AKA The Left
The “wokesters” have been celebrated, coddled, pampered, enabled, “welfared”, otherwise financed, institutionally affirmed, “privileged” for decades all on the backs of taxpayers in a country that has produced more wealth and freedom for the greatest number the planet has ever seen. This country’s poorest 10% has more per capita wealth and “privilege” in the form of freedom and economic security than most of the rest of the planet. One of their biggest lies, they learned somewhere that you have to tell a big one, is that this wealth was the result of a slave system and racism. The wokesters understanding of economic systems, and for that matter human nature, is appallingly ignorant for those that insist they have the insight to run the country for the benefit of all. (more commentary below video)
The video above was linked to during a discussion on a community board normally dedicated to neighbor helping neighbor rather than politics. It got off on a tangent when the CEO *of the “board” felt it necessary to preen herself before us and lecture the “hood’ subsequent to the “Floyd” occasioned rioting in this and other communities.
The discussion should be self explanatory from here. Names have been redacted/replaced (editorialized) with the exception of our contribution. Certainly the discussion could be continued and we would prefer doing it here as the particular topics change rapidly on such usually (to our understanding) non-political “neighborhood” boards.
Person (male, probably white — we recognize that the term person is a sexist moniker)
Open Letter Replying To Sarah Friar, Nextdoor CEO
Dear Nextdoor App Neighbors,
June 14, 2020
Dear Nextdoor Neighbors,
You recently received a letter from Sarah Friar, the CEO of Nextdoor. Two key parts of what she wrote are:
“Systemic racism in our nation will not be solved overnight.”
“Let me say unequivocally: Racism has no place on Next-door.”
I would like to make some comments about Sarah’s two points above.
First, I was raised in a Christian home with two God-loving parents. We attended church most Sundays. I attended confirmation to learn the basic tenets of my Christian faith. From that I learned many things, but the key things were:
1. To love God above all things. To love God with all my heart and with all my soul.
2. To love others as God loves me, and as a corollary to treat others as I would want to be treated.
3. All people are made in the image of God. Therefore, all people have strengths that they need to find and bring to the community in which they live to help other people.
4. They can tell we are Christians by our love and how we treat other people. This means that we need to put what we learned into action to help others.
Second, as a child I grew up in a neighborhood where I was surrounded by a diversity of people. To me diversity was just a part of the people with whom I went to school, went to church, participated in sports, attended school and played in my neighborhood. We were all people that belonged to a particular city in a particular state in the United States of America. That was the only division that I knew about growing up.
I was very lucky to be a person growing up with two parents that loved me and cared for me without question and a church that cared for me as well. Both taught me about the love of God, about how we are all made in the image of God, about how to treat our neighbor, and that we all have talents to share with others in our lives.
I know that not all children are as fortunate as I was going up. If I have “privilege” it is because my parents and my church taught me to make the most of the talents I have. I am saddened to see children growing up without two loving and caring parents. I am saddened to see children growing up without a church to teach them the things I learned, of which only the key items are listed above.
As you can guess, I feel these two things, loving and caring parents and a loving and caring church are two of the most important things we can share with our youth today.
As to there being “systemic (at the root or through the root of society) racism” I disagree. As I said above I believe all people are children of God and in our Declaration of Independence it says “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [people] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
We need to stop putting people in categories. We are all people living in one city in one state in one country—the United States of America. We are not black, yellow, red, brown, etc. We are one people in the United States of America. We are not men or women. We are one people in the United States of America. We are not straight, gay, transgender or any other gender identity—we are one people in the United States of America.
As for racism I hear that term so much every day that I think everyone has forgotten what it means—“prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.” Now that you have heard my views on the United States of America, I can truly say that I do not harbor these feelings against other people in their city in their state in the United States of America or around the world. People are not inherently (systemically) racist. They are taught racism.
I will stand with my brothers and sisters in Bettendorf and the surrounding communities to get back to civility, sharing the skills and resources we have with others, being truthful, doing to others what we would want them to do to us and just plain treating others as equals. We will put away all the hatred, violence, political posturing, cheating and malevolence. That is the best gift that anyone could give to a brother or sister in our city in our state in the United States of America.
Respectfully submitted,
Wokester 1 (male, privileged in more ways than he will admit) responds to Person
Just because you don’t experience systemic racism in your own privileged life doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. You are not an expert on the experiences of other people. I would… See more
Wokester 2 (female, privileged in more ways than she will admit) responds to Person
What in the white privilege did I just read? 🙄
(V’PAC note: the eye roll emoji is probably also tattooed on her forehead to symbolize her wokeness)
Wokester 1 responds again to Person
And maybe you shouldn’t quote a document written primarily by slave owners in a manifesto arguing that systemic racism is imaginary.
Person responds to Wokester 1 calling him by his first name
xxxx Perhaps you need to recognize that we have all sinned, including our founders, and fallen short of the glory of God. However, we have been saved by God’s grace whether you want that grace or not. It is your choice. I am not responsible for what has happened in the past. I was not even on this earth to make a difference. Last year I had the opportunity to walk through the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany. It was a very humbling experience. The committee that preserves the concentration camps in Germany are very specific in their instructions to future generations–“do not forget what happened here.” If people are busy defacing and destroying our national symbols in the United States of America that show the good and the bad, we then forget what that history has to teach us. And by forgetting that history we are doomed to repeat it. Where in the Declaration of Independence is the reference to systemic racism? I think I missed that lesson in history.
Wokester 1 responds again to Person
I’m not sure why you presume that I need to hear you quote scripture at me, but since you brought it up, white supremacy and the failure to prevent it are both sins. You are not responsible for the sins of your ancestors, but an unwillingness to acknowledge that their sins have led to systemic racism makes you complicit in that system. It sounds like you are also upset over monuments to racist confederate leaders being taken down, too, so I’ll address it. I, too, have spent considerable time in Germany; while it is true that concentration camps remain today to remind us about the atrocities committed there, I did notice a fairly obvious lack of monuments to dead Nazi officials. By that same token, Civil War battlegrounds and former plantations are protected sites in the US and are valuable educational resources. We don’t need statues glorifying confederate generals to learn from their hatred. And finally, I didn’t say the Declaration of Independence contained references to systemic racism (you could look to the three-fifths compromise in the Constitution for that); I was pointing out that as noble as the words of its authors appear to be, there is hypricosy even there. They spoke about liberty for all, but failed to apply those bold ideas to everyone. Systemic racism exists, regardless of what you want to believe. I am merely suggesting that you practice a bit of empathy and listen to those affected by it instead of those who never will be.
Wokester 3 (male, probably white responds
The “system” enables, it doesn’t suppress.
Wokester 4 (female) responds to Person
where in the Constitution is the reference to systemic racism? Try starting with the 3/5 of a person part. Start there.
Wokester 3 responds to Person
Wow. Was a poll tax on voting enabling? Was owning another person enabling to the “property”. Was / is segregation enabling? C’mon man. That’s intentional ignorance.
2 days ago
Another Privileged Person (APP) responds
We are talking about the present. The past happened, good or bad, and there have been changes to rectify those issues. The fact that you live like those problems remain today, prevents us from moving forward.
Wokester 3 responds (probably intended for APP)
The fact that you believe that in the present none of the officially sanctioned systemic racism of the past continues in new form today is disturbing. It is the same biases,racism and flaunting of privilege, just in 21st century form.
I live very much in the present but the legal abolishment of slavery, for example, has not solved the underlying issues you seem to blithely choose to ignore.
APP responds with link to video embedded above
Yours Truly weighs in
Here I was looking for some tradesman recommendations and I see that the CEO of this community board claims some special standing to lecture the good citizens of this community. Who or what does she think we are? Another member responds defending against the broad strokes the illustrious CEO implied and her his remarks are castigated by what I interpret as a couple of oh so pure “wokesters”.
I do not know where to start with the eye roll response and the “woke” follow-on comment. A couple paragraphs will not be adequate to unpack and challenge the impugning of the community/country.
Slavery is an evil concept that is color blind. This country had slavery before white Europeans landed, indeed I am not sure of any populated continental exception –not Asia, not Africa, not North or South America. The indigenous practiced it and sold their own into it or captured others for it. The evil was everywhere, singling out America is one of the ignorant aspects of the wokesters.
That the Declaration Independence, the “manifesto” referred to was written by imperfect people, sinners, is not a revelation to any Christian but what ought to be appreciated and heralded is that “manifesto”spoke to all people and the operating document of the nation which the “manifesto'” founded, the US Constitution, provided for the abolition of the slave trade at its inception and that was before England. The US was early on in setting the wheels in motion to end slavery.
Whites in this country largely fought a war to end its practice. Regrettably a political party – the Democrat Party – fought to maintain its vestiges long after they lost the war – and the association of so many of the race wokesters with that party is stunning. The other part of the woke movement — the admitted socialists — are so anti-slavery they would make Americans, all races, slaves to the state, while hoping they will be in charge of course.
This white guy and my friends of color over the years doubtfully need lectures from a CEO of a digitized cork-board about how to get along and be fair to one another. Like (initial respondent) , that was instilled in us as part of our Western culture, Judeo-Christian derived upbringing. But I am an aged white guy so I can only be made to conform and any comment disparaged or ignored by the woke crowd extolling the riots and reparations. But let this be notice that you wokesters are welcome to expiate all you want for your sins but don’t bring the rest of us into your self-flagellation.
And then there is the irrationality of using Mr. Floyd’s death as a cause celeb for injustice when the wheels of justice, bringing any criminal wrongdoing by the police toward him, are in motion and by any standard aggressive. (We will see if it is to the detriment of justice). To use his death where justice is being served to perpetrate so many injustices and wrongful deaths on the communities experiencing the riots and destruction is evil. Support for it, or excuse making for it , kowtowing to it exposes the dullness of character of the woke.
Assuming that the woke crowd believes they already know all they need to know I will leave the folks wandering onto this board for a household tip, those not subject to or impressed by the preening by the wokesters, with this reference to an instructive article about the ridiculousness of the fury of the woke. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/anonymous-berkeley-professor-shreds-blm-injustice-narrative-damning-stats-and-logic
Wokestere 1 responds to Yours Truly
I was referring to Mr. Reagan’s original post as a “manifesto,” not the Declaration of Independence.
Wokester 4 probably responds to Yours Truly
Why are you so troubled with residents of the USA finally awakening to the idea that we do not have to perpetuate such abhorrent treatment of fellow humans?
Just because the U.S. may not be alone in enslaving others, racism and keeping a knee on the neck of “the other”, why do you take issue with being “woke” enough to end it on our soil? Why not start here?
You make it sound as if we should throw up our hands because “everybody” has done it and it’s a near impossible abhorrence to end so don’t even think about trying. This slavery, racism, bigotry are baked in, so just leave it alone?
That’s thinking small and reeks of someone enjoying their privilege and desperately clinging to it.
Wokester 5 (female, responds to Person and or Yours Truly
I think you are expressing an idealism that we wish existed for all. In reality, unfortunately it does not
Wokester 4 responds to Yours truly
Let me suggest that you over simplify the meaning of “privilege” being discussed today. You seem to end it at economics. Dig deeper.
Going back to things the way they were even three weeks ago means that “privilege” is never shared equally and the true issue merely gets conveniently buried again. The way “privilege” always allows over those without said privilege.
2 days ago
And so the thread ended. Readers of V’PAC will see that the wokestrs engage to a greater extent but it should be noted that as for approval ratings indicated by “up-marks” the conservative views carried at least twice as many. There is a message there just not sure what.
*She is a CEO in that I presume the board is monetized through advertising revenue associated with the reach of the site. Personally we are not inclined to link via the site.
