Wideleft

Just popped in to read the Strevy talk.  

Just popped in to read the Strevy talk.  

Just popped in to read the Strevy talk.  

Here's your place to discuss your favorite books, great books, interesting books, upcoming books and books in between.  I don't consider myself well-read because I only read in bed and always fall asleep, but I have read a lot of interesting stuff in my life.
This book review has piqued my interest and thought I'd share via a new thread rather than burying it in another thread.
A terrifying, riveting portrait of the KKK in the 1920s
Timothy Egan’s ‘A Fever in the Heartland’ recounts how one man sparked the group’s resurgence in Indiana
Review by Richard Just May 18, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. EDT     Why are people drawn to demagogues? Why have millions of citizens of democracies chosen, from time to time over the centuries, to pledge fealty to leaders whose actions — political and personal — are obviously repugnant? What could possibly be the appeal?
  These questions hover over Timothy Egan’s excellent new work of narrative nonfiction. “A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them” is a highly readable chronicle of how the early-20th-century Klan resurrected itself following decades of dormancy; how it obtained millions of converts, not only in the South but throughout the country; and how, by the 1920s, it had infiltrated all levels of the U.S. government. But it is also a terrifying study of one particular Klan leader — a rapist and bigot who managed, in a matter of years, to acquire a vast popular following and to become the unelected boss of Indiana politics, all while formulating plans to propel himself to the White House.
  D.C. Stephenson, born in Texas, was a drifter with an amoral entrepreneurial streak, and he happened to find himself in Evansville, Ind., in the early ’20s, a moment when the national Ku Klux Klan was rapidly expanding and seeking inroads in Northern states. “He was a young man on the make, and a quick learner,” Egan writes. “His new life in Evansville was a dash and a dodge, just a few steps ahead of the multiple lives he’d left behind.” Stephenson was hired by a Klan recruiter, and he “presented a plan to leadership: He would conquer all of Indiana for the Ku Klux Klan, not just a bridgehead in Evansville.”
He fulfilled this plan with shocking speed. The Klan’s agenda of white supremacy turned out to be all too popular among rank-and-file Hoosiers, who began joining the terrorist group en masse. Many institutions — especially Protestant churches, whose ministers the Klan bribed — were quickly co-opted. Within years, “the Klan owned the state, and Stephenson owned the Klan,” Egan writes. “Cops, judges, prosecutors, ministers, mayors, newspaper editors — they all answered to the Grand Dragon. … Most members of the incoming state legislature took orders from the hooded order, as did the majority of the congressional delegation.” And this hate-filled reign might have continued if not for the decision of Madge Oberholtzer, who was raped by Stephenson in 1925, to speak out. Her bravery set in motion a trial and conviction that ensured that Stephenson would spend decades in prison. The Klan was humiliated in the eyes of the public, and its power in Indiana began to wane.
Egan is a meticulous researcher and, perhaps especially, a skilled storyteller. His reconstruction of Stephenson’s deplorable arc — his lie-fueled rise, his vile charisma, his ultimate fall — is a master class in the tools of narrative nonfiction: high stakes, ample suspense and sweeping historical phenomena made vivid through the dramatic actions of individual villains and heroes.
But it was the question of “why” — why did so many people place their trust and admiration in this self-evidently horrible man and his fellow terrorists? — that I found myself returning to in the days after finishing this book.
The most fundamental answer, unfortunately, is that bigotry — xenophobia, antisemitism and particularly racism — has always managed to find a receptive audience in American life. Depending on the moment and the context, that audience can be large or small, but it invariably seems to exist in some form. “A vein of hatred,” Egan writes, “was always there for the tapping.”
Yet the Klan benefited from other factors as well. William Simmons, founder of the 20th-century Klan, said his group was aided by early attempts to discredit it, including congressional hearings. “It wasn’t until the newspapers began to attack the Klan that it really grew,” Simmons said. “And then Congress gave us the best advertising we ever got.”
As for Stephenson, Egan notes how adeptly he manipulated the public: “He discovered that if he said something often enough, no matter how untrue, people would believe it. Small lies were for the timid.” Egan also suggests that Stephenson’s abhorrent personal behavior may have actually, for a time, reinforced his popularity. The year before he raped Oberholtzer, he was briefly detained after attempting to rape a manicurist at a hotel and severely beating a bellhop. In the wake of this episode, Egan notes, many Klan members “chose selective amnesia,” and “some were even impressed. For here was a man liberated from shame, a man who not only boasted of being able to get away with any violation of human decency for his entire life, but had just proved it for all to see.”
More sensible citizens, meanwhile, may have been caught unaware. Stephenson and his allies demonstrated what demagogues throughout history have discovered: Odd-seeming movements can migrate from the fringes to the center in the blink of an eye. Egan quotes Robert Coughlan, from Kokomo, Ind., who wrote about the town’s embrace of the Klan. “It first appealed to the ignorant, the slightly unbalanced and the venal,” Coughlan explained, “but by the time the enlightened elements realized the danger it was already on top of them.”
A press that inadvertently makes itself complicit in the rise of demagogues by showering them with attention; habitual liars who successfully blur the distinction between truth and fabrication through endless repetition of falsehoods; leaders admired by loyal followers in part because of their moral transgressions; a movement that begins with the unbalanced and venal before conquering the mainstream: Maybe this all sounds depressingly familiar to you in 2023. Egan mostly resists making explicit parallels to the present, but they lurk just below the surface of this well-crafted and thoughtful book — a grim, necessary reminder that the difficult-to-fathom appeal of the most unappealing extremists never really goes away.
Richard Just is a former editor of The Washington Post Magazine, National Journal magazine and the New Republic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/05/18/fever-heartland-ku-klux-klan-timothy-egan-review/
 

Don’t get me started on banning political speech. It’s like people think we have a new stadium and government had nothing to do with it. 
 
I merely roll my eyes at the low fruit you grab. 

Don’t get me started on banning political speech. It’s like people think we have a new stadium and government had nothing to do with it. 
 
I merely roll my eyes at the low fruit you grab. 

I might come back just to gently mock posts. 

If your takes on football are like your political posts well, good luck with that. Lol.

Off season mode on steroids. Fa can’t come fast enough. 

The dead horses have been beaten into powder. 
I am so bored by the Bombers discussions since the Grey Cup that I don't even bother with the non-football discussions anymore.
Now I'm a lurker who offers nothing.
 

Lurkers help keep the lights on and if, as a community, we drive those people away it's less likely the lights stay on.
In a professional setting are you someone who thinks those in a meeting who are shy, introverted or hesitant to speak are worthless or are you someone who looks for ways to give them a voice?  Do you recognize that different views, perspectives and experiences are valuable and hearing them might benefit the team as a whole or are you someone who rejects that person because they lack the confidence to put themselves out there? Food for thought.
Frankly, I'd rather this be a place where *anyone* feels safe to contribute .. where those with knowledge foster a spirit of understanding of the game and are humble enough to recognize their opinions are not gospel .. I want more voices, not less.
 

Most posters start as lurkers until they feel comfortable enough contributing something.
But if you try and share a conflicting opinion and get smashed or threatened or ridiculed, it turns people away. 

There is a big and usually obvious difference between disagreeing with an opinion and resorting to ad hominem personal attacks. Wake up, people. Many forms have folded due to this sort of rubbish.

I can not disagree with that assessment........

Disagree, this site runs on ad revenue, member or not, the more clicks the better. Beesides $, I myself was a lurker on OB.com for a long time before becoming a, what, 13 or 14 years and running contributor to that site then this one. Some lurkers are just members that haven't signed up yet.

Nichols back on a two year deal. Great signing.

It appears fairly certain (baring injury) that Collaros will be playing in Winnipeg until his contract is up.  Given this team's history at the QB position, I don't see how anyone can be firmly on side with letting him go.
I mean, you've probably got an eye on the future, and that's fine.  But it's pretty safe to say that the Bombers are focused on winning a GC at home, in 2025. ZC gives them the best chance to do that.
He's had some bad games, some of which were unfortunately Grey Cups.  But that's going to happen no matter who you have behind centre.  I think we have the talent on the OL - to get back to kind of protection he was getting when he first came to Winnipeg.  The brain thrust needs to start the players who can make that happen.  
If you're in the position of several other teams around the league, then you absolutely go with a guy like Brown.  In Winnipeg, you play the safe card and go with the experienced vet.
Just my 'Boltus scarred' 0.02
 

Well, you're not the HC or GM so clearly the Bombers won't be moving on from Zach. It's a qb wilderness out there. Do you see who's available & who we could sign to replace Zach if we traded or released him? Other than Dru Brown (who has only a little body of work as a starter) there's guys like Marcus Fine, Dane Evans, Matthew Schilz & Jake Dolegala. Throw in MBT & maybe Streveler (who isn't a starting qb) & I'll take Zach every day of the week. 

Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel. And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say.

They finally got the Grey Cup rematch to kick off the season right... that's good to see.

call me crazy but I'd keep schoen ahead of lawler. Schoen is just so smooth out there. He gets open for fun. Yes Lawler has more of that big play highlight reel catch ability... but give me the guy like schoen any day (I'd keep both for the record)

Don't think I've ever wanted so many characters dead this early in a series.  Fortunately, it's Fargo.

Scott Grant Photography has a great action photo of your father I'm sure your family would appreciate. You should contact him. His photos are online & you can order it. I remember your father very well. He was just a natural as a player. Peter excelled whatever position he played. He was a safety, a corner, a receiver (wingback) & he could run with the ball as well. He also was the Blue Bomber long snapper. At 185 lbs & he did that very well, too. 
I remember the game in 1972 when he picked off 4 passes against the BC Lions. 
Your Dad was one of my favourite player's back when he played.