As I expected, my previous post struck a chord with some people. It didn’t go quite as viral as I had hoped, but I got a few comments on Facebook, and it’s been a while since I even got that magnitude of response. I think it’s because I confessed two of the biggest sins in our culture: racism and xenophobia.
However, one of the Facebook comments concerned me. The man said that the Indians I talked about in my essay were of the privileged Brahmin caste and didn’t deserve our sympathy. This filled me with dread. I was afraid of getting sucked into a vortex of racial hatred.
I followed the link he posted to an episode of his podcast, Progressives for Immigration Reform. Despite my trepidation, I found it to be a well-researched, reasonable discussion of the use of H-1B visas by U.S. companies to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor. That was a big relief.
It seems like nowadays social media platforms are pockmarked with racist, hate-filled rabbit-holes. I procrastinated on writing that essay because I was afraid of being labeled a racist or attracting the attention of actual racists. Getting stuck with that label can be social suicide, but the second possibility is even more frightening.
I felt like I could get drawn into a racist community, like it would hold some attraction for me. For one, there’s my social isolation and loneliness that make me vulnerable to recruitment. Second is the shame of acknowledging that I have racist feelings sometimes. One of the Alt-Right’s advantages is they won’t shame you for admitting those feelings.
Hatred has become an unforgivable sin in our culture. Not only are you not allowed to act on it, you’re not even allowed to feel it. Just feeling it makes you a Bad Person. As the Archdruid has written, hate is a natural human emotion. Those who deny that fact are guilty of the same kind of repression as the Victorians who denied that sexual desire was natural.
The Archdruid has also written that these hysterias lead to opposite and equally harmful overreactions. The Victorian fear of sex led to the excesses of the Sexual Revolution. The prohibition against hate is likely to provoke a backlash of people wallowing in hatred.
Instead, the Archdruid argues for moderation, splitting the difference between extremes, finding a happy medium. The answer to hatred isn’t shaming anyone who expresses it. It’s understanding why they hate. You might even discover that their reasons are perfectly logical. Then the causes can be addressed before the hate consumes them.
But this would require the Social Justice Warriors (or “SJW’s”) to admit that they feel hatred sometimes. They’re loath to do this, because it’s the only moral advantage they have over others. They can’t claim that they’re suffering as much as the “racists” they attack, because they’re middle or upper class or attending a good college.
At the end of the day, the SJW’s are just another group of bourgeoisie exploiting the global proletariat, including the White working class. On some level, be it conscious or unconscious, they know this. But rather than work to undermine the system that benefits them, they’d rather shame the less fortunate. The only way they’ve figured out how to do this is by turning hatred into a sin of which they’re innocent but the unwashed masses are guilty.
It’s a good way for the SJW’s to ease the guilt they feel about their privilege. I should know: I’ve felt a lotta guilt about my privilege as a product of the upper-middle class. We can tell ourselves that the White working class may not be as privileged as us, but at least we aren’t racist.
That’s the real sin: hating other people, even if you have no intention or power to act on it beyond small acts of violence. The globally hegemonic oppression of Capitalism from which we bourgeoisie benefit is relegated to an afterthought. It’s shoved off-stage to make room for a debate over the morality of personal feelings.
As a therapist (and Counselor Deanna Troi of Star Trek: The Next Generation) once told me, feelings aren’t good or bad. Only the actions they inspire have any moral significance. Considering the words SJW’s have directed at the White working class, I can’t help but think that they “hate” these supposed racists.
There are certainly plenty of racists in that demographic, but you’ll find at least as many racists per capita in the White middle and upper classes. The difference is we run the Mainstream Media, so we’re not gonna spend a lotta time covering our own racism. After all, we’re the Establishment, so our sins are actually virtues.
No, the SJW’s aren’t likely to have an epiphany about their own hatred anytime soon. They’d have to join the rest of us “haters” down here in the gutter. They aren’t gonna do that until they realize that the gutter may be where the sewage ends up, but most of that sewage comes from their own homes, businesses and colleges.
No comments:
Post a Comment