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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   24998 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025

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Is it just "white people advocating for themselves BAD"

When has Bannon advocated for white people?

so what exactly is the detestable portion of "national socialism" in the current political context? Is it just "white people advocating for themselves BAD" all the way down?

Don't be obtuse - unless you aren't being, in which case this betrays a spectacular lack of imagination. In the first place, outside some extremely niche corners of the internet antisemitism it still entirely unacceptable in mainstream society or left-wing politics. Even the more vociferous critics of Israel who may stray, in some people's view, into antisemitism would still openly condemn the latter (and indeed might even riposte with their own accusation that conflating Israel with Jews is antisemitic). In any case, even if one entirely discounts that there's still plenty left to find 'detestable' - what most of the comparison are gesturing towards is authoritarian government. That is, though for now institutional guardrails are up to the task of preventing such circumstances from arising, Trump wants total deference from all levels of culture and media, and thinks that liberal democracy is a scam which keeps power out of the hands of the Real People of the Nation (even if his conception is not racial in the same way), for whom he speaks and therefore any result which is not a victory for him is necessarily illegitimate.

Even the more vociferous critics of Israel who may stray, in some people's view, into antisemitism would still openly condemn the latter

This means nothing though. Plenty of racists will openly condemn racism, because it's obviously the smart thing to do. Defending someone or yourself against charges of antisemitism by saying they/you condemn anti-semitism is particularly weak, now there's the convenient label of "Anti-Zionist" to hide behind. I think even Hamas are claiming they're not anti-semitic these days.

Surely when the online left calls people Nazis they mean "white supremacist" and not "anti-Semitic" (not that the hypocrisy of the statement isn't absurd)

And of course "white supremacist" has also lost all meaning. Do you want to enforce laws? Do you want kids to learn to read? Those are literally white supremacist beliefs, according to the online left.

We don't have to care. We need to simply ignore these people and route around them.

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