‘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

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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.

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[-] 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

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