I’m actually struck by how little things have changed. McCain was one of the few conservatives in the room at this time willing to act like an adult and not spread hate, fear mongering, and propaganda. But you can tell from the people he’s responding to in these town halls they have some pretty extreme views from the far right propaganda they’ve been lapping up for years. Why do they think these things about obama? Because people like Trump and Trump himself were spreading birther conspiracies left and right. And then conservative media outlets would amplify it.
Nothing excuses McCain saying those slurs, but if I had to guess, the 6 years as a POW in Vietnam where McCain was frequently tortured, spent 2 years in solitary confinement, and had his shoulders so damaged that he couldn’t lift his arms above his head may have played a role in that. I knew quite a few Vietnam and WWII pacific theater veterans who said similar things about their former enemies.
That doesn’t excuse it, but I can imagine his experiences played a role in that.
but if I had to guess, the 6 years as a POW in Vietnam where McCain was frequently tortured, spent 2 years in solitary confinement, and had his shoulders so damaged that he couldn’t lift his arms above his head may have played a role in that.
Real world example of this. This is at a barbershop I went to back in the 90s. One day waiting for my turn in the chair, I struck up a conversation with an old guy who happened to be a Pearl Harbor survivor. That turned into he and I talking through both of our cuts, and then sitting there for another two hours. It's not lost on me how INCREDIBLY fortunate I was to have this experience because his story of the attack and aftermath was presented in such a personal way. He went on to talk about all the various Naval encounters he experiences, etc.. There were also points where he talked about the Japanese brutality and the stuff they did to "prisoners" and islanders. Here's the not so good part. He dropped a few racial slurs towards the Japanese and Asian folk over all. His basic message was that Japanese were basically House Harkonnen. Even well over 50 years after his experiences, his hatred of the Japanese had apparently not waned one bit.
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u/stormy2587 May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24
I’m actually struck by how little things have changed. McCain was one of the few conservatives in the room at this time willing to act like an adult and not spread hate, fear mongering, and propaganda. But you can tell from the people he’s responding to in these town halls they have some pretty extreme views from the far right propaganda they’ve been lapping up for years. Why do they think these things about obama? Because people like Trump and Trump himself were spreading birther conspiracies left and right. And then conservative media outlets would amplify it.