New York Magazine: Donald Trump’s Race War

[camille70]

Excerpts:

The power of ethnonationalism lies in its ability to easily activate the most primitive and powerful human impulses. People do not need to follow politics closely to grasp elemental concepts like which ethnic group enjoys the support of a party or of a government. The stream of images of the president surrounded entirely by white men communicates a potent message. So, too, do the messages Trump sends when he condemns the University of California at Berkeley on free-speech grounds for failing to adequately protect a flamboyantly racist speaker, then refuses to condemn the NFL for blacklisting Colin Kaepernick, who has silently protested the national anthem. (Trump even boasted that he is enforcing the blacklist: Owners won’t sign the quarterback to a contract, he said at a rally in Kentucky, for fear that Trump will attack them on Twitter.) Everybody understands which group is in and which groups are out in Trump’s America.

That is a dangerous formula. Race has unique power to tear apart the bonds that hold together even an apparently harmonious society. In democratic India in 2002, Hindu nationalists slaughtered more than 2,000 Muslims, and Narendra Modi, the nationalist political figure linked to the murders, was elected prime minister in 2014. Serbian nationalists turned once-peaceful, multiethnic Sarajevo into a tribal bloodbath. If these comparisons sounds inconceivably dark, you may not fully appreciate the darkness of the vision animating the minds surrounding the president.


Trump’s racial obsession has likewise drawn his party closer to various strands of right-wing politics that, not long ago, had no connection to the GOP at all. The first is outright Nazism. Trump’s emergence on the national stage has activated Nazis in a way no other mainstream party leader ever has. During the campaign, Trump retweeted white-supremacist memes hyperbolically blaming African-Americans for murdering white people and using a Jewish star to illustrate the notion that Hillary Clinton was controlled by Jewish wealth.

The generous interpretation of these actions, that Trump approvingly amplified supportive messages without understanding their full nature, is probably the correct one. But this same explanation implicitly concedes that Nazis thrilled to Trump because they detected recognizable themes in his rhetoric. Trump has depicted inner cities as crime-riddled wastelands unfit for normal human existence and reflexively invoked this image as a stand-in for the African-American condition as a whole. (When criticized by Representative John Lewis, for instance, Trump charged that the former civil-rights hero should instead look after his “crime-infested” district.) His denunciations of “global special interests” that have purposely immiserated the American people closely echo anti-Semitic paranoia about international Jewish control of the economy. Voices of unapologetically white-supremacist thought, like Richard Spencer, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, and the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer treat Trump like a hero. Trump is not a Nazi, but by closing the ideological chasm between mainstream conservatism and white supremacy, he has encouraged their engagement in partisan politics.

Read the rest @

Trump Is Failing at Policy, But Winning His Race Wars

 

[Tull]

Everybody understands which group is in and which groups are out in Trump’s America.

Just as we did in Obama's America.

 

[Albion]

It's really a silly argument, isn't it? Right down to the creation of new words to dress the thing up a bit...and condemning Trump for NOT speaking out on every questionable blogpost and the like that some newspaper has chosen to seize upon.

Of course, if he were to attempt that, we would be hearing from the same writer complaining that the president has a big mouth and shoots from the hip, yada yada yada.

 

[Rion]

Don't have time to read it all, but those excerpts don't leave me with much confidence. FYI comparing Antifa literally rioting to teams not wanting a divisive football player is asinine.

 

[Rion]

Okay, I read it, but I wish that I hadn't. This was quite possibly the worst excuse for an article that I have ever read, excluding Infowars. I would try and respond to it, but it fails on such a fundamental level that I would have to go line by line, and quite frankly, it isn't worth the time. In fact, I cannot think of how to properly articulate how much they get wrong. The amount of delusion and self-deception is mind boggling. If this person is representative of the American Left, then they are done as a party.

 

[Tull]

Its simple...white people blamed,hated,penalized = good,non white people being held accountable for anything = bad,all negative endorsements can be successfully rejected by left wing candidates,all negative endorsements must be considered appropriate and applied to anyone else.

 

[Always in His Presence]

It worries me at times that there are people who believe the article is true.

 

[USincognito]

Its simple...white people blamed,hated,penalized = good,non white people being held accountable for anything = bad,all negative endorsements can be successfully rejected by left wing candidates,all negative endorsements must be considered appropriate and applied to anyone else.

Hear hear! It's so tough and oppressive being a white man in America today.

 

[Tull]

Hear hear! It's so tough and oppressive being a white man in America today.

Working and paying taxes to support bums,malcontents complainers can be tough at times

 

[iluvatar5150]

It worries me at times that there are people who believe the article is true.

It's almost as nutty as some of those articles I've read about Trump saving us $12B in his first month in office.

 

[MrSpikey]

Working and paying taxes to support bums,malcontents complainers can be tough at times

,
FWIW, I don't begrudge you, though. I'm sure most people around here feel the same.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Hear hear! It's so tough and oppressive being a white man in America today.

Well, to be fair, while I agree that whites GENERALLY do have more privilege than minorities, I am going to have to side more with the conservatives in this particular topic; it does in fact get a little tiring as a white man to be implicated in the blame for oppression of minorities in so many ways throughout history or in the present like the white race as a whole are racist devils, rather than just some here and there. Too much generalizing, which is likely why my Hispanic and black co-workers - much as I get along with most of them - seem to feel comfortable constantly making jokes about my inherent racism just from being a white man. Let's be honest; I doubt they would like it if the situation were reversed. Not saying I am seriously annoyed by it, and like I said before, I get along quite well with most of them and feel quite comfortable around them all night at work and all, but the generalizing can get tiring to hear sometimes. I don't like so much as being the slightest bit insinuated that I am one of the bad guys just because I have the skin color of a polar bear. I generally empathize with your posts, Sir @USincognito, but I still feel like this particular one is unfair. It feels like saying we whites have certain privilege as some sort of accusation, like it's actually through some malicious intent and fault on each of our parts personally.

Working and paying taxes to support bums,malcontents complainers can be tough at times

Now THIS, however, I must say I cannot defend. I hope you did not mean it this way, but this post insinuates that all or even most non-white folk are like that, and I am sure that is hardly any more true of minorities than it is whites. Certainly not enough to justify making a generalized negative statement like that about any race, black, white, brown, etc.

If even just a fraction of the people I give some of my hard-earned money to help them are at all genuinely poor and not as privileged as I am, rather than the bums and malcontents you speak of who deliberately and shamelessly leech off of society, then I am all too happy to continue to give. I would bet my life that at least half of the poor out there are in earnest need rather than malicious leeches, anyway, if not more, and I will not punish the earnest by withholding whatever help I could give them because of the few who may be thieves taking advantage.

 

[Nithavela]

Working and paying taxes to support bums,malcontents complainers can be tough at times

I guess that is why they call it the white man's burden.

 

[Tull]

Now THIS, however, I must say I cannot defend. I hope you did not mean it this way, but this post insinuates that all or even most non-white folk are like that,

Realy,since when did these terms become race specific,i said nothing about race,it was in response to the sarcastic comment that white men in America are so oppressed,im a white man and work like rented mule every day to make a living so where is my priviledge ? it seems to me that having food,clothing and shelter without lifting a finger is rather priviledged,it seems to me that openly expressing your hatred and contempt for another race and blaming them for your failures in life while taking their money is rather priviledged.

If even just a fraction of the people I give some of my hard-earned money to help them are at all genuinely poor and not as privileged as I am, rather than the bums and malcontents you speak of who deliberately and shamelessly leech off of society, then I am all too happy to continue to give. I would bet my life that at least half of the poor out there are in earnest need rather than malicious leeches, anyway, if not more, and I will not punish the earnest by withholding whatever help I could give them because of the few who may be thieves taking advantage.

Good for you,forced charity is easier and more convenient for those with more money than others,the forgotten people in all of this are those who just make enough to not be dependent on government.....high taxes are rough on these people, but who cares about them since the rich and poor are all that matters,in America you can be rich enough to not have to work and you can be poor enough to not have to work.

 

[iluvatar5150]

im a white man and work like rented mule every day to make a living so where is my priviledge ?

Your privilege is in not being harassed by the cops for things that folks of a different race tend to get away with. And in your parents or grandparents not having been harassed by cops for those things. And in you, your parents, and your grandparents not having been denied an education or housing because of your race.

Privilege is found in whatever conditions you started with, whatever they were, being just a bit easier or better than they would've been if you weren't white.

 

[Tull]

Your privilege is in not being harassed by the cops for things that folks of a different race tend to get away with

Such as not obeying the law and refusing to cooperate with the police when they ask you to do something....I don't do that.

And in your parents or grandparents not having been harassed by cops for those things. And in you, your parents, and your grandparents not having been denied an education or housing because of your race.

How many years ago was this,time to get another excuse,there are endless programs to help blacks get an education and housing has been free for decades

Privilege is found in whatever conditions you started with, whatever they were, being just a bit easier or better than they would've been if you weren't white.

There are and always have been plenty of poor white people who suffered just as much as anyone else.....if you can please explain the many successful blacks we have today....are they superheroes or just people who were principled and dedicated to their goals ?

 

[Albion]

Well, to be fair, while I agree that whites GENERALLY do have more privilege than minorities....

It's open to question. Whites may be the only group that has none when it comes to semi-official associations or in law. There are not WHITE Miss America contests, no scholarships set aside for WHITE students only, no WHITE lawyers or doctors or businessmen's organizations, no WHITE quotas in the NBA, etc.

 

[Tull]

Well sure,havn't you heard that all whites are bombarded everyday with offers of six and seven figure salaries and endless opportunities for fantastic dream jobs,heck,the bank just gives me money because I'm white......the whole world clears a path for me and my whiteness which goes forth like a mighty storm to avenge all my enemies and bring them to my feet.

 

[camille70]

It's open to question. Whites may be the only group that has none when it comes to semi-official associations or in law. There are not WHITE Miss America contests, no scholarships set aside for WHITE students only, no WHITE lawyers or doctors or businessmen's organizations, no WHITE quotas in the NBA, etc.

Why do you think this is the case?

 

[Rion]

Why do you think this is the case?

Soft bigotry of low expectations.