The GOP/Tucker Carlson "replacement theory" is just doublespeak for the strategy of white, heterosexual, self-righteous men stealing the fruits created through the efforts of non-white men & women. First they murdered and looted the Native Americans who honored a peaceful and cooperative life, then they kidnapped and enslaved Black peopl…
The GOP/Tucker Carlson "replacement theory" is just doublespeak for the strategy of white, heterosexual, self-righteous men stealing the fruits created through the efforts of non-white men & women. First they murdered and looted the Native Americans who honored a peaceful and cooperative life, then they kidnapped and enslaved Black people from other lands and considered them to be mere property, then they murdered them at will if they dared to create a good life for themselves, then they made sure that women who dared to leave the home that was meant to cater to their white male whims would only earn a fraction of what those white males earned. Empowered by those successes, they shamelessly pretend that anyone not like them is trying to steal their rightful places. Makes me sick to my stomach. Literally sick to my stomach.
Taking in your literal words, Janet Sobel, this liberal elderly woman, reports progressively worsening constant nausea even to the point of literal vomiting the end of April. I am so grateful for Heather Cox Richardson's keen mind and this forum. Today's Letter is brilliant. She zeroes right into the historical context and present sleights of hand of the once respected Republican party. What's going on in Hungary (size of our state of Michigan), Orban, and the "right wing" (sounds so innocuous) here in the US is frightful - scary beyond words and my comprehension. I, too, am sick to my stomach and very angry but now no longer feeling powerless. I have a voice. Remembering my own liberation from my white middle class proper New England patriarchal family where fathers knew best, belting out Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman Hear Me Roar..." sometime in 1977 in my kitchen while my five kids slept upstairs, their father living elsewhere.
Thank you, Christine, I appreciate your feedback. I'm a newcomer to Substack. As an octogenarian who grew up in a deadly silent "nuclear" family, conversations other than "Please pass the oleo" and others in that vein did not exist. I'm happy to read helpful definitions to expressions I might not readily know. Wasn't certain that "barn burner" was a "good" expression or not.
Want to clarify to those responding to my comment on Heather Cox Richardson's Substack Newsletter, that I am not a newcomer to her Letters to an American. I find it fascinating that she writes from Round Pond, Maine. I lived there for 4 years in early 1990s next door to a Poland family. Not sure what exact relationship Buddy Poland is to that Poland family. A close friend of mine posted one of Buddy's photographs on facebook and I was blown away when I started reading Heather's Letters and watching her Tues/Thurs politics/history "classes." High school and college history teachers/professors (all men from football coaches to Shakespeare scholars) until Heather, I got all meaningful history/politics learning from reading historical fiction because I wanted to know more than a linear summation of the battle details of what happened in the past. I wanted to know what people's lives were like.
So good. It refers to an impressive sentence and thought. Especially when it ends the piece. Trying to remember…historically it was a term “Barnburner” given to a progressive Dem party faction I think in New York during the 1800’s sometime.
I can so see you in your kitchen roaring, you lioness.
I confess when I hear the word barnburner I think of Paul Newman in I think it was it Cat on the Hat Tin Roof. In the 19th century upper New York was the "burnt over" district which was a reference to Christian revival going on there. Now I will have to learn about progressive D barnburners.
Had to look it up and see that once again a word has morphed from its original negative use to a variety of meanings, some positive, some not so much. This one, excerpted from the Merriam-Webster article on the term seems pertinent to an apparent majority of today's Republicans. The article is worth a read.
"We do not know to what particular class the new epithet of “Barn burners” is intended to be applied, but it strikes us as highly characteristic of those who trample upon the rights of citizens and the laws of the land. —Public Ledger [Philadelphia, PA], 17 April 1840"
Whoa, Jean in Florida. That is the first time I’ve heard that thought put so succinctly.
Salud! (Certainly explains the entire Republican legislature and Guv in Florida. What immature scairdy cats. I would’ve whipped their bully selves on a playground growing up while defending something or someone.)
I love this. It echoes what the LGBTQ+ community has been banging on about all along. "We don't want special privileges, we just want equal privileges." It stands to reason that conservatives who tend to so vociferously resist change would not want these minority groups to be on an equal footing with the rights they enjoy. They instantly feel threatened, and I have never understood why. I guess, chalk it up to fear that comes from simple ignorance--lack of empathy?--with other peoples and cultures.
May I suggest you do understand it, Bruce? Any white person can. When one is the majority race, then “privilege” isn’t really that as one grows up, but just the way things come to us is our nurtured expectation. But there comes a seminal moment(s) in EVERY WHITE PERSON’s LIFE (and I’ve never found out different from anyone) that one either is threatened or accepting of the litmus test of skin color and the litany of “things” that means on the ladder of caste.
I can recall feeling ambiguous about the use of racial slurs emanating from my family and in general the suburban white upbringing that was my privilege. It was not until I was much more grown and more familiar with other skin colors and cultures that I let go of the ingrained belief that somehow white is “best”. I find it telling when I ask people, “if you woke up tomorrow and could be a different color than white, are you ok with that?” “Why or why not?””What color will you choose?” (to a yes answer). But if you had to, what color? (to a no answer).
In white people’s minds, privilege as a right means that there is not enough to go around. That belief has been cultivated for hundreds of years. The middle class has been taught to “save for a rainy day”. Which means one believes the rainy day is coming so one is forgiven greed in serving preparation.
It’s all about having more.
Sooooo, changing a belief to we are ALL in this together. (we the people I thought was in our founding documents, right?). There is enough to go around.
Original download from the Creator. A lot of white people have really not taken that to heart in relation to “race” (a construct, not a truth).
I used to say “I don’t understand why white people are so crazy
about race. Now I say, I do understand why white people are so crazy about race. But I believe differently and accept we all have equal share from the Creator.
I’m blessed every day that the opportunity to believe differently was at an intersection I chose to recognize. And still choose.
If one gives the “others” equal footing, then maybe one has to look in the mirror and finally see that one is not superior in any way, and maybe one cannot stand to admit to that.
Janet, you have just written the synopsis of a US History book for a high school Civics class. Alas, let’s not hold our breath that it will end up in the hands of students living in red states.
Janet, I've had to save your comment so I can keep rereading it. You have really summed it up perfectly. When I say to myself, "This can't be happening, this is unbelievable." I can remind myself that it's just history repeating itself. My Christian mind just doesn't understand the lust for power and the mindset of superiority. Underneath the surface, they are all scared little children. Will they ever realize that this life is just a blink of an eye but eternity is a long time.
No, Jeanne, they will never realize that their lives will come to an end. They want to rule the roost with an iron fist. Women have to come out fighting with everything we’ve got because we aren’t gonna take it anymore! We cannot (will not) succumb to the wills of man.
While everything you say is true, it is important to hammer home that "replacement theory" is a tacit acknowledgement of their own fear of inferiority - i.e, that if they were required to compete on a level playing field with all members of all genders, races, cultures and ethnic group, they would fail. Shout it from the rooftops - Tucker Carlson is saying that "the other" must be excluded because white males can't afford the heat of competition.
Janet, I absolutely agree that "men" are at the tip of the spear you describe. But lets not tip over the edge. There are women out there, dare I evoke MTG and Ginny Thomas, that are equally rapacious in terms of whatever it is they see to be their birthright. Conservatives in general show up big on FMRI studies correlating politically charged phrases with activity in the fear and anger centers in the brain. Add a dash of testosterone and you've got a gender shift going. But please, don't lay it all at the feet of "white men". Some of us guys (not necessarily deficient in testosterone, to be clear) are equally disgusted .
I am so glad you made this comment, so I can clarify. Of course you're right to make your point. Throughout "modern" history, there have been women who side with those white, heterosexual, self-righteous men and, thank God, there are large numbers of white men who don't abide by the self-righteous attitude that nobody matters but white people. The white men who committed acts against non-white people surely meant to assure their women were awarded the benefits of their bounty; after all, they took care of the women who kept their homes and raised their children, and many women--through the present time--liked that role. In fact, women who wanted to do more than keep house and raise children found other women to oppose their efforts.
I defined the white men who committed this wrongdoing against their non-white and female brothers and sisters narrowly to include only those white men who sought to use their power to suppress the advancement of non-white and female brothers and sisters in order to prevent any competition for the material and economic fruits of power. The truth, though, as I see it is this: it has been primarily white men throughout American history who have suppressed the advancement of anyone unlike them. Thankfully, times have changed in large part because many white men have refused to participate in the suppression and have stood beside minorities, immigrants, women, LGBTQ, and other marginalized groups. Were it not for men like you, change would not have brought us this far. But the truth is that there is far to go.
Recent (since the mid-20th century) history has shown us that the power in this country still remains in the hands of those same white men (and their adoring women) that control large segments of American society, notably the Republican party and the legal profession. Since the legal profession has a strong hand in the substance of laws and the power of our police forces, the fact it is systemically connected to the white men who established the legal organizations that rule our legal system is, to me, especially problematic. The faces of the people who control our largest law firms tell the story in spades. The faces of the people who control the Federalist Society shape that story. The identity of our SCOTUS members and what they are doing with their unbridled power is all that needs to be said regarding the hands that are shaping our country right now.
Janet, thank you for your clarification. You may have been over generous to us empathetic white guys, as we surely could be doing more, but at least we try to be supportive of women like yourself with justifiably passionate views. If you've read Howard Zinn's powerful "A people's history of the United States..." you'll have a great example of an old white guy that got it right and has made a huge difference. Don't look for it in high school classrooms, however.
My apology to Ginni Thomas for misspelling her nickname. I know she's an avid reader of Heather's letters ;-)
The GOP/Tucker Carlson "replacement theory" is just doublespeak for the strategy of white, heterosexual, self-righteous men stealing the fruits created through the efforts of non-white men & women. First they murdered and looted the Native Americans who honored a peaceful and cooperative life, then they kidnapped and enslaved Black people from other lands and considered them to be mere property, then they murdered them at will if they dared to create a good life for themselves, then they made sure that women who dared to leave the home that was meant to cater to their white male whims would only earn a fraction of what those white males earned. Empowered by those successes, they shamelessly pretend that anyone not like them is trying to steal their rightful places. Makes me sick to my stomach. Literally sick to my stomach.
Taking in your literal words, Janet Sobel, this liberal elderly woman, reports progressively worsening constant nausea even to the point of literal vomiting the end of April. I am so grateful for Heather Cox Richardson's keen mind and this forum. Today's Letter is brilliant. She zeroes right into the historical context and present sleights of hand of the once respected Republican party. What's going on in Hungary (size of our state of Michigan), Orban, and the "right wing" (sounds so innocuous) here in the US is frightful - scary beyond words and my comprehension. I, too, am sick to my stomach and very angry but now no longer feeling powerless. I have a voice. Remembering my own liberation from my white middle class proper New England patriarchal family where fathers knew best, belting out Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman Hear Me Roar..." sometime in 1977 in my kitchen while my five kids slept upstairs, their father living elsewhere.
Your last sentence is a barn burner, Marcia. A compliment.
Salud! United 🗽
Thank you, Christine, I appreciate your feedback. I'm a newcomer to Substack. As an octogenarian who grew up in a deadly silent "nuclear" family, conversations other than "Please pass the oleo" and others in that vein did not exist. I'm happy to read helpful definitions to expressions I might not readily know. Wasn't certain that "barn burner" was a "good" expression or not.
Want to clarify to those responding to my comment on Heather Cox Richardson's Substack Newsletter, that I am not a newcomer to her Letters to an American. I find it fascinating that she writes from Round Pond, Maine. I lived there for 4 years in early 1990s next door to a Poland family. Not sure what exact relationship Buddy Poland is to that Poland family. A close friend of mine posted one of Buddy's photographs on facebook and I was blown away when I started reading Heather's Letters and watching her Tues/Thurs politics/history "classes." High school and college history teachers/professors (all men from football coaches to Shakespeare scholars) until Heather, I got all meaningful history/politics learning from reading historical fiction because I wanted to know more than a linear summation of the battle details of what happened in the past. I wanted to know what people's lives were like.
I like your phrase "linear summation" which applies to what is taught in too many history classes well beyond accounts of battles.
So good. It refers to an impressive sentence and thought. Especially when it ends the piece. Trying to remember…historically it was a term “Barnburner” given to a progressive Dem party faction I think in New York during the 1800’s sometime.
I can so see you in your kitchen roaring, you lioness.
Salud, Marcia. 🗽
Thank you again, Christine. You write well. Barnburner rings a bell. I think I absorbed more language than I was aware of.
I confess when I hear the word barnburner I think of Paul Newman in I think it was it Cat on the Hat Tin Roof. In the 19th century upper New York was the "burnt over" district which was a reference to Christian revival going on there. Now I will have to learn about progressive D barnburners.
Had to look it up and see that once again a word has morphed from its original negative use to a variety of meanings, some positive, some not so much. This one, excerpted from the Merriam-Webster article on the term seems pertinent to an apparent majority of today's Republicans. The article is worth a read.
"We do not know to what particular class the new epithet of “Barn burners” is intended to be applied, but it strikes us as highly characteristic of those who trample upon the rights of citizens and the laws of the land. —Public Ledger [Philadelphia, PA], 17 April 1840"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/barn-burner
I'm almost an octogenarian - and proud of it!
Glad to have you here with us, Marcia, Beautifully-Roaring Woman!
"Heart".
I call it the "wrong wing."
Works for me: Wrong Wing. I like alliterations.
Wingnuts
My usual name for them. When we were on a European tour, our Brit guide had not heard this before and I had to explain it to him.
I’m with you! Helen Reddy sang in my kitchen last night & my husband sang along! “Hear us ROAR in numbers too big to IGNORE”!!!
I remember that song inspired me, too, Marcia...and I roared.
When you are accustomed to privilege, equality seems like oppression.
Whoa, Jean in Florida. That is the first time I’ve heard that thought put so succinctly.
Salud! (Certainly explains the entire Republican legislature and Guv in Florida. What immature scairdy cats. I would’ve whipped their bully selves on a playground growing up while defending something or someone.)
I ran across it a while ago - don’t remember where - & took it for my own.
I love this. It echoes what the LGBTQ+ community has been banging on about all along. "We don't want special privileges, we just want equal privileges." It stands to reason that conservatives who tend to so vociferously resist change would not want these minority groups to be on an equal footing with the rights they enjoy. They instantly feel threatened, and I have never understood why. I guess, chalk it up to fear that comes from simple ignorance--lack of empathy?--with other peoples and cultures.
May I suggest you do understand it, Bruce? Any white person can. When one is the majority race, then “privilege” isn’t really that as one grows up, but just the way things come to us is our nurtured expectation. But there comes a seminal moment(s) in EVERY WHITE PERSON’s LIFE (and I’ve never found out different from anyone) that one either is threatened or accepting of the litmus test of skin color and the litany of “things” that means on the ladder of caste.
I can recall feeling ambiguous about the use of racial slurs emanating from my family and in general the suburban white upbringing that was my privilege. It was not until I was much more grown and more familiar with other skin colors and cultures that I let go of the ingrained belief that somehow white is “best”. I find it telling when I ask people, “if you woke up tomorrow and could be a different color than white, are you ok with that?” “Why or why not?””What color will you choose?” (to a yes answer). But if you had to, what color? (to a no answer).
In white people’s minds, privilege as a right means that there is not enough to go around. That belief has been cultivated for hundreds of years. The middle class has been taught to “save for a rainy day”. Which means one believes the rainy day is coming so one is forgiven greed in serving preparation.
It’s all about having more.
Sooooo, changing a belief to we are ALL in this together. (we the people I thought was in our founding documents, right?). There is enough to go around.
Original download from the Creator. A lot of white people have really not taken that to heart in relation to “race” (a construct, not a truth).
I used to say “I don’t understand why white people are so crazy
about race. Now I say, I do understand why white people are so crazy about race. But I believe differently and accept we all have equal share from the Creator.
I’m blessed every day that the opportunity to believe differently was at an intersection I chose to recognize. And still choose.
Salud, Bruce! United.
If one gives the “others” equal footing, then maybe one has to look in the mirror and finally see that one is not superior in any way, and maybe one cannot stand to admit to that.
Excellent observation. I will have to remember this one.
Perfectly stated. 😎
I am unabashedly stealing this phrase. Succinct and on target.
Exactly!!! Couldn't have stated THAT any better, Jean!!!👏
Janet, you have just written the synopsis of a US History book for a high school Civics class. Alas, let’s not hold our breath that it will end up in the hands of students living in red states.
Janet, I've had to save your comment so I can keep rereading it. You have really summed it up perfectly. When I say to myself, "This can't be happening, this is unbelievable." I can remind myself that it's just history repeating itself. My Christian mind just doesn't understand the lust for power and the mindset of superiority. Underneath the surface, they are all scared little children. Will they ever realize that this life is just a blink of an eye but eternity is a long time.
No, Jeanne, they will never realize that their lives will come to an end. They want to rule the roost with an iron fist. Women have to come out fighting with everything we’ve got because we aren’t gonna take it anymore! We cannot (will not) succumb to the wills of man.
Cue the 1984 one-hit wonder… Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It Anymore
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmckWVPRaI
Hahahahahahahahaha. Bringing back a perfect one, Lena. The vid is great.
Couldn’t have said it better. Thank you. I have the same digestive malady
"White" history in a nutshell. Thank you, Janet. And, this...."Makes me sick to my stomach. Literally sick to my stomach." Every. Day.
Me too. I am older and this is not how I envisioned spending my later years.
While everything you say is true, it is important to hammer home that "replacement theory" is a tacit acknowledgement of their own fear of inferiority - i.e, that if they were required to compete on a level playing field with all members of all genders, races, cultures and ethnic group, they would fail. Shout it from the rooftops - Tucker Carlson is saying that "the other" must be excluded because white males can't afford the heat of competition.
Powerful stuff, Janet.
Omygosh Janet, YOU SAID A MOUTHFUL!!!!
I would LOVE for THIS to be on EVERY FRONT PAGE of EVVERY NEWSPAPER in the USA 🙂🙃😚💓
Wow. Thank you!
Janet, I absolutely agree that "men" are at the tip of the spear you describe. But lets not tip over the edge. There are women out there, dare I evoke MTG and Ginny Thomas, that are equally rapacious in terms of whatever it is they see to be their birthright. Conservatives in general show up big on FMRI studies correlating politically charged phrases with activity in the fear and anger centers in the brain. Add a dash of testosterone and you've got a gender shift going. But please, don't lay it all at the feet of "white men". Some of us guys (not necessarily deficient in testosterone, to be clear) are equally disgusted .
I am so glad you made this comment, so I can clarify. Of course you're right to make your point. Throughout "modern" history, there have been women who side with those white, heterosexual, self-righteous men and, thank God, there are large numbers of white men who don't abide by the self-righteous attitude that nobody matters but white people. The white men who committed acts against non-white people surely meant to assure their women were awarded the benefits of their bounty; after all, they took care of the women who kept their homes and raised their children, and many women--through the present time--liked that role. In fact, women who wanted to do more than keep house and raise children found other women to oppose their efforts.
I defined the white men who committed this wrongdoing against their non-white and female brothers and sisters narrowly to include only those white men who sought to use their power to suppress the advancement of non-white and female brothers and sisters in order to prevent any competition for the material and economic fruits of power. The truth, though, as I see it is this: it has been primarily white men throughout American history who have suppressed the advancement of anyone unlike them. Thankfully, times have changed in large part because many white men have refused to participate in the suppression and have stood beside minorities, immigrants, women, LGBTQ, and other marginalized groups. Were it not for men like you, change would not have brought us this far. But the truth is that there is far to go.
Recent (since the mid-20th century) history has shown us that the power in this country still remains in the hands of those same white men (and their adoring women) that control large segments of American society, notably the Republican party and the legal profession. Since the legal profession has a strong hand in the substance of laws and the power of our police forces, the fact it is systemically connected to the white men who established the legal organizations that rule our legal system is, to me, especially problematic. The faces of the people who control our largest law firms tell the story in spades. The faces of the people who control the Federalist Society shape that story. The identity of our SCOTUS members and what they are doing with their unbridled power is all that needs to be said regarding the hands that are shaping our country right now.
Men like you are our salvation.
Janet, thank you for your clarification. You may have been over generous to us empathetic white guys, as we surely could be doing more, but at least we try to be supportive of women like yourself with justifiably passionate views. If you've read Howard Zinn's powerful "A people's history of the United States..." you'll have a great example of an old white guy that got it right and has made a huge difference. Don't look for it in high school classrooms, however.
My apology to Ginni Thomas for misspelling her nickname. I know she's an avid reader of Heather's letters ;-)
Really? Avidly follows this Letter? Well, that's proof that reading sensible articles can pass by without contemplation.