"I’m sorry I was born white and privileged. It disgusts me. And I feel so much shame,"

Fortunately, we built on the achievements of the Arabs, the Indians (zero!) and the Chinese (gunpowder, the compass, paper money).
These things we use in modern civilization will be discovered by any intelligent species if it reaches a certain level. The Mayas had a positional-exponential numbering system.
Where we got lucky was the industrial revolution/the market system -- so our societies didn't stagnate as all the others who achieved a high level of civilization did, but kept on prospering. We found a way, or it found us, to make being clever, profitable. An clever apprentice from a poor background could invent something, or do some intelligent investing in trade, and become rich. The old landowning aristocracy had to move over and make room for him.

Now this system is taking root, unevenly, in those other societies that made achievements and then fell back into stagnation and torpor. And it's all speeding up. Not just European and American, but Indian and Chinese and Iranian laboratories are working on the cure for cancer, better ways to generate electricity, etc etc etc. And in the last fifty years, we've doubled the numbers of those make inventions and discoveries and who bring them to market by opening their ranks to women.

If we can avoid having a big war with each other, using the clever new toys we've invented, then the sky is not the limit -- probably even the Kuiper Belt won't be the limit.

 

If the political Left doesn't like the host of names then perhaps they should cease coming up with new terms for themselves all the time.

 

Not with any comment that illuminates the discussion. So tell us what you are thinking, please.

 

I don't think this is always true.
James Baldwin (famous Black novelist) wrote that when he sees a skyscraper, he may not who who designed it, but he does know that it was not a Black person.
Arabs, Indians, Chinese ... can all look to past glories. But not all ethnic groupings can. Their great achievements, as a group, lie in the future, but this may be pretty thin consolation in the present. So all honor to those individuals of these groupings which get down to work and start making individual achievements, preparing the way for future glories. Self-hate is pointless and destructive.

 

Not that I recall. Can you be more specific?

 

That's on you then.

 

Okay, fair comment. Life is complex, non-linear, non-discrete, and probably every individual on the planet, if you examined his views on everything, would not be a perfect match with anyone else.

But ... we've got to talk about the world, and we only have discrete words, and not many of them at that, with which to do it.

There are clearly political differences in America, and clearly there are clusters of opinion, and close correlations among various views. Someone who is pro-abortion, and wants effectively open borders, and thinks the problems of Blacks are due to white racism, is unlikely to oppose gay marriage. Isn't it fair to say that person is on 'the Left'? Not necessarily the 'extreme Left', but on the Left.

So we need words to describe the political 'tribes' of America, to distinguish various kinds of Leftist from other kinds.

People on the Left don't seem to need decoder rings -- as I read the posts on this forum, at least, we on the Right are all white supremacists, fascists and neo-Nazis, or near enough to them as dammit.

But we need words to describe the Left. There are anarchists, communists, socialists of various sorts, traditional liberals (a dying breed). 'Leftists' and 'the Left' are basket-terms, which describe all of the previous.

You don't seem to be happy with those words. What words would you suggest?

 

Above we find "People on the Left don't seem to need decoder rings -- as I read the posts on this forum, at least, we on the Right are all white supremacists, fascists and neo-Nazis, or near enough to them as dammit."

Please prove that: be specific with examples of everyone not right deciding that you are all things.

 

I am sure she was in trouble for being racist a year or so ago and her show was dropped. When I saw this headline I thought or here we go its a White Nationalist pathetically goading those who are not. Next she will be telling us she is a traitor. The thread title is not something anyone would genuinely say. Fraud.

 

I'm talking evidence. No argumentum ad numeram.

 

She needs to learn some history:
The Mongols wiped out nearly half the Chinese population.
The Chinese were responsible for the bubonic plagues.
The Zulus had conscription armies and exterminated all other native races.
Nth American indians, if they developed tech first, would have destroyed Europe.
Cannibals were real, and quite nasty.
etc..

 

You don't have any evidence so you don't believe. Fair enough. Others have had different experiences. Some say there is an inexplicable spiritual world, others disagree. I'm not smart enough to know the truth but, like most everyone, I have my harmless beliefs..

 

The liberal dogoodery self pat on the back makes me sick.

They will never admit it, but they know that nearly everything they say is BS. The incredible part is how anyone could be a liberal after the age of 30. If so they have a strong victimhood complex brought on by their parents or a lack of social acceptance growing up. Nerds basically, but with an axe to grind.

- Sigmund Freud

 

I agree the US should ideally have not got involved, but Pearl Harbour complicates things. While WWII is complicated, WWI there was simply no excuse for your entering the war, Wilson deliberately manipulated you into it after campaigning as anti-war.

As for us, we were a British dominion. Britain declared war. We were obliged to join.

As someone who is both rabidly anti-war and anti-authoritarianism WWII is a challenge. Certainly I think that there was no justification for defending Polish sovereignty then handing them from the worst dictator of all time to the second worst for 50 years.

I don't think entrance to the war was justified unless we immedietly declared war on Stalin in the aftermath.

Moreover, it was 5 years before the Soviets developed a bomb.

 

You are forgetting, Hitler declared war on the U.S. The Roosevelt cabnet wasn't sure what to do about Germany after pearl. Hitler made it easy and made a big mistake.

 

This is the typical American liberal. It takes very little effort to hate yourself for being white. It takes a lot of effort to help the "disadvantaged".

 

All the liberals on these threads ask yourself, when is the last time you went to a shelter, tutored kids, volunteered in a community? Probably never!!

It is simply self serving feel good nonsense. The reality is that Christian and catholic organizations do more for the disadvantaged than liberals do.

Pit your time and energy where your mouth is. Hypocrisy!

 

Yesterday. Almost all of my friends do those things once or twice a week. George, you really have that wrong.

 

Two people I have issue with: anti-war and pro-war.
Everything is nuanced and complicated. Sometimes you have to fight, and
sometimes the terms of peace make sense. Don't take a principled stand
because sooner or later an exception to the rule will pop up.

 

You and your friends are the exception, not the rule.

 

My friends and I are pretty much the standard wherever I lived. In MN, the good guys go out in the cold and snow during the season to make sure the homeless are not going to die that night.

 

Isn't the internet fun?

 

NB I think war can be justified.

Just not recently.

 

What about:
Iran blocks the Straights to oil shipments?
China invades Taiwan?

 

This ^^^^ is called virtue signaling. It is meaningless - all words and no action. Beto O'Rourke has made a complete fool out of himself with similar self shaming.