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As a minority considered “disadvantaged” in the US I’d like to counter that there’s a lot more to the right than lack of empathy for minorities or fear. I’m ver

As a minority considered “disadvantaged” in the US I’d like to counter that there’s a lot more to the right than lack of empathy for minorities or fear. I’m very appreciative of the opportunities provided to me here and don’t appreciate the recent cultural tendency to privilege shame people or to look back on the history here as only cruel or exploitative. Trump saw the highest turnout among minorities for republicans in 60 years and it’s for a reason. I look back at Ben Franklin or Jefferson or Washington and feel inspired, I don’t think “oh, I’m not privileged I could never do what he did.” I can see people as products of their time and separate the good from the bad. As someone who grew up in an apartment shared between 2 families and worked my way up into college and the tech field I’m just shocked at how many people today have grown into learned helplessness and think that the system is so bad and irreparable that they need to vandalize and protest in cities for months. The left has done so much more to insult me and my appreciation for this country than the right, and it’s just tragic that they think they’re the only good guys. I really do believe that foreign interference to agitate our society is real, as discussed by Tristan Harris in his interview by Joe Rogan, and it’s convinced millions of young Americans that they’re somehow resisting literal Nazis.

cauthon 6y ago
> literal Nazis Is it all the swastikas? Maybe it’s all the swastikas. It’s disingenuous to suggest that far-right extremists aren’t dominating the messaging from the right, and that Donald Trump isn’t amplifying them.
- jonsno56 6y ago
  Agree - Literal swastikas. In America, a country whose most patriotic war was the one where we kicked the shit out of swastikas
- saargrin 6y ago
  many people who have nothing to do with swastikas have been called literally nazis including myself,an israeli jew
  - markdown 6y ago
    To be fair, certain Israeli jews are the most Nazi-like people on the planet. Do you perhaps support an Israeli government that's engaged in apartheid and other Nazi-like behaviour.
    - andi999 6y ago
      Nah, Israeli are cool. The left just doesnt like it that they (generally) do not have a victim mentality.
      - amanaplanacanal 6y ago
        Not sure what “victim mentality” is trying to imply. Sometimes people really are victims. Did European Jews during WW2 have a “victim mentality”, by your standards?
        andi999 6y ago
        No, obviously they were victims. Victim mentality is something different: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_mentality https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_mentality
      - markdown 6y ago
        Are you responding to someone else? I don't understand your reference to "the left". I certainly didn't say anything about directions. I agree that Israel the state does not have a victim mentality. Like the Hitler's Germany.
  - drran 6y ago
    National socialism is philosophy, which can be applied everywhere, including Israeli. If somebody thinks that his nation is "gifted", while others are not, so government must support gifted people and punish other peoples, then it's National Socialism, regardless of country and nationality.
    - 6y ago
- raarts 6y ago
  It's also disingenuous to suggest the extreme left isn't dominating the messaging from the left. The extremes tend to dominate the messaging on both sides. And frankly, the internet being dominated by younger people, there is a good case to be made that the extreme left's voices are louder.
  - romanoderoma 6y ago
    What you call extreme left in USA is barely center left in any other country in the west What is called far right in USA is the same thing we call neo-fascism anywhere else In US a socialist party is unimaginable, in Germany it is the largest party of the center left, same in Italy, France, Spain, Scandinavia So probably the bias comes from living in a country that's leaning towards the right in its entirety @moderators: have I earned the automatic downvote? Whatever I post shows zero points as soon as it is posted.
    - raarts 6y ago
      That used to be the case, but it has changed. The last 10 years the extreme left in the US has shifted left, passing even the European left, at least according to Pew[1]. I don't think this particular report mentions the European part, can't find that right now, but they mentioned it in another report on it. I would like to add that the Critical Race Theory (where DEI originates from) is only recently starting to get traction in for example The Netherlands, traditionally an already pretty left-leaning country. [1] https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2017/10/05162647/10-05-2017-Political-landscape-release.pdf https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/20...
      - romanoderoma 6y ago
        But that doesn't mean that the Democratic party message comes from the far left. Biden can't pronounce the word "free healthcare" for fear of losing votes. That's what I was contesting: far right is right at the centre of the political scene side by side with Trump, far left is not because it has no direct representation in the political system. Unless you consider someone like Sanders a far left extremists, which is not. Far left movements are mostly extra-parliamentary
- Proziam 6y ago
  I'm conservative. I'm active on social media. I don't see what you're talking about at all. My feed is constantly being inundated with "We need to make lists of every trump supporter" and similar, but never do I see the supposed ultra-widespread nazi/alt-right hate. Trump, for all his flaws, has disavowed white supremacy so many times it hurts to watch and even the most famous "very fine people" quote was [0] taken out of context (if you can call that anything but an outright lie, frankly). The membership of racist organizations like the KKK is small, vanishingly small. It's not even .1% of Trumps base. [1] And, more importantly, it's shrinking. It has been for a very long time. [1]Despite their diminishing numbers, there are still approximately 3,000 Klan members nationwide, as well an additional but unknown number of associates and supporters. Even with relatively small numbers, groups like the North Carolinabased Loyal White Knights (LWK), perhaps the most active Klan group in the United States today, have a fairly expansive geographical reach. In 2015, with just 150-200 members, they were able to draw attention to themselves in 15 different states (mostly in the south and east), typically through fliering, which requires only a single participant. [2][3] It is a matter of public record that Biden supported segregationists, voted against integration-supporting policies like bussing (which Kamala Harris roasted him for repeatedly), and pushed legislation that disproportionately harmed black folks. Ultimately, there's plenty of good reasons to dislike Trump that are completely and unarguably valid. Covid, John Bolton, numerous conflicts of interest (like using personal assets for the military and government functions) are a small piece of that. But calling Trump racist or a nazi is just taking the bait that his political opponents have set out. In my personal opinion, Biden is the worse choice for president purely on the basis of his likelihood of supporting additional war efforts (whereas Trump is the first president in 40 years not to start a new war - AND has helped bring about a series of peace treaties in the middle east.) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZfzJATDmXs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZfzJATDmXs [1] https://www.adl.org/education/resources/reports/state-of-the-kkk https://www.adl.org/education/resources/reports/state-of-the... [2] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/joe-biden-record-on-busing-incarceration-racial-justice-democratic-primary-2020-explained.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/joe-biden-record-on-... [3] https://www.npr.org/2020/10/14/920385802/biden-vows-to-ease-racial-divisions-heres-his-record https://www.npr.org/2020/10/14/920385802/biden-vows-to-ease-...
  - 6y ago
- mlindner 6y ago
  > Is it all the swastikas? Maybe it’s all the swastikas. The only swastikas I've seen are on public bathroom stalls and I've seen them for many many years and they haven't increased in frequency in recent years. Increase in visibility isn't equivalent to increase in frequency.
pmachinery 6y ago
> I’m just shocked at how many people today have grown into learned helplessness and think that the system is so bad and irreparable that they need to vandalize and protest in cities for months. It's quite right to be shocked so many people protested, because it's a strong signal that there's something drastically wrong with the system; something that nobody has any problem understanding and accepting when protests occur in other countries.
- amanaplanacanal 6y ago
  Aren’t the only countries where people don’t protest in cities for months totalitarian ones? Having protests seems to me to be a sign of a free country.
- jayko 6y ago
  Outrage is contagious. It doesn't help that politicians bait people into getting outraged (Trump on the right, Sanders & AOC likes on the left). Build enough outrage and people will protest, doesn't mean it's justified or rational. It's very easy to get brainwashed into believing that the inherent unfairness of life is somehow a product of 'the system'. Do you know who gets outraged and 'protest' regularly? Children.
hackyhacky 6y ago
It's great that you feel empowered and have been successful in this country. Lots of minorities haven't been, and for reasons outside of their control, based in historical inequalities. The fundamental problem of the entitled right is that they can't imagine that other people have had different experiences than they have, and therefore attribute their disadvantaged state to "victim mentality."
- AnHonestComment 6y ago
  Telling minority individuals they don’t understand the experience of minorities and thinking you’re not a racist, lol. The left is insanely racist: just look at how Joe Biden said if you don’t vote for him, you’re a bad black — or that lady said the same to 50cent. I can’t even imagine being so racist you’d say that to someone, but hey — that’s who Democrats wanted for president.
- nec4b 6y ago
  The fundamental problem of the entitled left is unchecked imagination of other people experiences completely divorced from daily realities of those people. You have someone from a minority describing his experience to you and you feel the need to put him in his place immediately because there is an unknown number of people who have it worse. The entitled right at least donates a lot of money to charities (more than anybody else in the world) and helps a lot of people through various kinds of organizations. But hey if you say they can't image other people's experiences than it must be so.
  - hackyhacky 6y ago
    Charity is not a substitute for social justice. My understanding of other people's experiences is not based on imagination. I've been there. I've seen it. Have you?
    - blub 6y ago
      Guilt tripping and emotional blackmail is not a path to social justice or any kind of justice. It's a dead end.

cauthon 6y ago

> literal Nazis Is it all the swastikas? Maybe it’s all the swastikas. It’s disingenuous to suggest that far-right extremists aren’t dominating the messaging from the right, and that Donald Trump isn’t amplifying them.

jonsno56 6y ago
Agree - Literal swastikas. In America, a country whose most patriotic war was the one where we kicked the shit out of swastikas
saargrin 6y ago
many people who have nothing to do with swastikas have been called literally nazis including myself,an israeli jew
- markdown 6y ago
  To be fair, certain Israeli jews are the most Nazi-like people on the planet. Do you perhaps support an Israeli government that's engaged in apartheid and other Nazi-like behaviour.
  - andi999 6y ago
    Nah, Israeli are cool. The left just doesnt like it that they (generally) do not have a victim mentality.
    - amanaplanacanal 6y ago
      Not sure what “victim mentality” is trying to imply. Sometimes people really are victims. Did European Jews during WW2 have a “victim mentality”, by your standards?
      - andi999 6y ago
        No, obviously they were victims. Victim mentality is something different: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_mentality https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_mentality
    - markdown 6y ago
      Are you responding to someone else? I don't understand your reference to "the left". I certainly didn't say anything about directions. I agree that Israel the state does not have a victim mentality. Like the Hitler's Germany.
- drran 6y ago
  National socialism is philosophy, which can be applied everywhere, including Israeli. If somebody thinks that his nation is "gifted", while others are not, so government must support gifted people and punish other peoples, then it's National Socialism, regardless of country and nationality.
  - 6y ago
raarts 6y ago
It's also disingenuous to suggest the extreme left isn't dominating the messaging from the left. The extremes tend to dominate the messaging on both sides. And frankly, the internet being dominated by younger people, there is a good case to be made that the extreme left's voices are louder.
- romanoderoma 6y ago
  What you call extreme left in USA is barely center left in any other country in the west What is called far right in USA is the same thing we call neo-fascism anywhere else In US a socialist party is unimaginable, in Germany it is the largest party of the center left, same in Italy, France, Spain, Scandinavia So probably the bias comes from living in a country that's leaning towards the right in its entirety @moderators: have I earned the automatic downvote? Whatever I post shows zero points as soon as it is posted.
  - raarts 6y ago
    That used to be the case, but it has changed. The last 10 years the extreme left in the US has shifted left, passing even the European left, at least according to Pew[1]. I don't think this particular report mentions the European part, can't find that right now, but they mentioned it in another report on it. I would like to add that the Critical Race Theory (where DEI originates from) is only recently starting to get traction in for example The Netherlands, traditionally an already pretty left-leaning country. [1] https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2017/10/05162647/10-05-2017-Political-landscape-release.pdf https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/20...
    - romanoderoma 6y ago
      But that doesn't mean that the Democratic party message comes from the far left. Biden can't pronounce the word "free healthcare" for fear of losing votes. That's what I was contesting: far right is right at the centre of the political scene side by side with Trump, far left is not because it has no direct representation in the political system. Unless you consider someone like Sanders a far left extremists, which is not. Far left movements are mostly extra-parliamentary
Proziam 6y ago
I'm conservative. I'm active on social media. I don't see what you're talking about at all. My feed is constantly being inundated with "We need to make lists of every trump supporter" and similar, but never do I see the supposed ultra-widespread nazi/alt-right hate. Trump, for all his flaws, has disavowed white supremacy so many times it hurts to watch and even the most famous "very fine people" quote was [0] taken out of context (if you can call that anything but an outright lie, frankly). The membership of racist organizations like the KKK is small, vanishingly small. It's not even .1% of Trumps base. [1] And, more importantly, it's shrinking. It has been for a very long time. [1]Despite their diminishing numbers, there are still approximately 3,000 Klan members nationwide, as well an additional but unknown number of associates and supporters. Even with relatively small numbers, groups like the North Carolinabased Loyal White Knights (LWK), perhaps the most active Klan group in the United States today, have a fairly expansive geographical reach. In 2015, with just 150-200 members, they were able to draw attention to themselves in 15 different states (mostly in the south and east), typically through fliering, which requires only a single participant. [2][3] It is a matter of public record that Biden supported segregationists, voted against integration-supporting policies like bussing (which Kamala Harris roasted him for repeatedly), and pushed legislation that disproportionately harmed black folks. Ultimately, there's plenty of good reasons to dislike Trump that are completely and unarguably valid. Covid, John Bolton, numerous conflicts of interest (like using personal assets for the military and government functions) are a small piece of that. But calling Trump racist or a nazi is just taking the bait that his political opponents have set out. In my personal opinion, Biden is the worse choice for president purely on the basis of his likelihood of supporting additional war efforts (whereas Trump is the first president in 40 years not to start a new war - AND has helped bring about a series of peace treaties in the middle east.) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZfzJATDmXs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZfzJATDmXs [1] https://www.adl.org/education/resources/reports/state-of-the-kkk https://www.adl.org/education/resources/reports/state-of-the... [2] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/joe-biden-record-on-busing-incarceration-racial-justice-democratic-primary-2020-explained.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/joe-biden-record-on-... [3] https://www.npr.org/2020/10/14/920385802/biden-vows-to-ease-racial-divisions-heres-his-record https://www.npr.org/2020/10/14/920385802/biden-vows-to-ease-...
- 6y ago
mlindner 6y ago
> Is it all the swastikas? Maybe it’s all the swastikas. The only swastikas I've seen are on public bathroom stalls and I've seen them for many many years and they haven't increased in frequency in recent years. Increase in visibility isn't equivalent to increase in frequency.

pmachinery 6y ago

> I’m just shocked at how many people today have grown into learned helplessness and think that the system is so bad and irreparable that they need to vandalize and protest in cities for months. It's quite right to be shocked so many people protested, because it's a strong signal that there's something drastically wrong with the system; something that nobody has any problem understanding and accepting when protests occur in other countries.

amanaplanacanal 6y ago
Aren’t the only countries where people don’t protest in cities for months totalitarian ones? Having protests seems to me to be a sign of a free country.
jayko 6y ago
Outrage is contagious. It doesn't help that politicians bait people into getting outraged (Trump on the right, Sanders & AOC likes on the left). Build enough outrage and people will protest, doesn't mean it's justified or rational. It's very easy to get brainwashed into believing that the inherent unfairness of life is somehow a product of 'the system'. Do you know who gets outraged and 'protest' regularly? Children.

hackyhacky 6y ago

It's great that you feel empowered and have been successful in this country. Lots of minorities haven't been, and for reasons outside of their control, based in historical inequalities. The fundamental problem of the entitled right is that they can't imagine that other people have had different experiences than they have, and therefore attribute their disadvantaged state to "victim mentality."

AnHonestComment 6y ago
Telling minority individuals they don’t understand the experience of minorities and thinking you’re not a racist, lol. The left is insanely racist: just look at how Joe Biden said if you don’t vote for him, you’re a bad black — or that lady said the same to 50cent. I can’t even imagine being so racist you’d say that to someone, but hey — that’s who Democrats wanted for president.
nec4b 6y ago
The fundamental problem of the entitled left is unchecked imagination of other people experiences completely divorced from daily realities of those people. You have someone from a minority describing his experience to you and you feel the need to put him in his place immediately because there is an unknown number of people who have it worse. The entitled right at least donates a lot of money to charities (more than anybody else in the world) and helps a lot of people through various kinds of organizations. But hey if you say they can't image other people's experiences than it must be so.
- hackyhacky 6y ago
  Charity is not a substitute for social justice. My understanding of other people's experiences is not based on imagination. I've been there. I've seen it. Have you?
  - blub 6y ago
    Guilt tripping and emotional blackmail is not a path to social justice or any kind of justice. It's a dead end.