She Makes Her Own, I Think
I keep seeing this meme going around that’s like, “I’ll still be your friend if you voted for Trump, I’ll still be your friend if you voted for Biden…” and it’s making me ragey.
So writes Sa’iyda Shabazz in the pages of Scary Mommy, where progressive parents display their piety to each other, and where rage and tears, even feigned or delusional rage and tears, are a currency of sorts, markers of woke status. Part of the game.
If you still support [Trump] after the last four years of his bullshit, then guess what? I don’t want to be your friend. Because if you support that monster, you can’t possibly also care about me.
A monster. Specifically, a “racist, misogynist, xenophobic monster.” I suppose we were destined to start in high gear, something approaching opera. It does seem to be the custom among Scary Mommy contributors. Having dutifully denounced Mr Trump as the Demon King, the cause of all human sorrow, Ms Shabazz then goes on to reveal, albeit inadvertently, the extent to which the wider world should in fact care about her, being as she is so lovely and not at all demented.
I know that I have friends who voted for Trump in 2016. And I know I probably have friends who did this year, too. One of them is one of my oldest and dearest friends. To say that I was horrified is an understatement.
In terms of progressive outpourings, understatement is a rare treat. Let’s take a moment to savour it.
The friend that I knew for sure voted for him? We didn’t talk for three years. I couldn’t reconcile the person I knew with the person who’d do something so awful… As a Black woman who is queer and poor, I know this administration wants to make me a second-class citizen. I cannot associate with someone who even hints at feeling the same.
I think I see the problem. The questionable premise.
My college degree isn’t going to stop [the police] from shooting me dead in the street if they feel inclined.
Of which, it turns out, there may be more than one.
Having revealed the somewhat rickety footing of her umbrage, Ms Shabazz resumes her efforts to win us over with a mix of natural charm and mental stability:
As far as I know, none of my friends are actively racist. But I also know that I’m not around them all the time.
We must have round-the-clock monitoring. Some kind of electronic tag. It’s the only way to be sure.
Just because they don’t crack a “Black” joke or mock the stereotype around me doesn’t mean they don’t when I’m not around.
Relentless suspicion being the basis of every solid friendship. And indeed, a happy life.
I can assume they’re not using our friendship to stop other white people from making racist comments.
This she can assume, you see. There then follows a tangle of other assumptions that I’ll attempt to summarise. You see, as a black woman – specifically a black lesbian, someone “Queer AF” – Ms Shabazz knows that some of her white friends may in turn know Trump supporters, who, being Trump supporters, must be making racist comments to all and sundry – there being no other conceivable possibility. And so, Ms Shabazz is certain that her white friends are not only hearing these racist comments but are also not objecting, thereby betraying her.
What my friends may not realise is that silence equals compliance. You may not agree when someone makes a racist statement, but if you’re not vehemently railing against them for that statement, you are complicit.
Vehement railing is demanded as a condition of being a friend, albeit a friend forever under suspicion. However, as with much else in the pages of Scary Mommy, actual evidence of this presumed betrayal, and thereby presumed complicity in Mr Trump’s Age Of Darkness, is not forthcoming. No crumbs at all. And not only is this assumed racism – and assumed silence, and assumed complicity, and assumed failure to be vehement – betraying Ms Shabazz, it is, we’re told, actually endangering her:
I’m not a practising Muslim, but I have an Arabic name. So how do I know that I’d be safe if he ever started rounding Muslims up?
So. Again. Totally even-keeled.
None of my friends know about the anxiety I’ve had this whole election. Seeing them sharing pictures of themselves voting and not saying anything else. “Did they vote for Trump?” is a question swirling around in my brain every time I see it… Without an overt indication, I have no choice but to think the worst.
She has no choice, you see.
The hard truth is that white people often vote in their personal best interest.
Because you just can’t be progressive, and therefore better than other people, without at least a whiff of racial bigotry. And so,
If you know the fear of the marginalised and still voted for that monster, you’re no friend of mine. Fool me once, shame on you. Do it again? GTFO.
Given what we’ve seen of Scary Mommy articles, one can’t help but entertain the possibility that its supposedly “empowered” contributors, our self-styled moral betters, the ones wracked with anxiety and fits of mental twitching, are very often authors of their own unhappy dramas. Having dispensed with the expectation of evidence, and with it, a sense of proportion and the constraints of realism, these titans of tomorrow are truly liberated and can hallucinate wildly all the long day. While disdaining friends for being unwitting props in the author’s own fever dream.
Readers may wish to ponder a mental world in which you essentially can’t interact with people – even “dearest friends” – who may have voted differently, and in which any friends who happen to be white are forever suspected of betrayal, and of endangering your wellbeing, on grounds that they may not have been sufficiently vehement in their scolding of other people – say, their colleagues, neighbours or acquaintances – who may also have voted differently. Or indeed, done less than that. It’s a worldview that doesn’t exactly scream good times ahead.
[ Expanded via the comments. ]
Via Lady Cutekitten.
Heavens, a button. I wonder what it does.
Vehement railing is demanded as a condition of being a friend, albeit a friend forever under suspicion.
Wonder what her white friends make of the article…
None of my friends know about the anxiety I’ve had this whole election.
Oh, I’m betting they do. And the ones who are sane are probably whispering behind their hands, “Wow. She’s totally losing it. See what that cult did to her?”
Without an overt indication, I have no choice but to think the worst.
THIS is what true paranoia looks like. This woman needs an intervention. Instead, she’ll get affirmation from the internet, where all the other paranoid delusionals hang out.
*smh*
It all boils down to weird hair, brash, not a democrat.
No. It all boils down to “received wisdom”. This person (and SO many others) has received their ‘wisdom’ from FaceBook and the MSM and The Twits and has never even asked them to provide evidence beyond the vague musings of Tater and the lady with tampon earrings. These people are not skeptics. They are BELEIVERS in the cult of progressivism. Their priests do not require them to back up their statements, merely to recite, rote, the creed they are given.
Understand, this is not a “culture” war as so many think of it. It’s a religious war – Judeo-Christian Civilization against Progressivism. The religious worldview that gave us progress because of critical thinking versus the religious worldview of progress now obviating critical thinking.
Why would anyone, anywhere not vote in their personal best interest? That’s the whole point of voting.
Because you’re obviously not a collectivist. (“You are not of The Body.”) You see, we should always vote against our own best interest because that’s never in the interest of the collective. Which is one place where Marx and Smith differ so greatly. I think Marx surmised that, eventually, personal best interest converged with the collective best interest as we approach the asymptote, but until then you better vote for everyone else’s “best interest”.
Wife, her husband, and I voted for Trump.
Ummm… this is why proper English is so important. Because the only way to read that grammatically is “My wife, my wife’s husband – who is someone other than I – and I voted for Trump.” Now, to each his own. But I don’t think that’s what you meant. 😉
WTP – Your play scenario reminds me of “The Conversation”(1974) in which Gene Hackman is a paid spook, eavesdropping on a couple. As he listens to their innocent conversations he comes to realize that they going to be murdered. He later discovers that he himself is being watched and recorded. Despite his efforts as a spying pro, he cannot uncover the technology being used. There is lots more to the plot and many twists and turns.
In light of what we know about the NSA and similar outfits in other countries, this old movie is worth a re-watch today.
I’m not a practising Muslim, but I have an Arabic name
Haven’t read the article, but the phrasing above sounds dodgy; I’m wondering if there’s another shoe to drop — is her name a self-invention, changed from something less intersectional?
but only if you manage to grab more attention than the rest of the baying mob.
The grabbing more attention via SM is the bonus. The visceral/emotional spewing would occur just the same. Now I agree that SM’s ability (and again, really the internet) to provide such people a more powerful, further reaching microphone does enable them to bump into more similar minds, and their own and the SM’s censorship rules help with that, there is an opposite side as well. Many of the sane have those exact same advantages. The problem is not the SM, per se, but the implementation of it. Especially in regard to censorship. I still feel my gun analogy holds.
My own friends, neighbours and relatives cover a range of political affiliations, from leftish to conservative to libertarian, and some are unknown to me. We still manage to interact, often agreeably, largely because we don’t scream politics at each other every bloody day. It isn’t the basis of the relationship. Despite what I do here, and am doing right now, I don’t see my real-world social interactions as an excuse to proselytise. I’m not trying to sway them politically. I have a blog for that, should they be curious.
In general I agree with this. Up until March of this year, I did a pretty good job (if I must say so myself…and alas I must) keeping my political opinions confined to spaces such as this incredible forum and one or two others, separate from my Facebook persona. I would, on occasion, post on FB values things such as Thomas Sowell or similar. But those were somewhat rare. To be clear though, if someone else, on their wall, raised some absurd political issue in a “we all believe this thing of course” manner or something especially similarly grating, I would take it up. In ten years on FB, up until this damnpanic started, I only violated that policy twice. Since March, it’s been a 1 for 3 to 1 for 5 affair. But even those political type posts mostly avoided rah-rah-Trump. I doubt I have ever rah-rah-Republicaned. But we have reached a point where damn near everything is politicized and my personal choices more and more are being questioned by people whom I get tired of telling that it is none of their business.
Case in point…and forgive me for long winded and probably TMI but context matters…my (formerly) beloved Florida Gators chose to kneel for the national anthem and then also banned a cheer (a cheer I always thought was rather stilted, but whatever) based on it supposedly being “racist”. God, this is all so silly but it’s a prime example of the politicization of damn near everything. The tradition had been when the opposing team took the field, the band would play the theme from Jaws and the crowd would chant “Gator bait! Gator bait”. Silly…ish. But whatever. The university “banned” the cheer. How they are implementing this I have no idea but from what I hear it has been squashed. The reason for the banning of it was because, FL being in the south, someone decided that the klan (or whomever) would feed black people to the gators in the swamp and thus the cheer originated from that. Which is completely false. It’s a gaslighting that is absurd. I certainly don’t remember it, nor a former player whom I know remembers it. This former player is a repository of all things UF and he confirms what I have seen elsewhere that this chant originated in 1996 by a black player on that team, Lawrence Wright. This former player that I know has met LW and has confirmed to me that LW is very upset that his legacy is getting mixed up with racism. It is absurd. So that being background…I just decided that UF and I no longer have sufficient commonality. I have emotionally become indifferent to their existence. Well, the football team beat our most hated rivals, Georgia, this weekend and a lot of people are asking me about it and such. I simply say I haven’t watched all season and I really am no longer interested in the team or alma mater. When I answer their question in an on-line capacity the conversation abruptly (so it seems to me knowing these people) ends. I’m guessing due to my perceived radicalization/pollicization. My sister-in-law, who buys into the “emotional intelligence” and other corporate PC BS, is the type of person whom I will be surprised if she doesn’t try to dig into this. There’s a lot of TMI history behind this but as I said elsewhere, this lunch today could get very edgy. Not because I want to discuss politics but given that sooo much has become politicized and given the current socio-political environment, the polite conversation space is shrinking.
Ummm… this is why proper English is so important.
Agree very much. As I said, I’m not much of a writer. I did notice that a bit too late. The right index finger hits post and, having posted, moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
Apologies and appreciations for those who struggle to decipher my some-times ramblings. I fear I’m getting worse at this as time moves on. I have run across a few of my posts from several years ago and it seems like my coherence is slipping. Not that it was all that great back then…but still…
Weed- Whacker Man, I love you! ❤️
There really is nothing wrong with these people that a 6-month stint as a McDonald’s “team member “ wouldn’t cure.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/08/business/digital-nomads-regret.html
Now, to each his own. But I don’t think that’s what you meant. 😉
Hey, we’re all friends here. We don’t judge.
[ Writes down suspected deviant. Underlines. ]
Not because I want to discuss politics but given that sooo much has become politicized and given the current socio-political environment, the polite conversation space is shrinking.
True, and the aforementioned blurting seems increasingly common and intrusive.
My wife is a clinical psychologist and the overwhelming majority of her patients fit this writer’s emotional profile: paranoid, self-righteous, and angry at life. Of course, they all also support the Left as they go through their miserable lives.
I have just spent a couple of hours modelling for a drawing class of 7 women – I was the only male. All are middle class reasonably intelligent people but when the chat turned to the US election (incidentally none are US citizens) it was apparent that they are seriously infected with TDS with the organiser (who paid my wages) the worst case.
I did not dare ask “Would you let your daughter(s) be close to Biden?”
Hi Strelnikov
Is she able to help them? Maybe if they were happier they wouldn’t devote so much time and effort to making everyone else miserable?
I concur with WTP’s comments about the Gators and in my case amplify that to cover my complete loss of interest in the entire NBA (truthfully they lost me years ago), NFL and MLB. Hockey is on hold unless the matchless Jim Cornelison stops singing the anthem.
Nearer home it surprises me how quickly and easily I have lost all interest in football due to the absurd kneeling of teenage multi-millionaires and in cricket due mainly to the sanctimonious drivel spoken by “Mikey” Holding.
Michael Jordan understood it when he famously said Republicans wear sneakers too. That attitude has gone forever.
Not to belabor the point, but upon showering and getting dressed for lunch…my wife, who is not hip to many of the leftist trigger points and such…and gets mad at me simply for mocking them as they come up…recently bought me a very nice, comfortable tropical shirt. Not exactly Hawaiian but perfect for the unseasonably humid day we are having here. Anyway, I reach into the closet and can’t help having the thought cross my mind that maybe sister-in-law might freak about it. I’m about 70% sure she is sufficiently…is naive the word?…unaware, let’s say, to know about the Proud Boys thing. But she is a once or twice pussyhat wearer, so…? Now if I can just get through the day without using the ok sign to punctuate a slightly sarcastic comment. A habit I picked up from a college buddy 40 years ago that I am trying to break but still comes out after a few beers. No one should have to live this way.
given that sooo much has become politicized
Politicized because the primary method of evangelism of progressivism is politics (academia giving it a close run).
The original Puritans were pikers compared to this lot. (And, yes, they were not really as often portrayed.)
We have a player on our MLS side who won’t wear a BLM shirt or take a knee at the start of games. I finally got sick of my drinking buddy yelling “Eat shit, ya fucken rayciss!” every time he appeared on camera, so I asked him whether he really believes the player is a racist or if he’s just angry that the guy isn’t willing to bend the knee to a transparently Marxist activist group with a deeply cynical name.
I’d had a couple of pints already, so it might not have come out in exactly those words, but it ended with my observation that calling a good guy a racist just to win woke points from the DemSoc crowd didn’t make him a good person.
I’d like to think we’ll remain friends. He’ll have to put up with me regardless; my regular patronage is an important part of the bar’s survival plan, so I’m pretty sure it’ll take a hell of a lot more than that to wear out my welcome.
Understand, this is not a “culture” war as so many think of it. It’s a religious war – Judeo-Christian Civilization against Progressivism. The religious worldview that gave us progress because of critical thinking versus the religious worldview of progress now obviating critical thinking.
Ummm???—Your playing pieces of faith Stuff vs Critical Thinking Stuff may have gotten a bit mangled there . . .
Oh, yes, very loud screaming that’s going on now is indeed mere right wing faith —Christianity, Islam, Pastafarianism, Atheism, whatever collective faith instead of reason— indeed being quite opposed to mere left wing faith —white identity, purple identity, gay identity, left handed identity, old identity, whatever narcissistic identity instead of reason—, quite yes, that is indeed going on.
And
As far as actual progress, all that critical thinking, and actually focusing on reason and the advantages that personal reason gives, noticing that State and Church are totally separate concepts, that progress didn’t arise from faith, that’s from The Enlightenment.
. . . that’s from The Enlightenment.
Mildly in parallel, I don’t remember ever learning of Joseph Bologne until about six years ago . . . .
Had fun reading some of your ‘reheated’ posts. Token of appreciation in tip jar. 🙂
Had fun reading some of your ‘reheated’ posts. Token of appreciation in tip jar. 🙂
Bless you, sir. May you never forget to add wine to the shopping list and consequently forget to buy wine. Especially when the thought of wine was what inspired the writing of said list and the subsequent trip to the local supermarket.
maybe sister-in-law might freak about it.
How does your wife feel about the whole thing? I would hope that she would remain sensible enough to grasp that someone freaking out in public over things as prosaic as the OK hand sign, or a Hawaiian shirt, is not a stable person and ought not expect the rest of the world to cater to their insecurities.
Well, I exaggerate about SIL freaking out. More expected her to get cold about it. I now don’t think she knows about the shirt thing. Pretty sure she doesn’t know about the ok thing and now I’m fairly sure she wouldn’t believe me if I told her. I tried to avoid the politics but my wife, who has actually been more on edge about some of this than I, brought the subject up. I think she was getting anxious and decided to just get on with it. They actually agreed on much of the issues. That white privilege is BS. Though wife put that in family context (partly Ukrainian whose relatives escaped the Holodomor…very interesting story that a journalist had written about as an aside in a book on a cousin of theirs that was murdered, likely by a cop). That the rioting and defunding the police is bs. While we very much disagree about masks and such, SIL lives closest to MIL and sees the toll that this thing is taking on the mental health of nursing home residents and staff. But SIL got very quiet at times, which is generally very opposite of the usual family dynamics. TBC, SIL problem stems more from being a low/mid level corporate management conformist. Relatively smart, not obnoxiously so, but very naive. She was a big proponent of the Emotional Intelligence bs. Anyway, things went relatively well, if edgy.
that progress didn’t arise from faith
I’ll politely disagree. Most scientific progress of the Enlightenment as well as most “political progress” (as led to the American Revolution) came directly from faith in a rational Creator. Every single bit of science or politics that has abandoned it has ended up badly. But, ymmv, I guess.
After reading the fisking by our gracious host of these Scary Mommy articles, I’m convinced the writers are taking that title far too seriously. They really put the scary in “Scary Mommy” – and hysterical too, as someone commented above.
And these same people, so afraid OrangeManBad is going to round them up, are the same ones wanting to put Trump supporters on a list to be what – fired? Rounded up? Locked away? The lack of self awareness is staggering.
And these same people, so afraid OrangeManBad is going to round them up, are the same ones wanting to put Trump supporters on a list to be what – fired? Rounded up? Locked away? The lack of self awareness is staggering.
I would not be surprised if writer Sa’iyda Shabazz believes that black people are entitled to rob, assault and even murder random white people, regardless of who they voted for. That is a common enough form of degeneracy in certain circles.
…and that is one of the principal purposes of Black Lives Matter.
that progress didn’t arise from faith
I’ll politely disagree. Most scientific progress of the Enlightenment as well as most “political progress” (as led to the American Revolution) came directly from faith in a rational Creator.
One very definite shorthand reference or summation would be And yet it moves.
—Another, equally so, is of the variety of What science finds to be nonexistent we should all accept as nonexistent, but what science merely does not find is a completely different matter.
As far as the genuinely religious, simply by definition and actual practice, that depends on the individual.
Pretty sure she doesn’t know about the ok thing and now I’m fairly sure she wouldn’t believe me if I told her.
From even one of my college classes awhile back, signalling thumbs up or down doesn’t state one’s condition, because up and down are a matter of intended direction of travel.
Only fingers forming OK will announce that one is doing well.
I’ve just not seen a point to any of the recent other interpretations, no matter what the nature of the claim.
My go-to sources for insightful analysis – on pretty much anything – are mentally ill black lesbian losers with faux Arabic names. They know things.
This sounds like a good idea.
Of course, it’s probably easier to hire mental health workers than cops.
@Hal, shut the *bleep* up about “hipsters”.
Nobody cares. That’s a mental model that you have that isn’t shared and probably won’t be.
For those of you reading this that aren’t @Hal and believe my comments to be wrong, by all means respond telling me that I’m wrong in my assertions.
I’m not joking; if you aren’t @Hal and think I’m wrong, please say so. Doing so will force me to retract the “isn’t shared and probably won’t be” bit above. All it takes is one person that isn’t @Hal.
Today’s word is ‘procrustean’. Sums up the current state of affairs rather neatly.
@Jay
My go-to sources for insightful analysis – on pretty much anything – are mentally ill black lesbian losers with faux Arabic names. They know things.
Well my go-to source for insightful analysis is a differently-abled mentally ill black lesbian loser with a faux Arabic name, so I win!
If I may break my code 9000 rule, while I tire of the repetitive references to hipsters, i do agree that hipsters ruin everything. Like beer, for example. Though to your point RC, my observation is that the subject constantly makes such repeated mocking references to hipsters as an attempt to convince either himself or us or both that he is not one.