Volume Four, Chapter Nine: Random Thoughts

I constantly hear people talk about 1/3rd of men in a certain demographic dare likely to end up in jail. Some use it as a criticism, others use it as an excuse. NEITHER side dares bring up the 2/3rds that never go. That’ll kill the conversation.

Depending on who kills you, you can matter a lot more dead than you ever could alive.

Incidentally, many who mourn the police brutality death of another demographic would never do so for one of their own. Why? Because they know to disdain their own criminals.

The ultimate “supremacist” move? Leave the thug worship to lesser beings, and feel sorry for them when they do. They can’t help themselves.

To publicly say what other people say privately has a 50/50 chance of getting you paid-or fired. Telling people EXACTLY what they want to hear, and holding your laughter until you’re someplace private, is job security.

It’s a damned fool who would trust a chef they just sued to cook anything for them.

If your religion prohibits you from doing something, another person’s religion may demand it.

Ever notice how selective “nonjudgemental” people are about what they eat and who they mingle with?

Truth and kindness are seldom used simultaneously.

There should be marked differences between self-described opponents. Otherwise, one of you is just a store brand version of the other. And that’s about the only thing you two can debate.

Next time, what two guys named Richard taught me about being a hero- or more specifically, NOT being one…

Volume Three, Chapter Eleven: Yes, America DOES Have a State Religion

On Tuesday,September 11, 2001, I was working, and people kept telling me about a bunch of plane crashes in like an hour. Well, when I went home for lunch, images of the two planes hitting the Twin Towers were all over the place. That night, Whitney Houston’s epic rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” from Super Bowl XXV was all over the place.

On Sunday, September 16, 2001, EVERY church parking lot was full. To look at the evening news, every temple, synagogue, and mosque was, too. America had been attacked by Islamic jihadists, and folks just didn’t know what to do. And the question loomed: how could God allow this to happen to this nation? The 9/11 attacks dramatically changed the religious landscape of America, possibly even the world.

9/11 brought Islam to the forefront, and challenged Christianity. The subsequent War on Terror/Islam, prompted incredible debate all over the country. After a while, all three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) were being scrutinized. But by 2007, Christianity and Islam were merely talking points. The next year, a professing United Church of Christ member with a Muslim upbringing became the President of the United States.

The election of Barack Hussein “The Long-Legged Mack Daddy” Obama established identity politics as the official U.S. religion.

And if you’re one of those who still has a strong reaction to his Presidential nickname, thank you for proving my point.

As I said back in 2012, religion allows you to do, say, and believe things you wouldn’t otherwise. Since that time, we’ve seen heroes and heathens come and go with breakneck speed. The bar to decide who’s who is incredibly low. A person can switch sides based on a few words. Identity politics have a lot in common with the other three formerly major religions in America.

Ideological Purity:  Jews, Christians, and Muslims are demanded to believe and do certain things. So are ethnic and sexual minorities. And to hear it from the plurality of tribes to choose from, you’d think they were all different. But the vegan could pass for a Seventh-Day Adventist. Not all Democrats celebrate abortion. And some of the most loyal conservatives are not old White males. Such abnormalities are considered heretics, but they can always redeem themselves… in a way.

Evangelism/Soul Winning: The whole point of a debate, especially online, is not just to say one won. It’s also to get others on their side. The thinking is that the more “converts” one has, the more prestige they’ll get when things fall in place… assuming they ever even do. Or, as they say in church, they’ll have more stars in their crown. The whole point is to hopefully endear one’s self to those in charge of their selected great and noble cause. That goes right along with…

Works Orientation:  As long as you publicly do certain things, you can pretty much live how you want. We’ve all seen the zealous Southern Baptist making sure everybody sees him praying. Then we find out he abuses some family member. The exhibitionist ice-bucket challenger or the guy who quotes some ideologue to promote their ministry cause is right next door to him ideologically. All of them ultimately do it to exhalt themselves and to secure…

“Everlasting Life”: Nobody likes to consider the fact that we’re all going to die one day. So we do what we can to avoid eternal torment and aim for eternal bliss. When you don’t believe in heaven or hell, just aim for “the right side of history” or “what’s best for the family”. The communion in hope of remembrance, the desperate need to be remembered as a pure and noble person, is binding. And blinding, as I’ll show next time in the conclusion of Volume Three.

Volume Three, Chapter Eight: The Multicultural Main Event

I’ve got a confession to make. There is a very specific reason why I do this blog. This blog, particularly since the post I did at the end of 2013, is a personal exercise. It is a constant personal challenge to myself to not get immersed in groupthink. One of the big problems with collective mentalities is that it usually focuses on a single or a few big things, while little things start adding up in the background.

And one of the worst instances involving groupthink has to be in politics, especially when it comes to minorities. When it comes to identity politics, the order of the day is “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. That is such a lie. A common enemy should and does not automatically make you bedfellows with somebody. And if it does, you’re only such until said enemy is either irrelevant or gone. And once they’re gone, that “friend” may replace them.

Consider the recent op-ed in Time by one Sierra Mannie, a “rising star college senior” at the University of Mississippi. Well, she’s blasting White homosexual men for stealing her sista riffs and mannerisms. According to Ms. Mannie, White gay men, having never went through the same difficulties of  Black women, have no right to appropriate Black female mannerisms for their own use.

Rarely, if ever, does an article pitting one perpetual victim group against another ever make it to see the light of day. Had it not been for Ms. Maddie’s jab at MS Tea Party Candidate Chris McDaniel, this probably wouldn’t have, either. After all, in the progressive movement, no one group is more important than another. Never mind that one group’s objectives often clash directly with another, like illegal immigration and Black unemployment.

The truth is, the LGBTetc. and Black communities have always had a tumultuous relationship. Their respective leaders have laid claim to the… prize of being America’s most persecuted and pity-owed group for years. They are not united based on mutual respect. In fact, the only thing keeping them from openly warring, for now, anyway, is their collective, obsessive hatred for conservatives, particularly the Tea Party.

With the current immigration chaos and increasing support (or apathy, take your pick) for LGBTetc. issues, America will inevitably be a progressive/Democratic one-party nation. And that’s when the facade of unity will no longer be necessary. When there’s no common enemy to focus on, the only target for identity groups is each other or themselves. The Sierra Mannie op-ed is only a foretaste of things to come.

And while the various ethnic groups drag everybody into their tribalism, America will finally have its bottom fall out… without a Republican to be found to unite against.

 

 

Volume Three, Chapter Six: Ghetto Tendencies

In 2008, I was driving a cab. A fellow driver named Skip and I were sitting up at the airport discussing a certain potentially historic event. “If that m__________r  gets elected, watch White folks start acting just like n!gg&hs. They’ve been wanting to for a while.” Now, Skip was/is a retired guy who only drives a cab to avoid going stir crazy. He also does it to keep his father’s business going. Guys like him talk junk, but they do so from experience. Here’s a guy who grew up in the segregated South who had seen all types of people by now. And he had to know something to last this damned long.

Not too long ago, NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders stated that much-hyped college football star Johnny Manziel would have problems in the NFL. Sanders stated that “Johnny Football” has ghetto tendencies. By this, he meant Manziel’s bravado and flair. Inexplicably, Sanders felt the need to deny the comment, made on a morning radio show. He wasn’t lying, though. When Manziel got sent to the Cleveland Browns at the NFL Draft, he did act rather ghetto. It’s just that the term is rarely used to describe a Caucasoid.

I see where Skip and Deion were coming from. Ghetto mentality is not a product solely for poor people, or even just Black people. Anybody can be ghetto. Really, when comparing scenarios and words common in the ghetto/hood, lined up beside what’s on display in “mainstream” society, it’s actually easy to spot the similarities.

“I don’t give a damn what anybody says about me!” (Five minutes later…) “I know he/she ain’t talkin’ no sh!t!”  The same person who puts all their business and “only God can judge me” memes out blows a damned gasket every time somebody says something. Be it Bookie on the corner, the showboat abortionist, or evangelical house-flippers, the faux outrage and busybody foolishness occurs in spades.

A Black, unmarried mother of two picking a fight with somebody over some “he said, she said” sh!t… What do people call her? Ghetto. If said woman has a college degree, she’s a “strong Black woman”. If they’ve got a radio room or television camera on them, they’re called a host. But when some nominal LGBTetc. or Tea Party acolyte does the same thing, they’re vocal, maybe even a troll, but never ghetto. May I ask why not?

“My man better have this, this, and this,”. (Three months later…) “At least I got a man” or “I need a man”. Tea Party zealots are still hoping out for the next Ronald Wilson Reagan. In the meantime, they’ve thrown those legs open for anybody that can quote the catch phrases. And just like ol’ girl, they have little to show for it. Both are sitting around waiting for Captain Save-a-Ho to rescue them. And they better get comfortable.

“RIP”… Speaking of Reagan, ghetto dwellers have no real future to look forward to. So they sit around asking themselves “what if” about somebody they want around,  and “what was” about somebody long gone. They seldom face  “what is”. When they finally do, it’s only a temporal, situational remedy that never worked in the past. That, of course, makes things even worse. But being ghetto cuts you off from ever learning any different.

The shamed White preacher in the urban church… because nobody else will have him. Would you believe there are people who actually write for a gay conservative website one-upping each other insulting “gay-sex marriage”, with the approval of the website moderation itself?  Sadly, neither party sees the absurdity or irony in it. But hey, they’ve got that understanding, right?

“Here comes Becky!” The affluent White female who carouses with Black men out of rebellion doesn’t love Black folks, and won’t acknowledge them around certain folks, but once she’s in the hood, it’s on. And again, everybody’s got that understanding. She’ll always be welcome there if nowhere else. Why, I know of some progressives and even some NAACP supporters who look down on minorities and fXck them, too.

When I use terms like “Afrocentrists” or “activist crowd”, I do so to point out the certain segments of people who create problems for those they’re most frequently associated with. I also do so to emphasize why I refuse to comply with it. I make a point of not saying “Black people” because not all Black people are alike, nor are all LGBTetc., White, Hispanic, Latino, on and on. But ghetto is definitely a universal term. It can, and should, be used to describe anybody who fits it.

The fact that even the most educated, articulate, and affluent people are conducting themselves like common hood rats is hardly a sign of “progress”. One of the worst aspects of ghetto life is how it cuts people off from one another, yet has them unknowingly pretty much acting the exact same way. Hopefully, people will get out of their mental ghettos and avoid waking up one day in a physical one.

Volume Two Finale: Vince/Austin 2016

In this, the finale of Volume Two, I’d really just like to add more perspective to many of the things I’ve witnessed.

I never, ever feel bad for mocking Afrocentrism. First of all, not everybody Black engages in it. Secondly, seventy percent of its apologists live in middle-class and mostly White suburbs. And they support Afrocentrism to keep inner city Blacks “in their place”. If you really want to know what White liberals think of Afrocentric culture, look no further than who they elected as the so-called First President: a biracial man raised everywhere but the “hood”. Even worse, look at the virtually any statistic for Black people since 2009.

A lot of my LGBTetc. activist animus stems from my experiences with Afrocentrism. Credit should always be given where it’s due; their rise to prominence happened pretty fast. But they, like Afrocentric peddlers, tend to exalt the lowest common denominator in their community. That’s why there’s so much “gift-giving” and domestic violence in a very small community. And allowing it to go unchecked can undermine any progress made. And no, people do not have to others solely because of who they sleep with. Hell, you don’t, so why should anybody else?

Presidential Candidate and former Illinois Senator Barack Hussein “The Long-Legged Daddy” Obama is, in my view, one of the greatest campaigners of all time. But as the 44th President of the United States, he’s one of the worst Affirmative Action hires in history. You know how AA works: find the first non-White you can, promote him like hell, set him up as a figurehead… and let everybody else lead from behind. As author Shelby Steele points out, “President Obama is more of a cultural phenomenon than a political one”.

Even when the Republican Party did not have a sitting President, they were often the steady, trusted, fiscally responsible hand in Washington. The terms of both Presidents Bush killed that notion. The re-election of Obama has sent them absolutely into chaos. The days of riding the coattails of Ronald Reagan and the Christian Coalition are no more. The Tea Party, touted as a return to the old school GOP, have proven to be anything but. They’ve been relegated to mostly state and local  politics, with their most prominent national figures just kicking back. Why not? They’ll be re-elected out of brand loyalty, anyhow… with the Tea Party in tow.

The Religious Right called Mormonism a polygamist cult for years, then claimed that a Mormon elder, as President, could “bring America back to God”. The same fundamentalist who condemns homosexuality can be found all over GayPatriot comment sections, and letting their near-nude preteen daughters hustle grown men at a church car wash. With no sin left to rail against (the same-sex marriage issue is summarily decided), the religious right is rapidly evaporating as a key force in society. 

And since Gay Conservatives seem to be the only ones giving religionists any sympathy, one has to ask: with same-sex marriages federally recognized, is refusing to get one with your lover make you “living in sin” and “shacking up”?

A young guy from Canada recently pointed out something about most American “atheists”. They are actually not atheists, who do not acknowledge an absolute final sovereignty. Because their worship is ultimately either their culture or, more than likely, an all-powerful government that protects them from their ideological enemies and themselves, they are, by definition, Statists. All religions and the main two political parties have embraced it as of late. And much like those who worshiped the Austrian house painter or the Chinese rice farmer, they’ll bring a whole nation down in the abyss.

If you really want to see if things like Multiculturalism, Balkanization, or any form of identity politics has ever worked here’s an idea. Ask your local gay, Black, fundamentalist, Muslim, “atheist” and moderate the best time they’ve lived through in their respective movement. NONE of their answers will match.

President Obama is the best thing to ever happen to talk radio. What else would Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin do without him and the Democratic Party? The Advocate Magazine spends over sixty-five percent of its web space railing on Republicans or somebody else that hurts their feewings. But in the end their greatest and most prosperous weapon is… their biggest opponent.

The same people who swear by talk radio and MSNBC ridicule Vince McMahon and WWE. The funny part is, Vince is more honest than they are.When Vince McMahon and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin got done beating each other up, they both went out drinking, often to the same bar. But they both knew, and even now openly admit, they needed each other… to draw a happily paying audience. WWE fans know it’s scripted, too, but the whole point is to be entertained. Yeah, they get emotional at times, but eventually the match is over, and you’ve got to go home and get ready for the work week. (Shout out to Vince “Not McMahon” Smetana on that one) . And it’s fine to agree with people like Rush or Rachel Maddow, and buy their merchandise. But every so often, I think like other WWE fans. I can enjoy the spectacle, but recognize it as such… especially when it’s not on.

Volume Two, Chapter Eleven: MORE Senstitivity Issues

I though this was it for Volume Two, but the hits just keep on coming.

Last posting, it was all about Cultural Senstitivity Week. It began a news cycle centered around virtually every little niche of society airing their grievances with everybody else. Well, the beat goes on. White Hispanic George Zimmerman’s trial for killing Black teen Trayvon Martin is still drawing huge attention for some reason. The immigration reform battles in Washington are now full scale. In addition, the celebrity and scholastic realms have had some culturally insenstitive riptides, too.

The biggest meltdown is easily the trials and tribulations of Southern-fried Obamaite Paula Deen. Another white female recently sued her for racial discrimination. Soon, the press began to unveil years of Deen using culturally insenstitive language, the most recent occurrence being two years ago (the target of that particular “RACISM!” never sued, but now he probably will). Her teary, mascara-smeared apologies have brought her under the tutelage of identity politician par excellence, Reverend Jesse Jackson. Between the massive endorsement boycotts and departure from the Food Network, and Jesse’s toxic touch, Ms. Deen is now the entree.

Volatile actor Alec Baldwin recently called an antagonist male reporter a “queen”, which is  “HOMOPHOBIA!”  Conservative groups, among whom several are also gay, are demanding Baldwin be fired as a spokesman for credit card company Capital One. Their main beef is not the homophobic remarks themselves, but rather the blatant double standard of leftists, who crucify conservatives for anti-gay language. Little do they realize that an apology, a little spare change, and a collective hatred of conservatism heals all LGBTetc.  activist wounds inflicted by their fellow leftists. And nobody’s forgot how much cash they just raised and spent unsuccessfully fighting same-sex marriage while snubbing gay conservative groups. Such people are often their staunchest supporters, despite the vile flack they get from other gay people.

The Democratic Party is built on its multitude of victim groups. Afrocentric Blacks were the preeminent victims from the New Deal until 2008, when the Black community helped pass California’s Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriages. Since then, the LGBTetc. crowd has taken their victim status. On his and Tavis Smiley’s radio broadcast, Afrocentric professor Dr. Cornel West lamented the status loss. Despite LGBTetc. thought police GLAAD’s best attempts  to defuse the situation, Dr. West is actually repeating a refrain commonly heard in Afrocentric circles; he was just wise enough to temper his words to avoid GLAAD’s wrath.

Multitudes of subcultures only gather to fight a common enemy or exalt a common social deity, then revert right back to tribalism. Fundamentalists routinely dominate the conservative GayPatriot come time to rail against Democrats, and stick around to condemn same-sex marriage (If homosexuality is so wrong, you’d think they’d avoid a site called GayPatriot.) Blatant racists comfortably appear at gatherings for Black conservatives like those for Project 21. And because they’re seeking favor with even the lowest common denominator in a political party, they (as well as the Democrat subcultures) have to sit back and take all kinds of sh*t. The highest price of multiculturalism/identity politics of this type will always be your own dignity. 

Contrary to popular belief, most people are not like the MSNBC, Centric, or conservative talk show crowds, who are ultimately whores guided by political or cultural tribalism. Ask the Republican Party. Many White males, their most loyal voting bloc, refused to vote Republican on the 2012 Election Day rather than be associated with fools like GayPatriot’s token religionist, JMan1961. Ask the Afrocentric crowd, who have seen fellow Black people like Tommy Sotomayor and James David Manning become popular by ridiculing Afrocentrism’s guttural culture. Ask the LGBTetc. activist crowd how a guy like Kevin Dujan can openly take on the dubious antics of the “Great Society for Tolerance”.  And ask the Democratic Party if their inculcation is universal. According  to current multicultural doctrine, the Black Derrick “TMOT” Grayson and lesbian Lori Heine are default Democrats and “atheists”.  Instead, both are Christian Libertarians who tend to call out any problem on both far sides of the social spectrum.

In the 2012 Presidential election, 140M people voted. The total United States is 310M. In other words, not even half of the American population allows the political and cultural happenings to dictate their lives. If you’ve already got your mind made up to live a certain way, politics, especially identity politics, have virtually no effect on you. Blind adherence to a “great cause” has led to the rise of many dictators. With such behavior taking place in America,  it’s those who don’t unilaterally adhere to a political or social agenda that are the only wall between true freedom and Balkanization… or worse, apartheid.

Alright, that’s about enough of the whole senstitivity issue. Seeing as though I’m a Black, gay, moderate, Libertarian Deist, I don’t have all damned year to sort out my official niche. And that’s fine, since I tend to reason things out better as simply Douglas Wayne Tipton, anyhow. Next posting will ABSOLUTELY be the Volume Two finale. It’ll involve several guys called… Vince. But in closing, I’d like to bring back a 2012 op-ed found in, ironically, the New York Times, from one of the most universally insenstitive people of all time….

Volume Two, Chapter Nine: FINALLY Attaining the Holy Grail

You know, ever since the historic 2008 Presidential Election, the media has been absolutely obsessed with finding “The First”. It was during this election season that America was presented with the most diverse choices for the next Commander-in-Chief ever recorded. There was the first Mormon candidate (former Massachusetts Governor Willard “Mitt” Romney, Republican), the first major female candidate (former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat), and the first major “Black”, or actually Biracial, candidate (Illinois Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Democrat). The media’s ever-present identity fetish was in overdrive. After eight chaotic years of statist conservatism under Republican George W. Bush, the voting public wanted anything but another Republican, so Romney was out of the running early. The real battle was between Hillary and Obama. One of them would be “The First” of their kind. And when the inexperienced Obama had the White women voters in Iowa sighing at his every word, the “Long-Legged Mack Daddy” pushed Hillary out of the way. The media had their “First”. And the eventual GOP candidate, 72-year-old Arizona Senator John Sidney McCain, never stood a chance, even with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential candidate, trying to woo female voters.

Well, we’ve seen several “Firsts” since then. Televangelist T.D. Jakes became “The First” Black Spiritual Counselor to a President. Eric Holder became “The First” Black U.S. Attorney General. And Sonya Sotomayor became “The First” Wise Latina Woman on the Supreme Court. But nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to the perhaps the most coveted “First” in modern “journalism”, which was handed to the media on April 30th, 2013. It was the announcement that Jason Collins, an obscure NBA basketball veteran, is gay. He is now “The First” openly gay male athlete in a mainstream team sport.

…

Don’t get me wrong here. I think it’s great that the NBA and America are welcome to an openly gay professional athlete. It’s very possible “The First” gay Michael Jordan could emerge from all this, with the focus he draws going to where it should, his talent, and not on his personal life. That’s assuming, of course, the media allows for it.

The Collins affair highlights the main problem with people steeped in identity politics, and people who center their entire life on one aspect of their life (or in the case of the media, everybody else’s). I’ve said this about online dating services for years, and it’s just as true in everything else: if all you want is somebody Black, pretty much anybody Black will do. It’s the same way with gay, White, blonde, on and on. It doesn’t matter that Jason Collins doesn’t average 4 points a game, went to three different teams this past season, and is not even currently signed to a team. It doesn’t matter that he was on the down-low for eight years with his blonde girlfriend (an everyday sight in Atlanta, and we know what’s happened to the Black community because of that). It doesn’t matter that something outside the game of basketball is pretty much the only reason to even sign the 34-year-old to a team, even if a more deserving athlete is cast aside. Jason Collins is “The First” openly gay pro athlete. The sacrifice required for a potential pro athlete’s love of the game is trumped by the love of the d*ck and a headline.

This is contrary to the legacies of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the guy Collins is constantly being compared to, Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson. These two men broke barriers and SET EXAMPLES for others of all races to follow. As is the case with any major social movement, the few people who benefit from it will have to assimilate and validate themselves through the content of their character. Those willing to follow those examples were better off; those who didn’t were cut off. In a way, it’s wise for the media to pump up Jason Collins. Promoting a down-low marginal pro athlete presents a reachable standard. The LGBTetc. activist crowd is constantly looking to the media and celebrities to present for them the “role models” they’ve never been. By pushing Collins, there’s finally somebody to take the critical eyes of the general public off them, and somebody’s coattails they can ride. However, this will make the emergence of an outstanding gay athlete cumbersome. When this guy arrives, others will have somebody to compare them to on and off the field or court. People will now see there’s more than one kind of gay person, and will welcome the ones they like, and jettison those they don’t. It happened with Dr. King and Mr.Robinson, and will inevitably happen again. That’s part of the problem with pro sports, anyhow: we know more about their exploits outside the game (sex life, arrest record, financial dealings) than is really necessary.

I guess, as a gay person, I should be happy that President Obama took time out of his… busy schedule to personally call Jason Collins regarding his announcement. Never mind that the families of those in the Texas explosion or the Boston Marathon attack weren’t. And don’t get me started on his hometown of Chicago, the American murder capital. It’s all about being gay. Nothing else matters.