Submitted by Snoi7 t3_11hqmoq in Pennsylvania
MartianActual t1_jaw8sys wrote
Reply to comment by invisiblearchives in Hatboro, Pennsylvania woman facing charges after racist rant at pizzeria by Snoi7
Wizened GenXer here and let me tell you my generation sucks and is an embarrassment. But to the point of your first sentence here's an anecdotal story about that.
I'm ex-military, was a paratrooper and then was attached to JSOC, spent time running with 7th SFG way back when. To be clear, I wasn't SF, I just happened to do early generation field sat phones (yes, as fucking heavy as you are imagining) and they were like, ooh, we can do comm links from anywhere in the world. We're taking your guys until we get our own. Also, for the purposes of this story, I was in a fraternity in college.
Anyway, fast forward to me in circa 2015, 4 kids now, coach in lacrosse, soccer, community activist. Daughter is playing travel lacrosse. There's this one family, kind of anti-social keep to themselves type, well, the parents are, kids were nice. Anyway, they are pre-MAGA Tea Party nut jobs. And the dad latches on to me cause word spread of my military service and he was also in a fraternity. On paper I am a right wingers wet dream. Except I am a pretty easy going left leaning type, big Teddy Roosevelt fan, very anti-religion, a weird blend of Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine. Like I am a big fan of capitalism, with regulations, big fan of freedom, with responsibility, big fan of discrimination, but on people's character, not demographics, big fan of what we do for the least amongst us is more important than what we do for the most entitled and so on.
We're at a tournament one day and with travel teams you have multiple teams designated by age, so my daughter was I think 5th/6th grade at the time. And the start of these things can be clusterfucks. Like 15 fields, 40 or so teams, poor signage, especially if you're new to the whole thing. I see this family with their daughter and she's in our program but probably a 3rd grader. So the MAGAs have camped next to us and I don't care, I'll talk to anybody and we know enough to navigate the conversation towards kid's sports and a few other safe topics.
I see this other lost family so I walk over to see if I can help them and then we chat for a bit, they were at the completely wrong end of the tournament. I walk back and the dude says to me, 'You're so politically correct...' and I was like, 'What?' and then it dawned on me, the lost family was black. I just gave him a 'you're a dick look' and we picked our shit up and went over and hung out with the rest of the team families and had a grand ole time.
He was always complaining to me about how this country was heading in the wrong direction (remember this is like 2013-2014 and I remember asking how and he would say stuff like 'free speech man, you can't say anything in this country anymore without getting in trouble' and stuff like that. I realized what these fucks are angry about is that they can't make fun or belittle minorities, or gay people, or women, without suffering consequences for it and it really pisses them off.
invisiblearchives t1_jawf0ur wrote
>I realized what these fucks are angry about is that they can't make fun or belittle minorities, or gay people, or women, without suffering consequences for it and it really pisses them off.
I would say, even more specifically than this, is that the American social arrangement literally contained the idea that even if you were the most downtrodden dirt farmer white, you were still de facto better than the queers, jews, blacks, mexicans, etc.
Taking that away has made the poorer end of the confederate spectrum extremely angry. They literally feel like their birthright was taken from them... the birthright being of course the right to "make fun or belittle minorities, or gay people, or women, without suffering consequences"
Plus, when compared to an even wider swath of american citizens (containing a wide mix of brilliant and lovely people of many races and backgrounds) these guys look more and more what they are... a relic of america's disgusting racial history that is in rapid decline of social power
wagsman t1_jawhduf wrote
Lyndon Johnson was spot on when he said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
MartianActual t1_jawha4m wrote
>I would say, even more specifically than this, is that the American social arrangement literally contained the idea that even if you were the most downtrodden dirt farmer white, you were still de facto better than the queers, jews, blacks, mexicans, etc.<
I think that has been pretty apparent since Obama was elected. I think the wealthier end of the neo-confederate spectrum came to the happy conclusion that they could make a lot of cash off of fueling that poorer end anger, by direct donations and by running on a platform as such and legislating shit like tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulating business to lower cost regardless of the danger in doing so.
HeyZuesHChrist t1_jawlg9q wrote
Lyndon B. Johnson said it best. This is from when he was POTUS.
>We were in Tennessee. During the motorcade, he spotted some ugly racial epithets scrawled on signs. Late that night in the hotel, when the local dignitaries had finished the last bottles of bourbon and branch water and departed, he started talking about those signs. "I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it," he said. "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
[deleted] t1_jawqj3n wrote
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Jasontheperson t1_jaxa74c wrote
OK?
serpicowasright t1_jaxy6fo wrote
Lyndon J was a piece of shit, do not emulate or look up to the man.
Jasontheperson t1_jb1cu20 wrote
It's like you want us to ignore his anti racist messages. Why is that?
serpicowasright t1_jb1f8ll wrote
Because they weren’t actually anti-racist messages. He wanted to consolidate power of an African American voter group. So he could do things that he really wanted like continue killing innocent brown people in Vietnam.
zwirjosemito t1_jawnlyz wrote
This quote from Mississippi Burning lives rent free in my head:
“Ward : Where does it come from? All this hatred?
Anderson : You know, when I was a little boy, there was an old negro farmer that lived down the road from us, name of Monroe. And he was... well, I guess he was just a little luckier than my daddy was. He bought himself a mule. That was a big deal around that town. My daddy hated that mule, 'cause his friends were always kidding him that they saw Monroe out plowing with his new mule, and Monroe was going to rent another field now he had a mule. One morning, that mule showed up dead. They poisoned the water. After that, there wasn't any mention about that mule around my daddy. It just never came up. One time, we were driving down that road, and we passed Monroe's place and we saw it was empty. He just packed up and left, I guess, he must of went up north or something. I looked over at my daddy's face. I knew he done it. He saw that I knew. He was ashamed. I guess he was ashamed. He looked at me and said, If you ain't better than a n*gger, son, who are you better than?
Ward : You think that's an excuse?
Anderson : No it's not an excuse. It's just a story about my daddy.
Ward : Where's that leave you?
Anderson : My old man was just so full of hate that he didn't know that bein' poor was what was killing him.”
CoolHandMike t1_jawmdz9 wrote
It's really fun (but not really) watching these types of people do a complete 180 when you mention having served in the military. Side note, I hate the whole "thank you for your service" thing that has been programmed into our population. Yeah, I served, but I was an electronics tech fixing radios in the repair shop. Teachers and nurses are much more deserving of this kind of respect imho.
MartianActual t1_jaxnw1b wrote
First off, don't diminish your service, you put yourself out there when most others will not, whether that was to HALO jump into an al Queda compound or repairing vital equipment, it was all important.
Secondly, I hear you on that. I hate when people thank me for my service. Most times it the equivalent of saying 'god bless you' when someone sneezes, like they feel they have to, its a platitude now. I get a lot of people are just trying to be nice but it does make most veterans feel uncomfortable. And yeah, there are a ton of people in our society doing vital things that don't get the recognition they deserve. My wife worked as an ER nurse, while pregnant with twins, while getting her masters at night. That is hardcore.
CoolHandMike t1_jazcvxi wrote
That IS hardcore. Your wife is a force of nature, for sure.
I mostly used to get annoyed at the hardware store, since it seems to be a part of their training to specifically thank you for your service when you ask for the discount at check-out (Lowe's and HD). Feeling inspired one day, I turned it around and thanked them for the discount and that's become my mantra. "Thank you for your service." "Hey, thanks for the discount!" Some cashiers seem pleasantly surprised by the "return compliment", so that's nice. (Side-note: recently bought a house and during the first few years it wasn't uncommon for me to visit multiple stores per week, if not per day. "The Thankening" got old quick.)
That said, the self-checkout at Lowe's used to loudly "THANK YOU FOR YOUR MILITARY SERVICE" when you scanned your membership card, which was just super-cringe to me. Like, why is a machine programmed to suddenly (and loudly, for all to hear) call me out like this. I did not ask for, nor do I need this kind of self-aggrandization. However I've noticed in the past couple of times I've visited that it doesn't seem to do that anymore, just displaying it on the screen in text instead. But it could just be my local store's settings or something, I'm not sure. I hope it continues.
MartianActual t1_jb09fnq wrote
That’s another thing that annoys me, how America fetishes the military. Military grade this or that, like if you knew how often military gear breaks down that would not be a selling point,. Or all the dudes with the high and tight with beards and wrap around shades wearing a ‘this I’ll defend’ GoRuck tee with the American flag on the sleeve, the irony being they never served. Or all the SealTeam Six type tv shows.
I think serving is great, I am also pointedly aware that that doesn’t make you a great human being. I served with some awesome people that had a huge impact on me, also served with some low lifes I wouldn’t acknowledge knowing. The military is just a crosscut of America, good, bad and ugly.
thatoneguydudejim t1_jaxb3lx wrote
They’re being babies about being told what to do. They are children with no humility and will kick and scream us all into an early grave.
topspin9 t1_jax6eoy wrote
Hear Hear ! Excellent observation and analysis! Reddit free Award 🗯💥💫^
[deleted] t1_jaxt9jm wrote
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MartianActual t1_jay7ciw wrote
I think what helped me was traveling outside America after college and not the get high in youth hostels in Europe travel but some hardcore hiking in the Sahel in Mali, in Amazonian Peru, hopping around the Leeward Islands. Meeting people in abject poverty and they being friendly and kind for the most part made a huge impression on me.
Kind of made me see how you should judge people on their character and not skin color or who they love. Character matters, in fact, to me it is all that matters, we’ve seemed to have lost an appreciation for that value.
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