Neko Case - Vengeance Is Sleeping
Cliff face, North Rim Grand Canyon |
As is probably clear, glibertarians are not my favorite people. But this doesn't mean that everything a straight white male says is wrong. And not everything said by a non-straight non-white non-male is right.
Amazing that those are controversial statements.
Years ago, a young couple worked for the organization I headed. They claimed that I, the Executive Director, should have no say in the organization's policy because I was a straight white male. They went on to say Anne shouldn't have any say because she was of the generation in power.
Natch.
Despite my long history, I understand that this might simply come across as a dude trying to protect his privilege. But pre-judging people as automatically right or wrong is causing significant damage to efforts to make a better world for those who are horribly and brutally oppressed, exploited, and tortured.
Of course, the most blatant example was the Green Party (and centrist backlash) helping to elect Tangerine Palpatine and stack the "supreme" court against progress for a generation. After eight years of Obama, "The Left" ("Greens," Bernie-ites, etc.) wanted more right now, and they were willing to tear down everything instead of living in the real world. The exact same thing had happened after eight years of Bill Clinton, when the "Green" Party kept Al "An Inconvenient Truth" Gore out of the White House and instead put a war criminal in power.
But also, we are undermining our own institutions:
Again, I get it. The world is awful, and not just for non-human animals. But putting TFG guy back in the White House will make things much more awful.
If we are stoking fear, anger, and hopelessness, we are doing Fox News' job for them. If you are reading this, no matter how hard your life is, it is better than the existence of 99.999% of every sentient being that ever existed.
Will we make the world better, or just angrier?
PS - this exchange from 2015:
[Hillary]: "Once you say, 'You know, this country has still not recovered from its original sin (of slavery),' which is true -- once you say that, then the next question by people who are on the sidelines, which is the vast majority of Americans, the next question is, 'Well, what do you want me to do about it? What am I supposed to do about it?'
"That's what I'm trying to put together, in a way that I can explain it and I can sell it. Because in politics, if you can't explain it and you can't sell it, it stays on the shelf."
Jones retorted that's unfair -- it's putting the onus on black people to articulate solutions for white racism: "This is, and always has been, a white problem of violence. There's not much that we can do to stop the violence against us."
"Respectfully, if that is your position, then I will talk only to white people about how we are going to deal with very real problems," she replied.
Clinton added: "You can get lip service from as many white people as you can pack into Yankee Stadium and a million more like it who are going to say, 'We get it, we get it. We are going to be nicer.'"
"If that's all that happens, we'll be back here in 10 years having the same conversation. Because we will not have all of the changes that you deserve to see happen."
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