Sunday, October 31, 2021

Trolls

The "be nice and make sure to listen to your racist relatives at Thanksgiving" genre seems to have faded, somewhat, though I assume there will be an entry in the New York Times soon. Dowd will take it up if no one else does.

This dumb discussion is premised on the notion that liberals need your fucking advice on how to deal with racist people in our lives because we are in a 'bubble' or some shit, as opposed being smacked in the face by racism every day, including from our supposedly liberal media. But it's also dumb because the archetypal "racist uncle" is always portrayed as a kindly, well-meaning person with some out of date views (though he has some good points!), and a bit of tolerance and understanding and a hug will lead to common ground.

Thats not how it works, ever. People who show up to Thanksgiving (or whenever) to do performative racism are trolls, not simple folk of the fields, Ohio Diner Men. They are not "undeducated members of the white working class." They are, like Trump's base, wealthy guys with golf club memberships. They're not just racists, they enjoy being assholes to provoke.

This is not important in and of itself, but it's representative of how politics is treated in The Discourse. Only liberals have agency. It's their job to be nice to the Real Americans, to compromise with "the moderates," to tolerate bad faith actors, to understand racism and never, ever let its targets and victims speak.