goddamnit.
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The Woke Card failed. Even with Dems.
Racists are gonna racist no matter what.
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Even when those concerns are demonstrably imaginary, it seems.
So I guess that means Democrats are supposed to have a detailed plan for winning the war on Christmas and getting the microchips out of our vaccines and shutting down all those cannibalistic pedophile covens operating out of America’s pizza parlor basements.
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Sponsor a public lecture series on critical race theory that turns out to be really abstruse and boring?
After all:
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Well, not a detailed plan, no. But when a large portion of the constituency believes there’s a problem, addressing it should go beyond “you’re wrong, and also kind of dumb.” I thought we learned this is in 2016.
The solution isn’t that difficult–we do this with children all the time. A kid thinks there’s a monster in the room, you make a show of looking under the bed or in the closet, and showing them there’s no monster.
If a bunch of people think that CRT is a problem and is being taught in schools, you say “OK, let’s investigate,” and you hold hearings and do an investigation. Is it a waste of time and resources? Not really, if the alternative is losing the governorship and control of the Statehouse. Long game, here.
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I hear you and it might work for those willing to listen and explore possibilities but, have you been to rural Virginia?
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The right has always been way better at that sort of thing. “Death Tax”. “Obamacare”. “Death Panels”. “School Choice”. “Pro-Life.” Liberals are way more concerned with making sure their terminology is accurate than with whether it’s going to be effective.
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Is Zepp rural enough? I have family in that area, and in Moneta. Also in Blacksburg (admittedly not rural). I lived in Fairfax, which is a whole different world.
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Yep, rural cred!
I just wish it was as easy to sit down and school these people. They don’t want change.
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I like your theory, but even assuming you can get these sludges to engage in the process, they’re simply going to move the goal posts. You show them there are no monsters under the bed? (Or that there’s no actual voter fraud in this district in Madison, WI?) Oh, well, the monster obviously jumped into the closet when you weren’t looking, or it can’t be seen by adults, or, you’re working with the monster! (The fraud was actually in Fitchburg, you’re not looking at the right evidence, or, of course, you’re actually in on the fraud.)
It’s not that we shouldn’t attempt to address these idiotic claims, it’s just that these particular children are far more wrapped up in their beliefs than seems reasonable. They aren’t just coming up with this stuff on their own, but Billy down on the playground has been feeding them stories specifically for the purpose of countering the lack of evidence to these claims. Absolutely hold investigations, hearings, and other inquiries, but don’t think simple lack of evidence for the claims is going to make them go away. We’re not talking about people with a firm grasp of reality here and objectivity is something that happens to other people (and is probably a socialistic communist plot, anyway.)
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You do that, and they just move the goalposts, though and then it is a waste of time, because they have no interest in the facts. Many of them are well aware that this is not being taught in schools. What they want is to end fact based history education that tells the truth of racism in america. They want a history education that ignores the bad (or downplays it) and shows white people as always good. You know this.
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They also think transgender people using public restrooms is a problem. Is the solution to hold hearings investigating the imaginary bathroom assaults committed by transgender people?
Why is it the left’s responsibility to treat every piece of bigoted nonsense the Republicans come up with as if it is something worthy of respectful consideration?
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It’s only our responsibility if we want to be able to govern. There’s no point to any of this if the only time we can win is when the Rs make things so godawful miserable that people vote D because they’re sick enough of the R shit that they figure “why not.”
If “they” is people like Tucker Carlson and the public faces of Republicanism, yes. But if you’re talking about people like my in-laws (uneducated, rural Virginians who post notes to Facebook about “getting rid of CRT” but have no idea what it is) then no. They don’t move goalposts. They just react to wherever the goalposts seem to be.
If it’s just “a waste of time,” and yet the Rs win with this kind of crap, then what’s the point in any of it?
Look, if we’re interested in the “marketplace of ideas” but the Rs have destroyed the bridge that lets people get to the marketplace, we need to move out of that space and figure out how to rebuild that bridge–on the terms that have been set for us. We already know that telling people their imaginary fears are imaginary doesn’t work. We have two choices. We can either continue to tell them they’re ignorant, or we can address their fears head-on, on their terms. Sometimes you don’t get to choose your battlefield.
Absolutely. That’s a real challenge. I don’t deny or ignore it. “We” have a a much harder time of it, because our side has generally agreed to work within a moral framework that includes not scaring the shit out of people over imaginary threats simply to win elections. OK, well, yeah, we’ve got a harder row to hoe.
Oh my, I have to stop. I’ve used up my quota of metaphors.
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Is there any real indication that Democrats do better when they try to fight on whatever field the Republicans make up, versus when they actually try to appeal to progressives, which polls show most people in the US are on things like health care and taxes? Because the way they win is not taking votes from Republicans but by inspiring higher voter turn out.
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Yup. Facts are a lib’rul plot against America!!! Tucker Carlsen said it, that makes it true!! (OMFG, I so wish for /s, but no, it is not.)
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It’s the right-wing talking heads like Tucker Carlson who set those goalposts in the first place. You think it’s a coincidence that all your rural Virginian relatives are worked up about a once-obscure academic phrase like “critical race theory” all of a sudden?
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Can you get them to stop watching Tucker Carlson, who moves the goalposts for them? That’s a huge part of the problem, that we have media outlets that are feeding people lies to keep them watching. As long as Fox, etc, are part of the equation, those goalposts are going to get moved. They are already moved to absolutely unacceptable places… Carlson has been promoting the White Replacement theory for years now…
Good question. Maybe the tactic of constantly giving them ground isn’t working. That’s what’s been happening.
That’s what’s been happening for the past 30 years! This is the precise definition of Third Way politics that the Clinton-led Democrats (and Blairite labour) has been pushing for all this time. This is where ti has gotten us… on the edge of an authoritarian take over!
We should very much do that, but it doesn’t mean we have to do it on their terms… we can’t pretend like anti-racism is bad just to please them. It’s not and we do more damage to our cause by accepting racist views as equal to anti-racist ones. The bottom should be that basic human rights of everyone should not be infringed.
Aw, come on now… there are always metaphors you can use! Just make some up!
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I feel like you’ve restated why I wrote, which means I wasn’t clear enough.
I understand the goalposts get moved. They get moved by people like TC. We can’t stop that. But people like my in-laws don’t move goalposts, they just react to them. So we need to figure out a way to address them without saying “that’s wrong and you’re ignorant.” We do that by jumping in and addressing it. Worried about CRT being taught in K-12? OK, let’s hold hearings. Let’s look at curriculum and see where it’s supposedly being taught. Let’s talk to the teachers. All of it.
It won’t stop TC from moving the goalposts, but hopefully it will eventually get him to change how he goes about moving them.
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As long as people like your in-laws are looking to sources like Tucker Carlson for information then this whole exercise is pointless. We held countless hearings on supposed election fraud in the 2020 election, yet all the people who were prone to believing Biden’s 2020 win was illegitimate still believe that. You can’t use reason to dissuade people from beliefs that are not based on reason.
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