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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   34405 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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Well, I guess it was only a question of time before the ADL condemned Dave Chappelle and SNL more generally for "popularising" anti-Semitism.

Chappelle had a SNL monologue a few days ago where he walked a tightrope between supposedly condemning Kanye and Kyrie before slyly signal-boosting some of their talking points. Kanye comes across as crazy and Kyrie as plain dumb but Chappelle is neither, so this is arguably bigger news. Of course, Chappelle has been courting controversy before, such as his perceived anti-trans comments or complaining about college kids being too sensitive these days.

So I am not sure if this is some kind of cultural shift where black entertainment elites are more willing to criticise Jews or if it is simply Chappelle running towards controversy in order to stay relevant. Maybe it is both. Nevertheless, I think the ADL has by and large been enormously inefficient and self-defeating during these past 6 weeks. It seems even some Jewish publications agree.

I really enjoyed Chappelle's monologue. Viewed as a tightrope act, it was quite a spectacle. And really, which part of "wrongthink about Jews cost Kanye one billion dollars" is supposed to persuade us that Jews aren't somehow pulling society's strings?

Of course, in reality there are millions of Jews, and only a very tiny percentage of them have any sociopolitical clout at all, and the possibility that even a large number of those are colluding on such matters is infinitesimal. As Chapelle notes--"there are a lot of black people in Ferguson, Missouri, it doesn’t mean we run the place."

But the way Chapelle ends is trenchant nevertheless.

My first Netflix special what did I say? I said I don't want a sneaker deal because the minute I say something that makes those people mad, they're gonna take my sneakers away. And the whole crowd was like ha ha ha ha ha. Now you see Kanye walking around L.A. barefoot... this guy lost a billion and a half dollars in a day.... It shouldn't be this scary to talk about anything. It's making my job incredibly difficult, I'll be honest with you. I'm getting sick of talking to a crowd like this. I love you to death and I thank you for your support. And I hope they don't take anything away from me. Whoever they are.

I think it would be very interesting to see what Chapelle could do with the Moloch egregore.

Of course, in reality there are millions of Jews, and only a very tiny percentage of them have any sociopolitical clout at all, and the possibility that even a large number of those are colluding on such matters is infinitesimal.

Is there a good way to describe a group like this? All ethnics are certainly not culpable for advocacy done on the behalf by people they didn't elect, much like whites as a group aren't responsible for white supremacist violence and blacks as a group are not responsible for violence committed by black criminals. But describing Jewish advocates like this feels strange and the ADL does seem to enjoy support from many more Jewish people than take active roles in it.

Ethnic descrimination does still happen and the optimal number of anti-discrimination groups is probably nonzero but it does seem wrong that anti-discrimination frequently turns into general advocacy for the group. Perhaps what is needed is some generic anti-discrimination group that handles all cases in a standard manner and rogue advocacy groups should be seen like the KKK as nakedly defecting on the social contract.

Failing that I find it hard to see why I shouldn't interpret an organization that actively advocates discrimination against my group in favor of their own, often more privileged group, as anything but a hostile threat worthy of nothing but disdain.

We should establish a norm that as a blanket rule advocacy groups should not be seen as actually representing the groups they claim to be doing advocacy for, but instead, their own personal interests first and foremost.

That's always been my take at least. And speaking as a liberal, I really do believe that doing this would dramatically reduce the amount of active bigotry that exists in the world. The activists and advocacy groups are creating their own boogiemen out of thin air, more or less.

They're the ones dreaming up the Stay-Puff Marshmellow Man in a Klan hat, and manifesting it into reality.

That’s a weirdly specific example. Please tell me it’s not an actual thing.

What, the Stay Puff Marshmellow Man in a Klan hat thing? No no no. I'm just riffing directly off of Ghostbusters, where I really do think people get to choose "the form of the destroyer" based upon what things they actually bother to react to. It's the best analogy to how I think these things work. At the very least, they get to amplify whatever they want to amplify into the big threat. Then Toxoplasma of Rage comes into play, and everything just gets ugly.

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