Thoughts on politics and culture wars in America

In America, there is open racism and sexism against white men coming from the left. And there is an asymmetry between attacks on white men and attacks on any other group.  

The left openly celebrates “black/Hispanic/any non white achievement” and can openly cheer for the country being “more diverse” (less white), can call for people who are black/Hispanic to band together, create affinity groups, do things to specifically advance their interests, but if the same thing is done for white people, it becomes “white supremacy.” Actions done for non white groups which are celebrated, become the worst thing there is, if applied to white people.

So the left can bait conservatives; they can openly favor non whites and women, say they’re better, and either the right has to accept it or they say “well since you want to go down this road, actually white people and men have done this…” at which point, leftists call them racist/sexist etc.

This has been a thing for at least 10-15 years (in most blatant, extreme form. Obviously it has existed in some form probably since the 60s, but it got turned up a level in the early 2010). 

When one brings this up, leftist say “of course, because white men have power and the groups we favor don’t. What we do is for the purpose of evening things up.” Until recently, conservatives were too afraid to dispute this false, leftist paradigm. Many conservatives disagree with it, but don’t want the headache of actually disputing it to leftists’ faces. Some do though. 

Because of this, you get people who say “screw this, not only am I not going to go with the leftist paradigm, I’m going to go fully into ‘white men are better.’” Unfortunately, this has given a lot more energy to the Groypers than they otherwise would have. 

I would, if we lived in a world where the left hadn’t gone this insane, be quite quick to shut down and forcefully disagree with these “white men are the best and should run society” ideas.

But because of the context we live in, when I hear things that either say this or are implying it, I usually laugh, imagining how shocked and angry such statements would make leftists.

What America, as a multiracial nation, was and is supposed to be, is a country where people of all backgrounds put their Americanness above and beyond their ethnicity. It didn’t matter of my ethnic group had slightly more or slightly less success than yours, we are all Americans. I still have that view. As an American of German and Chinese ancestry, I will always root for an African American in a competition over someone from Germany or China. 

But the left reneged on this implicit agreement, by catering to identity politics. I and a lot of people had the following feeling; “I didn’t want to get into this, because being American is what defines me. But if you REALLY want to go into which groups are better or worse, more or less put upon, then actually white people and men did x y and z and black people have these problems.” 

Just the fact that any ethnic group can be lauded for sticking together and looking out for their interests, EXCEPT white people, that white people can openly be attacked, even though when you think about it, white people created the universalist, tolerant societies we see. 

I’d prefer in America, ALL elevation of specific ethnic groups were taboo. But if we live in a situation where you can be openly proud to be black, I have less inclination to reprimand people for saying they are proud to be white.

If things don’t change, if we don’t all agree to disarm from being proud of our ethnic or racial groups, America will only continue to get more divided along demographic lines. And in a nation as racially and ethnically diverse as the US, this only spells trouble.