ICE Killed A White Mother. Why Are Trump And Other White Men Cheering?

[Sympthsical]

29. I appreciate the engagement

A few quick responses (peds rotation begins tomorrow, so skedaddling time)

1. I agree with you both sides are distinct. Come voting time, you and I have a clear Democratic preference - the sides aren't even close. But in the Bowen/Matt/AOC/Mamdani examples, this viciousness is intraparty. It's shots being fired inside the house for any position or opinion that smidged even an inch out of line. The reason I brought it up is to illustrate how this ideological hyperpolarization is now the overriding characteristic driving rage in our current politics. It's not identity - it's this stuff. I'm not saying identity isn't a component - it's just not nearly as controlling as the author clearly assumes. (As far as B/M having an opinion, that's kind of a thin rationale. Everyone had an opinion about the NYC mayor's race. And I doubt any non-Texan supporting Crockett would be attacked by these same people for the same reason. Let's be a little honest here. They're adults. They can have an opinion. I don't even know what "credentials" would look like in the case of permission to have a political opinion about an election. DU couldn't exist if we started extending these standards).

2. After my second response, I looked up who Dr. Patton was. That last line about guaranteed safety bugged me enough to look. I had three assumptions. Non-white, academic, probably talks about intersectionality a lot. The kind of undertone of venom about white women is a hallmark of a certain space in academia. I threw in a fourth guess for fun - that I could look at her social media and find something really, really alienating and dumb within 60 seconds. I was right on all four counts. I promise I'm not magic. It's just that it's so predictable, tiresome, and worn out to be this . . . intellectually lazy when it comes to these smooth-tread ideological statements. (She describes asking someone how to be a better ally as "violence". C'mon now.) We need better arguments than a gear stuck in 2012. It's time to evolve. We haven't in the age of Trump, and I think that's a deep part of why we can't get as much electoral traction as you'd think when the Right has completely melted down. It's because people who can be persuaded turn to us and get rhetoric like this, and it's an instant, "Ugh, nevermind. This is insufferable."

I do not know who this article is for. I agree with how she calls out the Right. 100%. And then she trips right over her own ideology. It almost feels like a self-soothing exercise. A confirmation prayer. A recitation of faith.

We need people who want to pull back from hyperpolarization rather than stoke it. Dr. Patton's a stoker. I just don't find it useful at this moment, I guess.

3. Very quickly, because I've run out of time. We all agree entitled white women are a thing. On social media. Social media loves this stuff and posts about it. Posts stories about it. Shares it all around - because it is acceptable. I have met these women myself. I've also met men and non-white people who come flying out with the same sense of entitlement. Crazy meltdowns. Abuse of service workers. Rage over nothing. But that isn't as fun a social media currency. For a variety of reasons, Karen became the acceptable national pinata. Everyone, Right and Left, agrees that having a go at white women is the best of times. Dr. Patton strikes me as the kind of person who is likely to have participated in that way. I've read some of her stuff, and that's the vibe. Which is probably why this article struck me the way it did.

And I'm not saying this entitlement from privilege isn't a thing. As you mention, some people feel a lot safer than others involving law enforcement in disputes. You make a great, undeniable point. Yeah, some people are just that insulated (although I'd argue a lot of this is heavily class-based as well. The word "suburban" surfaces often).

But I do think people need to take a hard look at the foundational assumptions they're using as springboards in these discussions. The underlying venom was unmistakable to me. And that line I quoted in particular. Only someone coming at it from prejudice would've written that.

This stuff isn't how Trump and the Right get beat. Either they self-destruct entirely (and take a lot of innocents with them) or we evolve and start using better words and more inclusive ideologies that don't seek to divide our own side into their component parts. We need to not be at each other's throats, and stuff like this just isn't helpful in that regard.