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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025

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And I oppose continued running in that opposite direction. In the data, the groups are getting smaller in absolute terms, although they may be forming larger and more robust coalitions (around identity characteristics, which I obviously oppose). That trump made historic gains with minorities shows that its not an insuperable boundary. Urban/rural, BA/no-degree, costal/center, religious, and economic categories usually show a wider disparity than almost all identity labels. This is the norm for all of US history. North/south, and urban/rural divides go back to de Tocqueville, and arguably back 14th century Irish cracker culture, which would appear in the American south. Over the past few decades blacks have probably lost more than they've gained from in-group and party loyalties. I don't wish that on anyone. But having been governed under wildly disparate laws for centuries, this at least made sense. And even then only for a handful of decades.

People of every political persuasion have long cared about poor whites by dint of caring about poor people generally. Both black and white poors have often been derided in the culture, but those hurt feelings don't beggar a policy response. As far back as 1900 there were assistance programs for poor, disproportionally white Southerners which they often pridefully rejected (talking about hookworm eradication here). Blacks were often squeezed out of such assistance (their current welfare dependency notwithstanding). More recently, technology led to globalization, which hurt specific, largely white, regions. Industrial and trade policy should care just as much about the blacks in Detroit as the whites in Appalachia. Both got screwed. Otherwise you necessarily invite useless arguments over relative privation, apparently extending all the way to 1619. Its lunacy.

My advice to black America has long been "Yeah, you got historically screwed. But rest assured, help is very much not on its way. Therefore, just copy Asians where possible." Its no different for whites. There was a brief window where idpol achieved something useful. Trump rescinding Johnsons EO is good precisely because the policy has been bassackwards for decades. The territory is that certain people need specific policy to serve their interests. This is normal. But race is a bad map.