I really enjoyed this column. It was fucking hilarious, despite being serious at the same time. One has to laugh a lot to survive in a world of bullshit. I think you should have moved back and forth between the "white" group and the "black" group every five minutes. Maybe the others would have followed you. As for pronouns, I would have said that I'm a chick with a dick, so my pronouns are prick and cunt.
Thanks for the cite, Marc. Actually I think I'm more than one generation removed from Freddy. Ha ha.
Freddy misses that the woke claim re: the election results is anti-Left politics by other means. It's replaced the perennial complaint that Democrats lose because they are too radical left. The woke card is played because the unwoke have no good answer to the major issues in the election -- inflation and immigration, much less to their own political impotence. (To inflation there really is no good answer. To immigration, the good answers are political losers.)
Freddy's Butler reference made me think of the Combahee River Collective, consisting of African-American gay women, who way back in the early 1970s issued one of the foundation statements on identity politics, which was explicitly outward-facing, by which I mean desirous of linkage or coalition or alliance, rather than inward-facing.
Where I live, in well-to-do rural Virginia, we don't see the woke stuff. The local Democrats think they are left wing (they aren't, LOL), though they are very attuned to LGBTQI+ concerns. It's their kids, after all. In general, and I've been to a bunch of local meetings, the activists are very pragmatic. Nobody ever brings up pronouns. It's a little different in DSA, where I'm always the oldest dude in the room. In that space I submit my pronoun since one of my political principles is, don't annoy people without a good reason.
Thanks Max. I agree. I am no fan of Butler but I thought what Freddie said about her sliding away from her usual bs was noteworthy. I thought your piece was clean clear and crisp to the point. Sounds like you need to stay in your local DSA, as an anchor to reality. I actually do use pronouns: Your Royal Highness/His Royal Highness.
Your error or problem is what you seemed to take for granted, i.e., 'I am a white person.'
You might have challenged that, as in 'None of us are members of 'the white race,' which only exists as a social construct for social control. Look at our skin. It's not 'white,' but 'pinkish brown.' But 'pink supremacy' doesn't ring quite right, does it? There's your clue. 'White' is a political category designed to keep us all in a 'white united front' with our ruling class. They're used it to keep us down for 400 years. Let's dump it.'
Someone might say, 'but what about the other 'color races.' Same deal. Blacks or African Americans are a people, not a race. The 'yellow race' and the 'red race' or 'brown race' are all peoples--Chinese, Shawnee, Puerto Rican, and so on. If born here, you can hyphenate that, if preferred.
One you concede that you're a 'white person,' they have a hook in you. You've conceded to a racialized upper class hegemony. Fight it off. There's only one race, the human. Trason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity.
I agree 100%. I was using THEIR terminology which really wasnt even about race, but skin color. Mirror image of classification done by the So African apartheid regime
I really enjoyed this column. It was fucking hilarious, despite being serious at the same time. One has to laugh a lot to survive in a world of bullshit. I think you should have moved back and forth between the "white" group and the "black" group every five minutes. Maybe the others would have followed you. As for pronouns, I would have said that I'm a chick with a dick, so my pronouns are prick and cunt.
I would have done a Reagan and 'torn the wall down" LOL. And challenged the very idea of who made anyone a 'facilitator." this is like an SNL skit
Kinda like I felt but was outnumbered
Thanks - good posting.
Thanks for the cite, Marc. Actually I think I'm more than one generation removed from Freddy. Ha ha.
Freddy misses that the woke claim re: the election results is anti-Left politics by other means. It's replaced the perennial complaint that Democrats lose because they are too radical left. The woke card is played because the unwoke have no good answer to the major issues in the election -- inflation and immigration, much less to their own political impotence. (To inflation there really is no good answer. To immigration, the good answers are political losers.)
Freddy's Butler reference made me think of the Combahee River Collective, consisting of African-American gay women, who way back in the early 1970s issued one of the foundation statements on identity politics, which was explicitly outward-facing, by which I mean desirous of linkage or coalition or alliance, rather than inward-facing.
Where I live, in well-to-do rural Virginia, we don't see the woke stuff. The local Democrats think they are left wing (they aren't, LOL), though they are very attuned to LGBTQI+ concerns. It's their kids, after all. In general, and I've been to a bunch of local meetings, the activists are very pragmatic. Nobody ever brings up pronouns. It's a little different in DSA, where I'm always the oldest dude in the room. In that space I submit my pronoun since one of my political principles is, don't annoy people without a good reason.
Thanks Max. I agree. I am no fan of Butler but I thought what Freddie said about her sliding away from her usual bs was noteworthy. I thought your piece was clean clear and crisp to the point. Sounds like you need to stay in your local DSA, as an anchor to reality. I actually do use pronouns: Your Royal Highness/His Royal Highness.
My pronouns are The Dude and El Duderino.
Clearly you are a Right Opportunist and insufficiently anti-racist. Reluctantly I am reporting you to the DEI police.
I may be right in essence, but at least I am left in form.
Your error or problem is what you seemed to take for granted, i.e., 'I am a white person.'
You might have challenged that, as in 'None of us are members of 'the white race,' which only exists as a social construct for social control. Look at our skin. It's not 'white,' but 'pinkish brown.' But 'pink supremacy' doesn't ring quite right, does it? There's your clue. 'White' is a political category designed to keep us all in a 'white united front' with our ruling class. They're used it to keep us down for 400 years. Let's dump it.'
Someone might say, 'but what about the other 'color races.' Same deal. Blacks or African Americans are a people, not a race. The 'yellow race' and the 'red race' or 'brown race' are all peoples--Chinese, Shawnee, Puerto Rican, and so on. If born here, you can hyphenate that, if preferred.
One you concede that you're a 'white person,' they have a hook in you. You've conceded to a racialized upper class hegemony. Fight it off. There's only one race, the human. Trason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity.
I agree 100%. I was using THEIR terminology which really wasnt even about race, but skin color. Mirror image of classification done by the So African apartheid regime
Cool. We're on a roll. Rinse and repeat!
Not to worry. I am strident about this. And I am a fan of your substack. You dont know me, but I knew of you in SDS in the late 60's.