Doing sociology and philosophy in real time by looking at developments in contemporary Western politics and culture, from a Moral Libertarian perspective. My mission is to stop the authoritarian 'populist' right and the cultural-systemist left from destroying the West.
The Problematic Priorities of the Elite 'Woke' | TaraElla Report S6 E3
Today, I'm going to talk about a new poll from Pew Research, which asked Democratic voters about whether they were bothered that this year's Democratic nominee is an older white man. Now, this isn't even about Joe Biden or his policies; it's simply about whether someone is bothered by an older white man becoming the Democratic nominee, so even if you don't particularly like Biden, please put that aside and consider the actual question being asked. Now, I understand that some people want a candidate who isn't an old white man, and that preference is definitely OK. However, being 'bothered' by it is quite a strong word, and I know some people won't agree, but I think it's actually wrong to have such strong feelings against an old white man being the nominee, whether it be Biden, Bernie, or someone else. Imagine this: if I rephrased the question as, for example, 'if you are bothered by a young Asian woman receiving the nomination', you'll see that it's clearly racist, sexist and ageist. Those of us who are actually minorities know that double standards only serve to entrench discrimination in the longer run, so we oppose discrimination in any direction. If you allow differential treatment in any form, minorities always end up suffering the most.
Given my view on this matter, it is no surprise that I'm very disappointed that the poll found that almost half of the sample actually agreed with the proposition. I mean, not only is this racist, sexist and ageist, the fact that you're bothered by these things rather than the actual policies show that you don't even care about the important issues at all. It's as if Biden, a friend of workers who has committed to working with Bernie going forward, isn't at least much better than symbolic glass-ceiling Hillary. Now, before anyone goes on to blame minorities for this, no, they are not primarily responsible. The poll found that less than a third of black and hispanic people agreed with the proposition, compared to about half of whites. On the other hand, a majority of some groups actually agreed with the proposition: those under 30 by 54%, those with postgraduate education by 58%, and most stunningly, Elizabeth Warren supporters by a whopping 73%, although that could just be their way of protesting the loss of their candidate so I'm not sure it's accurate. Anyway, the point is, it has become more common than not in some circles to agree with this problematic view, and unfortunately, the young and the educated is where the problem is.
I guess it could be another example of people dripping in privilege trying to revolutionarize the world, taking the moral high ground against other privileged people in the virtue signalling game, while the rest of us are just trying to survive. I think it is incredibly privileged to care about anything other than the policies on offer, because, at the end of the day, the personal characterstics of the US President doesn't affect anyone. It's like the current culture war over pronouns, which certainly didn't come from the trans community, because most trans people are just trying to survive. This was especially true before around 2015, when trans issues started going mainstream. I think it's because the woke crowd, despite being economically privileged, just can't find enough meaning and happiness in their own lives for some reason. This is why they delight in other people's symbolic progress, because it brings a sense of meaning to their own lives. Meanwhile, actual minorities don't even care for any of this, as seen by the majority of black people voting for Biden, the majority of Lations voting for Bernie, and the majority of trans people still refusing to put their pronouns on their social media profiles (not that there is anything wrong with pronouns in bios, but culturally it is not being done well right now). What minorities understand is that it is all a fight among the privileged, nothing more.
