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Originally posted by John Keefe on BNR, 12-13-2020
The doctrine wokeness and the cancellation culture are different sides of the same coin.
Technically, going by the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s definition, woke means “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)”, but today we are more likely to see it being used as a stick with which to beat people who aspire to such values, often wielded
Urban Dictionary defines canceling as “to dismiss something or somebody” and “to reject an individual or idea.” And when people use the term unironically, it reveals a big problem with our culture. … Cancel culture as it currently exists doesn’t give people a chance to learn from or apologize for their wrongdoings.
The left’s search for righteousness without God has led to different doctrines within their belief system and being woke is accepting the lie that America is systemically racist. This gives the left a cause that they can justify the hate and emptiness that they struggle with. That hate and emptiness come out in destructive behaviors with the burning of personal property, the force compliance of people to kneel and confess their racial sins, the personal violence and shooting and looting that we’ve seen over the past several months. One of the evils of this doctrine is claiming people are racist simply because of the color of their skin. That’s like assuming an Asian is going to be good at math, racist.
Now racism is a disgusting personal sin but claiming someone is racist when they’re not might be equal or even worse sin. Systemic racism is definitely something that America particularly in the South experienced during and shortly after slavery was abolished. Systemic racism means that there are laws and practices within institutions and a population as a whole that attacks or judges people based on their skin color. Pretty much like the attack against white people today by the racist left.
Back in the days of the Jim Crow laws, systemic racism was readily apparent. But today the only institutions that practice racism would be universities that are picking blacks over Asians for admissions. Anything that you put into practice that requires any kind of acceptance or rejection based on skin color is a form of racism and if it is a practice of an institution then you have institutional/systemic racism, but that is localized not spread across the country/institutions. The problem the left has is they can’t prove institutions are racist anymore outside of some universities or even some political parties that practice “diversity” which usually is picking people based on skin color or sex (sexism). I’m reminded of Martin Luther King Jr. statement about judging someone “Not on the color of their skin but on the content of their character”. It appears that the left has walked away from one of America’s icons when they become woke and diversity becomes a virtuous thing. Most people who are having complicated brain surgery want the best-qualified surgeons on the surgical team no matter what color or sex they are. Diversity is intellectually and morally bankrupt as a way of choosing candidates for any purpose.
In order for the left to support its claims of racism, it uses intellectually bankrupt arguments like the percent of prisoners who are black or minorities. I’m sure in a certain number of cases that could be true but is false for the majority. It’s much like saying because there are more men in prison than women thus the judicial system is sexist. That’s simply a denial of the fact that men are more violent than women. But if you’re woke this would be an easy argument, even though a fallacious one, to try to prove your position.
FBI statistics say that 53% of all murders in the US are committed by 13% of the population (black men). When you look at the 20 or so largest cities almost 80% of all violent felonies are committed by Blacks. This OP will not have time to go into the factors that make these statistics true but they do explain why there are more Blacks in prison. Some will talk about the difference in sentencing between powder cocaine and rock cocaine but those differences were put in place by the urging of black ministers and politicians trying to keep their communities from being destroyed. The fact that powder cocaine is primarily sold by the white college students in the cover of college dorm rooms and crack cocaine is sold on the street corners easily observed by the police are some of the reasons for the difference in prosecutions with those two forms of cocaine, it has nothing to do with skin color. The fact that your financial position can make a difference in the quality of attorneys that you can hire also have an influence again, this is nothing to do with skin color.
This false religion from the left, better described as a cult, has done damage to our society leading to violence, property destruction, and death. Like any other cult, it leads to bizarre thinking like getting rid of the police will make things better. It’s led to increasing violence against the police. Communities that thought it was vogue or woke to reduce funding to the police have quickly found how bizarrely idiotic that practice was with sharply rising crime statistics. Some of those cities have quickly reversed this adherence to the cult of the left and wokeness.
This OP doesn’t claim everybody on the left is uniform. Painting with a broad brush leads to fallacious arguments. But the extreme left is the epicenter for these cultlike doctrines and it is sucking in many liberals with the danger of totally eradicating liberals as a political mindset. You can consider yourself on the left without buying into all of these destructive doctrines.
Is it possible to hate racism and deny the claim of systemic racism at the same time?
Why is it hard for some to realize the amazing change our society has taken since slavery?
No country is perfect but doesn’t the evidence show America offers more freedom than any other country?