@seanl @cwebber

Cant fix the past, only can fix the future.

@dewb @cwebber The drug war is not the past. It's the present. We can most certainly fix it. We could end those gangs overnight just by legalizing drugs.

@dewb @cwebber The fact that we don't is because the government LOVES those gangs. It's Yet Another Thing to make voters afraid of so that they'll vote more and more power to the government.

@cwebber

Even if they're criminals, calling them animals is wrong anyway

They are still human beings

Dehumanization is dehumanization even when applied to a smaller group

@catonano yes exactly. It's paving the way for human rights abuses.

I stand by calling it out as something to be alarmed by, but I agree I could have phrased the original post better.

@catonano @cwebber Doubly so when there's pretty strong evidence that people are getting flagged as gang members just so there's an excuse to deport them.

So saying "I was just talking about MS-13" is a distinction without a difference when you also have said "all brown people are probably MS-13 anyway."

@gamehawk @catonano And I guess that's why I didn't bother to be clearer about Trump's statement originally. I was called out on being imprecise by someone I respect though, and that made me question if I should have worded things differently.

@cwebber @catonano Yeah, I think that's been kind of an ugly tactic: yelling at news outlets for "fake news" because he wasn't "really" calling them animals.

As someone whose mother has referred to Syrian refugees, and whose husband is half Syrian (and whose grandparents were refugees), I have to say: "OH HIS BASE HEARD *EXACTLY* WHAT HE WAS SAYING."

@cwebber @catonano (er, there's an "as animals" that goes in there somehwere)