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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 7, 2023

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I also, on principal and because I have many non-white friends and family members, abhor white nationalism and antisemitism.

This is like saying you abhor Zionism because you have non-Jewish friends. You have non-white friends, so you don't think white people should retain any ethnic identity or advocate for it in any way? How does that make sense? Do you deny any other ethnic group its ability to advocate for its own interests because you have friends outside that ethnic group? I have non-Chinese friends so I abhor Chinese nationalism I guess... Would that make sense to you, or does this sort of logic only apply for white people?

China has nothing to do with anything, although they’re certainly welcome to keep their society mono ethnicly Han if they want to. On the other hand keeping the US majority anglo white is not going to happen with measures short of genocide or other mass population movement. I’m not sure how nonwhites are less American than whites, as you’re implying- we’ve had lots of black people and natives here since the beginning and you can decry that fact but denying their American-ness makes no sense. Likewise chinamen are not recent arrivals and often predate many of the white Americans.

Look, I’m a Cajun. I’m part of an actual ethnic group that’s defined in part by being white or at least white-ish. ‘Whites aren’t allowed to have ethnic identity’ is just false to me, they’re not allowed to have ethnic identity generically as whites. German American or Irish American heritage or whatever is not controversial. Southern heritage is, but that’s individual prejudice. Yes there are stupid things being done that harm whites on the whole, but it’s a suspicious gerrymander to define white Americans as an ethnic group excluding non-whites.

On the other hand keeping the US majority anglo white is not going to happen with measures short of genocide or other mass population movement.

No it's not going to happen, a fact which is known to all "White Nationalists." Jews don't expect to attain a majority, but for some reason that doesn't stop them from organizing on tribal lines, in fact their minority status makes their agitation for Jewish interests all the more important in their mind. So this statement, while true, does absolutely nothing to rebut the importance of a white identitarianism in the face of the reality of demographic change, and this fact underscores the importance for why it's necessary to advocate for it given the reality we live in today. Whites becoming a minority only makes the danger of prevailing anti-white culture and propaganda more acute.

‘Whites aren’t allowed to have ethnic identity’ is just false to me, they’re not allowed to have ethnic identity generically as whites.

Ok, so you concede the point... Notice that there is a "white identity" when it is a subject of criticism and critique of everyone else, but anybody who is put under that umbrella by Progressives cannot actually advocate for the ethnic identity that is central to their critique of prevailing culture? It doesn't make any sense.

Many white Americans are not "German American", they are a mix of different European ethnicities, which is why a "white" ethnic identity is a coherent ethnic category. It's good enough in every sense: in census data, crime statistics, leftist cultural critiques and CRT, but when it comes to advocacy in the same terms as every single other ethnic identity then all of a sudden it's an invalid category. That's incoherent, it's hostile.

I've always found the claim against self-identification as White in the face of African American identity rather farcical. Because whites didn't trace their ancestry and maintain distinct European cultural traditions they can't identify as White? But it's ok for African Americans because many were descended from slavery, can't trace their ancestry at all, so they're allowed to create an identity? You're not allowed to identify as Chinese unless you specifically can trace your Han lineage back to a particular province?

It's just clear anti-White advocacy, I suspect based on a fear of the specter of Nazism and White ethno-nationalism. Divide and conquer with 30+ white identities who are never allowed to find common interest. But attacking them all as 'White' is fine and dandy of course.

It’s ok for African Americans because they’re an ethnic group. White Americans are not- white southerners and WASPs and midwestern Germans and Utah Mormons are, but you’ll notice those groups have not always gotten along and presented a United front.

Yes, the definition of ethnic group is somewhat arbitrary and you can draw a gerrymander to where white Americans to the exclusion of non-white passing individuals are an ethnic group, but it’s a suspicious gerrymander. You can argue that white southerners and wasps and Italian Americans and midwestern Germans and Utah Mormons and the like should cooperate against other ethnic groups, but I don’t trust no Yankee and the arguments for why I should pick Yankees over more culturally similar blacks need to be made instead of relying on white solidarity that doesn’t exist need to actually be made.

Like look, a lot of the distinguishing cultural markers for African Americans are stupid and destructive, but they do exist in a way that distinguishes African Americans as a whole from other Americans in a way that doesn’t for white Americans.

White Americans are not

This is just completely absurd. The very first Congress of the United States codified that naturalization of foreign-born citizens was restricted to "free whites of good character". It is unbelievable that you deny the existence of this ethnic group when one of the very first acts of the Congress of the United States was to explicitly restrict naturalization to white people.

Likewise, during slavery and segregation and ever since there has been a distinction between "Whites" and "colored" (or whatever term is being used at the time). In census data, the unit of distinction has always been "whites" and non-whites of different categories. Same goes for crime statistics tracked by the FBI. "White" is also treated as a coherent ethnic identity when it is subjected to criticism by Hollywood and academic institutions and affirmative action. There are many many cases where the existence of a "white" ethnic identity is accepted and taken for granted, it's only in the case of advocacy where people like you come out of the woodwork and deny that such a thing actually exists.