Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

And so many more forms...

One other things about slavery that isn't addressed often - A few poorer nations had various forms of slavery as "cultural leftover whatever" but society/legal system let it slide due to lack of resources / cultural differences in what is normal or acceptable. A few countries also had legalized slavery into the 60's (Saudi Arabia had legalized slavery of blacks until 1964 or 1966 IIRC - I still find this extremely ironic given how many black Americans of the era converted to Islam as a gesture against "Christian America").

A few friends who have been to small nations in the Middle East in the 90s all said they saw mass slavery barely covered/veiled their time there, mostly (but not completely) by the rich - typical victims at the time being Filipinos (as domestic slaves... and this doesn't mean a poorly paid + abused worker who got their passport taken away), Eastern European women (mass poverty after collapse of USSR led to increase in human trafficking), American women typically from the midwest (b/c yay I got an American slave), and to some degree blacks from Africa (not sure if there was a story here or if it was just a cultural remnant). There were others, including people that appeared to them to be locals, but less of them. Similar rich *whatever titles here* in the same places seem to turn to instathots today (open secret by now) but I guess in this case at least it's somewhat voluntary and I assume said instathots get to leave after pre-agreed X amount of time is up.

 

Ah.

Yeah, this is how you get someone to knock on your door with their AK in hand. Happens in other parts of the nation too, also under-reported.

 

I hope to god it's not a bunch of the current populous bullshit. Allowing Southerners hold on to some of their heritage is the only thing that's kept the peace.

I got my ass beaten by a group a Southerners 134 years after the war ended because I dared to fill up my car in their tiny little town with Illinois plates. Tearing down monuments will be a fast track to Civil War 2.0. And there are no winners or losers in a Civil War, at the end of it you have to go home and be neighbors again.

 

My bank let people off early today due to Juneteenth. I think it is a nice thing of the bank to do, but I go on Facebook and see plenty of posts from my co-workers saying what should I do with the extra time? I think personally it is a PR stunt, but it reminds me that most people only want to get out of work, not actually celebrate what the holiday means.

However, like everything else nowadays even Juneteenth has gotten so f'ing partisan political that is is even making my head hurt. Those on the left are all for it, and at least in my personal experience most people on the right are against it. Some of the reasons why Juneteenth shouldn't be a holiday from those who are against it (and I heard it upfront) are: "This is a communist plot by the Democrats," "This holiday is racist, why they can't be a holiday for white people, oh wait, political correctness," "We can't make another holiday so companies can close down and lose income," and my favorite facepalm one: "Blacks don't need another holiday, they need to learn to work."

Once again, something like this will only work if people will change their viewpoint on a major scale. So far I am not seeing any major changes on one part of the population who leans to the right side of things. Few of my friends to the right are all on board, but most of the people who I speak with in social gatherings are fully against Juneteenth. I was at my local Tobacco Shop (an old school place that some of the local politicians visits, including some that are helping bringing the RNC in Aug in Jax, a.k.a. they are elected to State/Federal Level) earlier today and people were pissed at statues coming down, and these "Liberal Commies" destroying property. Some of their comments might be disgusting or rude, but some of these guys left places like NY/NJ/IL/CA and brought their mindset with them. These are the guys who will not budge on anything on Juneteenth. Hell, my Congressman said on live radio that he considers BLM a terrorist group (and he time to time visits the local Tobacco Shop). Some do love how the President is speaking with regards to being hard on protesters. Hell, some of the people I know wish these protesters can get shot.

The younger generation who came from these families are changing their viewpoint to be more open about Juneteenth and other issues due to the after effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws of the South. I feel this will take time to convince people this is the possible right thing to do and a generational shift. However, depending on how someone is raise can affect something for life with regards to a certain way of thinking. After talking to people in various social circles about the stuff that is happening from the last few months: I met a lot more people from the right who are extremely motivated to vote in Nov in order to end the "Leftist Madness" than those who lean to the left on issues. It is things like that (plus voting registration plus population dynamics) that is making the RNC moving to Jax becoming a lot of sense.

TD DR: Change takes time, but it won't be a quick one that's for sure. Also, I hang out too much of a certain type of people too much. That is mostly due to hobby reasons and not living in Riverside area of Jax.

 

MLK day is optional at my bank, and I prefer to work on the day unless I am forced to take it off. I prefer to use my PTO on non-holidays (aka use it on other days, Memorial Day don't affect me personally and I prefer taking more Fridays off, I like flexibility).

And I just got off my phone with my father. He is so focused on statues coming down violently, private property being destroyed, and reading a poll that states that over 60% of Americans like the country as is than caring about Juneteenth. At the end of the call, he was like "I can wait for the guy in the basement being creamed in the debates." I think I pissed him off when I told him that both of the guys are too big government for my taste, but that is another debate for another time.

People like my dad are just like my previous post. Guys who moved to FL from NJ/NJ/IL/CA and brought their politics with them. My father, being from NYC, heavily despised people who happen to be black. He told me one that a good way to do public service is to hang Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Then again, my father as a Jewish guy who lived in NYC during desegregation in certain areas + high crime + race riots, you might start thinking yourself as trying to survive as a race and not give another race an advantage. Very shitty mentality, and sadly I believe it is human nature if I have to be honest.

There's tons of people like my father who I met locally here in FL. Most are from NJ/NY with some from CA and from IL. Doesn't matter how much data we have that shows that yes those who happen to be black been fucked around too much over the years, they just don't care and will not vote for anyone who supports these positions to change.

It is very hard to change people and to change a culture, but as we all know, it is not impossible to change.

 

The flow of capital is what dictates our mores, not stuff like religion anymore. Capital decided when to remove the chains from slaves just as much as it shackled them. Slavery became less profitable by the year and then soon the tractor would've pretty much gotten rid of the whole mess. Christianity and other institutions played little role here as they were subjugated to the needs of capitalism. I mean Christians supported slave labor when it was needed and then were against it when it wasn't.

 

I definitely thought this too when I read the headlines but I've never even watched a NASCAR race. Then I read the comments on the article and consensus among fans seemed to be this just another misstep in a long line of recent missteps for NASCAR.

 

Juneteenth is a symbolic play (and I don't doubt the power of symbolism). Thing is, there has to be enough common shared understanding/experience for symbols to work as a unifying force, otherwise they are just symbols of division. MLK day, all the MLK avenues created, and the like - they are past efforts at this kind of symbolism and what are the effects? Honest question, though I want to say "not much". Another bank holiday does nothing to get at the underlying generational effects of our past. The Great Society was a very practical (top down technocratic) attempt, and it was and is a bust by most any measure.

 

Those monuments weren't made to honor the fallen, most of them were made a century after the war ended and were funded by organizations with Klan ties. They were basically built to intimidate black people by celebrating traitors who refused to give up the subjugation of a source of cheap labor. I have no idea why they would want to celebrate that. If I lived there, I'd be doing everything in my power to distance myself from that "heritage". I think they need to be removed. Worst case scenario, you'll piss off those tiki torch polo shirt morons and they will gather in a park at night and fist each other.

I'm German so I know a thing or two about shameful history. Sometimes you just have to say, "Listen, my ancestors did some awful shit. I'm sorry about that. I won't repeat their mistakes."

 

It's just this sort of one size fits understanding of (in this case Southern) history and culture that is so divisive, and actually perpetuates the generational consequences of the past rather than healing it. My opinion of course...

 

What's next? Canceling "The Dukes of Hazard" reruns? I don't agree with the glorification of slavery by any means, but as already stated in this thread, it continues to thrive globally. The globalists do a decent job of hiding it from you. Do you really think those pair of shoes, TV, amp, computer, etc is made overseas by someone on the job 8hrs a day, getting a couple of 15min breaks and an hour for lunch? Why is that...? Profit, cheap labor of course, and our consumption of consumer goods is biblical. Just because it's no longer as prevalent for all to see here in the USA, doesn't mean we are not supporting it day in and day out.

If you really want to make a difference, buy only USA made goods from ethically manufactured sources, and see how far that gets you. My hat's off to you if you make it a month, before you run through your budget.

Again, I don't condone or support slavery, but just because you don't see it, doesn't mean you aren't still supporting it, and if you think tearing down a statue covered in bird shit is making you a better person, you're sadly mistaken, until YOU actually do something to change...

 

Sure, its a generalization but many of those monuments were commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a "heritage organization", which to be completely honest, was a club for Klan member wives. I don't think the monuments should be destroyed, they should be put into a museum where visitors can be given the proper context for their creation.

When you take pride in your family history but your family members fought for an immoral cause and someone calls you out on it, your feelings will be hurt. If you distance yourself from the actions of your ancestors, then the criticisms of said ancestors shouldn't bother you.

Healing of past wounds takes time but constantly talking about the issue only slows the process. I think both sides are somewhat to blame for this and worst of all, there are evil people on both sides who have figured out how to profit by keeping people angry despite being removed by several generations.

 

I'm too of German heritage (primarily) but I'm skeptical that this will become the prevailing opinion of the American south. The only time I ever heard my maternal grandfather curse (literally, ever), was when he talked about the "f'ing nazis" in Germany, from which he emigrated to America to escape. Seeing your 78 year-old grandfather visibly upset at a country with a nearly incomprehensible effect on the rest of the world, that was militarily defeated more than 50 years prior after a great world war, was something that stuck with me when I was 13 or 14 years old. Only in hindsight do i presume to recognize his anger at the sheer concept of the existence of the Nazis as a personal, moral vigilance against any similar oppression of humanity.

This type of shit ain't a meme, it ain't facebook posts, it ain't some hashtag horseshit to sell shampoo.

I just don't see most Southern Americans getting angry like my grandpa did.

 

That's just not the way human beings work. Our "morality" is not a mere function of the will (though the will has its place). Our will has nothing to do with the tribe we are born into, or for that matter our "feelings". You can purge and erase these monuments (all the while patting yourself on the back for your enlighted morality) but the underlying generational history and "sin" is just as present as it always was in all the very practical ways that psychologizing and symbolic manipulation is so obviously impotent before.

Your understanding of these monuments is narrow - it's the work of folks who went to "journalism school" for the express purpose of "changing the world"...where to even begin...

 

Having lived in the south for a while and having experienced some racism (which was as much from blacks as from whites...), I completely get the desire to keep the statues and I'd vote to keep them too for the sake of free speech and to remind ourselves of our history / don't repeat mistakes. I'd also vote to let people or organizations celebrate Juneteenth for the same reasons. To me scrubbing these things away would be akin to how most other nations largely deny their national tragedies of the last 100 years (SOOOOO many come to mind) which is IMO the worst thing you could do.

Of course, we don't need to go the way of modern Germany or Sweden (and to some degree the rest of the EU) either: Let's have a fake diversity via shallow metrics like skin color for diversity sake (and not diversity of thought, experience, abilities, or other meaningful measures) and then stick our heads in the sand at all the bad things said people do (which they would still be in trouble for at home...) while still policing the bad things our natives b/c this will somehow prove we are "so super not racist!!!11!$%&#!!!!". OR similar cringe-y stuff I see where past misdeeds are used to shame people's existence, identity, ethnicity, values/morals, or whatever... I suspect this is half the reason a-holes like neo-nazis and the like even have a voice in the first place and I would definitely say this is why BLM has a very valid point in this sense.

 

If a statue is on public land then depending on local laws, the public should have either the right to have a conversation to remove it or could be a local government matter. However, that is not always easy.

Here's how one Confederate Flag is able to be flying on a business property. It's quite slick on how it was done:



Then you have Alabama who actually has a law that forbids the removal of any Confederate Statue. Birmingham attempted to remove one of their statues, and of course the State sued them. It went up to AL Supreme Court and the Court sided with the State stated that the State has the right to regulate the Confederate Statues. Well that same Statue was removed due to the riots and of course the State is planning to sue the City over it. Some states got wise and made it the decision to control any removal of the statue to be in the hands of the State Gov.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

 

The problem is the statues aren’t usually there to provide any historical insight or context but as a f**k you to black people. The reminder that not only do some people in their community feel that way but that not enough of the rest care to do anything about it has to be soul crushing.

Anyway I didn’t mean to take away anything from Juneteenth, I just wish a little of the energy being spent “fighting the man” right now was going towards fighting current human rights abuses here and abroad.