Wanting to understand white rage
Right-wingers don’t like it when left-wingers are critical of the military.
When it’s Fox News on the other hand…
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has attacked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, calling him “a pig” and “stupid” for defending teaching cadets and service personnel differing viewpoints, including aspects of critical race theory.
Huh. Imagine if some mouthy feminist had said that.
The theory—which “maps the nature and workings of ‘institutional racism,'” according to Kendall Thomas, a law professor at Columbia University—was little known outside academic circles a few years ago, but is now at the centre of a culture war. Republicans in more than 20 states have proposed or passed legislation to ban the theory being taught in schools.
Or rather not “the theory” in the sense of mapping the nature and workings of institutional racism, but rather in the sense of any discussion of race that we don’t like. The latter is a good deal broader than the former.
On Wednesday, Gen. Milley told the House Armed Services Committee that it was important for members of the U.S. military to be “open-minded” and “widely read.”
“I want to understand white rage. And I’m white, and I want to understand it,” the general said. “What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out,” Gen. Milley said, referring to the Capitol riots of January 6.
Well Tucker Carlson isn’t going to put up with that.
On his Thursday night show on Fox, he said: “The race hate—and that’s what it is—has oozed from universities and it has infected the entire country, including at the highest levels.
“Mark Milley is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Carlson added. “He didn’t get that job because he’s brilliant or because he’s brave. Or because people who know him respect him. He is not, and they definitely don’t. Milley got the job because he is obsequious. He knows who to suck up to, and he’s more than happy to do it. Feed him a script and he will read it.”
Says Tucker Carlson of Fox News. I’m sure he has no idea whom to suck up to.
This is why Democrats suck at politics. They should be running ads and shouting all over social media that REPUBLICANS ARE DISRESPECTING THE MILITARY, and putting the GOP on the defensive. But Dems have a natural aversion to doing things like that because it’s not very nuanced (it should be ok to criticize the military!).
The problem is that nuance does not win elections.
Maybe if our Vietnam-era generals were more widely read, we would have done better.
I think they’re angry at Milley for telling Trump not to invoke the Insurrection Act on people who were protesting against police brutality. I’m not a fan of calling people extremists for having different political viewpoints, but I am having difficulty avoiding calling a large faction of Republicans fascists.
The White Rage is invoked by those who are angry that people aren’t kneeling before them and thanking them for all the graces they provide. The White Rage is invoked by the belief that black Americans were happier before they got all these civil rights because they knew their place. The White Rage is invoked when black Americans don’t immediately surrender to cops and their families should know that instead of gathering before the press to complain when someone gets shot for not being quick enough.
The Democrats suck at politics because they don’t want fascism, nor to destroy their enemies (for the most part). They want power, and to govern, yes, but not in a way that depends on appealing to the worst nature of Americans. I get that there are those on the authoritarian side of the left who spew the word “DINO” as if it were the worst thing to be in the world, who demand “No discussion” on issues that need to be discussed, who are just trying to be kind and in the meantime undermining feminism and gay rights. I get all that.
But they aren’t trying to bring about the re-ascendance of White Power under the guise of hurt feelings about “reverse racism.” What they need to do is figure out how to message that they are actually trying to solve real problems.
There WERE times after the election when I wondered what would happen if if came to the Joint Chiefs having to stand up to an illegal president who demanded their assistance in a coup against Biden. Would they obey illegal orders, or would they follow their oath to defend the Constitution? Milley seems to indicate he would have chosen the Constitution. Perhaps that’s what Tucker hates.
(I really need to stop posting before I’ve inserted contacts in my eyes in the morning.)