Fisking That Infamous White Culture Infographic, VII

Continued from here. (Or you can start at the beginning.)

Competition:

• Be #1
• Win at all costs
• Winner/loser dichotomy

Not in my white America. In my white America, good sportsmanship and hard work (independent of winning) is highly prized. We don't love Rudy because the guy was the best football player Notre Dame ever had. He wasn't. He only played in one game, and only for a little while. But we're inspired by him anyway because he tried despite a whole host of debilities that would've discouraged other boys with less courage.

In my white America, stories abound of athletes falling back to assist beloved teammates who are struggling, of less able kids being included in games to honor their spirits, of teams being celebrated for stunning efforts despite tragic losses -- basically any kind, cooperative gesture you can name. Then there are the millions of white Americans who loyally follow teams that have never won a championship -- that, in fact, represent the bottom rungs of their respective leagues. (My brother, for example, loves the Seattle Mariners. When have they been #1?) 

We are not all about winning. We like to win, but we definitely don't think it's worth abandoning good morals or community pride. So which white people, exactly, have you been talking to?

• Action orientation
• Master and control nature

Yeah, see, this is coming from the noble savage myth. Many maleducated folks mistakenly believe that human societies lived in harmony with nature prior to the era of European dominance and industrialization. But that's not true. Every human group has attempted to mold nature to its purposes. The fact that these other civilizations didn't have paved roads, smoke stacks, and the like doesn't mean they were not clear-cutting forests, decimating wild animal herds, clothing and sheltering themselves against the elements, etc. 

• Must always "do something" about a situation

So you prefer we sit there passively and just let the chips fall where they may? What are you even talking about?

• Aggressiveness and Extroversion

Where's your evidence that these individual personality traits follow a racialized pattern? As a white introvert who has read many books on the upsides of introversion written by other white introverts, I reject your proposition that extroversion is somehow indelibly linked to my color. On the contrary, the most aggressive, extroverted people I've ever met have all been black.

(And by the way, this bullet completely contradicts another bullet we will discuss in the next post.)

• Decision-Making

Never make decisions, kids. Dithering uselessly is more properly anti-racist.

• Majority rules (when Whites have power)

Excuse me, but we're not the ones proposing that our Electoral College and our Senate be abolished so the urban majority can lord it over the rural minority. That's you.

No: the American system was specifically designed to slow down the passions of the majority so minority interests wouldn't be forgotten. Our Founders had a deep fear of pure democracy because in their studies of history, they'd seen how such a system repeatedly led to widespread abuses of the 49% by the 51%. 

Did the real-world results, historically, always reflect the aforementioned principal intent? No -- but we've been continuously evolving in that direction thanks to the blueprints those dead white men laid. The rights of many minorities are now far more respected, institutionally, than they have ever been.

Majority rules my butt.

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2+2 = 4

1/
Since 2+2=5 took over twitter, I've watched as "academics" and "educators" used rhetorical tricks to blow smoke at people and make them feel stupid.

It is unfair, unkind, and it ends today.

If you felt stupid, don't feel bad. You can understand, and I'll help.

A thread:

— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) August 9, 2020

For the past month or so, my TL has been consumed with a battle to defend commonsense arithmetic, led by the seemingly indomitable James Lindsay and his allies. On the other side? Educators and supposed mathematicians who insist that 2+2 does not always equal 4 -- who, in fact, insist that first grade math is a tool of hegemonic power and white supremacy.

Yes, you read that correctly.

That this has actually become a genuine front in our culture war - that many supposedly credentialed individuals are so readily confusing the symbols (which are technically arbitrary) for the physical concept (which is not) - is yet one more telling sign of how corrupted academia has become. 

If you are also watching this nonsense unfold on social media, do yourself a favor: read the thread above -- and then read James Lindsay's write-up below. 

2+2 Never Equals 5

As the kids say, we need a complete and total shutdown of higher education until we can figure out what the hell's going on.

Fisking That Infamous White Culture Infographic, VI

Continued from here. (Or you can start at the beginning.)

Aesthetics:

• Based on European culture

Because our majority is European, art in our public square is largely dominated by the European tradition. In China, meanwhile, the Chinese tradition takes center stage. In Japan, the Japanese. 

In this graphic, as you may have noticed, is a lot of hatred for any physical evidence of the majority. But as I have repeatedly noted, the predominance of European culture in a country whose heritage is European is not automatically suspect.

Moreover, this bullet conveniently ignores the interest our cultural institutions currently have in things that are manifestly not European. Indeed, museums/publishers/etc. are so desperate to bring in minority voices and minority aesthetics that they're frequently willing to scrap ethical considerations in their pursuit. Remember: the very piece of trash propaganda we are currently dissecting was promoted by the Smithsonian despite its manifest lack of scholarly rigor or accuracy. In other words, the Smithsonian is apparently so keen to elevate the "marginalized" that it's willing to put aside its responsibility to properly educate the public in favor of boosting intellectual frauds.

• Steak and potatoes; "bland is best"

Any white American who has ever competed in a chili cook-off is currently laughing his ass off.

In actuality, while many of us might see a meal of steak and potatoes as "comfort food," most of us also routinely - and happily - eat things with a little more bite. That's why my brother and sister-in-law were able to find an amazing Mexican restaurant in the middle of East Bumfuck, Arkansas.

What the writers of this infographic are doing is peddling in a stereotype. Sure -- the fare of the larger chains tends to fit into the safe category. But middle America is not the culinary wasteland these elite snobs imagine it to be. We welcome the influences of other cultures; we welcome spice.

• Woman's beauty based on blonde, thin - "Barbie"

First of all, this is a fairly recent development in the history of our beauty standards -- as any cursory familiarity with traditional European painting will make clear.

Secondly, pale coloring is admired all over the world. Sorry. Hate to burst your bubble here, but lighter complexions have been associated with wealth and position - and therefore desirability - in plenty of non-white societies quite independently of European influence. "Colorism," it would seem, has an evolutionary as well as a social component.

Third, our beauty standards expanded beyond the basic Barbie look quite some time ago. Many, many women who don't fit that mold are admired as attractive by the mass of white American men.

Fourth, for people who probably rail against the "male gaze" as well, you seem awfully disturbed at the prospect that men wouldn't find you attractive. How strange.

• Man's attractiveness based on economic status, power, intellect

That's not "whiteness," cupcakes. That's evolution. That's cross-cultural. And it's fairly rational, too. Because the breeding woman is so vulnerable, it behooves her to seek out men who are most likely to keep her in comfort and safety.

What exactly do you want here? Do you actually want women to hook up with losers? Was this written by secret incels?

Holidays:

• Based on Christian religions
• Based on white history & male leaders

And other countries, I'm sure, base their public holidays on the history and traditions of their majority (and honor men because, unfortunately, women were barred from public life for much of human history in most of the world). So what's your point here?

(Also, Martin Luther King, Jr. is honored with a federal holiday -- and most of us support making Juneteenth a holiday as well.)

Justice:

• Based on English common law

Which is bad because?

• Protect property & entitlements

Not to mention your rights to life and liberty.

I've already explained why we protect property in this country, but let me reiterate for the terminally dense: protecting property and protecting lives are not two ends of a dichotomy. They are, in fact, inextricably linked because our property is an extension of our own bodies. When we foster a society in which it's permissible to indiscriminately nick bicycles or smash windows because "lives matter more," what results is an atmosphere of unpredictability that inevitably leads to violence against people. I ask again: how many are now moldering in their graves or recovering from significant injuries because ideologues have sanctioned wholesale attacks against property on the theory that said buildings and goods "can be replaced"?

• Intent counts

And here we get to some really dangerous nonsense. Yes, intent counts. If we were to focus on consequences only, many absurdities would follow. The guy who falls asleep at the wheel and kills a man does not deserve the same punishment as a guy who drives drunk and does the same -- and neither deserve the same punishment as the guy who runs someone over with malice aforethought. But under the crazy system these so-called intellectuals wish to install, all three killers would be charged with the same crime and penalized in the same way. After all, a man is dead in all three cases; in all three cases, the impact is the same.

Of course, the reason why these critical theorists want to discount intent is so they can impose their crackpot paranoia and cognitive distortions on the rest of us. I feel you did something racist; therefore, you did something racist. But this, again, will lead to a tyranny of the insane.

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Fisking That Infamous White Culture Infographic, V

Continued from here. (Or you can start at the beginning.)

Future Orientation:

• Plan for future

Which civilizations survived and advanced without planning for the future? I'm really curious. Because every complex society I know - regardless of ethnicity - has set aside provisions for potential lean times. Hell, even individual households, universally, have preserved foodstuffs gathered in the warmer months to ensure a source of nutrition during the winter.

The Chinese have a saying: "Dig the well before you are thirsty." Please take note: a major non-white tradition emphasizes the importance of planning. Could that be because such forward thinking is adaptive for everyone?

• Delayed gratification

This is yet another traditional moral value that's shared cross-culturally. I know of no major civilization that hasn't stressed the virtue of working towards - and sacrificing for - greater rewards that aren't immediate. This is, in fact, the very teaching that undergirds family formation, to take one biologically essential example. Our species would've died out a long time ago if the vast majority of the human race weren't convinced to set aside instant carnal satisfaction in exchange for the difficult - but more fulfilling - task of raising children.

• Progress is always best

See, now I'm just confused. Aren't you peddling all this BS for the sake of progress? Or have you just revealed your ideology as fundamentally regressive in character?

(These people are regressive, folks. They want us all to live from present moment to present moment, satisfying our every base desire as it arises as if we were lesser animals instead of apes who can think.)

• "Tomorrow will be better"

If believing this is folly, then what's the point of all of this? What's the point of attempting to change the world? What you're saying here, it seems to me, is that our quest for a more just society is fundamentally hopeless. And by God, that's a terrible notion to spread!

Time:

• Follow rigid time schedules
• Time viewed as a commodity

Humans have been marking time since at least the Neolithic. Globally, agricultural societies needed basic clocks and calendars in order properly plant and harvest their crops. And once societies started to industrialize, further predictability was required. If we don't have a set schedule for our air traffic, for instance, what will result is nothing less than life-threatening chaos. 

More precise measures of time, in other words, are an inevitable consequence of certain types of economic activity, not some side-effect of so-called "toxic whiteness". If you want to get rid of "rigid time schedules" in order to excuse your rudeness - and yes, it's deeply rude to impose upon others by making them wait - you will have to tear down our entire industrial society.

(And you know, I suspect that's what you really want us to do. You want us to live a basic hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the cold and dark. Yeah. Good luck with that. Speaking for myself, I'm going to continue to raise my middle fingers high as I flip on all my artificial lights, blast my blessed air conditioning, and take my pain-saving medications -- all of which wouldn't have been possible without an economic system that adheres to schedules. 21st century technology for the win!)

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Fisking That Infamous White Culture Infographic, IV

Continued from here. (Or you can start at the beginning.)

Protestant Work Ethic:

• Hard work is the key to success
• Work before play
• "If you didn't meet your goals, you didn't work hard enough"

What happens to the squirrel who doesn't gather and store nuts in good weather?

Every adult organism must expend energy in order to eat. And the survival of every human civilization - from the earliest hunter-gatherer bands to today's capitalist democracies - has hinged on the industry of its constituent members. Indeed, only young children and the inheritors of great wealth have ever gotten by without work -- until, quite recently, white-dominated societies decided to build extremely generous welfare states.

And that last bullet? That's a straw man. Of course hard work, while necessary, isn't sufficient. You obviously need to have some natural talent and a supportive home environment. And, as I've suggested in previous posts, you need to have an economic system in place that provides equal opportunity to work. And that's why I - and many other classical liberals, for that matter - support changes to public policy that will knock down barriers to education and workforce entry that disproportionately impact the disadvantaged. But once those barriers have been cleared? The rest is up to you. 

Our refusal to hand everything to you without your giving something in return is not oppression or dastardly "whiteness"; it is, in fact, what has been recognized as just throughout human history. No major culture - whether black, white, yellow, red, or purple polka-dotted - has ever entertained the notion that the lazy should be rewarded for their sloth. Only Western radical leftists think this is a good idea.

Hard work is not a "white" idea; on the contrary, what certain wealthy, privileged white people actually invented was the lionization of indolence. Your celebration of parasitism, in other words, is what's truly "white."

Religion:

• Christianity is the norm
• Anything other than Judeo-Christian tradition is foreign
• No tolerance for deviation from single god concept  

Those first two items are true to a point: the majority of Americans (including most black people!) do profess some sort of Judeo-Christian faith. But I will reiterate what I said in the first of these posts: the mere existence of a norm does not indicate a supremacist culture. Again, what matters is how we treat people who fall outside the norm. And contra the third bullet, we are extraordinarily tolerant of differing religious faiths compared to the rest of the world. 

Out here in the real America - as opposed to the America of woke fever dreams - Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, neo-pagans, and atheists live side by side with very little in the way of serious inter-religious conflict. We will argue with each other quite vociferously, of course. And yes: there are a few people here and there who harbor genuinely bigoted religious sentiments. But only an idiot would declare that a society with the First-freakin'-Amendment (which, among other things, makes religious pluralism an institutional requirement) is broadly intolerant of deviance from dominant religious beliefs.

What the absolute hell are these people smoking?

Status, Power, & Authority

• Wealth = worth

Who? Who actually says this? No: traditional American culture understands that morality = worth. Actually, check that: the Judeo-Christian ethical tradition asserts pretty clearly that all human beings, regardless of their socioeconomic or developmental status, have infinite worth by virtue of their being human beings.

Of course, our society does not always reflect that fundamental belief because people, quite frankly, are sinful and will often be unduly influenced by wealth and status. But that's not a "white" thing. That good old evidence of human history I keep mentioning reveals that excess respect for power and riches is a universal human failing.

• Your job is who you are

There are some elite white people who evidently believe this -- but for most white people, identity comes from our religious, political, recreational, and familial affiliations as well. On my Twitter bio, I identify as a teacher -- but I also identify as a Navy brat (familial), a Catholic (religious), a center-right individualist (political), and a geek who's unusually obsessed with Iron Man (recreational).

• Respect authority

Uh, no? I mean, not completely. American thought has a strain that values obedience, yes -- but it also has a healthy love of "sticking it to the man". Remember: the moment we patriotic Americans celebrate as our national birthday was, in fact, a moment of rebellion against the British crown -- and against the notion of monarchical authority in general. 

The key, in the traditional American view, is to balance authority and freedom. We believe authority should be heeded when it's reasonable and fair -- and that it should be challenged when it's not.

Additionally, respect for authority is not solely a "white" value. It is, in fact, a global moral "taste bud". Ancient Chinese philosophy, for one thing, teaches respect for elders and superiors as a high virtue. But I suppose I can't expect you critical race theory grifters to have any genuine understanding of cultures beyond our own.

• Heavy value on ownership of goods, space, property

We respect private property, yes, and for good philosophical reasons. If we cannot keep the things we make and acquire through our own bodily and mental labor, there's zero incentive to do anything but lay around and eff off. Why bother to open up a business to serve your local community, for example, if the fruits of that effort will be destroyed by rioters and/or confiscated by central-planners? Sorry, but real human beings can't run on good feelings alone; they need tangible compensation for putting in their time.

Furthermore, in any place where private property has not been respected, violence against human beings has always followed. Please note: several people have already been murdered as a result of present-day disorders. A general tolerance for lawlessness is, right now, putting lives at risk. 

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