Elephants and Jackasses...

On the other hand, it's much easier to remain dispassionate when the subject is an intellectual exercise as opposed to real life experiences.

 

Is this a thing people do where they rage at other members on PM?

 

Because so many bad things have happened to people who merely voiced an opinion on the internet, it makes it quite scary to be unpopular. We've spoken a lot about this on the board before. And several articles were posted of just ridiculous shit. People getting publicly put on blast for offending someone and actually getting them fired.

One girl, though, I don't remember her name, tried getting a couple of guys fired for a dongle joke at a tech conference a few years ago. The backlash against her was so strong she actually went into hiding. I wish I could remember her name.

 

Some of these people have 1million+ subscribers so it's not that small. Sometimes they're just goofing around, but they're also a closely knit ideological unit. Sort of a miniature equivalent to the alt right, except they don't want to overthrow anything - they just bitch a lot about a 'new direction' for the party.

It's also not only people on youtube, I was trying to use that as an example.

In any case there's untapped potential for white working class voters that the democratic party failed to use this election. Most of them(the liberals in that group) didn't vote or went over to Trump.

The anti-establishment sentiments are going to remain a controversial issue in the democratic party, and that goes well beyond a category like 'white males'. I'm not going to pretend I can at all predict what that will mean over the next few years.

Nope, they just posted endless theories academics pull out of their asses. It was among the most offensive crazed shit I have ever read. The depth they went to define whiteness and somehow thought they could apply it to the entire nation was totally nuts. That's what bothers people a lot of people. The so called 'research' is confirmation bias driven, and the rest is just elitist think pieces written by people who haven't accomplished anything in their lives, other than endlessly looking for racism.

There's a balance somewhere among the legitimate grievances, but these academics would be hard pressed to convince me they're improving race relations. They're making them worse. They think blathering about racism and gender nonstop is the cause and solution to every problem. It's an alternate reality worldview.

 

Interesting.

I've not really come across anything anyone wrote that I cared that much about.


I was just thinking about the idea of "white" or "male" privilege and why it's always been an idea I wasn't totally comfortable with (despite using the verbiage).
"Privileges" in my mind are something that can be taken away.
Whiteness or maleness are things that people are, so implying they're "privileged" status implies they can be taken.
I don't know. I guess that's why I've always thought there has to be a better word than privilege for all of that.

 

My real issue with it is that there's a lot of the opportunity for the left to accelerate social progress, but their approach is garbage. You can write all the academic papers you want, but you can't convince people that fiction is fact.

Wage gap? Fuck the data. We'll make up our own data.
Percentage of accusations of rape that are false? Fuck the studies. We want our own number.
White on black crime? Let's insert social theories and dismiss statistics.
Black fathers? Don't bring that up. Only racists do that.

Look at the backlash Don Lemon got for stating a few simple things.

I mean, you take something like sexual assault, which is a huge problem; why would you have to misrepresent anything?

I don't vote on these things, I just consider them annoying, but they've done serious damage to feminism and race relations, and rather than evaluate they just up the blame.

 

The entire idea of "white privilege" makes me irrationally frustrated. It's literally the dictionary definition of racism being thrown around by people decrying racism.

One thing I have come to realize, since this election has ended and I've had to wade through endless amounts of posts, in person rants, etc, for all of the advancements in technology and tools we've made as a species, we are far less evolved from our pack mentality, dominance hierarchy ape predecessors than we'd like to admit.

 

I don't know if it's racism.
It took me a long time to admit that despite some pretty unique beginnings I was still leaps and bounds ahead of nonwhite females as far as options.
But I don't think that's "privilege" as much as it is just a different reality.

 

1 million subscribers on youtube means less than nothing in the context of national impact. I have a friend from college with 700K subscribers, this guy who plays counter-strike and makes gay jokes has 1.1 million subscribers (and makes hilarious videos). You are voting in elections of massive import based on absolute internet nonsense.

 

/example

It's also not a group of counter strikers, it's a group of people brought together by political beliefs.

Everyone lashes out at theories on why the left failed this election. It's either a claim that those issues are irrelevant, or that the other side is retarded.

There seems to be a real desire to double down on bullshit and failed strategy.

Hillary lost the white woman vote by ten points. Ten fucking points. Do you know how hard that is to do when the other person has a history of sexual assault and your candidate is the first female nominee ever? All those advantages and Trump still does as well with the demographic as Romney? The reasons the democrats lost this election are extraordinarily complex and people like the analysts at 538 are still trying to work it out, but they start and end with Hillary Clinton. The anti-establishment stuff is a close second.

 

All I'm saying is that whatever reason those women had, it wasn't because of pepe memes and cucks and SJWs.

 

It's somewhere in between. The idea of white privilege is not entirely untrue, but often used in situations where it's not the case. When I look back at my life, I don't feel like being native put me at as great a disadvantage as I liked to think 5+ years ago. Sure, there were times things got dodgy, but I'll be damned if I'm going to blame all whites across the board for my hardships. However, that being said, I grew up in a small town where it was easy to develop a good reputation if you worked at it, find a decent job, get to know the populace and the police, etc. It may very well have been far more difficult if I'd been born in a large city center.

 

I've seen several regulars here lament the fact that several people left based on political disagreements, including Nom and Parker, saying they were being run off or not listened to. I know that a lot of what I said drove them there; there was a particularly pointed discussion of white privilege and unicorns towards the end that I was a big part of. I do feel bad that they decided to leave because they definitely added to the discussion here but I also tend not to stand by and let others accuse me of something I disagree with either. I have gone back and reread a lot of things that I wrote in that regard and I really don't think I was out of line so if that was the driving factor then I feel bad but what the fuck? How boring would this place be if we all agreed on everything? Aren't we supposed to disagree and learn from it and form stronger ideas when we are challenged?

This is another discussion we have had time and time again. I agree there is a problem with policing but it isn't just minorities being mistreated, it is happening in a lot of communities and needs to be fixed. I've also been very clear that as a white person I have been a victim of racist behavior as well. I been given the look and told I don't belong there in certain neighborhoods in Florida. I have been to the ME for a quite a while where they skip that whole step and go straight to murderin' infidels like me, even though I am building the local school or running monthly aide missions to save the dying locals. You know what though? Despite that shit, I have never let it get to me. I keep on keeping on and don't give up and say someone owes me for it or I can't do it now because someone was mean to me. That is an oversimplification of the issue but when I point it out, I am immediately met with my white privilege saves me from being downtrodden in one breath and in the next breath it is my white fragility that won't allow me to believe white privilege is real.

Sorry. Not buying it.

 

Those are good points that have one major flaw. In all those cases, you weren't "home." America is their home, and in their home they are facing these problems. It's one thing to go to the Middle East or another neighborhood and face scrutiny. It is another entirely to face it the minute you step out your own front door. You were visiting racism. They live in that shit.

That is where the idea of "privilege" comes from. You have seen racism and admit it's terrible, but you haven't faced it for decades in your own home, watching tv and seeing people who look like you shot for nothing more than their skin color. You can't escape it on the internet, I defy you to find a major website comment section that isn't filled with racist shit (that we accept as just being "lolz internet). At the same time, try to function in society with zero internet access; you're at a huge disadvantage. You can't escape it in life. Read the paper and it is "klan endorses Trump." In work. "You only got this job as a token hire." Bit by bit chipping away at you based on nothing more than the color of your skin. Literally every place you go you are defined first by your skin color, and if you were born white you have an automatic advantage in America.

No one is saying that makes you, personally, racist. I'm not saying that makes you racist. I'm white and I don't consider myself racist, but I also know I hit the genetic jackpot being born white in America, when I could have had it so much worse (about 6.2 billion people have it worse, give or take). But acknowledging that it is harder for them based on their skin color is the first step to actually solving the problem.

That is what I saw being ignored by people when Nom or Parker would speak. They weren't calling anyone racist, only trying to help you see that their lives are at an inherent disadvantage based on their skin color, and people got so uptight at the presumption of being called racist they shut down and ran them off. "Go fuck yourself," basically.

No matter how much you tell them to keep on keeping on and grind it out, eventually if you beat a person long enough that person will snap.

 

White privilege should really be called class privilege in the modern era, but there's no denying that more whites have a better head start.

I think the reason republicans struggle with the black vote, and will for a long time is because the white view of America is as a force for greatness, and a force for good. The black view of America is almost the exact opposite of that, and for good reason. Until republicans can reconcile that without only blaming the black community for their problems it's going to remain tense. Maybe some of those economic arguments would start to resonate. Two conversations in the political spectrum, the country needs to be having one conversation.

When it comes to racism I've read about this vast white conspiracy to destroy the black community, and it just doesn't seem to apply in the modern era. Most racism is more like "I won't invite you to my house" or "I don't want you dating my daughter". It's still problematic, it's just not the KKK race obsessed assholes the academics are making it out to be, and I don't buy that it's quite as widespread as many make it out to be.

 

You will probably disagree with all of this but I am going to write it anyway: I'm not admitting racism is terrible. I'm saying it is what it is (this should piss someone off if you don't consider the context). It is part of the human condition and everywhere in the world, you will never escape it no matter where you go. I spent a decade of my life being mistreated for being white in the ME, almost fully one-third of my life. I have lived it. Hell, I am in Guam right now. An island paradise. Why would anyone have a reason to be racist? Yet, still I get the look and I am called Haole and white devil. This isn't me condoning racism, this is just me saying that this is what is real. In America we have gone to great lengths to level the playing field and that is a good thing. There is definitely still work to do as well. You won't get an argument out of me otherwise. I just really disagree with a lot of the approach.

As far as being at a disadvantage by being a protected class? I'm sorry but I don't really buy that either. Where do the scholarships go? Where do the SBA loans go? Where do the set aside Government contracts go? Do you know what I could do if I were given a HUB zone, 8A or disadvantaged minority set aside contract? As a matter of fact - If you are on this board and a minority who wants to be rich, contact me. There is a whole untapped marketplace at your fingertips just waiting for you to show up.

Beyond that, life just plain isn't fair, man. Bad things happen to good people and vice versa. If life were fair, that wouldn't happen. That is the same for minority communities in general. They are the victims of history, this world is the anglosphere. We aren't going to undo it all, so it will never be fair and equal. Again, I'm not saying that is right or wrong, it just is. We are making it better, slowly but surely......I know it isn't fast enough but again, that's life.

(This should spice things up a little) In minority/"disadvantaged" communities (this extends to women, LGBT, etc), what is more important? Being given special consideration or being equal? You realize you can't be my equal and be a protected class at the same time, so given the choice, which do you pick?

 

Oh goody goody gum drops. Is it that time of year again? White supremesists arguing with super white apologists over how to best handle the African problem?

The reason these things were always banned before is because no one changes anyone's mind. Do you all really want to argue this again?