The Culture War: Dreams of a Better World

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Culture War: Dreams of a Better World

Seizure Meat: Jul 23, 2008; by Smythe

rudatron posted:

You're setting up a false dichotomy here, there are more than 2 sides to this conflict, in fact there are at least 4. Observe:

Alt-right: a mish-mash of the angry GOP base united behind anti-immigration rhetoric. While no doubt having white-supremacist and racists involved, it's not exactly clear as to what percentage of the alt-right they constitute, nor who is using who in this relationship. Are the racists running the game, or are they tools of other powerblocks?

Establishment-right: Neocons who are finding themselves increasingly out of touch with the most aggressive members of their base. What they will do in the future is not clear.

Establishment-left: The sinking stone that is dragging the whole left down with it. Arrogant, prideful, wasteful, but well connected, it is in reaction to this that the alt-right gains it's reason for existence.

The Left: Alternatively the cushion for the throne that the Establishment-left sits on, when they are in power, or their punching bag when things go wrong. Even now, after Clintons loss due to a lot of incompetence (and even after the most well funded campaign in history), the response of the est-Left has been to beat down on The Left. This means that this faction is currently in the most vulnerable position, having few real allies and low power. It's not clear whether or not they can overcome these hurdles.

There are also no poo poo people in the middle, centrists, independents whatever you'd like to call them. People who take a little from column A and a little from column B. I suspect these are the people who really stayed home in droves this past election and is a group both sides seem unwilling to engage on any serious level.

Also yeah that OP is kind of ponderous too because it opens like it's going to foster a discussion between the two sides and closes with a manifesto on what you think your opposition stands for. I would be surprised if any of the few conservatives on this forum engage you in this, and probably for good reason.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 16:07

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Seizure Meat: Jul 23, 2008; by Smythe

Brainiac Five posted:

Obviously someone benefits from it. To think otherwise is to be willfully stupid.

Some poor white guy in a trailer in Arkansas doesn't have time to think about whether or not he benefits from the intangibles of a racist system. He's just trying to figure out how he's going to eat dinner.

A problem with what you're saying is that guy doesn't give a gently caress. Never has, never will. So you can throw your book learnin' at him all day long and he's just gonna vote Republican because at least they talk to him on his level about things that affect him.

The left will never, ever understand this, I'm afraid.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 19:23

Seizure Meat: Jul 23, 2008; by Smythe

thechosenone posted:

I was saying that it hurt's them, but that they do not recognize it. If they did, it would cause them to change their behavior, and likely from there they would change their moral opinion.

One of the problems is the message being given to those people is one of "you benefit from a racist system and by default if you do not understand that at a base level, you are also a racist"

What that does is tell that person to ignore the message because as they know racism, they do not fit that definition. So the messenger is effectively "lying" to them.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 19:36

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