I have not paid too much attention to the whole Instapunk flap that is burning up Memeorandum, because nothing is ever settled in these sorts of debates and all you end up doing is getting mired in discussions over who is and who is not racist. That being said, this Tom Maguire post had me laugh out loud:
As an example of the PC police in action we need look no further than my previous post. “Old Punk” of the InstaPunk crowd posted his thoughts on why specific behaviors of a specific subset of the black community annoys him. Frankly, there is very little in his post I would be inclined to defend, but I would be very curious to learn how widely held his viewpoints might be. As an example, I would guess his aversion to the hip-hop gangsta sub-culture is widely shared.
Well. Rather than trying to look for the message in his message, the Usual Suspects, led by Glenn Greenwald, seized on the offensive sections as an opportunity to brand Glenn Reynolds and the entire conservative movement as racists.
So let me summarize the exchange:
Obama: We should have a national conversation about race.
Old Punk: OK, here is what annoys me about some black people.
Lefties: The Old Punk is a racist, as are all righties.
One might well argue that this does discourage anything like a candid conversation.
Here is what was said at Instapunk:
I’m not proposing the generalized use of the term, just trying to be clear for once, in the wake of Obama’s call for us to have a dialogue about race. However much they may scream and protest, black people will know what I mean when I demand they concede that the following people are niggers:
– Jeremiah Wright
– O.J. Simpson
– Marion Barry
– Alan Iverson
– William Jefferson
– Louis Farrakhan
– Mike TysonYou know what I mean. They hold you back. They’re dirty, violent, and stupid. They make you look bad, and you foul yourselves by defending them, by reelecting them to office, by admiring them in spite of all their awful behavior.
And so on. Look, I read and watched Obama’s speech the other day. I read the great piece by Chris Caldwell in Financial Times. If Tom Maguire thinks that when Obama was writing his speech and Caldwell was writing his piece, what they had in mind for a candid discussion about race was a bunch of jackasses stating “Here is what I hate about niggers,” then he probably really didn’t understand the speech or the FT piece.
*** Update ***
I should probably add that I have added Tom to the links because he really is one of the last few on the right I read anymore (well, I read a bunch of them, but mostly to make fun of them. Not so with Tom.).
*** Update #2 ***
As suggested in the very first comment, in order to continue this national dialog on race, at least as it is envisioned above, black commenters are permitted to submit their list of crackers they can not stand. I will just throw K-Fed out there for starters.
Dulcie
Do the black people now get to list all the white folks they think are “crackers’ or “honkys” now? Does everyone whose skin color is a particular shade of ecru have to reject and denounce Jeffrey Dahmer,Ted Bundy, Dennis Koslowski, and Brett Michaels? Jesus Christ on a f-ing crutch, people are stupid.
MJ
Glenn Reynolds had a link today not to the Old Punks post about race but to an Easter poem posted by InstaPunk.
The Easter poem was posted just above the other and they both have the word punk in the names they use. Greenwald figured that was close enough to smear Reynolds.
Jared
Ted Nugent.
Lit3Bolt
On the other hand, I am sick to death of queer people as a group. The truth. That is part of the conversation Obama is asking for, isn’t it? I live in an eastern state almost exactly on the fabled Sondheim-Weber line. Every day I see young queer males wearing tee shirts down to their belly button — and jean shorts cut off at the thigh. I’m an old guy. I want to smack them. All of them. They are egregious stereotypes. It’s impossible not to think the unthinkable F-Word when they roll up beside you at a stoplight in their bright shining new Hondas with 19-inch tastefully colored spinner wheels and Broadway recordings that shake the foundations of the buildings. It’s like a broadcast dare: Go ahead! Call me a faggot! And then I’ll cap your ass (in more ways than one).
Here’s the dirty secret all of us know and no one will admit to. There ARE faggots. Queer people know it. Straight people know it. And only queer people are allowed to notice and pronounce the truth of it. Which would be fine. Except that queer people are not a community but a political party. They can squabble with each other in caucus but they absolutely refuse to speak the truth in public. And this is the single biggest obstacle to healing the sexual divide in this country. The dammed-up flood of good will in this nation for queer people who want to work for their own American Dream is absolutely enormous. The biggest impediment is the doubt created in each and every non-queer American by the clannish, tribalist, irrational defense of every low act committed by any queer person. If you’re offended when Republicans defend Richard Nixon or when Democrats defend Chuck Schumer, imagine what it’s like when queer people swarm the streets to defend Judy Garland.
I’m not proposing the generalized use of the term, just trying to be clear for once, in the wake of Obama’s call for us to have a dialogue about homosexuality. However much they may scream and protest, queer people will know what I mean when I demand they concede that the following people are faggots:
– Andrew Sullivan
– Gleen Greenwald
– Gerry Studds
– Tanya Domi
– Bishop Gene Robinson
– David Bowie
– Morrissey
You know what I mean. They hold you back. They’re effeminate, waspish, and will cut you down with a dry quip if you look wrong at them. They make you look bad, and you foul yourselves by defending them, by reelecting them to office, by admiring them in spite of all their awful behavior.
We can have this conversation now — should have this conversation now — because Gay Americans are on the verge of the greatest setback they’ve experienced since the election of William Clinton. You see, you’ve just given life to the suspicion that queer people in America are, and have long been, a fifth column — unanimously hating the very country that has afforded the highest standard of living ever achieved by queer people in human history. We’re teetering at the edge of believing that you’re a secret society, a massive collection of sleeper cells just waiting for your chance to do serious harm to the rest of us. You’ve made it possible for us to believe that. Because you’re never outraged by what the worst queer people do. Because you continue to make excuses for what should be inexcusable to everyone.
The path to equality is counter-intuitive. Admit and decry the failings of your community. Concede that a generation of not having children for your mothers has been a disaster. Let go of the fantasy that Judy Garland is some kind of infallible force of nature. Demand that your children spend more time reading and doing sums than farting around on the stage. Only about twenty thousand people in the whole country make a living by playacting. The rest have to get real jobs. Do whatever it takes to make your preachers emphasize the value of being a good son instead of ranting from the pulpit about how all of life’s woes are the fault of your abusive father. Tip your straight waitress. Have a beer and watch sports with the guys now and then. Allow your kids to find somebody to admire and emulate who isn’t queer. (My two best friends in high school — straight guys — fought like dogs about their conflicting candidates for the most handsome man on Broadway: Matthew Broderick or Hugh Jackman.) Would it kill you if your kid fixated on Sandy Koufax, Mozart, or Shakespeare rather than Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward, and Smithers from The Simpsons? Does being queer really have to be a full-time job?
Conservatively Liberal
I have heard that it is, kinda like being a hetero is a full time job. ;) But those bi people work two jobs! You have to admire their work ethic.
I nominate Dubya. That is one cracker everyone can’t stand.
Soylent Green
I was going to say Ted Nugent.
Lit3Bolt that was magnificent.
b-psycho
Allen Iverson never led us into a pointless war, y’know…
Ninerdave
If he can’t stand niggers wearing their pants low, I wonder what he feels about cracker multi-colored hair and leather?
wasabi gasp
Swedish chicks smell funny.
cbear
Only the black commenters???
That’s just plain racist and discriminatory. I’m sick and goddamn tired of “The Man” always keeping us white folks down.
incontrolados
I’m ad-libbing here, but the ‘most racists I’ve met are Dems’ is something you have typed here, John. That may be true in your experience and I’m not denying it. Having lived in the south all my life, it’s the Reagan Dems that still vote Republican who still say that.
Understand that this comes after spending the entire day with Reagan Dems and Republicans.
Bruce Moomaw
So, lemme get this straight: there’s “very little” in Mr. Punk’s post that Maguire “would be inclined to defend”, but it’s awful for lefties not to “look for the message in his message”? I mean, is there some important message in his message that isn’t apparent from his actual words, which contain very little that Maguire “would be inclined to defend”? Maybe we all need a Captain Midnight Decoder Ring?
D-Chance.
Greenwald made himself out to be quite the fool in all this. Reynolds links to an Easter poem posted by “Chain Gang” (that moniker, in and of itself, merits some sideways glares)… a simple four word Instalink. And somehow Greeny uses it as an opportunity to blast Reynolds because a third-party poster named “OldPunk” posted something he didn’t agree with on the linked site?
Lessee…… DailyKos does a simple link (without commentary) to a “Tom from Texas” Balloon Juice post, and skippy then attacks Kos for linking to the “Tom from Texas” post because “Michael D” posted something on Balloon Juice that the bush-kangaroo disapproves of.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Perry Como
I’m slappin’ on a Skrewdriver album and waiting for a fair and balanced discussion of this post.
Bruce Moomaw
Well, as I (and Mark Kleiman) say, Greenwald matches Maguire in this respect.
Kevin K.
Rupert Holmes
David Addington
Ryan Seacrest
Richard Perle
Larry Jonhson
Bruce Moomaw
Let me add that calling Ted Nugent a “cracker” is a slander on Nabisco.
ThymeZone
White people generally have very little to say about race that I am interested in. However I think most white people are generous and fair and really want to move beyond old American racism.
The FT piece you linked to requires registration and I am done registering just to read stuff like that. I am done with having me email addresses used as dumping grounds for shitty advertising and crap, and having to declare a password to read what amounts to a piece of fishwrap, a practice which I find insulting and ridiculous in this day and age. The internet is rich with material that I can see without registering, I will stick with that program.
Let’s have a dialogue about race? Well, Im a white guy who had a black father in law and a Hispanic mother in law the first time I got married. Ive spent a lot of time hanging around black family gatherings as the only white guy in the house and I can tell you, I am not qualified to have a dialogue on race. I just did the best I could, which was mostly to eat the great food and enjoy the great conversation and take a lot of ribbing. I’m personally against anything which divides Americans against each other, or makes it appear that our common interests don’t trump the differences between us.
In that light I find Barack Obama a refreshing and long awaited voice on the public scene, and I expect him to be the next president. That’s my goal and my dialogue on race.
To this white guy, a “nigger” is any person of any color who is treated as inferior and subjugated to powerlessness and second class citizenship, and whose dignity and rights are abused by the powerful majority.
Just my opinion.
ThymeZone
“my” email addresses.
I am (still) not a leprechaun.
At least not officially.
RandyH
I don’t think so. He explained in one of his many updates to his post that he is using the tactics usually employed by the right when they do these attacks on the Lefty Hate Sites. Usually these jerks go read a post that is offensive to whatever “conservative” dogma that they’re trying to reinforce in their empty-minded followers, but they can’t find anything from the original post to quote that will get the right-wing hyenas screeching. So instead, they go and find some offensive reader comment or other (not front-paged) member post from the same blog community to make their case for them and accuse the propietor of the blog for that sentiment.
Glenn is brilliant. Use their own lame and unfair tactics right back at them. In this case a vile, racist front-page guest post, presumably authorized by the proprietor – or it would not be on the front page.
dnA
I could call someone a cracker a million times and it couldn’t possibly be as hurtful, dehumanizing or infuriating as it is to be called a nigger once.
Dulcie
Preach on,dnA
Blue Raven
I could call someone a cracker a million times and it couldn’t possibly be as hurtful, dehumanizing or infuriating as it is to be called a nigger once.
This is truth.
The whole “good black/bad black” used to get played out in the European ethnic zone when the Irish and Italians got the shortest end of the stick in the US amongst European immigrants. The Thomas Nast cartoon that showed a caricatured Irishman and similarly drawn black man in a set of scales and shown to be identically wanting in the humanity department accordingly was a vicious case in point for Victorian-era American society. As skin color started to matter more, the European groups gradually got cut a break while the black folks had a much harder time gaining the same one. And here we stand, with people who just may have had grandparents like mine who were beaten up after school every day for an accident of birth, talking about good blacks and bad blacks. I used to talk like that, too. I was sixteen. What’s their excuse?
And to inject a little humor, I want to disown Donald Trump.
MJ
Nice mustache.
rle
I’m sorry, but saying you want to have a constructive dialogue about race and then using racial slurs in your “constructive comments” is inane. Gee, why isn’t it okay for white people to go around using the n-word? Why would people be offended by that? Wow, I have no idea. They must be overly sensitive. Gosh, you just can’t say anything around black people without them taking offense.
And no, cracker is not the same thing. Unless of course we count as equivalent the entire history of institutionalized, systematic apartheid in this country on the one hand with some name calling on the other.
My head hurts. This is why we can’t have real discussions about race in this country. Because a very large number of white people (of which I am one) want to have the liberty to say racist bs and then get their panties scrunched when people call them on it.
And no, ignorance does not give anyone a free pass. It would be nice if more white folks tried shutting up for a while and listened instead to the lived experience of others with an open mind and an open heart. They might even learn something about the country in which they live.
Zuzu
I don’t know why. Why you read him, and why you don’t make fun of him, that is.
He is arrogant in his utter ignorance, and his comment section is a real cesspool.
Starscream
The thing that Instapunk appears not to have gotten in all of this is that the reason black people have legitimate criticisms about racism is because there are ignorant, racist mother fuckers who hate black people because they’re different.
The desire to have an open, honest dialogue on race means that there’s going to be an open, honest dialogue about what racist sons of bitches some people are. And it isn’t a right just reserved for white people who are bubbling over with resentment that they haven’t been able to march on Compton waving the flag of white rights.
Wilfred
Just apply the Jew test. Say what this fool said but only substitute kike for Jew and see if it’s ok, if it’s reasonable, if it’s conducive to constructive criticism and debate. Alan Dershowitz is a kike because he gives other Jews in academia a bad name. Is that ok? Does it feel in any way uncomfortable to listen to speech like that?
cleek
guilt-by-association is the latest blog fad. see, for example, Obama and Wright.
John Cole
Hell, Dan Collins managed to do some guilt by association himself while decrying it from Glenn:
While I don;t condone Glenn’s methods, he is doing little more than what right-wing blogs DO EVERY DAMNED DAY.
calipygian
I am sick of crackers who wave the Confederate flag and jabber on about their “heritage”.
You don’t see Germans pasting a swastika on the side of their retro-Kubelwagons, going on about how the Nazi swastika is just an expression of German pride and rebellion.
Having pledged their allegience to the flag of a hostile foreign power, why don’t they renounce their United States citizenship and be done with it.
jake
Instantpunkdick: Let’s have a dialog about race.
Brown people: Great!
Instantpunkdick: OK, here’s a bunch of n!ggers I don’t like. If you don’t say you don’t like them, you’re a bunch of n!ggers too.
Brown people: Excuse me, could you not use that word? We find it very offensive.
Instantpunkdick: What? I hear you people say n!gger all the time.
Brown people: Some people do. Just like some Caucasians are members of the KKK. But we don’t like it.
Instantpunkdick: I can’t believe you won’t let me use the word n!gger. Don’t you think that’s racist that you people say n!gger but I can’t say n!gger?
Brown people: Not every black person uses that word, now could you please –
Instantpunkdick: OMG! ANGRY N!GGERS! RUN 4 UR LIFE!
And that’s why no one wants to talk to that useless fuck about anything.
Dulcie
I’ve had this conversation with non-brown people, most recently during the Imus flap. I was asked several times by several different people why it’s okay for black folks to say the n-word and it isn’t for other races. My answer to their patently ignorant question? Why?
Why would they want to use it, and why would they ask me that stupid ass question? Did they think I was going to give them carte blanc to use the word?
I’ve always been the piece of pepper in the salt shaker. I grew up in Reno, NV…not the center of the black world. I probably understand more about the conflict between the races than the average person does. I’ve spent my life straddling that line between the white and black worlds. I’d begun to hope that we’d moved past a lot of our immaturity regarding race in this country – until 9\11.
I’m hopeful that Obama’s speech is the beginning of a new and expanded conversation, but based on the blog posts I’ve seen (not yours, John), it doesn’t seem very likely. I fear that my biracial niece and nephews will have to fight the same stupid and unproductive battles that I continue to fight, albeit on a much smaller scale than my parents had to fight. And that pisses me off.
TR
I’m reminded of a comedian who said his father was a horrible racist — not really evil, just really bad at it. “Goddamn dirty Etruscans!” “Isn’t that just like a Hittite?”
Instapunk is about as accomplished.
aimai
I get envying people real privilige, you know? Like envying people the ability to live in clean safe neighborhoods, with great schools, or the ability to send large numbers of their community to the Senate (or to control the Presidency and the Judiciary), or to own yachts, or to take european vacations, or long life spans, or great health care, or really lots of stuff like that. But the weirdest thing in the world to me is the continued accusation by people like instapunk and other right wing loons that the fact that black people might occasionally use the “n” word is a privilige and that *but for* that privilige everything would be equal in race terms and we could all live in a racial utopia. Really? The thing that’s been hurting white america and holding it down all these years is *too much politesse* and the inability to throw open the window and shout “N***” into the uncaring night? Because if that is the only thing holding the two races apart, well–have at it! But you know, the “right” to use offensive terms really doesn’t strike me as much of a privilige. I sure haven’t been waiting around for it or letting it hold me back from enjoying all the other kinds of white privilige I have access to.
aimai
smiley
Jeremiah Wright – O.J. Simpson – Marion Barry – Alan Iverson – William Jefferson – Louis Farrakhan – Mike Tyson
What an odd list. In stead of calling them what he called them, why not call them black-people-I-don’t-like-each-for-entirely-different-reasons
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
No, he was just using The Hapless Glenns tactics against them. You know, like Glenns claim they were doing all along (if anyone is naive enough to buy Glenns’s “it was a botched parody” cop-out, then they are a fifth-grader).
And it’s not like leftards tried to pull “guilt by association” w/r/t McCain – Hagee (a pastor he once met for breakfast!) first. Chickens coming home to roost.
My favorite part is that Glenn refuses to even attempt to hold Obama to the rigorous moral standards reserved for a blogger. Could Glenns be more (to use a phrase fast-becoming synonymous with the Sockpuppets) mendoucheous?
4tehlulz
I suspect he’s playing off Chris Rock’s routine.
A great routine, btw, ruined by racists like this.
4tehlulz
Disregard that, I fail tags.
Adam
I find it funny how the righties miss the point of the post by Greenwald.
Based on the treatment of Sen. Obama – is it fair to ask the question as to how often Glenn Reynold’s has read Instapunk’s site?
Does Glenn Reynold’s endorse the views that have been expressed on that site?
If Glenn doesn’t endorse those views then why is it he still reads and links to his site?
Why has Glenn Reynolds not condemned “Chain Gang” for his offensive and racist views?
To not answer any of the questions above can only mean that he fully endorses “Chain Gang”‘s offensive and racist views and is a racist and bigot himself.
Of course the above is complete baloney. It’s not fair to say that Glenn endorses every post ever made on Instapunk’s website simply because he linked to it. It is fair to accept that Glenn may not have read every post on Instapunks site. Glenn doesn’t have to condemn every offensive remark made by every white person ever simply because they have the same tone of skin color.
To do so would be ridiculous. And yet no one asks why it is fair to apply this standard to Obama.
Zifnab
Because if they were white, he wouldn’t be so annoyed?
I mean, that’s what Reynolds is saying, right? These people are annoying because they are violent / offensive / corrupt / what-have-you while being of a different skin tone.
Notice how Hagee, Roger Clemens, and David Vitter didn’t make Glenn’s list? I wonder why? Oh yeah! Because we’re not having a dialogue about extremist preachers or cheating athletes or corrupt politicians. We’re having a conversation about “black people that piss me off”. The standing assumption being that if we just get rid of the annoying black people, our problems will sort themselves out.
Congratulations to Mr Reynolds, wanker of the week.
AkaDad
Considering all the horrible things white people have done, I still tolerate them.
John Cole
You are pathologically incapable of telling the truth, aren’t you? I mean, is this biological? Are you from a family of liars and this was just passed down like hair color? From the minister himself:
McCain actively courted Hagee. If there is guilt by association, it is because McCain ACTIVELY CHOSE TO BE ASSOCIATED with Hagee.
Christ on a fucking crutch. I am gonna write a book called the Audacity of Dopes, because you fucking village idiots at PW are amazing.
Zifnab
Yeah, why is everyone beating up on McCain for taking praise and cash from the racist apocalypse-now preacher Hagee. Did Hagee baptize McCain’s kids or preside over his wedding (first OR second?) No! Ergo, taking money and support from Hagee and his followers is totally acceptable.
But actually attending mass with Hagee… that would have crossed an entirely different line. McCain might have been accused of genuinely supporting Hagee’s beliefs rather than just cynically sweeping up cash and votes.
tBone
It’s always fun to be lectured about honesty by someone who serially lies about McCain and Hagee.
4tehlulz
Considering the rancid hatred that Hagee has for Catholics, I would say that was an accomplishment on McCain’s part.
p.lukasiak
Wait a second. Insta-punk must be losing it… Sharpton wasn’t on his n* list!
As for K-Fed….hey, next to Britney, he’s a credit to his race. So lay off Kevin…
The Grand Panjandrum
And in UPDATE V Glenn makes this point about methods:
Fuck nobility. This ain’t no Debutantes Ball. Its about the most important election of my lifetime.
But as to the actual topic of race I have spent some time thinking about Obama’s speech. The more thought I put into to it, the more I believe he was spot on with The Speech.
Because I am not part of the never blame America crowd my take on Wright’s sermon are quite different than others (Whites mainly), because I didn’t find what he said to be all that shocking. Many of his remarks related to race were as fitting as they were discomfiting, and his views on the American governments propensity to fuck up were neither fatuous nor exceptional. I assumed that the remarks would create a political liability for Obama, but based on the substance of Wright’s arguments(OK the HIV nonsense IS NOT unlike the 9/11 truther garbage found out here in the blogosphere) they were NOT inexpiable.
You can argue all you want about Wright’s fire and brimstone approach (you know, those scary Black Men leading crowds of angry Black people!) but listen to the extended cuts of his sermons and tell me what was disgusting about his remarks. I remain unconvinced that Wright is wrong. Yes, I acknowledge race relations have come a long way; but, we must simultaneously acknowledge that we can do better.
D0n Camillo
Shorter Instapunk: “Why do these n*gg*rs keep bringing up the subject of race?”
John Cole
Considering Wright is a Marine, he has the same kind of understanding about the government’s ability to fuck things up that every serviceman understands.
Dennis - SGMM
How is it that those wingers and members of the press who have been so approving of Bush’s loyalty to his corrupt/incompetent/felonious supporters find it so easy to castigate Obama for his loyalty to his minister?
Molly McRae
For the record, “cracker” is not the historically correct synonym for “nigger”. “White trash” or simply “trash” is what I remember my grandmother using.
If “cracker” were as derogatory as you suggest, I doubt that Atlanta would have named its minor league baseball team the Crackers.
John Cole
IOKIYAWR*
W= White
PK
Here is my list:
George Bush (I hate it when all you whites voted for him twice and unleashed murder and mayhem in the middle east)
Dick Cheney
Britany Spears
Paris Hilton
Bill ‘O’ Reilly’
Rush Limptwit (I hate it when millions of you whites listen to his racist bile and defend him and call yourselves ditto heads)
Pastor Hagee, Pat Robertson (Why are so many of you whites in these ministries).
Fox news.
Wall Street (whites are all guilty for the evil and greed of wall street).
These are a few
I couldn’t think of a better insult than “whites”. It doesn’t quite have the same flavor as ‘nigger”, but I think people will get the point.
BH Buck
Lit3Bolt, that was good! You should have included the gay pride parades, where slim, young boys walk around with half their ass hanging out of their jeans.
(hehehe)
And on racism… I have said the ‘N’ word quite a few times in my forty-five years on this planet. But I don’t recall ever directing it towards someone of dark skin. To me, the ‘N’ word was equal to saying ‘Bastard’, or ‘SOB’, only worse.
Regardless, it was wrong of me to ever use it – period.
Cyrus
Two politicians who would be totally unremarkable except for getting caught in flagrant (but nonviolent) crimes. Two social/religious leaders who are known for using offensive, angry rhetoric in the course of otherwise spotless, long and honorable careers. (That might be too generous for Farrakhan, I don’t know, but I think it’s almost too hard on Wright, so split the difference and call it fair.) And three professional athletes who have committed violent crimes.
They have nothing in common with each other or with Obama, except for being black, famous and not saints. Except maybe Tyson and Simpson, they are far from the worst human beings in their respective fields. No, I can’t imagine why anyone would think this is racist.
MJ
That is a lot to attribute to Reynolds considering all he did was link to an Easter Poem. Some guy using the name OldPunk wrote the crap you are referring to.
He’d have to wrestle out of your hands. Somebody please give Zifnab a score card.
carsick
“I agree, lets’ have a substantive discussion about race, but first…
let me justify why I want to call some blacks, niggers and some jews, kikes and some gay people, fags, and so on and so on.
Now that we’ve clarified the language lets move on.
What? Hey? You’re offended? You’re the one who wanted to talk about race! Why are you calling me racist? I just wanted to add to the discussion. Are you trying to exclude me? That’s not very democratic of you.”
-Instapunk
myiq2xu
Read Altemeyer on Authoritarians
Double standards and compartmentalized thinking are a feature, not a bug.
javaphil
Shorter Movement Conservatives:
We have nothing against black people…as long as they choose to act like Bill Cosby.
Jen
Tony Snow.
Pat Robertson.
Joe Rogan.
the Duke Men’s Basketball Team and Refuge for Extremely Homely White Boys with a Persecution Complex Who Are Lucky They Survived Belmont.
myiq2xu
That is like, so totally unfair!
The people that Britney and Paris fucked aren’t complaining about it.
They’re not dead either.
Wilfred
I always thought it was ‘ofay’ but the word is meaningless when the power behind it is absent. The power in naming goes back to Cratylus; the entire discussion is really about the exercise of power. The class with the power is exercising its historical right to name and control the subject as it pleases.
McCain was forgiven because he quite rightly distanced himself from certain things that Hagee said and is of the class/color that forgives. Obama is denied this because he is not of the class/color that is capable of forgiving.
libarbarian
Things I don’t like about Eskimos:
1. too many words for snow.
2. sled-fixation.
3. can we ever talk about something other than ice?
joe
Considering Wright is a Marine, he has the same kind of understanding about the government’s ability to fuck things up that every serviceman understands.
Having watched the entire sermon – as opposed to the six seconds that were carefully cut and editted in other similar-sized clips from other speeches – I found Wright’s “God and Government” sermon almost completely innocuous.
A racist black man who hates his country and considers it unredeemably evil doesn’t go off on a tangent about how white presidents like Abe Lincoln, Harry Truman, and Bill Clinton produced meaningful change that improved conditions for black people.
We’ve been had, people. Me, as much as anyone.
Ed Drone
And those Samaritans! Shunned by all good and righteous people, as well they should be. You’ll never find a good one, whether you travel from from Jerusalem to Jericho, I can tell you!
[On another subject]
Redundant! IOKIYAR works just fine!
[Yet another subject]
Consider the dictum, “Any society that uses the concept of ‘race’ is inherently racist.”
Discuss. Show your sources. 500 words minimum, due by Friday.
Class dismissed.
(An actual assignment in my Black History class in the mid-70s)
—
Ed
Dulcie
Not yet, anyway.
ThymeZone
When I was a kid, the adults used to take me to a black church over on the south side of town, which they referred to as a “holy roller” church. I never really knew what that meant. Anyway, the sermons were loud and the music and the demonstrations were fun and irresistable, and the whole thing made a lot more sense to me than the dreary and insane shit they were selling over at “our” Episcopalian church.
Okay, that was 55 years ago, and as near as I can tell, this difference is still true. When I hear Wright preach, I am reminded of those old “holy roller” sermons in terms of the pace, language and tone, and quite honestly, I find Wright’s material provocative. Compare and contrast to a John Hagee sermon. How many people shooting off their ignorant mouths about Wright these days have actually sat through a dozen or so Hagee sermons? I have. I can tell you, on the crazy scale, Hagee is the clear winner. This motherfucker is a sociopathic, totally insane con artist.
Yesterday I heard some black guy who is a cheese in some “family” oriented rightwing scam group saying that since Wright was making political speeches in the pulpit, we have an obligation to associate them with Obama’s campaign. Oh yeah, you lying sack of shit? Then two things:
One, let’s make sure every GOP candidate for any office is held to account for every word spoken or written by the crazy sociopathic shitheads in the evangelical world, since the GOP has allied itself firmly with that bloc.
Two, let’s arrest and jail every rightwing piece of shit who insists on religious tests for office in full defiance of the United States Constitution’s simple and direct proscription against such tests: ” no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Why are we letting these pathological liars fuck up the political process with this shit? Why are the news media incapable of challenging these fucks on their violations of the constitutional proscription? Why do we let Pat Robertson tell us that 911 was sent by God to punish Americans, and then bust the chops of people who listen to Rev. Wright?
Explain to me how this whole phony “controversy” is not just a racist bunch of bullshit.
Jake
PotD.
I’m not sure why, but some people are under the impression that the “ability” to use the N word comes with fabulous prizes. When I was growing up, the following people used that word: One bat-shit crazy grandma. (Oh noes! I threw her under the bus.) She had a race or nationality related ephitet for everyone. If aliens had landed on Earth while she was alive she would have been first in line to tell them to get their goddamned green asses back to where they came from. (Although I never heard her say the K word, she just stuck a word like “Dirty” in front of “Jew.”) As a result, I see use of the N word (or the D word or the W word or the C word or …) as a sign of severe mental instability and people who want permission to use the N word are asking permission to talk like a lunatic.
Um. No.
Don’t you know? Thanks to the Minority Hive Mind, if you say it’s OK, every minority thinks its OK. If they happen across a rouge agent who complains they’ll be sure to wail “But my black friend Dulcie said it was all right!”
b-psycho
Joe:
…What’d Bill actually do?
Doctor Jay
When a person lists a bunch of black people he doesn’t like, in the most inflammatory way possible, calling them niggers, that really doesn’t seem to me to be “a discussion about race”. It seems more like sabotage of that discussion.
Especially when he “demands” something. It’s not enough that he had an opinion, but we all have to agree with it.
That isn’t a discussion.
ThymeZone
It’s called a taunt.
b. hussein canuckistani
Brad at Sadly No asks to be included in Instapunk’s Nigger List.
I would like to be on the list too, for although I am not literally black, I am a dirty liberal, an auslander and someone with Public Enemy on my iPod.
As Billy Bragg once sang in a slightly different context, “If there’s a blacklist, I want to be on it”.
Dulcie
I’ve long said that people expect me to be the spokesperson for the race, but it’s nice to see it in print ;-)
MQ
Man, samoans really suck balls! Lets discuss this. Rationally. Also, all midgets should die, and I am rather sick of Finland as a whole. Lets nuke em. What? I am a hater? Fuck y’all! Learn to read! What I said was (lengthy rationalization which comes perilously close to sounding like those college edumacated commie faggots we all hate, right?)
The Other Steve
I’m not black. But I do want to note that I really dislike Cheezeit’s and Goldfish. Oh yeah, and anything that is supposed to be vegetable and dip flavored.
The best of course are regular Saltines, followed by Ritz, and my favorite Keebler’s club crackers.
I don’t mind wheat thins, just not the vegetable flavored ones.
Although you know, i don’t mind those little cheese crackers with peanut butter. Weird, huH? But i can’t stand cheeseits.
The Other Steve
Isn’t InstaPunk a spoof site?
Tom Maguire
This Tom Maguire post had me laugh out loud:
Yeah, I thought the idea of defending the Old Fool even a little bit was pretty funny, too. Well, I’m sure I’ll do something dumber this year – it’s only March.
horatius
Throw the motherfucker Reagan in there and we’ll talk.
John Cole
Join the club.
Liberal Masochist
I can’t link to these at work, but someone please post the South Park “nagger” sketch and the Colbert N Word investigative reporting piece (the unedtied one is much funnier for obvious reasons). Pretty please!
RSA
I can’t match Lit3Bolt’s riff, but I’ll add the following:
I’m not proposing the generalized use of the term, just trying to be clear for once, in the wake of Hillary’s call for us to have a dialogue about gender. However much they may scream and protest and cry, women will know what I mean when I demand they concede that the following people are cunts:
– Britany Spears – Paris Hilton – Ann Coulter – Barbara Bush – Oprah – etc.
You know what I mean. They hold you back. They’re brainless, stupid, and immoral. They make you look bad, and you foul yourselves by defending them, by reading magazine articles about them, by admiring them in spite of all their awful behavior.
tBone
Wait, what? You mean it doesn’t? Son of a bitch. I knew the dirty Jew who sold me this N-word License was full of shit.
Jake
… Grandma?
ThymeZone
I think the phrasing is: I am not black. I have never been black.
The Other Steve
But I am wearing a black shirt.
I think that counts for something.
ThymeZone
Aha! Italian Fascist!
libarbarian
I also think we need a List of Things Every Black Person Must Denounce To Every White Person They Meet In Order To Convince White People That They Aren’t A Fifth-Column.
ThymeZone
Adjusted for truthism.
Redleg
As with many racists, Instapunk defines “nigger” and then tells Blacks that they have to prove to him that they’re not niggers.
LiberalTarian
I have a confession.
I hate everybody. Everyfuckingbody. People are always doing stupid shit that pisses me off.
I grew up in a rather homogenous racial environment, and my parents didn’t much discuss race. As an adult I moved to a fairly diverse area, and voila, I discovered that although I love people in general, when actually faced with dealing with them I hate them specifically.
There are a couple categories of people that deserve special mention:
1. Asian and elderly drivers. Yes, they will see you coming and run you over anyway. Subset of ok Asian drivers? Small, very small. Most of them that I know personally learned to drive as adults. A Chinese woman I work with is famous for coming to a complete stop in the middle of an off ramp where everyone else was going 50 mph. Yes, she had a van full of people. No, no one from work lets her drive anywhere anymore.
2. People who take their time crossing the street, not because they are disabled or anything, but because they know you are waiting and they enjoy watching you fume.
3. Snotty, know-it-all children over the age of 8.
4. People who let their babies cry in line at the grocery store. Sets my teeth right on edge.
5. Girls with nice ankles (I have pretty ankle envy).
6. Happily married couples (I am single, and would prefer to be in a happy relationship).
7. Unhappily married couples (jeebus, get divorced, you are pathetic).
8. Most old men. Lecherous bastards.
Did I miss anyone? I have to admit, I do not hate babies, young children, or most elderly women.
Pooh
Hey, fuck you man.
(Note, not an Eskimo, though people often “accuse” me of being one. White people live in Alaska too…)
Pooh
Also, Allen Iverson? Really?
He’s lucky my 90 year old Jewish grandmother hasn’t seen these comments, or she’d be looking to kick his ass, AI being her favorite player since Larry Fucking Bird. Iverson actually serves as sort of a double litmus test, as a dislike of him demonstrates both racial ignorance and a lack of knowledge about basketball matched only by whatever doofus wins my office pool this year.
myiq2xu
Why limit yourself to people?
I hate pigeons. They are rats with wings.
Jamey
–EEE&L
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/3/21/145822/038
Met for breakfast … after they spent the entire night before fucking.
Man, EEE&L, you are one stupid-ass fuck.
borehole
Even though I’m as pale a shade of Caucasian as you’re likely to find, I fail to understand the appeal of Garrison Keillor, and would appreciate an explanation from White America. Is it because I don’t suffer from the funk deficit so common to my people?
C’mon, mah crackaz, help a brutha out.
The Other Steve
I don’t understand his appeal, and I live in Minnesota.
But come to think of it, I never understood Al Franken’s humor either.
cleek
gack. he bores me to anger.
ThymeZone
That explains a lot about you. Franken is food spitting funny. Franken is among those people … like Jerry Stiller, or Jerry Van Dyke, or Jack Benny, or Sasha Baron Cohen, who are just funny when all they are doing is standing there and looking at you.
Franken is a guy who can talk about lending practices before a press gathering and have them rolling on the floor.
His Jerry Falwell anecdote in this appearance is one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life, and I am a comedy junkie.
Franken on Jesse Ventura:
ThymeZone
Franken. omfg.
If only anybody here could write shit that funny for one day, we could shut this thing down and declare it a success forever.
Richard Bottoms
Heh.
LiberalTarian
It must suck to be a person who identifies himself by right-leaning politics, and even worse to be on the right wing.
Why? Rightard is such a snazzy word, and sums up, rather nicely, the idiocy of the right wing.
Leftard? What kind of stupid thinks that is catchy? It is SO clearly a grab for rightard. Poor dolts. Poor humor-impaired boobs. Why is the right so bereft of inspiration? Because they are rightarded, I guess.
I guess it is in keeping with their character. They never earn for themselves what they can steal from someone else.
tBone
I hate penguins, the pretentious little bastards. Who do they think they’re fooling with the fake tuxedos, anyway?
And koalas. Hey, you lazy assholes, quit being so goddamn picky and try some other foods, and maybe you wouldn’t have to be a protected species.
joe
A good start, but there are voluminous opportunities for hatred outside of the animal kingdom, as well.
Hey, phytoplankton: why don’t you get a REAL job?
libarbarian
I cant tell if this is sarcasm … mine was.
I actually met a (part) Eskimo a while back .. in Virginia. He was visiting family and we got to chatting and he told me he lived in a village of 600 deep in the interior where the major transportation artery is the local river (boats in the summer, ice-road in the winter).
A friend of mine came grew up in Nome. She is part Pueblo but in Maryland people assumed she was an Eskimo and she was honestly asked “Did you live in an igloo?”
Krista
I can relate. I have a special hate-on for stupid people. I’m not speaking about education, either. I have known some supremely stupid people with a high level of education.
I define a stupid person as one who thinks that he or she knows everything that he or she needs or ever will need to know, and has absolutely no interest in knowing more than what is currently occupying their brain.
These are the people who never apologize, never see that they could be wrong about something, and never wish to learn about the world through someone else’s eyes. EVERY subject about which they do not know is dismissed as unimportant, or as belonging in the realm of They Who Cannot Be Trusted(tm).
They come in all shapes, colours, creeds, political stripes and occupations. They are present in every society, in vast numbers. And they are a scourge.
Krista
She shouldn’t feel bad. I’ve been asked that due to living in Canada, even though Seattle is further north than I am.
Ed Drone
(THAT’s what I was looking for. Earlier I had an idea, but it went away (multi-tasking in senior mode causes that, sometimes). Your ‘rats with wings’ brought the thought back to me.)
So here it is.
The same kind of thinking that says, “If people aren’t supposed to eat animals, why are animals made of meat?” leads to Instapunk’s “If blacks aren’t supposed to be hated, why are they acting like niggers?”
There’s a tautology involved here, one that depends on the words we agree to use to describe each other. If you agree that ‘nigger’ is allowable as a name for people of African descent, then you are also allowing all the racism and historic nonsense that goes into that word. I suspect that this idea even sinks through to the rap and hip-hop artists when they use the word while ‘denying’ whites the use of it. Whites have had the use of that word for centuries, and if blacks want to use it a short time (till they see the stupidity of using the racists’ term for themselves), I don’t have a problem with it. I DO have a problem with whites continuing to use the term, though.
As we grow, there will always be a part of us that clings to the immature norms. “When I was a child, I spoke as a child and acted as a child and thought as a child.” So it is of societies. The continued use of racial epithets is a sign of our earlier, immature past, and marks its users as not-yet-adults. I think this even applies to those hip-hoppers I mentioned above.
Does it make sense, this idea I have? I think not, but then…
Ed
borehole
I’m with Krista @ 2:10, adding only that overeducated is its own special brand of stupid.
Honest-to-God dumbasses only voted for Bush, they didn’t prop up his legacy via oily commentaries on All Things Considered.
And thanks for the perspective, TOS–I’m quite fond of Minnesotans, but I’ve long harbored a suspicion that they all “got” Prairie Home Companion. Al’s the man, though–and I know I can never be a true progressive if that means being glad he was replaced by Thom Hartmann on the radio.
Dr. Squid
Does everyone whose skin color is a particular shade of ecru have to reject and denounce Jeffrey Dahmer,Ted Bundy, Dennis Koslowski, and Brett Michaels?
As a white man, I denounce Brett Michaels for sucking and being a general joke and bad music writer.
I do not denounce him for being a Stillers fan, though.
Jake
Hey! Panda bear! We don’t take kindly to yore types in here.
RSA
The Moon. A celestial object that brightens up the sky when it’s supposed to be dark, but not bright enough so that you can actually do anything. Oh yeah–real fucking celestial, Moon. Bite me.
t jasper parnell
INstapundit
does support racist nutcases:
slag
I’ll take the hating of babies and young children off your hands. And any elderly woman who acts like a baby or young child, for that matter. Either they lay like rocks and bore one to tears or they scream and puke on you. Nobody needs that.
Zuzu
Several years ago I lived in a rural area with a large Sikh population. Needless to say, most of the local white folks simply referred to them as “Hindus.” Or more accurately, “Hin-dews.”
I once overheard a conversation between a contractor and a nice young couple. Of course all three were yucking it up over a few insulting Hin-dew jokes.
Then the contractor says,”Yeah, and they usually try to Jew ya down on jobs.” Much to the disbelieving shock of the young Jewish couple.
Shinobi
Anne Coulter
Ryan
The reason people are pissed at OldPunk and InstaPundit is because they do not have the capacity to express their views on race without being offensive and intolerant idiots. Obama’s speech was intelligent and nuanced. Right-wing blogs are rarely either. They should not be surprised or indignant when other people comment on their racist – yes, racist – writings. InstaPundit, particularly, has a history of linking to sites promoting racist views.
And as to whether the left-wing bloggers use examples like InstaPunk to paint the entire conservative movement… well, let them. Right-wingers do it too (the entire Wright issue was about this). That’s not an excuse, it’s a fact of life. It’s the responsibility of the reader to be smart enough to figure out for themselves what’s bullshit and what’s legit.
bartkid
>in order to continue this national dialog …
I’m not even tan, but I have to proffer the chickenhawk triuminverbrate: Hanlon, Pollack, and Doughy Pantload.
grumpy realist
Has anyone considered that Prairie Home Companion to be Minnesota’s equivalent to what the Scots have done with haggis?
We’ve been sent off on the snipe hunt of comedy.