Posted on 03/22/2023 7:07:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Recently, actor-cum-commentator Ben Stein was condemned in media for touting the "progress" the U.S. has made and saying that black Americans "never had it so good." One website called his remarks a "racist rant" even though he was, in keeping with his personality, just calmly expressing his opinion. The worst thing about this story, though, isn't that Stein may become a cancel-culture casualty.
In fact, the matter reminds me of philosopher G.K. Chesterton's observation that the worst aspect of duels wasn't that someone might die, but that they settled nothing about who was right or wrong. For as is always the case with these matters, Stein is criticized only for making a politically incorrect assertion involving race — and could suffer reputational and career death because of it — when the real issue is this: was he correct or not?
He surely was, too — for the most part.
Only, the pseudo-elites don't want this issue settled and that known, lest their BLM narrative be debunked.
First off, broader perspective is necessary. As even left-wing Think Progress admitted in 2013, the standard of living worldwide was that year the highest it had ever been in history. America is among the world's lifestyle leaders, too, which means that, at least materially, we're generally living a relative life of Riley.
Note here that man's historical default has been grinding poverty. People lived without our luxuries, including those we consider necessities, and sometimes with a lack of many necessities themselves. They had no plumbing, indoor or otherwise; toilets; refrigeration; modern transportation; effective medical care; insurance policies; or safety net of any kind. They might've had to toil sunrise 'til sunset to eke out a subsistence living.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Therein lies the problem. America could be easy pickings for other life-hardened countries.
“Let’s be honest, we are paying “protection money”.”
My thoughts exactly as I plow my way item by item through the Union tax forms. Do this and pay that or they will send their hoods for youl
Insisting that someone (or an entire race) needs and must use crutches is of benefit only to those selling crutches. Selling the idea that African Americans are incapable of taking care of themselves has been the business of the Democratic Party for roughly 200 years.
“Only there are folks who make a living by making folks miserable...”
Poverty pimps.
Of course he is right. Slavery or not AA won the jackpot by being in this country.
My apologies.
Yes, there is an economic incentive by big government to always have dependents.
"...Wasn't it actually the new Liberalism, coming out of the 60s, that shaped the world of Michael Brown? The enormously seductive power of 1960s liberalism was and is its promise to redeem and deliver us from the evils of white supremacy? This liberalism was so transformative that even many conservatives fell under its sway. Wasn't this liberalism far more focused on assuaging white guilt than on developing blacks?
Back in the 60s, we blacks made a very bad deal with America. We demanded that America help us develop. But if this was logical it also was naive. It seduced us into putting our fate right back into the hands of the same white America that had oppressed us in the first place. We began to live by a formula. America's racial guilt was our power. White guilt became Black Power.
Of course, there was a catch. To milk white guilt we had to always be victims of white racism. White racism and black victimization became the heart and soul of liberal power in America.... [emphasis added]
See part three of my tagline.
#17
I listen to Ben’s podcast. Very entertaining.
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