If the Black community understood that much of the theories, such as oppressor/oppressed, lived experience, etc. came from dead pasty white men, some of whom, like Foucault, had troubling histories, maybe they'd wake up from the manipulation. Decades ago, a friend went to a conference, I wasn't invited because I was white, and she came back with a sinister vibe. I adored her but the friendship faded away. I didn't understand the roots of the simmering hate until decades later.
That was 30 years ago so none of this is new. Economist, F.K. Hayek wrote that it started in Germany with 'social' being inserted everywhere. I think starting in the late 40s.
Sorry about that simmering hate. That it originates in theories of dead white European males (postmodernism, critical theory, etc.) constitutes one of the greatest ironies of our time. My discipline (rhetoric and writing) actually sees this and now practices citation justice (cites only nonwhite, marginalized scholars) to correct for what it says is patriarchal, white supremacist publishing practices by citing white scholars. The uninvited sinister vibe is now professionalized and being canonized.
Societies that dismiss the contributions of the best and brightest cannot stand. The intellectuals vilify the system, including. many recent immigrants who do very well financially in this country. There is no allegiance to the country. An Uber driver from another country told me how grateful he was to be in the US for his kids. He loved his country of birth but saw it as too corrupt to establish a life. A friend of a friend, from the same country as this man, hates the US though she does quite well, and without the restrictions on females, she would suffer there. I look at these people as parasitic colonizers.
You are very wise. I've been in that dark place where the internet had too much influence on my thoughts. I'm grateful to be evolving and connecting in new, good ways with people.
When I was in school, long before the internet, there was a comparable condition that some kids fell into and which their parents were on the lookout for: falling in with the wrong crowd. Young people who are searching and/or a bit disaffected easily gravitate toward others who feel the same, and these little nests of discontent acquire a group attitude and set of beliefs - which they then protect. Those beliefs, even when wrong, serve to explain the sense of not belonging which they felt before,. There’s some comfort in that - so they defend those beliefs against the reality they see around them. Unfortunately, social media has created a situation wherein these little groups, many of them toxic and genuinely deranged, can marinate - with their adherents promoting beliefs that are patently false, but which are supported within the group. If anyone challenges those beliefs, they’re set upon immediately and lose whatever sense of support and belonging for which they traded their recognition of reality. We see this in the desperation with which the trans true believers defend the bizarre belief that men dressed as women are actually women. They have found a group within which they’re accepted and praised as long as they profess belief in the narrative, and the narrative serves to explain the alienation they’ve felt. Those are powerful incentives not to break from the group, and these social media groups are like "the wrong crowd" on steroids.
Your story is always compelling, Adam. I would like to add that you need to simply encounter people of all stripes and form your own judgement. I grew up in a very white Minnesota in the 70's and 80's; we only had two non-whites in a HS of 500 and there were never problems(that I saw). I joined the Army in 1988 and was a minority in every unit I served, it was the greatest experience ever - there is some trash in every race and good folks are colorblind.
Interesting recent experience traveling to visit our grandson in Houston last weekend... A large majority of TSA in MSP are white and just about the rudest people I have ever met. Contrast that with Houston(Hobby) where the TSA were all black that day and were the warmest and most helpful as I had ever encountered. Was I surprised? Of course not, I was stationed in the South for several years and nothing has changed.
If I may add... One of my mentors has always been the estimable Thomas Sowell. I saw him and Milton Friedman debate some Lefties when I was very young and have followed him ever since. Great man.
Your message is so easy, logical and freeing. This message needs to reach all young people. I grew up in rural Minnesota and the only black kid in our school was the son of an NFL player, Charlie West who played for the Vikings some years before then.
My dad was a vocational school director and did is doctoral studies at the U of M in the 70's and several times a year would invite other students or professors and their families from the university over for a Sunday dinner at our hobby farm home (160 acres). Some were Black, some where Asian and some were Indian (from India) as he liked to invite people from other countries with different cultures.
I never learned how to be racist from anyone in my circles as my parents raised colorblind children such as they were. What has changed is that the leftwing intelligentsia has decided to make people believe that race matters and the victimhood should be assumed and perceived oppressors shamed.
It's self sabotage to think that people of a certain color are out to get you just because your skin color is different. People are people no matter where you go....some nice and some shitty!
Your article points out something I’ve been thinking about for some time. If children are raised in an environment where they are taught to distrust people of other races, how will they be able to flourish in a society where the majority of people are the other race? And will they ever be able to “wake up” from that belief as you did? How miserable would it be to live a life believing the new narrative which says every white person is subconsciously racist even if they don’t display their racism overtly? That is the true poison they are infecting people with. That is not helping the people they claim to care about. And it seems to me they are doing this to gain power. It really just makes me sick!
Amala Ekpunobi has a YouTube following and a similar but different experience in progressive radicalization at a young age and ultimately growing of it it in her 20s. I suspect a conversation between the two of you would be excellent.
Wow, Adam. I just got to this and it's great. This is one of your best lines ever: "... the shitty people I encountered came in all colors." Brilliant. Truth.
You later talked about your "lived experience." I think that experience in these matters is crucial and as you say when people are isolated in their little social media communities...and isolation can also occur on person, as in isolated immigrant communities, isolated communities where most people are the same race or ethnic group... they are often misguided into false conclusions about others because they simply have no or few personal experiences. As they used to say when I was a kid, "experience is the best teacher." People make up their minds best based on their own experiences, and such experiences are universal in that they should lead nearly everyone to the same conclusion you reached..."...shitty people I encountered came in all colors." There is no correlation between bad people and skin color. Good and bad come in all colors, so stop focusing on color and focus on behavior. That's the post-racial America I want to live in. Great column.
If the Black community understood that much of the theories, such as oppressor/oppressed, lived experience, etc. came from dead pasty white men, some of whom, like Foucault, had troubling histories, maybe they'd wake up from the manipulation. Decades ago, a friend went to a conference, I wasn't invited because I was white, and she came back with a sinister vibe. I adored her but the friendship faded away. I didn't understand the roots of the simmering hate until decades later.
Damn. I'm sorry.
That was 30 years ago so none of this is new. Economist, F.K. Hayek wrote that it started in Germany with 'social' being inserted everywhere. I think starting in the late 40s.
Sorry about that simmering hate. That it originates in theories of dead white European males (postmodernism, critical theory, etc.) constitutes one of the greatest ironies of our time. My discipline (rhetoric and writing) actually sees this and now practices citation justice (cites only nonwhite, marginalized scholars) to correct for what it says is patriarchal, white supremacist publishing practices by citing white scholars. The uninvited sinister vibe is now professionalized and being canonized.
Societies that dismiss the contributions of the best and brightest cannot stand. The intellectuals vilify the system, including. many recent immigrants who do very well financially in this country. There is no allegiance to the country. An Uber driver from another country told me how grateful he was to be in the US for his kids. He loved his country of birth but saw it as too corrupt to establish a life. A friend of a friend, from the same country as this man, hates the US though she does quite well, and without the restrictions on females, she would suffer there. I look at these people as parasitic colonizers.
You are very wise. I've been in that dark place where the internet had too much influence on my thoughts. I'm grateful to be evolving and connecting in new, good ways with people.
You are wise and self aware too. God bless you.
When I was in school, long before the internet, there was a comparable condition that some kids fell into and which their parents were on the lookout for: falling in with the wrong crowd. Young people who are searching and/or a bit disaffected easily gravitate toward others who feel the same, and these little nests of discontent acquire a group attitude and set of beliefs - which they then protect. Those beliefs, even when wrong, serve to explain the sense of not belonging which they felt before,. There’s some comfort in that - so they defend those beliefs against the reality they see around them. Unfortunately, social media has created a situation wherein these little groups, many of them toxic and genuinely deranged, can marinate - with their adherents promoting beliefs that are patently false, but which are supported within the group. If anyone challenges those beliefs, they’re set upon immediately and lose whatever sense of support and belonging for which they traded their recognition of reality. We see this in the desperation with which the trans true believers defend the bizarre belief that men dressed as women are actually women. They have found a group within which they’re accepted and praised as long as they profess belief in the narrative, and the narrative serves to explain the alienation they’ve felt. Those are powerful incentives not to break from the group, and these social media groups are like "the wrong crowd" on steroids.
I love this. Thank you for your gift of writing...
Thank you for taking the time to read it.
Your story is always compelling, Adam. I would like to add that you need to simply encounter people of all stripes and form your own judgement. I grew up in a very white Minnesota in the 70's and 80's; we only had two non-whites in a HS of 500 and there were never problems(that I saw). I joined the Army in 1988 and was a minority in every unit I served, it was the greatest experience ever - there is some trash in every race and good folks are colorblind.
Interesting recent experience traveling to visit our grandson in Houston last weekend... A large majority of TSA in MSP are white and just about the rudest people I have ever met. Contrast that with Houston(Hobby) where the TSA were all black that day and were the warmest and most helpful as I had ever encountered. Was I surprised? Of course not, I was stationed in the South for several years and nothing has changed.
Good ol southern hospitality. Thank you for sharing.
If I may add... One of my mentors has always been the estimable Thomas Sowell. I saw him and Milton Friedman debate some Lefties when I was very young and have followed him ever since. Great man.
Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26QxO49Ycx0
One of these dangerous clowns is Frances Fox Piven of the dangerous Cloward-Piven 'strategy'.
Milton was a boss
Thanks Adam.
Your message is so easy, logical and freeing. This message needs to reach all young people. I grew up in rural Minnesota and the only black kid in our school was the son of an NFL player, Charlie West who played for the Vikings some years before then.
My dad was a vocational school director and did is doctoral studies at the U of M in the 70's and several times a year would invite other students or professors and their families from the university over for a Sunday dinner at our hobby farm home (160 acres). Some were Black, some where Asian and some were Indian (from India) as he liked to invite people from other countries with different cultures.
I never learned how to be racist from anyone in my circles as my parents raised colorblind children such as they were. What has changed is that the leftwing intelligentsia has decided to make people believe that race matters and the victimhood should be assumed and perceived oppressors shamed.
Thank you. God bless you and your parents.
It's a shame what has happened to higher learning.
Well put; I wish everyone could read this.
Share it far and wide!
It's self sabotage to think that people of a certain color are out to get you just because your skin color is different. People are people no matter where you go....some nice and some shitty!
Bingo
Your article points out something I’ve been thinking about for some time. If children are raised in an environment where they are taught to distrust people of other races, how will they be able to flourish in a society where the majority of people are the other race? And will they ever be able to “wake up” from that belief as you did? How miserable would it be to live a life believing the new narrative which says every white person is subconsciously racist even if they don’t display their racism overtly? That is the true poison they are infecting people with. That is not helping the people they claim to care about. And it seems to me they are doing this to gain power. It really just makes me sick!
Excellent post!
👏 hopefully more people will hear your story
Amala Ekpunobi has a YouTube following and a similar but different experience in progressive radicalization at a young age and ultimately growing of it it in her 20s. I suspect a conversation between the two of you would be excellent.
I've talked to her privately once but you never know.
Thanks for this column Adam. This is something that we can all learn from. I appreciate your perspective as well as your writing!
My pleasure
Yes… every experience is a learning experience…. Especially Traveling!
Wow, Adam. I just got to this and it's great. This is one of your best lines ever: "... the shitty people I encountered came in all colors." Brilliant. Truth.
You later talked about your "lived experience." I think that experience in these matters is crucial and as you say when people are isolated in their little social media communities...and isolation can also occur on person, as in isolated immigrant communities, isolated communities where most people are the same race or ethnic group... they are often misguided into false conclusions about others because they simply have no or few personal experiences. As they used to say when I was a kid, "experience is the best teacher." People make up their minds best based on their own experiences, and such experiences are universal in that they should lead nearly everyone to the same conclusion you reached..."...shitty people I encountered came in all colors." There is no correlation between bad people and skin color. Good and bad come in all colors, so stop focusing on color and focus on behavior. That's the post-racial America I want to live in. Great column.
What does this have to do with anything in this article?