The World's Contempt For Jordan Peterson Is Perfectly Rational
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Can I ask you a sincere question?
Is it a bigger scandal and shame for a black child to be growing up in a building with high levels of lead poisoning, and to be sent to an underperforming and underfunded public high school, than it is for a white child to experience the same?
For what it's worth I dislike Jordan Peterson. I also agree with the author of this article when they state that Barack Obama was in no way an advocate for identity politics, and that, if anything, he was attempting to unite people across the race, gender, and sexuality barriers (as a side point, I think Trump is in fact more responsible for the rise in identity politics than Obama, in that his racist, misogynist, xenophobic, Islamophobic and homo/transphobic agenda has provoked a push-back). But why defend Obama for eschewing identity politics, and then proceed to argue in its favour?
if you think Donald Trump is a racist,
you've never seen his hit TV show "The Celebrity Apprentice" where he mingles with, laughs with, and praises people of all colors and genders,
he is a man of all the people who just so happens to be wealthy
I have seen all the episodes of The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, he disparaged the vast majority of females and constantly ridiculed and attacked Omarosa and Holly Robinson Peete (both worked their rear-ends off). He also mindlessly slobbered all over Dennis Rodman, who did nothing and admitted to not wanting to do anything and should have been fired Day 1, as well as Clint Black, who refused to acknowledge a child he had out of wedlock. What a "real man".
shareomorosa was a conniving, backstabbing, racist cheater - he had every right to insult or treat her as she had treated others,
HRP was in over her head - he had every right to belittle her and make her feel out of place (she was not ready to play with the big boys),
Dennis was and is an enigmatic figure - powerful people always are attracted to items or things they cannot understand nor obtain,
clint black was a hard worker and never was afraid to get his hands dirty - Trump values a good work ethic
If Omorosa is so terrible, why did Drump hire her to work in his administration?
Because she's the only black person he knew? Or because he's a really crap judge of character?
"If Omorosa is so terrible, why did Drump hire her to work in his administration?"
Because she was a real Trump supporter and he knew her work ethic, he knew she destroyed everybody that particular season, he gave her a second chance previously (she was on The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice), he hired her as a reward for driving up his show ratings and for how badly he treated her, he owed her one
Sexist racist profane cheater Piers Morgan and Trump double-teamed Omorosa because she was humiliating and beating Trump's friend Piers Morgan
Holly Robinson Pete was humiliating everybody all series long with her creativity, upstaging Trump friend Bret Michaels every step of the way (and that was despite her team always losing, she was upstaging the clients themselves with her artistic output), Trump relentlessly abused her yet he repeatedly failed to come up with a good reason to fire her until near the end of that season
Clinton Black didn't do anything, his team was garbage, it was Annie Duke and Joan Rivers who dominated that entire season, along with Melissa Rivers, those three females worked themselves to death the entire season, he attacked Khloe Kardashian for a drinking-and-driving arrest, and attacked Annie Duke and Melissa Rivers, that was the season Trump slobbered on a very visibly drunken Dennis Rodman, who was drunk the entire time and did nothing and wanted to be fired.
It's the bigger scandal (African-American children) for what should be obvious reasons, environmental racism/ racist ecology/toxic inequality against both African-Americans and Native Americans has been historically practised at the local/state/federal level.
Obama did not in any way eschew identity politics, he utilized identity politics to try to do exactly what you said - "unite people across the race, gender, and sexuality barriers."
Identity politics is like special interest groups, they are both an American political tradition. All politics is identity politics.
So, if a white child is impoverished, abused, suffering the impact of environmental damage, and attending a failing school, that is a much lesser problem than where a black child is experiencing the same?!?
It's precisely this rhetoric that is pushing so many whites, who should be natural Democrats, or would have been a couple of generations back, to Trump.
They feel that even where they are poor and struggling, liberals do not care about them, or feel that their problems are their own doing.
Also, when so many white people start identifying as black and Native American, and claiming hardship for their racial heritage, such as the white business owner who sued for government assistance on account of his very distant non-white blood, it makes a mockery of identity politics.
If identity politics were to truly support the people who were really at the tail-end of systemic racism and bigotry, that would be one thing, but when whites are exploiting it to their own advantage, it shows what a joke the concept has become.
Simply focus on addressing poverty and eradicating systemic bigotry, in all its forms. It's much simpler and it tends to target the people who most need help.
Does Oprah, as a black woman, need more government support, because of her identity, than some white boy living in a shack in rural Appalachia?
"So, if a white child is impoverished, abused, suffering the impact of environmental damage, and attending a failing school, that is a much lesser problem than where a black child is experiencing the same?!?
It's precisely this rhetoric that is pushing so many whites, who should be natural Democrats, or would have been a couple of generations back, to Trump."
I agree 100%. I read an article on I believe the FiveThirtyEight site after the election that said exit polls indicated 9+ million Democrats voted for Trump and several million others voted for other candidates.
"Also, when so many white people start identifying as black and Native American, and claiming hardship for their racial heritage, such as the white business owner who sued for government assistance on account of his very distant non-white blood, it makes a mockery of identity politics."
I agree 100%
"Simply focus on addressing poverty and eradicating systemic bigotry, in all its forms."
Bernie Sanders did that and lost the African-American vote and he has recently been addressing that issue
"Does Oprah, as a black woman, need more government support, because of her identity, than some white boy living in a shack in rural Appalachia?"
The white boy living in a shack in rural Appalachia never voted to begin with, voted for Obama because Obama was African-American which made the white boy feel like Obama could change everything for the better (the feeling of real hope for real change), then voted for Trump because the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case triggered the national conversation on race that turned enough White Democrats against Obama and the Democratic party
I understand that a segment of Democrats view poor disenfranchised African-American peoples as being the worst treated, as being tragic, etc, while viewing poor white people, including white people who grew up dirt poor in an abusive environment with rundown schools and towns infested with drugs etc, as being undeserving of sympathy because they've squandered their privilege. The way a segment of Democrats talk about poor minorities and poor whites is totally night and day. It's going to take the "national conversation about race" that was promised but never quite had. This issue is the crux of a subterranean sociopolitical cataract that cracked the surface during Obama's tenure, it's one of the things that put Trump in the White House. However minorities have it worse no matter what, white people saying "what about me" is not much different from the kind of "whataboutism" that pervades all "discussions" between Republicans and Democrats.
shareI totally agree that POC do, on balance, have it worse than white people. I totally believe that white privilege exists and permeates most aspects of society. I totally agree that if you're poor and black you're generally going to be worse off than of you're poor and white, because you have the added hurdle of systemic racism to deal with.
That said, issues like poverty and education standards should, for the most part, be dealt with holistically. Poverty and poor education hurts white people just as much as it hurts black people, even if there may be other additional factors that compound the poverty and poor education for the latter group.
Systemic racism should be treated as a separate, albeit equally important, issue.