Urban Chaos

Heard an interesting analysis by a guest on the Tucker Carlson Show last night describing why the urban chaos seems to be engulfing our country ... let me see it I can reproduce and expand on this inspired insight here:

Quite obviously unpunished violence, riots and looting are infecting many of our major formally-beautiful cities: Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Atlanta, New York (I have to stop ... I’m getting myself depressed.) Anyhow, this malignant dystopia is clearly spreading unchecked ... much even encourage by these cities’ burgers. This insanity is perplexing ... it long ago stopped being about George Floyd and black lives ... yet there is one possible explanation — Donald Trump’s winning the presidency was an existential shock to liberals ... a shock so extreme that it demanded retribution.

This retribution has taken many forms ... Obamagate, the Mueller witch-hunt, the Trump impeachment, the deep-state Resistance, the media’s spittle-flecked mania, the Cancel Culture, a political swing to the looney left (many otherwise sensible friends now declare themselves as Socialists), defunding the police ... and now the Clockwork Orange dystopia as described above. All these damaging memes were and are mis- and self-directed to atone somehow for the sin of Trump’s ascendency. And the punishers are trying to destroy not just Trump but, failing that, befouling that which Trump cherishes ... his country. (And they are also lashing out at those of us who voted him into office ... an easier target)

This is almost a mass psychosis but, if not that, it’s certainly a mass neurosis. If you will permit me an analogy ... all you agitated anti-Trumpers can be likened to disturbed teenagers who injure themselves with razor blades ... the “cutters” ...  because they (you?) can’t injure the real target of their (your?) rage ... the Orangeman ... so they (you?) injure themselves (yourselves?).  After all, what is much of  this “white privilege” sackcloth-and-ashes BS but a form of self-loathing.

You see, all this urban chaos might be simply explained!


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Moral Purity

It is wonderful to die for a cause ... any cause! — Voltaire’s tutor

In a perverse sort of way, one has to admire our younger generations who are violently agitating for our moral purity: no more bad cops, no venerating of statues to those who owned slaves or tolerated slavery, compassionate remediation for the income disparities that exist is our country today, hatred for those living a life of white privilege, denying anyone in the world immigration entry into our despicable country, keeping otherwise peaceful minorities incarcerated far beyond what their offenses dictate, dictatorial oppression of peaceful protest. ... even if they involve looting or arson.

All these national injustices need to be remedied ... immediately, no backtracking! “Else we will burn the system down!” All the while conveniently ignoring hundreds of other injustices of equal or greater consequence.

Yes, this naive idealism is kinda admirable ... if misdirected and dangerous ... as a result of indoctrination by ivory-tower pedagogues who have never lived a life that would belie their own fuzzy-headed [im]moral sophistry.

Privilege

There might be such a thing as unearned white privilege ... but life contains many other privileges that are far more subtle and insidious ... and don’t relate to the color of one’s skin. How about celebrities? Once, in coach on an airplane I found myself sitting next to Dick Clark. The flight attendant quickly upgraded him gratis to first class. Is this not a “privilege” of being a celebrity? Every day one sees people famous only because they are famous spouting off in the most inane ways just to keep their names in the news. (Kathy Griffen and Rob Reiner come to mind.)

There are other ways of attracting privilege ... what I call Poobah privileges ... such as low-number or special license plates ... or using limousines to arrive at an event ... or wearing designer dresses or British-tailored suits ... or wearing expensive jewlery or Rolex watches. These are all ways to establish oneself as deserving of better treatment by one’s lesser ... in other words “privilege.”

In the old Soviet Union one would see military men with so many medals on their chests you wondered how they stood straight ... thus deserving privilege. What about the ever-growing number of TV award shows? Is this not a way of celebrities buffing their stars even brighter ... in order to get reservations and turn heads at the best restaurants?

The English are addicted to privilege differentiators ... Earl of this or Duke of that ... see: Edwardian Promenade. Royalty also bestows status and privilege on a few with knighthoods ... Sir Richard Branson for heavens sake! Is this not melanin-independent privilege?

Congressional privileges ... executive privileges ... faculty privileges ... doctor privileges ... looter privileges ... the list goes on and on. People like to see themselves as rising above their peers while at the same time professing “inclusion.”

Such bullshit!

Imagined Truth

No white driver has ever been ticketed by a white policeman for a minor traffic violation ... no, never. (Idea stolen from the Dave Chappelle comedy skit where he is made up as a white man and finds out about the imagined special benefits of white privilege.)

Letter to a Young Friend

Xxxxxx,

Last week we all had a “conversation” about racism and white privilege. You just experienced what growing up is all about ... the give and take about ideas and opinions. You will have many of these conversations ... even arguments in your lifetime (not many more with us, however) and, both Jeanette and I were impressed with your passion and your grasp of the salient points. Are we right ... or are you right? The answer to this question is not as important as your (and our) allowing for the free exchange of ideas. It is only when the opposites in such dialectics (the Socratic Method) refuse to listen to each other’s point of view, that things go down hill.

We think that you made your points with force and, you may not realize it now, but the two of us agreed with about 90% of what you said. Take the time to try to absorb what we were saying ... and once you do ... and then still reject it ... we will understand and admire you even more.

(A good test of whether you understand our position is, if you can, without agreeing with it, restate it effectively in your own words ... again that Socratic thing.)

All our best,

George and Jeanette

The Tut-Tutters

Trump went to St. John’s church and held up a Bible ... upside down — tut tut!

The New York Times published an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton — tut tut!

Trump was hiding in the White House bunker  — tut tut!

Trump’s economic reopening is sure to cause a second wave of coronavirus — tut tut!

Despite what the Mueller Report said, Trump colluded with Russia — tut tut!

The Trump administration wanted to call in the active-duty military to quell the rioting   — tut tut!

Trump took a victory lap on the good unemployment news   — tut tut!

The cleaning of BLM graffiti off of national monuments shows those cleaners have white privilege — tut tut!

Former DOD Chief Gen. Mattis accuses Trump of being divisive  — tut tut!

At St. John’s Trump held up a Bible not approved by the evangelists   — tut tut!

Voila!

Perhaps there might be a novel way to draw a bright line between Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the upcoming presidential debates? May I suggest that one of the CNN or MSNBC questioners ask that these candidates take a knee beside their podiums to show their solidarity with the black movement and to concede that they are unworthy beneficiaries of white privilege.

Voila!

Fractured Definition

Graham-cracker — an evangelist who had benefitted from white privileged

Obvious Truth

Anyone who slimes someone else with the term “white privilege” is a racist.

Semantics

As Aldous Huxley recognized in his book "1984," semantics have a lot to do with persuasion. The right word or phrase can often win the day in a political food fight or an advertisement. Here are some recent examples of such for good or for bad:

Little blue pill = Viagra

 The Swamp = Washington, DC

White male privilege = reverse discrimination

Diversity visas = visa lottery

Male enhancement = bigger penis

Dreamers = (often adult) children of illegal immigrants

Principled press = Meryl Streep's idea of newspapers

Leading from behind = following the flow

Undocumented citizens = illegal immigrants

Strategic patience = modern term for lasse faire

Earned Income Tax Credit = a form of welfare using tax refunds for taxes not paid

Performance in the bedroom = sex

Social Injustice

Much of my current discomfort with social justice warriors (reference: Social Justice) stems from the fact that there is a diminishing supply of major social injustices ... causing these zealots to inflate lesser problems to look more ominous than they really are ... examples: white privilege, global warming, safe spaces, secondhand smoke, gender inequality, etc.

Neologisms

For some reason millennials are wont to make up two-word neologisms for previously common  concepts. Why our traditional words for these ideas are no longer operable is strange ...  perhaps our "snowflakes" have a pressing need to reinvent things? Here are a few of their new ways of expressing things ... along with the traditional words:

virtue signaling = sanctimonious

cultural appropriation = mimicry

safe space = sanctuary

fat (etc.) shaming = ridicule

white privilege = snobbery

false flag = imposter ... or a misdirection

gender fluid = asexual

cultural incompetence = savagery

Trigger warning = heads-up

Toxic masculinity = machismo

Full Circle

I guess if you live long enough, you will see most everything. After the civil war racists found ways to substitute segregation for slavery ... separate schools, separate drinking fountains, even "Colored only" waiting rooms. It took over a hundred years to roll back these Jim Crow laws. Can we all sigh in relief that this discrimination has been mostly driven out of our town square and school rooms?

Hold on there Pilgrim! It appears that millennial snowflakes are trying to roll back the clock! University of Michigan students are now trying to get their administration to establish black-only enclaves at their school where people of color are protected from the exigencies of our "white  privilege" society ... see: The College Fix Story.

How is this any different from "Colored Only" waiting rooms?

Cultural Appropriation

Dreadlocks are now apparently the sole privilege of the black community. A white student at San Francisco State University was sporting this scuzzy hairstyle when confronted by a black woman as he left his class ... see: Yahoo Video. She accused him of "cultural appropriation" ... a new-age semantic foofaraw that tries to describe our increasing social insanity. For another of these catchy crazy cliches that those peacocks in ivory tower land concoct while they sit around grasping for sympathy, how about the term "white privilege?" What exactly does this lamentation mean? Perhaps it is a cultural appropriation?