[McWhorter] The New N-Word Standard Isn’t Progress

CNN front page right now:

 

Not only am I not missing it, I specifically acknowledged it. Most people don't engage in this stuff. They go to work, they go have a beer, they go home, they watch network TV, they go to bed, they buy stuff at WalMart or off Amazon, they listen to top 40. They don't talk extensively about politics in any way, they just live their life. That's regardless of their political persuasion. For some reason, you think people right of center don't do this as well. They do. I am discussing the groups of people that actually engage in political discussion.

Who was driving the narrative to get Rogan kicked off Spotify? Who was driving the narrative to cancel Dave Chappell because he talked about trans people in his act after his trans friend died? Was it the right? Was it libertarians who wanted Aziz Ansari or Louis CK not to be able to work?

The people posting threads against cancel culture? They tend to be on the right, you know the side that doesn't want to ruin people because they said something others disagree with.

The religious right is socially right but not economically right. I consider them a radically different entity. If you want to include them (which it appears you do from your list) then you are going to have all the things from the bible, sure. I will grant you that religious people want religious things.
But you asked for a list:

Stopping people from being murdered hardly seems outside of what I said. Did you also want to include laws against robbery and burglary, those also exist.

This is a good one. They are obviously overreaching here.

I assume you mean mar1juana criminalization, not legalization. Again, I agree.

Really, out of date, unenforceable laws that were passed decades ago? Also, yes, the bible.

Yes, the bible.

This is about protecting property values, not interfering in other people's lives. Restrictive zoning laws are hardly a right leaning issue though, Cities like San Francisco have the most arduous zoning and building laws in the country. Rural areas (where the right is dominant) tend to have far fewer building/zoning regulations than urban areas (where the left is dominant).

I think that is literally one place, and it is not enforced (because how could it be, they can't search your home to make sure you have a gun).

No parent or group from the left has ever complained about what is taught in schools, right?

I'm pretty sure there are far more cancel culture people on the left than mandatory platforming people on the right. That's why you see people getting canceled, but you don't see Alex Jones being returned to YouTube or Trump to Twitter.

This was a story that ran for like two days because a couple of idiots thought one thing (story about Dr. Suess being racist in propaganda material) was conflated with another thing (story of 6 Seuss books going out of print). If every story of people being an idiot counts, the list for both sides would be infinitely long.

So many of your examples are actually responses to something done by the left, and smaller than the original thing. People on the left cancelled Pepe LePew because he promotes "Rape Culture" and a much smaller group of people on the right got butthurt about it.

Yes, imagine anyone on the left calling for someone to be fired for their unpopular political stance.

You think the right boycotts more than the left? Have you heard of Chick-fil-A? BDS? Nestle? Come on now.

So, are you seriously arguing that the right takes more money from people and redistributes it more, or are you just saying sometimes Republican government also taxes people?

You realize the Federal government (controlled by the left) controls where federal tax dollars are spent, right?

Actually, I wasn't, I was helping you get started with your list.

You could, and it would still be a lot.

Kaepernick has turned down contract offers (he also compared the NFL draft combine to a slave market). His not playing in the NFL is self-imposed. Also, how dare you impugn the Red Rifle

Reid was signed by the Panthers AFTER his protests and suing the league. He was released in 2020. Subsequently, he was offered a contract to play on the practice squad of the WFT, which he turned down. So, the two NFL players that say they have been kept out of the NFL were actually both offered contracts to play in the NFL. Maybe they are afraid that they will be exposed.

They were fired by Trump for trying to get Trump impeached and removed. That isn't right wing cancel culture. As Machiavelli wrote, "Never do an enemy a small injury." Or Emerson, "Never strike a king unless you are sure to kill him." No one's political career is going to survive unsuccessfully trying to get their boss removed.

Perhaps Dr. Fauci should not have lied to people on national television about the very thing he is supposed to be the expert in.

cont

 

The RNC is a political organization that is disciplining its own members. Even so, not even Mitch McConnel stood behind that position.

Again, you are just pointing out that people with jobs in politics are not keeping those jobs when they oppose the person who won. That is not a right left thing. No one who supports the opposing side comes out well when their own side loses. It isn't like Biden kept all of Trump's staff in place. He didn't hire all the people that campaigned for Sanders or Warren. When Trump is on top of the Republican party, the people that don't want him there are not going to do well in the Republican party. They should leave. Perhaps if enough people do, the party will die and something better will take its place. We used to have a Whig party, after all.

Your answer to the argument that the left tries to control people more is that people don't like it when the left tries to control people more?

Yes. How many regulations have the left put in?

Yes, Trump is a bit left, economically. The truck protest is against vaccine mandates, in case you missed it, so that would be an example of the left trying to control people and the right wanting to be left alone, no matter how a "right leaning poster" has framed it. The TEA Party (literally the Taxed Enough Already Party) was against, you guessed it, high taxes.

I acknowleged that the religious right is very into trying to control people. The examples you provided outside of that are either a) not true (see Kaepernick et al.) or b) reactions to the very things you are saying the left doesn't do.

I certainly wish that the political machine was leaning more this way.

Perhaps so. Maybe I am in a libertarian bubble. Certainly being in California I am not around a ton of people that passing laws banning CRT in schools.

I don't think they are innocent, I think they are guilty to a lesser degree.

 

@StupidMoniker I don't have time to respond to your post in detail right now but will get to it later. That said your post boils down to arguing that the Religious Right isn't really part of the Right and that the Left does a lot of things too. Yes the Left does and I specifically said they do. That is what "both sides" mean. That you and others like you seem determined though to largely deny or downplay the many serious incidences that those from the Right have engaged in the exact behavior you criticize shows largely why the GOP and largely the Conservative movement itself has been hijacked into the Nativist Protectionist grievance driven movement that it is.

 

Just to add another example of the Right wanting to pass a lot of new and largely unnecessary regulations. The massive spate of new voting restrictions and election laws being passed by the Republican State legislatures when there has been no proof of fraud that would've changed recent elections.

 

I'll take a look at the article when I get the chance but that does seem like a pretty sensationalized and overblown headline.

 

Wait — which part was the lie there?

We know the truth is that wearing masks, particularly non-surgical masks, has limited value if people are fidgeting with it and touching their face. What he said there is consistent with that (medical grade masks being in very limited supply at that time).

 

This was at the beginning of the pandemic. He said healthy people should not be wearing masks. Obviously since that time he has reversed and said everyone should be wearing masks. He later said that the reason for the statement is he didn't want people buying masks because he was concerned there would be a shortage for healthcare workers. The lie is either masks help or they don't and you cannot hold both positions honestly without a change in your understanding. He lied to try to preserve PPE availability for healthcare workers, but that is damaging to his credibility. When people can see him on national television saying two totally opposite things (people should not wear a mask then everyone should wear a mask), that is what leads to people questioning him and eventually (after people have been locked down, injected, forced to wear masks, lost jobs, etc.) he gets threats. Even the part about fidgeting and touching your face ignores any benefits to others from containing your droplets.

I specifically said that the Religious Right is part of the right, but that their edicts are based on their religion. Muslims don't eat pork, but I don't attribute that to being right wing, I attribute it to being Muslim. Moreover, I criticize the Republicans all the time for doing the same thing Democrats do. I don't like the authoritarian bent of either party, which is why I am a libertarian. I just don't agree that they do it equally.

As for both sides, both sides do everything. I am looking at trends and the degree to which things are done, not that exclusively one side does X and exclusively one side does Y. In my experience, the left is more about government control. The right is more about deregulation. The left is more about taxation and redistribution, the right is more about lower taxes. These are not typically considered controversial positions. How many Democrats have you seen running on tax cuts? How many on deregulation? How many on increased social spending? What about Republicans?

 

I know plenty of people right of center, center, and left of center. I know Trump lovers and I know Trump haters - I hope we all do have relationships with people across the political spectrum.

When people DO talk politics, and granted it's not all the time thankfully, I listen carefully. And I don't hear those on the left complain about calling COVID the "china virus" what I hear them complain about is why people on the right are so against getting a stupid shot or wearing a mask because it's so freaking EASY. People on the left thing the right resists for the sake of resisting - because they need an outlet to be enraged and angry. When I talk to people on the right, they seem to be hell bent on tying this to China, talking about how the mainstream media is manipulating people, and really repeating a lot of the talking points you hear - they talk about cancel culture and how their freedoms are being taken away meantwhile no one has taken any of their freedoms away - it's such utter b.s. and you know it.

I don't know any liberal or anyone at all who didn't want Aziz Ansari to work. So I have no idea where you get that from even. Because one woman wrote a letter and it got blown up in the media? Somehow that makes you think that liberals are all upset about Aziz Ansari for his awkward approach to women. Louis CK could be argued did something called sexual harassment - which I get the right just thinks is ok but some people don't. Commiting a crime is a different matter than saying some things that are misinterpreted.

Most people are against cancel culture - the right just pretends they are the ones against it and are fighting this invisible boogieman they wrap everything on the left to be.

The truth is that the "left" isn't this singular group like the right tends to be. Most people on the left aren't upset about Dave's transgender comments or even effing care. Most people on the left don't care who Joe Rogan has as guests. They don't want Rogan canceled, but what hte right does is find the few people who do and blows that up and acts like the left is trying to oppress free speech.

The reality is that people get offended and disagree with the actions of others ALL THE TIME. There's no need to blow it up in to this massive fight against "cancel culture"

You act like its only people on the right that are the victims. It's not. It's across the spectrum. Plenty of liberals have idiots who try to get them fired because they made a remark to someone that they took offense about. So why turn this into this political thing?? Because everyone needs to find a target to blame and direct their frustration at. That's all this is. There is no such thing as cancel culture. It's just effing human nature for people to use the internet to go after people that offend them.

 

@tinman you forgot to post this for @StupidMoniker - maybe create a new thread?

"More popular than Jesus"[nb 1] is part of a remark made by John Lennon of the Beatles in a March 1966 interview, in which he argued that the public were more infatuated with the band than with Jesus, and that Christian faith was declining to the extent that it might be outlasted by rock music. His opinions drew no controversy when originally published in the London newspaper The Evening Standard, but drew angry reactions from Christian communities when republished in the United States that July.

Lennon's comments incited protests and threats, particularly throughout the Bible Belt in the Southern United States. Some radio stations stopped playing Beatles songs, records were publicly burned, press conferences were cancelled, and the Ku Klux Klan picketed concerts. The controversy coincided with the band's 1966 US tour and overshadowed press coverage of their newest album Revolver. Lennon apologised at a series of press conferences and explained that he was not comparing himself to Christ.

The controversy exacerbated the band's unhappiness with touring, which they never undertook again; Lennon also refrained from touring in his solo career. In 1980, he was murdered by a Christian fan of the Beatles, Mark David Chapman, who later stated that Lennon's quote was a motivating factor in the killing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_popular_than_Jesus


Yeah Rogan and Chapelle have it soooooo bad.

 

What he has said people "should" be doing has changed as our information about the virus has changed, as resources have changed, and as the risk level has changed. Which is exactly what one would expect from a person who is not lying.

Yes, that was one reason. Another reason was there at the time we didn't realize the extent to which the virus could be spread asymptomatically -- which he has also said.

And our understanding has been changing.

You have suddenly leapt to him supposedly lying without establishing where the lie is.

He and many others have explained over and over why the guidance has changed. You and the rest choose to ignore these explanations because you want to believe he has no credibility.

The part about fidgeting and touching your face is completely valid, and this was precisely what mainstream scientists would caution against on the topic of whether the general public should be wearing masks to avoid the flu (I remember listening to science podcast on this very topic just before COVID hit).

You seem to have forgotten that in the early days of the pandemic, when I guess this video took place, people generally assumed that COVID was spreading through surface contact rather than droplets in the air. Again, the understanding changed.

So, again -- where is the lie?

 

The lie is that he has subsequently admitted that they knew masks could be helpful, but that he didn't want to advise people to wear them because he was afraid of a PPE shortage for healthcare workers. That isn't a change in understanding. That isn't a concern about surface transfers that went away. That isn't a change in whether or not people fidget or touch their face. He didn't want people to buy masks because he wanted them to go to healthcare workers. Once he realized that, oops, there are plenty of masks for everyone, the story changed. That isn't a new understanding of the disease, he was lying so people wouldn't buy masks when he thought there would be a shortage.

 

PPE shortage was a concern in the early going, and it's not like this part of it was somehow suppressed.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/29/health/coronavirus-mask-hysteria-us-trnd/index.html

Americans don't need masks. They buy them because they're scared
To be clear once again, Americans don't need masks. The CDC says that healthy people in the US shouldn't wear them because they won't protect them from the novel coronavirus.
In fact, warns US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, face masks might actually increase your risk of infection if they aren't worn properly.
But medical workers who treat patients with novel coronavirus do need them. And, the CDC says, it's crucial that those supplies don't run out.
When it comes to hysteria and panic, though, reason takes a backseat.
"This is a psychological thing," Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told CNN. "The coronavirus is coming, and we feel rather helpless. By getting masks and wearing them, we move the locus of control somewhat to ourselves."​

Why Fauci is the focus on your ire, I don't know, but this was the general advice from the entire health establishment in the very early going. The masks were most needed for healthcare workers, and they were deemed to be not so helpful for the general public. from what was known about the virus and how it was spreading at that time.

https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-doesnt-regret-advising-against-masks-early-in-pandemic-2020-7

"I don't regret anything I said then because in the context of the time in which I said it, it was correct. We were told in our task force meetings that we have a serious problem with the lack of PPEs and masks for the health providers who are putting themselves in harm's way every day to take care of sick people," Fauci told O'Donnell.

"When it became clear that the infection could be spread by asymptomatic carriers who don't know they're infected, that made it very clear that we had to strongly recommend masks," he said.

"And also, it soon became clear that we had enough protective equipment and that cloth masks and homemade masks were as good as masks that you would buy from surgical supply stores," Fauci added. "So in the context of when we were not strongly recommending it, it was the correct thing."
​

https://bestlifeonline.com/coronavirus-surfaces/

Fauci continued to explain how early studies of the novel coronavirus may have misled researchers into thinking the virus was mostly transmitted by touching objects. "What investigators have done is that they've gone and shown you can get [viruses] off surfaces of cloth for 72 hours," he explained. "What hasn't been shown is that it's an inoculum that is large enough to actually transmit. So it is absolutely true that you can isolate [the virus] from doorknobs, steel, [or] chrome for 72 hours, but we don't think that is a major modality for transmission."

Instead, Fauci says the most recent evidence points to an entirely different method of transmission: person-to-person. "Overwhelmingly, it is [spread] person to person through the respiratory route," he said. "Droplets are aerosolized from one person to another."​

The narrative you've constructed in your mind requires you to simply ignore all the explanations he and other health officials gave in 2020 for the change in masking guidance. You are trying really hard to argue that PPE availability was the only factor, even when their own interviews point to other factors that were involved in the guidance.

 

@StupidMoniker Here's the full transcript from the interview you posted. I've highlight the bits which were not included in the video edit you linked to:

https://www.statesman.com/story/new...-lie-masks-march-marco-rubio-said/4068162001/

FAUCI: The masks are important for someone who's infected to prevent them from infecting someone else. Now, when you see people and look at the films in China and South Korea, whatever, and everybody's wearing a mask. Right now in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks.

HOST: You're sure of this, because people are listening really closely to this.

FAUCI: Right. Now people should not be walk— there's no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you're in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it's not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is.

And often there are unintended consequences. People keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.

HOST: And you can get some schmutz sort of staying inside there.

FAUCI: Of course, but when you think "masks," you should think of health care providers needing them and people who are ill. The people — when you look at the films of countries, and you see 85% of the people wearing masks, that's fine. That's fine. I'm not against it. If you want to do it, that's fine.

HOST: But it can lead to a shortage.

FAUCI: Exactly, that’s the point. It could lead to a shortage of masks for the people who really need it.
​

So in the interview, he mentions the masks are important for people who are infected. So, not for people who are uninfected. Obviously, our understanding of asymptomatic spread later on is a crucial factor, even though you want to gloss over it. He also actually talks about mask shortages being a major concern as well.

So, again, where is the lie?

 

Can you say the F WORD? K WORD? C WORD?
-Aggot, Ike and Unt

Why is it so taboo to say those but the NWORD is quite ok


Rocket River
Renee: "Dave, you are not allowed to say the word f***** on TV.
Dave: "Why not? I say ****** all the time!"
Renee: "Dave, you aren't gay."
Dave: "I'm not a ****** either!!"

 

He didn't lie, but that's an inconvenient truth to those who NEED him to have told a lie so they can throw him under the bus and justify their idiotic views.

 

They changed it...

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-changes-headline-comparing-joe-rogans-use-n-word-jan-6

 

So you're saying you are self-destructive?

 

It isn't a narrative I have constructed in my mind. I don't care about Dr. Fauci at all. I don't care what he recommends, I don't care what he says is good or bad. The fact that Dr. Fauci was threatened was raised. I am telling you why Dr. Fauci was threatened. People don't like that he recommended not wearing masks, and then recommended mandating wearing masks after the virus had already spread like wildfire. Whether you want to call it lying or shading the truth or telling the truth that he thought was true but turned out wasn't, that is why people care. There are a dozen articles about it. You act like this is some conclusion I have made up of whole cloth. Just google fauci admits lying about masks and there are pages of hits that explain why people are mad at Dr. Fauci. Obviously no one should have threatened him.

 

People don't support mandate for govermrent control, they support them to stop unnecessary deaths