I'm just thinking through some things.
Not too long ago, I saw this video on Vox where a former white supremacist was explaining the transformation of white supremacy organizations in the 90's. What I found most interesting was the idea that the vitriolic language of white supremacy was turning more people off than it was recruiting and so they did a PR push, transforming phrases like "jew media" to "liberal media".
I bring this up because I was recently speaking with an Islamophobe about shutting down the borders. As we spoke, he explained to me that many immigrants were in the "80-90 IQ range, a range more prone to violent crime." I suggested we invest in educating those people and he responded "education doesn't have enough impact on IQ."
From there he made the connection between low IQ foreigners and low IQ native which are, according to his numbers, "majority minority." From here, it wasn't a large leap of logic for him to decide the best way to deal with all crime would be to remove the largest group of low IQ individuals, blacks and latinos.
This conversation was amazing to me. It seemed like a well structured plan - to ignite fear through a more overt "other", to quell that fear with mass deportation and seclusion, then to apply the same logic to the more subtle "other".
It was a new language that took a long term approach to sowing through a long con of flawed logic, as opposed to relying on quick and overt hatred.
It's terrifying to see people turning towards hate because they believe it's the most logical response.
I was reading something the other day talking about how even poor southerners during the U.S. Civil War supported the CSA even though they didn't own slaves themselves. The reasoning was that they wanted someone to feel superior to, and slaves gave them that. So they could say hey, I may be dirt poor and barely scraping by, but at least I'm not a slave! Plus ça change.
vomit Heard that one before?"It was about State's Rights!"
Had a friend living in Richmond, Va about 15 years ago. He was at a party. A guy recognized him as a Yankee (my friend is from Detroit) and the guy starts chatting him up asking my friend,"You guys (Yankees) talk about the war much?" My friend tells me he's thinking of the debacle in Iraq, when the Richmond native says incredulously,"No man, You guys talk about the Civil War much?" Some folks cannot let stuff go, I guess.
True enough. I'm a Richmonder myself, actually, and while I can't say it comes up a lot in daily conversation, it's still on some people's minds. I mean, we have several monuments to Confederate generals right in the middle of town. Charlottesville, a town about 70 miles west of us (where UVA is) has been tried to get rid of one of theirs, and is facing protests (and thankfully counter-protests). There's at least one house on the route I take to drop my daughter off at her grandmother's that has a Confederate flag out front, for example. I'm not aware of the same push to remove them, although it is starting to be talked about.
Some of my fellow high-schoolers flew dual confederate flags atop their twin-diesel trucks. Then, my first university had thousands of the same type of folk. At the same university, I came to understand, through an elective sociology class, how racism has been historically employed as a social tool to marginalize an influx of migrant workers willing to work harder and/or for less money. With rural America's lessening demand for labor (quelled by continued industrialization/automation), continued Hispanic influx, and the slow expansion of civil rights across all races, white males are scurred, especially the elder ones. I think that's allowing some toxic ideologies to cling desperately to life. Including the grudges passed down through generations related to losing a war. I've long since left rural culture, but I'll still get samples, sometimes. It's foreign to me now, but I grew up in the Baptist Church of rural city, averaging probably ~90% weekly attendance over a decade's worth of Sundays.
Could it be the other way around? Could it be that they feel predisposed to foster negative feelings and then try to find logical reasoning that they hope will support their feelings?It's terrifying to see people turning towards hate because they believe it's the most logical response.
I'm fairly sure this has always been the main driver of racism. Hell, if people are doing any action or holding any belief, it's not because they think it's an illogical response.It's terrifying to see people turning towards hate because they believe it's the most logical response.
Agreed. I believe, having taught 10-15 year olds for 19 years, I believe that it's a human condition that predisposes us to turn our fear into half-baked reasoning. People, driven by fear of the unknown, grasp on to the most nonsensical belief systems and pseudo sciences.