This is important precisely because the Anglosphere has always been the well spring of freedom and liberal society and is now backsliding into an Orwellian nightmare. It is important to all because it can end in one of three ways 1) the same Orwellian nightmare to which it is spiraling 2) a violent spasm and orgy of rage by the deplora…
This is important precisely because the Anglosphere has always been the well spring of freedom and liberal society and is now backsliding into an Orwellian nightmare. It is important to all because it can end in one of three ways 1) the same Orwellian nightmare to which it is spiraling 2) a violent spasm and orgy of rage by the deplorables who will rise up to sweep the self-proclaimed elites and their acolytes from power and confiscate their ill-gotten gains or 3) a return to sanity and cleansing of the woke madness. Right now I prefer option 3 but inch toward option 2 with each new offense by lunatic left.
I have no time for a well-considered answer right now, as I have to go to work, but I cannot just let these "labels" pass without comment. I apparently am a deplorable, having been a life-long dem who voted for Trump. I do not support an "orgy of rage" just now, although our current administration in the US. certainly deserves it.
If you support option 2 you are a Bolshevik. You've lost faith in democracy and the belief in debate and compromise. (By the way does this include the Trump family's "ill-gotten gains"?) You've lost faith in the idea of an open pluralistic society and you've decided that authoritarianism is the answer.
My advice? Learn to live with the fact that there are LGBTQ people in the world, and they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Learn to recognize that there really is such a thing as White privilege and support efforts to help the less privileged catch up (i.e., more spending on education and job training). Rather than using violence to even things out, start voting to tax the rich to help the poor and working class of all races and and gender identities.
You say you support option 3, but what does that look like? LGBTQ folks go back in the closet? We go back to ignoring the myriad ways that Black people have been systematically disadvantaged?
Who exactly was one of the very first voices calling for legalizing gay marriage? Donald Trump. Who was a very good friend of Donald Trump, and a regular shopping buddy to Donald Trump? The very gay—flamboyant in fact—singer Liberace. According to an earlier BariWeiss story, the first Northeastern US golf courses open to Blacks and Jews were the golf courses owned by Donald Trump.
Spit out the Kool-Aid, do your own research, see just how homophobic and racist is this Donald Trump character.
Your side of this cultural divide is very angry about the idea of people using pronouns that don't fit within your side's narrow definitions of gender identity. That upsets me, because I know people who are on the receiving end of that anger.
Honestly? I really would not give a shit. Why the hell should I care about what somebody else thinks or what they have to say?
Who are they to me?
The only people whose opinions matter are my friends and my family. Even my family I can blow off cuz some of them are straight up jackasses.
You worry WAY WAY too much about your feelings when you should just toughen the fuck up and blow off shit instead of making it into a big deal. Far more important things in life to worry about.
Your generation never would have survived our youth where sticks and stones was the rule. You go through life thinking that your entitled to never be offended, that other people are responsible for your feelings. Sorry, we all deal with it and YOU are responsible for your own feelings, nobody else. Get over yourself.
You DO realize that by giving other people the ability to impact your feelings, to really get you spun up with words, you are actually empowering them to control you right? Your handing them a lever they can use to piss you off and rattle you and make you act out. Your empowering them and telling them that you are. That is nuts and a recipe for making yourself a victim and miserable.
More like fed up with straight up obnoxious people who want to foist their annoying foibles on the rest of us while we are dealing with the actually important things in life like raising kids and paying mortgages and living OUR lives.
Do you HONESTLY think most of us give a damn what someone wants to call themselves? Really?
We all have THREE issues with this whole thing....maybe FOUR.
BUT...before I proceed, I will simply say that I DO believe that there are people born with what amounts to as a birth defect in which their internal gender identity does not align with their biological sex. I sure as hell do not believe the numbers we are seeing with this and think to a certain degree, among young people being gender fluid, bi, trans ...whatever has become fashionable. Being gay is passe, so 1980s.
1. STOP trying to tell us that some hormones and surgery are going to convert someone from one sex to another. That crap is done at the DNA level. You can create some sort of Frankenstein person that looks like the other sex but will NEVER BE the other sex. Period.
2. Identifying as something does not make it true. If that were the case then I would identify as a Black Woman and apply to the SBA for a Woman & Minority Owned business certification and double my business. Heck, I would identify as a disabled Eskimo and REALLY get some government business. We do NOT think it smart to allow any boy that claims he is a girl to enter a woman's bathroom or locker room. Why? Are we terrified of "trans people"? NO...We just know that there are asshole, predatory men who are just nuts enough to make that claim for a chance to engage in sexual assaults. Were we RIGHT? Yep and we do not think that the feelings of a trans person trump our daughters, wives and sisters safety. PERIOD. We really just do NOT CARE about what issues you have with gender dysphoria. Not our problem until you make it our problem. NOR do we think it is fair or safe to allow people who transition from male to female to compete in women's sports. Got nothing to do with whether or not they should be allowed to compete in sports but everything to do with fair play and safety and those of us with daughters are determined that there be a fair playing field for them. Just look at the disaster in women's swimming. Now ask us how we would feel about allowing those same trans girls to swim with girls but be ranked against other trans girls in a separate division and I think you would be surprised at how many of us would be absolutely fine with that.
3. Look, you show up looking like a girl...your gonna get girl pronouns. You show up looking like a boy..your gonna get boy pronouns. Your not special. Your not unique and nobody cares about your feelings any more than you care about theirs or they care about anyone else's. Get over it. This sense of having to be special and having to be oversensitive is what annoys people. You mistake anger for frustration of having to deal with additional stupidity in our busy lives because some jackass thinks they deserve special treatment.
Bottom line, trans, gender fluid, WHATEVER.....get this through your head...we are more annoyed by your sense of entitlement, nasty attitudes, hyper sensitivity, the general idea that you think your special cuz of a birth defect, than the fact that you have the birth defect.
And I said birth defect just to annoy you. BUT...logically speaking, if your born with a body that does not align with your brain and it requires surgical intervention....then birth defect might just not be out of line.
There are some people who feel that they have really inherited a title of the King, and ask others to refer to them as to "your majesty", if they don't want to upset 'em...
LGBTQ people exist. They are not faking it to gain some advantage, as you seem to be suggesting. And they are frequently bullied and belittled and discriminated against by people who think like you. Then, when they choose to fight back, you call them annoying and say they are acting entitled.
you: "Do you HONESTLY think most of us give a damn what someone wants to call themselves? Really?"
Yes. Obviously you do give a damn. And I think that because I'm reading the words that you wrote.
You are a sloppy thinker, Matt. LGBTQ people are not all or even mostly trans. Stop lumping them together. Moreover, try reading what I wrote. I said we don't care what you call yourselves, just stop insisting we play along. Now run along and play. Soon it will be nap time.
Saying LGBTQ already implies that they are not all the same. I thought that was obvious. And saying "we don't care, just stop insisting we play along." is a lie. You are basically saying "stay in the closet where you belong."
Ya know, the more I think about it the more I think these people do what they do for attention. Its like they have a need to be special in some way and this is a way for them to do it.
Its an issue of self esteem.
But what can you expect from a generation that grew up with participation trophies, being told they are special and unique by their parents and basically molly coddled from birth.
You only get real self esteem from real achievement and that only comes from hard work, being willing to fail and knowing how to get back up anyway.
Nobody is special at everything. Most of us are special only to our families. Not everyone is gonna be Tom Brady or Paveratti. Not everyone is gonna be Elon Musk or Michael Jackson. These people need to learn that there is value in just being a good person, good son or sister, a good member of the community. Just do your best and be decent to other people. But they all want to be social media influencers. They all want to be important on a large stage and they do not want to hear that that requires three things, only one of which they can control.
I'm glad you're expressing your opinions. It's good to get these kinds of ignorant feelings out in the open so they can be dealt with. You really think trans people are doing what they're doing to get attention and feel special? Do you actually know any trans people? Do you know what their lives are like?
I personally think it's great that Matt's conviction is so powerful that even if he is faced with obvious truths regularly (such as thourgh Bari's column and Persuasion which he also subscribes to) he simply clings to his world-view with increased ferocity.
John McWhorter noted that to speak with the Woke is like speaking with the deeply religious - you're not going to convince them that God doesn't exist, so there's really no point in trying. Matt here is a perfect example, which I'm grateful for, as it perfectly fits McWhorter's theory.
To your point, Matt, I actually know several trans people, and I'm guessing you don't. By that I mean that I know people that identified as trans many years before it became an internet meme and a way to achieve victimhood despite having white skin.
They are all biologically male and were diagnosed with gender dysphoria at a young age. None of them care about pronouns, and they absolutely hate what the trans movement has become.
1. I do believe that there are members of the public that are well and truly gender dysphoric.
2. I ALSO believe that there are a great many people who identify as trans who actually are people looking to cope with other underlying emotional issues and mental challenges. The growing number of people transitioning back should be an indicator. I believe that this is particularly true among the young and young adolescent females in particular.
3. I fundamentally believe that it is the rare trans person that is NOT dealing with self esteem issues, confusion, frustration, fear, a sense of powerlessness to deal with the issues facing them, a feeling of isolation and being different. How could they not be? All of those emotions lead to another emotion. Anger. All those emotions have to vent somehow. Largely they have vented in counterproductive ways. The pronoun thing is simply a way to assert some form of control of their existence and compelling others to conform is another. I think a lot of the agenda they push is really not much more than an attempt to be validated or to give themselves a sense that their lives are not bizarrely different from everyone elses, a means to demand acceptance and prove their lives are in control. Nobody wants to be a freak in human society, a society that cherishes predictability and norms. This is particularly true of young people. Old fucks like me just stopped giving a shit what other people think.
I think that trans women want to use the women's room and the girls locker room and engage in chick chat to validate themselves as being women/girls. They want validation.
But any emotionally healthy adult trans person would also recognize the following...
1. As much as they want and desire and feel as though they are the other sex, they are never going to be fully that due to genetics.
2. That there is a fundamental risk to allowing any man who chooses to claim to be a woman to enter places like locker rooms or bathrooms designated for women, that there are more sexual predators than trans people and that although it may be awkward for them to use the bathroom of the genetic sex, the safety of young women is worth the price.
3. That there is a fundamental lack of fair play in allowing a trans woman to participate in women's sports and that in some cases that can actually be dangerous. That there could and should be a separate category of competition for those who have fully transitioned and for those who have not that they compete in the competitions for the sex of their birth.
4. That somebody using your "dead name" or the wrong pronoun is not the end of the world unless you are a mental basket case. Suck it up. Sticks and stones.
5. Urging the transition of pubescent and prepubescents is cruel and foolish. The human brain evolves until the age of 27. The brains of these kids is evolving constantly and their emotions are volatile. If your kid has questions or suspects they may be trans, then it is up to parents to make determinations and decisions, not schools, not activists, not politicians. But, I can see how if you were a young trans person you would want others to be like you so your not feeling so alone and isolated but that is YOUR problem and you cannot be allowed to externalize it and harm others or cause others to harm themselves so you feel better. Statistically speaking, the total trans population should never exceed .o1% of the general population. Thats a pretty lonely place to be. But again, their loneliness does not justify a lot of these pushes to start transitioning younger and younger people.
6. Nobody wants to hear somebody elses problems all the time, over and over. You may have issues as a trans person but buddy, we have our own and we do not have the time or will to put into solving yours. We particularly do not want to hear it is strident, nasty, obnoxious, intolerant, sanctimonious terms. Suck it up, the rest of us do and stop being so intolerant and judgemental of others who do not want to jump in and commiserate or conform to your views. You just come off like an asshole. NOBODY likes an asshole. They may just not give a rats ass about your gender challenges but they will detest an asshole.
Thank you for that spot on retort. And allow me to add, we don't give a fig about what pronouns you care to use on your e-mail. Just stop insisting that the rest of us play along with it.
You're going to insist on everyone else conforming to your understanding of gender identity? How would you feel if society decided to treat you like a woman, and call you a woman?
you can call a horse a cow all day long does not change the fact a horse is a horse and a cow is a cow . call yurself whatever you want , but don't berate me because i call you as i see you . this whole lgbtq thing i really don't care what you do in private , it's your business not mine , gives you no special standing . you can screw donkeys for all i care . I will treat you as any other person , i don't give a f what they do in private either . Get over yourself yoir are not special
I can't speak for others--who seem, by the way, to be speaking about the T right now, and saying nothing at all about LGB people--but no, of course not.
I'll call someone by whatever name or pronoun they want, within reason, because whether I think it is silly or not, people have a right to choose that. But I'm not going to sit and nod as people try to completely redefine gender and sex, which IS something that everyone, and not just trans people, has a stake in.
It is also a matter of honesty. I've read a lot about this issue from people across the political spectrum. And at the end of the day....I just don't believe that trans women are woman and trans men are men. If someone passes particularly well, I may come to think of them according to their gender presentation, but I do not believe that it is possible to change biological sex, I do not believe that sex occurs across a spectrum, and I do not believe that there is some mystical thing called gender that is distinct from biological sex. That should be an opinion that remains acceptable to articulate in appropriate contexts, even at risk of hurt feelings.
I don't want transgender people in the closet. I don't think they should be discriminated against at work, or in the housing market, or by store owners. But I also do not think they belong in most sex-segregated spaces like women's athletics or prisons. I also object to trying to transform language to deny the reality of biological sex and deny aspects of identity that are meaningful to many women--for instance, by calling us menstruating people or chestfeeders.
Claiming that people like me just want LGBTQ people in the closet is a strawman argument.
I think the emphasis on the T is because really nobody cares or even thinks about lesbians or gay men or rather that they ARE lesbian or gay. Just do not care. Still not sure what the difference is between lesbian/gay and queer but whatever.
Honestly, this is all behind the bedroom door stuff and is meaningless whereas trans is a different issue. You do not see gay men trying to use a girls bathroom or a lesbian saddling up to a urinal.
that is your one response , where did I say that ? I worked security at gay bars in montreal in the 80's never bothered me do what you want say the same to guys bragging they fucked 50 women in a week , i don't care about your private life , get over yourself
WOW....Just WOW Matt. That is WAY WAY over the top.
Let me lay some things out for you.
1. Most of us out here just do NOT give a rats ass about LGBTQ ..XYZ. Just not even in out thoughts good or bad. We are mostly, completely and utterly indifferent. Ya aint special in any way shape or form. Your either an asshole or your not. You either do your job or you do not. Your a good neighbor or you are not. Are there people out there who do care? Sure. But they are an annoying minority that we basically put in the same class as the melodramatic farts that write comments like yours that assume we care at all.
2. Pretty sure you meant reactionary Fascist instead of Bolshevik....but I'm guessing you do not read a lot of history.
3. We only want you in a closet if your an annoying pain in the ass whose sanctimonious celebration of victim hood is getting on our nerves.
4. There is a reasonable argument to be made that over the last 40 yrs Black people have ACTUALLY been systematically ADVANTAGED. Certainly government setasides for Black owned business is a structural advantage. Certainly affirmative action and systems to enforce diversity over merit are structural advantages. Honestly, being really truly honest, if domestically born black people are failing today it is because of pathologies in their culture. African immigrants, ACTUAL AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS, not African-Americans ( a term BTW that annoys a lot of Africans ) are doing better by far than most ethnic groups. Nigerians in particular, with Ganan's right on their heals, are doing really well and beat all other ethnic groups, including White people, in terms of education and wealth growth. Indian immigrants, many of whom are far more black than most Black Americans, are ALSO doing exceptionally well in terms of education and climbing the economic ladder. SO...it aint the skin tone dude, its the attitude. But you wallow in that, you sit and whine and complain while the rest of these groups charge ahead. BTW....after domestically born Black people, the group that most supports black issues is White people. Hispanics, Asians and new African immigrants have the least amount of sympathy for Black Americans issues and in fact are more likely than White people to oppose special preferences. So suck it up, put on your big boy pants and get to work. Quit whining and thinking your special
You probably don't realize it, but 1 and 3 are in conflict. If you think people who have preferred pronouns that don't fit within your narrow definition of gender identity are pains in the asses, if you want them back in the closet, then you DO give a rats ass. You are, in fact, very angry about the issue.
On 4) The median household wealth of White families is $180,000. The median household wealth of Black families is $18,000. That's a lot of White privilege. There are reasons for this discrepancy that are related to generations of systematic abuse and disadvantage. (Slavery, Jim Crow, red-lining, reduced employment opportunities, poorly-funded schools, over policing, racist sentencing guidelines, etc.) You simply don't want to admit that this is the case. Probably because you assume that mitigating those disadvantages would some how mean taking things away from you, or from White people. But that is not the case. Read Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us. Also, this should be obvious but Immigrants did not experience those systematic disadvantages, so they did not grow up with generationally transferred social pathologies. (One of these pathologies is a learned sense of hopelessness about the future.)
Dear Matt, the difference in results (“the median household wealth of White families is $180,000, the median household wealth of Black families is $18,000”) by itself means NOTHING. It is the wrong idea that everybody should have the same results in “the life race”, or there are “oppression”. The mistake is quite natural, though, under the circumstances that racists used to explain the failure of “black community folks” by genetic reasons; this explanation is apparently wrong.
The reason of “black disaster” is purely and solely common wrong “social attitude” inside the “black community”. Have black people problems in their life? True, they do. Are some of these problems originating from racist attitude toward them? Yes, it is. The issue is that the community as the entire “black community” (but not all of black people!) are focused on the problems and “injustice” instead of finding opportunities and using ‘em.
Jews in Russian Empire (and –let’s tell true – partially in US as well) experienced a severe discrimination in past; nevertheless, now this is one of the most successful communities in Russia and in US as well. Chinese immigrants in US also experienced a severe discrimination and (by the way!) tremendous racist-based pressure (comparable with the ant-black racism) in the second part of 19th and first part of 20th centuries. Now these are one of the most successful “minority communities” in US (having median household wealth over US average. There are many other examples around the globe.
Moreover, there are enough “white households” with the wealth below $18,000. Are they also “oppressed” in some way (as Bolsheviks thought), or are there different “black social patterns” and “white social patterns” (the “racially correct physics and math” are in the offing)?
Very incomplete thinking, Matt. Yes, black Americans have had to overcome the institution and residues of slavery, but to blame wealth discrepancies on "white privilege", then say immigrants are immune to white privilege is nonsensical. if I'm walking down the street, do you think if I can tell (or care) if a black person is from Belize, Benin or the Bronx? Those "inauthentic" black immigrants simply bring more of those "white privilege" values such as working hard, saving more and delaying gratification, a higher willingness to participate in employer-sponsored retirement plans, a higher rate of intact (2 parent) families and yes - better K-12 education in many poorer countries than our inner city public schools offer. These are all attributes that the African American community enjoyed in the post world war II era. The Voting Rights Act was a crowning achievement, but the Great Society and the entitlement culture that followed hollowed out the well-being and overall health of many American families and communities, probably none more so than the inner city African American community. Many African Americans dodged that bullet - 12% of the middle class is Black, and they are 13% of the U.S. population, i.e. they have the same proportional representation that whites and Hispanics do. But, sadly, many have not, and we have work to do to eradicate the New Plantation, where the new Master is the government, that doles out a dependency-generating stipend and offers below 3rd world education and criminal domination of neighborhoods, all the while maintaining compliance with the narrative that "racism" is holding them back. Liberals destroyed the lives of millions in order to "help" them, and now they want to blame their failures on conservatives who are suddenly all racist. Nice try. It doesn't even fly in the African American community any more. They know they've been had.
I've heard all of those arguments. The idea that the government is ruining people's lives by doling out "dependency-generating stipends" is simply not true. Have you looked at what happens when people receive universal basic income? It tends to make their lives better and more manageable.
And generations of systemic deprivation and abuse leads to social pathologies that pass on from generation to generation. Immigrants arrive without those generational burdens.
Maybe we agree that we need to dramatically improve the quality of our educational system. Of course that will require more funding, which is probably where we would part ways again.
The ignorance is not an argument, though. Chinese people came to US with the history of thousands years of oppressions, Jews came to US with the history of the hundred years of oppressions, and the history of the racism and oppressions went on in US for a while. Where is "the social pathology"?
You are digging in the wrong direction, Matt. The answer do exist, but you hesitate to see it.
You cannot correct for those pathologies by enabling them.
Matt, I will grant you that those pathologies were in no small part created in response to racial disparities. Not going to argue that.
What I will argue is the following...
1. The sins of the father do NOT fall on the son. We do not want to go there if for no other reason than that no group or race has its hands clean if your willing to go back and look. None of us of any color would be clean.
2. There is nothing that we, today, can do to amend the hurt done in the past to people who are gone. For those alive today who lived under Jim Crowe? For them we could probably do something and perhaps should. What exactly I am not sure, but something to support them would not be out of line.
3. For this generation? We cannot fix the pathologies in their community. We do not have the power. I cannot imagine anyone I know, had they a magic wand to wave and make it all better who would not do so. But the problems are such that only they can fix them. We cannot parent their children. We cannot force them to stop having babies they cannot afford out of wedlock. We cannot make black men stick around to father children and even if we could many of them never had fathers themselves so they have no idea what that means or how to do it. We cannot get rid of drugs. God knows we have tried. We cannot simply stop them from killing each other or getting into gangs or committing crimes. Those things are all personal choices we cannot control. How do we stop them from celebrating Gangsta culture and misogynistic music? God help us if we even tried. We cannot be there to assure their kids do their homework. We MIGHT be able to help parents with no schooling learn how to help their kids but how many of them would take the opportunity. How can we help them when they think that things like attention to detail, hard work, logic are white oppression? How can we help them progress when they insist that speaking proper English is another form of racism?
They need to CHOOSE and then they need to execute. We can support them in some small ways...but really...its out of our power.
Tell ya something else, they better get that together before Whites are no longer the majority because once that ends its gonna be really hard to convince a culture dominated by successful Latinos and Asians that THEY have a responsibility to fix the problems in the Black community. THEY are gonna have ZERO sympathy.
I'll give you this, Matt - you are a progressive down the line. Where UBI has been tried, the amounts tend to be immaterial, and the post-mortems suggest little constructive or destructive change in behaviors, but that recipients tended to "feel good" about the extra cash. Brilliant. The one exception is Iran, where UBI is substantial. But it is received in exchange for compliance on social and political viewpoints - the real point of UBI.
As for education, there is a LOT of data both domestically and globally. Spoiler alert: there is no correlation between spending and outcomes. Homework assignment: compare the specific spending of a given public school's revenues with that of a private school. Then go audit the classrooms of each for a couple days. Then we'll talk about education and spending.
The big problem with CRT/Antiracism is that it ENCOURAGES the pathology of helplessness. It teaches black youth that systemic racism is like a malevolent god; omnipresent, all-powerful, and determined to make their lives miserable.
No point studying for the SAT; it was "created to flunk black students". No point trying to get a job; capitalism was "invented to oppress black people". Nothing those poor black folk can do but sit around and wait for some White Saviors to rescue them.
Do you seriously think that the words has the meaning (and the effect) according Webster? You are explaining the person that he is “oppressed” and this is the reason of his poor life position. In what way the person is expected to react? First, he is trying “to stop oppression”, right? He can require, he can demand, but the final solution depends on the oppressor. The oppressor can agree that he is a bad guy and stop oppression – and can disagree with this and go on oppression. So, the person is facing the dilemma – to resort to violence (at least some kind of violence), or agree that his faith depends on others (on the will of the oppressor).
Nice dilemma, hah? I can agree? though, that logic is not a strong feature of a mob of "appressed", and demagogues are not usually appealing to the reasoning.
I think he is a huxter who has figured out how to make a bunch of money spewing nonsense. He found a market and wrote intellectually weak philosophy to fill it.
The guy is no better than any other self help guru with a story to tell.
He is getting rich and laid on a foundation of the unearned guilt of White upper middle class women.
I think Kendi feels like he's discovered the perfect cash cow; getting paid $20,000 per hour to tell his audiences they are helpless unless democracy is ended and replaced with a woke junta.
That's not even history; the writings of Kendi are overtly totalitarian.
He has said, on record, that 2 prerequisities to achieving "racial justice" are ending capitalism and ending democracy. It's actually kind of scary that progressives listen to him instead of marginalizing him on the fringe where he belongs.
Think the same thing. Your handicapping them before they ever get started.
Life is hard and it is not fair. Not for anyone and not in equal amounts.
I tell that to my kids all the time for two reasons. First, be grateful for what you have. Second, do not take if for granted and be prepared to work hard to just keep it. Nobody is going to come save you. You better be strong enough and equip yourself with the tools to take care of yourself.
I also tell them that it is perfectly possible to do all the right things and still fail. You can either whine about it and wallow in your misery or get off your ass and try again. THAT I have drummed in their heads since they were little. Eventually, if you do the right things over and over, despite any setbacks, you will get to where you want or need to go.
What you are essentially saying is that the median White family has an income that puts them in the top 5% of income earners. That is just impossible. MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
Tell ya what, you come to DC sometime and you will see PLENTY of wealthy Black people running around.
SO...we agree then, there are social pathologies at work in the domestically born Black community. They are UNIQUE to the domestically born Black community. And really, we are talking about the URBAN domestically born Black community.
Well dude, nothing the government or any special conditions offered is gonna change that. That is internal and it gets reinforced from parent to child, handed down like a family heirloom. There is NOTHING that is going to change that until they choose to change it themselves. There is very very little if any real systemic issues apart from attitude and inter-generational poverty keeping these people back.
AND....you just might want to ask yourself why it is that Black people in the US had higher rates of education and higher rates of business and home ownership BEFORE the 1960's. Ya know, back in the day when 80% of black children were born into two parent households before the term "baby mama" became part of the social lexicon.
I am thinking that option 2 was the first Trump presidency and the more time passes the more convinced I am that there WILL be a second one.
I remember Michael Moore saying that the Trump election was the biggest "F You" ever to the establishments of both parties and I still believe he was right.
A second Trump presidency will be a big "FU" to the progressive left and a reaction to the Biden presidency.
Saw yesterday that the betting odds of Trump winning another term are now 3-1 in his favor and Biden is at 9-2 against him. It was the complete opposite last Feb.
The question is: How will the progressive left respond to being told off?
My guess? The response will be dramatic and probably violent. That group is populated by Woke religious fanatics and a lot of life's dead enders with nothing to lose. These are the people of instant gratification, participation trophies and helicopter parents. They do not accept that they do not get what they want.
Not so sure about those odds. I think they'll change if Trump's recorded demand to 'find' roughly 12000 votes to Georgia's Republican Secretary of State after the election is prosecuted by the Atlanta District Attorney. It might be difficult to win even his party's nomination if your man is being charged by the State of Georgia with vote tampering. Though, since the Republicans have become a party committed to the cult worship of one man, anything is possible. So I could be wrong.
2. If he were going to be charged with anything it would have happened. The best shot of that was going to be if the Jan 6 Committee had been truly bipartisan and had found a smoking gun and if that was gonna happen it would have already. Plus..
a) 76% of those recently polled did not think the events rose to an insurrection but were a mob that got out of control and rioted.
b) It is not even in the top 10 of concerns among all voters and not in the top 6 for democrats.
c) The committee is likely to be disbanded as soon as the republicans take the house in the fall.
3. Those are betting odds as of yesterday, not my opinion or anyone elses individual opinion but the collected opinion of people who put money down on bets. You can make of that what you will but my experience is that people who take bets and those who make them collectively seem to generally be close to the mark. Just a data point.
We could spend all day on various theories and speculations as to why things are as they are and what is or is not likely to happen but it is not a stretch to say that there is a general consensus that the democrats have very very badly messed up on a lot of fronts and are very likely to pay a very steep price next year. What happens after....who knows but it is not unreasonable to presume that things are not going to get better for the democrats going from Jan 2023 on.
A WHOLE lot could happen between then and the start of the next presidential election. Biden could drop dead of old age. Trump could drop dead. Trump could decide not to run and back the FL governor, be a king maker rather than a king so he does not have to deal with the media or the democrats and can keep making money. Biden could decide not to run and the democrats actually find a candidate that will manage to overcome the hole that the progressives and Biden have dug.
One thing I think IS safe to say....the progressive political agenda is dead for at least a decade.
There is controlling money behind that movement. The hands which deliver the money provide the steering. Go read up on Open Society. It all sounds so innocuous, but the goal is global governance.
I can't stand Trump, but even I can admit he brought a more realistic approach to border security, China, and he did good work with the Abraham Accords and trying to reverse the trend of jobs being outsourced overseas to take advantage of cheap labour.
I am one of the rare liberals I know that can look at the man's actions with clear eyes. Pretty much everyone else I know has severe TDS. My husband's mom starts screaming if I even mention his name.
They are trying to pre-impeach him with that nonsense January 6th committee right now. Incredible resources and time spent trying to bring him down over and over again by the usual suspects for six years now.
They won’t let Trump win again. They will send the military to enforce election “safety/freedom” because, they will say, the elections are being run by dozens of Bull Connor figures in various swing states. That plus Zuckerberg will spend $2 billion this time.
It will be pitched as the equivalent of Eisenhower sending the 101st Airborne to ensure the Little Rock Nine could attend desegregated schools.
I hope your wrong. Because if your right, there will be an armed insurrection this time.
I'm also not all that sure that the government could count on the military at this point. Just not. And I work with the military every day.
Yes, they have been purging people from the armed forces they think are extremists but I really do not think you could get the army or marines to step up like that reliably anymore.
Don't bet on that. Human nature is funny. All it takes is one thing to ignite the spark. Was a tax on tea really what sent a swarm of patriots, mad as hornets, to the road from Concord to Boston? There is a well spring of rising anger and playing with armed patriots is playing with fire. And progressives are just dumb enough to strike that match.
I agree that life remains pretty comfortable in this country for most. However, I would add that economic disruptions, which can come on rather suddenly, could quickly take away those higher stock valuations and home prices. Then what do we have?
The problem is that, while your (and my) stock portfolios and home values are rising and we have cushy jobs from which we can work at home, that is not the reality for too many of our fellow citizens. We cannot be blind to the people who fix and clean our homes, deliver and stock our groceries and respond the the emergencies we create. And when you disparage them, devalue them, create race and class distinctions and divides you create a very dry tinder, indeed. Talk to real construction workers, cops, firefighters and a host of people who keep our society working and see how they feel.
Bruce, the words that it is wrong “to be blind to the people who fix and clean our homes, deliver and stock our groceries and respond the emergencies we create”, are easily recognizable. These are all slogans of Bolsheviks; they called – “stand up all victims of oppression” and insisted that “those who have taken, now they must give!”
Bolsheviks succeeded, and… we all know well the end of the story – “the people who fix and clean our homes, etc.” went on doing it, and “those who have taken”, went on doing it as well. Only the massive personal reshuffle took place, and the rhetoric change took place as well.
Bottom line – the society is very (very-very-very-…) complicated machine, and on one hand there are no “simple, apparent and fast” ways to improve its operation, and on the other hand, there are many “simple, apparent and fast” ways to make its problems worse; “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
7% inflation, no end in sight. Soon you will be forced to clean your own toilet! They are coming for you guys, too. Slowly, than all at once. You're not that protected.
Many but not the majority. The majority are hard working white men and women who've been abused by the self-proclaimed elites. Not to say that other ethnic groups are not also hard working and abused. But the white majority is then treated by the imbecilic clown who pretends to be "our President" as supremacists, nationalists and terrorists" for demanding the government's fealty to due process and equal protection and enforcement of our laws and Constitution.
But this next time there will be pushback. And even the Dept of Injustice will not be able to gaslight their way out of it. Could they really jail millions?
That's why the DOJ got busy creating a "Domestic Terrorism Force" as of last week. Gotta put a match to that gaslight at this point. It won't take millions. Just the "trumped up," abject and very celebrated humiliation and destruction of specifically chosen figures on the front lines. I'll bet they already have a list.
This is important precisely because the Anglosphere has always been the well spring of freedom and liberal society and is now backsliding into an Orwellian nightmare. It is important to all because it can end in one of three ways 1) the same Orwellian nightmare to which it is spiraling 2) a violent spasm and orgy of rage by the deplorables who will rise up to sweep the self-proclaimed elites and their acolytes from power and confiscate their ill-gotten gains or 3) a return to sanity and cleansing of the woke madness. Right now I prefer option 3 but inch toward option 2 with each new offense by lunatic left.
I feel the same way. But….
In America I could foresee a national divorce.
It is plausible for TX to FL to form a new nation.
I believe that could happen if, for example, SCOTUS gets packed after the senate filibuster is gone.
Like an option 4.
I have no time for a well-considered answer right now, as I have to go to work, but I cannot just let these "labels" pass without comment. I apparently am a deplorable, having been a life-long dem who voted for Trump. I do not support an "orgy of rage" just now, although our current administration in the US. certainly deserves it.
I am also a life-long dem who voted for Trump - FU vote. I'm from the rust belt. Michael Moore was right.
If you support option 2 you are a Bolshevik. You've lost faith in democracy and the belief in debate and compromise. (By the way does this include the Trump family's "ill-gotten gains"?) You've lost faith in the idea of an open pluralistic society and you've decided that authoritarianism is the answer.
My advice? Learn to live with the fact that there are LGBTQ people in the world, and they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Learn to recognize that there really is such a thing as White privilege and support efforts to help the less privileged catch up (i.e., more spending on education and job training). Rather than using violence to even things out, start voting to tax the rich to help the poor and working class of all races and and gender identities.
You say you support option 3, but what does that look like? LGBTQ folks go back in the closet? We go back to ignoring the myriad ways that Black people have been systematically disadvantaged?
Who exactly was one of the very first voices calling for legalizing gay marriage? Donald Trump. Who was a very good friend of Donald Trump, and a regular shopping buddy to Donald Trump? The very gay—flamboyant in fact—singer Liberace. According to an earlier BariWeiss story, the first Northeastern US golf courses open to Blacks and Jews were the golf courses owned by Donald Trump.
Spit out the Kool-Aid, do your own research, see just how homophobic and racist is this Donald Trump character.
And by the way, Matt, few, if any of us care with whom you make love, or how. It's frankly boring and tedious. Why does that so obsess you?
Your side of this cultural divide is very angry about the idea of people using pronouns that don't fit within your side's narrow definitions of gender identity. That upsets me, because I know people who are on the receiving end of that anger.
Not upset about you using your pronoun of choice. Upset about you requiring us to use your pronoun of choice.
How would you feel if society insisted on using the opposite of your preferred pronoun?
No problem. There are too many more important things to worry about.
Honestly? I really would not give a shit. Why the hell should I care about what somebody else thinks or what they have to say?
Who are they to me?
The only people whose opinions matter are my friends and my family. Even my family I can blow off cuz some of them are straight up jackasses.
You worry WAY WAY too much about your feelings when you should just toughen the fuck up and blow off shit instead of making it into a big deal. Far more important things in life to worry about.
Your generation never would have survived our youth where sticks and stones was the rule. You go through life thinking that your entitled to never be offended, that other people are responsible for your feelings. Sorry, we all deal with it and YOU are responsible for your own feelings, nobody else. Get over yourself.
You DO realize that by giving other people the ability to impact your feelings, to really get you spun up with words, you are actually empowering them to control you right? Your handing them a lever they can use to piss you off and rattle you and make you act out. Your empowering them and telling them that you are. That is nuts and a recipe for making yourself a victim and miserable.
Angry?
More like fed up with straight up obnoxious people who want to foist their annoying foibles on the rest of us while we are dealing with the actually important things in life like raising kids and paying mortgages and living OUR lives.
Do you HONESTLY think most of us give a damn what someone wants to call themselves? Really?
We all have THREE issues with this whole thing....maybe FOUR.
BUT...before I proceed, I will simply say that I DO believe that there are people born with what amounts to as a birth defect in which their internal gender identity does not align with their biological sex. I sure as hell do not believe the numbers we are seeing with this and think to a certain degree, among young people being gender fluid, bi, trans ...whatever has become fashionable. Being gay is passe, so 1980s.
1. STOP trying to tell us that some hormones and surgery are going to convert someone from one sex to another. That crap is done at the DNA level. You can create some sort of Frankenstein person that looks like the other sex but will NEVER BE the other sex. Period.
2. Identifying as something does not make it true. If that were the case then I would identify as a Black Woman and apply to the SBA for a Woman & Minority Owned business certification and double my business. Heck, I would identify as a disabled Eskimo and REALLY get some government business. We do NOT think it smart to allow any boy that claims he is a girl to enter a woman's bathroom or locker room. Why? Are we terrified of "trans people"? NO...We just know that there are asshole, predatory men who are just nuts enough to make that claim for a chance to engage in sexual assaults. Were we RIGHT? Yep and we do not think that the feelings of a trans person trump our daughters, wives and sisters safety. PERIOD. We really just do NOT CARE about what issues you have with gender dysphoria. Not our problem until you make it our problem. NOR do we think it is fair or safe to allow people who transition from male to female to compete in women's sports. Got nothing to do with whether or not they should be allowed to compete in sports but everything to do with fair play and safety and those of us with daughters are determined that there be a fair playing field for them. Just look at the disaster in women's swimming. Now ask us how we would feel about allowing those same trans girls to swim with girls but be ranked against other trans girls in a separate division and I think you would be surprised at how many of us would be absolutely fine with that.
3. Look, you show up looking like a girl...your gonna get girl pronouns. You show up looking like a boy..your gonna get boy pronouns. Your not special. Your not unique and nobody cares about your feelings any more than you care about theirs or they care about anyone else's. Get over it. This sense of having to be special and having to be oversensitive is what annoys people. You mistake anger for frustration of having to deal with additional stupidity in our busy lives because some jackass thinks they deserve special treatment.
Bottom line, trans, gender fluid, WHATEVER.....get this through your head...we are more annoyed by your sense of entitlement, nasty attitudes, hyper sensitivity, the general idea that you think your special cuz of a birth defect, than the fact that you have the birth defect.
And I said birth defect just to annoy you. BUT...logically speaking, if your born with a body that does not align with your brain and it requires surgical intervention....then birth defect might just not be out of line.
There are some people who feel that they have really inherited a title of the King, and ask others to refer to them as to "your majesty", if they don't want to upset 'em...
LGBTQ people exist. They are not faking it to gain some advantage, as you seem to be suggesting. And they are frequently bullied and belittled and discriminated against by people who think like you. Then, when they choose to fight back, you call them annoying and say they are acting entitled.
you: "Do you HONESTLY think most of us give a damn what someone wants to call themselves? Really?"
Yes. Obviously you do give a damn. And I think that because I'm reading the words that you wrote.
You are the definition of transphobic.
Now I'm really hurt.
You are a sloppy thinker, Matt. LGBTQ people are not all or even mostly trans. Stop lumping them together. Moreover, try reading what I wrote. I said we don't care what you call yourselves, just stop insisting we play along. Now run along and play. Soon it will be nap time.
Saying LGBTQ already implies that they are not all the same. I thought that was obvious. And saying "we don't care, just stop insisting we play along." is a lie. You are basically saying "stay in the closet where you belong."
wake up Matt it is not 1950
careful Matts head is going to explode , truth will short circuit his brain
I'm done pulling punches.
Ya know, the more I think about it the more I think these people do what they do for attention. Its like they have a need to be special in some way and this is a way for them to do it.
Its an issue of self esteem.
But what can you expect from a generation that grew up with participation trophies, being told they are special and unique by their parents and basically molly coddled from birth.
You only get real self esteem from real achievement and that only comes from hard work, being willing to fail and knowing how to get back up anyway.
Nobody is special at everything. Most of us are special only to our families. Not everyone is gonna be Tom Brady or Paveratti. Not everyone is gonna be Elon Musk or Michael Jackson. These people need to learn that there is value in just being a good person, good son or sister, a good member of the community. Just do your best and be decent to other people. But they all want to be social media influencers. They all want to be important on a large stage and they do not want to hear that that requires three things, only one of which they can control.
1. Talent
2. Luck
3. Hard work
I'm glad you're expressing your opinions. It's good to get these kinds of ignorant feelings out in the open so they can be dealt with. You really think trans people are doing what they're doing to get attention and feel special? Do you actually know any trans people? Do you know what their lives are like?
I personally think it's great that Matt's conviction is so powerful that even if he is faced with obvious truths regularly (such as thourgh Bari's column and Persuasion which he also subscribes to) he simply clings to his world-view with increased ferocity.
John McWhorter noted that to speak with the Woke is like speaking with the deeply religious - you're not going to convince them that God doesn't exist, so there's really no point in trying. Matt here is a perfect example, which I'm grateful for, as it perfectly fits McWhorter's theory.
To your point, Matt, I actually know several trans people, and I'm guessing you don't. By that I mean that I know people that identified as trans many years before it became an internet meme and a way to achieve victimhood despite having white skin.
They are all biologically male and were diagnosed with gender dysphoria at a young age. None of them care about pronouns, and they absolutely hate what the trans movement has become.
Have a nice day.
LMAO....Just funny.
1. I do believe that there are members of the public that are well and truly gender dysphoric.
2. I ALSO believe that there are a great many people who identify as trans who actually are people looking to cope with other underlying emotional issues and mental challenges. The growing number of people transitioning back should be an indicator. I believe that this is particularly true among the young and young adolescent females in particular.
3. I fundamentally believe that it is the rare trans person that is NOT dealing with self esteem issues, confusion, frustration, fear, a sense of powerlessness to deal with the issues facing them, a feeling of isolation and being different. How could they not be? All of those emotions lead to another emotion. Anger. All those emotions have to vent somehow. Largely they have vented in counterproductive ways. The pronoun thing is simply a way to assert some form of control of their existence and compelling others to conform is another. I think a lot of the agenda they push is really not much more than an attempt to be validated or to give themselves a sense that their lives are not bizarrely different from everyone elses, a means to demand acceptance and prove their lives are in control. Nobody wants to be a freak in human society, a society that cherishes predictability and norms. This is particularly true of young people. Old fucks like me just stopped giving a shit what other people think.
I think that trans women want to use the women's room and the girls locker room and engage in chick chat to validate themselves as being women/girls. They want validation.
But any emotionally healthy adult trans person would also recognize the following...
1. As much as they want and desire and feel as though they are the other sex, they are never going to be fully that due to genetics.
2. That there is a fundamental risk to allowing any man who chooses to claim to be a woman to enter places like locker rooms or bathrooms designated for women, that there are more sexual predators than trans people and that although it may be awkward for them to use the bathroom of the genetic sex, the safety of young women is worth the price.
3. That there is a fundamental lack of fair play in allowing a trans woman to participate in women's sports and that in some cases that can actually be dangerous. That there could and should be a separate category of competition for those who have fully transitioned and for those who have not that they compete in the competitions for the sex of their birth.
4. That somebody using your "dead name" or the wrong pronoun is not the end of the world unless you are a mental basket case. Suck it up. Sticks and stones.
5. Urging the transition of pubescent and prepubescents is cruel and foolish. The human brain evolves until the age of 27. The brains of these kids is evolving constantly and their emotions are volatile. If your kid has questions or suspects they may be trans, then it is up to parents to make determinations and decisions, not schools, not activists, not politicians. But, I can see how if you were a young trans person you would want others to be like you so your not feeling so alone and isolated but that is YOUR problem and you cannot be allowed to externalize it and harm others or cause others to harm themselves so you feel better. Statistically speaking, the total trans population should never exceed .o1% of the general population. Thats a pretty lonely place to be. But again, their loneliness does not justify a lot of these pushes to start transitioning younger and younger people.
6. Nobody wants to hear somebody elses problems all the time, over and over. You may have issues as a trans person but buddy, we have our own and we do not have the time or will to put into solving yours. We particularly do not want to hear it is strident, nasty, obnoxious, intolerant, sanctimonious terms. Suck it up, the rest of us do and stop being so intolerant and judgemental of others who do not want to jump in and commiserate or conform to your views. You just come off like an asshole. NOBODY likes an asshole. They may just not give a rats ass about your gender challenges but they will detest an asshole.
Thank you for that spot on retort. And allow me to add, we don't give a fig about what pronouns you care to use on your e-mail. Just stop insisting that the rest of us play along with it.
You're going to insist on everyone else conforming to your understanding of gender identity? How would you feel if society decided to treat you like a woman, and call you a woman?
you can call a horse a cow all day long does not change the fact a horse is a horse and a cow is a cow . call yurself whatever you want , but don't berate me because i call you as i see you . this whole lgbtq thing i really don't care what you do in private , it's your business not mine , gives you no special standing . you can screw donkeys for all i care . I will treat you as any other person , i don't give a f what they do in private either . Get over yourself yoir are not special
In other words, you want LGBTQ people to stay in the closet where they belong?
I can't speak for others--who seem, by the way, to be speaking about the T right now, and saying nothing at all about LGB people--but no, of course not.
I'll call someone by whatever name or pronoun they want, within reason, because whether I think it is silly or not, people have a right to choose that. But I'm not going to sit and nod as people try to completely redefine gender and sex, which IS something that everyone, and not just trans people, has a stake in.
It is also a matter of honesty. I've read a lot about this issue from people across the political spectrum. And at the end of the day....I just don't believe that trans women are woman and trans men are men. If someone passes particularly well, I may come to think of them according to their gender presentation, but I do not believe that it is possible to change biological sex, I do not believe that sex occurs across a spectrum, and I do not believe that there is some mystical thing called gender that is distinct from biological sex. That should be an opinion that remains acceptable to articulate in appropriate contexts, even at risk of hurt feelings.
I don't want transgender people in the closet. I don't think they should be discriminated against at work, or in the housing market, or by store owners. But I also do not think they belong in most sex-segregated spaces like women's athletics or prisons. I also object to trying to transform language to deny the reality of biological sex and deny aspects of identity that are meaningful to many women--for instance, by calling us menstruating people or chestfeeders.
Claiming that people like me just want LGBTQ people in the closet is a strawman argument.
I think the emphasis on the T is because really nobody cares or even thinks about lesbians or gay men or rather that they ARE lesbian or gay. Just do not care. Still not sure what the difference is between lesbian/gay and queer but whatever.
Honestly, this is all behind the bedroom door stuff and is meaningless whereas trans is a different issue. You do not see gay men trying to use a girls bathroom or a lesbian saddling up to a urinal.
About as well put as I have ever read.
that is your one response , where did I say that ? I worked security at gay bars in montreal in the 80's never bothered me do what you want say the same to guys bragging they fucked 50 women in a week , i don't care about your private life , get over yourself
WOW....Just WOW Matt. That is WAY WAY over the top.
Let me lay some things out for you.
1. Most of us out here just do NOT give a rats ass about LGBTQ ..XYZ. Just not even in out thoughts good or bad. We are mostly, completely and utterly indifferent. Ya aint special in any way shape or form. Your either an asshole or your not. You either do your job or you do not. Your a good neighbor or you are not. Are there people out there who do care? Sure. But they are an annoying minority that we basically put in the same class as the melodramatic farts that write comments like yours that assume we care at all.
2. Pretty sure you meant reactionary Fascist instead of Bolshevik....but I'm guessing you do not read a lot of history.
3. We only want you in a closet if your an annoying pain in the ass whose sanctimonious celebration of victim hood is getting on our nerves.
4. There is a reasonable argument to be made that over the last 40 yrs Black people have ACTUALLY been systematically ADVANTAGED. Certainly government setasides for Black owned business is a structural advantage. Certainly affirmative action and systems to enforce diversity over merit are structural advantages. Honestly, being really truly honest, if domestically born black people are failing today it is because of pathologies in their culture. African immigrants, ACTUAL AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS, not African-Americans ( a term BTW that annoys a lot of Africans ) are doing better by far than most ethnic groups. Nigerians in particular, with Ganan's right on their heals, are doing really well and beat all other ethnic groups, including White people, in terms of education and wealth growth. Indian immigrants, many of whom are far more black than most Black Americans, are ALSO doing exceptionally well in terms of education and climbing the economic ladder. SO...it aint the skin tone dude, its the attitude. But you wallow in that, you sit and whine and complain while the rest of these groups charge ahead. BTW....after domestically born Black people, the group that most supports black issues is White people. Hispanics, Asians and new African immigrants have the least amount of sympathy for Black Americans issues and in fact are more likely than White people to oppose special preferences. So suck it up, put on your big boy pants and get to work. Quit whining and thinking your special
thanks , well said wish i had the patience to type that
You probably don't realize it, but 1 and 3 are in conflict. If you think people who have preferred pronouns that don't fit within your narrow definition of gender identity are pains in the asses, if you want them back in the closet, then you DO give a rats ass. You are, in fact, very angry about the issue.
On 4) The median household wealth of White families is $180,000. The median household wealth of Black families is $18,000. That's a lot of White privilege. There are reasons for this discrepancy that are related to generations of systematic abuse and disadvantage. (Slavery, Jim Crow, red-lining, reduced employment opportunities, poorly-funded schools, over policing, racist sentencing guidelines, etc.) You simply don't want to admit that this is the case. Probably because you assume that mitigating those disadvantages would some how mean taking things away from you, or from White people. But that is not the case. Read Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us. Also, this should be obvious but Immigrants did not experience those systematic disadvantages, so they did not grow up with generationally transferred social pathologies. (One of these pathologies is a learned sense of hopelessness about the future.)
Dear Matt, the difference in results (“the median household wealth of White families is $180,000, the median household wealth of Black families is $18,000”) by itself means NOTHING. It is the wrong idea that everybody should have the same results in “the life race”, or there are “oppression”. The mistake is quite natural, though, under the circumstances that racists used to explain the failure of “black community folks” by genetic reasons; this explanation is apparently wrong.
The reason of “black disaster” is purely and solely common wrong “social attitude” inside the “black community”. Have black people problems in their life? True, they do. Are some of these problems originating from racist attitude toward them? Yes, it is. The issue is that the community as the entire “black community” (but not all of black people!) are focused on the problems and “injustice” instead of finding opportunities and using ‘em.
Jews in Russian Empire (and –let’s tell true – partially in US as well) experienced a severe discrimination in past; nevertheless, now this is one of the most successful communities in Russia and in US as well. Chinese immigrants in US also experienced a severe discrimination and (by the way!) tremendous racist-based pressure (comparable with the ant-black racism) in the second part of 19th and first part of 20th centuries. Now these are one of the most successful “minority communities” in US (having median household wealth over US average. There are many other examples around the globe.
Moreover, there are enough “white households” with the wealth below $18,000. Are they also “oppressed” in some way (as Bolsheviks thought), or are there different “black social patterns” and “white social patterns” (the “racially correct physics and math” are in the offing)?
Very incomplete thinking, Matt. Yes, black Americans have had to overcome the institution and residues of slavery, but to blame wealth discrepancies on "white privilege", then say immigrants are immune to white privilege is nonsensical. if I'm walking down the street, do you think if I can tell (or care) if a black person is from Belize, Benin or the Bronx? Those "inauthentic" black immigrants simply bring more of those "white privilege" values such as working hard, saving more and delaying gratification, a higher willingness to participate in employer-sponsored retirement plans, a higher rate of intact (2 parent) families and yes - better K-12 education in many poorer countries than our inner city public schools offer. These are all attributes that the African American community enjoyed in the post world war II era. The Voting Rights Act was a crowning achievement, but the Great Society and the entitlement culture that followed hollowed out the well-being and overall health of many American families and communities, probably none more so than the inner city African American community. Many African Americans dodged that bullet - 12% of the middle class is Black, and they are 13% of the U.S. population, i.e. they have the same proportional representation that whites and Hispanics do. But, sadly, many have not, and we have work to do to eradicate the New Plantation, where the new Master is the government, that doles out a dependency-generating stipend and offers below 3rd world education and criminal domination of neighborhoods, all the while maintaining compliance with the narrative that "racism" is holding them back. Liberals destroyed the lives of millions in order to "help" them, and now they want to blame their failures on conservatives who are suddenly all racist. Nice try. It doesn't even fly in the African American community any more. They know they've been had.
I've heard all of those arguments. The idea that the government is ruining people's lives by doling out "dependency-generating stipends" is simply not true. Have you looked at what happens when people receive universal basic income? It tends to make their lives better and more manageable.
And generations of systemic deprivation and abuse leads to social pathologies that pass on from generation to generation. Immigrants arrive without those generational burdens.
Maybe we agree that we need to dramatically improve the quality of our educational system. Of course that will require more funding, which is probably where we would part ways again.
The ignorance is not an argument, though. Chinese people came to US with the history of thousands years of oppressions, Jews came to US with the history of the hundred years of oppressions, and the history of the racism and oppressions went on in US for a while. Where is "the social pathology"?
You are digging in the wrong direction, Matt. The answer do exist, but you hesitate to see it.
You are in a catch 22.
You cannot correct for those pathologies by enabling them.
Matt, I will grant you that those pathologies were in no small part created in response to racial disparities. Not going to argue that.
What I will argue is the following...
1. The sins of the father do NOT fall on the son. We do not want to go there if for no other reason than that no group or race has its hands clean if your willing to go back and look. None of us of any color would be clean.
2. There is nothing that we, today, can do to amend the hurt done in the past to people who are gone. For those alive today who lived under Jim Crowe? For them we could probably do something and perhaps should. What exactly I am not sure, but something to support them would not be out of line.
3. For this generation? We cannot fix the pathologies in their community. We do not have the power. I cannot imagine anyone I know, had they a magic wand to wave and make it all better who would not do so. But the problems are such that only they can fix them. We cannot parent their children. We cannot force them to stop having babies they cannot afford out of wedlock. We cannot make black men stick around to father children and even if we could many of them never had fathers themselves so they have no idea what that means or how to do it. We cannot get rid of drugs. God knows we have tried. We cannot simply stop them from killing each other or getting into gangs or committing crimes. Those things are all personal choices we cannot control. How do we stop them from celebrating Gangsta culture and misogynistic music? God help us if we even tried. We cannot be there to assure their kids do their homework. We MIGHT be able to help parents with no schooling learn how to help their kids but how many of them would take the opportunity. How can we help them when they think that things like attention to detail, hard work, logic are white oppression? How can we help them progress when they insist that speaking proper English is another form of racism?
They need to CHOOSE and then they need to execute. We can support them in some small ways...but really...its out of our power.
Tell ya something else, they better get that together before Whites are no longer the majority because once that ends its gonna be really hard to convince a culture dominated by successful Latinos and Asians that THEY have a responsibility to fix the problems in the Black community. THEY are gonna have ZERO sympathy.
I'll give you this, Matt - you are a progressive down the line. Where UBI has been tried, the amounts tend to be immaterial, and the post-mortems suggest little constructive or destructive change in behaviors, but that recipients tended to "feel good" about the extra cash. Brilliant. The one exception is Iran, where UBI is substantial. But it is received in exchange for compliance on social and political viewpoints - the real point of UBI.
As for education, there is a LOT of data both domestically and globally. Spoiler alert: there is no correlation between spending and outcomes. Homework assignment: compare the specific spending of a given public school's revenues with that of a private school. Then go audit the classrooms of each for a couple days. Then we'll talk about education and spending.
I like the idea of UBI, but the prospect of UBI being tied to a social credit score scares the shit out of me.
The big problem with CRT/Antiracism is that it ENCOURAGES the pathology of helplessness. It teaches black youth that systemic racism is like a malevolent god; omnipresent, all-powerful, and determined to make their lives miserable.
No point studying for the SAT; it was "created to flunk black students". No point trying to get a job; capitalism was "invented to oppress black people". Nothing those poor black folk can do but sit around and wait for some White Saviors to rescue them.
^^^This!
Nonsense. Do you think Ibram X Kendi feels helpless? Do you think he tells his audiences that they are helpless? On the contrary.
Do you seriously think that the words has the meaning (and the effect) according Webster? You are explaining the person that he is “oppressed” and this is the reason of his poor life position. In what way the person is expected to react? First, he is trying “to stop oppression”, right? He can require, he can demand, but the final solution depends on the oppressor. The oppressor can agree that he is a bad guy and stop oppression – and can disagree with this and go on oppression. So, the person is facing the dilemma – to resort to violence (at least some kind of violence), or agree that his faith depends on others (on the will of the oppressor).
Nice dilemma, hah? I can agree? though, that logic is not a strong feature of a mob of "appressed", and demagogues are not usually appealing to the reasoning.
I think he is a huxter who has figured out how to make a bunch of money spewing nonsense. He found a market and wrote intellectually weak philosophy to fill it.
The guy is no better than any other self help guru with a story to tell.
He is getting rich and laid on a foundation of the unearned guilt of White upper middle class women.
I think Kendi feels like he's discovered the perfect cash cow; getting paid $20,000 per hour to tell his audiences they are helpless unless democracy is ended and replaced with a woke junta.
I was responding to the charge that wokeism results in helplessness. He clearly doesn't feel helpless. Nor does he encourage helplessness.
He encourages helplessness, with a totalitarian takeover of the gov't being the only possible solution to their helplessness.
Finally! A sober voice! The reasoning of the person who knows history (and not only American history!).
That's not even history; the writings of Kendi are overtly totalitarian.
He has said, on record, that 2 prerequisities to achieving "racial justice" are ending capitalism and ending democracy. It's actually kind of scary that progressives listen to him instead of marginalizing him on the fringe where he belongs.
Think the same thing. Your handicapping them before they ever get started.
Life is hard and it is not fair. Not for anyone and not in equal amounts.
I tell that to my kids all the time for two reasons. First, be grateful for what you have. Second, do not take if for granted and be prepared to work hard to just keep it. Nobody is going to come save you. You better be strong enough and equip yourself with the tools to take care of yourself.
I also tell them that it is perfectly possible to do all the right things and still fail. You can either whine about it and wallow in your misery or get off your ass and try again. THAT I have drummed in their heads since they were little. Eventually, if you do the right things over and over, despite any setbacks, you will get to where you want or need to go.
OMG....how can you be SO far off?
What you are essentially saying is that the median White family has an income that puts them in the top 5% of income earners. That is just impossible. MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
Tell ya what, you come to DC sometime and you will see PLENTY of wealthy Black people running around.
SO...we agree then, there are social pathologies at work in the domestically born Black community. They are UNIQUE to the domestically born Black community. And really, we are talking about the URBAN domestically born Black community.
Well dude, nothing the government or any special conditions offered is gonna change that. That is internal and it gets reinforced from parent to child, handed down like a family heirloom. There is NOTHING that is going to change that until they choose to change it themselves. There is very very little if any real systemic issues apart from attitude and inter-generational poverty keeping these people back.
AND....you just might want to ask yourself why it is that Black people in the US had higher rates of education and higher rates of business and home ownership BEFORE the 1960's. Ya know, back in the day when 80% of black children were born into two parent households before the term "baby mama" became part of the social lexicon.
Careful - he's talking net worth not annual income.
But he said "income"
I saw "median household wealth". Wealth is typically quantified as net worth, not income.
Your right. My mistake.
Thank you for your take down and spanking of our poster boy for progressive lunacy. Saved me the effort.
I am thinking that option 2 was the first Trump presidency and the more time passes the more convinced I am that there WILL be a second one.
I remember Michael Moore saying that the Trump election was the biggest "F You" ever to the establishments of both parties and I still believe he was right.
A second Trump presidency will be a big "FU" to the progressive left and a reaction to the Biden presidency.
Saw yesterday that the betting odds of Trump winning another term are now 3-1 in his favor and Biden is at 9-2 against him. It was the complete opposite last Feb.
The question is: How will the progressive left respond to being told off?
My guess? The response will be dramatic and probably violent. That group is populated by Woke religious fanatics and a lot of life's dead enders with nothing to lose. These are the people of instant gratification, participation trophies and helicopter parents. They do not accept that they do not get what they want.
Not so sure about those odds. I think they'll change if Trump's recorded demand to 'find' roughly 12000 votes to Georgia's Republican Secretary of State after the election is prosecuted by the Atlanta District Attorney. It might be difficult to win even his party's nomination if your man is being charged by the State of Georgia with vote tampering. Though, since the Republicans have become a party committed to the cult worship of one man, anything is possible. So I could be wrong.
1. He is not "my guy"
2. If he were going to be charged with anything it would have happened. The best shot of that was going to be if the Jan 6 Committee had been truly bipartisan and had found a smoking gun and if that was gonna happen it would have already. Plus..
a) 76% of those recently polled did not think the events rose to an insurrection but were a mob that got out of control and rioted.
b) It is not even in the top 10 of concerns among all voters and not in the top 6 for democrats.
c) The committee is likely to be disbanded as soon as the republicans take the house in the fall.
3. Those are betting odds as of yesterday, not my opinion or anyone elses individual opinion but the collected opinion of people who put money down on bets. You can make of that what you will but my experience is that people who take bets and those who make them collectively seem to generally be close to the mark. Just a data point.
We could spend all day on various theories and speculations as to why things are as they are and what is or is not likely to happen but it is not a stretch to say that there is a general consensus that the democrats have very very badly messed up on a lot of fronts and are very likely to pay a very steep price next year. What happens after....who knows but it is not unreasonable to presume that things are not going to get better for the democrats going from Jan 2023 on.
A WHOLE lot could happen between then and the start of the next presidential election. Biden could drop dead of old age. Trump could drop dead. Trump could decide not to run and back the FL governor, be a king maker rather than a king so he does not have to deal with the media or the democrats and can keep making money. Biden could decide not to run and the democrats actually find a candidate that will manage to overcome the hole that the progressives and Biden have dug.
One thing I think IS safe to say....the progressive political agenda is dead for at least a decade.
There is controlling money behind that movement. The hands which deliver the money provide the steering. Go read up on Open Society. It all sounds so innocuous, but the goal is global governance.
I don't necessarily like Trump. But damn, he did know how to do the job!
But what did he actually do?
I can't stand Trump, but even I can admit he brought a more realistic approach to border security, China, and he did good work with the Abraham Accords and trying to reverse the trend of jobs being outsourced overseas to take advantage of cheap labour.
I liked that he stood up to China. I'm from the rust belt.
He also did this: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/04/politics/donald-trump-great-american-outdoors-act/index.html
and this: https://apnews.com/article/bills-donald-trump-politics-c4834e48841d97c5a93312b1bf75302a
He also kept us out of new wars.
I am one of the rare liberals I know that can look at the man's actions with clear eyes. Pretty much everyone else I know has severe TDS. My husband's mom starts screaming if I even mention his name.
Nothing that would remotely register or be even slightly visible to a prog blinded by the orange fog machine. I'm sorry, I can't help you.
hat is why he had to go . Who ever heard of a politician that does what they said they would do once elected . Just crazy
how will they react ?? protests and impeachments starting 3 months before he gets elected .
They are trying to pre-impeach him with that nonsense January 6th committee right now. Incredible resources and time spent trying to bring him down over and over again by the usual suspects for six years now.
Dead Enders, life’s flotsam and jetsam
They won’t let Trump win again. They will send the military to enforce election “safety/freedom” because, they will say, the elections are being run by dozens of Bull Connor figures in various swing states. That plus Zuckerberg will spend $2 billion this time.
It will be pitched as the equivalent of Eisenhower sending the 101st Airborne to ensure the Little Rock Nine could attend desegregated schools.
They will not let him win again.
I hope your wrong. Because if your right, there will be an armed insurrection this time.
I'm also not all that sure that the government could count on the military at this point. Just not. And I work with the military every day.
Yes, they have been purging people from the armed forces they think are extremists but I really do not think you could get the army or marines to step up like that reliably anymore.
Wrung...plus, when we pull a jail break "they'll be on our side, this time".
Class...a little time in the hovel jail cell could move things forward, builds "stomach".
Don't bet on that. Human nature is funny. All it takes is one thing to ignite the spark. Was a tax on tea really what sent a swarm of patriots, mad as hornets, to the road from Concord to Boston? There is a well spring of rising anger and playing with armed patriots is playing with fire. And progressives are just dumb enough to strike that match.
So true. Very dangerous to continually harass and attack groups of people. You can push them too far
I agree that life remains pretty comfortable in this country for most. However, I would add that economic disruptions, which can come on rather suddenly, could quickly take away those higher stock valuations and home prices. Then what do we have?
The problem is that, while your (and my) stock portfolios and home values are rising and we have cushy jobs from which we can work at home, that is not the reality for too many of our fellow citizens. We cannot be blind to the people who fix and clean our homes, deliver and stock our groceries and respond the the emergencies we create. And when you disparage them, devalue them, create race and class distinctions and divides you create a very dry tinder, indeed. Talk to real construction workers, cops, firefighters and a host of people who keep our society working and see how they feel.
Bruce, the words that it is wrong “to be blind to the people who fix and clean our homes, deliver and stock our groceries and respond the emergencies we create”, are easily recognizable. These are all slogans of Bolsheviks; they called – “stand up all victims of oppression” and insisted that “those who have taken, now they must give!”
Bolsheviks succeeded, and… we all know well the end of the story – “the people who fix and clean our homes, etc.” went on doing it, and “those who have taken”, went on doing it as well. Only the massive personal reshuffle took place, and the rhetoric change took place as well.
Bottom line – the society is very (very-very-very-…) complicated machine, and on one hand there are no “simple, apparent and fast” ways to improve its operation, and on the other hand, there are many “simple, apparent and fast” ways to make its problems worse; “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
7% inflation, no end in sight. Soon you will be forced to clean your own toilet! They are coming for you guys, too. Slowly, than all at once. You're not that protected.
Many but not the majority. The majority are hard working white men and women who've been abused by the self-proclaimed elites. Not to say that other ethnic groups are not also hard working and abused. But the white majority is then treated by the imbecilic clown who pretends to be "our President" as supremacists, nationalists and terrorists" for demanding the government's fealty to due process and equal protection and enforcement of our laws and Constitution.
But this next time there will be pushback. And even the Dept of Injustice will not be able to gaslight their way out of it. Could they really jail millions?
That's why the DOJ got busy creating a "Domestic Terrorism Force" as of last week. Gotta put a match to that gaslight at this point. It won't take millions. Just the "trumped up," abject and very celebrated humiliation and destruction of specifically chosen figures on the front lines. I'll bet they already have a list.
I'll bet some of us are on it already. Are you frightened of them? I am not.