6 ms·

> It may not surprise you to learn that the Devoted Conservatives were the whitest of all seven groups (88% white), but would you have expected that the Progres

> It may not surprise you to learn that the Devoted Conservatives were the whitest of all seven groups (88% white), but would you have expected that the Progressive Activists were the second whitest (80%)? I am surprised that the author is surprised by this fact about the Progressive Activists. In my FAANG employer, the people who are always most offended, making denunciations of racism, sexism, -ism, etc. are highly educated whites. One of them told me in all seriousness that no white people should be allowed to do yoga or own yoga studios.

rajup 5y ago
I don't know about doing yoga, but when you have some studios promoting "goat" yoga or "beer" yoga or heaven knows what the latest abomination is, maybe he does have a point on the second one.
golemotron 5y ago
Naval Ravikant once referred to the culture wars as white on white violence.
- danrocks 5y ago
  Fabulously well put.
TMWNN 5y ago
>In my FAANG employer, the people who are always most offended, making denunciations of racism, sexism, -ism, etc. are highly educated whites. See, also, that famous photograph of Huffington Post employees (<https://www.mic.com/articles/144177/this-tweet-from-a-huffington-post-editor-shows-the-problem-with-white-feminism https://www.mic.com/articles/144177/this-tweet-from-a-huffin...>).
paganel 5y ago
As far as I can tell most of the black US population living in the poor parts of the American cities were really against the "Defund the police" message from the very beginning, the reason being that people living in there actually need the police more than the (generally white) middle-classes living in the more affluent suburbs.
- cyber_kinetist 5y ago
  When reading actual anecdotes about those riots against police brutality (which has occurred mainly in the Midwest cities, and quite regularly for numerous years, from much before the BLM protests), you start to have a very different picture of what’s really going on, that doesn’t get articulated in the mainstream media. From the book Hinterland by Phil A. Neel, talking about the Ferguson protests: “The perfect storm had been building for some time. Ferguson is at the bottom of the income spectrum and has acted as a sort of vanguard for the outward march of suburban poverty. Like many postwar suburbs, its heyday was in the 1950s and ’60s, which saw successive doublings of the population until it reached a peak of nearly 30,000 in 1970. Deindustrialization beginning in the ’70s was then matched with a continual drop in population to about 21,000 today, in line with St Louis’s historic population loss. As the city grew smaller and poorer, its racial demographics also flipped. As late as the 1990 Census, Ferguson was still 73.8 percent white and 25.1 percent black (close to the proportions of neighboring Florissant today), but by 2010 this situation had entirely reversed (to 29.3 percent white and 67.4 percent black). Inflation-adjusted income dropped, and unemployment doubled from around 5 percent in 2000 to an average of 13 percent between 2010 and 2012. The political establishment reflected this history. At the beginning of the riots, the city government was helmed by a white mayor, a white police chief, and five white and one Hispanic city council people. Combined with this, the dwindling population, fleeing industry, and plummeting property values had created a budgetary crisis, forcing many of the area’s small municipalities to rely less on their shrinking tax base and more on extra-tax fees and fines, enforced by the police and facilitated by the city’s arcane court system. The result was that Ferguson and similar suburbs existed in what the Huffington Post called “a totalizing police regime beyond any of Kafka’s ghastliest nightmares.” Out of a population of roughly 21,000, over 16,000 Ferguson residents had arrest warrants issued. And this number only counts individuals with warrants, not the total number of warrants. In 2013 this figure was a staggering 35,975, roughly 1.5 warrants per person in the city. These warrants were part of a complex racket designed to impose unrelenting fines on the poor population in order to fund the city government, which itself had largely been redesigned to facilitate this predatory practice. In 2013 fines, court fees, and other such extortions accounted for some 20 percent of the city’s budget. These fines were disproportionately applied to the city’s black residents, with black drivers twice as likely to be stopped, searched, and arrested as their white counterparts.”
m0zg 5y ago
Note as well that not a single one of them would "quit for equity" either. Do it, folks, practice what you preach. Free up some $300-500K/yr spots for minority hires, show some real leadership. Talk is cheap.
- Zababa 5y ago
  Or just give part of your income. If you make $300k, you can probably support at least 5 people by giving directly money. But often these people don't give money, they vote and speak a lot.
  - h2odragon 5y ago
    There's a significant difference between employing someone in a job where their accomplishments earn rewards; and "just giving them support money". "something given has no value" is the best expression ive come up with for it, and it sucks; but the principle seems to hold. People value what they earn, and resent what they are given.
    - xyzzy21 5y ago
      Absolutely. If you are NOT willing to commit your own wealth, time and money to ANY CAUSE, you are NOT SERIOUS ABOUT THE CAUSE. This is always the best test for ideological or belief commitment - are you will to prove your commitment with something you actually value or not. 99% of the time, a claimed position is not strong enough to pass that commitment test. One example was when I was taking a short-course at UCLA for "Nuclear Weapons Effects" for my job at the time. We had protesters there the first day plus a local TV station filming. Turns out that within less than 60 seconds of the TV cameras leaving, all 40 of the "dedicated peace protesters" were gone and no where to be seen. And they never showed up again for the rest of the week despite it being an 8 hour a day course for 5 days straight. The depth of their commitment to their so-called ideology was shallower than a puddle of water. A truly committed activist would have been there all 40 hours that week. There were none actually willing to commit their time. It was all a "virtue signal" without substance. What was more important than their "protest for peace"? Who knows - but it was probably as important in the grand scheme of anything as getting a latte or similar. Don't want to inconvenience a coffee break! It was then I came to recognize "losers" who yell and bully without any actual commitment to their position. It's most of the left and ALL of the woke!
evgen 5y ago
> In my FAANG employer, the people who are always most offended, making denunciations of racism, sexism, -ism, etc. are highly educated whites. This is what is called the availability bias. The vast majority of people in FAANG companies are white. Being white and (if you are at a FAANG this is mostly a given) rich provide them with the opportunity to explore and fight about some of the upper layers of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. People who are concerned about how they are going to pay rent next month do not have the luxury to push back against racism, sexism, or most other systemic problems that are beneath your notice.
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago
  Hmmm, maybe. There's a lot of Asian people at FAANGs too, certainly the more technical parts. Given that I had a similar experience when I worked at a FAANG, I suspect that it has something to do with them hiring lots and lots of grads, who may have been exposed to these sorts of worldviews during college. I'm not entirely disagreeing with the availability bias argument, but I don't think it's the entire reason for the OPs observation.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
xyzzy21 5y ago
Yes, this is amazing to watch. The lack of self-awareness particularly. Wokeness is an Elitist "Luxury Product" - it's a show of wealth, a show of position, and a show of virtue. Showing rank is especially necessary when the apparent value of the individual to society is unclear and uncertain. This is the replacement for physical luxury products to show rank and position. And that replacement is necessary because luxury goods have become cheap enough that any random "deplorable" can afford to buy them now. In general, the US has an inverted "Maslow pyramid" in terms of commodity cost and availability. And that's thanks to Chinese slave labor and outsourcing. Since most of the Elite class seeking these luxury products are exactly these "Highly educated white 1%", this should not a surprise. But of course most things humans do are NOT rational. And that includes group-think of the bubbles people often choose to live in.

rajup 5y ago

I don't know about doing yoga, but when you have some studios promoting "goat" yoga or "beer" yoga or heaven knows what the latest abomination is, maybe he does have a point on the second one.

golemotron 5y ago

Naval Ravikant once referred to the culture wars as white on white violence.

danrocks 5y ago
Fabulously well put.

TMWNN 5y ago

>In my FAANG employer, the people who are always most offended, making denunciations of racism, sexism, -ism, etc. are highly educated whites. See, also, that famous photograph of Huffington Post employees (<https://www.mic.com/articles/144177/this-tweet-from-a-huffington-post-editor-shows-the-problem-with-white-feminism https://www.mic.com/articles/144177/this-tweet-from-a-huffin...>).

paganel 5y ago

As far as I can tell most of the black US population living in the poor parts of the American cities were really against the "Defund the police" message from the very beginning, the reason being that people living in there actually need the police more than the (generally white) middle-classes living in the more affluent suburbs.

cyber_kinetist 5y ago
When reading actual anecdotes about those riots against police brutality (which has occurred mainly in the Midwest cities, and quite regularly for numerous years, from much before the BLM protests), you start to have a very different picture of what’s really going on, that doesn’t get articulated in the mainstream media. From the book Hinterland by Phil A. Neel, talking about the Ferguson protests: “The perfect storm had been building for some time. Ferguson is at the bottom of the income spectrum and has acted as a sort of vanguard for the outward march of suburban poverty. Like many postwar suburbs, its heyday was in the 1950s and ’60s, which saw successive doublings of the population until it reached a peak of nearly 30,000 in 1970. Deindustrialization beginning in the ’70s was then matched with a continual drop in population to about 21,000 today, in line with St Louis’s historic population loss. As the city grew smaller and poorer, its racial demographics also flipped. As late as the 1990 Census, Ferguson was still 73.8 percent white and 25.1 percent black (close to the proportions of neighboring Florissant today), but by 2010 this situation had entirely reversed (to 29.3 percent white and 67.4 percent black). Inflation-adjusted income dropped, and unemployment doubled from around 5 percent in 2000 to an average of 13 percent between 2010 and 2012. The political establishment reflected this history. At the beginning of the riots, the city government was helmed by a white mayor, a white police chief, and five white and one Hispanic city council people. Combined with this, the dwindling population, fleeing industry, and plummeting property values had created a budgetary crisis, forcing many of the area’s small municipalities to rely less on their shrinking tax base and more on extra-tax fees and fines, enforced by the police and facilitated by the city’s arcane court system. The result was that Ferguson and similar suburbs existed in what the Huffington Post called “a totalizing police regime beyond any of Kafka’s ghastliest nightmares.” Out of a population of roughly 21,000, over 16,000 Ferguson residents had arrest warrants issued. And this number only counts individuals with warrants, not the total number of warrants. In 2013 this figure was a staggering 35,975, roughly 1.5 warrants per person in the city. These warrants were part of a complex racket designed to impose unrelenting fines on the poor population in order to fund the city government, which itself had largely been redesigned to facilitate this predatory practice. In 2013 fines, court fees, and other such extortions accounted for some 20 percent of the city’s budget. These fines were disproportionately applied to the city’s black residents, with black drivers twice as likely to be stopped, searched, and arrested as their white counterparts.”

m0zg 5y ago

Note as well that not a single one of them would "quit for equity" either. Do it, folks, practice what you preach. Free up some $300-500K/yr spots for minority hires, show some real leadership. Talk is cheap.

Zababa 5y ago
Or just give part of your income. If you make $300k, you can probably support at least 5 people by giving directly money. But often these people don't give money, they vote and speak a lot.
- h2odragon 5y ago
  There's a significant difference between employing someone in a job where their accomplishments earn rewards; and "just giving them support money". "something given has no value" is the best expression ive come up with for it, and it sucks; but the principle seems to hold. People value what they earn, and resent what they are given.
  - xyzzy21 5y ago
    Absolutely. If you are NOT willing to commit your own wealth, time and money to ANY CAUSE, you are NOT SERIOUS ABOUT THE CAUSE. This is always the best test for ideological or belief commitment - are you will to prove your commitment with something you actually value or not. 99% of the time, a claimed position is not strong enough to pass that commitment test. One example was when I was taking a short-course at UCLA for "Nuclear Weapons Effects" for my job at the time. We had protesters there the first day plus a local TV station filming. Turns out that within less than 60 seconds of the TV cameras leaving, all 40 of the "dedicated peace protesters" were gone and no where to be seen. And they never showed up again for the rest of the week despite it being an 8 hour a day course for 5 days straight. The depth of their commitment to their so-called ideology was shallower than a puddle of water. A truly committed activist would have been there all 40 hours that week. There were none actually willing to commit their time. It was all a "virtue signal" without substance. What was more important than their "protest for peace"? Who knows - but it was probably as important in the grand scheme of anything as getting a latte or similar. Don't want to inconvenience a coffee break! It was then I came to recognize "losers" who yell and bully without any actual commitment to their position. It's most of the left and ALL of the woke!

evgen 5y ago

> In my FAANG employer, the people who are always most offended, making denunciations of racism, sexism, -ism, etc. are highly educated whites. This is what is called the availability bias. The vast majority of people in FAANG companies are white. Being white and (if you are at a FAANG this is mostly a given) rich provide them with the opportunity to explore and fight about some of the upper layers of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. People who are concerned about how they are going to pay rent next month do not have the luxury to push back against racism, sexism, or most other systemic problems that are beneath your notice.

disgruntledphd2 5y ago
Hmmm, maybe. There's a lot of Asian people at FAANGs too, certainly the more technical parts. Given that I had a similar experience when I worked at a FAANG, I suspect that it has something to do with them hiring lots and lots of grads, who may have been exposed to these sorts of worldviews during college. I'm not entirely disagreeing with the availability bias argument, but I don't think it's the entire reason for the OPs observation.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

xyzzy21 5y ago

Yes, this is amazing to watch. The lack of self-awareness particularly. Wokeness is an Elitist "Luxury Product" - it's a show of wealth, a show of position, and a show of virtue. Showing rank is especially necessary when the apparent value of the individual to society is unclear and uncertain. This is the replacement for physical luxury products to show rank and position. And that replacement is necessary because luxury goods have become cheap enough that any random "deplorable" can afford to buy them now. In general, the US has an inverted "Maslow pyramid" in terms of commodity cost and availability. And that's thanks to Chinese slave labor and outsourcing. Since most of the Elite class seeking these luxury products are exactly these "Highly educated white 1%", this should not a surprise. But of course most things humans do are NOT rational. And that includes group-think of the bubbles people often choose to live in.