Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Does Trump Trigger Racism in Some of His Supporters?

I want to return to a post I wrote yesterday, It Really Makes No Sense for Libertarians to Align with Trump.

I find some of the comments at the post quite remarkable.

There is, for example, this one:
I dislike Trump as much as you do (but I'm ecstatic that The Wicked Witch lost), but this video is left wing propaganda.

"Murders by white supremacists doubled in 2017."

In 2016 there were 9, count 'em, 9, murders "linked" to white supremacists. In 2017 there were 18 murders "linked" to the alt-right.

In 2017 there were 17,259 murders in the US. 18 out of 17,259. Anyone care to do the math on what percentage of murders were "linked" to the alt-right?

A video of two idiots swearing at each other doesn't prove anything except that there were two idiots swearing at each other.
My focus was not on the text that accompanied the video but on the video itself. Any decent human being should have been shocked by what the Trump supporter said. This was my perspective and it should have been easy to understand this from the comment I made about the video.

If you can ignore the way the Asian girl was taunted and go anal on text accompanying the video then god bless you. It proves my point, basic civility is being lost under Trump.

It is useless to psychoanalyze Trump to determine if he is a racist, and I have never done that here but he is clearly triggering a deep nativism in a portion of the masses. I am not willing to put a percentage on it but you are blind if you don't see it.

Prior to Trump, there were just no comments about races or immigrants at EPJ or Target Liberty. In fact, I marveled that even when I attacked Obama there were no racists comments. The only racist comments that were posted came around once every six months or so and they were anti-Semitic and aimed at Paul Krugman.

Even when I wrote about urban primitives and LBJ's great-grandkids, there were no racial slurs. Zero.

Now because Trump keeps immigrants in the news, there are more posts about immigrants and it has triggered about a half-dozen anti-immigrants posters here, some who use racial slurs, with their comments.

It is a different world under Trump and you are delusional if you don't think so.

I have pointed out many times that I think racism is goofy but if someone only wants to deal with their own race that's fine with me. But under Trump these lilies aren't satisfied with living in their own lily-white corners of America, they want all kinds of races prevented or driven out of the entire country. That is just flaky and dangerous. Trump is about power, he is not about live and let live. And Trump is who these lilies support and he is stirring up their racist juices.

Decent youth, who see what Trump is stirring up, are looking for an alternative and they are finding it on the political left, who are as power hungry as Trump lilies but are better at hiding their quest for power with clever language.

The only real anti-power alternative is libertarianism but so many are silent about Trump. How are the kids ever going to realize there is an alternative to Trump that is not the centrally planning left?

There is very little good about Trump, He should be aggressively attacked so that the odds that youth will come across an anti-Trump libertarian commentary will increase. This is not the time to sit on the sidelines because Trump may be good on transgender bathrooms. That makes no sense,

Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of  EconomicPolicyJournal.com and Target Liberty. He also writes EPJ Daily Alert and is author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics and on LinkedIn. His youtube series is here: Robert Wenzel Talks Economics. The Robert Wenzel podcast is on  iphone and stitcher.

46 comments:

  1. "The only real anti-power alternative is libertarianism but so many are silent about Trump. How are the kids ever going to realize there is an alternative to Trump that is not the centrally planning left?"

    Most of the young people are too stupid to understand anything you are talking about. Few of them read anything worthwhile and if they do it is the leftist tripe from 'pubic' schools or 'pubic' universities. It's bad enough adults who have worked over the years think there is some magic free lunch to be had all the time.

    I don't think my highschool civics teacher had it in for me, but we don't talk about voting or who should have that right, NAP, property rights (when you vote to tax you vote to take from someone else), etc. That was in the late 80's.

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    1. This can't be true, western culture being all superior and all.

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    2. Putting the 'Banana Republic" back in Murica!

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  2. "Even when I wrote about urban primitives and LBJ's great-grandkids, there were no racial slurs. Zero.

    Now because Trump keeps immigrants in the news, there are more posts about immigrants and it has triggered about a half-dozen anti-immigrants posters here, some who use racial slurs, with their comments."

    I have no problem using racial slurs because a lot of them are worthless. That would include crackers or white trash and I have no problem with slurs for them as well. There are decent minorities out there who work and do contribute to society in their own small way and that's great.

    What bugs me is that you and most others are oblivious to the fact that these other countries have issues because culture, IQ, and race yet some of the dimwits think importing millions of them into a community is some wonderful idea. Even Asians are not that great. Take a look at Britain and Sweden with their problem Muslim populations.

    Some here also promote this misguided tripe that immigrants do so much for the American economy but ignore the social costs and other costly problems foisted upon by citizens who expect to be protected. And you guys are supposedly private property loving libertarians who hate problems being socialized!

    A lot of these people need to go back given these remittances. These should be taxed for a southern wall.

    http://voxday.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-money-drain.html#comment-form

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    1. Re: The Lab Mismanager,

      --- I have no problem using racial slurs because a lot of them are worthless. ---

      You must mean that they're worthless for your homo-erotic fantasies which invariably involve white European males, who you think they're fa-bu-lous!!!

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    2. Can you come up with something new? At least I'm stupid enough to think Aficans and other low IQ countries have anything to offer white societies. Pretty cowardly for you not to move to some Afican country.

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    3. Re: The Lab Mismanager,

      --- At least I'm stupid enough to think Aficans and other low IQ countries have anything to offer white societies. ---

      Just not for the purpose of enhancing your homo-erotic fantasies, correct? But how would you know for sure if you never try, Labby, dear?

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  3. Agreed. Ingroup tribalism has fueled statism for millennia.

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    1. So why would we want to import more people with a tribal mentality? That's why Africa sucks. No one can think in terms of everyone instead of their crappy little village.

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    2. Re: The Lab Mismanager ,

      --- That's why Africa sucks. ---

      Not enough white European males for you to suck, right?

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    3. No Fransico, not enough moral guidance or fortitude throughout the society to support anything other than the omnipresent I am out for me and mine screw everyone else.

      Murica is marching in the same direction

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  4. --- How are the kids ever going to realize there is an alternative to Trump that is not the centrally planning left? ---

    For worse, Trump is the face of Capitalism and "Western values" for at least one generation. What really boils my blood is the support that Trump receives from libertarians who, until recently, claimed they were anti-State, except when it comes to lines on a map placed there by conquerors (aka "borders") and the sudden need to "protect our precious bodily culture, commander Mandrake!" from people who brought us tamales and Salma Hayek.

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  5. As someone who grew up in the US and now lives in what the lab manager refers to as a "Turd world country" I see Trump as a symptom of Americas problems, not a cause of them. I agree that culture matters but that has little or nothing to do with IQ or the concept of property rights.Where I live the concept of private propert is sacrosanct. Everyone here knows that gold IS money. Thieves are dispised and not tolerated. Reputation is important (familial and personal). It's no utopia but its a lot closer to a private property society than the US has been for 100 years or so. Many libertarians would do themselves a great service by travelling a bit and seeing how much more free (some) of the rest of the world is. The west has no monoply on the concepts of liberty and culture is something people can freely adopt overnight if they choose to do so.

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    1. We do have too many laws here in the US. But I would guess most of the people you refer to are similar in background/language/culture. Importing a couple thousand Somalis or something else would not work. Small numbers so they can assimilate. Perhaps you have done so.

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    2. "Everyone here knows that gold IS money. Thieves are dispised and not tolerated." Nick, it sounds like property rights are important. You can't have thieves without property and you wouldn't despise them unless the concept of rights to property was respected. So where do you live Nick?

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  6. Culture Matters. The location of your birth, the color of you skin and the language you speak are completely incidental.The west has no monopoly on the concepts of liberty. I live in a "turd world country" and it is closer to a private property society than the US has been in an awful long time.

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  7. "Decent youth, who see what Trump is stirring up, are looking for an alternative and they are finding it on the political left..."

    And the left isn't racist? Look at the media that is run by the leftist jews and their anti-white rhetoric. The backlash is the pendulum swinging in the other direction as whites wake up and realize that they are allowed to have their own homelands.

    Angry boomercuck responses and endless virtue signaling in 3, 2 ,1...

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    1. Re: Paul Hanson,

      --- And the left isn't racist? ---

      Many times. Too many. A Tu Quoque, however, doesn't excuse Trumpistas, Trumpista.

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  8. These are the dumb "libertarians" like Chris Cantwell who are helping the media in its quest to destroy Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard's legacy. They are useful idiots and horrible for the movement.

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    1. Cantwell runs an open phone call in show. Why don't you call in and prove him wrong?

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    2. I don't cast pearls before swine.

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    3. So you're unable to refute his points. Good to know.

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    4. Am I obligated to call into every talk show if I disagree with the host?

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    5. I listen to Cantwell. Certainly entertaining. He is limited government. He is not a racist, but racially aware. Big difference. Maybe libertardians can explain how foreign cultures understand property rights and NAP.

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    6. Re: The Lab Mismanager

      --- He is limited government. He is not a racist, but racially aware. ---

      So he shares your homo-erotic fantasies towards white European males. See? You don't have to be lonely any more, Mismanager!

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  9. Bob, I agree it is dangerous and makes no sense for libertarians to align with Trump. But I think you overstate the reasons for the association of the racist right with Trump.

    Libertarianism generally will attract a certain segment of these because we favor the legality of full freedom of association (including exclusion). They like this and so you will hear a fair amount of libertarian-sounding rhetoric from people like David Duke.

    Trump obviously attracts many of these through his advocacy for immigration restrictions and Eurocentrism. Whether these positions are right or wrong doesn't hinge upon what the racial-identitarian alt-right thinks. Actually, there are difficult tradeoffs on immigration in a welfare state that don't otherwise exist in something more closely resembling a PPS. Even Rothbard grudgingly changed his position to be more Paleo/Hoppean later in his life.

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    1. @Tom Bernhardt

      While you can maybe say that the side appeal of Trump’s positions on trade and immigration isn’t NECESSARILY based on racial identitarianism, it must at least be based on nativism/nationalism, which are at least equally unjustifiable flavors of bigotry.

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    2. I don't think Rothbard ever advocated for the state to manage border control. In his famous "Nations by Consent" article, he noted that he changed his views on the importance of communal homogeneity, but advocated we get there through secession, withdrawing from larger nation-states into much smaller communities, where ownership and control could be privatized.

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  10. With libertarians like Lab Manager, who needs statists?

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    1. How am I a statist? Pretty clear you are a leftist just like Torres.

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    2. Re: Doxon,

      Notice how Trumpistas project.

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  11. The 1965 Hart-Celler law led to 65 million immigrants from the 3rd world. This law is nothing to do with market forces. As principled libertarians we can agree the sooner Hart-Celler is repealed the better.

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    1. If by "principled libertarians" you mean "argumentatively consistent," then they should object to all state action, which is never moral, nor reflective of market forces. That includes the coercive funding of, and state regulations promulgated with respect to, state border control.

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    2. Re: PH,

      --- This law is nothing to do with market forces. ---

      Yeah, right. Like freeing up communications which led to mobile telephony had NOTHING to do with the Market. Nothing at all.

      Idiot!

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    3. Franco, your stupidity is showing again.

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    4. Re: The Lab Mismanager,

      --- Franco [sic], your stupidity is showing again. ---

      It would seem that having homo-erotic fantasies about white European males wakes on you an aversion to the string of letters 'CIS'.

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    5. You are a troll and a stupid one at that. Show me anything relevant produced by poopy Africans, Muslims in the ME. Even Asians have some undesirable issues and had to bum off the white European but at least they have done something. But hey, keep believing that retarded crap about 'equality' of the races. Everything we have is because of white European males period. You still have yet to show me otherwise.

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    6. Re: The Lab Mismanager with Homo-erotic fantasies about white European males,

      --- Show me anything relevant produced by poopy Africans, Muslims in the ME. ---

      Yet I'm supposed to be the troll...

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  12. The problem with your original post is that it was a bizarre "I believe in science" (sic -- and in the global warming sense) post. It used anecdotal evidence to generalize specific cases to a larger population in a collectivist manner without sufficient evidence of the mechanisms turning correlation into causation.

    I would submit that it is far more likely Trump is a symptom of a problem rather than the source. If you don't think racism has been on the rise in the last several decades, you haven't been paying attention. Rising government intervention is making life more difficult, and people are angry. The "rational" (and anal) part of their brains just can't handle that the solution is reducing control instead of increasing control (and aways of "other" people's actions, and not their own), so the system leading to their anger is in a negatively-stable spiral. it is unlikely to end well.

    Thus enters Donald Trump. Of the people who I know personally voted for him (I am not among them), I don't know many who actually thought he'd straight out be a great president. They just knew he was different, and they're basically in full, angry flail mode. They know things are seriously effed up, but they have no idea what to do, and when you try to tell them getting government out of their lives is the way, they either give you a laundry list of how terrible that would be, or say it's a good idea, but can never happen (they're probably right about that).

    Minorities are an easy target in times like these, and history has shown over and over again that when things are not going well, minorities do not fare well. That said, the politics of the last several decades have not helped. When the SJWs throw race into every perceived "injustice", it fuels the anger that leads to a Trump.

    And even the immigration itself can help fuel the racism beyond the anger of the current residents that feel displaced. I was married to a Mexican national (whom I cannot say enough bad things about ;), but not because of her race ), and I am currently married to an Asian who is a foreign-born US citizen. I've spent considerable time in both communities, and I feel comfortable saying, from my experience, both communities are arguably more racist than we mere caucasians. In and of itself, I don't personally have a problem with anyone's biases as long as they respect the NAP.

    So a video of an aggressive, racist asshole is disturbing, but in no way convincing evidence of some amazing Trump power to turn people into racists.

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    1. I've data a Latina or two over the years. Other races are definitely more racist than whites on the average. Why should we import so many different turd world cultures again?

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  13. RW - you sure know how to generate a lively discussion and multiple page views. But the notion that the increase in racist comments on your website is due to Trump makes less sense than the possibility that your readership has grown well beyond the libertarian choir. Congratulations.

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  14. Hey Strawman Bob, it's not "anti-immigrant" it's "anti-illegal invaders."

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  15. Am I missing something? Can you cite even one death in 2017 where the perp was a White Supremacist? I don't mean where the media cast him as a White Supremacist (that would be any White person). I mean where they were a self declared White Supremacist?

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  16. I guess he just does not understand NAP:

    Police: Man tells undocumented immigrant to stop peeing at bus stop, gets stabbed in neck

    http://wjla.com/news/crime/police-man-tells-undocumented-immigrant-to-stop-urinating-at-bus-stop-gets-stabbed-in-ne

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  17. Does Trump Trigger Racism in Some of His Supporters?

    But no mention of whether or not libertarianism triggers ad hom character slurs for anybody that objects to our favorite Hispanic's take on immigration, which is the de facto last word on libertarianism?

    Gotta love the double standard there.






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