Douchebags - An article everyone should read :)

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https://medium.com/human-parts/doucheba ... 323002f85d

Just brilliant.

I got about halfway thru before I stopped reading. Something tells me his imaginary lecture was just that but then again I guess I shouldn't ever be surprised at what comes out of Berkeley. One of the stupidest most cringe-worthy articles I have ever read and this weirdo makes a good living teaching this garbage to kids. The typical Marxist obsession with manipulation and redefinition of language, he exposes himself as absurdly arrogant and out of touch like only Berkeley college professor could. I will say this tho, Michael Mark Cohen is a douchebag.

Think of the life of the average aspie, does that look like privilege to you?

'white privilege' is a slur on a group that comprises several million people, it is in itself a racist term.

There are also many whites who live in poverty stricken areas, living in trailer parks, unable to find work.

If anything I'd say the average black person fits into society better than the average aspie.

He must be blowing a gasket now that Republicans won huge.

He teaches African studies, and I think he misses the big hurt to African people. I think immigration hurts black people far worse. Americans are put in competition with very low cost Central/Mexican people, and on the other end of the spectrum, super-educated Asians. Jesse Jackson pointed this out that many Silicon Valley companies are 30-40% Asian while only a few % black.

^^^Wow... talk about lack of self-awareness.



Great article, priceless responses.

People, people..........

He says:

"From this we learn that race is defined by place, and that ***where you are white matters***." Did you all miss this?

So do you feel discriminated against at WP? I don't, although I can't say the same for the NT world.

And would it be possible white (etc.) people might be discriminated against in some parts of the world? Of course, all the time.

All this person is saying is what we, especially on this forum, already know: People commonly discriminate against other people not of their "kind", be it color, religion etc.

Changing the "where you are....." completely changes whose ox gets gored. It's just an ugly fact of life.

One of the most racist comments ever spoken was, "All white people are racist".

As if having darker skin somehow makes one exempt.

they actually quite literally believe this

double post sort of.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 07 Nov 2014, 2:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have not finished reading it yet but I am so lost, first I thought it was about racism..then it goes into douchebags and why its an insult towards upper class white guys or something, then goes on to give a history of what an actual douchebag is...then all that stuff in the beginning about how some of those 'slurs' towards white people would not have the power to offend.

Well I have been called 'white trash' before and yeah it was offensive, I can see how it would be laughed off by a well off white person, but much of the poor consists of white people as well as people of other races. Anyways, this is written by a college professor? its very disorganized and kind of inconsistent it seems.

Also its really, really ridiculously expanding the definition or racism....now its racist if among a group of friends if said friends joke about their race? if a black person is hanging around with the group are they being racist against them self if they make a joke about being black? I think for the benefit of everyone racism needs to refer specifically to when one thinks their race makes them superior to another. clicked on the link about the 'ironic racism' and compares race with santa clause, well you can't see santa clause....it is kind of apparent due to humans developing in varying climates there are some differences in appearance and skin color that have to do with the respective areas these people can be traced back to. Maybe there is a better word than race who knows, but to say it doesn't even exist doesn't really make sense...what is so wrong about there being different races anyways just a matter of people should not be discriminated against, hated or persecuted or any of that over something so petty as race. Also in the article that links to, it basically implies unless you are trying really really really hard not to be racist you just are, which is crap.

Just my perspective thus far on that confusing article....

Who?

My belief is that implicit racism continues in the population and includes both white people and people of color. This implicit racism continues to have a real impact. However, white people are more likely to be unaware of their implicit racism ("I don't see colors, I just see people!") than people of color.

In the progressive SJW worldview which is so prevalent at universities and nowadays on social media with these hashtag activists they define racism as "power + prejudice" thus "PoC" cannot be racist only white people. It's such a ridiculous notion that pretty much anyone outside their bubble will have a hard time believing someone actual thinks this but look it up, it's Poe's Law at work. This is basically their way of rationalizing their own hateful views, they are most openly racist people there are in this country. Nevermind that they're more times than not ultra-privileged whites themselves, they still take on the self hating mantra. If I had a nickle for every time I read some angry diatribe directed at white people in this country specially this 'straight white men' boogeyman I could retire right now, that is literally the business model of a website like Salon.

If you want to know why Occupy Wallstreet was a failure, you can in part point it at these creeps who invented garbage like the "progressive stack" which drove away any natural leaders and just about other sane individual as well. They're awful people and the worst kind, ones that think they're acting righteously. The worst atrocities in history were done by people like them.

Last edited by Jacoby on 07 Nov 2014, 3:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Why would it be implicit racism to say you just see people and not colors? Also though I don't even see how it would be racism to say something like. I see people of all different colors and am not judging any based on that....that is how I feel if it is implicit racism not to feel my race(actually mixed native and white) makes me superior of people with different racial backgrounds I suppose I would not see how there is any hidden and/or subconscious racism behind that. Basically article seems to say if you are white admit you are racist, or you are racist....which does not make sense since either way they'll still be considered racist. I don't know if trying to convince everyone who is white they have racism bred into them and are racist unless they are constantly trying extremely hard not to be racist does more harm or good, maybe more harm depending on which white people this message is directed at. Though for non-racists this can be especially confusing since you're essentially being told try really hard to not be something you already aren't or you will be considered that thing.

I do get the bit about upper class white people having some privilege others don't, more likely to have things handed to them...be born into wealth and you know stuff like that. However authors of these article and stuff seem to take it to an extreme and pretend like all white males in the U.S are born into that kind of life situation....Also I think they are digging way too deep with the crap about 'well if you're white you're probably racist and just don't know.' Its like that's great so not only are white people racist, but we aren't even aware of it therefore even when we think we're not racist we must be, that way people who write stuff like this can always be 'right'. And then they b*tch about hipsters which its still debatable what exactly they even are from my understanding not to mention they probably aren't even all white....I find people who write the sort of article in the OP more annoying than the vague concept of a hipster.

Herein crystallises the point for me. Theres this purveying idea among the demographic the lecturer is referring to that black people as a minority group MUST be somehow inherently apologetic for their being black; as if posessing this foreign trope they should be grateful that the white man dares let them live alongside him, in this vast continent that they themselves stole from the natives. This makes even less moral sense in the American context where historically, blacks were forcibly made to live in America against their will.

But the author doesn't pretend that at all. As he dissects the insult "douchebag", he shows awareness of class difference.



Which brings him, weirdly enough, to Elliott Rodgers. The conversation on WP, and in some mainstream media, has been about whether or not Rodgers had Aspergers or something else (sociopath combined with anxiety disorder, maybe?). But the author never so much as implies that there was anything diagnosable about Rodgers. Which is a shame because it could have led him to pondering the hard limits of privilege- where one type of privilege can be so undone by not having a different type of privilege.


Rodgers was racist and sexist for sure, but there was one heck of a lot more than that going on- something that the author didn't address which is a shame. Intersectionality?



He actually defends hipsters.


It's an interesting article and I don't think it is saying "all white people are racist even if they don't know it". But I think he missed an opportunity to take a closer look at Rodgers who had something going on in his head that prevented him from accessing the privileges he was born into. That bears closer looking at. Not just for Rodgers. The author missed a chance to explore all different situations where people are shut out of their presumed privilege.