Monday, October 5, 2020

Sanctified by group identity

The thing called 'the Left' does this well.  Pick a group, designate it a victim group, declare it to be the most victimized group ever, insist no Jew in a gas chamber ever suffered the way a billionaire CEO born into wealth who is from that victimized group ever did.  Then more or less dismiss the possibility that anyone from that group could be accountable or responsible for a negative thought or action. 

That's that.  That's what is lamely known as 'identity politics' nowadays.  Back during the Gay "Marriage" juggernaut, it was gays who alone suffered in history.  All of history could be understood as gay suffering at the hands of Christianity (which, apparently, was the only thing in history that didn't celebrate gay).  No slave in leg irons or woman raped in a lonely, isolated field could know the true horror of being gay in the Christian West. And no gay ever did anything wrong, or at least in any way that was connected to being gay.

In 2016, when MeToo# became politically expedient, all of history became The Handmaid's Tale.  The reason why women can't have it all, be all CEOs and stay at home mothers at the same time, is because all of history is a giant patriarchal conspiracy to make the world a giant sexist, misogynist conspiracy against women.  From asking a woman to smile to asking her on a date, it was all rape and assault and discrimination.  Even a black man could be assumed to be a rapist if so accused - not because he's black (too Jim Crow), but because he's a man (#MeToo approves).  And women themselves?  It must be true because not having everything they want couldn't be because of anything they did, they're always pure, always honest and always the victim.  No Jew in a gas chamber ever suffered as women did throughout the ages by virtue of women in a vast, misogynistic conspiracy.

Now the designated identity label is Racism.  Racism against blacks.  Racism by whites against blacks.  In fact, all whites are racist, are defined as racist, are nothing but racists, are blood libel for all racism committed by whites ever - who alone can be racist - and, of course, blacks do nothing wrong, are not accountable for their choices or actions, and anything they do is because racism.  This, of course, being only in America, which is 100% defined by its racism and nothing else. And more than that, a black living in luxury, born in luxury, commanding the livelihoods of thousands of others (including whites, many who may be struggling to get by), is still the true victim. 

So horrible is this that at my sons' college, a comments thread on their university social platform had to be removed.  Why?  Because a well known case from a few years ago of a college student who was white, and who was kidnapped and brutally raped and murdered by a black man who was let go out of incarceration in an attempt to rectify the systemic racism in our court system, came into the debate about BLM.  Turns out some students argued that it was wrong to say she was raped.  Sure, it was horrible what happened, and from what my sons said, nobody suggested otherwise. But saying she was 'raped' and murdered is wrong, since rape is about power.  Apparently even as she gasped her last breaths alone in that field, at the mercy of her rapist and murderer, she still had the privilege, so try 'sexually assaulted' or 'violated', but not raped.  She had the power and the privilege after all. 

Yes, it was removed, and I guess that's something, even though I don't support college censorship today. But it was indicative of what we're seeing and where things are logically going.  This was a closed forum for the college students, and that's what was being said, and believed by those who will be in the societal driver's seat in years to come.  

And that's the power of the Left.  I know there can still be racism, probably driven by many of the big industries and organizations pounding the drum on how racist and evil we are.  Just like there can be sexism.  Or there can be persecution of people who act on their same sex attraction.  Or racism against whites, or persecution of Christians without needing it to be gas chambers.  Evil and sin happen.  

The Left, however, makes it ever and always about the latest Group A vs. Group B, and is able to change just who those labels apply to at the drop of a hat. I thought of that as I saw this interview by Steven Gredanus with Damon Clark Owens. I won't get into the whole thing, but one thing jumped out at me:

“I don’t know why I can’t get this loan; I’ve got an 816 credit score. I’ve got a house that’s worth $500,000, and all my neighbors sell their houses for $6- or $700,000. Or when the third Black family moves into the neighborhood and all of a sudden all these ‘For Sale’ signs go up — is it a coincidence? I don’t know. I take down my pictures of my Black family and my house sold in two weeks after being on the market for six months. These things aren’t just the whining minority.”

You see that?  It could only be racism that he was unable to sell his three quarter of a million dollar home for anything more than a half million dollars.  

Now, perhaps it's my vantage point, but I think some whites struggling to provide food for their children, keep a roof over their heads, or afford the basic necessities of life - and who may be mocked, ridiculed or discriminated against by various outlets due to their station in life - might have a hard time sympathizing with a black man whose suspected experience with racism is due to his inability to get all of the $750,000.00 he thinks his home is worth.  See multi-millionaire, raised in wealth and privilege Colin Kaepernick for an even better example.  

And yet, the Left says the racism and skin color are all that matters.  Nothing else could be the reason he didn't get what he wanted, and it's the only thing that defines him and his experience.  His suffering in that transaction alone is lamentable in our nation today, and we can immediately judge the reasons it happened this way, as easily as a German could judge a Jew in the 1930s.  That man unable to sell his near million dollar home for top dollar is the true scandal of the age, and a million white people starving is not even relevant at this point.  And so many Catholics and Catholic leaders apparently approve this message.

That is the power of the Left.  What will the next designated people demographic group be?  Which group will become 100% victim whose victimhood defines all of history, and is absolved from all responsibility or assumptions of guilt or culpability?  Who knows.  Whichever it is, however, I'm sure we've seen just which Catholics and Catholic leaders will jump on the bandwagon.  After all, we've been watching Catholics jump on this sort of bandwagon for centuries. 

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