Propaganda -- information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. Dictionary.com
Here's a more telling analysis of Kevin Levin's hate piece in
The Daily Beast (a hate rag if there ever was one) fomenting hate for the Virginia Flaggers, especially Susan Hathaway.
My question is -- where did Levin get the information in his article (and where does he get images he uses with Flagger posts on his blog?) Did he attempt to verify the information? Or did he just copy/paste it as he found it online?
For example:
"The organization has enjoyed steady coverage by local media outlets over the last five years, but few reporters have looked closely at Flagger membership or the individuals and organizations with which it has found common cause."
How does he know this? Did he check with the reporters who covered the Flaggers for local outlets? Did he ask them whether they had looked closely (or even not closely) at individuals and organization with which the Flaggers have found "common cause"? And why didn't he identify the "common cause"? Why didn't he cite examples of the Flaggers engaging in such?
More:
"Some of these individuals are directly connected with White Nationalist groups such as the League of the South, which openly promote white supremacy. Such a close association blurs the lines between legitimate concerns for the preservation of history and heritage and the racial politics of the present."
It would be most helpful to identify how many is "some." It would be even more helpful for him to ditch the nonspecific "directly connected" and state the actual connection. "Jim Racist is a member of the League" or "Virginia State Chairman of the League" or something. "Directly connected" might mean living next door to a League member and saying, "Good morning Charlie," when walking to the mailbox. Don't laugh, folks. Self-styled anti-racist jackasses will grasp at such straws if they think it will convince their flock....
"White Nationalist groups..." (Hey Kev...Daily Beast, "white nationalist" is not a proper noun and need not be capitalized.) So, what are the other groups? Only one is mentioned, but the claim is that some individuals are directly connected with GROUPS, plural. What are some other ones?
Another reason for interviewing -- actually TALKING to the people you're writing about -- especially in the case of League members, is to find out whether they support everything the League purports to stand for. The transformation of the League from a Southern nationalist group to a white nationalist group occurred in very recent years. How many members still support the old nationalism, and simply want the South freed from the oppressive control of the federal government, and how many are in it purely for racist reasons? And, directly to the point, the "individuals" you won't name or quantify, but which you claim have "common cause" with the Flaggers -- which ones are they? What are their beliefs? Did you even TRY to contact and ask them? Do you even know the history of the League, and about its recent change? Or do you blindly swallow every lie that emanates from the Poverty Palace in Montgomery?
Admittedly, there are probably few who would deign to talk to you, considering you have fomented hatred and posted lies about them for years on end ... and I think Susan would be an utter fool to give you the time of day ... but the point is, did you even make the effort? Or did you simply get online to find things you could spin the way you wanted?
Kevin:
"According to the Flaggers, the Confederate battle flag ought to be celebrated, along with the men who fought under it." According to them, where? Link? Name of article, blog post, Facebook post, Tweet? All I've ever seen is that people who wish to celebrate them should not be prevented from doing so, either by government authorities or sullen, disapproving but authority-less individuals such as yourself. I've never seen any communication from the Flaggers advocating that everyone should be forced to celebrate the flag and Confederate soldiers. If you have, link to it. Prove it.
"Their understanding of the war falls neatly within the confines of the Lost Cause narrative: Slavery had nothing to do with the cause of the war; relations between white and black Southerners were peaceful before the war; the Confederacy fought solely for states’ rights; and African Americans supported the cause in large numbers." Did you ask them, or even some of them, if this is their understanding? Or is this your interpretation of things you've found online? Did you find something one of them posted that SOUNDS like this (or that you can interpret this way), and you are attributing it to all of them? You can find all sorts of differing viewpoints among supporters of Confederate heritage, including the Virginia Flaggers. To portray them as mental clones, or having a mass belief system or hive mentality (a portrayal consistently presented by haters of heritage people), is mendacity and a deliberately perpetrated fraud. (Southern heritage folks are the original mass assemblage of individualist cats that cannot be herded.... )
Levin:
"According to Hathaway, 'As sons and daughters of the South, we have inherited a birthright. Ours is a proud heritage.'" Yeah? So? You disagree? You aren't a son or daughter of the South, and have nothing to say about it....
Levin:
"In the face of these defeats..." Critics and haters of the Flaggers like to point out the attacks on and destruction of Confederate heritage as "victories" for some and "defeats" for the Flaggers. Five years of "defeats," is the mantra. I wonder if Levin would call the first 19 years of Senator Kay Patterson's efforts in South Carolina "defeats." For twenty years, prior to 2000, Senator Patterson introduced legislation in every legislative session to remove the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse dome. Would Levin and the other Floggers have told him after five years, "You have failed, your efforts are a failure, it is never coming down." Would they have told him that after ten years? After fifteen? The flag finally game down in 2000 after an unprecedented and ugly campaign by the heavy-handed leftist media and their allies, and a travel boycott by the NAACP (which turned out to not be such an economic hit, after all, despite the "spin" in the leftist media).
The point is, when the Flaggers give up, they will have failed. And it appears that giving up never enters their minds. Southern heritage has no hate-filled allies in the leftist media... we
will have to triumph with truth and the help of Providence -- which is a big part of the reason why we don't give up.
Levin:
"In 2012 the Flaggers were photographed parading with Matthew Heimbach. Heimbach was the founder of Towson State’s White Student Union and Towson’s Youth for Western Civilization. In 2014 he became the League of the South’s training director and is considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center to be the “new face of white nationalism.”
1. How many photographs? How many parades? Which ones? 2. Were these Flagger-sponsored parades/events, or events that both the Flaggers, Heimbach, and many, many others showed up for? Did the Flaggers have some responsibility for his showing up at these parades? Did they invite him? Did they "pose" with him for these photos? 3. Even the infamous photo of him standing behind the VaFlagger parade banner -- did HE instigate that by taking that position? Why isn't he behind the banner in other Flagger parade pictures? Why just that one? Did Levin ask any of these questions? Did it even occur to him to ask them?
And of what possible relevance to the Flaggers is it that in 2014 Heimbach became the League of the South’s training director?
Why did you truncate Mr. Cash's statement? Why did you cherrypick what you thought would cause the most damage? That's typically dishonest of heritage critics, especially Flagger haters. Someone on your own comment thread noted his whole statement, which you did mendaciously tried to hide. More lies racked up against you, Levin.
Levin:
"While the Flaggers refused to respond to the (Agnor) controversy at the time there is every reason to believe that they share Agnor’s racial outlook." Name them, you diabolical liar. NAME THE EVERY REASON. Name ANY thing Susan, Tripp, Barry, Grayson or other Flagger leaders, or any regular members (not people they happen to do business with) have ever said that even comes CLOSE to this. Or hinted. Or suggested. Do it or stand branded before God and the world as a hate-motivated liar, not to be believed or trusted, except by hate-motivated leftists...
The war against Confederate flags and monuments will likely get worse before it ends, but it will end. This is temporary. It is one of the last-ditch efforts of the left as it sees its power and influence deteriorating in the face of good, decent people who are sick of being slandered by liars like Levin with the "racist" label. (And being victimized in mumerous other ways.) The latest crop of "social justice warriors" are delicate snowflakes who are traumatized by chalk words on a sidewalk. The left's oppressive dominance of this country is coming to an end. The final stroke (no pun intended) will come when Hillary Clinton, with her blatant hatred of Americans, is soundly repudiated by the people, who will usher Donald Trump into the Oval Office.
Just one thing, Levin. How about linking to, or even copy/pasting, the "pledge" Confederate soldiers took to establish an independent slaveholding republic? You can't. There was no such pledge, so nobody is attempting to justify that nonexistent "pledge" 150 years later.