Waiting For Everyman
Waiting For Everyman's JournalI wondered how long it would take someone to say it.
Someone successful from inside the music industry. It's long overdue.
Thank you, Chrissie. 
That whole "identity politics" philosophy is absolutely empty.
Now I see that it's exactly the same thing that was hashed out here over and over for years in the HoF (History of Feminism Group) Wars. This is HoF 2.0, just change the feminist words for race terms. Bingo! Same deal all over again. The privilege crap can circle on down the toilet bowl to the same place the patriarchy crap went.
That puts it to bed for me. They can have their echo chamber to themselves.
(No I take that back. I won't "feed" threads beating the identity politics drum which are clearly of, by, and for the Echo Chamber, but I reserve the option to challenge or unmask this crap elsewhere when it seems necessary.) The main reason why I'm in this thread is that it's directing a question to the majority.
If any African Americans and PoC want to leave that bogus pseudo-philosophy behind and actually talk about what the problems are today and what can be done about it, I'm ready to pay attention for that.
Frankly I think this board is owed an apology. This identity politics schtick, as promoted first by HoF and now by AA, is nothing but a huge trolling philosophy. There's nothing about getting anything done in it. It's purely about creating fights and divisions. Academia should be ashamed for inventing it. But for them, it's a meal ticket so honesty doesn't count when there's money to be made. (For any who don't understand that, see Monk06's posts above.)
"a secular version of original sin" ^Spot on post!^
A very apt description! They redefine the majority's individuals (men, whites, etc., fill in any blank) as pathological, simply asserting that redefinition without any actual reason, and use that as a foundational "premise" to proceed to further flights of logical absurdity. Nobody looks back and notices that there isn't any premise to begin with.
I don't know much about the "maoists" in academia, but I do know that what they're spouting as posted here on DU, is a load of hooey.
I've noticed that "discussions" are all about creating an opportunity to bring up the same hot air points (or more accurately accusations) over and over again as an end in itself, it's never about fixing anything, or making any actual progress. Anytime someone asks them, what specific things can be done to improve the situation, there's NEVER any answer. It's more or less: just accept that you're the problem and that you're sick.
No thanks, I'll pass.
From there apparently we're all supposed to sit and absorb their wisdom further detailing how sick we are. A few in the majority are into self-rejection enough to do that, and become almost like evangelical "converts", but most see that exercise for what it is... a transparent psychological manipulation game, an attempted gaslighting.
Actually, it reminds me of my one encounter (that's all I needed to see through it) with Scientology many years ago. It was abusive nonsense. Why anyone signs on for that, I do not know.
Just to be clear (cool pseudo-pun, eh) mostly for the other side in this thread: I'm not "uncomfortable", I'm not "fearful", I'm not on a "guilt trip", or any of the other possible attributed cover stories for most of DU's non-acceptance of this philosophy... I'm just not buying it.
The emperor isn't wearing any clothes.
All that's wanted is an echo chamber.
That's a pointless waste of time.
There is a "my way or the highway" mindset about it, and I don't see why anyone should want to participate in that. I sure don't. I'm not interested in one-way conversations.
More and more, the "identity politics" way of thinking reminds me of a religious cult mentality. To anyone who is familiar with religious cult thinking, the patterns are definitely very similar.
I care less than zip what somebody says.
Why should I care what they think, I care what I think. I define who I am, nobody else does. It doesn't matter what they say, and it doesn't matter what they accept or like.
Being a redhead, I discovered that truth as a little kid and throughout my life it has saved me from wasting a lot of time in the pointless neurotic head trips created by others, that I watched so many people get sucked into. Being offended is exactly that, it's playing along with a negative-attention-seeking game -- why give it the payoff they want? Indifference is what hurts them the most.
I say, be what you decide is cool to be and more often than not, people are drawn to you, you don't have to follow them and cater to their imposed "standards". It's true. It's human nature. Some people are going to like you and some won't no matter what you do. Don't worry about the ones who don't like you, think of them as background like wallpaper. Focus on the ones who "get" you, they're your people. The rest don't matter. Nobody is liked by everybody.
Btw, nitwits like this one in the OP feel even freer to ridicule thin people ("you're anorexic!"
. It's open season on them because it's played off as a backhanded compliment. It isn't, it's just as nasty as slamming anybody else. I am intensely repulsed by people who enjoy tearing others down as a "tactic". In real life, I can usually make it backfire on them in a way that they don't soon forget. Sometimes online too.
Yes, empathy is a good thing. But don't depend on it. Don't let others' lack of it cost you.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents for today (for any who may need to hear it right now, or just want to).
Shelter From The Storm
People who teach others to nurse grievances
have a big share in the blame for an incident like this, whether they admit it (of course not!) or not.
We see it here every day: black vs. white, male vs. female, straight vs. gay, and on and on with the niche politics mindset. It's not only here, it's everywhere around us all the time. It's the mass fad psychology that pollutes every interaction today, micro to macro. It's what lets a person like this shooter believe that he's justified in doing something like this.
Enough already. Quit deepening the damn divides, and harping on the damn words. Enough with the you-offended-me tirades and the end-justifies-the-means mentality, and the rules don't apply to any who can run up a victim flag of some kind.
If DU didn't create that guy's mindset, it certainly could have. Are we going to look at that, for even half a millisecond, much less admit it? Oh, hell no! <Carry on, nothing to see here. Who me? I didn't do anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because GUNS!>
Fight for what is right, not what is self-serving.
Otherwise, you'll end up being the same as the sharks you're struggling against.
Don't neglect to question the motives of compatriots as much as the opposition because some among those at your side (in any group) do not have the common goals in mind, but their own. Your own side is just as corrupt as the one you're fighting because humans are humans, remember that. Keep an eye on those who start climbing the ladder of influence. Don't get cynical but be observant and become a good judge of character. Be objective, and think for yourself, always. Find all the programming in your head that you can, no matter where it comes from (including the pc variety), and get rid of it. Don't tell everything you know, especially about yourself.
Figure that you have roughly 20% for-real people, 20% judases, and about 60% bandwagon riders -- they're in it for as long as it's the cool thing to do.
As someone upthread said, don't damage your whole future life on an immediate objective. It isn't a bad idea to create an alternate identify before you start out on activities like this, but it may already be too late as I gather your own side already knows you as yourself.
Have very good lawyers. Study OWS, they learned a lot, and it's recent. If you haven't already, read the Church Committee report, and you'll know the kinds of things that go on, and what you're up against. It's much bigger than you think, and different that you think. Always follow the money.
If you are effective, first the powers that be will try to bribe you. Usually that works, but if it doesn't the ptb wants you one of 3 ways: either dead, institutionalized, or discredited. Yes, they will flat out set you up, to do that.
I am 65, class of 1968. Look at what happened to my age-group, and you'll avoid a lot of potholes (MLK riots, Chicago Convention riots, Kent State, marches on D.C., etc.). A lot of clips of these things exist right on youtube. There were the public protests, like those, which everybody knew about and then there was the at least equally effective underground which never had its story told to this day. Believe it or not, it wasn't violent, it was economic. (Few people remember that an entire counter-economy was created then, and it was massive.) It grew steadily up until 1972 or so, when Nixon suddenly started using heavily armed black ops mercs. But enough was already done and the war did end anyway -- later than it would have. The public never knew the names of the figures behind the underground. Those remaining chose to live to fight another day, so to speak. There's no gain in being an unknown martyr.
I'll leave you with this. The music of that time wasn't just catchy tunes on the radio as people today think of it, it was about our current reality, and our music overall told our story "between the lines" because it couldn't safely be written. We were hunted in our own streets (even being white), and that's an eye-opening education in itself, maybe something we have in common more than you think... which continued more sneakily well into the next decade.
************
We were fighting to reverse a coup d'etat -- a coup that happened in broad daylight, right on tv, and nothing was done about it (similar to 9/11).
Many wouldn't call it reversing a coup, but other commonly stated causes boil down to that, including ending the war. It still hasn't been reversed, though we did seem to get close in the 70's with the Nixon/Agnew impeachments and the Watergate and Church investigations etc. But they didn't go far enough fast enough, and the culprits remained and got a second wind with Reagan/Bush and the creation of the RW church movement to elect them. (That's another story though.)
Without drawing any conclusions, I'll simply state this: did you know what Hillary's career got started as a staff lawyer on the Watergate Committee? Did you also know that Bush Sr. headed up the CIA during the Watergate aftermath? And who's running for president now? And that's AFTER 3 terms of a Bush, and 2 terms of a Clinton. And if we count the office of VP, it's 5 terms of a Bush and 2 of a Clinton -- 7 terms, close to 3 decades at the top of this government, almost all of the time since the investigations, except for Obama's 2 terms. One last name on each side of the fence, and what do people say, "both parties are alike"? I'm sure it's just a coincidence.
I believe in your cause, although I have very deep misgivings about BLM. But I will be watching how it develops, with interest. I want to see what happens with the Farrakhan march, for one thing.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027079137#post17
You're an asset to DU, Cordell.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. In response, let me just say that I don't know if anyone is alert-stalking black DUers -- maybe so, maybe not. I very rarely alert on anybody.
Not that anybody cares what I'd prefer, as it isn't up to me, but the only people I'd like to see the back of on DU are those who are consistently and deliberately abusive to others, via a number of commonly seen tactics around here. Just as one pertinent example, one of those who I have found to be so, from my interactions in the past and observations of the exact same thing with others, is someone who is highly revered in the AA group.
As Skinner always says about posting and juries "you take your chances"... meaning one jury may hide what another doesn't; it may be ok to say a given thing today but not tomorrow. I will say that there are more hides now since we went to a 7-person jury. Many of the 4-3 hides would have been a tie before, and ties were not hidden. Many of us were opposed to that change, but so be it.
But returning to the case in hand, that poster in the AA group that I was referring to chose to be nasty to others, and now if some are following them around and alerting on posts that aren't actually objectionable in themselves because of past interactions, well the choice was made to be that way and chickens come home to roost. It may well be that poster has simply pissed a lot of people off, and they are individually alerting on those posts -- it doesn't necessarily need to be a coordinated effort.
There is a prevalent mindset these days (case in point the BLM Sanders event) that being a member of a minority group (the same thing occurs in some others here too) entitles someone to be as nasty as they please to others, and it's A-ok. Sorry, I don't buy that. We have had lots of discussions here over the years going round and round the tree, trying to get these people to clean up their act, but they always insist that they are entitled to act that way. Yes, they state that outright.
I don't interact with any of that type of person anymore. I prefer to remove the oxygen from the fire so to speak. Others may react differently, I don't know about that.
But the point is, being nasty to people will not make them like you or support you. Some here just can't get that through their heads, and insist on continuing that behavior, simply SHIFTING the blame for not being liked or supported onto those they are being abusive to. That makes it 10 times worse. It's a sneaky type of slander blackmail and it's bullshit. A bad reaction to that is not very surprising. It has nothing to do with race or misogyny or homophobia or any other group identity (not that those things don't exist too), it has to do with people feeling entitled to bully others.
I don't care what color bullies are, I don't like them. I just wanted you to know what may be going on here, since you took the trouble to write your thoughts about it.
I wish you the best, Cordell, and enjoy your writing. 
They shouted slanderous lies at the crowd.
Lies, is that how to build a successful movement? What reaction did they expect?
They called a crowd of white progressives / liberals, "white supremacist liberals". That is not accurate, that is a lie -- an ugly, nasty, slanderous lie at that.
I was 13 when MLK gave his "I have a dream" speech, and I followed all the events in the years afterward. I don't remember him ever shouting lies at a crowd. If you look at film of the 1963 March on Washington crowd, there are a LOT of whites there (roughly 20%). He didn't tell them to shut up and they're part of the problem.
What he did do, is describe a better society, and lead concrete steps toward achieving it. That inspired people, and they followed of all colors. It's the "vision thing", that's what is entirely lacking here. People are motivated by that, not by being berated, and having their past efforts for equality whatever they may be, counted for absolutely nothing.
Wouldn't the natural impulse be to say to themselves after that, fine do it yourself then. What is so surprising about that? If that's the end BLM is trying to achieve, the Seattle Two are doing a good job of it.
They aren't demonstrating to me that Black Lives Matter to them, because they're doing everything they can to strip away the only white allies they have. That tells me they don't really care about effecting any change, regardless of their words. People encouraging this are encouraging that same failure, so how much do they really care as well?
I see it as an attempted psychological manipulation game, and not much more. I don't see it preventing one police shooting. Not now, not ever.
ABC footage without commentary (Burt Lancaster's words about 11 min. in are interesting)...
Narrated, with background on the event...
See the difference?
Extended cell footage showing how patient this crowd tried to be...
Still think the Seattle Two's protest was very much like MLK's? I sure don't.
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Member since: Mon Jun 23, 2008, 12:17 PM
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