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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023

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the woke seem to be predisposed to latch on takes like ... all blacks are criminals

In what universe do the woke subscribe to this take?

This one. Have you not been paying attention to the last decade or so of rhetoric surrounding policing, no cash bail, decriminalization, etc.?

That is nowhere close to believing all blacks are criminals though. The prototypical woke person might say Black people are incorrectly viewed as being criminals by systemic bias in law enforcement (and society in general) and therefore dismantling those systems will be beneficial for black communities who have been targeted for criminalization (they will likely point to differences in drug possession laws and length of.sentences and so on).That is not the same thing at all. More nuanced progressives might say that black people do commit more crime (though it is still skewed by racist police) but will explain that through systemic poverty, poor mental health treatment and the like driven by systemic or structural racism. But again that is nowhere near saying all blacks are criminals

The woke oppose each and every anti-criminal policy because they believe, correctly, that such measures will have a disparate impact on blacks. It's a doublethink situation similar to Dreher's Law Of Merited Impossibility, except instead of "it will never happen, and when it does, you bigots will deserve it" it's "blacks are not more criminal than average, and if you support any tough-on-crimes policy you are a racist because criminals are disproportionately black."

As Covfefe Anon says, "The Woke Are More Correct Than The Mainstream".

The problem with @Covfefe_Anon's take, is that it the whole dark skin = underlass really only holds predictive value in spaces that are already dominated by the woke. My own experience, as well as that of several others here, would suggest that this is far from inevitable. Accordingly can't help but suspect naive assumption that wokist habit cultivating racial division/grievences is in fact increasing racial division, and "racism" rather than fighting.

Just a week ago we were treated to the spectacle of a bunch of college kids from traveling from Portland and Boston to Atlanta to "fight racism" by smashing windows in minority neighborhoods and setting fire to cars. Now they and thier supporters are screaming "white supremecy" and "internalized racism" because instead finding themselves welcomed as liberators they found themselves being pelted with rocks by the local populace, shot at/arrested by the local (predominantly black) cops, and charged with domestic terrorism by the Georga State AG at the behest of Atlanta's black Mayor.

Ironically the only sources that seem to be covering it (outside local channels) are the hard core partisans, I suspect in part because the woke at the New York and LA Times are smart enough to realize that this is not a good look for them.