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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 21, 2024

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Any man who says he is American and something else is no American at all. Jews have, for thousands of years, maintained themselves within but separate from the nations in which they live and people therein. It is not I asserting they are not American, it is they, I am simply noticing it and agreeing.

I didn't always think this way about blacks, but then they emphatically told me otherwise, and so I take them at their word.

But that's kind of the point isn't it? Not all Jews or all black people agree they aren't American, certainly not by your definition. There is no-one who can speak for all black people in America, for you to take their word that they don't see themselves as American. Who is the "they" that told you otherwise? And does that mean that if I as a white person assert we are not Americans but rather Europeans, I should be taken to be speaking for you?

You see how that is a problem?