Group of online trolls fakes an antifa protest against the statue of Sam Houston, which draws actual counter-protesters, which then broke into arguments in smaller factions.
http://www.houstonpress.com/news/heavily...ps-9517542
It's not entirely clear*, but ironically it appears that the pro-Confederacy group is also pro-Sam Houston.
*It's not clear because apparently the pro-Confederacy group wouldn't speak to the reporter, but also because that section of the article is poorly written.
Quote:A few of them taunted the nonexistent Antifa protesters, inviting people in the crowd to give suggestions as to why they hadn’t arrived.
“They missed the bus!” one woman shouted — an apparent reference to the conspiracy theory that shadowy elites hire professional protesters to sow discord against President Donald Trump.
I would like to think that the shouting woman is not a latter-day conspiracy theorist, but rather a student of history who knows that "missed the bus" is a phrase with a significant historical pedigree: Neville Chamberlain famously used the phrase to taunt Hitler in early April 1940 when, seven months after the allies had declared war on Germany, Hitler still had not attacked France or Britain. Chamberlain told the House of Commons: "Whatever may be the reason—whether it was that Hitler thought he might get away with what he had got without fighting for it, or whether it was that after all the preparations were not sufficiently complete—however, one thing is certain: he missed the bus."
Four days later, Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway, and the Commons mercilessly turned the phrase against Chamberlain, who entered the House to jeering shouts of "Missed the bus!" And of course, Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and France the following month.
In general, the idea of a protester making such a subtle and clever historical reference is unlikely. On the other hand, a person who is not only rallying to preserve a statue of a 19th history historical figure, but who also recognizes (if in fact she did) the historical inappropriateness of pro-Confederates making common cause with that effort, might indeed be such a student of history. The Houston Press writer evidently is not.
For what it's worth, I personally think the statue of Sam Houston is great; I doubt there is anyone in this thread who has been more consistently anti-Confederate than I have; and a taunt once ironically hurled at Neville Chamberlain is exactly the kind of thing I might have come up with. But no, I was not the shouting woman in the park.
(06-13-2017 07:22 AM)georgewebb Wrote: [ -> ]But no, I was not the shouting woman in the park.
Thanks for clearing that up. I know it's been keeping many of us up at night.
