TDS reveals an absolute intolerance for any differing views. It is a sign of cult-like obedience to the irrational luxury beliefs of current liberal dem dogma.
I just read Gad Saad’s Suicidal Empathy and he absolutely nails the crisis western democracies face. Totally aligned with Sasha’s posts.
The first time I realized the extent of white liberal racism was when they introduced Ebonics with the claim that black kids could not learn English like the rest of us. This was in the '70s. There was also the idea that black intelligence was different than white intelligence. I took a class in JC that claimed to teach black intelligence. It was all about the cultural traits and folkways of black communities, and the metrics for success were whether you recognized black slang or traditions.
Back in the day, the Irish were routinely compared to apes. George W Bush was dubbed "Chimpy" by the left. Abraham Lincoln was compared to an orangutan by his detractors. But none of that is "racist" to the leftists because the recipients of the abuse are white. The reason they believe that comparing a black couple to monkeys is racist is because leftists actually believe that black people resemble monkeys in their looks and behavior, and that they're naturally inferior to whites, which is why they need tolerant white liberals to protect and defend them. But we're the racists.
I'm not sure about the looks and behavior part, but the belief in the natural inferiority of blacks I think really exists with most liberals. So many wards, so little time....
The plantation managers have managed to convince their loyal fools that obedience to decrepitude is the best course of action. Otherwise, they'll face the whip of rejection.
Ever hear of "The Bell Curve" written by conservative Charles Murray? He argues that genetic factors contribute to differences in cognitive test scores and societal outcomes among different racial and ethnic groups - and that blacks have lower IQs than whites.
Wow, NWCitizen is citing Thomas Sowell... I'm shocked.
Keep reading Prof Sowell, he will teach you lot.. BTW: you should know he is the source of many of my perspectives on race and culture... glad to see we are finally agreeing with each other.
Over simplified. North African and South African are very different people, though both are considered black. Thinking that all races have the same IQ is ignorance. This is a huge topic.
When I was about 14 I had a friend in the neighborhood whose mother was Yugoslavian and father who was from Germany and was a Hitler youth during WW2. During the 1968 summer Olympics as team USA was destroying its competition the race card came out loud and clear. He said blacks were animals and only good in sports. I guess Jesse Owens made a believer out of The Third Reich. As for me I was shocked. Told my mother about it. She said just stay clear from him. My Christian upbringing looked at the spiritual side of things not the material (race). Yes of course there were race class differences back then. Lot of rioting happened when Martin Luther King was assassinated. And as I’ve stated before Obama’s win felt like a breath of fresh air even though I voted for neither major candidate that year in 2008.
LOL. I have several! White; male; worked for 50+years; paid my taxes; volunteered for several Trump campaigns; voted for the man three times. Pick the one you want!!
It's not that the recipients are white, it's that the perpetrators are not Democrats. Just look at the mental gymnastics by Democrat politicians to defend Platner. I guarantee he would be treated very differently if he just happened to have a different letter next to his name.
There’s no longer a friendship there for the letter writer to save. You simply cannot overcome emotional frenzy with reason.
There will never be a magic argument that convinces people to actually think about anything. The left is wildly spun up in an emotional terror maelstrom - that was created completely by design. They will silence dissent by ANY means, because it’s about how they FEEL, not what they THINK.
We’ve all lost friends through this by now - and we are powerless to stop it. That is a choice THEY make. They value nothing more than their sense of belonging, their shallow righteousness, the temporary reduction in anxiety - all the things they get from the mindless lockstep parroting of the narrative. They know very well that if they waver, they’ll be cast out, and nothing is worth that.
It’s a classic cult.
They will adopt any position they’re told to; they’ll destroy anything they’re directed at. These people regularly discard family, friends, ANYTHING that threatens their belonging. Logic has zero power over panic.
TR: “We’ve all lost friends through this by now - and we are powerless to stop it.”
“lost friends”, indeed. While your “this” probably covers a lot of territory, Sasha’s comment about “gender affirming care for minor children” certainly seems a big part of that.
In particular and in my case, I’ve sort of been “cast into the outer darkness” — AKA banned from weekly family Zoom meetings — because I’ve voiced the heresy that transwomen are most certainly not women, that they are, at best, simply guys in drag, male transvestites if they still have their nuts attached and sexless eunuchs if they don’t.
Well, you are correct about the trans thing. I can’t imagine anyone thinking a man in woman’s clothing is somehow a woman. Most aren’t dedicated enough to chop off the man parts. It seems more of a fetish and an assault on women. That they allow men to play against women is an absolute outrage. Look how far women have come, and for this? To be mocked by gay men and beaten at our own sports and violated in our private spaces. It’s unbelievable the mental illnesses we have to deal with these days. I’m sorry about your family. That’s nuts. Leftism is a sick mental disorder. And they’re getting more dangerous.
Idiots like Swalwell, Goldman and Scott Wiener will never figure out that their only usefulness comes from their willingness to debase themselves on behalf of the Party of Love's illogical talking points. Those that support the usual dem claptrap are absolutely no different.
How very true, sometimes it’s hard to know where to draw that line—I have had to draw it myself. It’s not fun, and it’s hard not to question yourself, and your motives in the drawing of that line.
I think it’s the self questioning that is the real tell of your character. Do you think the writer’s friend questions her motives—I highly doubt it.
This one of those rare generalizations that is true, for all of humanity:
There are two categories of people in this world, those will look inwards to solve a problem and those who look outwards. There is no in between.
The “outwards” type, always looking outwards, blames and manipulates others. It is the case that they are constitutionally not equipped and therefore are incapable of self examination.
Another commenter on another site said something like this (paraphrased): trying to reason with someone who has abandoned all reason is like trying to give medicine to a dead person.
I thought that is what we are facing. It seems pointless.
We must look beyond the TDS and love that person in spite of their delusion. Sometimes tough love may mean having little or nothing to do with them.
You're right, Stone, when you say: "The first thing I want to say is that there is no saving the Left. Whatever happens to them, it will have to happen without people like you or me trying to get them to return to any place of sanity. It won’t happen."
That said, your writer is better off having little or nothing to do with their "long-time" friend. Sounds like a blessing in disguise to me.
As the old saying goes, "with friends like that, who needs enemas?"
Scott Adams said you can’t live among people who wish to harm you, and to get away from such people. For this, he was branded a racist and cancelled. What Scott found was those who understood what he said continued to support him, and the corporate media created a false narrative about him. After being cancelled, Scott flourished because he was no longer restrained by the large parent companies he was working under. His audience grew, and his writings and ideas reached more people.
Based on Sasha’s writing, she seems to have gone through a similar ordeal, but it also appears she has emerged from it with a greater audience who appreciates her talent.
Sadly, the word racism really seems to have almost no meaning anymore. It has been used and overused to death.
Trump is such as racist that he and Jesse Jackson had a multiple decades friendship. Trump even eulogized Jackson at the time of his death. I didn't know Jackson had racist friends.
Joe "put y'all back in chains, Jim Crow 2.0" Biden attended Jackson's memorial as a "friend". He told the mostly black attendees that, he's “a hell of a lot smarter than most of" them. Didn't he fall asleep at one point?
Not a bot, but a paid troll? NWC lacks the cognitive development to comprehend that propaganda isn't real. Is this stupidity an act for monetary reasons or this a result of some other sort of loserthink or need for attention? I'm not sure. Continuing to cling to whatever dem turd hits the water is pretty pathetic. After 11 years of the same stew....come on.
Who knows. At least he didn't crap his pants at the Vatican.
Good to see that you are still on the prod, NWCitizen. Always interesting to read your words of pith -- even though we are likely on pretty opposite ends of the commentary. Take care and cheers! :-)
When you mentioned how white liberals will talk different to black people than they would someone that's white reminded me of the whole Martha's Vineyard debacle. Remember how they couldn't get the illegals off that island fast enough? Do you recall how they spoke to them as they were leaving and how they spoke to the media about their whole 24hr experience with them? It's like they were talking to a kindergarten class. It was disgusting and dehumanizing all while supposedly lifting them up. Wild times we've had to live through.
The Leftist decided what they wanted to believe long ago when it comes to Trump and Conservatives in general. They thought it was funny and good that Trump was shot and very nearly fatally. Many of them posted how glad they were about what happened to Charlie Kirk and the Jewish people in general. The Left has no business criticizing anyone about anything until they get their own house in order
And the right didn't decide "what they wanted to believe long ago when it comes to democrats and liberals in general"? People who "celebrated" assassinations got lots of publicity but that does NOT mean that everyone on the left did. I certainly did not. I would hate to see Trump martyred.
While liberals do see themselves as more intelligent or superior to black people, they also see themselves as more intelligent and superior to those who do not agree with them and they are never shy in letting everyone know that. Hard to swallow.
Your first mistake was conceding that Trump posted it. Everyone has already debunked this. It was one of those "X" videos that autoplays when you are playing another video. This has already been discussed. It was created by some rando on X and it got tacked onto the end of something else he was sharing. That said, you can't really rationalize with people who are irrational, so if you tell them this, they will still not believe it
The post: Donald Trump (then President) shared a ~62-second video on Truth Social. It focused on unfounded 2020 election conspiracy claims about voting machines. Near the end (around the 52-second mark), there was a brief ~2-second clip showing Barack and Michelle Obama's faces superimposed on ape/monkey bodies, dancing to the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (from The Lion King).
Duration and placement: Exactly as you described — a short racist clip tacked on at the end of a roughly 60-second video.
Response and "inadvertent" claim:
The video was deleted after significant backlash (including from some Republicans, like Sen. Tim Scott calling it one of the most racist things he'd seen).
The White House initially defended it but later blamed an unnamed staffer for "erroneously" posting it.
Trump himself said he "didn't see" the offensive ending and hadn't watched the full video before it went up. He refused to apologize, stating, "I didn’t make a mistake."
Whether it was truly inadvertent is disputed. Critics called it intentional or at least recklessly careless (especially given the history of such imagery and the timing during Black History Month), while Trump and his team framed it as a staff error he wasn't aware of. The clip itself appears to have originated from earlier online memes/AI-generated content.
This was widely covered by outlets across the spectrum (BBC, NYT, CNN, Politico, etc.) and sparked bipartisan condemnation before being taken down.
I contend that in this highly charged political environment, the White House should be more careful to avoid coming under fire. That said, the political divide is so wide that the opposing sides will never give each other any grace for mistakes or missteps, intentional or not. Carefulness is not Trump's superpower, but to be honest, I have grown to appreciate its authenticity in an age when all answers are carefully crafted and pre-rehearsed to garner votes. Sometimes the truth hurts. Anyone watching the entire video (not sure who made it?) will see that ALL the democrats were depicted as various animals; I am not sure it was meant to be racial so much as political. But again, people are looking to confirm their own bias, not with open minds or critical thoughts.
Great. Great. Great column, Ms. Stone. Must reiterate. Great column.
There is NO FIXING the Left. I have lived most of my life from the time I graduated college (1979) until 2023 as a resident of either NYC (Manhattan. Sigh.) or San Francisco.
The most INTOLERANT people I've met are on the Left side of the socio-political dial. Without doubt.
My professional career has been as a dancer (I'm straight. Try that on for size.), in film production, and now in publishing and academia. I've survived, even thrived, by NEVER capitulating to the individual or to the mob.
Many of my friends and former film industry colleagues in California, will still NOT CONDEMN the policy and thinking of Gavin Newsom. His latest suggestion that the wealth tax will work . . . if it's invoked nationwide, should have Democrats changing their voter registration last week.
Doesn't happen. I do not understand how someone who votes for people like Zohran Mamdani, or Kamala Harris, or JB Pritzker, or is thinking of voting for Platner gets to this point in their lives.
"Charlie Kirk was shot in the neck, and these people think a meme is worse. I don’t know how to fix that."
Me either, Sasha. I worry about how we've gotten to the state of things as they are now and where I fear our society is headed. I look back at the past for a specific moment that started it all and don't see one defining event, unless it's the invention of the cell phone that's become an essential device for just about everything now. Since that tool's become ubiquitous there's been, IMO, a long but accelerating slide into tribalism and disrespect for alternative views that permeates our culture today, supercharged by the various social media platforms that are instantly accessible with that device. I mean, I see my teen and pre-teen grandchildren get buffeted by the onslaught of information dumped on them daily from the many sources vying for their attention and wonder at how they manage to cope with it all. I don't even try, myself. I belong to no social media sites and never was interested in participating in the madness of all that. It's why I'm a Substack subscriber and continue to support you and others like you. I don't always agree with you but so what? You'd probably say the same thing about some of my views. Anyway, stay strong, Sasha.
They have been indoctrinated in the universities to believe that "words are violence" and that burning cars and looting buildings are peaceful protests. They clearly believe it, and it's probably why they can say with a straight face that all violence is coming from the right.
They have also been taught that it's not about good or bad ideas, but good or bad people. Once you disagree with someone, they are a bad person. Not a human being with the same rights to good or bad ideas as you have - no, they are now THE ENEMY- and must die. The religion of woke has a set of rules, none of which are based on objective or observable truth. The fact that the ideology is illogical doesn't matter — the lunacy continues to escalate because they are getting away with it.
I see racism every day.
Every liberal who insists blacks cannot get picture ID to vote is racist.
TDS reveals an absolute intolerance for any differing views. It is a sign of cult-like obedience to the irrational luxury beliefs of current liberal dem dogma.
I just read Gad Saad’s Suicidal Empathy and he absolutely nails the crisis western democracies face. Totally aligned with Sasha’s posts.
That book is on my list to read.
The first time I realized the extent of white liberal racism was when they introduced Ebonics with the claim that black kids could not learn English like the rest of us. This was in the '70s. There was also the idea that black intelligence was different than white intelligence. I took a class in JC that claimed to teach black intelligence. It was all about the cultural traits and folkways of black communities, and the metrics for success were whether you recognized black slang or traditions.
GWBush was frequently lampooned as being a chimpanzee. Remember "Chimpy McHitler"? Is that racist?
I love your writing. You express what I think more beautifully than I ever could.
I just forwarded this to my best friend and said the same thing about Sasha’s writing!
She's tremendous!
Back in the day, the Irish were routinely compared to apes. George W Bush was dubbed "Chimpy" by the left. Abraham Lincoln was compared to an orangutan by his detractors. But none of that is "racist" to the leftists because the recipients of the abuse are white. The reason they believe that comparing a black couple to monkeys is racist is because leftists actually believe that black people resemble monkeys in their looks and behavior, and that they're naturally inferior to whites, which is why they need tolerant white liberals to protect and defend them. But we're the racists.
I'm not sure about the looks and behavior part, but the belief in the natural inferiority of blacks I think really exists with most liberals. So many wards, so little time....
The party never left the plantation.
In fact, they are the plantation managers.
The plantation managers have managed to convince their loyal fools that obedience to decrepitude is the best course of action. Otherwise, they'll face the whip of rejection.
Correctamundo, your grace!
Ever hear of "The Bell Curve" written by conservative Charles Murray? He argues that genetic factors contribute to differences in cognitive test scores and societal outcomes among different racial and ethnic groups - and that blacks have lower IQs than whites.
https://medium.com/@hamilt0n/ethnicity-and-iq-4a2b1ea20178 Thomas Sowell rebuttal of innate intelligence difference between blacks & whites.
Wow, NWCitizen is citing Thomas Sowell... I'm shocked.
Keep reading Prof Sowell, he will teach you lot.. BTW: you should know he is the source of many of my perspectives on race and culture... glad to see we are finally agreeing with each other.
Over simplified. North African and South African are very different people, though both are considered black. Thinking that all races have the same IQ is ignorance. This is a huge topic.
When I was about 14 I had a friend in the neighborhood whose mother was Yugoslavian and father who was from Germany and was a Hitler youth during WW2. During the 1968 summer Olympics as team USA was destroying its competition the race card came out loud and clear. He said blacks were animals and only good in sports. I guess Jesse Owens made a believer out of The Third Reich. As for me I was shocked. Told my mother about it. She said just stay clear from him. My Christian upbringing looked at the spiritual side of things not the material (race). Yes of course there were race class differences back then. Lot of rioting happened when Martin Luther King was assassinated. And as I’ve stated before Obama’s win felt like a breath of fresh air even though I voted for neither major candidate that year in 2008.
What's your excuse for a low IQ?
LOL. I have several! White; male; worked for 50+years; paid my taxes; volunteered for several Trump campaigns; voted for the man three times. Pick the one you want!!
It's not that the recipients are white, it's that the perpetrators are not Democrats. Just look at the mental gymnastics by Democrat politicians to defend Platner. I guarantee he would be treated very differently if he just happened to have a different letter next to his name.
Yes, he'd have been crucified y now if he was an R.
Lincoln was often called the Original Gorilla. Different ape. He did have extremely long arms which is probably where the insult came from.
Yeah man, too much for a short space but history matters and it's sadly similar.
I agree!
There’s no longer a friendship there for the letter writer to save. You simply cannot overcome emotional frenzy with reason.
There will never be a magic argument that convinces people to actually think about anything. The left is wildly spun up in an emotional terror maelstrom - that was created completely by design. They will silence dissent by ANY means, because it’s about how they FEEL, not what they THINK.
We’ve all lost friends through this by now - and we are powerless to stop it. That is a choice THEY make. They value nothing more than their sense of belonging, their shallow righteousness, the temporary reduction in anxiety - all the things they get from the mindless lockstep parroting of the narrative. They know very well that if they waver, they’ll be cast out, and nothing is worth that.
It’s a classic cult.
They will adopt any position they’re told to; they’ll destroy anything they’re directed at. These people regularly discard family, friends, ANYTHING that threatens their belonging. Logic has zero power over panic.
TR: “We’ve all lost friends through this by now - and we are powerless to stop it.”
“lost friends”, indeed. While your “this” probably covers a lot of territory, Sasha’s comment about “gender affirming care for minor children” certainly seems a big part of that.
In particular and in my case, I’ve sort of been “cast into the outer darkness” — AKA banned from weekly family Zoom meetings — because I’ve voiced the heresy that transwomen are most certainly not women, that they are, at best, simply guys in drag, male transvestites if they still have their nuts attached and sexless eunuchs if they don’t.
YMMV … 😉🙂
Well, you are correct about the trans thing. I can’t imagine anyone thinking a man in woman’s clothing is somehow a woman. Most aren’t dedicated enough to chop off the man parts. It seems more of a fetish and an assault on women. That they allow men to play against women is an absolute outrage. Look how far women have come, and for this? To be mocked by gay men and beaten at our own sports and violated in our private spaces. It’s unbelievable the mental illnesses we have to deal with these days. I’m sorry about your family. That’s nuts. Leftism is a sick mental disorder. And they’re getting more dangerous.
Idiots like Swalwell, Goldman and Scott Wiener will never figure out that their only usefulness comes from their willingness to debase themselves on behalf of the Party of Love's illogical talking points. Those that support the usual dem claptrap are absolutely no different.
How very true, sometimes it’s hard to know where to draw that line—I have had to draw it myself. It’s not fun, and it’s hard not to question yourself, and your motives in the drawing of that line.
I think it’s the self questioning that is the real tell of your character. Do you think the writer’s friend questions her motives—I highly doubt it.
This one of those rare generalizations that is true, for all of humanity:
There are two categories of people in this world, those will look inwards to solve a problem and those who look outwards. There is no in between.
The “outwards” type, always looking outwards, blames and manipulates others. It is the case that they are constitutionally not equipped and therefore are incapable of self examination.
the "outwards" type are always the victim...
Good post here! The inner and outer!
Excellent points. Well said.
Another commenter on another site said something like this (paraphrased): trying to reason with someone who has abandoned all reason is like trying to give medicine to a dead person.
I thought that is what we are facing. It seems pointless.
We must look beyond the TDS and love that person in spite of their delusion. Sometimes tough love may mean having little or nothing to do with them.
The race card is maxed out.
Big LoL. Reminds me of a classic tweet -- BM (Before Musk) -- from Adam Carolla:
"When you’re losing an argument…play the race card!"
https://x.com/adamcarolla/status/1421138069026074628
seriously maxed out. so sick of it.
oh & btw, i’m black too.
You're right, Stone, when you say: "The first thing I want to say is that there is no saving the Left. Whatever happens to them, it will have to happen without people like you or me trying to get them to return to any place of sanity. It won’t happen."
That said, your writer is better off having little or nothing to do with their "long-time" friend. Sounds like a blessing in disguise to me.
As the old saying goes, "with friends like that, who needs enemas?"
It's much more difficult to explain to someone that they have been tricked, than to actually trick them
😂🤣
Scott Adams said you can’t live among people who wish to harm you, and to get away from such people. For this, he was branded a racist and cancelled. What Scott found was those who understood what he said continued to support him, and the corporate media created a false narrative about him. After being cancelled, Scott flourished because he was no longer restrained by the large parent companies he was working under. His audience grew, and his writings and ideas reached more people.
Based on Sasha’s writing, she seems to have gone through a similar ordeal, but it also appears she has emerged from it with a greater audience who appreciates her talent.
Sadly, the word racism really seems to have almost no meaning anymore. It has been used and overused to death.
Trump is such as racist that he and Jesse Jackson had a multiple decades friendship. Trump even eulogized Jackson at the time of his death. I didn't know Jackson had racist friends.
Joe "put y'all back in chains, Jim Crow 2.0" Biden attended Jackson's memorial as a "friend". He told the mostly black attendees that, he's “a hell of a lot smarter than most of" them. Didn't he fall asleep at one point?
How many times has trump fallen asleep at cabinet meetings and other events or does the right neglect to mention that?
Never.
Hey Jen..Is that NW guy a bot ?
Not a bot, but a paid troll? NWC lacks the cognitive development to comprehend that propaganda isn't real. Is this stupidity an act for monetary reasons or this a result of some other sort of loserthink or need for attention? I'm not sure. Continuing to cling to whatever dem turd hits the water is pretty pathetic. After 11 years of the same stew....come on.
NWC is not a paid troll, she is a thoughtful, well-informed Leftist counterpuncher who often makes some good points... But she is still mostly wrong.
I'm encouraged that she cited Thomas Sowell, above... she may not know he is a Conservative thought icon...
Lol! You think tou are so ““cognitively” superior when you never have anything worthwhile to say, only silly insults.
How would she know?
LOL! He's having a "long blink."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypcks71Q6Qo
Did Trump fall asleep at an Oval Office meeting?
No, idiot.
Who knows. At least he didn't crap his pants at the Vatican.
Good to see that you are still on the prod, NWCitizen. Always interesting to read your words of pith -- even though we are likely on pretty opposite ends of the commentary. Take care and cheers! :-)
Please, this troll isn't smart enough to comprehend "pith". If what you mean by "pith" is soft and spongy, then you have it about right.
i certainly hope you're not playing a drinking game every time you mutter trump!
When you mentioned how white liberals will talk different to black people than they would someone that's white reminded me of the whole Martha's Vineyard debacle. Remember how they couldn't get the illegals off that island fast enough? Do you recall how they spoke to them as they were leaving and how they spoke to the media about their whole 24hr experience with them? It's like they were talking to a kindergarten class. It was disgusting and dehumanizing all while supposedly lifting them up. Wild times we've had to live through.
Didn't woke Gavin Newsom recently tell a black audience that he was just like them, he couldn't read either.
"960 SATs, I'm just like you" (paraphrase)
The Leftist decided what they wanted to believe long ago when it comes to Trump and Conservatives in general. They thought it was funny and good that Trump was shot and very nearly fatally. Many of them posted how glad they were about what happened to Charlie Kirk and the Jewish people in general. The Left has no business criticizing anyone about anything until they get their own house in order
And the right didn't decide "what they wanted to believe long ago when it comes to democrats and liberals in general"? People who "celebrated" assassinations got lots of publicity but that does NOT mean that everyone on the left did. I certainly did not. I would hate to see Trump martyred.
I think it’s obvious you should stop at “I would hate”. Sums you up to a tee
You don't notice any hate on this page directed at me? LOL!
Oh, honey, bless your heart.
You should have stopped at "I certainly did not."
While liberals do see themselves as more intelligent or superior to black people, they also see themselves as more intelligent and superior to those who do not agree with them and they are never shy in letting everyone know that. Hard to swallow.
it reminds me of a joke someone told me 15 years ago: "how do you know when someone is a vegetarian? BECAUSE THEY'LL GODDAMN TELL YOU!"
Now THAT applies to far too many things doesn't it?
LOL. Thanks for the very honest chuckle!
True, that is why I never do. Great fun to throw back in their faces, though!
Th new version is "Sticks and stones will break my bones, and words are just the same".
Or "Our violence is speech, and their speech is violence".
Or "By any means necessary".
Or "The ends justify the means".
Or Extremism is righteousness".
don't forget, the "silence is violence" nonsense.
Your first mistake was conceding that Trump posted it. Everyone has already debunked this. It was one of those "X" videos that autoplays when you are playing another video. This has already been discussed. It was created by some rando on X and it got tacked onto the end of something else he was sharing. That said, you can't really rationalize with people who are irrational, so if you tell them this, they will still not believe it
YES. Per grok:
The post: Donald Trump (then President) shared a ~62-second video on Truth Social. It focused on unfounded 2020 election conspiracy claims about voting machines. Near the end (around the 52-second mark), there was a brief ~2-second clip showing Barack and Michelle Obama's faces superimposed on ape/monkey bodies, dancing to the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (from The Lion King).
Duration and placement: Exactly as you described — a short racist clip tacked on at the end of a roughly 60-second video.
Response and "inadvertent" claim:
The video was deleted after significant backlash (including from some Republicans, like Sen. Tim Scott calling it one of the most racist things he'd seen).
The White House initially defended it but later blamed an unnamed staffer for "erroneously" posting it.
Trump himself said he "didn't see" the offensive ending and hadn't watched the full video before it went up. He refused to apologize, stating, "I didn’t make a mistake."
Whether it was truly inadvertent is disputed. Critics called it intentional or at least recklessly careless (especially given the history of such imagery and the timing during Black History Month), while Trump and his team framed it as a staff error he wasn't aware of. The clip itself appears to have originated from earlier online memes/AI-generated content.
This was widely covered by outlets across the spectrum (BBC, NYT, CNN, Politico, etc.) and sparked bipartisan condemnation before being taken down.
I contend that in this highly charged political environment, the White House should be more careful to avoid coming under fire. That said, the political divide is so wide that the opposing sides will never give each other any grace for mistakes or missteps, intentional or not. Carefulness is not Trump's superpower, but to be honest, I have grown to appreciate its authenticity in an age when all answers are carefully crafted and pre-rehearsed to garner votes. Sometimes the truth hurts. Anyone watching the entire video (not sure who made it?) will see that ALL the democrats were depicted as various animals; I am not sure it was meant to be racial so much as political. But again, people are looking to confirm their own bias, not with open minds or critical thoughts.
Great. Great. Great column, Ms. Stone. Must reiterate. Great column.
There is NO FIXING the Left. I have lived most of my life from the time I graduated college (1979) until 2023 as a resident of either NYC (Manhattan. Sigh.) or San Francisco.
The most INTOLERANT people I've met are on the Left side of the socio-political dial. Without doubt.
My professional career has been as a dancer (I'm straight. Try that on for size.), in film production, and now in publishing and academia. I've survived, even thrived, by NEVER capitulating to the individual or to the mob.
Many of my friends and former film industry colleagues in California, will still NOT CONDEMN the policy and thinking of Gavin Newsom. His latest suggestion that the wealth tax will work . . . if it's invoked nationwide, should have Democrats changing their voter registration last week.
Doesn't happen. I do not understand how someone who votes for people like Zohran Mamdani, or Kamala Harris, or JB Pritzker, or is thinking of voting for Platner gets to this point in their lives.
Sad. Uninformed. Intractible.
Do not get it.
Keep up the excellent work.
"Charlie Kirk was shot in the neck, and these people think a meme is worse. I don’t know how to fix that."
Me either, Sasha. I worry about how we've gotten to the state of things as they are now and where I fear our society is headed. I look back at the past for a specific moment that started it all and don't see one defining event, unless it's the invention of the cell phone that's become an essential device for just about everything now. Since that tool's become ubiquitous there's been, IMO, a long but accelerating slide into tribalism and disrespect for alternative views that permeates our culture today, supercharged by the various social media platforms that are instantly accessible with that device. I mean, I see my teen and pre-teen grandchildren get buffeted by the onslaught of information dumped on them daily from the many sources vying for their attention and wonder at how they manage to cope with it all. I don't even try, myself. I belong to no social media sites and never was interested in participating in the madness of all that. It's why I'm a Substack subscriber and continue to support you and others like you. I don't always agree with you but so what? You'd probably say the same thing about some of my views. Anyway, stay strong, Sasha.
They have been indoctrinated in the universities to believe that "words are violence" and that burning cars and looting buildings are peaceful protests. They clearly believe it, and it's probably why they can say with a straight face that all violence is coming from the right.
They have also been taught that it's not about good or bad ideas, but good or bad people. Once you disagree with someone, they are a bad person. Not a human being with the same rights to good or bad ideas as you have - no, they are now THE ENEMY- and must die. The religion of woke has a set of rules, none of which are based on objective or observable truth. The fact that the ideology is illogical doesn't matter — the lunacy continues to escalate because they are getting away with it.