Signal Wave

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In high school, a friend once told me, “The Democrats shouldn’t have criticized Dan Quayle for being stupid. They should have said he was a bad person.” I asked why. He replied, “Because saying he’s stupid is going to make them look like snobs.”

He was right, of course. Supporters of the Reagan revolution were not limited to just one demographic—I bet I could come up with four or five different groups who joined in for their own reasons—but working-class white people without a college education comprised one of the most important component parts of Reagan’s faithful, and their primary motivation appeared to be a sense that their intelligence had been derided for long enough by well-heeled, highly-educated city folks (though some of them, particularly in the South, were also aggrieved that they had been held up to moral opprobrium about racism.) It’s easy to point out what’s wrong with their point of view. Blanket refusals to admit to wrongdoing regardless of what’s actually been happening aren’t a hallmark of good character. Neither is the willingness to allow resentment to rule your judgment at the expense of your moral principles and good sense.

But there were problems with the liberal position, too, and not just the tactical problem of giving neoconservatives ammunition for their culture war. The two gravest problems were a reliance on simple binary thinking and an overemphasis on intelligence as a determinant of social and ethical behavior. The first (North good, South bad; liberal good, conservative bad; black good, white bad) had the problem of presenting limited truths that obscured more far-reaching and complex truths. In other words, just as it’s been true for the past five years that Trump was bad, it was often true in the 80s that the right wing was bad, that white people were bad, and that the South was bad. But making that the organizing principle of one’s thinking can lead to being a fall guy for every sin eater who comes along (as well as giving unquestioning loyalty to every leader with the right demographic data that comes along).

Sin eaters are like scapegoats, except they’re not innocent. They are used, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes against their will or even without their knowledge, to take attention off of larger groups of people or social structures, so that those people can evade blame and the structures remain unreformed. Admiral Poindexter was a sin eater for the Reagan Administration during the Iran/Contra scandal. Scooter Libby was a sin eater for Dick Cheney when Cheney decided to out Valerie Plame as a CIA agent to punish her husband for telling the truth about yellow cake uranium from Niger. Lynndie England was a sin eater for the CIA and the U.S. military when her participation in the abuses at Abu Ghraib was revealed. And it looks like Derek Chauvin is going to end up being a sin eater for racist cops everywhere, and for the racists in the courts and prison system as well.

The punishment of the sin eater is made to look like the herald of reform, but instead replaces reform. It’s one of many storm drains built into our political system to divert the floodwaters of public rage—or outrage—into safe channels. An effective sin eater eventually becomes a character witness for the powerful and society itself, proving that power need not move and society need not be changed. For instance, the white racists in the South made it possible for the rest of the country to pretend that racism wasn’t a problem for them. All they had to do was "punish," or, more accurately, shame and restrain the racists in the South, and everything was golden.

Except of course, it isn't. Racism is not just an individual or regional issue, but a structural and cultural one. Thus, when I moved to Philadelphia in the 90s, I was shocked by the things white people would say when they were alone. (It’s not that I think Southern racism is any better because white people in the South vet each other before expressing it—but the complete ease with which white people in Philly said racist things was disquieting.)

Being wedded to simple binary thinking has many other pitfalls, but I want to get to the second problem with the liberal position as I first encountered it when I came of age: an overemphasis on intelligence as a determinant of social and ethical behavior. (It took me a long time to figure out that this was a problem). Assuming that people do bad things because they are stupid is almost a reflex for people on the left, in particular for liberals. Liberalism really, really wants to believe that if only everybody could get the right education, then everyone would be reasonable and everything would be all right. It’s true that without good education and information, people are less likely to be their best selves; it’s true that if you corrupt education or any other system involved with the transfer of information, you empower vice and make things damned hard for virtue, across the board. But it’s not true that ignorance and stupidity are the primary reason things go wrong.

Intelligence is not a simple prophylactic against vice. We want to believe it is, because on the left, intelligence is our strength and reason our tool. We want to be able to reason people out of error. It’s much harder to reason someone out of malice. Malice, in fact, implies that we are outside the realm of accuracy, error and correction altogether, and have entered a much more difficult realm where we must consider the operations of power. That’s why three of the last four Republican presidents have been derided as stupid by their liberal (and sometimes their leftist) critics. Sometimes they actually were stupid—making a joke in public that you’ve picked up the red phone, made the call, and missiles are currently on their way to Moscow is stupid, even if Reagan didn’t know the microphone was live. But is the stupidity of that joke really the point?

How are you all doing today?

Please keep Granma in your thoughts. She was in for a second round of surgery on her back yesterday. I'll keep you all posted as I find out how she's doing.

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Thanks for the intelligent OT.
Good luck to Granma.
Cheers

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

I'm not certain a "scapegoat" does need to be innocent. The point of a scapegoat has ALWAYS - as in, all the way back to the Hebrew ritual from which the term comes - been not necessarily to persecute the innocent, but just as you say, to defend the guilty from Justice. You don't know what those goats did, have you met goats?!?

RE racism isn't just Southern: This has been a talking point of the South since all the way to before the Civil War (when they weren't all wrong, either - how much better off than Southern plantation slaves were many Northern factory-workers, likewise shipped across the Atlantic on ships that prioritized efficient shipment over the well-being of the cargo?), so color me skeptical for that reason alone - but perhaps the real divide is not North VS South, but as I've brought up before, East VS West? It's a very different country beyond Tornado Alley, and this very idea of the whole empire being a moral/intellectual monolith SIMPLY DID NOT EXIST BEFORE 2014, when everybody just suddenly started insisting so, and thoroughly gaslighting anyone who disputed The New Truth (which for some reason They'd* EVER gotten right before, but They* were ABSOLUTELY INARGUABLY 100% CORRECT about this time) or claiming that anything else even existed. "One planet, myriad worlds" went from common knowledge and common sense to crimethink. I repeat a refrain of mine: It feels like Constantine/Nicea 2.0 - just about the last thing the world needs when we were finally just starting to extricate ourselves from the original.

___

* =
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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

the shitty things we've done and still do.

I'm not sure any region is innocent of this; making it about one region or another bearing the guilt is really the problem. Instead of focusing on the problem itself wherever it's found.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal This simply wasn't true 10 years ago; our minds are being Etch-A-Sketched en masse.

The work of Colin Woodard, who divides the empire into at least 11 different "nations", ought to be featured at the foundation of this discussion (https://colinwoodard.com/books/american-nations/); instead, why is it nowhere to be seen? Precedent, rigor, and hard patient work are being displaced by groupthink, pathos, and mental fast-food, and there's nothing worse than that. The camp that thinks of itself as smart is specifically the one now allowing itself to be overtaken by panicking cattle.

To use Woodard's terminology (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/opinion/urban-rural-united-states-reg...), I grew up in Left Coast and am now stuck in El Norte; I now feel more alienated and nullified than ever before. I find myself loathing Tidewater, Yankeedom, and Deep South, and more or less sympathetic to everyone else (not sure about Spanish Caribbean; I guess that's the place Dave Barry loves to write about). It might be nice to see a new political bloc forming out of the latter estranged from and in opposition to the former. In particular, Left Coast needs to break up with Yankeedom before it becomes totally subsumed and annihilated (my Silicon Valley being ground-zero for this conflict, it seems); it's like a parasitic relationship.

C99 was the first place I saw people foreseeing a realignment; what I describe above may indeed be what is happening.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

My little three-legged dog couldn't walk yesterday. His one remaining back leg had something wrong with it.

Looks like it's a sprain or strain, so he's gonna be OK, but it was a rough night.

How are you all doing today?

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7 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Democrats are always portrayed as liberal, Ivy League, effete snobs. That even applied to Hillary, who grew up a staunch Republican, flipped over when she hooked up to the shining star, Bill, who grew up in a trailer park. Such a disconnect.
I am sorry and quite surprised by the granma second surgery news. Please do keep us informed of her health situation.
I am a couple of days away from shutting down the office for a few days, heading off to see Palo Duro Canyon.
hope you and everyone here has an enjoyable holiday with good weather, good food, and good times with family and friends.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@on the cusp

A great holiday to you and yours. And for all of us.

After the last few years, we need it!

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3 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lookout's picture

and a jolly yule, y'all!
wheel of time.jpg

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Dawn's Meta's picture

@Lookout @Lookout Bonnes Fêtes, bonne année, joyeux vœux.

Best wishes for a warm and healthy hivernal, and New Year.

We are somewhat buttoned down here, with almost no Atlantic air movement for the last two weeks. We had fairly torrential rain before that, now, absolutely nothing. Radar for this time of year or really any time of year is literally vacant as we gaze westwards, just nothing moving.

We have electric extractors on our septic and buried too deep drain field. Unbelievable amounts of methane, carbon monoxide and Sulphur dioxide coming out of that system. We really need a micro station but can't see how we will make that happen. Dear Santa...

At least we know the source of our ongoing trouble with air in the house. We need an aerobic replacement. Still working on solutions.

ETA: CSMS - so sorry to hear about your doggie. It's no fun to see a little being reliant on us suffering. We had a low sun late afternoon walk with our little hunter. He is now sleeping at the top of the stairs with his head hanging over and his back against the wall. One of our kittehs, George, went most of the way with us, tail sailing high.

Give him an extra scritch and hug from us.

Whata world.

We hope everyone has a lovely winter solstice, and a better new year.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

nato.jpg

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@gjohnsit ...and I'm not sure I see the connection.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

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Very inciteful essay!

I have always thought that the Dems' denigration of the brains of Reagan, Quayle and Shrub were both overwrought and political poison. Reagan was not a bright person, but not exactly the MO-"RON" that the hip and savvy Democratic Partisans assumed he was. Like Trump, Ronald the Ray-Gun was so stupid he took over the Republican Party from its donors and managed to become President of the United States. Yeah, we are real smart, us lefties.

Regarding Quayle and Shrub -- neither guy was stupid, as in unable to follow logic. Quayle was the opposite of Reagan as a TV personality. His face showed his insecurity on the boob toob screen, which is television poison. So when he made a silly flub like misspelling a word, his face made him look like a moron. Reagan famously always looked the part. And Shrub scored over 1300 on his SAT, was relatively "progressive" as Governor of Texas and when he was the owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, he was on television regularly and he was an excellent talking head -- witty, charming and far more competent looking that the aw-shucks clown who lived in the White House for eight years.

It was obvious to me that the Shrub Brain Trust was very conscious of his image makeover, cueing the Smarty Pants Liberals to fuck themselves up with their creepy and quite unrealistic snobbery.

By the time Trump came along, the "stupid" image evolved to some form of "insanity" in POTUS. But the projection of "stupid" grew even more condescending as it was applied to anybody who did not hate Trump with a passion.

And now it applies to anybody who does not trust Dr. Fauci.

This is a poison pill strategy to keep the country divided. It is not just north v. south or east v. west. The most salient divide is densely populated versus thinly populated areas. Folks who live away from the Big Money have a completely different world view from us "smart" people who live like sardines in giant boxes.
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Interesting confluence, Signal. I am currently working on my second installment of Underground Nation, Rules for Organizers: First, never get mad at people for being people. The point is that half of the American people are below average intelligence.

Liberals have a hard time with what that means for democracy.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

enhydra lutris's picture

and the tripod dog as well.

A most excellent exposition and the word and concept of sin eater and the role they play in society is fantastic and extremely useful.

This:

The two gravest problems were a reliance on simple binary thinking and an overemphasis on intelligence as a determinant of social and ethical behavior.

is beyond important, and is, unfortunately, two separate problems. We have to abjure binary thinking, it has its place and uses/usages, but is generally incorrect and inappropriate. There is an alleged "law" that makes solving certain types of problems easier, "The law of the excluded middle". A switch is on or off, a statement is true of false, Schroedinger's cat is alive or dead, oops. None of those statements are necessarily true and it gets worse, so it is best to ditch it. That is something we simply must be aware of and deal with constantly on an operational basis.

Beyond that, we have the erroneous focus on intelligence, education and knowledge. This is constructed of layer upon layer of age old "truisms" that, at some time or another were rules of thumb, sometimes based on practicalities and other times based on ethics and empathy. A lot of it ties back to frass and leavings from the religious and cultural history of the west. One should not assume evil or malicious intent on the part of others, "do not attribute to malice that which can be explained by ignorance." Yet, in oour legal system, lacking that intent, that mens rea, culpability and conduct have to be separated.

Fact is that there are sociopaths and psychopaths out there, and lunatics, by whatever name as well. We have cultural overlays and conditioning and lizard brain defensive reactions that enshrine thought and behavior modes that contravene the idea that sufficient intellect and or education will generate proper solutions and behavior and that lack thereof is the wellspring of folly and wrongdoing. The idea that it does no good to flog the bat-shit crazy, and hence has neither ethical nor moral purpose does not at all support the idea that greedy rat bastards or those who enjoy inflicting pain or putting others "in their place" simply know not what they do. They do. (Perhaps this is the line between "intelligent" and "cunning"?)

I'm having trouble making this coherent and/or organized, but, if "liberals" are some damn smart, why are so many of them Democrats? Why do they fall for the same old bait and switch and other gimmicks day after day after day? How did they come to buy into the cult of the lesser weevil? Why do they believe shit for which there is no evidence? The functioning of the mind isn't a math test. Clearly wrong thinking can be discussed and attempts can be made to teach the errors inherent therein, but simply calling it dumb does no good and betrays some hesitancy or inability in getting down to the root of the inherent errors. Arguably, it is simply an ad hominem, and, as such, is about as dumb a thing as there is.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

"intellignce", it's more like expertise or income and socio-economic status. When I was a taxi driver I had a passenger who complained that he was at a party where he was repeatedly snubbed by women for computer programmers while he just owned a construction firm. "I own the f***ing company! They aren't listening!" No, programming was trendy at the time.

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On to Biden since 1973

are ok, and get to enjoy the winter day off celebration. I grok what you are saying about stupid and bad. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but when they talk, I walk. The Great Orange Satan is precisely the people you reference, so clever in their opinions, so gotcha in whataboutism, so unified in denying reality and blaming the (stupid) voters for not turning out (vote blue no matter who!!!) no matter how they let us down.

Mostly, there is one party with little hot button issues on the side to wind us up and be concerned with THEIR political capital hoarding. Forget sin-eaters (great concept, and scapegoats) when it's patsies and dupes that matter, because that us, until we find some way to fight back.

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Good thoughtful essay too.

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