Of all the schisms that cleave contemporary America, few are more stark than the divide between those who consider themselves to be victims of US history and those who fear they will be casualties of its future.

  • OccamsRazer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    36
    ·
    12 days ago

    Based on op comment, I thought it was going to be an objective assessment of different views and perspectives, but it obviously isn’t. Maybe that was my bad assumption.

    • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      12 days ago

      In what way? The article mainly presents historical facts, not ideological theories. And when it does present theories, it does so within the historical context surrounding it. That was the whole point of the article, that one’s view of history directly relates to their political leaning. If you want to be fair and balanced but refuse to acknowledge that one side is clearly doing more criminal/immoral acts and/or just straight up lying than the other party, then you’re not being fair at all; you’re giving false credibility to an obvious conman simply because you don’t want to admit you’ve been played

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        23
        ·
        12 days ago

        Yeah, historical accuracy is implicitly anti-Conservative. Before you know it you’ll be asking for such biased things as “evidence” and “accountability”.

      • OccamsRazer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        31
        ·
        12 days ago

        I don’t believe in putting the worst possible spin and interpretation on one person or party and giving the other a complete pass. I was hoping for an objective assessment of conservatives motives and beliefs, but it was pretty much the same old “conservatives are racist”. Trying to distill it down to racism is ignorant at best, but is more likely just another opinion piece with an agenda. Is Trump tapping into nationalist tendencies? Well yeah, but that’s not what characterizes conservatives in general, and it’s not racist in and of itself. Nationalism isn’t necessarily racist (though it can be, and to some it is), specifically it’s pride in what the nation stands for and what is required to maintain the nation the way it is. Or at least the essence that makes the nation. Again, to some this has racism at its roots, but to most (in my experience), it’s about ideals and values that are irrelevant of race. What do you think are the core differences between progressives and conservatives? What is the true, fundamental difference in world view between one who is conservative and one who is progressive?

        • barsquid@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          11 days ago

          Regressives are racist, though. They specifically chose to be racist theocrats as part of Southern Strategy. They ran a racist who said Mexicans are rapists and thieves (ironically he is a rapist and a thief). They are currently running a racist who is saying Haitian people are stealing pets and eating them.

          “This article is too biased because it correctly presents the racist nationalism party as participating in racist nationalism.”

        • stoned_ape@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          11 days ago

          The current GOP is still entrenched in their Southern Strategy. To quote Lee Atwater:

          Y’all don’t quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, “removed, removed, removed.” By 1968 you can’t say “removed”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “removed, removed.”

          This plus fundamentalist Christianity is the basis of the modern GOP playbook, only now it’s Latinos that are the target, at least moreso than blacks

          Sure we can’t distill it down to just racism since the GOP has become so entrenched with the religious right, so let’s just call it Christofascist Racism, but let’s not ignore 60 years of Republican racism and bullshit

          Edit: Lemmy blocks the n-word even when it’s a direct quote, but Atwater was using that derogatory term for blacks in the above quote

          • OccamsRazer@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            11 days ago

            That’s just demagoguery. There’s a guy I know who thinks progressives hate America and everything they do is for the sole purpose of destroying it. It’s like that. I get that it’s far simpler to reduce your (political) enemies that way, but it’s lazy and uninteresting to me.

            • stoned_ape@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              11 days ago

              Your guy isn’t in the inner circle of the highest ranking members of a party. Atwater was, and refer to the quote above. Rather than being overt, they couch the racism in other terms, but it’s the same terms.

              Since the 1960s and the ERA and Nixon, racism and fear-of-the-Other has been intrinsic to the Republican party.

              Like… Per their own words. In the quote I referenced. From someone in the inner circle of the Republican party, and who helped them get elected. How? By preying on the fear-of-the-Other ie racism