I don’t hang on her every word, but I’ve observed her to be quite articulate and easy to understand. What has she said or done to make you believe she’s a moron?
I don’t think you’re representing Pat’s point accurately. What I think he’s saying, which hashes with my own personal observations, is that accusations of racism have been equally if not more damaging than actual white supremacist activities, at least in recent years.
It has been at least 25 years since I’ve seen an actual white supremacist in person. Teenage me and my buddies were riding our bikes past a KKK rally. Those guys were a joke to teenage me and nothing has changed. Who, exactly, are the white supremacists nowadays? Richard Spencer comes to mind. David Duke is still drawing air somewhere too I imagine. Who else?
Again, if anyone can point to white supremacist activities hurting people, I’ll be the first in line to say it was wrong. Nothing has crossed my radar in a long time, but it’s not like I know everything that happens. So, who are these people, and what is it that they are actually doing? I’m not worried about those KKK guys I saw 25 years ago. Nobody is. They are a bunch of losers who aren’t winning anyone over to their side aside from some poor sap here or there. Let them have their parade and move on with life. Aside from the lone madman scenarios, who are the white supremacists we should be most concerned with? Groups, names, etc…
Meanwhile, we can consider some examples of white supremacy narratives causing real damage in recent times. We can start with Ferguson riots, which involved spreading a narrative of white supremacy manifesting on the police force and culminated in more death and tremendous damage done to people’s livelihoods and personal property. Officer Wilson, who did nothing wrong, had to go into hiding and his life was shattered on the anvil of a false narrative. All of this destruction over a lie to push the narrative of white supremacy on the police force. Michael Brown escalated a routine police encounter to the point where lethal force was absolutely justified. That’s a fact, yet we still have politicians pushing the same nonsense narrative.
Oh well, at least they meant well with the lies, right?
Covington Catholic comes to mind as well. Children were slandered for innocuous behavior all across the world, all to feed a narrative that once again proved to be a load of horseshit. Nobody was physically hurt, but I feel terrible for the children who had to deal with the weight of the left-wing narrative machine coming down on them HARD. Death threats, harassment and mobs of people seeking to destroy you is no trivial matter, especially for a child.
Then there’s the example I gave above, which I’m connected with personally. The absurdity of the situation boggles my mind. Slates in Hallowell, the new face of white supremacy in Maine. This wonderful and kind lady is being faced with negative reviews, online harassment and public embarrassment after being nothing less than an outstanding member of the community for decades. What’s especially absurd is that anyone is even taking the allegations seriously, but the local media can’t resist all of those clicks, views and comments they get from pretending that there are two valid sides to this ridiculous story.
Here’s Wendy, the new face of white supremacy in Maine, standing outside of her restaurant. You really can’t make this stuff up.
Time will tell, but perhaps the worst casualty of all of this absurd rhetoric is the assumption of good faith. I’d be just as opposed to thousands of my Polish kin coming to my town and collecting state benefits as I am to people from East Africa, at least at this point in time when we’ve already taken in so many. Such basic nuance doesn’t matter. If you’re opposed to even more state dependents flooding into your town from a distant land, you’re a WHITE SUPREMACIST.
Our collective ability to have coherent and productive conversations about difficult and nuanced topics is going right down the drain. I certainly wouldn’t bother with a conversation like this over facebook, where it would be a complete shit-show from post 1.
@Mufasa You’ve bemoaned this “either/or” or “whataboutism”, but I’m making sure to provide examples and do my best to explain my line of thought. In my opinion, you cannot separate the consequences of actual white supremacy (still waiting for examples, btw) from the consequences of advancing a white supremacy narrative that often seems to fly in the face of facts. Human consequences have to be considered, whether it’s lynchings in past decades, black codes, Jim Crow or the unusual situation we’re in today where mere accusations of white supremacy/racism can carry such dire consequences.
Why are the consequences dire? Because we as a society are largely over white supremacy as policy and anything resembling an ideology or way of life. It is precisely because we reject it so vehemently that the accusations carry as much weight as they do.
At least the cynic in me can appreciate the shrewdness of weaponizing white guilt. That shit works.