Life gets a lot easier when you realize you simply don't have to give a shit about what publications like Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, or NPR think. They're a little like vampires in that you have to invite them into your home in order for them to do anything to you. They derive most of their power from dictating who is and isn't one of the good ones, you deny them this and they have nothing.
Another big part of the punk ethos was saying a big fuck you to the mainstream music press, and it was there for a reason. The most cynical part of this whole mess is that these publications don't really give a shit about social justice politics, it's just how you gain clout in popular culture these days. These issues will be put out on the curb next to the trash the minute it is no longer convenient too.
I think you’ve written before about how a lot of the white participants in these social justice-y communities implicitly tend to assume that whatever dismissive or mean comments they make about white people just don’t apply to them.
The white people making these comments about how much white people suck on some level understand that what they’re engaging in is insincere posturing and should not be taken very seriously. The white guys who log on for the first time and see these ideas/posts unfortunately don’t understand yet that they shouldn’t be taking a lot of it literally or seriously. It would be easier if these hypothetical white Twitter users had an understanding of social context on the Internet such that they would realize that if a white guy online is talking shit about white people, it has little to do with reality, and much to do with that guy’s desire to advance socially, and he probably doesn’t actually believe in any of it. Alas. You have to spend years online to fully get any of this, and even then, it’s still annoying.
SJWs lost me when I was thinking to myself “okay, I get it now. So what should I do?” and I kept hearing “wanting to do something or fix things is white supremacist.” That’s when I realized the only thing I’m meant to do is feel bad and continually “do the work” of not having ideas or thoughts or questions.
Again, a well wrought sentence contains an important insight that is ignored in much if not most discourse: "Categorical moral claims blunt the demand for individual moral responsibility."
I've never heard of these guys before, and I listened to What Makes a Man Start Fires(?) while reading the post, and I have to say thank you for the introduction. To me it sounds a lot like, "what if Rush did punk," which for some people would no doubt be the kiss of death but from me could hardly be higher praise. I've never been one for punk, much, but this is great stuff, so thanks.
If you ain’t never heard this white dude with a guitar mourn the death of labor unions through a haunting melody and a heart-wrenching narrative, today is your day.
Maybe because in the West we started with Occitanians on lutes? Looking through the substack,“Encyclopedia of World Music Genres” (George Eberhardt free substack)...https://georgemeberhart.substack.com/ it looks like it's men with what ever instrument is used in most cultures.
"I promise you, most white people who aren’t already savvy extremely-online types who go on social justice Twitter will come away with the impression that they’re saying that all white people are racist. Which of course triggers the part of the brain that says “so I’ll be a racist, then.” "
Is this true?
Like, really, is this true?
I see a whole bunch of people SAY that people are making this choice, consciously or unconsciously, to align with racists or to be more racist because antiracist Twitter makes them feel like they might as well. Or that there's no point in being leftist because someone will still call you a white guy with a guitar.
But everyone says that about _other_ people. Not about themselves. Everyone assumes this is going on because all those other people don't have the agency to think for themselves and are likely to be deluded by social justice jargon to say, "Well, these IDW people really have it going on!" But I'm not sure it's actually happening--it's just a thing that writers say in order to get the social justice crowd to maybe cool it a bit.
I'm down with the goal, but I don't see any reason to actually believe the idea behind this piece, which seems to imply that if the Minutemen had grow up in this day and age they'd be a bunch of cock-rockers themselves. I just don't see actual people determining their allegiances by "SJW Twitter is nuts, so I'm going to hate on black people."
I wish you were at this Indie Rock show in Philly I was at this weekend Freddie. There were some moments where I could only roll my eyes in the back of my head and shake my head at what was said in the name of political action... in the middle of a fucking set.
If there is anywhere that intersectionality, identity politics and a strong LBTQ presence is at... it is at an indie rock show.
Anyway one band in the middle of their set goes on to say something about... "Oh we are living in this collective trauma of the past 18 months and we must *vague handwave* come together and heal. Then, literally after the next song they played the main singer rants about "All problems we currently dealing in this country are due to one thing and one thing only - WHITE SUPREMACY. And it is up to you white people to DO THE WORK!"
I slowly looked around to make sure I wasn't at some DEI corporate training sponsored by Starbucks whose main speaker is Robinbram X. Kendi-Di'Angelo. I mean really? WHITE SUPREMACY is the reasons for all problems including Coronavirus, inequality, global climate change, and increased violence in poor neighborhoods around the country?
What heartened me, was that only about half the crowd cheered... at an indie rock show. I'll take what I can get.
I know this subject is written much about in the Substacks, but I just don't understand how people just love to revel in their guilt and feelings and bitch about what they feel... yet do nothing materially to help people they claim to want things to be better for.
It's like the one scientist (from Seattle) at my workplace complained to our leadership about how we weren't valuing and awarding enough women and minority scientists for awards/grants/etc.
Bitch! I looked at your history and not once in your 2 DECADES have you got off your ass to nominate for a grant or award for ANY minority or women scientists. All these people can fuck off.
P.S. Also, in the show the black guitarist got up to the mic and said to the crowd "Do yall fuck with Critical Race Theory. Cause I do." And then proceeds to screamo out unintelligble lyrics to the next song.
This got me thinking and clarified a strange parallel that I've been seeing for a while. It's that conservatives recruit like christians and liberals tend to recruit like Jews.
When I was a kid in Hebrew school, they taught is that it was a virtue that we don't try to convert people - people have to want it. That ideal of purity seemed good to me as a kid.
But after hearing that stuff and living in that culture for your whole life, it gets stale. As I see it, it's good and fine that Jews don't proselytize, but also, if you operate that way, you shouldn't be surprised that the Jewish population is small. More specifically, if you think that we need to replenish the Jewish population lost after the holocaust for purely demographic reasons, and that's so important that it's worth dying for, maybe try to put more effort into converting people to Judaism?
It's always seemed weird to me: I'm supposed to be upset, as a Jew, that we're dying out, but also supposed to pre-exclude the solution of converting more people to Judaism... and therefore, Jewish-American culture consists of content produced by Jews for other Jews about why it's OK that instead of growing, we're just supposed to ruthlessly defend what we have (Israel, the idea that Jews are an important group of people, and so on).
That paradox always bothered me growing up and is part of why I'm not religious anymore. When I first stopped believing, I even considered becoming Christian, briefly. Christians are out there and they want you. It seems welcoming.
Anyway, I feel like I notice a weirdly similar thing with liberalism. It's an ideology, with no history as a race or ethnicity or religion, and yet, it has the same emphasis on policing a small exclusive group (and seeing conversions as something you don't want to pursue) as a group of people who are literally clinging to an ancient religious prohibition that we're attached to because it's what we're used to.
At least we have the excuse that our culture is codified and 3000 years old.
This very reminds me of the covid hesitancy discussion where the aim seems to be less to persuade than to condemn. More to the point where were my favourite band of the era (Genesis - Selling England by the Pound pure gold for me) in the scale of cock rockery? At the innocent end I hope!
In my life, I've abandoned (1) the strict, traditional religion that I was raised in and (2) the newly-strict, political party that I've been raised amongst. In both cases, there's a very similar process.
First, there's the Fearful Vertigo that comes from an absence of structure - of there being no rules and guide rails and training wheels. "Who will catch me if I fall?" "No one. But, to be fair, there wasn't anyone to catch you before, either. That was an illusion."
Next, there's the (in my case, muted) Kneejerk Hedonism. "If there's no [orthodoxy], then I'm going to do whatever I want," with "do whatever I want" being reflexively "explore all the things [orthodoxy] said were bad." (This is the "So I'll be a racist, then" defiant impulse that Freddie alluded to.)
Then, there's the Quiet Interrogation. Rather than continue doing "what you want," you *actually* examine what you want. In absence of an orthodoxy (whether original or reactionary), you start to listen to the only remaining guide you have remaining: your inner voice, your center, whatever you want to call it. Is that voice just a conglomeration of chance nature and nurture, of genes and memes? Sure is. But it's the only authentic thing you have, so you'd best become acquainted. This is where "educate yourself" comes into play (though not likely in the sense that many wielders of that imperative intend).
Finally, there's the Confident Centeredness. You're not arrogant, and you still have a *ton* to figure out (hopefully that'll never change), but you're now familiar with your center of gravity, and it's difficult for you to be thrown off-balance. Now it's just an ongoing dialogue between your experiences and your interior voice's reactions to them. The struggle in this phase (at least these days) is how public/vocal you are about the content and outcomes of these internal dialogues.
That Medium article you linked to as an example of "all whites are racist" is quite a piece of work, Exhibit A in the Manual of How Not to Win Friends and Influence People or Dismantle Racism.
Freddie, will you accept a gentle critique from an admiring subscriber? I think nearly all of your essays would be stronger if they were about 20 percent shorter.
And I'm not sure this piece carries the weight of part of its argument. You're making some broad generalizations. Those who care to think about such things can, and do, easily distinguish between artists who demonstrate creativity and integrity, versus the self-aggrandizing cock rockers you mention.
Life gets a lot easier when you realize you simply don't have to give a shit about what publications like Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, or NPR think. They're a little like vampires in that you have to invite them into your home in order for them to do anything to you. They derive most of their power from dictating who is and isn't one of the good ones, you deny them this and they have nothing.
Another big part of the punk ethos was saying a big fuck you to the mainstream music press, and it was there for a reason. The most cynical part of this whole mess is that these publications don't really give a shit about social justice politics, it's just how you gain clout in popular culture these days. These issues will be put out on the curb next to the trash the minute it is no longer convenient too.
I think you’ve written before about how a lot of the white participants in these social justice-y communities implicitly tend to assume that whatever dismissive or mean comments they make about white people just don’t apply to them.
The white people making these comments about how much white people suck on some level understand that what they’re engaging in is insincere posturing and should not be taken very seriously. The white guys who log on for the first time and see these ideas/posts unfortunately don’t understand yet that they shouldn’t be taking a lot of it literally or seriously. It would be easier if these hypothetical white Twitter users had an understanding of social context on the Internet such that they would realize that if a white guy online is talking shit about white people, it has little to do with reality, and much to do with that guy’s desire to advance socially, and he probably doesn’t actually believe in any of it. Alas. You have to spend years online to fully get any of this, and even then, it’s still annoying.
SJWs lost me when I was thinking to myself “okay, I get it now. So what should I do?” and I kept hearing “wanting to do something or fix things is white supremacist.” That’s when I realized the only thing I’m meant to do is feel bad and continually “do the work” of not having ideas or thoughts or questions.
Again, a well wrought sentence contains an important insight that is ignored in much if not most discourse: "Categorical moral claims blunt the demand for individual moral responsibility."
I've never heard of these guys before, and I listened to What Makes a Man Start Fires(?) while reading the post, and I have to say thank you for the introduction. To me it sounds a lot like, "what if Rush did punk," which for some people would no doubt be the kiss of death but from me could hardly be higher praise. I've never been one for punk, much, but this is great stuff, so thanks.
My sniff test is, if you’ve come up with a galaxy-brained way of reinventing the concept of Original Sin, I probably don’t want in on your ideology.
“White men with guitars” also covers a pretty broad swathe beyond just rock ‘n’ rollers.
https://youtu.be/xzYILJnaf9o
If you ain’t never heard this white dude with a guitar mourn the death of labor unions through a haunting melody and a heart-wrenching narrative, today is your day.
Maybe because in the West we started with Occitanians on lutes? Looking through the substack,“Encyclopedia of World Music Genres” (George Eberhardt free substack)...https://georgemeberhart.substack.com/ it looks like it's men with what ever instrument is used in most cultures.
"I promise you, most white people who aren’t already savvy extremely-online types who go on social justice Twitter will come away with the impression that they’re saying that all white people are racist. Which of course triggers the part of the brain that says “so I’ll be a racist, then.” "
Is this true?
Like, really, is this true?
I see a whole bunch of people SAY that people are making this choice, consciously or unconsciously, to align with racists or to be more racist because antiracist Twitter makes them feel like they might as well. Or that there's no point in being leftist because someone will still call you a white guy with a guitar.
But everyone says that about _other_ people. Not about themselves. Everyone assumes this is going on because all those other people don't have the agency to think for themselves and are likely to be deluded by social justice jargon to say, "Well, these IDW people really have it going on!" But I'm not sure it's actually happening--it's just a thing that writers say in order to get the social justice crowd to maybe cool it a bit.
I'm down with the goal, but I don't see any reason to actually believe the idea behind this piece, which seems to imply that if the Minutemen had grow up in this day and age they'd be a bunch of cock-rockers themselves. I just don't see actual people determining their allegiances by "SJW Twitter is nuts, so I'm going to hate on black people."
I wish you were at this Indie Rock show in Philly I was at this weekend Freddie. There were some moments where I could only roll my eyes in the back of my head and shake my head at what was said in the name of political action... in the middle of a fucking set.
If there is anywhere that intersectionality, identity politics and a strong LBTQ presence is at... it is at an indie rock show.
Anyway one band in the middle of their set goes on to say something about... "Oh we are living in this collective trauma of the past 18 months and we must *vague handwave* come together and heal. Then, literally after the next song they played the main singer rants about "All problems we currently dealing in this country are due to one thing and one thing only - WHITE SUPREMACY. And it is up to you white people to DO THE WORK!"
I slowly looked around to make sure I wasn't at some DEI corporate training sponsored by Starbucks whose main speaker is Robinbram X. Kendi-Di'Angelo. I mean really? WHITE SUPREMACY is the reasons for all problems including Coronavirus, inequality, global climate change, and increased violence in poor neighborhoods around the country?
What heartened me, was that only about half the crowd cheered... at an indie rock show. I'll take what I can get.
I know this subject is written much about in the Substacks, but I just don't understand how people just love to revel in their guilt and feelings and bitch about what they feel... yet do nothing materially to help people they claim to want things to be better for.
It's like the one scientist (from Seattle) at my workplace complained to our leadership about how we weren't valuing and awarding enough women and minority scientists for awards/grants/etc.
Bitch! I looked at your history and not once in your 2 DECADES have you got off your ass to nominate for a grant or award for ANY minority or women scientists. All these people can fuck off.
P.S. Also, in the show the black guitarist got up to the mic and said to the crowd "Do yall fuck with Critical Race Theory. Cause I do." And then proceeds to screamo out unintelligble lyrics to the next song.
This got me thinking and clarified a strange parallel that I've been seeing for a while. It's that conservatives recruit like christians and liberals tend to recruit like Jews.
When I was a kid in Hebrew school, they taught is that it was a virtue that we don't try to convert people - people have to want it. That ideal of purity seemed good to me as a kid.
But after hearing that stuff and living in that culture for your whole life, it gets stale. As I see it, it's good and fine that Jews don't proselytize, but also, if you operate that way, you shouldn't be surprised that the Jewish population is small. More specifically, if you think that we need to replenish the Jewish population lost after the holocaust for purely demographic reasons, and that's so important that it's worth dying for, maybe try to put more effort into converting people to Judaism?
It's always seemed weird to me: I'm supposed to be upset, as a Jew, that we're dying out, but also supposed to pre-exclude the solution of converting more people to Judaism... and therefore, Jewish-American culture consists of content produced by Jews for other Jews about why it's OK that instead of growing, we're just supposed to ruthlessly defend what we have (Israel, the idea that Jews are an important group of people, and so on).
That paradox always bothered me growing up and is part of why I'm not religious anymore. When I first stopped believing, I even considered becoming Christian, briefly. Christians are out there and they want you. It seems welcoming.
Anyway, I feel like I notice a weirdly similar thing with liberalism. It's an ideology, with no history as a race or ethnicity or religion, and yet, it has the same emphasis on policing a small exclusive group (and seeing conversions as something you don't want to pursue) as a group of people who are literally clinging to an ancient religious prohibition that we're attached to because it's what we're used to.
At least we have the excuse that our culture is codified and 3000 years old.
This very reminds me of the covid hesitancy discussion where the aim seems to be less to persuade than to condemn. More to the point where were my favourite band of the era (Genesis - Selling England by the Pound pure gold for me) in the scale of cock rockery? At the innocent end I hope!
Far from winning converts, the social incentives point in the other direction entirely: scrambling to out-woke and ostracize the already-faithful.
In my life, I've abandoned (1) the strict, traditional religion that I was raised in and (2) the newly-strict, political party that I've been raised amongst. In both cases, there's a very similar process.
First, there's the Fearful Vertigo that comes from an absence of structure - of there being no rules and guide rails and training wheels. "Who will catch me if I fall?" "No one. But, to be fair, there wasn't anyone to catch you before, either. That was an illusion."
Next, there's the (in my case, muted) Kneejerk Hedonism. "If there's no [orthodoxy], then I'm going to do whatever I want," with "do whatever I want" being reflexively "explore all the things [orthodoxy] said were bad." (This is the "So I'll be a racist, then" defiant impulse that Freddie alluded to.)
Then, there's the Quiet Interrogation. Rather than continue doing "what you want," you *actually* examine what you want. In absence of an orthodoxy (whether original or reactionary), you start to listen to the only remaining guide you have remaining: your inner voice, your center, whatever you want to call it. Is that voice just a conglomeration of chance nature and nurture, of genes and memes? Sure is. But it's the only authentic thing you have, so you'd best become acquainted. This is where "educate yourself" comes into play (though not likely in the sense that many wielders of that imperative intend).
Finally, there's the Confident Centeredness. You're not arrogant, and you still have a *ton* to figure out (hopefully that'll never change), but you're now familiar with your center of gravity, and it's difficult for you to be thrown off-balance. Now it's just an ongoing dialogue between your experiences and your interior voice's reactions to them. The struggle in this phase (at least these days) is how public/vocal you are about the content and outcomes of these internal dialogues.
That Medium article you linked to as an example of "all whites are racist" is quite a piece of work, Exhibit A in the Manual of How Not to Win Friends and Influence People or Dismantle Racism.
Freddie, will you accept a gentle critique from an admiring subscriber? I think nearly all of your essays would be stronger if they were about 20 percent shorter.
And I'm not sure this piece carries the weight of part of its argument. You're making some broad generalizations. Those who care to think about such things can, and do, easily distinguish between artists who demonstrate creativity and integrity, versus the self-aggrandizing cock rockers you mention.