I was surprised.
Sometimes I do, click over to RedState I mean. Most of the time I regret it, heh, and click away in a hurry; sometimes I don't. Frankly their obstinate ranting is amusing sometimes.
And once in a while I see something that gives me a pleasant surprise. There's still obstinate ranting, of course, the surprising part is that I had to scroll down to the comments to see it.
More below the squiggle.
Now, I don't blame anybody that doesn't want to click over to that place. Maybe you don't want to give EE traffic, or maybe it's simply distasteful to you. For the record I don't blame you.
However, if I've aroused your curiousity enough to brave the stench, follow this link: Derbyshire in 2003: I Am a Racist
It was posted yesterday on RedState's front page before it was known that Derbyshire was getting the axe, so I suppose one would call the rhetoric a bit dated. But, I admit, it is refreshing. An excerpt:
...Absolutely nothing that has happened in Derbyshire’s career since then has indicated that he didn’t mean exactly what he said to Kevin way back in 2003. This is the same man who once described welfare thusly:
Following the black riots of the 1960s, these concessions have also been seen by nonblacks as an implicit contract or treaty — that is, as nonblack America saying to black America: “We’ll give you this stuff if you promise not to break our windows.”
...He is not, as his defenders at the execrable Taki mag say, confronting the world with uncomfortable truths, he is proudly declaring himself to be a racist and arguing that it is correct to be racist. This, I submit, is something that all decent people should reject....
...Derbyshire’s screed was so contemptible, especially in light of his lengthy history, that I cannot imagine a reason that Derbyshire should not have been summarily dismissed within the hour....
Damn right. And, of course, as I said above teh stoopid doesn't take long to show up. The first comment:
People like you have built a shrine to anti-racism. Anyone who doesn’t tow the anti-racism line the way you think they should must be dealt with severely. They must be marginalized and eliminated from interacting with the rest of us. Of course, people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton get a pass.
How predictable. But wait, another pleasant surprise in the responses to that:
The Hell’s Angels are all White and commit heinous crimes against women every year – they run forced prostitution rings as do all 1%er gangs. We do not judge groups of Whites hanging around together based on that. As a crime blogger I can tell you that the majority of pedophiles on any sex offender registry are White males – I have never claimed all White males are possible pedophiles.
Ha, burn.
There's more nonsense as you scroll down, but strangely it by and large doesn't seem to have gone unchallenged. If you go a bit further you can see a post from what seems to be, gasp, a Kossack.
If you would like to commune with people who really do get it, who actually care, and who truly believe that all human beings are created equal, might I suggest the Democratic blogs?
As a very small example, right now over at Daily Kos, there are 5 current reader diaries about Derbyshire: “Understanding Racists,” “Forbes calls for NR to fire Derbyshire,” “Hey, National Review, you ain’t walking away from this one.” “If you see a more racist column in 2012, I will eat a bowl of what my dogs do in the yard.,” “NR writer publishes yet another racist diatribe”
The comment, penned by one Wonderwoman, of course drew its own challenges. And they're not pretty. So, I'm not sure what exactly this portends. Unfortunately, despite all the innumerable dogwhistles over the years, not to mention all the blatantly audible whistles from people like Derbyshire that go undisputed, many non-whites still drink the Republican kool-aid.
Still, though, I am given hope. If I may be so bold, it may be that what we are witnessing is an awakening. It's not going to happen all in an instant, to certain people that kool-aid still seems to taste mighty good. This response from the diarist to Wonderwoman's comment:
Why don’t I go sign up with a bunch of people who systematically hold the racist belief that black people can’t advance on their own merits and need the help of white liberals to succeed in society? Pass.
illustrates one of the huge collective illusions that the noise-machine has so successfully implanted into the Republican dogma, and thusly illustrates an area on which there still is far to go.
After reading that diary, though, I honestly think we might make it.