Posted on 02/04/2019 3:42:45 PM PST by billorites
The rush to condemn the Covington high school boys over an imagined slight against a native American and the clamor to ditch Virginia Governor Ralph Northam over a yearbook photograph depicting two figures, one in blackface and the other in KKK costume -- when they would not criticize him for his views on infanticide -- underscore the excruciating sensitivity of American politics to race, gender, and victimhood. The latest example is an op-ed in the Daily Beast alleging that "Tom Brady’s New England Patriots Are Team MAGA, Whether They Like It or Not."
Their star quarterback, coach, and owner all supported Trump. But that’s not the only thing that makes the Super Bowl LIII-bound Patriots the preferred team of white nationalists. ... The whole institution of Boston sports, from root to stem, is tinged with the sort of racism that brought Trump into office. The Boston Red Sox were the last MLB team to desegregate, more than a decade after Jackie Robinson entered the league. The Sox’s first owner, Tom Yawkey, was an infamous racist whose speech was peppered with racial slurs. Larry Bird became a symbol of white resentment during his time in the NBA, his jersey appearing as a symbol of white entitlement to black spaces in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. His large teammate, Kevin McHale, was spotted at a Trump rally during the election.
Ridiculous or perceptive? While some of these accounts are clickbait or tongue in cheek, part of the panic is doubtless genuine. What is in the water that makes people so sensitive to perceived conspiracies? Maybe it first began when Lawrence Summers caused someone to faint when he asked about women in STEM. The Crimson wrote on that occasion:
Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers has triggered criticism by telling an economics conference Friday that the under-representation of female scientists at elite universities may stem in part from “innate" differences between men and women, although two Harvard professors who heard the speech said the remarks have been taken out of context in an ensuing national media frenzy. MIT biologist Nancy Hopkins ’64 said she felt physically ill as a result of listening to Summers’ speech at a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) luncheon, and she left the conference room half-way through the president’s remarks.
That was the first of the storm petrels. Now there are racists and Nazis everywhere. They lie in wait on freezing streets ready to victimize people of color. They surround hapless native Americans in Washington with insulting smirks. They are depicted as chasing children while driving around in trucks flying confederate flags. Racists are even able to masquerade as Democratic officials. Is there nothing they can't do?
Those who see this as the true picture of America in 2019 are genuinely terrified. While some might dismiss this as paranoia, the woke explanation is that Nazis are everywhere and the sightings are real. Despite the apparent gains of recent decades, they were just hiding, lying dormant. They are now emerging under the patronage of Trump, like roaches when the lights are dimmed, to fill every nook and cranny. This persistence confirms the existence of intractable white, male, and privileged malevolence that not even decades of liberal culture can eradicate.
That may have contributed to the shocking nature of Summers' remarks. If he could say it there, then there was no safe place. The year 2016 was a traumatic experience, shattering the left-wing sense of safety and dominance. Hillary's defeat -- and to a lesser extent Brexit and the rise of populism in Europe -- demonstrated the astonishing fragility of the mainstream liberal project and provided shocking proof that "the plague never dies." The boogeymen the progressives seek to exterminate can apparently resist any fumigation, indoctrination or persuasion, leaving liberal activists like those characters in horror movies who shoot at Dracula without effect. This in turn led to renewed interest in outright socialism among Democrats. If Hillary and her billions proved useless against the MAGA werewolf, perhaps Bernie Sanders and AOC have the silver bullet.
The alternative explanation is that there were serious defects in the liberal project and the pushback is due to those defects and not to some racist virus. That would explain 2016 too. Perhaps the most powerful contribution of the revolt against Bolivarianism in Venezuela is how it demonstrates that poor brown people can rise up against socialism without being members of the KKK. It's not always race but rather the economic system that makes the difference.
But this can hardly be persuasive to true believers for whom gender, race, and sexual politics explain history. For them abortion, high taxes, and a giant state are articles of faith and challenging them is evil. Words, arguments, or symbolic proofs are largely useless against strongly held beliefs. Only experience can falsify -- and only temporarily -- cultic belief. In this respect, Venezuela is also instructive. It changed. For decades Venezuela's poor held loyal to the belief that the socialists were on "their side." Now they are fighting Maduro. How did this turnabout happen?
One insight into the phenomenon comes from the field of signal processsing. Because a radar detector's signal weakens going outward as well as going backward after being reflected from a target at long distances a jammer can overpower the radar. J > S. That's why socialism "looks good" if it is far enough into the future or at long enough remove. Its protective narrative emits a flattering signal. It's not a bandit. It's friendly. But as the actual reality nears the present, the jammer can no longer overcome the the signal and we start catching glimpses of the dismal future. Eventually S > J. The youthful activist or enthusiastic slum dweller sees the truth. This is called the "burn through" moment.
The most telling indicator of socialism's fall in Venezuela is that forces have flipped. Now it is the poor who challenge Maduro and the Russian- and Cuban-supported military that props up the regime. One way to understand this is that the burn through moment in Venezuela occurred.
This might also throw light on why Hillary failed precisely at the very moment the dream seemed close enough to touch. At that instant it was clear enough to see.
Is the return of racists and Nazis the explanation for the current headlines? Or are people genuinely rising up against bloated incompetence? Time will tell. Reality always tells us which model is correct.
On that will turn the Democratic Party's future. Will it be someone like Bernie Sanders or someone like Howard Schultz?
WTH? People are rising up against the coming tyrannical overlords, the communist, marxist and socialist dictators would would destroy the Constitution, wipe out the last vestiges of our freedom and enslave us all. WHO CARES if they are incompetent or not? This is an existential war for the survival of the US as founded.
petrels
The word petrel comes from the Latin name for the Christian Saint Peter, and refers to the habits of certain species to hover just above the ocean waves, with their feet barely touching the water, thus giving an appearance of walking on water, as St. Peter is said to have done.
It works, so they keep using it! racism.
We should riot over obama and the left calling us toothless, dumb, deplorable, clinging to our guns and Bibles.....
Do any of you remember amos and andy? or the black guy on Margie? or...
the left has become unhinged over nothing.. except it seems to work...
I’m really weary with adults getting feelings hurt all day over something. It’s childish.
WTH? People are rising up against the coming tyrannical overlords, the communist, marxist and socialist dictators would would destroy the Constitution, wipe out the last vestiges of our freedom and enslave us all. WHO CARES if they are incompetent or not? This is an existential war for the survival of the US as founded.
><><
You are absolutely on the mark!
The dems are the kkk people... they fought losing their “workers”.
What ever happened to “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me!”
THE MEDIA ARE THE EVIL DEEP STATERS, AND THEY DECIDE WHAT'S NEWSWORTHY. RINSE AND REPEAT!
Until the masses begin to realize that the media and the DEEP STATE GLOBAL CABAL are interchangeable terms, the shaping of a the ANTI-TRUMP REALITY continues..
...this can hardly be persuasive to true believers for whom gender, race, and sexual politics explain history. For them abortion, high taxes, and a giant state are articles of faith and challenging them is evil. Words, arguments, or symbolic proofs are largely useless against strongly held beliefs. Only experience can falsify -- and only temporarily -- cultic belief. In this respect, Venezuela is also instructive. It changed. For decades Venezuela's poor held loyal to the belief that the socialists were on "their side." Now they are fighting Maduro. How did this turnabout happen?
...The most telling indicator of socialism's fall in Venezuela is that forces have flipped. Now it is the poor who challenge Maduro and the Russian- and Cuban-supported military that props up the regime. One way to understand this is that the burn through moment in Venezuela occurred.
This might also throw light on why Hillary failed precisely at the very moment the dream seemed close enough to touch. At that instant it was clear enough to see.
Thanks billorites.
I yearn for the return of a Larry Summers to the presidency of Harvard!!!!
In the most recent issue of “Colloquy” (from Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences) the featured article is about “gender fluidity”.
https://gsas.harvard.edu/colloquy-magazine/winter-2019
https://gsas.harvard.edu/news/colloquy/winter-2019/clear-identity
Then there is another article about a similar subject including “gender neutral” bathrooms in the Harvard Houses:
https://gsas.harvard.edu/news/colloquy/winter-2019/word-power
Also included are articles on what is essentially a new “dean for diversity”.
There is only ONE solid article featuring excellent scholarship—written about a woman, of course:
https://gsas.harvard.edu/news/colloquy/winter-2019/elevating-spirit
When I was at the Harvard GSAS, the focus was on hard work, research and scholarship! “Gays” were called Queers and were very seldom mentioned, and anything about “Transgenders” and “diversity” was not even conceived of!!!! That’s the way it should be!
Of course, once the “transgender” and “diversity” genie is out of the bottle, it is hard to put it back!!!
In any case, Harvard should refrain from sending their evil swill to old (and young) alumni who might even be conservative Christians who are trying to lead a moral life—sinners thought we are!!!!
The whole racialist/sexist meme has become ludicrous and anti-rational. Clearly, many people don’t have enough to do.
“We’ve been looking for the enemy for some time now. We’ve finally found him. We’re surrounded. That simplifies things.”
— Lt Gen Chesty Puller
So, are all those cities racist too? For what happened in the 1950's?
I think the current generations have had it too soft -- no global devastation of World War or a decade-long Great Depression. People in the West are far too wealthy and have far too much free time which allows them time to pursue frivolous garbage. There's a real lack of seriousness afoot throughout the Western world.
I fear that sometime in the future we are going to pay dearly for this ridiculous lack of seriousness and attention to frivolous BS.
That's right: soot.
This world has gone fully and dangerously stupid.
Didn’t know the origin of the word `petrel’. Thanks.
Then there’s the Monty Python sketch about the theater snack vendor “Albatross, I’ve got this albatross!” Once it’s sold the vendor sings out,
“Stormy petrel on a stick! Gannet ripple!”
I'm so sorry I even read this article/post/whatever it is.
How did this happen? Anyone who's studied the different forms of government and economic systems knows the answer: Socialism came to its inevitable and natural end. Period.
Hungry people REVOLT in order to survive.
Duh.
Nobody remembers that the Bruins were the first NHL team with a Black player (1957) and the Celtics were one of the three NBA teams that took the first black players (1950) or that the Boston Braves had an African-American player in 1950, before many other MLB teams did.
[ This world has gone fully and dangerously stupid. ]
Just the kind of world conditions needed for a one-world-government and the Antichrist. (and the religious false prophet)
Destroy tradition, destroy borders, rewrite everything, make everything an offense, stifle independent thought and speech, promote globalism, blame everything on “The Jews” and end national sovereignty.
And go cashless. How’s about a world currency? A one-world curency?
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