For being the world's richest and most powerful superpower, we sure panic easily, don't we? The "Yellow Peril" and the "Red Scare" and the "Pinkos" and the problems with Blacks and Browns and "Redskins" ...
For being the world's richest and most powerful superpower, we sure panic easily, don't we? The "Yellow Peril" and the "Red Scare" and the "Pinkos" and the problems with Blacks and Browns and "Redskins" ...
White people certainly seem to be afraid of color when that color is skin pigment. The evidence is that we have a history of laws designed to disadvantage or exclude people considered non-white, some, usually the older ones, very explicitly and others more implicitly. Those are facts about the United States legal system and by definition systemic to American life. A person can “oppose” the fact that this is true, but they can’t make it false. So, pretending it didn’t happen and making everyone around you pretend is the next best thing.
It's the pretending it didn't happen that irks me so much.. A culture secure in its identity would freely admit we did terrible things to so many people for centuries, but we're working hard to become better and have made progress.
Why righties are so afraid to admit that we decapitated so many human beings with the ax of racism, I haven't a clue. What scares them so much about truth? They claim to be tough hombres and nobody should get in their way, because, Nobody's Badder Than Us. So why do they have such a hard time admitting our culture was vile to so many people for so many years?
A horribly bad conscience that must at all costs be suppressed, together with the truth, when truth underlies and explains that bad conscience.
Ideally, these people would have liked to remove all signs of that historical reality, together with the very visible human beings whose existence draws attention to to it. But as that is a physical impossibility, they are to be relegated to "their place" and kept in it under a tight leaden lid.
I'm currently reading "How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America," by Clint Smith -- a contemporary portrait of America as a slave-owning nation. Smith is a staff writer for The Atlantic. Highly recommend.
Well, slavery still exists on a large scale and is explicitly permitted by the US Constitution.
I am not going to explain the above statement. If you didn't know the facts, go check them out. And give due thought to the forms which this reality has taken in today's America.
Down in the ravine under Reagan's "Shining City on a Hill" the city's Gehenna...
Exactly this. Because the systems, and results of these systems, are on-going. See: police brutality, reproduction laws, dismantling of public schools/voucher movements, etc.
If righties think the 1619 Project reflects poorly on white folks, they must have fully missed the 1491 Project. Okay, not its real name, rather, a fine curriculum put out by the Zinn Education Project, based on Charles Mann's epic "1491."
Recent archeology analysis in New Mexico pushes the Americas' indigenous populations back some 30,000 years, 15,000-ish years before previously estimated, and the scientists are still digging.
Though I'm not indigenous, I am fully sick of the Poacher Turned Gamekeeper™️ energy from the RW, lately. We live on stolen land, commodified by enslaved people. That should make us uncomfortable. To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut (his son, really), feeling well-adjusted in a sick culture is not the flex you think it is.
Sure, sure... and they're not mistaken in their fears... Nature puts all things back in perspective, and maybe Nature will prove the equality of homo sapiens sapiens... while eliminating the entire species, both those who assaulted it and those who respected.
If His Royal Orangeness becomes any more orange, his votors are going to mistake him for a "non-white" and have an existential crisis at the polls in 2024, if he hasn't been relegated to an orange jumpsuit by then.
Google just told me that 89% of the RepubliQuan party identifies as "non-Hispanic white". As a nation, we are 75% white. I don't "do" numbers well enough to figure out the percentages, but I think that TC's assessment is pretty accurate.
The continuous revisions of our great country explain both the desire for inclusion that the Constitution promises and, alternately, the reactive fear of "the other" our baser instincts inspire. The ebb and flow of this history is deep and abiding within this country. We have been the invaders and the conciliators moved by the tide of public fear and/or hope. We are again in the throws of very un-Civil War, being fought by those of the reactive fear mindset and those hoping to realize the promise of conciliation. This is basic. This is a Big Deal. Thank you Dr. Heather for championing a broad and enduring vision that brings us together and eschews the division of the fearmongers.
Maybe it's time to stop thinking of our county as ¨great´. The land and waters are - or were - magnificent before the industrialization age. The myths must be acknowledged, and the truths taught.
a lot of America isn’t spoiled. Still have great universities, and community colleges. Still have hardworking people, still have scientists and educators and artists making a difference in peoples lives. Still have great music venues, small and large, and cultural opportunities abound. Yes the emphasis is everywhere to succeed and make that money but that’s life. A lot of folks help each other out. One can live a decent life if one decides to pursue that life and become productive.
I write this while acknowledging all the systemic racism that we all know has shaped this country.
And some of us understand that America, like all nations modern and ancient, are a combination of great, not-so-great, horrifying, blah, meh, great promise, and giant pitfalls. We are not Reagan's "shining city on a hill," nor are we Albright's "indispensable nation." But we are not a hellbeastian dystopia, either.
On balance, we're a pretty damn good nation with serious issues that need to be addressed, and a corrupted political system that needs to be overhauled so We the People can properly regulate corporations and institutions that harm us.
We are a great country. That doesn't mean we don't have serious problems to address, because we do. But we have tackled many of them over the decades, are working hard on others, and will (I hope) live up to the promise that is America.
But our faults don't make us a lousy nation. Every nation has greatness and faults.
We are, currently, one of the most indebted countries on earth. Maybe the most indebted....stealing wealth from our grandchildren to buy $80,000 pickup trucks that will ruin the atmosphere for those same grandchildren.
The world has two superpowers: the United States and Russia. Three if you want to include China. We are the richest of all three, and therefore the world's richest superpower.
But how did you manage to miss the point of my comment, which was not about our immense wealth but our even more immense pile of fear, panic, and insecurity?
"...The "Yellow Peril" and the "Red Scare" and the "Pinkos" and the problems with Blacks and Browns and "Redskins" ...
Maybe we're just afraid of colors. "
I put my comment in the reply right under that and it disappeared about a page down. That's when I put your name in it so ppl would know to whom I referred.
For being the world's richest and most powerful superpower, we sure panic easily, don't we? The "Yellow Peril" and the "Red Scare" and the "Pinkos" and the problems with Blacks and Browns and "Redskins" ...
Maybe we're just afraid of colors.
White people certainly seem to be afraid of color when that color is skin pigment. The evidence is that we have a history of laws designed to disadvantage or exclude people considered non-white, some, usually the older ones, very explicitly and others more implicitly. Those are facts about the United States legal system and by definition systemic to American life. A person can “oppose” the fact that this is true, but they can’t make it false. So, pretending it didn’t happen and making everyone around you pretend is the next best thing.
It's the pretending it didn't happen that irks me so much.. A culture secure in its identity would freely admit we did terrible things to so many people for centuries, but we're working hard to become better and have made progress.
Why righties are so afraid to admit that we decapitated so many human beings with the ax of racism, I haven't a clue. What scares them so much about truth? They claim to be tough hombres and nobody should get in their way, because, Nobody's Badder Than Us. So why do they have such a hard time admitting our culture was vile to so many people for so many years?
They believe if they can deny that 'it' ever existed, then they are not guilty...
Well said.
Thanks, Anne-Louise, appreciate it.
A horribly bad conscience that must at all costs be suppressed, together with the truth, when truth underlies and explains that bad conscience.
Ideally, these people would have liked to remove all signs of that historical reality, together with the very visible human beings whose existence draws attention to to it. But as that is a physical impossibility, they are to be relegated to "their place" and kept in it under a tight leaden lid.
I'm currently reading "How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America," by Clint Smith -- a contemporary portrait of America as a slave-owning nation. Smith is a staff writer for The Atlantic. Highly recommend.
Well, slavery still exists on a large scale and is explicitly permitted by the US Constitution.
I am not going to explain the above statement. If you didn't know the facts, go check them out. And give due thought to the forms which this reality has taken in today's America.
Down in the ravine under Reagan's "Shining City on a Hill" the city's Gehenna...
Ann...Excellent book! I highly recommend it too. There are parts of the book (you will know which ones) where I thought how brave Smith was to cover.
And still is.
Exactly this. Because the systems, and results of these systems, are on-going. See: police brutality, reproduction laws, dismantling of public schools/voucher movements, etc.
Their entire agenda is to uphold this system.
Yep
If righties think the 1619 Project reflects poorly on white folks, they must have fully missed the 1491 Project. Okay, not its real name, rather, a fine curriculum put out by the Zinn Education Project, based on Charles Mann's epic "1491."
Recent archeology analysis in New Mexico pushes the Americas' indigenous populations back some 30,000 years, 15,000-ish years before previously estimated, and the scientists are still digging.
Though I'm not indigenous, I am fully sick of the Poacher Turned Gamekeeper™️ energy from the RW, lately. We live on stolen land, commodified by enslaved people. That should make us uncomfortable. To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut (his son, really), feeling well-adjusted in a sick culture is not the flex you think it is.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/before-columbus
They may be afraid of retribution.
Sure, sure... and they're not mistaken in their fears... Nature puts all things back in perspective, and maybe Nature will prove the equality of homo sapiens sapiens... while eliminating the entire species, both those who assaulted it and those who respected.
It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!
It always comes arrowing back to the same thing: ownership of the slave.
Shakespeare again: "Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all".
Maybe the only thing "exceptional" about the United States is the exceptional moron stupidity of about 60% of the white people here.
I don't believe that a majority of white Americans are stupid morons. Some are, certainly. But this paints with too broad a brush.
Consider that a majority of white people in America are Republicans and voted for Trump. Twice. I rest my case.
If His Royal Orangeness becomes any more orange, his votors are going to mistake him for a "non-white" and have an existential crisis at the polls in 2024, if he hasn't been relegated to an orange jumpsuit by then.
I Laughed Out Loud. Loudly!
Here's hoping...
TC, can you tell me where you got that 60% number? I am going to hide under the bed until I find out. Terrifying...
Google just told me that 89% of the RepubliQuan party identifies as "non-Hispanic white". As a nation, we are 75% white. I don't "do" numbers well enough to figure out the percentages, but I think that TC's assessment is pretty accurate.
Thanks for doing the math.
60%?
Pretty generous assessment there.
Agreed.
The continuous revisions of our great country explain both the desire for inclusion that the Constitution promises and, alternately, the reactive fear of "the other" our baser instincts inspire. The ebb and flow of this history is deep and abiding within this country. We have been the invaders and the conciliators moved by the tide of public fear and/or hope. We are again in the throws of very un-Civil War, being fought by those of the reactive fear mindset and those hoping to realize the promise of conciliation. This is basic. This is a Big Deal. Thank you Dr. Heather for championing a broad and enduring vision that brings us together and eschews the division of the fearmongers.
Maybe it's time to stop thinking of our county as ¨great´. The land and waters are - or were - magnificent before the industrialization age. The myths must be acknowledged, and the truths taught.
a lot of America isn’t spoiled. Still have great universities, and community colleges. Still have hardworking people, still have scientists and educators and artists making a difference in peoples lives. Still have great music venues, small and large, and cultural opportunities abound. Yes the emphasis is everywhere to succeed and make that money but that’s life. A lot of folks help each other out. One can live a decent life if one decides to pursue that life and become productive.
I write this while acknowledging all the systemic racism that we all know has shaped this country.
Some of us never did really think of America as "great". We just did the best we could in the mess that it is.
And some of us understand that America, like all nations modern and ancient, are a combination of great, not-so-great, horrifying, blah, meh, great promise, and giant pitfalls. We are not Reagan's "shining city on a hill," nor are we Albright's "indispensable nation." But we are not a hellbeastian dystopia, either.
On balance, we're a pretty damn good nation with serious issues that need to be addressed, and a corrupted political system that needs to be overhauled so We the People can properly regulate corporations and institutions that harm us.
Well Said! Wonderful synopsis. Brief and accurate.
Thanks you, Rebekha, much appreciated.
We are a great country. That doesn't mean we don't have serious problems to address, because we do. But we have tackled many of them over the decades, are working hard on others, and will (I hope) live up to the promise that is America.
But our faults don't make us a lousy nation. Every nation has greatness and faults.
Shane.
We are a great country.
For some.
We are not the world's richest superpower.
We are, currently, one of the most indebted countries on earth. Maybe the most indebted....stealing wealth from our grandchildren to buy $80,000 pickup trucks that will ruin the atmosphere for those same grandchildren.
Mike S really appreciate the truth....looking in the mirror is hard but we can not improve unless we are honest with ourselves.
Thanks to Heather for encouraging us to observe the truth which will hopefully propel us to action.
I am inspired by many of you for your years of service to promote freedom.
Thank you.
The world has two superpowers: the United States and Russia. Three if you want to include China. We are the richest of all three, and therefore the world's richest superpower.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/power
But how did you manage to miss the point of my comment, which was not about our immense wealth but our even more immense pile of fear, panic, and insecurity?
Shane.
I think a case can be made that there is one world superpower.
China.
China has:
1. 3 billion Human Resources compared to our 380 million.
2. Worlds largest and most diverse manufacturing base.
3. Worlds second and possibly first military power if you include the Human Resources available to it.
4. Much less debt than the USA.
Shane, Ya got something there. Don't forget the Rainbow Flag.
What'd I write, Rob? This thread is so confused I can't find what the comment of mine you're responding to!
"...The "Yellow Peril" and the "Red Scare" and the "Pinkos" and the problems with Blacks and Browns and "Redskins" ...
Maybe we're just afraid of colors. "
I put my comment in the reply right under that and it disappeared about a page down. That's when I put your name in it so ppl would know to whom I referred.
Got it, thanks! I lost track of the thread after awhile :-)
True this!!
lol ~ that's it Shane ! You've cracked the 'code'...