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Mitchell Paper Prints Bigoted, Deceitful Letter about Muslims and Homosexuals

I am alarmed that John Shaw of Mitchell finds it acceptable to spew lies and hatred. I am more alarmed that the Mitchell Daily Republic abdicates its journalistic responsibility and prints Shaw's bigoted fabrications.

I excerpt with disgust and reluctance (because the comment section will turn ugly quickly, and because Shaw's blatant disregard for fact and decency demonstrate he is seeking to provoke a fight and stroke his own paranoia, not engage in neighborly discourse) comments made by John Shaw in a letter to the editor, published Saturday, November 29, 2014:

Currently 7.4 percent (23 million) of the United States population (315 million) controls the remaining 92.6 percent (292.5 million) of the U.S. population. There are two cultures of the 7.4 percent representing 3.7 percent each that have been and are currently transforming America, and they are the Muslim Islamic and sodomite cultures [John Shaw, letter to the editor, Mitchell Daily Republic, 2014.11.29].

Good grief—we're only two sentences in, and I already have seven responses:

  1. Golden rule: I defy anyone to establish that the small percentage of Americans practicing Islam and the small percentage of Americans practicing homosexuality have more control over this country than the 5% who control more than half of the nation's wealth.
  2. Shaw tries to give his warmed-over Hitlerian screed a gloss of authority with bogus decimals.
  3. Muslims make up 0.6% or maybe 2.2% of the U.S. population. The only source I find saying "3.7%" is this 2012 article listing the Muslim populations of Chicago and Detroit at 3.7%, the largest Muslim populations listed for any U.S. metro area.
  4. "Muslim Islamic" is a redundant term bred of pretentious ignorance.
  5. Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals make up 2.3% of the U.S. population.
  6. "Sodomite culture" is an insult cloaked in piety, not a real sociological category.
  7. If there were such a thing as a "sodomite culture," I can only assume from Shaw's word choice that it would include the 4% of men and 20% of women who say they've had anal sex in the past year.

The Mitchell Daily Republic should have shelved this letter right there. But no. Their editorial board, which will retract an eyewitness observation just because a grouchy Republican lawyer disagrees, lets Shaw carry on:

Most of the Muslims in the U.S. have immigrated here from the Middle East. Some Americans and other nationalities here have converted to the hellish, terroristic, Islamic ideology that barbs itself as a peaceful religion that destroyed the New York Twin Towers and 3,500 lives, plus killing U.S. servicemen at Fort Hood, Texas, and a U.S. recruitment center, decapitating a U.S. employee and performing honor killings in the U.S. to Muslim wives and daughters and our U.S. delusional leadership calls it PC — workplace violence? [Shaw, 2014.11.29]

And the Jews killed Jesus, so Judaism must be a hellish, terroristic ideology, and I must just be some PC wuss for saying the Holocaust was a bad idea, right? (Crying "political correctness" is just the whining of privileged bigots who don't like their linguistic tools of oppression taken away.)

Then Shaw really piles on the lies:

The Washington, D.C., federal government is loaded with Muslim brotherhood jihadist operatives at every high-level branch, with the consent of our current Muslim Oval Office occupier. The Muslim-Islamic literature cancer is in all of our learning institutions, (including first grade) brainwashing our current and future generations of leadership and citizenry [Shaw, 2014.11.29].

My goodness—people actually say these things... and a supposedly reputable newspaper publishes them. A baseless general assertion about government officials, a persistent and pernicious lie about the President, and a wild accusation about the content of the curriculum in every school in America. Please, make the stupid stop!

The second controlling 3.7 percent consists of sodomites, lesbians, transgenders and man-boy love cultures that promote and destroy the civil and little remaining biblical fabric of our nation in the education centers, corporation sponsorships, liberal churches and secular society in general, with Hollywood, the mainstream news media and the Democratic Party supporting this cauldron of wickedness. Obama announced that June was proclaimed sodomy month (LGBT Pride Month), and he continued to advance the sodomite culture. Obama and his administration influenced liberal activist judges to overturn states' one man, one woman marriage amendments to accommodate wicked, non-existent sodomite marriage [Shaw, 2014.11.29].

Got that, Nancy, Jennie, Greg, Mark? You are wicked, your loving commitments don't exist, and you're not having sex the way John Shaw says you should. That'll fix you.

Shaw closes by co-opting his God's righteous wrath...

"And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thessalonians 2:11,12)

Judgment is here and what is coming you will not enjoy [Shaw, 2014.11.29].

...but how can I trust his apparent claim to be Christian any more than he trusts the copious evidence that Barack Hussein Obama is Christian? One little Bible quote from Shaw? Pshaw. John Shaw is no Christian. He's just some malcontent, a feckless and frustrated man who a generation ago would have been Archie Bunkering about Negroes and Jews running everything. Unable to resort to such slurs in 2014, Shaw scapes other goats.

I wish I could ignore Shaw's screed and let it fade away. Ignorance and hatred will always curse our fallible race... and that is all the more reason to whack it every time it rears its head, to keep it from building and doing more harm. Mitchell editors, if you feel compelled to print such ignorance and hatred, you should at least feel compelled to debunk his lies.

23 Comments

  1. rocky raccoon 2014.11.30

    The Daily Republic runs "Mallard Fillmore" on their Opinion page. That should tell you where their heads are at.

  2. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.11.30

    Shame, shame, shame on Shaw and on the MDR.

    It is truly mind-numbing that a daily newspaper would publish such hate speech.

  3. M86 2014.11.30

    That's just disgusting, on many levels... Good job, Mitchell Daily Republic.

  4. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.11.30

    I was going to write an LTE to the MDR, but couldn't find a way to do so. Do I have to be registered? Have a subscription? Anyone?

  5. Donald Pay 2014.11.30

    Publishing these letters do allow us to see the depths of ignorance and hate some people have to carry around inside themselves. It does remind one that there are those among us who are not so very far away from being exactly like the Talliban or the Islamic State terrorists. Change the religion and keep the references to homosexuals and it might be one of the IS head choppers writing.

    The paper will provide a useful service if it publishes responses to this hate, so that this warped soul and any others out there, can get a sense for how deluded he is.

  6. Jana 2014.11.30

    OMG!!! You mean the Walton family and the Koch family are gay Muslims?

    Who knew?

  7. Cody 2014.11.30

    I am beyond disturbed by this letter to the editor. Such hate and ignorance is not preached in Shaw's biblical world; intolerance is the barrier to progress and men (not an appropriate term for Shaw) like this are the ones who perpetuate an uncivil world. Hopefully, he has a "come to Jesus" and realizes that his ideas are in fact wrong. Shame on The Daily Republic for publishing lies and sharing them with vulnerable minds.

  8. SDBlue 2014.11.30

    All one has to do is read Kristi Noem's Facebook page to realize Shaw is not alone in his belief system. Our elected officials here feed off of the bigotry and ignorance they have cultivated. If only Shaw could see the irony in quoting scripture while at the same time being one of the most hateful people on the planet.

  9. Vickie 2014.12.01

    This does not surprise me at all. The Mitchell Daily Republic is notorious for publishing letters to the editor from pretty much anybody that spews any sort of hate and nonsense. (Mostly from those whose tin foil hats are a wee bit too tight.) The best use of the MDR is to shred it and use it at veterinary clinics as litter box filler for cats that people have barbarically de-clawed. After working at a local veterinary clinic,I can tell you that even then the majority of cats won't use it.

  10. JeniW 2014.12.01

    It is easy to hate and fear those who we do not know.

    I am willing to bet that the author of the letter has never talked to anyone who is Muslim.

    The hatred and fear is not just toward those who have different religious beliefs, but hatred is also toward those who are poor, those who receive any type of assistance, those who are rich (see the comments made whenever Denny Sanford's name is brought up,) people who are unemployed, and on and on.

    The question is how, if at all, can we deal constructively with the hatred and fear? Hatred and fear are like cancer of the soul. It eats up the soul of those who carry the hate or fear, until there is no soul left.

  11. Lynn 2014.12.01

    When I read LTE such as from Shaw or public statements from Phil Jensen, Betty Olson or Steve Hickey (Whom on another thread commenters are empowering this Homophobe thinking he is a champion of the people when he is simply an opportunist) Some readers will pass this off as an ignorant hateful older man hiding in his secluded hate bunker but I wonder how long it will be before a hate crime is committed as a result of this LTE or some sort of discrimination occurs whether it be employment opportunities, housing or even seeking basic healthcare as a result of these messages being put out there.

    Where does the MDR draw the line on editing or screening LTEs though? It is a person's opinion right? Would the MDR fact check this and other LTEs then? If you reply to this ignorant and hateful LTE by Shaw would it only give him more exposure thus aiding his toxic opinion?

  12. JeniW 2014.12.01

    The MDR can argue "free speech," since the letter writer did not direct his comment about a specific person, no threats, no foul language, thus meeting the guidelines of the MDR.

  13. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.12.01

    JeniW, Shaw can argue "free speech" if he is writing a blog or making a speech on his own dime. None of us can use the First Amendment to force a newspaper to print our material. MDR is at complete liberty to print, edit, fact-check, or reject letters to the editor, and surely does so all the time.

    But let's shift to obligation: does a newspaper have an obligation to print reader comments? If so, or if a newspaper chooses to print such content, does it have an obligation to vet such content for truth? Does it have an obligation to filter hate speech?

  14. Rich 2014.12.01

    Mr. Shaw submits letters to the editor at least once a month and what you've read is his usual topic. My first rule of thumb when reading LTE's printed by the MDR is to check the author's name at the bottom of the letter. If it's John Shaw, I move on to the next. His fire and brimstone mentality is boring. And old. He is from time to time challenged by readers submitting a response to his letters. It only turns into a pissing match between Shaw and the respondent.

  15. Bob Klein 2014.12.01

    MDR is about the only free paper you can read online in SD. Perhaps they've figured out the correct value.

  16. larry kurtz 2014.12.01

    This post reads like Sibby bait.

  17. Loren 2014.12.01

    It's this type of hatred and ignorance that caused me to drop my RCJ subscription. I understand free speech, but newspapers are under no obligation to print hate and outright lies. I grew up in SD and returned when I retired. I wish I would have recognized this mentality before I got settled in. Hardly a day goes by that I don't think of relocating.

  18. Vickie 2014.12.01

    MDR gets all sorts of LTEs,but rejects any that mention anyone by name that has also written an LTE. They don't want to have to deal with any fallout that may occur because people are arguing in their useless rag of a paper. They will also reject many LTEs from people refuting what others have written. They are excruciatingly tiny minded and if someone writes something that they don't agree with...it doesn't get published.

  19. Jana 2014.12.01

    So when they have their meeting to review the past month they can say we drove away a top flight and respected journalist and printed the ravings of an off the charts conspiracy loving racist.

    At the end of the meeting they'll tell everyone to keep up the good work.

    I did see this in their lost and found classifieds.

    "Lost - journalistic integrity and courage. Could possibly have been kidnapped and taken to Fargo. If found call Luke at the MDR...or not."

  20. Connie Mogen 2014.12.01

    In the 1950's, Joe McCarthy was making very similar claims about communists infiltrating all levels of government. McCarthy was an alcoholic attention seeker who eventually died of his alcoholism. Shaw will eventually go down in ignominy as well. He quoted Scripture but forgot one that's more applicable: Judge not lest ye be judged. And he will be judged for his hating. Another Scripture was a commandment by Jesus: Love one another as I have loved you. No exceptions for people who aren't old, white rich, straight men.

  21. Owen 2014.12.01

    As mentioned above Shaw writes a letter about once a month. He's come close before but this time he crossed the line.
    I'm guessing it can be a fine line in determining freedom of speech and what is poor taste but in this case Shaw went to far. To me the MDR shouldn't have published this letter. It offended me greatly and I'm not gay or Muslim.
    What is a common thread with these racist happened at the end of the letter he throws in a bible verse. What a hypocrite.

Comments are closed.