Even now there are so many people who refuse to see the truth. It makes me furious, but at the same time I have to remember that a year ago I was just as confused as they are.
The fact is that this nation has a problem that goes deeper than the transgressions of any one man. It’s imperative that everyone takes a step back and recognizes the crimes aren’t as big an issue as the lack of accountability.
Why are some people able to steal, rape, and murder over and over and over again? Despite all the money we spend on the police and the military, why are the predators never stopped?
In fact, law enforcement seems to care more about the predators than protecting the rights of innocent people.
This morning I woke up to a comment where somebody mused, “It’s unbelievable that the US would vote for this, I think the election must have been rigged.”
I understand that sentiment, I really do. I also believe there’s clear evidence that something wasn’t right about the election. But focusing on the idea of election fraud is a distraction from the bigger picture.
Even if the election was rigged, there were tens of millions of people who deliberately voted for this madman. We can’t disregard the fact that he has enough legitimate support in our country to make election theft possible.
It’s frustrating to talk to delusional people who refuse to see a problem. If you’ve ever discussed anything with an addict, the absolutely last thing they want to hear is that they must give up their addiction.
“No, it’s not that.”
“I can give up whenever I want.”
They are literally incapable of seeing that they have adopted a personal identity that’s killing them. It’s invisible. No amount of talking or reaching across the aisle or listening is ever going to make them understand.
But it’s not only addicts who respond this way when I bring up the problem confronting America. There are times when I’ll even speak to people who are self-professed liberals, or democrats, or those who voted for Kamala Harris.
“What do you think caused this? How did we get here?” they ask.
“The United States has a white supremacy problem.”
Their eyes glaze over as if they didn’t even hear me and they regurgitate a culturally conditioned reaction. “No… no, it’s not that.”
Americans have been brainwashed to not see the easy solutions to critical problems. This is a nation that routinely can’t find the funding for critical programs such as healthcare, education, cancer research, and food availability among other problems.
“Where are we going to get the money? Who is going to pay for that?” people say.
At the same time we waste more money on the military than the next ten countries combined. It’s close to a trillion dollars a year. The pentagon hasn’t been able to pass an audit for years. The military industrial complex is overrun with fraud. Yet we never even suggest that we should cut that funding to help save our kids.
When you suggest it, people give you the same glossy eyed look. “No… no, it’s not that.”
The American public has been trained to only acknowledge a tiny little scrap of reality. We’re like the cowering children of an abusive dad who can’t even permit themselves the freedom to even consider he might be the cause of their suffering.
“No… no, it’s not that.”
But people are getting murdered in the street by men with white supremacy tattoos. A few months ago, the government was rounding people up on the basis of what they claimed to be “gang” tattoos. This is their precedent. But we never even breathe a word about checking white men for swastikas, confederate flags, iron crosses, or totenkopfs?
“No… no, it’s not that.”
Friends, it IS that.
Every one of our strategies for reclaiming the future skirts the true cancer that’s killing our nation. People insist that we “have to hear the viewpoint of the other side.” They insist we “have to work with them.” They say, “You should try to understand their perspective.”
“I understand their perspective, they’re white supremacists.”
“No… no, it’s not that.”
What we have to recognize is this. It might sting a little bit to hear it, but until we recognize the truth we’ll never succeed. The base that put the madman into power is white. That base voted the way they did because they’ve been conditioned by their cultural identity to be tolerant of white supremacy.
Until white Americans take it upon themselves to be actively anti-white supremacy, this country is doomed.
White supremacy is taught from the earliest days at school when kids are lectured that this nation is “great.” They’re told this nation is “superior,” it’s “exceptional.” Our educational system buries all the truths about the atrocities this country committed and passively justifies them under the concept of “manifest destiny.” Our kids are told that even if our ancestors enslaved, raped, oppressed and murdered, they did it with divine approval.
We’re told that profit justifies anything, that greed is good, and we brush over the fact that destroying lives is the easiest way to put money in your pocket.
It’s been said that Americans don’t see themselves as poor, they see themselves as temporarily inconvenienced billionaires. That’s the language of white supremacy. There are so many people in this country who hang on to the delusion and the false promise that they’ll one day be rich that they don’t stand up against injustice.
“You’re just jealous,” they say.
Then they work hard and they die never coming to the realization that they’ve been lied to. There was never any possibility that they’d get rich too. “The land of opportunity” is as big a lie as “Arbeit Macht frei.”
As people began to awaken to the terrible deception, we have to also find our resolve to carefully remove the infection of white supremacy from our sense of self. White supremacy only survives when it’s undetected. Once a light is shown upon it, it scurries away into shadows to recuperate and reemerge.
We must not let it.
White supremacy must be obliterated.
White Americans have to begin the long and painful task of reprogramming themselves. They must accept the truth that many of the assumptions they have carried with them about humanity are actually denials and deflections that were conceived to protect a toxic strain of white supremacy.
“Human beings always oppress each other. There has always been racism. If I don’t do it, somebody else will. It’s only business.”
All of these lines are the confessions of white supremacy disguised as wisdom about human nature. It’s all lies. People can be good. People can be unselfish. People can be generous.
It’s only individuals who have been infected with the toxic strain of white supremacy that manifest these terrible traits. They are the ones who are guilty of crimes, of rapes, of murders, of mass shootings. Absolutely everything that’s wrong in our society can be traced to the influence of white supremacy.
So put aside your inclination to say, “No… it’s not that.” Recognize that’s your maliciously installed cultural programming that’s deceiving you. Accept that white supremacy is the problem. Understand that we won’t improve as a nation until we finally address our original sin.
Also take hope, because even though white supremacy is learned, it can also be unlearned. Human beings can be better than this. All we have to do is teach them.
You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.
I’m so happy you’re here, and I’m looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.
My CoSchedule referral link
Here’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).
I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
