I once scoffed at claims of “white male privilege,” dismissing such criticisms as mere “political correctness.” But in the Trump era I have had my consciousness raised. Seriously. Me in @ForeignPolicy: https://t.co/OpgCFew2cF
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) December 27, 2017
Max “Kill All Those Noisy Foreigners” Boot, in Foreign Policy, for the Trickster God’s sake!
…As a Jewish refugee from the Soviet Union, I felt it was ridiculous to expect me to atone for the sins of slavery and segregation, to say nothing of the household drudgery and workplace discrimination suffered by women. I wasn’t racist or sexist. (Or so I thought.) I hadn’t discriminated against anyone. (Or so I thought.) My ancestors were not slave owners or lynchers; they were more likely victims of the pogroms.
I saw America as a land of opportunity, not a bastion of racism or sexism. I didn’t even think that I was a “white” person — the catchall category that has been extended to include everyone from a Mayflower descendant to a recently arrived illegal immigrant from Ireland. I was a newcomer to America who was eager to assimilate into this wondrous new society, and I saw its many merits while blinding myself to its dark side.
Well, live and learn. A quarter century is enough time to examine deeply held shibboleths and to see if they comport with reality. In my case, I have concluded that my beliefs were based more on faith than on a critical examination of the evidence. In the last few years, in particular, it has become impossible for me to deny the reality of discrimination, harassment, even violence that people of color and women continue to experience in modern-day America from a power structure that remains for the most part in the hands of straight, white males. People like me, in other words. Whether I realize it or not, I have benefitted from my skin color and my gender — and those of a different gender or sexuality or skin color have suffered because of it….
The country is becoming more aware of oppression and injustice, which have long permeated our society, precisely because of growing agitation to do something about it. Those are painful but necessary steps toward creating a more equal and just society. But we are not there yet, and it is wrong to pretend otherwise. It is even more pernicious to cling to the conceit, so popular among Donald Trump’s supporters, that straight white men are the “true” victims because their unquestioned position of privilege is now being challenged by uppity women, gay people, and people of color…
There is a hairsplitting argument to be made about whether Trump is the cause or just the catalyst of so many staunch conservatives’ sudden realization: If they’ll treat their own family members and neighbors like this, they’ll certainly treat me just as badly. But as long as they remember their manners, I’m ready to accept Mr. Boot (and Ana Navarro, Tom Nichols, et al) to our big tent and the 21st century!
kindness
Max Boot is going to have to walk on a lot more guilded splinters before I give him loads of credit. But at least he earned some credit there. It’s the Jennifer Rubin effect. I’ll take it.
Hobbes83
Only on one stipulation; they have to undergo a truth and reconciliation process where they admit to having a hand in pushing our society, the media, and their party to the point that they are at right now(and this is a paltry down-payment, IMHO). This article is a small shuffle in the right direction.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
The scales are indeed falling from their eyes, aren’t they?
Ian G.
We’re gonna need people like Boot, Jennifer Rubin, Tom Nichols, David Frum, etc. on our side if we’re going to keep this country from turning into the Philippines under Trump.
I look forward to having the republic back and going back to arguing with them over marginal tax rates and universal health care.
MattF
@kindness: Speaking of Ms. Rubin, she’s returned to the fray. I’d offer quotes, but the whole thing is worth reading. She’s angry and makes realistic suggestions for What To Do.
randy khan
For years, my argument in favor of affirmative action has been that as a straight white Christian male with an Anglo-Saxon last name (and, to top it off, blue eyes, although I missed out on the blonde hair) I have benefitted in uncounted and unknowable ways from the accidents of my birth, so I really don’t have any reason to get freaked out when there’s an effort to level the scales. (Also, if I can’t prove myself in the long run to be better than someone who does get a nudge from affirmative action, that’s my problem, not somebody else’s.) It’s funny how many people are totally flummoxed to hear a straight white Christian guy with an Anglo-Saxon last name and blue eyes say that.
Major Major Major Major
@Ian G.:
About a lot more than that, but the first order of business is finding enough people who agree that we must be rid of Trump and Trumpism.
Eme
Saw on Twitter: If you’re used to privilege equality feels like oppression.
Yep.
Baud
We won’t know for sure how much of this will stick until Trump is gone.
Baud
@Eme: Twitter finally gets something right.
Patricia Kayden
So when do Conservatives in Congress stop voting in lockstep with the Donald? Seems like a few talking heads have seen the light but the folks who actually make laws keep going along with Trump and his imps.
John Cole
I think you meant 20th century. They still have a ways to go. Remember, he’ll now grudgingly acknowledge these things, but what is he going to do about it?
MattF
@Patricia Kayden: Never. You have to defeat them.
Schlemazel
We may find we have to forgive a number of people (I for one will never forget) provided they admit their mistake & try to make amends.
I have a bi friend who went nuts about Dan Savage on FB the other day. It seems that years ago Dan dismissed bisexuality as simply gays who refused to accept that. To his credit Dan recognized his mistake, apologize and has tried very hard to make amends. I get that a person can be mad about his original mistake but if, after years, and admission of guilt and a sincere effort to do better you still can’t forgive someone for their previous ignorance you are destined to live in a very small world.
JustRuss
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Not so much. I can’t help noticing that most of the defecting conservatives belong to groups long targeted by the alt-right (Jews and Latinos). It’s not so much scales falling as noticing that the “First they came for…” meme is striking dangerously close to home. Boot swam in white privilege for 20 years but denied it until his whiteness came into question.
Villago Delenda Est
So, Max has FINALLY picked up on the problem here…that this country has some people who actively fight against its most cherished ideals. That liberty and justice for all is bullshit as long as black men, women, and kids can be murdered with impunity and no consequence by the police for such crimes as breaking down on the side of the road while black, of open carrying a toy gun while black, and the most heinous of them all, wearing a hoodie with skittles in the pockets while black and walking down a sidewalk after sunset.
dmsilev
@Patricia Kayden: They’ll probably stop after their respective primaries (typically in the early fall) at the absolute earliest. Until then, The Base must not be angered.
And that’s an optimistic prediction. A lot of them agree with Trump, they just wish he was more effective at carrying out his program.
zhena gogolia
@Eme:
That sums it up.
hellslittlestangel
Yes! Holding a grudge against someone in the process of changing their mind is the most counter-productive thing ever.
zhena gogolia
@Villago Delenda Est:
It’s so condescending. What the hell has he been smoking all these years?
Emerald (not Eme--somehow I deleted part of my nym)
@Baud:
It’s gonna take decades to undo the damage he’s already done, and I’m not sure we ever can get our international rep back.
Patricia Kayden
@MattF: That’s exactly what I fear. The Jennifer Rubins and Tom Nichols are nice as are the Max Boots. But what does that matter if Republicans in Congress keep going along with Trump’s agenda because it allows them to screw the minorities and the poor and the gays?
debbie
@Ian G.:
Agreed, and as the grownups in the room, we need to resist the urge to rub their noses in the mess they’ve made.
mike in dc
The great irony is that there are leftists who have taken a Trump presidency as an opportunity to pile on Democrats, rather than an existential threat that requires joining ranks with them. der Narzissmus der kleinen Differenzen, I guess.
MattF
@JustRuss: Yeah, and Bill Kristol. Mr. ‘National Greatness’. I don’t know that I’m ever going to get over my problem with him. We’ll see.
Villago Delenda Est
@Hobbes83: Agreed. The GOP has been on this road to Hell for 50 years, at least, and if you’re much older than that and are only realizing it now, then you’re still part of the problem. The sainted shitty grade Z movie star had a lot to do with the normalization of dog-whistle racism in this country, as did Tricky Dick.
They’re going to have to wear some sack cloth for a while, to remind them of their own role in creating the monster that they now find repulsive. Donald Trump is the logical end product of the “Law and Order” and “Southern Strategy” memes.
bago
Sometimes I want to explain it like this: If you are a member of the community, the market, or the exchange, not having a birthed privilege is an implicit tax rendered upon the rest of the people. If you believe in the equality of a free market, then an unequal application of tax should bother you. If this minority tax is a demonstrable effect, as it clearly is, then it is a problem you must face.
germy
Shalimar
@Patricia Kayden: Trump has had nothing to do with writing bills. He won’t even read a summary of what he’s signing. Republicans in Congress are voting in lockstep with each other and Trump is putting his name on the results that actually reach his desk. This isn’t going to change.
Bruce K
He’s got a long way to go, but maybe he’s at least a candidate for induction into the Ancient, Hermetic, and Occult Order of the Shrill? (Even Peggy Noonan, American national vodka repository according to TBogg, qualified for membership, fer crissakes!)
Patricia Kayden
@dmsilev:
Trump is crude and outlandish. They should have elected someone boring like Pence. Same agenda as Trump. Less brash. More effective. And ironically, Rubins, Nichols, Boot, etc., would have been okay with that. If only their base wasn’t uneducated and racist, they could have ended up with someone like Cruz or Rubio.
Starfish
I read Bruce Bartlett now.
mike in dc
@Starfish: Pretty sure the upper upper class(UUC) would endorse an outright dictatorship rather than submit to an annual wealth tax. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth discussion, though.
Villago Delenda Est
@Starfish: This would fulfill the motivation that Thomas Jefferson had about an estate tax; preventing the development of an aristocracy that was perpetuated by falling out of the right uterus. There’s no way Donald Trump, or any of his spawns, would be millionaires, much less billionaires, if he didn’t inherit his father’s ill gotten parasite slumlord gains.
Brachiator
@kindness:
Ah. A Dr John reference to close out the year.
@randy khan:
It’s more than that, and here Booth comes closer to acknowledging the problem. Some people like to talk about “privilege” as though it were a convenient accident, and ignore the degree to which they benefited from deliberate discrimination and oppression of other people. You grew up in a world which would look at a non Anglo-Saxon last name or a woman and said, “Nope. None for you.” And while you can say that you didn’t know all the barriers erected in front of other people, your main privilege was that you didn’t have to know and could like on in happy pretense.
The dilemma of the Age of Trump is that he very openly declares that this is the way it should be, that this is part of making America great again, and he invites open displays of hostility, resentment and discrimination against people who he thinks just do not belong. And Max Boot and others will have to decide if they are willing to sign on to this openly racist, openly nativist regime.
geg6
I agree that we must welcome these people. We are in an existential fight over our Constitution. We need all the allies we can get. I’m not inclined to quibble much at the moment (except with Bill Kristol, not sure I can stomach him but I’ll try).
We can get back to arguing with them about everything else once we’ve saved the country. At least then we’ll know that our political adversaries actually value our mutual values. We certainly can’t say that right now.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@randy khan: What did the old socialist say; “if everyone isn’t free, then no one is really free” or something like that.
BlueDWarrior
@JustRuss: And that’s the key of it. Whiteness is basically a catch all term for “People who are acceptable in the eyes of the ‘Powers-that-be’ “; and that gets into a pernicious debate among POCs about people who ‘act white’ to get ahead, or save themselves some trouble.
Believe me, the whole White/Black framing of things like race and racialism has bled far deeper into our minds as a collective than even the most woke of us are willing to admit (a lot of the time).
VincentN
@John Cole:
At minimum, he should probably do what you did and register as a Democrat. But it might take awhile to reach that point in the conversion process, if ever. In the meantime, more articles like this would be good as it might encourage others to reconsider their own views.
eemom
Meh. May I remind y’all that it is people like this who fucking paved the way for trump??
Alain the site fixer
I just updated the anti-comment-spam plugin, so there should be less false positives.
Baud
@VincentN: He at least needs to vote D, even if he doesn’t register D.
Another Scott
@Alain the site fixer: Don’t tease us like that!!!
:-)
Fingers crossed.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@mike in dc:
These people are hopeless. Trump could round them up and herd them into a camp, and they would sit on the ground naked and starving, and would mutter to their last breath about how “Bernie would have won.”
BlueDWarrior
@Villago Delenda Est: to me, the people who most need to wear the sackcloth and be covered in penance ash are the NPR-type Republicans. The ones even down to the neighborhood level who gave intellectual cover to the radicalization of the entire right-wing of American politics since the Post WWII era.
When my conservative coworkers feel the need to apologize for their support of right-wing policies, then I will feel we are moving forward.
Baud
@Starfish: I keep pointing this out and maybe I’m wrong but I think a wealth tax is unconstitutional at the federal level.
BlueDWarrior
@Baud: it could be considered a bill of attainder, maybe.
mike in dc
@BlueDWarrior: This phenomenon is of course limited by the willingness of rank-and-file members of the in-group(here, “white people”) to accept the “conforming” members of the out-group as “one of us”. So light-skinned latinos who don’t speak Spanish in public, take Anglo names like Bill or Steve or John and talk like conservatives might be acceptable(and some light skinned Asian Americans as well). Bobby Jindal’s always gonna have problems with hardcore racist whites, though.
Brachiator
@BlueDWarrior:
White people are the powers that be. What’s your point?
eemom
@Villago Delenda Est:
IOW, what you said. Except I’m not even on board with “for a while.” Don’t trust them any further than I could puke them.
@Patricia Kayden:
Eggsfuckingzactly. It’s kind of important to keep in mind that the alternatives would all have been just as bad as trump in terms of “policy”; just a whole hell of a lot better at putting a “respectable” face on the same brutal plutocratic agenda, which these craven whores would have sucked right up.
James Hare
@hellslittlestangel: Once upon a time we had to invite a Mr. Cole into the progressive circle after years of being kind of a dick.
Steeplejack
This gives me hope that perhaps one day Boot will get sufficiently woke to realize that his stupid hipster hat is stupid. Not everyone can pull off that look, and he ain’t one of them.
(See also: Thrush, Glenn.)
eemom
Also, remember a few months back when folks were falling all over themselves at Corker? And before that McCain, Collins, and Murkowski? Um, look how that turned out.
Baud
One productive thing these new converts could do is fight voter suppression laws and practices.
@BlueDWarrior: No, I think it’s considered a “direct” tax, which is prohibited.
SFAW
I have sometimes considered, after reading some new Shitgibbon-inspired and Turtle/ZEGS-approved atrocity against blacks, Latinos, Jews, the poor — whomever — writing to Turlts and ZEGS and saying, in effect “You morans think they won’t come for YOU, eventually?”
But Yertle would probably emit one of his disgusting chuckles, and ZEGS would come up with another one of his patented, mealy-mouthed BS responses, and that would be that.
That’s when I’d say “I’ll take ‘Tumbrels’ for $2000, Alex!” [“The Answer: Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Yes SFAW?” “Who are the first to go, Alex?”]
BlueDWarrior
@Brachiator: IT’s not simply white people, it’s “White people with old money”. Look at how trash poorer whites are treated in the culture and in general.
But since pale skin has become a shibboleth, a lot of these downscale whites will forever act as blockers and tacklers for the rich whites, because maybe with enough work they can finally get in “the Club”.
Duane
Wanna hear some very serious conservatism? Louie Gohmert on Hannraty’s show today. A parade of fail. Why these people ever govern anyone is ridiculous.
Steeplejack
Well, I’m home safe and sound—and warm!—after my grand expedition. It’s 24° in my corner of NoVA, going down to about 14° tonight and staying cold through the middle of next week. Might get a shmitz of snow Friday night, then none predicted until next Wednesday. But did I mention cold? Lows down around 12° Sunday and Monday, which is rare here.
The doughty Kia has been deemed ecologically sound and safety-approved for the next year. I had the garage guys check the tire pressure and overinflate all four a little bit. (The dashboard sensor was on, and one tire was way down, although it didn’t look it.) I’ll fine-tune them tomorrow with the digital tire gauge I bought a week ago. I thought it was overpriced at $12, but I have to admit it does a much better job than the old analog one that died.
Question: About a year ago I bought a set of Michelin Energy Saver all-season tires, which have been excellent. The Kia wants them at 32 psi, but someone here said it’s better to keep them a little overinflated. So what’s “a little”? One or two psi? More? I got on the Google and couldn’t find anything. Maybe I’ll put them at 33 psi and see how that goes.
d58826
This all seems to fall under the idea that ‘contemplating the hangman’s noose helps to clarify the mind’
I’m not sure that they will ever become raving liberals but if it helps them to see that liberals do not hate America (and the flip side that liberals can see that there is some common sense on on the right side of the body politic) then it isd all to the good
BlueDWarrior
@eemom: The problem is that in order to balance this unbalanced reaction we are having in our politics, we are going to need not-Liberals to act with some sanity. But the Republican Party is basically going to ride the Atom Bomb of Trump all the way to the ground, seemingly regardless of the fact that if it goes off, they’re at the very center of Ground Zero.
James Hare
@eemom: I felt that way for awhile but now that Rubin, Boot and others like the are actually rejecting some of the toxic shit they previously peddled I’m genuinely confused. I don’t understand why Trump being boorish should force Max Boot to admit that he didn’t get it and probably should have been quiet about some things in the past. I don’t get why it has turned Jen Rubin from a suspiciously enthusiastic Mitt Romney supporter to repudiating the entire Republican party and much of their agenda.
I think Charlottesville still lingers huge for a bunch of these people. They really didn’t want to believe they were playing footsie with all of that. Charlottesville put a whole bunch of things in pretty stark relief. It was a major unforced error by the cosplay Nazis.
BlueDWarrior
@James Hare: Like with any religious conversion, it needs to become a personal. Most people join or leave a faith because of some kind of internal conflict becomes too great to bear, and joining and leaving a political movement or party I think wouldn’t be much different.
For some conservatives, Charlottesville and the failed reaction by many Republicans might have been that final straw that makes them want something to happen to reset the entire movement to some more acceptable zero-point.
frosty fred
@BlueDWarrior:
This keeps coming to mind.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yesterday after Major^4 posted his picture of a rock on London, I noted that I have a picture of the SAME ROCK, what are the chances of that! In my picture, unlike Major^4’s, you can say “it’s all Greek to me”.
d58826
@Steeplejack: Not an expert but I would go with the factory specs. One pound probably won’t hurt one way or the other but if still have doubts call the place that you bought the tires.
VincentN
@eemom:
I would say the difference is none of those politicians had any problems with the conservative agenda or worldview. They just had issues with process or electability concerns or maybe even a particular line they weren’t comfortable with crossing. So I never understood why some people thought that was an indication of some greater disagreement with conservative thinking.
This Boot guy is actually admitting that many of his positions were wrong. He gets nothing out of writing an article like this and at the very least might sway other people who are on the fence. And I’m always up for encouraging people to become less shitty humans beings. It would be better if they weren’t shitty to begin with but that’s life. YMMV.
Mike J
@Steeplejack: If you’re getting snow or ice, now isn’t the time to overinflate.
bystander
@MattF: Still can’t stand Rubin but I can live with her as an ally after this from the article:
Yes, please let it be heard and let them heed the words, Oh GSM, we pray.
Starfish
@BlueDWarrior:
I think that policing people for acting white mostly happens among African Americans. A lot of other people lumped into the PoC category are striving to be acceptable in the eyes of the powers-that-be. When this happens, and white people see a group of themselves lumped in with upper middle class South and East Asians as diverse, I try to disabuse them of their views of diversity. They never get it though.
bystander
BTW, Adam’s post the other night about how Putin’s “penetration at all levels” has yielded a disproportionate release of hacked DNC emails compared to the RNC emails we have seen has really changed my view of why repubs like Graham are acting the way they are.
Where else but BJ could you get that insight? Thanks, Adam.
d58826
NOW THAT IS A NIGHTMARE!!!!!!
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/27/us/california-disneyland-outage/index.html
d58826
@Starfish:
If I remember my history correctly it took awhile for the German immigrants (all those beer gardens) and then the Irish (that Pope thing) to be accepted into the whitness tribe. The Poles, Italians and other have followed along over time
Cheryl Rofer
It will be interesting to see how neocons like Kristol, Boot, Rubin, and Nichols apply their newfound insights. I’m wondering if it will affect their love of war.
MattF
@Cheryl Rofer: Good question. If I was going to ask Bill Kristol a question, it would be “What’s the difference between your ‘National Greatness’ agenda and Trump’s ‘MAGA’ agenda?”
Villago Delenda Est
@d58826: Italians had to jump through some hoops, too. Tom Tancredo and Joe Arpaio are only about a generation or two removed from being swarthy near-ni*CLANGS*.
debbie
@Starfish:
I like that idea. Hiding assets is for losers!
Thaddeu
Hehehe. The oldest dodge in the book. .. It happened that I came later. I just happened to be in the right place and time to benefit from the genocides and lynchings, mass murders and plunder, without having to DO any of that. Just so you know, I do not approve of any of that shit. But since it’s all in the past, I might as well enjoy the fruits of it.
What an a$$hole.
Anyone here in these United States today is morally accountable for its past. eg: the genocide of it’s original inhabitants. If you are alive you are morally responsible for the past; to atone and do reparations. Similarly slavery,..
That you were born today or came later does not absolve you.
debbie
@d58826:
They do say that tires should be a bit overinflated to compensate for the shrinkage from the cold. On the other hand, not adding air will help traction in snow. I worry about this, but then end up doing nothing about it.
Steeplejack
@d58826:
I’ll probably drop them back if I don’t hear anything credible.
debbie
@MattF:
Oh boy. Such memories of that horrorshow.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
So when is the time? And/or what is the benefit? Smoother running? Better gas mileage?
p.a.
@d58826: basically once those considered white
fuckmarry an out-group in numbers the out-group magically becomes white. It’s the magic of body fluids.Also too, Rubin et al can enter the tent, but make ’em sit in the back. A little reinforcement of what the world is like for others can’t hurt.
Mike in Pasadena
I can’t read the entire thread right this minute, but I just want to add what other people may have already said: For years I tried to read what this jackass had written about national security, war, torture, politics, etc. He was always so full of shit that I find it hard to believe he is being sincere in this piece. He was wrong about everything and lied about so many things, so comprehensively, so indiscriminately that I cannot believe him now. Maybe he means everything he wrote here, but I’m not ready to accept it yet. He poisoned the well too many times.
Back to my writing. . . .
danielx
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I don’t think scales falling from their eyes is the correct usage, more like the scales had to be shot off.
different-church-lady
@Eme:
Except there’s no fuckin’ reason in the world why this needs to be so.
Unless you use your “privilege” as a form of oppression.
Ceasing to red-line minorities is not going to make me feel oppressed. Seeing more black and brown faces in my overwhelmingly white neighborhood is not going to make me feel oppressed. The local mosque is not going to make me feel oppressed. The gay pride parade is not going to make me feel oppressed.
You know who’s going to feel oppressed? White people who can no longer wield their privilege as a tool of oppression themselves. Not all white people are interested in that.
debbie
At long last, the Milo manuscript has downloaded! Hope there’s lots more like this:
different-church-lady
@danielx: Nah, it’s more like, “Jesus! Someone just puked all over my face and I had to take the scales off so I could wash my eyes out!”
different-church-lady
@debbie: When are people gonna figure out this guy is just Andy Kaufman without the talent?
danielx
@Eme:
Pretty much. It’s no great wonder (spoken as a white person) that white people don’t recognize white privilege as such. Does a fish notice water?
JMG
This is an emergency situation. If folks like Boot are realizing basic facts late in life, it’s better than never.
different-church-lady
@John Cole: Or maybe northern states in the 19th century.
debbie
@different-church-lady:
You know, this book would do that. I’m almost sorry an actual publishing house didn’t pick it up. It would have been a fabulous failure!
different-church-lady
@mike in dc:
Were you not connected to the internet during the Obama years?
EthylEster
@Baud: Well, almost. Notice that there is a missing comma, which would have made the comment more readable.
Procopius
@MattF: I don’t find Ms. Rubin’s program very appealing, especially her first agenda item, send money to the FBI Agents’ Association. I was in high school during the McCarthy years, which means I was also of an age to remember the Old Queen. I probably shouldn’t use that phrase — it has homophobic connotations — but it’s reminiscent of the Red Queen, “Verdict first, trial after.” Which we certainly have seen a lot of in the last two years, amirite? Anyway, although McCabe is benefiting from the corporate press suddenly supporting him, former general counsel James Baker is thoroughly suspect. I still associate the FBI with COINTELPRO, red baiting, and conducting illegal investigations of PETA and the Sierra Club. The F*cking Democratic Leadership needs to be replaced, too.
debbie
For Mx4 and others who understand this stuff:
(Be sure to click on the picture link.
EthylEster
@JustRuss: Thank you for writing what I was thinking.
danielx
@debbie:
I posted the chapter headings page earlier; that was all of Milo I could stand and getting through that was difficult – required a lot of editing to the cut and paste. Here for your reading delectation and no, not making it up:
Prologue: The Art of the Troll
1. Why the Progressive Left Hates Me
2. Why the Alt-Right Hates Me
3. Why Twitter Hates Me
4. Why Feminists Hate Me
5. Why Black Lives Matter Hates Me
6. Why the Media Hates Me
7. Why Other-Gay-People Establishment Gays Hate Me
8. Why Establishment Republicans Hate Me
9. Why Muslims Hate Me
10. Why Ugly People Hate Me
110. Why Gamers DON’T Hate Me
11. Why My College Tour Is So Awesome
Why do people hate Milo? Because Milo is an eminently detestable douchebag, that’s why. One who needs attention almost as much as Donald Trump, and who isn’t nearly as important as he thinks he is. I would guess that if you asked a hundred people at random across this here US of A “who is Milo Yiannopolis?” you might get a response other than “who again?” from two of them.
different-church-lady
@Patricia Kayden:
Someone boring like Pence never would have won. Trump figured out how to mine a rich vein of asshole and refine it into votes. They never would have turned out for boring. They wanted a three-ring circus, and they still do. They just can’t figure out why there’s all this animal crap all over the arena. Because they’re dumb.
Chip Daniels
In the same spirit that the Bernie folks need to accept a tent big enough for people who give speeches to Wall Street banks, we should have a tent big enough for anyone who can help us move the needle leftward, and this article by Boot helps.
“Fellow travelers” is a real thing. Boot doesn’t have to tick off every box on the lefty spreadsheet to help make the world a better place. He reaches the middle-middle NPR folk who might be receptive to concepts like white privilege when it comes from a trusted voice.
I remember when I was a Republican in the 90s, it was James Pinkerton making a conservative case for gay marriage that helped me cross over that bridge.
MattF
@Procopius: I agree with you about that. Rubin will never be a liberal, and anyone who thinks she’s ‘on the road to Damascus’ is making a mistake. People can, in fact, radically change their views, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening with her.
different-church-lady
@danielx:
This guy’s act is so fuckin’ obvious it’s ridiculous. He’s Andy Kaufman if Andy had skipped over the early part of his career and gone right for wrestling women.
debbie
@danielx:
Bet it took him hours to come up with that overarching theme.
I pdf’ed it and am adding it to iBooks on my iPad. I’m just as interested in the editor’s comments as I am in Milo’s erudite ramblings.
debbie
@danielx:
Milo does say that the only troll who’s more fabulous than he is, is Trump.
different-church-lady
@Mike J: Not unless you want to avoid a four game suspension.
different-church-lady
@MattF:
Cheap ballcaps?
different-church-lady
@Thaddeu: The big mistake here is taking it personally. Nobody’s asking Max Boot to write a check to a Navaho. We’re just asking people to finally start doing the right thing as a society.
Jay S
@Procopius: There’s a movement afoot to discredit anything the FBI uncovers by discrediting the FBI. The attempt to counter that by portraying the FBI as a heroic group is a mistake IMHO. These are people doing their jobs. Some are bad cops and we can’t forget that, but we can’t let that get in the way of truths that are uncovered.
FWIW the FBI agent’s association appears to be a charity for fallen officers and their families. Not an endorsement or propaganda arm of the FBI.
different-church-lady
@Chip Daniels:
In Bernieworld, the tent is big enough for Bernie and needs be no bigger.
Miss Bianca
@Thaddeu: I find it interesting that the guy describes himself as a “classical liberal” – which I guess from his subsequent remarks means he still gets to cry “snowflake!” to college kids who talk about micro-aggressions.
mai naem mobile
I’ve never understood Jewish Republicans. They do realize why the evangelicals are pro Israel right? Or do they not understand that they want Jews to convert?
Ana Navarro, I am not even sure she’s a GOPr because the FL GOP is so much stronger than the Dems or if she’s a true blue ideological GOPr. David Frum is just a typical Canadian/Brit Tory. Nowadays that’s a liberal republican.
Johannes
@MattF: True, but she appears to have an actual sense of right and wrong, and one that transcends “My party, right or wrong.” Sad that the bar is so low, but she doesn’t want to live under totalitarian regime, so she’s an ally, at least for now.
SiubhanDuinne
@danielx:
He could have just called his “book” Why Everybody With Any Sense Hates Me, and been done with it.
Also, fuckim.
different-church-lady
I don’t understand why we can’t just enjoy this whole “Wow, even stupid people are figuring this out” phenomenon without worrying about whether they get to stay in the guest house.
gvg
I think a reason we are seeing so many conservatives talking about being wrong is Obama/Trump heightened the contradictions.
mike in dc
@different-church-lady:
Well, at least then “you’re doing libprog wrong” has some rationalization–the luxury of backseat driving, you might say. But when the Nazis are rounding up dissidents, not the best time to talk about how the Resistance shouldn’t have backed De Gaulle.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
This post actually brings to mind something I’ve thought about. The US is becoming a more ethnically diverse as well as ideologically divided. When I was brainstorming the other night about different factions in a story I’m planning, I did some research about different forms of government and found that parliamentary systems are better for less homogenous societies like the US than presidential systems, allowing for swifter action and a government more responsive to voters.
Not an immediate goal, but something to work towards in the future. We need a parliamentary system. It’s more stable and less prone to authoritarianism like what we’re experiencing now. It’s a wonder the US system lasted as long as it has.
debbie
@mai naem mobile:
They don’t care. They’re thinking short term solely.
The Thin Black Duke
If these “moderate” have seen the light, then let them prove it by voting for democrats. Otherwise, it’s all bullshit.
Gelfling 545
@James Hare: I think the size, scope and possibly the outright absurdity of the debacle has been…clarifying for some.
A Ghost to Most
@MattF:
Rubin came a long way back, but she seems to have stopped short of conversion. She just wants to go back to hating on Democrats.
Heidi Mom
@Thaddeu: By his reasoning he shouldn’t celebrate the Fourth of July because none of his forebears wrote or signed the Declaration of Independence. It’s our history; you don’t get to celebrate the good stuff while saying you had nothing to do with the bad stuff. (Credit to Ta-Nehisi Coates for the thought.)
Chet Murthy
@Hobbes83:
Uh, only after this emergency passes, eh? I mean, assuming it passes of course.
Elie
@Schlemazel:
We must all practice certain types of forgiveness or we will never be able to go forward. How could otherwise, black people forgive this nation about slavery? How could native indigenous Americans forgive their genocide and the plunder of their world? Both peoples have moved forward to support this country and aim it towards the humanist goals that keep it afloat..
And so you, with your measly complaints cannot forgive? Please think again. Think of what we must all do — not in the sake of today necessarily, but for the sake of the many goals we still aspire to for this raggedy, but idealistic place… we MUST forgive in order to rebuild and heal this thing to keep bending the arcs of history and humanity. It aint about our conceit of perfection. We fight this war in ourselves for future generations of Americans… we step back from war with each other, at least until absolutely necessary, with no other choice, to consider our descendants.
Forgiveness aint just about YOU
Villago Delenda Est
@A Ghost to Most: Part of this has to do with her “Israel can do no wrong” shtick, which is very stupid. Israel has lost its way, has become the oppressor that once shoved them into railroad cars. Some don’t want to face that.
Elie
@Schlemazel:
My apologies I completely misread your comment which said the opposite of what I wrote. You supported what I said. I’m sorry, Schlemazel!
Villago Delenda Est
@Heidi Mom: “In order to form a more perfect union”
We’re a long way from perfect…so much is left to do…but some of us are militant that it was more perfect in the mythical past that never was. Donald Trump is one of those people.
Vhh
@JustRuss: He never thought the Face Eating Leopards Party would eat HIS face.
Vhh
@JustRuss: He never thought Face Eating Leopards Party would eat HIS [email protected]James Hare: First the alt-right came for the immigrants, then they came for the blacks, then they came for tge gats, them they came for the Jews…..and that is when Bill Kristol, Jen Rubin, and Max Boot saw the light. To be conservative is to be selfish.
Brachiator
@BlueDWarrior:
No, it’s white people.
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
J R in WV
@James Hare:
The Nazis don’t think it was any kind of error. That was who and what they are, and they want us to know that’s who they are and be afraid. But I’m not afraid, I’m armed and willing to defend everyone against them.
I recommend everyone be prepared to defend themselves. If you don’t know how, sign up for classes and learn.
J R in WV
@d58826:
We visited Disney World on press day, the day before the park opened to the general public. Small World was a complete shock, a horrible shock, to me at the time, and it was operating perfectly as designed. A total nightmare, as designed.
If I was stuck in there, motionless, for more than a minute or two, I would self-extract from that nightmare, and immediately search Google for liability lawyers in the area willing to take on the Giant Mouse. If I was actually damaged, injured in the process of self-extraction, there would be hell to pay.
How long before staff came to rescue those poor people?
Who ever thought that “Small World” was an appropriate thing to expose people to without warning them in advance of what they were about to witness? I am not a Disney fan, never was, never will be. Walt was a psychopath, and surrounded himself with people just like he was. Nuts!
HumboldtBlue
Max fucking Boot?
jonas
@mai naem mobile: Some are Republican for the lingering anti-Soviet/communism nostalgia. Others welcome the evangelical support — despite its inherent bigotry — for the short term political advantage. Tomatoh, tomahto.
There will come a time, however, when evangelical power in America will go the way of the dodo — mostly because their leaders will have shown themselves to be less interested in Christian values and more interested in being slimy, racist Quislings willing to sell out their country to get a few anti-abortion judicial appointments — and their decision to hitch their horses to a bunch of hypocritical, treasonous (and, frankly, antisemitic) assholes will appear not so well-thought-out.
celticdragonchick
@Mike in Pasadena:
Twenty years ago, I probably sounded an awful lot like Max Boot. Change happens when cognitive dissonance becomes untenable.
celticdragonchick
@Johannes: I agree. She will never be liberal, but she does have a moral compass that still works.
Barry
@Steeplejack: “Question: About a year ago I bought a set of Michelin Energy Saver all-season tires, which have been excellent. The Kia wants them at 32 psi, but someone here said it’s better to keep them a little overinflated. So what’s “a little”? One or two psi? More? I got on the Google and couldn’t find anything. Maybe I’ll put them at 33 psi and see how that goes.”
My father, an engineer and mechanic, said that the car’s manual will specify a tire pressure which gives the best-feeling ride, at the cost of tire life; the tire manufacturer will specify a tire pressure which gives longer tire life, at the cost of the cushiness of the ride.
Barry
@Steeplejack: “Well, I’m home safe and sound—and warm!—after my grand expedition. It’s 24° in my corner of NoVA, going down to about 14° tonight and staying cold through the middle of next week. Might get a shmitz of snow Friday night, then none predicted until next Wednesday. But did I mention cold? Lows down around 12° Sunday and Monday, which is rare here.”
I live in South Easter Michigan (Ann Arbor); it was well below zero here, which is very unusual for December. If we get a spell of sub-zero temps, it’s usually during January.
Barry
@BlueDWarrior: “But the Republican Party is basically going to ride the Atom Bomb of Trump all the way to the ground, seemingly regardless of the fact that if it goes off, they’re at the very center of Ground Zero.”
What worries me the most, long-term, is that the GOP politicians mostly wont’ be (or think that they won’t be). I fear that the lesson of 2008 was that even crashing the economy and losing a war meant that they’d just retire to their country estates for a year or two, and then come back.
The GOP trashed the country and the world by 2008. Two years later they retook the House; two years after that they retook the Senate.
Barry
@bystander: “BTW, Adam’s post the other night about how Putin’s “penetration at all levels” has yielded a disproportionate release of hacked DNC emails compared to the RNC emails we have seen has really changed my view of why repubs like Graham are acting the way they are.”
There probably are a lot of GOP politicians worried about just what the FSB has one them, but the simpler explanation is that (a) this is what they always were and (b) Trump has persuaded them that being open and extreme will work.
You don’t have to look hard for reasons why corrupt and evil people behave corruptly and evilly.
Barry
@debbie:
@mai naem mobile:
“I’ve never understood Jewish Republicans. They do realize why the evangelicals are pro Israel right? Or do they not understand that they want Jews to convert?”
debbie: “They don’t care. They’re thinking short term solely.”
When you have somebody who thinks that God backs you doing the things you want to do, you tend to like that somebody. And it’s reasonable – they figure that the Rapturist Right will never actually get to the point of deciding that now is the time for the destruction of Israel. The Rapture will always be Real Soon Now, but never actually arriving.
Gex
And you know what that makes him? A cis het white man who NEEDS it to be this bad to see it. If he could have seen things earlier, if SO MANY OF THEM would have listened earlier, we might not be here.
It isn’t the haters that made this happen, Max. It is the complacent “allies” who won’t stop them that made this happen.