Morning Read

A Few Choice Pieces

The Neoracists [John McWhorter]

One can divide antiracism into three waves. First Wave Antiracism battled slavery and segregation. Second Wave Antiracism, in the 1970s and 1980s, battled racist attitudes and taught America that being racist was a flaw. Third Wave Antiracism, becoming mainstream in the 2010s, teaches that racism is baked into the structure of society, so whites’ “complicity” in living within it constitutes racism itself, while for black people, grappling with the racism surrounding them is the totality of experience and must condition exquisite sensitivity toward them, including a suspension of standards of achievement and conduct.

Third Wave Antiracist tenets, stated clearly and placed in simple oppositions, translate into nothing whatsoever:

1. When black people say you have insulted them, apologize with profound sincerity and guilt. But don’t put black people in a position where you expect them to forgive you. They have dealt with too much to be expected to.

2. Black people are a conglomeration of disparate individuals. “Black culture” is code for “pathological, primitive ghetto people.” But don’t expect black people to assimilate to “white” social norms because black people have a culture of their own.

3. Silence about racism is violence. But elevate the voices of the oppressed over your own.

4. You must strive eternally to understand the experiences of black people. But you can never understand what it is to be black, and if you think you do you’re a racist.

5. Show interest in multiculturalism. But do not culturally appropriate. What is not your culture is not for you, and you may not try it or do it. But—if you aren’t nevertheless interested in it, you are a racist.

6. Support black people in creating their own spaces and stay out of them. But seek to have black friends. If you don’t have any, you’re a racist. And if you claim any, they’d better be good friends—in their private spaces, you aren’t allowed in.

7. When whites move away from black neighborhoods, it’s white flight. But when whites move into black neighborhoods, it’s gentrification, even when they pay black residents generously for their houses.

8. If you’re white and only date white people, you’re a racist. But if you’re white and date a black person you are, if only deep down, exotifying an “other.”

9. Black people cannot be held accountable for everything every black person does. But all whites must acknowledge their personal complicity in the perfidy throughout history of “whiteness.”

10. Black students must be admitted to schools via adjusted grade and test score standards to ensure a representative number of them and foster a diversity of views in classrooms. But it is racist to assume a black student was admitted to a school via racial preferences, and racist to expect them to represent the “diverse” view in classroom discussions.

I suspect that deep down, most know that none of this catechism makes any sense. Less obvious is that it was not even composed with logic in mind. The self-contradiction of these tenets is crucial, in revealing that Third Wave Antiracism is not a philosophy but a religion.

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Here is why the Soviet Union Never Produced a Jerry Seinfeld [AJ Rice]

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The New York Times Succumbed to Another Mob. Journalism Is Unrecognizable | Opinion [Nancy Rommelmann]

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Eliza Orlins @elizaorlins

Watching the #SuperBowl and seeing so many people in one place is making my heart race. This feels...unsafe. And, I guess I’m rooting for the team with the racist name over the team with the Trump-loving QB, in a sport that still hasn’t apologized to Colin Kaepernick... #SBLV

So … let’s get this straight - Tom Brady’s MAGA hat presumes who and what he is, RACISM in America and COVID panic all wrapped up in one massive virtue signal for likes - if I were on Facebook I can guarantee you the majority of my friends would be posting this very thing and supporting each other in victimhood over having had to watch the Super Bowl and feel “unsafe.” The only question that remains, why would she even watch it? The answer: she doesn’t really care about her own safety. She and others want to control what others do, think, watch, wear, etc. The shame spiral will turn into a game of finger pointing and call-outs until someone has to pay for the crime of everything mentioned in that tweet.

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Combatting the Drive By Media Impulse This is the kind of reporting the Left press used to do. Now it falls only to the right because they are unafraid of confronting the truth.

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Andrew Yang on freedom of religion [Forward]

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Our Animal Farm [Victor David Hansen] — again, this should be coming from the Left but it is not:

The First Amendment was said by them to be sacred, even as the “free speech movement” transitioned to the “filthy speech movement.” Leftists sued to mainstream nudity in film. They wanted easy access to pornography. They mainstreamed crude profanity. The supposed right-wingers were repressed. They were the “control freaks” who sought to stop the further “liberation” of the common culture. 

In those days, the ACLU still defined the right of free expression as protecting the odious, whether the unhinged Nazis, the pathetic old-Left Communists, or nihilistic Weather Underground terrorists. 

“Censorship” was a dirty word. It purportedly involved the religious bigots and medieval minds that in vain had tried to cancel ideological and cultural mavericks and geniuses from Lenny Bruce to Dalton Trumbo. “Banned in Boston” was a sign of cretinism. Only drunken “paranoids” like Joe McCarthy resorted to “blacklists.” We were reminded that the inferior nuts tried to cancel the brilliant careers of their betters whom they disliked, or feared.

The Right supposedly had sunk into fluoride and “precious bodily fluid” paranoias, and “Who lost China?” conspiracy theories. Conservatives, the radicals lectured us, masked the poverty of their thinking by “red-baiting.” They talked as if “commies” and “insurrectionists” were around every corner—in hopes of militarizing the country, and using police and troops to intimidate the “people.”

Snooping, surveillance, wiretaps—all that and more was awful—the purported work of nutty J. Edgar Hoover. His flat-topped, wing-tipped “G-men” usually outnumbered Black Panthers, Weathermen, and SDS members at secret strategy sessions. 

Hollywood went wild in the 1960s and 1970s by warning us about “them.” Endless movies detailed the solo efforts of heroes, who were watched and threatened by the “government,” working hand in glove, of course, with either corporations or the “rich.” In films like “Three Days of the Condor,” “The Conversation,” or “Blowup,” we were warned of the nefarious powers of surveillance. 

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Big Brother Comes to America [Spiked] — Yet another that should be coming from the Left but is not:

Cultural polarisation has led to a situation in which there is an unprecedented lack of consensus about the realities facing society. As a reader of numerous newspapers and online publications, I am struck by how many contrasting truths and versions of reality I encounter on a daily basis.

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A personal note: I do not know if I want to watch the SECOND impeachment trial. I am not sure how much I can really stand. In the first impeachment trial I muted all of the Conservatives defending Trump and only listened to the Democrats. I suspect with this second one, which I believe is ridiculous and a waste of time and money, I will do the opposite. My own thoughts on the matter I have made clear: I do not believe Trump incited the riot at the Capitol any more than I believe Black Lives Matter incited the nightly riots, lootings and violence. Protesting is a Constitutional right and the government does not get to decide what is a worthy protest or not.

The TIME magazine article lays out very clearly how the election was rigged. They did it legally, but they gaslighted the American people. Those who voted for Trump had a right to voice their objections to how it went down. It is especially noteworthy how Big Money intervened. Those with no money and no power don’t really any avenues for expression, which is why we are all allowed to protest in America. If violence was cause to shut down the protests surely Portland would be in permanent lockdown.

Back in 1968, the Democrats were the ones fighting the government over Vietnam. It was a worthy cause but the public was very much opposed to the uprisings and protests. That is one of the reasons Nixon won in a landslide in 1972. No, the election was no Vietnam but there is no doubt that a segment of the American population has been intimidated into silence, which is a violation of their rights.

Granted, the Left will say “oh poor white supremacists don’t have a voice” - but that is yet more dehumanization and justification - and they’re comfortable with that. Our Constitutional rights, however, are not given to us by government, but by God. That is what the Constitution says. I personally am not a believer in any religion but that’s the law. You don’t really get to say whose rights matter and whose don’t if the whole point is to fight for the rights of every American.

That’s my opinion. It is in the minority.