I read this blog post a while back and was just reminded of it after reading some of the more political threads on here. I feel that it would do some of you all a lot of good to read it. Hopefully it inspires you to take a good look in the mirror.

 

 

 

The Culture Of The Smug White Liberal

 

By Nikki Johnson-Huston, Esq.

 

"I have spent my life as a Democrat which probably isn’t that surprising considering that I am African-American. One of the things that always attracted me to the party were the ideals of equality, fighting for the little guy and our openness to differing opinions, but lately I have seen my party take a turn that makes me uncomfortable. Somewhere along the way we stopped fighting for the little guy and became the party of the smug, educated elites who look down on those with less education and deem them unable or unworthy of being able to make personal decisions for their own lives."

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikki-johnsonhuston-esq/the-culture-of-the-smug-w_b_11537306.html

What i get from this commentary is she is upset that liberals don't fix the justice system. Therefore, liberals suck.  If she can talk down to her contemporary liberal elites on Huffington since she knows so many, what does that make her?

  I don't really get the purpose of this new thread.

Yikes

She makes some good points. The politicians in Philadelphia and elsewhere have a successful formula, not to fix problems, but to ensure they are re-elected. A lot of liberal causes demand style over substance. Police unfairly target poor minorities. Effecting positive change is a constant struggle.

 

I am not naive, and I don't want to discount the information we can learn from race classifications data we use. But the main problem I have with the author is her insistence upon identifying people based on their skin-color.

 

While I obviously don't know her personally, the tone of the article reminds me of many people I know, left or right, who are all to eager to place someone into a broad category instead of recognizing that persons unique worth as an individual. It's unfair to the individual, and worse, it perpetuates an ever evolving "us vs. them" blame-shift mentality.

 

The divisiveness may be good for raising blood temperatures, but it never leads to consensus-building required to actually solve our most serious issues. 

 

 

Reposting entire articles hasn't been permitted for years, please edit accordingly.

Smug this. The definition according to Webster's dictionary...

 

 

I posted this on Facebook, to which a friend asked why do some people try to use "liberal" as an insult.

 

I replied: Because generosity, enlightenment, and open-mindedness are signs of weakness to them. Their abusive fathers likely were the first ones to tell them so.

The author makes some good points and I think many are applicable to the Democratic Party.  But while the Democratic Party may be left of the Republican Party, and Liberals may often be associated with a faction within the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party often is not liberal (h/t KJP).  The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is probably right of where the center used to be.

 

 

I was struck by this passage, which I think really says where the Democratic Party has gone off the rails for many people -- too many promises and too few results that actually benefit the "little guy."

For so long, as a Black American, I have been told that the problem is Conservative Republicans. While I’ll admit they may have done little to try to improve African-American lives, they also don’t promise to every election season like the liberal elites. Instead we have given our loyalty and votes to Democrats, who paternalistically tell us they want to help us, but we have little to show for it since blacks started voting Democrat back in the 1960’s.

 

In my opinion, this also shows why Bernie Sanders (not a Democrat) has been so popular with liberals in the Democratic Party.  Many liberals are disappointed in or otherwise turned off by the positions taken by the Democratic Party establishment, the "cocktail party liberals" mentioned in the article.

For so long, as a Black American, I have been told that the problem is Conservative Republicans. While I’ll admit they may have done little to try to improve African-American lives, they also don’t promise to every election season like the liberal elites. Instead we have given our loyalty and votes to Democrats, who paternalistically tell us they want to help us, but we have little to show for it since blacks started voting Democrat back in the 1960’s.

 

I didn't read the article, but just based on this quote it sounds like a planted article from GOP propagandists. They have been running big with this storyline. Trump himself did it last fall with the "people in 'inner cities' have nothing to lose" schtick. In reality, blacks have a lot to show for it since they started voting Democrat back in the 1960's...

 

She also acts like blacks have no power or influence over the party as in "we gave our loyalty to the Democrats" when in reality they are the Democrats, or at least a big piece, able to throw around their weight.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberal

 

Not trying to get into this debate but the definition is different than what's posted above.

 

 

This thread serves no real purpose and should just die.

I suspect this woman probably lives in Shaker Heights (okay, maybe she's not that smug)

I suspect this woman probably lives in Shaker Heights (okay, maybe she's not that smug)

 

This was the best video of the election cycle.

 

Don't appreciate the shaker blast. 

 

My thoughts on the initial post is that liberals may come off as smug because they delineate between disadvantaged and those who aren't disadvantaged.  Sure a lot of the trump backers feel like they have been ignored and hence he is now president.  Having spent almost a third of my life now in urban areas, I think a poor African American who comes from a broken family is disadvantaged to achieve prosperity. Especially if they are around drugs and violence. This is what they come to know at a very young age and it becomes normal.  Yeah yeah I know, bad parenting, but the same thing happened to their parents, and probably the generation before them.  This is what happens with oppression.  On the other hand, I  look at many of these small towns throughout America and I can only question....what is holding them back? They are mostly Caucasian in these areas. The system is set up for them to succeed.  Liberals typically fight for the disadvantaged to have the same path. And I'm not going to argue that all minorities have the same opportunities.  The superstars prevail, no doubt.  But the average joe needs to be on the level playing field

Personal networks that lack people with influence in society hold back minorities and rural dwellers alike.

Lots of people are advantaged or disadvantaged economically for lots of different reasons.  Race is certainly a critically important one, but let's not be clueless and condescending enough to think that there aren't serious structural impediments to success faced by many white people as well.  Educational and economic disparities, broken homes, and lack of proximity to jobs and services effect many people of every different race.  The fact that a certain segment of liberals refuses to acknowledge that and spit on the white working class certainly did help push them into Trump's camp.

Lots of people are advantaged or disadvantaged economically for lots of different reasons.  Race is certainly a critically important one, but let's not be clueless and condescending enough to think that there aren't serious structural impediments to success faced by many white people as well.  Educational and economic disparities, broken homes, and lack of proximity to jobs and services effect many people of every different race.  The fact that a certain segment of liberals refuses to acknowledge that and spit on the white working class certainly did help push them into Trump's camp.

 

Fair, white people aren't immune from difficult situations as well, but one thing they will never be disadvantaged on is their race

Concentrating wealth among a smaller and smaller group of individuals also means that influence is concentrated within that small group as well. This makes upward mobility more difficult for those outside the tiny klatch. A lot more white people used to know someone than do now. And those people are increasingly concentrated in major cities. That's helping minorities a little bit as compared to say the '70s and '80s when our "inner cities" were wrecked. But it's definitely not much of a game-changer.

Lots of people are advantaged or disadvantaged economically for lots of different reasons.  Race is certainly a critically important one, but let's not be clueless and condescending enough to think that there aren't serious structural impediments to success faced by many white people as well.  Educational and economic disparities, broken homes, and lack of proximity to jobs and services effect many people of every different race.  The fact that a certain segment of liberals refuses to acknowledge that and spit on the white working class certainly did help push them into Trump's camp.

 

Fair, white people aren't immune from difficult situations as well, but one thing they will never be disadvantaged on is their race

 

White kids in Hawaii are beaten up pretty regularly.

 

Not trying to be argumentative, just that your comment is overly broad. Anyone can be subjected to and victimized by racial hatred. 

^I'm not talking about getting beat up. Christ, I got beat up as a kid and I'm white. And I got beat up by other white kids.

 

I'm talking about achieving prosperity in life.  While we are progressing on this, its evident that if a white male is competing for an opportunity against a minority, there are situations the white person will be favored. Ranging from a blue collar job, to an internal promotion. That white person is Sometimes more qualified, sometimes not.  We have settled this argument when those "sometimes not" cases  become zero.

Lots of people are advantaged or disadvantaged economically for lots of different reasons.  Race is certainly a critically important one, but let's not be clueless and condescending enough to think that there aren't serious structural impediments to success faced by many white people as well.  Educational and economic disparities, broken homes, and lack of proximity to jobs and services effect many people of every different race.  The fact that a certain segment of liberals refuses to acknowledge that and spit on the white working class certainly did help push them into Trump's camp.

 

Fair, white people aren't immune from difficult situations as well, but one thing they will never be disadvantaged on is their race

 

Back when I was a project manager at a local CDC we had a demo contractor that we would hire even though we knew he would try to rip us off with change orders.  I, being a young and ambitious project manager, set up a rigorous bidding process for our next demo contract.  I required a bid be placed by a certain date, and a project walk-through be attended in order to make sure everyone was on the same page about the scope of the project.  Several bidders (yes, all white owned companies) submitted their bid on time and came to the project walk through as required. After the bidding process was over, the demo contractor I mentioned earlier waltzed in with a lowball bid that didn't meet the requirements I had set forth.  Never walked through the project with me. But we needed an MBE for the project and the selection of the contractor was suddenly taken out of my hands. Guess who got the contract.

 

postscript- he did try to screw us again, but I had him dead on rights because of how specific we were on the bid and follow up contract, so he ate the losses that time.

 

Anyway, point being "never" is a pretty definite term, and nothing in life is that clear cut.

I am not a fan at all of MBE quotas because they don't fix what they are supposed to fix.  They are meant to help minority businesses who had historically  been left out of a lot of union trade jobs and therefor less able to learn trades.  This is turn created a white pipeline of businesses that dominated  the construction industry.  The MBE quotas merely support the few large MBE firms that get all of the MBE carve outs.  They do nothing to repair the actual issue.

The title probably should have been "Progressives", not liberals.  The old "Progressive"

movement fought for things like Prohibition and eugenics, it was very much "we know best" and it's telling that the modern left dumped "liberal" for it.

 

The Democratic Party needs the minority vote to be a bloc.  They pander because neither the smug white progressives or the "Talented Tenth" (perhaps especially the latter) want minority voters to become independent of government.  As it happens, the group they call the "Uncle Tom's" (Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, Ben Carson, Herman Cain, Larry Elder, Stacey Dash, etc....) are still small, but growing.  If they surpass the Tenth in numbers things could get interesting.