‘Never apologize’: How Moms for Liberty teaches its members to spin the media (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

76 comments fedilink hide all child comments

PHILADELPHIA — Last week, a local Indiana chapter of Moms for Liberty attracted attention for quoting Adolf Hitler in its newsletter. After the local paper reported the story, the group added additional “context” but kept the quote. Eventually, after it faced even more scrutiny, the organization removed the quote and apologized in a statement posted to its Facebook group.

That, however, was a big mistake, according to advice at the Moms for Liberty national conference’s media training session Friday.

“Never apologize. Ever,” said Christian Ziegler, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party. “This is my view. Other people have different views on this. I think apologizing makes you weak.”

He advised the attendees to instead make it clear that the Hitler comment was “vile” but to immediately pivot to make the point that Hitler indoctrinated children in schools and that that’s what Moms for Liberty was fighting against. Ziegler warned that any apology would become the headline, so that should be avoided.

You read that right. He said to not apologize for quoting Hitler. That's what we're dealing with now.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

And now you’re accusing them of being Nazi’s. But THEY know they’re not Nazis (well those of them that aren’t nazis think they’re not nazis).

Well then maybe they shouldn't intentionally cough over moments of silence for Holocaust victims.

And excusing that sort of behavior by claiming it's not the group it's just individuals is nonsense. The group encourages it. The group supports it.

[-] Dienervent@kbin.social -5 points 1 year ago

Just from a couple of passing references in the passed, I already basically assumed they were far right anti lgbtq+ pieces of shit.

It's just now when I see all the "evidence" you're giving in support of that I'm almost reconsidering my original position... Ok, but not really.

They coughed during a moment of silent purportedly to be in recognition of the victims of the holocausts but the context is clear that the intent was just to humiliate this particular political group.

That's not evidence of anything. It's just another nothing burger.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

How is the context clear there? It sure isn't clear to me. And isn't there a better way to "humiliate" someone than mocking a Holocaust remembrance? Especially after quoting Hitler?

[-] Dienervent@kbin.social -3 points 1 year ago

I can see that very little is ever clear to you except your preconceived notions.

Obviously, I meant that it was the opponents of the Moms for Liberty that were attempting to humiliate the Moms for Liberty by calling for a moment of silence.

And you keep saying "quoting Hitler" as if that was an indictment on their (the Moms of Liberty) character. They were quoting Hitler in condemnation to his statement, not in support of it.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

The opponents were not the ones coughing. Don't gaslight.

And their quote was in big letters in a box by itself with no context, so yeah, it is an indictment of their character. Then they did a half-apology. Then they walked it back. They're proud of their Hitler quote and they happily interrupted a moment of silence for Holocaust victims by coughing through it.

[-] Dienervent@kbin.social -1 points 1 year ago

The opponents were not the ones coughing. Don’t gaslight.
How can you be this dense? Where did I say that the opponents were coughing? Nowhere. So try again to understand what I'm saying because you clearly didn't understand and I don't know how to make it any more clear. Read what I said again and I recommend you try to use your brain this time.

And their quote was in big letters in a box by itself with no context
There was context: the content of the article calling for increased ability for individual parents to have control over what their kids are taught. This opposes the concept of centralized control over what children are taught which is what the Hitler quote was promoting.

The weird thing is that I'm still fairly confident that the Moms of Liberty do have as their end goal to gain control over education curriculum and make it heavily ideologically based on their own anti-lgbtq+, pro religious and eventually racist ideology. But all this "evidence" you're giving me is starting to make me wonder if I've been bamboozled.

None of this changes the fact that you still have failed to condemn a comment on this very thread that is part of your community, supported by your community and is calling for genocide. Which is IMO still far worse than anything I've seen you (possibly falsely) accused the Moms of Liberty of doing.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The comment was deleted. Which you've already been told. Also, why are you acting like one excuses the other when they're unrelated?

this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2023

86 points (93.9% liked)

politics

18863 readers

5760 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News