Can We Try De-Exhuming McCarthy, US Politics July 2021

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/three-tropes-white-victimhood/619463/

In the conservative world, the idea that white people in the United States are under siege has become doctrine. In recent weeks, three prominent figures have each offered their own versions of this tenet.

In June, Brian Kilmeade, one of the hosts of Fox & Friends, claimed that activists were “trying to take down white culture.”

Also in June, Tucker Carlson, speaking on his nightly show with an anti-white mania graphic in the background, implied that racial strife was imminent and asked: “How do we save this country before we become Rwanda?”

The same month, Pat Robertson, a former Republican presidential candidate and the host of the Christian Broadcasting Network’s flagship show, The 700 Club, said that militants are telling “people of color … to rise up and overtake their oppressors.” He worried that, “having gotten the whip handle—if I can use the term,” people of color were now in a position “to instruct their white neighbors how to behave.” Robertson warned that if this trend continues, “America is over. It is just that simple.”

Kilmeade, Carlson, and Robertson all blamed critical race theory, a school of legal thought developed in the 1980s that has become the latest fixation of the conservative outrage machine. But the panic they expressed has a much longer history, with roots going back to white-supremacist rhetoric from before the Civil War—and particularly apparent during the attack on Reconstruction, America’s experiment in interracial democracy that lasted from 1865 until 1877.

Indeed, each of the three pundits expressed a key strand of the rhetoric of racial reaction that was pervasive among critics of Reconstruction: Carlson deployed inversion, by which white people declare reverse racism or anti-whiteness to be the crucial problem of prejudice and white people to be uniquely oppressed as a result of excessive power granted to Black Americans; Robertson deployed projection, in which white people assert that they will be treated the way they treated Black people during the Jim Crow era; and Kilmeade deployed victimization, as when a white southerner in 1875 described his region as “stripped of her honors, her glory, her pride … trampled into dust” by recently enacted laws.

and then the end

...One of the most telling moments of Donald Trump’s presidency, and our present political moment, came last December, after he was voted out of office but before the insurrection he fomented. “We’re all victims,” he told a crowd in Georgia. “Everybody here. All these thousands of people here tonight. They’re all victims. Every one of you.” Like the opponents of Reconstruction, Trump milked feelings of humiliation to authorize a politics of what President Johnson called “restoration”—the Reconstruction-era version of “Make America great again.”

The opponents of Reconstruction succeeded in their campaign against racial equality, setting the country on a path to great division and intolerable oppression. Those who traffic in these tropes continue to threaten to defer the promise of justice and democracy—yet again.

If they tried something new, they wouldn't be conservatives.

Again, nothing new, but it's just so deeply pathetic that the Bootstrap Nation actively thinks of themselves as victims.

It's not like this animus was never always there under a veil of yellow cake uranium, compassionate conservationism for that city on the hill. Veil it in the flag or the cross and it works like a charm on the rubes.

“having gotten the whip handle—if I can use the term” -- way to invoke the horror of slavery while you're trying to diminish the historic impact of it, Pat. You deserve so much worse than whipping.

he deserves one of the smallest, least shiny mansions in heaven

it should have a constantly leaking roof, even though it never rains in heaven

Again, nothing new, but it's just so deeply pathetic that the Bootstrap Nation actively thinks of themselves as victims.

So much of this. My Trumper uncle is a great example of this. He retired before he turned 55 with his firefighter and EMT pension to start a consulting "business" that is essentially whenever he feels like taking on a job, but more often spends his time driving his brand new pickup truck (replaced annually) on one of the thirteen road trips he takes a year, riding his expensive ass Harley up to Sturgis twice a year or out on his boat. By choosing to live in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, he has leveraged his solidly middle class wealth into being able to live like a king out there, yet constantly whines and posits himself as this aggrieved victim who is constantly dodging threats to his livelihood and mere existence.

It's not like this animus was never always there under a veil of yellow cake uranium, compassionate conservationism for that city on the hill.

It's never even been veiled. I'm finally getting around to watching "Show Me a Hero" on HBO (about a public-housing fight in Yonkers in the late '80s), and there's a scene where this whole mob of middle-aged white people is angrily demonstrating against the prospect of Black people coming into their neighborhood, waving signs saying "No Rights for Whites," etc. Just as that article postulates, there's just a constant stream of this white panic and victimhood from at least the end of the Civil War forward.

it's amazing how much it permeates white life, particular white christian life. "they" are out there. who is "they"? you know, the people that scare you. from my dad's last paragraph to me, in an email i easily find by searching for "history of nazi":

"I cannot deny how much my faith has grown through my life and it does not wain. I am in the minority and your path is in the majority. I am getting old and you are still strong."

the christian persecution/whininess thing, always there, but rarely stated so plainly

the effect? the more you say that they're wrong, the more it is clear that they are wrong, the more that their martyrdom grows, and the greater their reward will be in the kingdom of heaven. it's kind of like if you get lucky and land a well-paying job when you're younger. you put money into the 401K, foregoing the 4K display of your dreams and instead investing in the future

Pelosi on McCarthy picks for 1/6 Select Committee:
"I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee.
“The unprecedented nature of January 6th demands this unprecedented decision.”https://t.co/GUfdvciODZ

— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) July 21, 2021

Xp to Karl, that's why I'm not a "religion is fine so long as it's kept private" type atheist: it negatively impacts people's entire worldview and seeps into every facet of life by its very nature.

And the inevitable follow-up:

NEWS: @GOPLeader will pull all Republican members from the Jan. 6 committee in response to @SpeakerPelosi vetoing the appointment of @RepJimBanks and @Jim_Jordan

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 21, 2021

"If you won't let our shoutiest assholes waste everyone's time, then none of us are coming! Take that!"

I get a little side-eye from other atheists/agnostics when I go off on religion for similar reasons, but it frustrates me because people think it's just me doing an intellectual exercise ("I'm better than you because I believe in science"), when it's actually that I used to be a "live and let live" atheist until I witnessed more up close and personal the destructive nature of right-wing Christianity and how it is used to deny rights to many people I love on a regular basis.

sure, it was "religion" that pushed back against eugenics movement, but as much as people say "it's just the religious right, they're not real Christians", I don't know that this is a real distinction anymore, given how many Evangelicals flocked to Trump, and showed up on January 6th at the insurrection. when I was a Fundamentalist, some of our members had ideas that usually are found in hate groups, even if that wasn't the norm. even Michael W Smith, one of the leading (re: terrible) Christian pop artists of the 90s, turned out to be a crazy Trump-head pushing election fraud myths, and he was about as traditional a Christian as you could imagine in his prime, not a Sean Hannity kook.

I thought the Dems were pretty clear up front of not wanting any firebrands on the commission...

Lol I haven't seen the name Michael W Smith since the 90s
The "real" Christians (or any other religion's members) give cover and validity to the inevitable crazies.

aw @ Michael W. Smith

poor jars of clay, though. as i understand, they now lead the proud boys

Christianity != Evangelicalism, and even there there's a schism between mainstream evangelicals and liberal left evangelicals.

Like, you aren't in any way, shape, or form describing Unitarian congregations, or most of the Episcopal congregations I've associated with. (Presbyterians, OTOH, get the side-eye.)

Funny how any critique of a religion must be true for every single member of that religion for it to be valid, but we can freely throw around critiques of conservatism that don't come close to applying to every conservative

fwiw I like Unitarian doctrine, a lot of friends of mine are Unitarian.

admittedly haven't set foot in Episcopalian church since I was a kid going to Bible school so I haven't had as much experience with them.

xp
probably shouldn't do that either!

sometimes i get lazy and just say "christians", but i try to say "white evangelical" instead these days, because that's really what i'm talking about

it does seem inevitable that, if you grew up with any particular strain of Christianity, that is the default one for you. I grew up Catholic. It's my default, regardless of how little I go to church. Evangelicals are like some weird concept to me.

It seems with a lot of American white evangelicals, the politics/bigotry comes first, and then the cherry-pick arcane parts of the old testament to support those views... rather than focusing on the new testament and the teachings of jesus with all the tolerance, grace, transcendence, etc.

Funny how any critique of a religion must be true for every single member of that religion for it to be valid, but we can freely throw around critiques of conservatism that don't come close to applying to every conservative

It's almost like they're two separate things.

It seems with a lot of American white evangelicals, the politics/bigotry comes first

Yes, well ... see the history of the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention. The bigotry was the founding principle.

cherry-pick arcane parts of the old testament to support those views... rather than focusing on the new testament

OT: stone the gays
NT: but you don't have to keep kosher

"It's almost like they're two separate things."

It's almost like any two things that have ever been compared have been 2 separate things

yet people keep doing it for some reason

fwiw I had no problem with DJP pointing out the broadness of my statement, which did hyper-focus on Evangelicals a bit (mostly because they tend to be the major type I see that yoke-up with right-wing paranoia)

https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/5c4b4108a358ac6e49188fd5/master/w_1920,c_limit/roy-cohn-sundance-film-opener.png
(Roy Cohn and Donald Trump in a still from WHERE’S MY ROY COHN?)

“In private calls with voting rights groups and civil rights leaders, White House officials and close allies of the president have expressed confidence that it is possible to ‘out-organize voter suppression’” https://t.co/EBGD2o9wDR

— Liz Goodwin (@lizcgoodwin) July 23, 2021

thisisfine.jpg

Lol

https://www.newsweek.com/arizona-gop-audit-director-barred-recount-after-sharing-data-supporting-trump-loss-1612791

Minnesota

Woman with Trump flag pulled over by state troopers after driving across the State Capitol lawn, during pro-Thompson press conference. She’s shouting at troopers “I am a white woman! There is only one race!” pic.twitter.com/jY9iOGWGur

— John Croman (@JohnCroman) July 26, 2021

https://cdn02.nintendo-europe.com/media/images/10_share_images/games_15/nintendo_7/SI_N64_WaveRace64_image1600w.jpg

the heart and soul of the GOP

the new Trump diehard theory is that Joe Biden was repelled from entering 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by "the military" on inauguration day and has been living in an 80% replica scale model of the White House on Tyler Perry's Atlanta estate. pic.twitter.com/uK7QUFRInl

— K. Thor Jensen (@kthorjensen) July 26, 2021

madea's family insurrection

Also average height of a Biden staffer is 3.5 inches shorter than a Trump staffer, so they can fit in the smaller White House.

a K Thor post is probably a joke btw

A joke is just a reality tweak that a Trumper hasn't thought to espouse yet.

It may be a joke, but the White House/Tyler Perry thing has been out there:

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/17/facebook-posts/no-image-white-house-rose-garden-event-wasnt-taken/

I am troubled, because Biden (or someone resembling him) appeared at an event in my neighborhood two days ago. Then the streets were closed off and a presidential motorcade came through. Like, there were real helicopters and police motorcycles and limousines with flags on them.

Just goes to show the lengths the establishment will go to keep THE TRUTH from THE PEOPLE. It's astonishing.

And now the Tweet has been removed, by the lying fake news media, to cover up the real truth. Wake up, sheeple! Do your research!

Oh, it's back. Mysterious!

The cabal needed to delete some parts that were only on a need-to-know basis. Duh.

the p stands for pissboy fetch me a coozie https://t.co/dG9aum6iyq pic.twitter.com/AGMaKEc28M

— kilgore trout, terminal hiccups patient (@KT_So_It_Goes) July 27, 2021

Enjoying the collective lols at George P Bush, truly the Charles II of the Bush clan.

"i like ken paxton because he commits crimes while in office. reminds me of me!"