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Othering Your White Uncle Was Just the Beginning
I nominate Matthew Boose’s article, Apologize to Your ‘Racist Uncle,’ for Post of the Counter-Revolutionary Moment. Some hard and tragic truths are spoken here:
“But nobody defended him. After all, he didn’t go to college. He never worked at a think tank. He wasn’t an expert. He watched Bill O’Reilly. What did he know about politics? Political correctness, he failed to understand, was about decency, not control. “Reverse racism” was incoherent; you can’t discriminate against white people! Your uncle didn’t understand how racial hegemony works. He hadn’t read Angela Davis (or a facsimile of a facsimile of Angela Davis, anyway). He was just uninformed, or maybe he was just selfish. He was afraid of losing his advantages. He was irrationally afraid of Muslims and Hispanic immigrants. He bought a gun to compensate for his insecurities. He was the butt of every comedian’s joke, a stereotype of ignorance and hatred.
But there was something pitiful about him, too. True, he was at the top of a hierarchy, they said, but that was a fading reality. In truth, he was the one type of person left in our society it was still okay publicly to despise, and with relish. And it was precisely because of this that he felt deeply what many others only sensed but could not express given their fear of losing respectability.”
I see this othering of average whites in the unprotected class everywhere. My diocesan Catholic newspaper published a column by the local CEO of Catholic Charities (a white man) that sounds like a confession written by a Stockholm bank hostage.
“As brothers and sisters in Christ, we must address the ways in which we are complicit and seek reconciliation. We must confront intolerance and compel ourselves first, and then our neighbors to rectify it.” [emphasis mine]
Appalling. I literally groaned reading it.
Our very lefty (white) neighbors’ daughter put a Black Lives Matter sign up in her bedroom facing our house on the opposite side of the street. She’s 16 and has lived as our neighbor since she was two. Played with my daughters. Irrationally feared our friendly, but enthusiastic dogs. Helped decorate our home for Christmas when Little Miss Anthrope was in the hospital having brain surgery in December 2013.
BLM is an organization that hates us. Hates us for being white and “privileged” and an intact family and, mostly, for me being a practicing Catholic. I’ve considered putting a sign up in our window facing hers that says:
Bullies,
Leftists, and
Marxists
But, I’m too civilized and I have a strong desire for peace that, I’m increasingly convinced, the Left will never, ever give us.
How long, oh Lord?
Published in General
I think Matthew’s uncle should kick Matthew’s pimply ass.
And then accept his apology.
Political correctness, he failed to understand, was about decency, not control.
Tell that to the over twenty people who died as a result of the BLM riots.
But also, that saying truly expresses the really insane, out of this worldliness and magical thinking of the brainwashed Left who seemingly can’t imagine the brutal consequences their “decent” politically correct actions have on the really “decent” people of America. The lack of empathy for their innocent victims is one of the hallmarks of the Left.
Political correctness, he failed to understand, was about decency, not control.
How is making lists of words we are and are not allowed to use (in some cities, on pain of huge fines) not about control?
Until we make it hurt, I’m afraid. It’s the nature of the Fall to devote increasing effort to denying reality until it breaks through.
A very well-written article. I think the author sums things up very well.
A title for another post: When Things No Longer Are What They Are. . .
Men, women, marriage — the Left lies about everything. It’s how you know it’s of the devil.
Still waiting for apologies from my nieces, nephews, and a couple of my kids.
My brothers are waiting for theirs, too.
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/cancel-culture-comes-for-the-catholic-church
Or go light hearted with words and pictures
Blueberries
Lemons
Marshmallows
That’s raaaaaacist.
Must be, because it’s funny, and comedy is racist.
And yet, when the white collar corporate salaryman father of that 16 year old BLM supporter looses his job because somebody thought he told a bad joke, the uncle will still be plodding each day to his unexportable job as a plumber/pipefitter/ house framer/cabinet maker.
Life often evens things out at the end.
“Bureau of Land Management.” Such a sign will confuse and infuriate her.
The parents have experienced their own health crises, so I don’t think the father is working (probably on disability) and the mother is a public school teacher. They’re deep into the administrative state.
I’ve never been frightened by it all before. Now I am frightened.
“Political correctness, he failed to understand, was about decency, not control. “Reverse racism” was incoherent; you can’t discriminate against white people!”
Was there anybody on the right (the George W. Bush right, the Mitt Romney right, the squishiest of Rob Long right, take your pick) who said that? A more concrete example please.
I see the point but I feel some bases are being stolen.
I think you’re reading into it. He’s not saying “the entirety of the Republican Party establishment and the whole spectrum of conservative pundits and intellectuals” were sitting across from Uncle pounding on the table at Thanksgiving thinking (or saying) those things. He, the nephew, was. The GW Bushes, Mitt Romneys and Rob Longs of the world were preoccupied with Tocqueville and tax cuts.
#MeToo. I’m pretty sure my brothers and husband and even the white women I know, including myself and my daughters are now the objects of hate. People are going to get hurt. Maybe killed. And the response might very well be epic, and not in a good way.
Although, yeah, there’s long been an undercurrent of disdain for average white Americans coming from the protected class of both Left and Right. It has been highlighted by their reaction to President Trump and his voters.
We live in a society that is driven by class warfare disguised as racial strife and political correctness.
We have the gentry class of liberals and conservatives who see more in common with each other, just like the union contractor and the small business owner see more in common with each other. The uncles at the table are the symbol of working-class values.
I’m sick of it all. This is not going to end. We need to resurrect the Tea Party as a counter to BLM and the likes. They are just taking advantage of our lack of organization.
People have already been hurt, right? I no longer think that Americans care most about freedom or civilization though. I think Mao would conquer the whole country in a summer.
Yes. I am, too. I just don’t see how to stop it. It’s certainly not with the 2020 election. If Joe Biden is elected, there’s an endorsement of this behavior, which is disgusting. If Donald Trump is re-elected, these forces will not quiet.
I don’t know how it ends.
A Trump landslide might give the left enough pause to police itself. But other than a solid electoral repudiation, I don’t see it either.
Those parchment worshipers? What did they ever do?
I can take care of this whole problem. I just need a few thousand dedicated troops, and @bossmongo to lead them. Then *I* can stop the whole thing.
Sorry, I’m slow. What’s a parchment worshiper?
Constitution, I believe. Problem is, the Tea Party was only ever loosely organized and faced opposition within the Republican party establishment from the get-go. It was also willing to sacrifice conservative, founding principles to save Social Security (and other entitlements). It’s not enough to know what you’re against. You have to be able to articulate what you’re for — in the conservative case, a government that secures our (natural) rights, not our retirement.