, so there's not really that much of a difference.
Thomas has been a weird and terrible person for decades, long before MAGA.
He was one of the main pushers of Citizens United, for example. He really believes that wealth should provide more political influence.
There are always collaborators
He is aware that he wants to pull the ladder up on other POC right the fuck last year.
It's worth listening to the More Perfect podcast episode on wtf Clarance Thomas's ideological deal is.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolabmoreperfect/episodes/clarence-x
Any chance of a TL;DL?
He's a corrupt sexual assaulter who thinks black people shouldn't receive any assistance despite the lack of civil rights they've historically had, and feels liberals are the cause of all his problems and intends to piss them off every chance he gets.
Pretty much the MAGA political platform.
Fred Hampton once said (paraphrasing from memory) "a pig is a pig is a pig. No matter black, white, yellow, or polka dot".
I think this applies here in the sense that race can be ignored as a factor in the corrupt, the same way you can rule out a coherent doctrine. The only academic question about Thomas is has he received a bribe, or is he angling for a gratuity?
I'm saying this as someone who's tried to comprehend his political/ legal philosophy for years. Observers have often said that Thomas believes that black Americans can find more equality in capital than they can with the franchise. The reasoning goes that black Americans can never rely on voting because they're a permanent minority and therefore perpetually dependent on the good will of white America; good will that can never be trusted. Valid point IMO. But nah... Justice Thomas was just corrupt.
He had nephew he had been the legal guardian of he cut contact with when was 19 and Harlan Crowe stopped paying for his tuition.
He's literally an Uncle Tom.
Seems fair, as progressives would describe Thomas as a threat to America.
When they say America they mean me.
As in: "Me first" or "democrats are the biggest threat to me"
As a pragmatic pro gun progressive, I can confirm this
Corrupt hack should eat shit.
Nazi daddy just bought him an RV. He stops and he gets cut off. Poor dude.
Clarence wants another new RV.
Well if he is so against progress, we can get him to start picking cotton again
Yeah Thomas has done about as much harm to black people as anybody living. He's incompetent and undeserving of his appointment.
And strikingly corrupt as well.
His last name is Tom. I wonder if he has any nieces or nephews.
I will now forever refer to him as Justice Uncle Tom. Thank you.
Maybe only count his rulings as 3/5 of a justice.
Came here to express the exact same sentiment. The ol' boy can start tomorrow if he means it.
He always reminds me of the head servant dude there in ‘Django Unchained’ who told on them.
So black people only deserve freedom from slavery if they're progressive?
do you warm up before twisting your logic so hard?
Fuck off and die already
You do realize who would appoint his replacement, right??
Amended sentiment: Wait for Dems to retake Congress in the midterms and then fuck off and die.
"We cannot elect a new judge in a election year" such obvious tactics. Annoying it worked for gop but never against them
Or just keep voting against whatever justice Trump nominates, until time runs out.
This one? Nope.
This one? Nope.
This one? Nope.
This one? Nope.
This one? Nope.
And just repeat that until Trump is out of office and no longer able to nominate justices.
Supposedly I'm not allowed to condone these things I'm not willing to condemn, so we can't talk about how he ought to die.
Nothing more pathetic than a man who hates himself so much that he's willing to take his whole race and country back four centuries just to feel superior. Fuck you, Clarence.
Black man resents equal rights, news at 11. Clarence Thomas is the epitome of "fuck you I got mine"
MAGAts are a threat to the whole world.
The entire US justice system is the enemy of the people.
Progressivism means Americans criticize America because they are interested in making it better. Conservativism refuses to criticize America because it has no interest in making it better.
And that's why conservativism is ultimately so pathetic. To fix flaws you have to admit to them, and put in work to change your own habits and the world around you, both of which are hard. To refuse to acknowledge flaws is easy, and you don't have to fix anything about yourself or the world. It's a fundamentally infantile, weak way of existing.
When I see people with Thomas' opinions, I think, "Well, there's a child whose mind just got older, but never grew up." It's incredible to realize, as an adult, just how many of the "adults" around us fit that model, and how much power they often end up having.
Convservatism criticizes America all the fucking time. Anytime anybody in America gets a little too "woke" for them.
Small but very important distinction:
They criticize Americans. They think (or act that way for the cameras) that America is perfect and everything is preordained. That is a point of faith, not-coincidentally - criticizing America elicits the same defensiveness as criticizing their religion. Any issues are with flawed Americans misinterpreting the grand plan of the Founders (as if they didn't also disagree with each other) or God, but nobody gets away with trashing "America," except Trump whose believers instantly recompile it to mean "America-as-long-as-it's-run-by-democrats-and-women-and-non-whites-and-woke-ideology."
This is why conservatives routinely separate people into "real Americans" versus everyone else.
I'd just like to add that freely and openly criticizing your country, its government, and its leadership is the founding ideal of America. It's rich that he brings up "the premise of the declaration of independence and hence our form of government" as if exercising freedom of speech is not the cornerstone of both.
Biden ran the Senate judiciary committee for approving Thomas and buried Anita hills testimony on Thomas's sexual harassment, after promising Hill time to speak. Yet another win for the centrists that keeps on giving all these years later. That fiasco alone should have sunk that aipac idiot's chances at the vp and then president spots. And it is one of innumerable outright idiotic fuckups of Biden's career.
This right here, this Clarence Thomas BS, is the inevitable result of centrists philosophies.
Man who 100% benefitted from progressive policies in his youth seeks to pull ladderup behind him. Tale as old as time. Hell, he said he used a Carnegie library before desegregation.
Progressivism is why he’s allowed to be married to a white woman
Blatantly corrupt judges are the real threat
If he doesn't understand the definition of "progressive", he is not mentally competent to be a judge at any level.
This fucking hump belongs in prison, and so does his treasonous bulldog wife.
Fucking, 30 years of bad headlines from this one POS.
WHERE THE HELL ARE THE:
term limits/ votes of no confidence/ calls for impeachment/ efforts to reform the Judicial/ ... The adults?
I was ranting about this the other day, I'm afraid that most people, at least most Americans, are not good enough at standing up to authority for America to fundamentally work as it is supposed to. Some jobs, especially in politics and law, inherently require a pathological John Adams-like willingness to be a problem for the whole ship to stay afloat.
I don't really know about term limits. Maybe people should be forced to take a break now and then no more than two consecutive terms in a row and not more than a third of the terms over some period of time just to prevent entrenchment, but I don't want to stop people from voting for whoever they want to vote for generally.
I care about term lengths far more. Life terms? Yeah, no. To me, 6-8 years would a lot more reasonable maybe ten years if you really believe it'd be too unstable otherwise, but these lifetime appointments are insane. Honestly, I'm surprised terms that long don't make them assassination targets. We should shorten their terms to prevent them from becoming targets for people who target those with too much power.
What?!? The central idea of progressivism is egalitarianism, or to put it another way, All Men Are Created Equal..... What kind of an RV or Private Island retreat paid for this ironclad legal and historical reasoning?
Maybe he’s jumping in on the dementia train?
Every accusation is a confession.
Supreme Court Justice Uncle Ruckus
He sees the threat every day in the morning when he looks in the mirror.
Take the camper bribe Clarence and then never leave the woods again.
He what? Blasted his head off? He... oh. Never mind 😞
Uncle Clarence taking up for his masters again I see.
Progressivism is bad? Well, time to become a slave again then, asshole.
The biggest piece of trash to ever disgrace the Supreme Court and a failure of a human being.
They are indeed a threat to his supply of free yachts
Correct. It is a threat to YOUR America.
He seems uncomfortable with a world where he couldn't openly take bribes.
How nakedly partisan of him. Completely unbecoming of a judge. What an embarrassment.
No reh-lay-shun
He knows progressivism will undo his life's work.
And he's egotistical enough to think that his life's work = America.
"America is the land of opportunity for one thing and one thing only: capital. Its why we believe in Capitalism. Communism? No, Community is evil. Socialism? No, Socializing is evil. Progressivism? No, Progress is evil. Environmentalism? No, the Environment is evil. Welfare? No, Wellness is evil."
If this guy thinks its a threat, its probably where you should be putting your energy.
Well, I'm a Land Back lefty, so yeah... I definitely do think America and its values should fuck right off.
All of these right wingers are so fucking weird. Apparently, Thomas likes to talk about the porn he watches with other people.
Uncle Thomas hoping he can caddy for Trump Jr if he says the right words.
Don't you got cotton to pick, house slave?
I know everyone is up in arms on his content (I am too), but did I miss something with a Supreme Court Justice going on TV like this in the first place?
Edit: Ah it was at a speech to the UT School of Law.
retire faster
He's actually a moron, completely misinterpreted Woodrow Wilson, like not even close to what Wilson was actually writing about.
he's not a moron, he's evil. this is intentional twisting to fit his agenda.
He's both, dumb people can twist things too.
fair. however, i don't think he's dumb as a general rule. he certain is at times though.. often.
How does someone this out-of-touch with political philosophy, end up a Supreme Court Justice?
Using science including research and facts to direct social policy is a threat to White Nationalism, Neocons, and Neoliberals. Not so much for everyone else.
Kind of funny though, because I was just thinking a week ago about when they are going to start actively demonizing progressives again.
Hey, Uncle Thomas, progressivism is the reason you're sitting on the Supreme Court and cruising around in that RV instead of picking cotton in some cracker's field.
Fucking idiot.
That's right. Thinking is a threat of america. Don't think, just pray and obey. You will do what your masters tell you and nothing more. They'll tell you what to think. What to say. How to dress. How to get plastic surgery....
Insanity that this is a supreme court justice.
Only thing it's a threat to is his next
bribesuite of undeclared giftsThere wasn't a fucking independent country until the Declaration of Independence and we were only onboard with the idea because of "hostility and animus" towards King George.
He's free to find the descendants of the people that enslaved his ancestors and enter into a life of involuntary servitude again; it's a free country.
Corrupt Uncle Tom and his traitor of a wife need to sit down and STFU.
Corrupt cunt, clearl6 we're doing something right
Wow, that was a loud blast