Everyone here can already guess what I’d write about this were I to launch into some long, jargon-filled bit of semiotic instruction — Christ, just read through the greatest hits posts on intentionalism.
What was obvious to me from the get go — and I said this at the time — was that an Obama administration was going to be “post-racial” in the same way an Amanda Marcotte lecture on the politics of her gal gash would be “post-feminist.” We are going backwards in this country on issues of race and identity — moving more toward the dark side of identity politics than toward the idea that individualism transcends group affiliation — and so, as a country grounded in a shared set of institutionalized beliefs, we are moving toward the left not only politically but ideologically. And each time we do, we move further away from our own founding principles.
The idea the we now need to be circumspect about our expression because there are more idiots in the electorate who don’t know who writes legislation and, more generally, who are simply looking to be offended (because it is far easier a feat than becoming informed, and one that provides the offended attention, which they crave far more than knowledge), is proof that the left’s identity politics and victim patronage system is taking popular hold — not surprising, given that its components, from the way we are taught to think about interpretation to the way we are taught to “deconstruct” “truths”, have been carefully spoonfed to us over the last 40 or so years.
Chickens coming home to roost and all that.
I’ll be around for the revolution, I hope. But until then, I’ve got other shit I’d rather be doing than watching the inmates take over the asylum.
Armies of Ignorance, cloaked in tolerance.
We are all chimps now and if we act up they will take us out.
Being a victim is great because you never have to grow up and take responsibility for yourself. Growing up is hard and stuff.
You had me at gal gash.
After reading Flowers for Algernon as a young man, I lived in terror of losing my intellectual faculties, backsliding into a state of ignorance. Lately, I’ve found myself hoping that Big Pharma comes up with a pill that will allow me the option.
I’m with you on that, Squid. Ignorance is bliss, evidently.
Bravo. It’s funny, I was JUST at Reason and was reading their take on the cartoon in the their blog. I was expecting to find no one finding fault with the cartoon, yet there were a couple morons who did. How fucking stupid, and yes it is abject stupidity, do you have to be to think that cartoon was racist? And you can’t escape the stupid designation, because you’re either stupid in finding racism in everything or you’re stupid in not understanding the cartoon or the basic machinations of the legislative process. Fuck, it’s embarrasing to be sharing a planet with these people.
Big Pharma gave me Vicodin. For that I am grateful.
idiots in the electorate … who are simply looking to be offended
I like what Tim Blair calls ’em: grievance shriekers.
It’s simple confirmation bias.
Protein Wisdom is the Jane Goodall of current American chimp culture.
I for real don’t know how much this is a we as a country thing. Except for we as a country had a very gay and stupid media. NPR was licking this up yesterday. It was nice to see them actually express an eagerness to look foolish and craven and opportunistically propagandy. They’ve been sort of just phoning it in lately with the we hate Bush .. we hate Christians .. we love Baracky .. socialism is good for you droneyness. Got a little spring back in their step, they did.
oops. I think that was maybe a bit Freudian how I put the media in the past tense.
Squid, can I interest you in some Soma?
Great point Jeff,
Another blogger, livermoron, put it well in another thread here
https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=14363#comment-659132
The sad fact is our public school system and academia, with the tacit support of the parents, have turned much of our nation’s youth into non-thinkers, who respond to sloganeering and the dog-whistles of the identity politics set. They’ve been taught to be racists essentially; and this obsession with race has been rationalized as a necessary component of social justice…
It’s a sad state of affairs, for sure. And it seems to be ever increasingly taking hold because an ever increasing fraction of our nation’s population are indoctrinated or positively disposed to these arguments…
You’ll be around for the revolution though, it’s not too far off. They’ve already begun the over-reach. And judging from the response to Rick Santelli’s “Chicago Tea Party” suggestion as well as the publics flagging support for the spendulus, it’s only a matter of time…
The Spendulus better perform miracles, and quick, or else the Democrats will be fighting to protect their phony-baloney jobs come 2010…
Ignorance is bliss, evidently.
I don’t know, they seem awfully fucking pissed to me.
Big Vodka gave me Chopin. My roommate has been on Hydrocodone for months, and I’d rather have the Chopin for the good it’s done her.
“…moving more toward the dark side of identity politics …”
Racist!
Remember, to oppose the spendulous is a Racist! act, at least according to James Clyburn of SC…
And judging from the response to Rick Santelli’s “Chicago Tea Partyâ€Â
A friend of mine who was a big Obama supporter forwarded the Tea Party link to many people today, with the comment “Hell, yeah!”.
I think the glitter has fallen off her Personal Plastic Jesus.
I’ve also noticed a pronounced downturn in the number of fawning statements about Obama that I hear around campus.
Greetings:
I am having some trouble setting up a date for Secretary Clinton with Travis the Chimp. Any ideas?
As you may have guessed, I have nothing to contribute except to say that I plan on quoting Jeff (and Bob @ 15) far and wide.
While protesting isn’t really my thing, I’m more than willing to support Tea Parties and the like as much as I can.
Oh, goody, the Dow is down almost another 200 points. Hopey-changiness!
“…we now need to be circumspect about our expression because there are more idiots in the electorate who don’t know who writes legislation and, more generally, who are simply looking to be offended…is proof that the left’s identity politics and victim patronage system is taking popular hold…”
I struggle with the inaliable, Constitutional, rights of the individual to participate in our electoral system, and the fact that I think folks should have to pass a civics and current events test to be able to vote in each election…
I mean, at the risk of being accused of advocating a return to Jim Crow laws and poll taxes, which I’m not, either pass a the test or have some skin in the game…
Barky’s numbers are also down again… below 60% total approval now.
Only 50% think he’s doing a good job on the economy.
I would say the silence on this blog (and others) is deafening regarding the decline of support for Obama.
Obviously what’s needed is MORE UNICORNS!!!! All this talk about the economy is just a distraction from TEH UNICORNS! Slow-roasted.
Isn’t it ironic that the same people that have to twist the authors meaning into a pretzel to find offense in this cartoon are the same people that hear statements like “When will white embrace what is right.” and do not blink an eye.
They’ll bounce around on this until someother shiny bauble catches their eyes. And pass that up for the next one.
Armies of Ignorance with the attention span of a mayfly.
Livin’ just enough for the city. This is the sort of Epic FAIL that morons who can’t think through consequences come up with. It’s abject stupid.
The thing is, this is just not possible. We knew this going in. Can we prove it theoretically beyond a doubt? Likely no. We grasp it still. Which is what makes for the danger lurking. Sold a falsehood, people will turn to anger when they awake from their slumbers.
So if Sharpton protests this cartoon, why did he never protest Rev. Wright? Why did he never speak up against the blatant racism that was on display at Trinity?
Turns out some people have massive senses of projection.
“The incomparable Amy Holmes notices an interesting post on Obama’s Organizing For America site  the old Obama campaign site now run by the DNC. Someone is taking Attorney General Holder’s advice and not holding back when talking about race:
[The real monkeys are the three Republican analyst that the Party has selectively placed in front of the camera to explain their wicked devices, Amy Holmes, Cook-eyed Ron Christie, and Michael sell-out Steele. If you notice how they talk and what they are saying leaves me with the impression that the only thing that is missing from their reporting is a monkey grinder.
The three of them are like wind up monkey dolls that are programmed to say and think like their Republican counter-parts..
If the Republican Party members think that just because they put these three white around the mouth as Al Jolson Negro’s in front of the public, that this dismisses the fact that they are a racist regime, they are once again mistaken.]
Interesting metaphor, in light of the controversy and protests surrounding the New York Post cartoon. I wonder if we’ll see protesters outside the DNC.”
This has since been swept down the memory hole. That is CHANGE that I can believe in.
(The Corner: http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2RlOGYyMWRiOWY0MjBhOGNkYjVhYmVhYjI4ZGQ5Mzk= )
I struggle with the inaliable, Constitutional, rights of the individual to participate in our electoral system….
Ain’t there, Bob. You have no Constitutional right to vote.
No representation without taxation.
As one of my English professors in college, J.S.McCann-a real academic, used to say:
“People have the right to their opinion in our society…But only if it is an informed one; otherwise they might as well be arguing that the ‘Sky is green!’ or ‘The Earth is flat!’…”
Really B Moe?,
I’ll have to double check that; no offense meant friend…
But, perhaps you’re right; the issue of voting rights could be purview of the states…
At least until reconstruction, or one of the sufferage amendments…
The Post should just say that the cartoon chimp was supposed to be Roland Burris. Then no one will notice teh Raciss’, as Burris is in mid-toss before the Bus that is the Obama administration, and shortly, you won’t ever again hear of him again.
Poor Baracky is at sea on the economy. He’s got people so scared. For real. Not just the part where he goes on the tv and screeches in abject terror. Remember their trial balloon of getting rid of 401ks? Their enthusiasm for higher gas taxes? Their refusal to develop domestic energy supplies? Baracky and his media need to take a deep breath and count to ten and then let it our slowly. They won’t. That would be letting a crisis go to waste. You can’t do that. This is the same thing I think. You can’t let a cartoon what has a monkey in it go to waste. It’s like a corollary.
Egads! I over-agained! How embarrassing.
So long as the requirements are applied equally, there is (IMHO) no issue. Sadly, given the fact we have people who consider SATs “racist”, I doubt you’d ever convince the public that requiring basic knowledge of the structure of government is a Good Thing.
Currently the market is tanking; with the DOW hitting an 11-year low (?) amongst numerous rumors of bank nationalization. Citibank stock is trading below $2 a share and BoA is flirting with $3.25.
Makes me wonder if I need to go down to the ATM and have a good old fashioned bank run.
Sorry, links here http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090220/ts_nm/us_banks_shares_5
More at Drudge.
Because the evil race-baiter has never had an issue with people who despise whites?
“So if Sharpton protests this cartoon, why did he never protest Rev. Wright? Why did he never speak up against the blatant racism that was on display at Trinity?”
Where have you been? Blacks are incapable of racism because they haven’t the power to make policy on it.
Or so the bifurcation goes.
oh. *out* slowly … What else is I’m toying with the idea of subscribing to the NY Post. I guess I could get it sent to work. oh. That would be $443 a year to deliver to LA. What I’m not doing is toying with the idea of subscribing to the NY Post I think.
ruddiger you may not have heard but a black guy is president.
I lived in an area that was heavily affected by the late 80s/early 90s banking/housing meltdown, Techie.
My bank didn’t fail, but enough of the others were doing so that I always kept a nice chunk of cash on hand.
I’m doing that again now.
Just because *a* black guy is president doesn’t mean that Blacks have power. Remember that Congress filled with old white guys and all those whiteys surrounding the black dude with a killer jumper telling him what to do? Yeah, just keeping the black man down.
“…or ‘The Earth is flat!’…—
Or that socialism works.
Can we please all just focus on how this is Bush’s fault?
“Where have you been? Blacks are incapable of racism because they haven’t the power to make policy on it.”
And even though there is a black man as President of the United States, way too many still “feel” this way. It’s not fairness they want, but retribution.
So the Dow has dropped 25% since Baracky was elected. All this means is the investors are racist. Who needs ’em?
Rob Reed,
On that note, here’s a very insightful post from zombie at LGF:
I agree with the part where the left is very KKK. They get such a smug satisfaction from anything what they can deem racism. If racism went away they’d have to invent it, and like zombie says they’ve got the racism-inventing technique down pat.
I noted a comment on a left-leaning (OK, it was falling over) site yesterday, to the effect of “If you can’t see that this cartoon is racist, you have no critical thinking skills.” I started to write a reply, but I realized that I don’t have the 8-12 hours free to fully document the multitude of flaws contained in this one short statement.
I’ve noticed that the signature element of being a liberal is to believe without qualification in your own genius, while simultaneously displaying absolutely no evidence of it.
Would depicting a black president playing basketball be racist?
Quoth Pat Santy:
In the movie Serenity, Captain Mal Reynolds has witnessed the horrific nightmare that came about from the lovely utopian dreams of his universe’s ‘do-gooders’ and decides it is time to take a moral stand against such naked evil: “Sure as I know anything, I know thisâ€â€they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin’. I aim to misbehave.”
….
Freedom’s old enemy is once again on the riseâ€â€and it is time for all those who love liberty to misbehave.
OUTLAW!
Back in sociology class, one of the most useless creations of a class/major that was ever developed–basket-weaving at least results in attractive baskets–the prof told me, in front of the class, it was obvious I was from Slavic/Russian stock, possibly Jewish, and he could tell that from my small stature and high cheekbones. Yep, my ancestors were probably Cossacks who, when not hunting down Jews, were Jews. And my refusal to “admit” it meant I was ashamed of this cloven hoof of racism in my background and I had to come to grips with this dichotomy before I could possibly achieve any real understanding of racism.
My ancestors were a bunch of Irish drunken peasants who came closest to a horse when they groomed one for the English Lords. They came over here by boat to become maids and factory workers. Not exotic at all.
I have no idea what this anecdote intends to mean, since I am not a cartoonist.
I am getting the feeling that before the next four years are out there will be a discussion about race in the United States of America, only I think it won’t be the one the A.G. is expecting.
Wait.
You mean we’re NOT post-racial?
By all means Mikey, let’s have that discussion of race. I’ll start.
Race is bullshit.
Race is boring. I don’t want to watch a show about America’s New Black Overclass cause even if they didn’t just make that up it doesn’t affect me at all. I’d rather watch a show about tasty snack cakes what you can fry and make even tastier.
In all this talk about race I have come to realize that, as a white male non-homo, the word “diversity” refers to everyone but me.
Really B Moe?,
I’ll have to double check that; no offense meant friend…
The states can choose electors any way they want, there was a Supreme Court ruling confirming it fairly recently I believe. There are amendments restricting certain discriminatory tactics if they choose to have an election, but nothing guaranteeing or defining a right to vote.
And no offense taken.
“Would depicting a black president playing basketball be racist?”
Only if he was getting dunked on by a white guy. Cause we all know that white men can’t jump.
Sdferr: And those who cry ‘racist’ are likely trying to hide their own illegal behaviors – or they are lackwits who have no other answer to any criticism.
I say both.
Good on you, Jeff. I remember very well, at least six or eight months ago, when you wrote how this leftist Savior Of Color would actually set back race relations in the Nation Below Canada, and I’ve linked to it often in other places I post. You’re right, all we’re seeing now is the hyenas squabble over the carcass of the body politic. If Shyster General Eric Holder’s comments yesterday don’t make matters clear to all of the “cowards” in this nation, then not even electroshock would help.
Nothing will get really interesting until the postmodern, racial hyenas start eating each other, for real.
Of course it does, Mr. Pink. As a heterosexual white male you are to be the stereotypical bayonet target for every huckster, hustler, and grifter who can get a tv camera on him or her, or a preference. You are needed as a foil to keep the sinecures intact.
But what happens when ‘bullshit’ is flung back? And a demand for satisfaction?
I think that day is coming fast, now that any criticism of the Obama administration is considered racism. It would take a bigger man than a typical Cook County hack to rise above that cheap road; unfortunately, all we have is a Cook County hack.
Or, mayhaps – fortunately.
Discussion on Race, see Provocateurism series.
I’ll start: Too often, race is used as an excuse for failure.
Oh, and I’ll state that I find a particular strain of Black History Month folderol to be, itself, racist. They have a picture of a kid and a picture of a historical figure. The text says something like, “I want to do X and because of [Historical Figure Z] I know I can…”
Uh, no. You can accomplish what you set out to because of you. No doors will open that you don’t open on your own. No one will give you the skills you need to be successful — you need to develop them yourself!
There’s no problem with highlighting historical successes. But don’t portray them as the reason anyone will or will not succeed!
whatevs. It was funny watching Mort Kondracke get all indignant at Fred Barnes tonight. He whined, “I never heard you blame Bush when the market fell from 14,000 the last year and Bush didn’t do ANYTHING to help the housing market” Fred and I both kinda sorta remember that TARP dealio. Mort disappoints me so much lately.
[…] Jeff Goldstein weighs in on the cartoon controversy… “What was obvious to me from the get go  and I said this […]
Monty Python and the Holy Grail:”She’s a Witch!”
Ah, the sweet decades to come.
Its good to be old.
Vari-
Bugger!
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