Does it help to view other people as either being with us or against us, as being either one of them or one of us, goodwrites or badwhites? Does it simplify things? Does it ease our pain? Does it explain or excuse our failures?
What role does attitude play in success and failure, happiness and misery? Is it somebody else's duty to gift us with success or happiness? Can anyone else gift us with these things?
I know that Derbyshire was born in England. Later, he looked around the world and applied for American citizenship. Like everyone else, I complain from time to time about this or that, but I know that Derbyshire made the right choice - the USA is the best place to be. We're very lucky.
After reading your comment, I had to go back and read the John Derybshire article in an attempt to figure out how you got your take on it. I failed.
To me, the point John Derbyshire is making is that there are two classes of Whites in this country. There are the Northeastern (and now West Coast) Liberals, who develop a "new" and "enlightened" standard of what is "moral" and then try to impose that same standard on the rest of us, and thereafter treat with disdain anyone not sufficiently filled with the fervor of their perceived moral enlightenment. If you do not see the echos of the abolition movement in this, then you are not grasping the concept.
This business about the Lion is merely another manifestation of the same phenomena, just in a different way. Nowadays it has become popular to assert a sort of elevation of animals above humans. As has been pointed out many places elsewhere, the US Liberals are quite upset that a Lion in Africa got killed, but pay little attention to humans getting killed by Lions in Africa. I will point out that G.K. Chesterton said: "Wherever there is Animal Worship there is Human Sacrifice. That is, both symbolically and literally, a real truth of historical experience."
When he mentions "Good Whites" and "Bad Whites" he is facetiously mocking the divide between Liberals and Conservatives, and likewise pointing out how Liberals are able to control the narrative by their influence on the Media and entertainment industries.
Does it help to view other people as either being with us or against us, as being either one of them or one of us, goodwrites or badwhites? Does it simplify things? Does it ease our pain? Does it explain or excuse our failures?
Does it simplify things? Yes. It simplifies things greatly. You may not be aware of this, but most people don't want to wade through a bunch of philosophical dreck to decide what to do. "Us" and "Them" clarifies things enormously, and people favor it because it is instinctive in human nature.
Your personal dislike of this natural methodology for drawing battle lines is immaterial. Whether you agree with it or not, it is the standard that most people use.
I know that Derbyshire was born in England. Later, he looked around the world and applied for American citizenship. Like everyone else, I complain from time to time about this or that, but I know that Derbyshire made the right choice - the USA is the best place to be. We're very lucky.
It is currently, but only because the rest of the planet is racing to get worse faster than we are getting worse. This is still not to say that the US of today is as good as the US of yesteryear.
It's not. We are less free, the cost of living continues to rise, threats abound all around us, and the predictable consequences of previous bad policies are about to come due.
That we are still least bad misses the point. We are going to become increasingly bad if something is not done to stop it, and that "something" is looking increasingly remote with each passing year.
We know civilizations can collapse, because we have witnessed it happen in history too many times. It appears we are heading for one.