Han Held

Republican spokesman: ‘Let’s hurl some acid’ at female Democratic senators

The article mistakenly says that the comment was taken down. It's not (you can see it here https://www.facebook.com/NY19CDC/posts/419354794763507) it was just pushed to the back, if you click "view the previous comments" it's 5th comment down.

I can't believe this shit --and I'm flabbergasted that he's probably going to get away with it, too.

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with eyes closed
misunderstanding all you read

Chandra Masala

What the ever loving fuck. Why am I not surprised.

Brenda Archer

The troglodytes are out of control.

I just ordered a book that talks about how, when some women tried to use the system to protect their daughters from being abused, they wound up accused instead and lost custody to the abuser. It's awful. I've met people this happened to. You have to wonder about a public that allows some of the judges we have to still serve. The good ol' boy network seems to be made up of people quite a bit more corrupt than the average person.

Patriarchy is alive and well and not about to give up one iota of its privileges without a nasty, dragged out fight. We are all programmed to react to authority with fear and guilt and quite naturally the corruption takes advantage of that on scales large and small.

Decent women and men look at the stuff that goes on and are naturally horrified. In a way you're lucky if you can't figure out what goes on the heads of some people. It's really quite primitive.

I know I'm going a little off topic here but in a way it's all connected. We can assume someone willing to joke about throwing acid at a stranger has no problem with smacking a hard fist across his wife.

I don't know if society will ever get better or if it will just always be the case that some men are dangerous, and society will ignore it, and all women (and the men who care about them) will always need a backup plan in case someone goes out of control.

Richie Waves

They are basically the American Taliban.

Eris

Time for a visit from the Secret Service.

Ann Otoole

incitement. some iq 20 teabagger will actually do this shit.

Kara Spengler

I was thinking the same thing. It is illegal to make a threat against POTUS. Even the most insane one will introduce you to a few agents. I am sure there is something like that for the other co-equal branches.

If someone said 'democrats' 'republicans' or 'congress' they could claim to be speaking about a large group rather than targeting individuals. Since the women's caucus is so small though it is not an unreasonable claim that it is against a small collection of individuals.

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Aimee Weber

Oh yeah. Big time.

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Rosemaery Lorefield

What in the actual fuck is wrong with these people?

Bunjie

I don't know who he is and I don't care other than having to point this out, it says on the article, "Townsend is described on his own personal website an "adept wordsmith," but you're obviously here to paint him negatively based on what YAHOO of all sites tells you because you can't think critically about the bullshit you're being fed.


so No! "What in the actual fuck is wrong with" You and the rest of you people posting on this? it's not literal to throw acid is like saying to throw mud or throw venomous words, it's English language 101.


He means to throw it back in their face AKA words or their own words, not actual fucking ACID how stupid do you have to be to think he means real acid? I know America has education issues but don't make it obvious by posing like that... or twisting it to your POV or liberal agenda... or what ever psychosis you have that makes you want to 'hate on person or movement X,Y,Z' go back to collage and learn the English language not the American literal stupidity that is taught today.


Please, please go and get a real education so we don't have to suffer you going around taking everything literal and so you can understand the context it's posted in. Because that's how wars start, when one side is too stupid to understand what the other means.


I can respect you but I can't respect lies, false witness, or stupidity.. learn the difference..

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Richie Waves

Right wing conservatives actually throw acid in childrens faces in Afghanistan.

Roxanne Blue

They're desperately afraid of the altered demographics, and that's why you see so many Republican-enacted state laws aimed at suppressing the Democratic vote and new voter registrations. Even their math-phobic brains can calculate that the new demographic trends spell major trouble for a party based largely on white male privilege. Mitt Romney is the walking, talking incarnation of white male privilege, and even his "funny" religion is unlikely to scare away much of the GOP base.

Florida has just been told its latest effort to criminalize actions long protected in voter registration drives is patently unconstitutional. Naturally, for our governor, Dread Scott, that means we'll waste millions more to appeal a law that was DOA when enacted. As in 2000, the lists that Florida agencies have produced of supposed ineligible voters / felons are rife with errors, that lean heavily to disenfranchising minorities and Democrats. They hope that most of the people they are incorrectly informing of their supposed ineligible status will simply accept that as true, and not appeal or vote. The coordinated national effort to do the same in your state is proceeding apace.

They will say or do anything to win this election because they need to be able to stack the deck to hold onto control.

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Rosemaery Lorefield

Hmm. Yahoo told me that it is posted on Facebook, which is verified.

I rightly don't know who the hell you are and don't care if you respect me. I have no idea why you would/would not choose to respect someone you don't know at all, much less tell them why.

Beebo Brink

I don't see this as a literal threat and my interpretation of the use of the word "acid" in this context would be the same as "vitriol." He's advocating strong language in rebuttal.

That being said, given the stupidity of his own audience, it wouldn't surprise me if some missed the difference and took it literally. Vitrol would have been a better word choice, less ambiguous or prone to misinterpretation as an incitement to physical violence.

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Rosemaery Lorefield

Oh! And fuck off I think it's pretty clear how I feel about "yooz caint reed" and all variations on that theme while used in a written context.

Amelia E

Acid it thrown in the face of women and children everyday in the middle east, to keep them in their place or to punish them for disobeying men. It isn't just a coincidence that this excuse for a man used this particular wording. Using the throwing of acid in women's faces as a metaphor is about as sensible as using putting Jews in the gas chamber or hanging people of color from a tree as a metaphor, and is just as offensive.

In the US and Canada, there have been over 100 acid attacks against women's health clinics.

You know, I usually try to stay away from commenting on politics, but I can't just let this man's calling for acid attacks on women, when it actually, really happens every day be dismissed as "metaphor" or "he didn't really mean it." It wasn't a metaphor. It was vile and blatant hate speech against women. Period. Full stop.

Rosemaery Lorefield

I wish someone would tell the creeps that their actions are unconstitutional more often :/

Rosemaery Lorefield

This exactly. In context, his statement still sounds literal. Only because it is so outrageous, it is obviously not literal. His audience can't pick up on the subtleties of language so well.

Eris

An "adept wordsmith" chooses their words carefully. "Vitriol" would have been a better choice of that had been what he meant. He didn't use it for a reason.

Beebo Brink

Yes, one does have to wonder. He's either not quite as adept as he claims or he deliberately used a word that would incite, with the intention of providing plausible deniability when challenged.

I don't know enough about this particular person to judge intent.

Mr. B

Let's hope nobody literally does anything like that.
However many groups seem to have at least one 'Ann Otoole'.

Isabeau Imako

Compare the times you've heard 'hurl some acid at those females' as a metaphor, and the times you've heard about it being used to describe actual acid being thrown in the face of women across the globe. Please, you're grasping at straws. Especially when in the phrase right before, he mentions the war on women.

Google 'throw acid in someone's face' and see how many pages are about it being used as a metaphor.

Tracer Graves

STFU, ass.

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Autumn Palen

Yeah, I don't think anyone who is concerned with Townsend's post believes he is literally advocating throwing acid at female senators. It's obviously political rhetoric.

The problem is that particular rhetoric is strongly associated with the real world practice of violence against women Acid throwing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A documentary of the subject even won an Academy Award this year:
Saving Face (2012 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Given Townsend's education and experience, I find it difficult to believe he wasn't at least peripherally aware of the associations that phrase would have, particularly in the context of discussing the war on women.

But, giving him the benefit of the doubt, I still would believe that type of rhetoric, even if he meant simply vitriol or venomous words, isn't appropriate for political discourse.

Arkady Arkright

Could i just point out that not all we Brits are as much of a fuckwit as Bunjie ?