Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Race

  • Andrew Sullivan on Tribalism

    This is a very good article. There is plenty to disagree with, but I agree entirely with this excerpt: Or take the current promiscuous use of the term “white supremacist.” We used to know what that meant. It meant advocates and practitioners of slavery, believers in the right of white people to rule over all…

  • What Do Gun Violence and Systemic Racism Have in Common?

    Neither exist. (William Tingley calls me "the pithy Maverick." How are you doing these days, Bill?)

  • Dennis Prager on Liberalism, Leftism, and Race

    Dennis Prager insists on a distinction between leftism and liberalism. "The two have almost nothing in common," he tells us.  He points to a number of differences. I will comment on just one: Race: This is perhaps the most obvious of the many moral differences between liberalism and leftism. The essence of the liberal position…

  • Race Obsession

     

  • Is Good Faith Dialogue Possible with Leftists?

    Arguably not: Our “mainstream conservative” is a pathetic hostage to the Left. He somehow hasn’t yet realized that the Left is hell-bent on branding everything “racist” regardless of whether the label has any basis whatsoever in either reason or reality. Things are so bad that a progressive merely has to threaten to play the “you’re a racist”…

  • Will the Culture War Issue in Civil War?

    John Davidson: [. . .] For all their shortcomings, conservatives at least have a limiting principle for politics. Most of them believe, for example, in the principles enshrined in the Constitution and maintain that no matter how bad things are, the Bill of Rights is a necessary bulwark, sometimes the only bulwark, against tyranny and…

  • A Version of Alt-Right Identitarianism

    My right-wing identitarian sparring partner makes a good response to my attempt, earlier today, to locate a common root of both right-and left-wing identitarianism.  My responses are in blue. …………….. Wouldn't you agree, on reflection, that the bolded passage [from a NYT article] is a straw man? "Both sides eagerly reduce people to abstract color…

  • An Identitarian is an Identitarian, Left or Alt-Right

    And a pox on both houses, say I. What strikes me is what they have in common. Here is something from the NYT that makes sense (emphasis added): In the most memorable sentence in “The First White President,” Mr. Coates declares, “Whereas his forebears carried whiteness like an ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet…

  • Is It ‘Racist’ to Hose Dog Droppings off Sidewalk?

    Thanks to 'liberals,' we live in an age of race obsession. Almost everyone and everything is 'racist' these days. Story here (and it is no joke): According to the [Seattle] Times, Councilmember Larry Gossett “said he didn’t like the idea of power-washing the sidewalks because it brought back images of the use of hoses against…

  • Bourgeois Norms and Race

    This from an alt-right correspondent. My responses in blue. For the record, I am not alt-right, neo-reactionary, or dissident right (except for my contempt for the yap-and-scribble, do-nothing, anti-Trump, elitist, bow-tie brigade). ………………….. As part of my ongoing attempt to nudge you further to the right . . . consider these "life-enhancing bourgeois values preached…

  • Time to Defund the NFL

    Some important points re: the NFL flag and anthem controversy. 1) In its third clause, the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging freedom of speech or of the press."  This protects the U. S. citizen from any attempt from the side of the U.…

  • Is Every Racist a White Supremacist?

    'White supremacist' is becoming the Left's smear word of choice eclipsing even 'racist.' This leads to an interesting question: Is every racist a white supremacist?  That depends on what you think a racist is. On one definition, a member of a race  is a racist if he harbors an irrational hatred of the members  of…

  • A ‘Progressive’ Paradox: Leftists Stuck in the Past Over Race

    Leftists like to call themselves 'progressives.'  We can't begrudge them their self-appellation any more than we can begrudge the Randians their calling themselves 'objectivists.'  Every person and every movement has the right to portray himself or itself favorably and self-servingly.  But if you are progressive, why are you stuck in the past when it comes…

  • Higher Education or Higher Enstupidation?

    In case you haven't yet had your fill of academic insanity, take a gander at Heather MacDonald's Higher Ed's Latest Taboo is 'Bourgeois Norms.' Apparently, such norms are white-supremacist, misogynistic, and homophobic.  And what norms might these be? Why, "hard work, self-discipline, marriage and respect for authority." Apparently you are a 'racist' if you advise…

  • There is no Systemic Racism

    The Democrat Party is a party of race-hustlers. Clear proof of this is their endlessly repeated lie about 'systemic' or 'structural' or 'institutional' racism. David Horowitz, Big Agenda (Humanix, 2017), p. 51: While institutional or systemic racism has been illegal in America for 50 years, the 2016 Democratic Party platform promises that "Democrats will fight…