First Turning "purge"

[JasonBlack]

(02-17-2022, 05:15 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: The white supremacists have mostly been so all along; just not as vocally until Obama was elected and then Donald Trump. The white vote and the black vote have been totally partisan in some southern states all along. Many of them hid their white supremacist views behind their attack on those whom they see as "a lot of people milking the system." There are few of such people, but those who think there are such people (like Classic Xer here) tend to see them as not being white.

Some studies indicate an inverse correlation with income and people who think lots of people "milk the system". ie, the people who actually live closer to areas with lots of welfare recipients are more likely to report higher incidents of welfare fraud and milking the system than more affluent areas who are more likely to give benefit of the doubt.

Quote:The "self-reliance" meme among conservatives has been prominent among farmers for many decades. They think they are self-sufficient because they don't need urban services and don't want to pay for them, which is somewhat understandable since they live on the margins and are under pressure from their declining position compared to corporate farming companies and declining weather conditions in the age of global warming. But being provincial and parochial, they cannot see the true causes of their declining fortunes, and so they blame urban people-- and again many of those people are not white, so the racist anti-welfare meme comes up again among them too.

Speaking from experience, the worst racism I've observed was always in the cities. I've met plenty of farmers from about 10 states, and none of them were racist at all. Granted, I don't think some of them really thought much about black people on account of not many being around, just like I generally don't think much about people from Bosnia, Cambodia or Sir Lanka, but others had several black friends and clients and their interactions seemed natural, unstrained, genuinely warm (a racist can fake politeness, but if they're really racist, there will be noticeable discomfort under the surface when getting close to black people). You can criticize their worldview if you like, but just about all the farmers I've come across were much happier than the average liberal intellectual or big city businessman.

Quote:As for businessmen, their focus on money is no excuse for their conservative ideology. They just can't see beyond their ambition

This, right here, is where most of the problem is. The left has been vilifying ambition since I was born, and likely before that. They're less interested in helping the poor move up, and more interested in putting people interested in ambition and power in their place. Men will always seek out power and ambition. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. In fact, male ambition is most of what drives societal progress. The main difference between different ideological and economic models is what kind of ambition is rewarded. Is it brute force control over people (barbarism), vacuous social climbing through the royal courts (monarchy), being a sycophant to the party line (fascism), giving the most compelling spiritual oratory (theocracy) or....building systems that produce better and cheaper goods and services (capitalism)? You'll have to forgive the over-simplification of the previous systems for the sake of brevity and illustration, but ambitious capitalists have, in one way or another, helped any great society reach its zenith. Sure, it doesn't have to be "neo-liberalism", as it is now called, but if you don't like that, Australia has a different capitalistic model, so does Sweden, so does France. To some extent, even Japan does. Yes, self-reliance has its limits. I have more stories than I would like to share about running into such limits in my 20s, but that doesn't mean it's not a good thing on balance.

Societal progress hinges on a culture that builds up powerful men and rewards beneficial feats of ambition. If you try to take this away from people, no man worth his salt is going to want any part of your system.

Quote:so they buy into the self-reliance meme and the tax revolt and the other traits of the neoliberal ideology, which appeals to them even though they haven't studied economics. But the ideology prevails anyway among them because it is the foundation for policies that boost the free market and idolize it, and so they believe that if they are untaxed and deregulated it will enable the "job creaters" (spelled in accordance with GW Bush's accent) to provide prosperity for everyone. It doesn't; it impoverishes most people and and creates great wealth for the few. But again, focused only on their own business and on their need to make money, businessmen can only see their bottom line and favor policies they think will allow them to make more money-- like deregulation and lower taxes. Many other pressured and low-paid suburban workers are also deceived by these tempting neoliberal tax-revolt free-market anti-welfare slogans-- increasingly so ever since the onset of the Sleepening in 1978-79.

Generally, businessmen come in three basic categories
1) status hungry, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses socialites obsessed with appearance and impressing others. functionally, they're more like politicians than businessmen
2) high IQ sociopaths who decide business is a better means of getting ahead than crime
3) (imo, the majority) people who use money as a means to....be left the hell alone, be their own boss, not have to deal with moral busy-bodies and power-tripping bosses

my thoughts on them are
1) I'm sure I hate these as much as you do
2) I don't love them, but if it's that or them being druglords, this is the least harmful option
3) these are basically the people who end up creating most of society, in spite of doing so out of self-interest and wanting little of the credit for it.

In either event though, even these three groups combined comprise maybe...15% of conservatives? most of them are more likely to be truckers, farmers, tradesmen and other more down-to-earth personalities without huge egos.

Quote:Most college students are not fooled by the conservative attack on social justice warriors. These latter are no doubt irritating. I am irritating too probably, to conservatives who don't want to have their ideology debunked. But they fail to realize that there are more important and real concerns that need to be addressed than their personal irritation with those who get angry and throw anti-racist, feminist, pro-LGBTQ and/or politically correct slogans at them. Those who are driven by this understandable irritation, instead of by real concerns, have only themselves to blame if the economy continues to exploit them and global warming ruins everything in their world-- just because they voted for and helped elect the critics of SJWs instead of politicians interested in handling real problems and concerns to the extent that they can or are willing to in this backward, conservative country.

Most college students are idealistic fools only just beginning to wake up to problems which should have been obvious when they were 13. The minority which are actually capable of addressing these real concerns are welcome to do so, but the kinds of people who resort to screaming platitudinous slogans and histrionic antics at protests and parades should not complain when they are not treated as equals. If I accomplish anything as a "civic" millennial, it will be leading a household where emotional self-regulation is of paramount importance. A household in which expressing one's opinions is encouraged, but only so long as they can keep a level head and not resort to causing a ruckus every time they don't like something (some prime examples include Malcolm X, Charlton Heston, Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher, Barack Obama...people of all races and ideologies can do this. I don't expect everyone to become conservative. Hell, you and I get heated all the time. Nothing wrong with passion if it's controlled). Boomers had some good ideas with greater self-exploration, rights for minorities, legalizing drugs, etc, but they also normalized "starting a movement" and speaking like you're at a protest as a default communication style. Respectfully...that trend needs to fucking die if we're going to return to anything resembling a state of civility or normalcy. For the last two decades or so, the college years have been the peak of "protest as everyday speech" and because of that, they need to go the extra mile for me to take them seriously.