June 24, 2021

Glenn Loury talks to Charles Murray about the "shift away from racism as a moral issue to accusations of racism as a kind of attack on [white people] as people."

Posted by Ann Althouse at 6:24 AM
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4 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

Robert writes:

I don't think the backlash is "coming," I think it has already begun.

Most of the people turning up at school board meetings used to be part of what Nixon called the Silent Majority. It takes a lot to move those folks from their living rooms to a public meeting, and to inspire them to stand up and express themselves as being opposed to the current political/media consensus on race. The fact that it is happening suggests that the "consensus" is really an illusion, except perhaps in Twitter-World. We might be seeing the start of a preference cascade that will wash the "critical race theory" sandcastle away.

6/24/21, 8:07 AM
Ann Althouse said...

Temujin writes:

Their discussion was very interesting and pretty much echoed thoughts I've had for some time. And I know I'm not alone- hence the conclusions that both Loury and Murray came to.

What is the end game here? I'm reminded of the January 6 gathering that started out as a show of voices simply by the numbers of people, but turned into a riot. It was never an insurrection and that entire nomenclature is starting to wear off. But at Jan 6 you saw two things: (1) Those who showed up were a very minute fraction of the overall population of white, hispanic, asian, and black citizens who have had it with the current trends of our social and governmental direction. The gathering was overwhelmingly white, but that should not discount the fact that it was a tiny, tiny fraction of the disgusted populace covering all races. (2) The rioters had no end game. Once the doors opened up for them, once they were allowed to walk into the Senate Chamber, they had no plan. There was never an insurrection. One guy wanted to sit in Nancy's chair, but aside from that, they walked in and looked at each other as if to say, "Now what?".

That is how I view the progessive/wokist/collectivist stampede into *something.* I don't think they know where this is going. They seem not to realize that their rules are ever changing and fluid to each day, and that none of them will be able to live up to or down to their own rules so they will not only purge those they hate for not being them, but they will also be purging themselves eventually as no one will be pure enough. So what is the end game? Simply to destroy the United States? To destroy all of Western Civilization?

Yes. My greatest concern is that we are getting very close to the time when those who have been silently fuming will cease to be silent. And if the progressives, the media, the universities and our government want to see what it looks like when 200 million well armed citizens who love their country stand up, that time may be coming. And it will not end well for anyone.

I feel like we're at the front edge of an historic time. Once the starting gun is fired, no one knows what comes next.

6/24/21, 8:10 AM
Ann Althouse said...

Washington Blogger writes:

We've been living in a slow motion revolution beginning with the 60's. While this discussion is talking about the attack on whiteness from a racial context, it is simply a subset of the entire attempt to deconstruct the enlightenment, from the foundational documents of our country (undermine the constitution, 1619 project, etc) to the meaning of words and concepts (man, woman, mother, father, marriage). The goal is to undermine every societal institution so that they can rebuild it into something new. I do not know if there really is a central guiding force. Maybe this whole deconstruction thing is a lot like how Temujin describes the Jan 6 protest. What happens when all these institutions are destroyed? What happens when they win? What will be the unifying, guiding principles that unite our culture, government and civilization? Right now all I see are efforts to divide, to pit groups against each other, to destroy. Sure, to rebuild you need to destroy what used to be there, but what is the blueprint for what the new society will look like? Will the useful idiots fighting your war actually buy into the new society? And, what happens, as I think is happening now, when the people realize there IS a war going on and decide to choose to fight back. I think that is beginning to happen, as Robert pointed out. Charles Murry talks about his fears of the right, but I think he has it wrong. He should not describe them as "the Right", but simply as the those who no longer accept the good intentions of those agitators on the left. It is not that these people are on the right, it's just that the progressive train has gone too far and they want to get off. Logically, anyone who isn't left enough eventually becomes right as the thought leaders keep moving further and furhter left. But, right is a slur, these days, nearly synonymous with Nazi. Normal people are starting to realize "Hey I'M not the Nazi, here.

6/24/21, 11:08 AM
Ann Althouse said...

K writes:

It's my opinion that the "white backlash" isn't going to take the shape the 20C might lead us to expect. Due to intermarriage, too many "white" people have minority relatives - kith and kin and children of friends - for "white identity" politics to work. And these relatives are mostly young children - that's a vital point. One child might have 35 or 40 relatives when you consider aunts, uncles, grandparents, in-laws and close friends. Not one will be able to stomach an attack on that child of the kind that happened and was disregarded in the early 20C. My idea is that the "white backlash" will morph such that that young child appears to be protected by the backlash. Anything else is out. Getting rid of CRT while preventing the hollowing out of education by reclaiming school boards would be such a righteous backlash. In the same way, getting rid of "defund the police" wokie-hokies by replacing city council members would end the crime wave benefitting all communities - the "white backlash" in this case restoring law and justice. (And I don't expect "whites" will do it alone.)

6/24/21, 4:05 PM

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