Bad People Do Bad Things
The guy who commented “Karmic Asskicking!” to what happened here got 510 likes on Facebook, but, while I admit that this is a bon mot if there ever were one, I like to be a bit more scientific and see if there isn’t something here to learn.
What lies at the center of racial hatred? It seems that it’s mostly nurture. Had I grown up in the Deep South, raised by ignorant hardcore White racists whose routine dialog with me was peppered with the full litany of the slurs and the epithets, while they denied me both an education and access to non-White friends, I really hate to think we’re I’d be on this matter today myself.
At the risk of oversimplifying, racists are hateful people and hateful people are bad people. That’s why we should never be surprised when somebody like this commits a crime: By definition, bad people do bad things.
Was anyone shocked when Pamela Taylor went away for 10 months, plus house arrest, plus fines, plus restitution? Doubt it.
This is why the notion that Donald Trump is the U.S. president is so terrifying. He’s a bad person, and thus can be counted on to do…….
Craig,
The origins of racial hatred are a lot older and far more complex than just the US experience.
Nor is racial hatred, discrimination and prejudice restricted to “white v Black”.
The idea that people of different skin color, shape or appearance are less worthy, less acceptable, inferior or legitimately able to be enslaved or otherwise persecuted is as old as human tribes and can be observed even in the animal kingdom.
In fact, it would be fair to say that the concept of anti-racism and equality based on character rather than race, is a very new and largely a concept of 18th century European intellectuals.
From time immemorial certain exceptional individuals have stood out and been accepted, adopted, even admired by some societies, these were always the exceptions that proved the rule.
Racism is present in every society and practiced by people of every race, religion and skin color.
Pamela Taylor is an obvious example of a bitter woman, harbouring an inferiority complex and a lot of resentment.
In 2016, she was fired from her job as a director of the Clay County Development Corporation, because she wrote on Facebook: “It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels.”
As a result, her life seems to have spun out of control. Her mental state wasn’t helped by finding herself subject to siege of media coverage, ostracism and persecution. As a result she descended into desperate acts of fraud.
What she wrote on facebook, is pitiful and unacceptable, but gloating over her tragic circumstances isn’t helpful or charitable either.
I know it’s not easy, but I believe in such circumstances we should apply the principles of Martin Luther King Jnr, who preached “hating the Sin not the Sinner” .
That’s the real tragedy of these cases, you can gloat ” bad people do bad things”, and feel sanctimonious, but is it really that simple?
Good people often do bad things, just as bad people sometimes do surprisingly good things.
By your own definition, you have become a “hateful person” since the election of President Trump. You justify your hateful ranting by blaming your victim.
Somehow, you have made the same leap in logic as do racists. You de-humanise the President, making him no longer a real person with a family, feelings, and a multi-faceted personality.
Instead you convince yourself he is really just a caricature, a sterotype, to whom you can attribute all the attributes you detest.
by this means, you no longer have to apply the normal principles of fair play, understanding, compassion, decency etc, because you have given yourself permission to hate.
That hatred makes you feel virtuous, morally sanctimonious and your hatred righteous.
That’s a very old conditioning process built into the human psyche, it allows humans to hate, persecute and even kill, and justify those actions by making the victim the guilty party.
Craig,
On the same theme, Noah Berlatsky writes on NBC “Trump’s lies and cruelty fueled a real resistance. That’s hopeful news for progressivism”
Brelatsky concludes. “It’s difficult to know what will happen once Trump leaves office, but it’s clear his incompetence and racism have pushed many to oppose him. His actions have had consequences”.
In between, Blavatsky argues two remarkable propositions (or admissions).
1) The vast majority of the “never trump” resistance are Women, college educated, average age 38 to 49, 87 percent white and lived in reasonably affluent suburban communities.
2) Active “resistance” by those still employed in the Federal government and agencies against the President’s policies is covert, but well organized and will eventually bring down the President.
Brelatsky claims moral justification for the actions of these individuals, comparing them to “resistance” workers against the Nazi’s.
This dangerous concept has been widely adopted by the more irresponsible and radical democrats. It’s a newer version of the old, “we had to destroy the village, in order to save it” mentality.
As more and more officials identify as “resistance operatives” even moderate Democrats are putting aside their dislike of the President and beginning to have second thoughts about the long term damage to the Constitution and US democratic institutions.
The rapid decline in support for impeachment and rise in support for the President, seems to indicate the US people are becoming equally concerned about the existence of such “resistance” by unelected officials against an elected President.