Originally Posted by rhaikh
Again, I'm not here to defend Democrats, you are dangling yet another thread of Whataboutism that does a disservice to the difference in magnitude to which my arguments apply to the modern Republican agenda.

I will say this, though: The rise of identity politics from the left, which manifests as issues of race being in the limelight this decade, is not simply some spontaneous coincidence. The Democrats do share the blame for helping to put the lid on the pressure cooker of the status quo (seen most clearly in W and Gore having nothing left to debate), which is now explosive.


No, it's not whataboutism - I'm highlighting lack of objectivity and equal application of principles. This is important, because generally speaking I think Sini is correct in regards to the effects of calling people racists. That is, a net negative effect, and one that numbs people to the issue and gives actual racists a free pass. Maybe you don't see this on a first hand personal basis up in your section of the Pacific Northwest, but here in the Midwest it couldn't be more apparent. This is a real thing, and has a real impact, one I suspect you actually wouldn't be happy about or feel was a good thing if you saw it on a large scale in person, and not through the lens of people you possibly don't much care for, who happen to be chiding your tactics over the internet.

The one thing that would at least validate your stance, would be if it was result of equal application of principle and not arbitrariness borne of political motivation.

As far as magnitude, what has the GOP done that has had greater impact than Clinton era policies? Not to mention, even Obama wasn't great when it came to cracking down on racially charged localities - that shit didn't even get attention until Ferguson, and the response wasn't exactly aggressive. Democrat/liberal strongholds like NYC have even lived by broken window policies, and aggressive racial profiling.

It's not whataboutism to point out that among other things, you are making the same mistakes conservatives made when they ignored birtherism and Obama-is-a-muslim rhetoric. Both by ignoring and silently encouraging your own strain of psychotic wingnuts, and by throwing stones from a glass house. For all the sins of the GOP, the agenda and methods being employed by large swaths of self-identifying liberals and Democrats isn't any better.

Liberals have chance to take high road, and say "we wont made the same mistakes, and be like them" but all signs point towards engaging is the same type of activities. This is unfortunate.

For who could be free when every other man's humour might domineer over him? - John Locke (2nd Treatise, sect 57)