Your Words Say More About You Than Me

Honestly Mara, this says much more about you than it does me: NYT, MSNBC’s Mara Gay: ‘Disturbing’ to see ‘dozens of American flags’ on trucks on Long Island

Ok, so she’s on the editorial board of the New York Times, and this is America after all – she’s allowed her ignorant, incorrect opinions just like the next guy (unless you support President Trump).

It turns out Mara is offended by Trump supporters, who she believes are all knuckle-dragging, flag waving white supremacists.

“I was on Long Island this weekend visiting a really dear friend, and I was really disturbed. I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with explicatives [sic] against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and in some cases just dozens of American flags, which is also just disturbing … Essentially the message was clear: This is my country. This is not your country. I own this,” Gay said.

She claimed Americans would continue to see things like that until the country was ready to have the conversation about “whiteness,” adding her concern that “a large percentage of Americans” don’t understand the threat that it is.

First of all Mara, are you trying to tell me that there were no anti-Trump bumper stickers with “explicatives” on them from 2016-20? Or were they okay because…Trump!?  Secondly, what part of the American flag do you find disturbing? Why is this just fine:

Minneapolis, 2020

…but this is not?

Long Island, 2021

The NYT defended their editorial board member, claiming her words were “taken out of context” which has become the default argument when you have nothing.

Feel free to view the full “context” of her MSNBC clip to confirm there is no other argument to be made. That she was talking about this in context of the January 6 “insurrection” changes absolutely nothing, her words are her words:

“The reality is here that we have a large percentage of the American population — I don’t know how big it is, but we have tens of millions of Trump voters who continue to believe that their rights as citizens are under threat by simple virtue of having to share the democracy with others,” Gay said in response to MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski calling for an investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

“I think that as long as they see Americanness as the same as one with whiteness, this is going to continue,” Gay said, turning to race and adding that “Americanness” and “whiteness” needed to be separated.

Let alone a seat on the New York Times editorial board

Note: Raj’s knee replacement surgery is scheduled for 2:40 pm, a most obnoxious time for a diabetic but my appeals were ignored. If you are one of the prayer warriors around here, said prayers would, as always, be gratefully appreciated.