Rishvol
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Recruiting Forum Off-Topic Thread II
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Catbone
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What a damn good article!
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-exhaustion-of-american-liberalism-1488751826
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-exhaustion-of-american-liberalism-1488751826
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I was able to and I don't have one...maybe they assumed you can't read?
edit: just saw that let me just post in here its not that long
The recent flurry of marches, demonstrations and even riots, along with the Democratic Partys spiteful reaction to the Trump presidency, exposes what modern liberalism has become: a politics shrouded in pathos. Unlike the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, when protesters wore their Sunday best and carried themselves with heroic dignity, todays liberal marches are marked by incoherence and downright lunacyhats designed to evoke sexual organs, poems that scream in anger yet have no point to make, and an hysterical anti-Americanism.
All this suggests lostness, the end of something rather than the beginning. What is ending?
America, since the 60s, has lived through what might be called an age of white guilt. We may still be in this age, but the Trump election suggests an exhaustion with the idea of white guilt, and with the drama of culpability, innocence and correctness in which it mires us.
White guilt is not actual guilt. Surely most whites are not assailed in the night by feelings of responsibility for Americas historical mistreatment of minorities. Moreover, all the actual guilt in the world would never be enough to support the hegemonic power that the mere pretense of guilt has exercised in American life for the last half-century.
White guilt is not angst over injustices suffered by others; it is the terror of being stigmatized with Americas old bigotriesracism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia. To be stigmatized as a fellow traveler with any of these bigotries is to be utterly stripped of moral authority and made into a pariah. The terror of this, of having no name in the street as the Bible puts it, pressures whites to act guiltily even when they feel no actual guilt. White guilt is a mock guilt, a pretense of real guilt, a shallow etiquette of empathy, pity and regret.
It is also the heart and soul of contemporary liberalism. This liberalism is the politics given to us by white guilt, and it shares white guilts central corruption. It is not real liberalism, in the classic sense. It is a mock liberalism. Freedom is not its raison dêtre; moral authority is.
When America became stigmatized in the 60s as racist, sexist and militaristic, it wanted moral authority above all else. Subsequently the American left reconstituted itself as the keeper of Americas moral legitimacy. (Conservatism, focused on freedom and wealth, had little moral clout.) From that followed todays markers of white guiltpolitical correctness, identity politics, environmental orthodoxy, the diversity cult and so on.
This was the circumstance in which innocence of Americas bigotries and dissociation from the American past became a currency of hardcore political power. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, good liberals both, pursued power by offering their candidacies as opportunities for Americans to document their innocence of the nations past. I had to vote for Obama, a rock-ribbed Republican said to me. I couldnt tell my grandson that I didnt vote for the first black president.
For this man liberalism was a moral vaccine that immunized him against stigmatization. For Mr. Obama it was raw political power in the real world, enough to lift himunknown and untestedinto the presidency. But for Mrs. Clinton, liberalism was not enough. The white guilt that lifted Mr. Obama did not carry her into officeeven though her opponent was soundly stigmatized as an iconic racist and sexist.
Perhaps the Obama presidency was the culmination of the age of white guilt, so that this guiltiness has entered its denouement. There are so many public moments now in which liberalisms old weapon of stigmatization shoots blanksElizabeth Warren in the Senate reading a 30-year-old letter by Coretta Scott King, hoping to stop Jeff Sessionss appointment as attorney general. There it was with deadly predictability: a white liberal stealing moral authority from a black heroine in order to stigmatize a white male as racist. When Ms. Warren was finally told to sit, there was real mortification behind her glaring eyes.
This liberalism evolved within a society shamed by its past. But that shame has weakened now. Our new conservative president rolls his eyes when he is called a racist, and we allliberal and conservative alikeknow that he isnt one. The jig is up. Bigotry exists, but it is far down on the list of problems that minorities now face. I grew up black in segregated America, where it was hard to find an open door. Its harder now for young blacks to find a closed one.
This is the reality that made Ms. Warrens attack on Mr. Sessions so tiresome. And it is what caused so many Democrats at President Trumps address to Congress to look a little mortified, defiantly proud but dark with doubt. The sight of them was a profound moment in American political history.
Todays liberalism is an anachronism. It has no understanding, really, of what poverty is and how it has to be overcome. It has no grip whatever on what American exceptionalism is and what it means at home and especially abroad. Instead it remains defined by an America of 1965an America newly opening itself to its sins, an America of genuine goodwill, yet lacking in self-knowledge.
This liberalism came into being not as an ideology but as an identity. It offered Americans moral esteem against the specter of American shame. This made for a liberalism devoted to the idea of American shamefulness. Without an ugly America to loathe, there is no automatic esteem to receive. Thus liberalisms unrelenting current of anti-Americanism.
Lets stipulate that, given our history, this liberalism is understandable. But American liberalism never acknowledged that it was about white esteem rather than minority accomplishment. Four thousand shootings in Chicago last year, and the mayor announces that his will be a sanctuary city. This is moral esteem over reality; the self-congratulation of idealism. Liberalism is exhausted because it has become a corruption.
edit: just saw that let me just post in here its not that long
The recent flurry of marches, demonstrations and even riots, along with the Democratic Partys spiteful reaction to the Trump presidency, exposes what modern liberalism has become: a politics shrouded in pathos. Unlike the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, when protesters wore their Sunday best and carried themselves with heroic dignity, todays liberal marches are marked by incoherence and downright lunacyhats designed to evoke sexual organs, poems that scream in anger yet have no point to make, and an hysterical anti-Americanism.
All this suggests lostness, the end of something rather than the beginning. What is ending?
America, since the 60s, has lived through what might be called an age of white guilt. We may still be in this age, but the Trump election suggests an exhaustion with the idea of white guilt, and with the drama of culpability, innocence and correctness in which it mires us.
White guilt is not actual guilt. Surely most whites are not assailed in the night by feelings of responsibility for Americas historical mistreatment of minorities. Moreover, all the actual guilt in the world would never be enough to support the hegemonic power that the mere pretense of guilt has exercised in American life for the last half-century.
White guilt is not angst over injustices suffered by others; it is the terror of being stigmatized with Americas old bigotriesracism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia. To be stigmatized as a fellow traveler with any of these bigotries is to be utterly stripped of moral authority and made into a pariah. The terror of this, of having no name in the street as the Bible puts it, pressures whites to act guiltily even when they feel no actual guilt. White guilt is a mock guilt, a pretense of real guilt, a shallow etiquette of empathy, pity and regret.
It is also the heart and soul of contemporary liberalism. This liberalism is the politics given to us by white guilt, and it shares white guilts central corruption. It is not real liberalism, in the classic sense. It is a mock liberalism. Freedom is not its raison dêtre; moral authority is.
When America became stigmatized in the 60s as racist, sexist and militaristic, it wanted moral authority above all else. Subsequently the American left reconstituted itself as the keeper of Americas moral legitimacy. (Conservatism, focused on freedom and wealth, had little moral clout.) From that followed todays markers of white guiltpolitical correctness, identity politics, environmental orthodoxy, the diversity cult and so on.
This was the circumstance in which innocence of Americas bigotries and dissociation from the American past became a currency of hardcore political power. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, good liberals both, pursued power by offering their candidacies as opportunities for Americans to document their innocence of the nations past. I had to vote for Obama, a rock-ribbed Republican said to me. I couldnt tell my grandson that I didnt vote for the first black president.
For this man liberalism was a moral vaccine that immunized him against stigmatization. For Mr. Obama it was raw political power in the real world, enough to lift himunknown and untestedinto the presidency. But for Mrs. Clinton, liberalism was not enough. The white guilt that lifted Mr. Obama did not carry her into officeeven though her opponent was soundly stigmatized as an iconic racist and sexist.
Perhaps the Obama presidency was the culmination of the age of white guilt, so that this guiltiness has entered its denouement. There are so many public moments now in which liberalisms old weapon of stigmatization shoots blanksElizabeth Warren in the Senate reading a 30-year-old letter by Coretta Scott King, hoping to stop Jeff Sessionss appointment as attorney general. There it was with deadly predictability: a white liberal stealing moral authority from a black heroine in order to stigmatize a white male as racist. When Ms. Warren was finally told to sit, there was real mortification behind her glaring eyes.
This liberalism evolved within a society shamed by its past. But that shame has weakened now. Our new conservative president rolls his eyes when he is called a racist, and we allliberal and conservative alikeknow that he isnt one. The jig is up. Bigotry exists, but it is far down on the list of problems that minorities now face. I grew up black in segregated America, where it was hard to find an open door. Its harder now for young blacks to find a closed one.
This is the reality that made Ms. Warrens attack on Mr. Sessions so tiresome. And it is what caused so many Democrats at President Trumps address to Congress to look a little mortified, defiantly proud but dark with doubt. The sight of them was a profound moment in American political history.
Todays liberalism is an anachronism. It has no understanding, really, of what poverty is and how it has to be overcome. It has no grip whatever on what American exceptionalism is and what it means at home and especially abroad. Instead it remains defined by an America of 1965an America newly opening itself to its sins, an America of genuine goodwill, yet lacking in self-knowledge.
This liberalism came into being not as an ideology but as an identity. It offered Americans moral esteem against the specter of American shame. This made for a liberalism devoted to the idea of American shamefulness. Without an ugly America to loathe, there is no automatic esteem to receive. Thus liberalisms unrelenting current of anti-Americanism.
Lets stipulate that, given our history, this liberalism is understandable. But American liberalism never acknowledged that it was about white esteem rather than minority accomplishment. Four thousand shootings in Chicago last year, and the mayor announces that his will be a sanctuary city. This is moral esteem over reality; the self-congratulation of idealism. Liberalism is exhausted because it has become a corruption.
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BaldBiker
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Very good read. Probably my favorite part.
This liberalism evolved within a society shamed by its past. But that shame has weakened now. Our new conservative president rolls his eyes when he is called a racist, and we allliberal and conservative alikeknow that he isnt one. The jig is up. Bigotry exists, but it is far down on the list of problems that minorities now face. I grew up black in segregated America, where it was hard to find an open door. Its harder now for young blacks to find a closed one.
This is the reality that made Ms. Warrens attack on Mr. Sessions so tiresome. And it is what caused so many Democrats at President Trumps address to Congress to look a little mortified, defiantly proud but dark with doubt. The sight of them was a profound moment in American political history.
I posted several weeks ago that my neighbors, who are Mexican, voted for Trump. Their reason...They also dislike illegal aliens. The Democrats were basically trying to sweep it under the rug and let them "be Americans" without going about it legally. My neighbors were quite upset by that, having done it legally themselves.
Many of my black friends (most are in agreeance that the term African American does not suit them as they see themselves as Americans) informed me, after the election, they also voted for Trump. Their reasoning was different. First, they were upset that the Dems just assumed that they would vote for Hillary...because they are black. They also took exception to the Dems talking about how they get the educated voters while the Republicans get the rural "non educated" vote. The reason they didn't like hearing that? They know that a very large portion of the black vote come from the urban areas of cities (projects in which a large number of people did not get a good education, if any) where education is not the main priority.
Mostly though. They are growing weary of the Democratic Party. They have seen the promises made by the party for decades. They have also seen for decades the results of those promises. Nothing. They've been told for decades..."look what we've done for you, see how things are better"...but now realize that what has been said as a political party doing things to make things better really hasn't been the case. Hard work got my friends where they are. Just like every other race in this country...if you work hard, your chances of succeeding are greater.
Most of my black friends (who are roughly my age) also feel that politics stopped having as much to do with the change in feelings amongst races (beyond the 60's and 70's) as just the general change of mindset of the American people. They know there are still issues, but feel at this point in time (and probably overdue) it's best to leave politics out of it and let people deal with each other as people. In their opinion...politics is what makes white people fight back (they don't like being told their horrible humans anymore than anyone else does)..., and is also what adds fuel to the fire young Americans, of any color, to be lazy and demand more rather than actually going out and putting in the work to achieve what they want.
Wow......sorry....rant over. :hi:
This liberalism evolved within a society shamed by its past. But that shame has weakened now. Our new conservative president rolls his eyes when he is called a racist, and we allliberal and conservative alikeknow that he isnt one. The jig is up. Bigotry exists, but it is far down on the list of problems that minorities now face. I grew up black in segregated America, where it was hard to find an open door. Its harder now for young blacks to find a closed one.
This is the reality that made Ms. Warrens attack on Mr. Sessions so tiresome. And it is what caused so many Democrats at President Trumps address to Congress to look a little mortified, defiantly proud but dark with doubt. The sight of them was a profound moment in American political history.
I posted several weeks ago that my neighbors, who are Mexican, voted for Trump. Their reason...They also dislike illegal aliens. The Democrats were basically trying to sweep it under the rug and let them "be Americans" without going about it legally. My neighbors were quite upset by that, having done it legally themselves.
Many of my black friends (most are in agreeance that the term African American does not suit them as they see themselves as Americans) informed me, after the election, they also voted for Trump. Their reasoning was different. First, they were upset that the Dems just assumed that they would vote for Hillary...because they are black. They also took exception to the Dems talking about how they get the educated voters while the Republicans get the rural "non educated" vote. The reason they didn't like hearing that? They know that a very large portion of the black vote come from the urban areas of cities (projects in which a large number of people did not get a good education, if any) where education is not the main priority.
Mostly though. They are growing weary of the Democratic Party. They have seen the promises made by the party for decades. They have also seen for decades the results of those promises. Nothing. They've been told for decades..."look what we've done for you, see how things are better"...but now realize that what has been said as a political party doing things to make things better really hasn't been the case. Hard work got my friends where they are. Just like every other race in this country...if you work hard, your chances of succeeding are greater.
Most of my black friends (who are roughly my age) also feel that politics stopped having as much to do with the change in feelings amongst races (beyond the 60's and 70's) as just the general change of mindset of the American people. They know there are still issues, but feel at this point in time (and probably overdue) it's best to leave politics out of it and let people deal with each other as people. In their opinion...politics is what makes white people fight back (they don't like being told their horrible humans anymore than anyone else does)..., and is also what adds fuel to the fire young Americans, of any color, to be lazy and demand more rather than actually going out and putting in the work to achieve what they want.
Wow......sorry....rant over. :hi:
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