US Politics June 2021 - "Where we're going, we don't NEED bipartisanship"

I heard an interview yesterday with a Southern Baptist scholar who said he thought the CRT panic was stitched up as a distraction from all the sexual abuse cases in the SBC in 2019. Which fits the bill, it's what the Religious Right has always done.

I'm ignorant to what critical race theory is but I'm assuming that no fucking way is it taught in public high schools?

Unless they are teaching law school level legal classes in that high school, I'm going to say no.

The thing is, it'll get challenged as a constitutional affront, as he expects.

right, as soon as i read the headline i thought "will it make it to the supreme court before it gets shot down?"

but am i wrong in being so pessimistic that it seems like IF it makes to the Supreme Court, it has a decent chance of being upheld?

i'm probably wrong about how i think about things like this, but these days i imagine that when "controversial" legislation like DeSantis' 1984+ bill enters the legal system, it's like Plinko. some of the pegs are Obama judges and the 1984+ bill bounces over toward the left. some of the pegs are Bush and Trump judges, and they bounce off back toward the right. a controversial case is appealed a million times, bouncing back and forth between people who care about the law and trump's appointees, and some of them eventually arrive in the Golden Boy's lap at the supreme court while he's fucking an old beer can from college, thinking about how he never changed his beliefs at college, ever

ums you should take a minute to get familiar with critical race theory and related stuff. not only is it something that is good and helpful for everyone to know about, but the nu-Tea Party idiots are distorting it and using it as a weapon against the left. you may have to confront an old white person yelling at you about CRT soon, it's best to know what it is before they do

As was detailed in the comments somewhere, apparently nothing about teaching race or anything even remotely close to it was on the agenda, these people just... showed up.

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, June 23, 2021 12:21 PM (thirteen minutes ago)

I wish the history of the Tea Party's magical emergence on the scene the second a Dem was elected was better known and understood, this feels awfully familiar

addressing cis white people reading this who, like me, have been able to insulate ourselves somewhat from the kinds of visible, highly tangible ugly ignorant stuff going on -

i know i'm a little touchy with this because my dad just committed suicide via ignorance, but i am not exaggerating when i say "they are coming for you". this stuff is getting closer and closer. and personally, i am done with just smiling and moving on. it is coming for you. the idiots are coming for you, and when i say that, i mean they expect you to join them. and understanding that in their movement, they're not looking for you to say Yes to their beliefs. they're checking that you do not say No to them. so make sure you say a big fucking FUCK NO when they close in on you

and i highly recommend reading up a little about CRT so that when rather than just saying NO, you can also fucking annihilate them intellectually

The last several posts otm

they won't understand or care that their arguments have just been annihilated, but it makes a difference. if you annihilate an idiotic white supremacist mom's argument in a forest, and no one hears it, did it really happen? yes, it did. flawless victory, fuck them, move on

sorry, i'm done. this stuff really gets to me. it sucks to see it getting closer, again and again

a decent summary: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05

Chyron of the day pic.twitter.com/gO4lbLvBTn

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 23, 2021

Yeah, I learned a lot more this weekend from a friend who actually was taught some CRT in college. It's insane to see how quickly this quickly fabricated nothingburger has warped so many minds already. While we've seen nothing like the Loudon County meeting, another friend of mine that is on our local school board said they've already fielded some truly unhinged emails about CRT - and it's not even the high school board, they only represent elementary and middle schools.

Also, KM, I'm really sorry and I totally understand your outrage.

I wish the history of the Tea Party's magical emergence on the scene the second a Dem was elected was better known and understood, this feels awfully familiar

did you mean "a Black Dem"?

i wonder if they just took the old 2009 tea party strategy binder off the shelf and just updated the year and added a new executive summary at the top or something. no one will be surprised when it turns out a bunch of nearly untraceable dark money groups funded the whole anti-CRT effort

xp jon thank you

getting caught up in debating the correct definition of CRT is a trap that too many people are falling into when the definition that all these lunatics are using is simply any accurate discussion of race, slavery, the civil war whatsoever. Trying to own them by saying "ahah you didn't define CRT correctly" is essentially conceding the point that there might be some issue with discussing race in the first place.

DeSantis has really accelerated into becoming Trump. now passing blatantly unconstitutional bills or things that while not unconstitutional, are free-speech chilling while pretending to protect free speech.

no wonder so many educators here are fucking throwing in the towel.

Trump without Twitter but no charisma either. When he's at a podium he reminds me of Scott Walker.

yeah his speaking style reminds me of a guy from the YMCA who is explaining what flag football season would look like this fall

lol omigod

see, here's what an Ivy League education will result in if you're already a cretinous vomitbag.

moodles otm. there is no point in debating anything with the people with the signs and the VERY concerned and righteous and racist grandma; they're too far gone. when i suggest learning about CRT and making sure you can annihilate their ignorance if needed, the intended audience is the people around you that you care about, especially the ones who are stilling nodding along or "yes, whatever you think" to the nu-tea party supremacists. they're the ones at risk. the ones who don't really "follow politics"

i wonder if they just took the old 2009 tea party strategy binder off the shelf and just updated the year and added a new executive summary at the top or something. no one will be surprised when it turns out a bunch of nearly untraceable dark money groups funded the whole anti-CRT effort

here's a good one: what did "the left" learn from the 2009/10 tea party experience?

here's a good one: what did "the left" learn from the 2009/10 tea party experience?

i remember a lot of "shit, i can't believe these old white people are THIS racist!", but i don't know if that was exactly learning. and right now, it's just like "holy shit, i can't believe that the people who were 60 years old and racist during the tea party days are now 70 years old and even more racist today!"

I wish the history of the Tea Party's magical emergence on the scene the second a Dem was elected was better known and understood, this feels awfully familiar

did you mean "a Black Dem"?

― an eco-conscious Music Box (DJP), Wednesday, June 23, 2021 12:48 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago)

You are absolutely right and the context of last summer's BLM protests is crucial. To a degree, "CRT" is a macguffin or more like a fetish, in the anthropological sense, though I do think history education is extremely important (as others have noted, actual CRT has very little to do with historiography/pedagogy)

You will no doubt be surprised to learn that some douche from a think tank has admitted that the goal is to shut down all talk about race in America.

Yeah, assuming you're talking about Christopher Rufo, he's been remarkably candid about how he turned CRT into a bogeyman:

"‘Critical race theory’ is the perfect villain,” Rufo wrote. He thought that the phrase was a better description of what conservatives were opposing, but it also seemed like a promising political weapon. “Its connotations are all negative to most middle-class Americans, including racial minorities, who see the world as ‘creative’ rather than ‘critical,’ ‘individual’ rather than ‘racial,’ ‘practical’ rather than ‘theoretical.’ Strung together, the phrase ‘critical race theory’ connotes hostile, academic, divisive, race-obsessed, poisonous, elitist, anti-American.” Most perfect of all, Rufo continued, critical race theory is not “an externally applied pejorative.” Instead, “it’s the label the critical race theorists chose themselves.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/how-a-conservative-activist-invented-the-conflict-over-critical-race-theory

We have successfully frozen their brand—"critical race theory"—into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category.

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 15, 2021

Chris Rufo, the Koch "think" tank ghoul, on actual academic Critical Race Theory discussion "I don't give a shit about this stuff"

also admits he's "ignorant" of CRT and won't debate because he doesn't know or care pic.twitter.com/qe6DtaxXeR

— zedster (@z3dster) June 22, 2021

Yes that is indeed what is happening. You will no doubt be surprised to learn that some douche from a think tank has admitted that the goal is to shut down all talk about race in America.

They created abortion as a moral issue in order to deflect from their commitment to racism and being anti-segregation; CRT is the same playbook in order to deflect from their systemic abuse of women and children (and also still racism).

xp
yeah and adding to that: as Hoos just pointed out on twitter, Loudon County is *the* richest county in the country

i remember a lot of "shit, i can't believe these old white people are THIS racist!", but i don't know if that was exactly learning. and right now, it's just like "holy shit, i can't believe that the people who were 60 years old and racist during the tea party days are now 70 years old and even more racist today!"

The only thing I'd push back on here is that we (royal we here) reaaaallly need to stop leaning on this idea that the old white racists are dying off. This is patently untrue, as any look at the crowd on 1/6 or at pretty much any rally (or, hell, even the photos in that tweet I just posted) will reveal. I remember people during Obama's first campaign saying that we just needed to wait out the old racist people which, uh, didn't pan out at all. I just think it does a tremendous disservice to pretend that these racist shitheels are just aging out of relevance and we should put significantly more energy into worrying about the legions of 20 year old raging racist assholes.

I know that wasn't really your point KM, but it bugs me to not see the depth of the problem acknowledged.

if i had a point, that was part of it! :) it was going back to the "what has the left learned from the tea party shitshow?" question. it seems like...nothing. nothing was learned. i'm not sure that i've learned anything, either. i do think that if i hear about an angry group of White Patriots comes anywhere near my neighborhood, i'm going to counterprotest the living fuck out of them. but i live in chicago, so.

is this learning?

I would agree that nothing has been learned for sure...

look, Supernintendo Chalmers! i’m learnding critical race theory!

after the 2016 election, i did try to update my living model, so i decided that i had learned that i had to confront the ugly racism, right at the heart, my own family. i confronted a whole bunch, more than i believed i ever could. and it didn't work at all, and it made it worse, and then they died. well, my mom's still there. but when the next covid variants come around she'll die as well. i guess my case is a little extreme, but what was there to be learned?

is there a fan-fiction of lord of the rings where the fellowship tries talking to the orcs and they change their minds about what sauron and saruman have been telling them?

i can imagine one of the bigger leader Orcs saying "gee Pippin, you might be right. i guess i wasn't really thinking about where my information was coming from, and who i could trust"

"i just feel like maybe Sauron's whole _message_ is kind of ugly, you know? like, where does it lead?"

lmao

Watch: Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, just now on Critical Race Theory, ‘Wokeness’ & Jan. 6. “I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding...the country which we are here to defend?” pic.twitter.com/KsRtOoWN0w

— James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) June 23, 2021

Today is #NationalHydrationDay! Proper hydration is not only vital to living a healthy life, but critical for our officers and agents ensuring America’s safety as things get intense under the hot summer sun. Stay hydrated to avoid heat related illnesses. pic.twitter.com/Dx2xv6FUaB

— CBP (@CBP) June 23, 2021

This is CBP trolling right? They know the replies are going to be about their destruction of humanitarian aid and it makes them chuckle.

President Biden is expected to address a rise in gun violence in many cities, saying funding from a Covid-19 relief package could go toward hiring more law-enforcement personnel https://t.co/1cIQ4k5c1p

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 23, 2021

Defund the police you said, Mack?

this stuff is getting closer and closer. and personally, i am done with just smiling and moving on. it is coming for you.

Yeah. A friend of mine just posted about her experience today (here in Tennessee) while quietly wearing a mask and waiting to pick up food at a local restaurant. (She posted a video of a portion of the encounter, and it was just as she relates, the hatred in the guy's voice is astonishing.) She is not someone well equipped to say a loud no, and obviously no one in this situation intervened for her:

I was verbally attacked at a neighborhood Asian restaurant last Friday for wearing a face mask while waiting on my takeout order. Once I got out my phone to record he was just about finished admonishing me to hell and back.

The Hater screamed at me as he walked in the the door, maybe he noticed me from the parking lot somehow. I was called a b*tch, a lunatic, a c*nt, an idiot, a f*cking piece of sh*t and a f*cking loser, many times over. I also learned that I am emphatically going to hell, and the (unknown) tables have turned. I was told repeatedly to take the damn mask off. And wow am I doomed for hell while he is destined for heaven. This went on for a few minutes. He was quite tall, he was white. He had two low odd tiny hair buns on the back of his greasy head, black hair parted down the middle. He wore flip flops with his khakis. He looked like a hippy. He spoke politely to the woman behind the counter but would immediately turn around to scream at me. I was expecting him to smack me in the face, yank my mask off, maybe punch my head as I sat right there so close to the counter. I was scared he would scream at or hit the old Asian woman at the counter. I imagined she was someone’s mother, grandmother, sister. So tiny.

Here’s The Thing. I sat there and just accepted it. I said, “Ok” multiple times. I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t push back. I was motionless and I held my breath. And I froze, just like I do when people touch me, or corner me, or surprise me. Especially men. And there is some truth to what he said about me. So I sat with it and soaked it in. Trauma is one of my comfort zones.

Here’s Another Thing. There were only 2 other customers than me and The Hater: 1) a young maskless white guy sitting in the corner. He was wearing USA sandals and a baseball cap. He was a slob in shorts and a big tshirt who ordered crab “ragoons.” He laughed in the corner with his hat lowered. The whole time. I believe he was also recording it. My eyes returned to him time and time again. And 2), a young masked Asian guy, sitting silently nearer to me with his head down.

...Per my dad’s request I called the police the next day, to warn them that The Hater would do this again, and maybe at some point cause physical harm. The polite and seasoned 30 year officer said there are no laws against being rude and screaming at people so they couldn’t throw him in jail. But that’s not what I wanted. I asked how to handle it the next time. He suggested that I could comply and remove my mask; that I could just leave; that I never return to the restaurant because they weren’t willing to refuse service; that I could push back verbally, but wouldn’t recommend it. He also mentioned that maybe The Hater was manic one second and not the next. Of course he said this.
Lessons learned and relearned? White men have all the power, with impunity and cultural and institutional endorsements, to oppress, control, and perpetrate violence in all its forms. They have the luxury in weakness to choose ignorance and entertainment, acting as an accomplice, over compassion and intervention. They can be theatrically outraged yet do nothing in the short or long term without consequence. The silence is a remarkable feat.

I just heard a kook on the street corner tell a masked woman: "You don't have to wear that! this ain't nazi germany!"
And this in the Bay Area.

I will intimidate you into not wearing something by appealing to your freedom while making you feel like you have none

my friend showed me a pic of Trumpers with shirts and flags on the side of a major intersection, almost as if it's 2016 again.

if they're still there when I drive by (it's on my way to her house), I am going to engage

man, look out

my plan is to wait until i see one with a covid-hoax sign, and then go get my ass kicked

what the actual fuck, that makes me so angry on so many levels. i get that the police aren't going to rush out to arrest thus guy, but jfc that every single "way to handle it" gives the abuser the "win" and further incentive to keep on attacking people. fucking awful and at the risk of doomposting, this country is irredeemably fucked.

tipsy, i am sincerely sorry that happened to your friend. that's awful and must have been terrifying.