It’s clear enough how it works when a marauding horde of horse-archers or even a gang of street toughs wins by intimidation; but even this is only possible under certain certain conditions.
But when that strategy works for crybabies complaining to teacher, then you have to ask what peculiar conditions did teacher create?
John McWhorter would say that the threat of being called a racist puts as much fear into people as the threat of being attacked by a marauding horde of horse-archers. But it seems that we could overcome the former fear by a simple act of will.
Good luck willing yourself out of a “hostile environment” lawsuit — these are of course ultimately undergirded by state power, of the old fashioned horse-archers-and-street-toughs kind. “But you’re unlikely to be a party to such a lawsuit” steppe raiders and gangs rely on their reputations to do most of their work for them, too.
I don’t think it’s constructive at all to engage in auto-demoralization over the fact that someone is successfully making you do things you don’t like without literally holding a knife to your throat. For one thing, it’s just a fact of the world not unique to any current situation and for another (by the way, people made to do things by the immediate threat of violence still often blame themselves anyway).
For another, it seems to interfere with even thinking about how things might be different. Of course sometimes thinking clearly about what’s going on is unpleasant: admitting that you’re being coerced by people with power and that the solution is to e.g. ditch the holy Civil Rights Act might be a tougher world to live in than one where “crybabies” just happen to win all the time because everybody else just doesn’t have enough gumption, dangit.
It does seem that at the end of the day, if someone really does nut up, the DOJ and Office of Civil Rights are always there to catch any runaway slaves.
Yes. McWhorter had part of the story, but it is not enough, exactly because individuals can overcome mere irrational fear if name calling.
The laws you cite are part of what makes those fears rational. I doubt they are the whole story either.
The treatment of Kyle Rittenhouse vs. Jacob Blake by the mainstream press.
One is a white nationalist terrorist while the other was an almost martyr. And, they continue to repeat it time after time.
Now, that’s social intimidation writ large.
Rittenhouse will be found not guilty on an (obvious) claim of self defense in all 3 instances. But, how much money will be spent to clear his name both in the criminal and civil matters?
They’ll get him on something like reckless endangerment for just being there with an ‘assault rifle”.
Which will accomplish their main purpose, “Kill a chicken to scare the monkeys.”
Nah. Completely legal to open carry a rifle in WI, even the super scary AR-15 (omgosh – someone call Beto!!!)
The best they have is on count 6: Unlawful Weapon Possession by a Minor, which is a misdemeanor. However, the statute in question is ambiguously vague.
There are charges for reckless endangerment (aka aggravated assault?). But, these aren’t likely to be sustained. Contrast the gun skills of Rittenhouse to those of the McCloskeys in MO. I’ve yet to see any video of Rittenhouse “muzzling” or other pointing his weapon at those not presenting a threat of grave bodily injury.
In any event, the trial will stand or fall on the Rosenbaum charge. It all flows from there. And the Rosenbaum charge appears to be complete bunk.
Sorry, but just to refresh everyone’s memory:
1) defending the self-defense actions of Rittenhouse were officially banned on social media, at least on Facebook.
2) raising legal funds for the Rittenhouse defense were officially banned by gofundme and others.
There should probably be more outrage by these actions than by anything else I’ve seen by the censors over the past 18 months, including all of the silly Covid hysteria censorship.
—“ John McWhorter would say that the threat of being called a racist puts as much fear into people as the threat of being attacked by a marauding horde of horse-archers. But it seems that we could overcome the former fear by a simple act of will.”—
If it was just name calling, then yes definitely.
But it’s more than that.
Terrifying as it is, going down in battle to defend your country or even your household has a noble and glorious element to it, and it’s over quickly.
Having your the potential for your livelihood destroyed and friends and family despising you, now that’s really tough to bear. It’s why the woke crowd keeps trying to make everything they don’t like racism, vs. racism as we all understood it until the day before yesterday.
Exactly. A better comparison would be to being hauled in front of Joe McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee.
To fight this threat we must either make it illegal to discriminate for politics in hiring and firing (and good luck proving that it happened), or start keeping our own lists so that we can shun employers who do.
McCarthy was a senator, he wasn’t on the HUAC.
McCarthy was a Senator. After the 1952 elections, he was made Chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations (the leadership didn’t want him on the Internal Security Subcommittee). He then used the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to continue his campaigns. But by the time he turned attention to the Army, he had made so many enemies with his reckless accusations (including President Eisenhower) that his Chairmanship was taken away and the Subcommittee investigated him (the Army-McCarthy hearings). His downfall came soon after.
From 1951-1954, the Chairs of HUAC were John S. Wood (D-Georgia), then Harold H. Velde (R-Illinois).
So the question remains. What has Teacher done?
As you show, McWhorter is only half right – people are afraid of being called names. But what are the conditions that make this such a fearful thing?