Glenn Greenwald: "The Cynical and Dangerous Weaponization of the 'White Supremacist' Label"
(greenwald.substack.com)
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I suppose this article is aimed at his fellow non-woke liberals. To those on the right or media critics, this is very old news, and all it offers is some recent (admittedly appalling) examples of media smears.
Perhaps this explains why he refers to "the George Floyd killing" (he wasn't killed) and warns that the overuse of labels will harm the stigmatization and ostracization of "actual racists", as though actual racists are a real problem. It would be as if it were common to label political opponents "cannibals". Isn't the important part that the accusation is untrue, not that it might cause the tiny number of actual cannibals to escape notice?
It's quite nice to have someone like Greenwald say what we have long known.
I also think that GG believes that Floyd was actually killed. The overwhelming majority of people do, even of critical thinkers.
I agree GG probably believes that Floyd was killed, since, as of now, I generally trust him to say what he really thinks. But he didn't have to write it here. It's not important to his thesis, and he must know it's controversial in some quarters, yet he consciously decided to phrase it this way in this piece.
So, my speculation was that this was a signal to other liberals that he's still one of them. Otherwise (GG thinks) they might dismiss him as far-right.
I doubt he knows it's 'controversial' in respectable circles. It mostly isn't. He probably (ironically) thinks that it's just racist white nationalists who think that. The difference between him and the rest of the crowd is that if someone he knows is respectable makes that claim, he'll listen rather than concluding that you are a racist white supremacist.
Tons of stuff are there to provide context, which nearly everyone knows.