Quote of the day
posted at 10:52 pm on August 10, 2009 by Allahpundit
“Oh, those dumb white Southerners! No other group in American society could possibly believe in preposterous conspiracy theories. Well, maybe one other group, the most reliably Democratic demographic in the whole U.S. electorate. A 2005 study by RAND and Oregon State University showed that a majority of blacks believed that a cure for AIDS was being withheld from the poor; that nearly half believed that AIDS was man-made, with a quarter believing that it was created in a U.S. government laboratory and 12 percent naming the CIA as its source. Black paranoia about AIDS is understandable, given the Tuskegee experiments. Even so, the theory that AIDS was created by the CIA to commit genocide against black people is wackier than the craziest Birther conspiracy theories. Would Kathleen Parker write, or the Washington Post publish, a column arguing that black Democrats ‘have seceded from sanity’? Would Kevin Drum applaud Parker’s insult and extend to it to all African-Americans?…
Curiously, the progressive punditariat, so voluble about ‘angry white men,’ is silent about the decades-old Republican bias of white women. Even more curious is the paradox that liberals routinely denounce white Southern Protestants for holding the very social views that are held by majorities or near-majorities of blacks and Latinos who form the electoral base of the Democratic Party…
Blacks and Latinos, it appears, are allowed to hold conventionally conservative social views about gay rights, abortion and (in the case of blacks) immigration without being mocked and denounced by elite white liberals in the pages of the Washington Post and Mother Jones, as long as they vote for the Democratic Party on the basis of other issues. This strategic logic should lead liberals to seek out and welcome the vote of white social conservatives in the South and elsewhere, as long as they vote for Democrats for reasons other than the social issues. Indeed, socially conservative white voters helped to create and to maintain the new Democratic majority in Congress. But many liberals, it would appear, would rather have a smaller Democratic Party than one that includes more white Southerners with typically ‘black’ or ‘Latino’ views about sex and reproduction.
Here’s how I see it. Liberals should respect and promote the interests of working Americans of all races and regions, including those who despise liberals. They are erring neighbors to be won over, not cretins to be mocked.”
Blowback
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My dear Limerick, you are one of our betters.
Thanks.
Loxodonta on August 11, 2009 at 8:04 AM
How about we compromise and call them cretins to be won over?
/jk
aengus on August 11, 2009 at 8:06 AM
LoL. He’s trying to create a new victim class. Don’t hate the Southerners. Pity them. They neeeeeed us.
Socmodfiscon on August 11, 2009 at 8:16 AM
Enjoyed that. Tks. I once read something else that I thought to be profound about the southern mind, but can’t say I know to be true or not.
It comes from Harold Bloom , an old-timer and literature professor/critic/author at Yale. I get a lot out of everything he has ever written, and it’s a pleasure to read someone who is from academia before it was corrupted by rampant liberalism.
Anyway, in one of his books, The American Religion–The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation,
in which he surveys the various Christian denominations in America, he speaks of Southern Baptists, and how their views were dramatically shaped in response to the loss of the war, a loss that was psychologically impossible to imagine in people’s minds, and thus forever forged a permanent outsider mentality (he goes on to say that he sees Southern Baptists as essentially anti-intellectual) necessary to cope with what he says was widely viewed as a result not in keeping with the laws of nature and reality.
Well I’m sure that depiction will draw some ire, and that’s not my intent. I just wanted to add to your comment about what might make the Southerner different from other Americans.
(btw, his books “Kabbalah and Criticism,” and his anthologies of the most important books in the Western Canon are outstanding imo. If you never knew what was important to have a well-read Western mind, he’s very helpful. And he’s no lib. I think he only survived at the Univ. because he is ancient. Otherwise, the libs would have had him kicked-out. He hates the new women’s studies, and gay studies and all that crap)
JiangxiDad on August 11, 2009 at 8:23 AM
Put down the cocaine, michael lind.
peacenprosperity on August 11, 2009 at 8:27 AM
Eh……(long, long line of Baptist here). While I would admit that many of my ancestors were permanent ‘outsiders’ and not particularly fond of Uncle Sugar I wouldn’t say they were deaf and blind. Defeat in the Civil War was bitter, but they left it behind. Obviously, from all my State’s Rights comments, it still stings, but first and formost we want to be team players, just not ignored as team members. I hope that ramble made some sense.
Limerick on August 11, 2009 at 8:44 AM
Well it’s good to know that there’s at least one thing crazier than wanting the president to prove his constitutional eligibility to serve.
Akzed on August 11, 2009 at 8:45 AM
Sure does. Happy to be right next to you.
JiangxiDad on August 11, 2009 at 9:01 AM
Meh … Slamming us Dixie folks is old hat. Fact is – few of these panty-wastes will actually come down here and try to give us the “what-for”. They’d rather sit behind their laptops at some Starbucks in Chicago and Boston and berate us – they think they are safer doing it there, and I agree.
I left the South 27 years ago to join the Navy … And I returned to the South when I retired from the Navy three years ago.
I was 20 when I left – so most of my life was spent outside of the South. I originally joined the Navy because I was tired of the South. I was a charter member of “People for the American Way” back in the late 70′s. I was uber-Liberal. So I really left the South to get out into the world that I thought would be so much more – “enlightened”.
What I found in all my travels – all over the world – is that people outside the South are not more enlightened than Southerners. When President Bush (41) liberated Kuwait – I got stuck on I-5 in San Diego because hundreds of students from the University of California San Diego blocked it to protest our kicking Sadaam’s butt. These were not enlightened people – these people don’t exist in great numbers in the South.
I could go on – with all the places I’ve been to all over the world – and tell a similar story.
I like the South.
We have more churches down here than McDonalds. We put churches in trailors, in strip malls, and in big steel storage buildings. I don’t go to church – but every time I pass one – I smile. Because it’s comforting for me to know that I’m among people who believe in something greater than themselves. Not slamming atheists – they’re good folk – I just prefer the company of good Christian folk because, I don’t know, there is always a certain glow about them.
Most of us are pretty proud of the stand we made in the Civil War – though generally we’ll agree that it was good that we lost. We’re a bit upset by the fact that General Robert E. Lee’s flag was branded as “racist” – when most of the men who carried that flag were not any more racist than the men they were fighting. My family never owned slaves – they were sharecroppers and competed for work with slaves. When slavery was abolished, their lives got better. They fought for the South, because they were proud of their homeland – and they didn’t like anyone trying to tell them how to live their lives. To them, the issue of slavery was just as good a reason as any to fight those “busy-body” liberals in the North who were trying to tell them how to live – and not just on the issue of slavery – but on the issue of tarrifs and a host of other things.
Another thing about the South – the people here are very proud of the fact that their grandmothers and grandfathers stood up for their rights – even if some of what they were standing up for wasn’t that great. But we’re proud of the fact that our states were once a part of the nation called the Confederate States of America.
And it’s funny – but you will not find any people more proud to salute the flag that conquered them … Old Glory … Than you will down here in the South. THAT – is why I’m proud to live here. I have never seen a protester burn a flag in the South. The day I do – that will be the day I know that the South is dead.
HondaV65 on August 11, 2009 at 9:25 AM
Hell, I remember people saying Ronald Reagan was the Antichrist because all three of his names had six letters!
rockmom on August 11, 2009 at 9:26 AM
Bwahahahah!!! Thanks, I needed a hearty laugh today.
Grafted on August 11, 2009 at 9:33 AM
As a newly minted Southerner, I see you speak the truth.
BetseyRoss on August 11, 2009 at 9:39 AM
They aren’t African Americans.
They are black people that are Americans.
bridgetown on August 11, 2009 at 9:41 AM
bravo. well said.
I’d like to add another reason for liking living down here.
People are generally happy, and they smile and say hello. They’ll even stop to help a stranger.
When I go to NY, or southern Cali, Philly, NJ….it’s just not the same.
Although, I’ve been in that frigid cold weather, so I give the people a little bit of a pass. I’d be pissed off, too if I were that cold for so many weeks of the year. :)
bridgetown on August 11, 2009 at 9:46 AM
Frankly, I think we should embrace the beliefs of the African-Americans:
Obama and the Democrats are withholding the cure for AIDS to help promote their healthcare agenda.
Obama, Panetta and the Democrats are still hiding the fact that Jimmy Carter with the CIA created AIDs in a laboratory.
Obama is still angry at Bill Clinton for plotting 9/11 and at Hillary for helping to cover it up.
It’s nuts and untrue, but if Bush was covering it up, then so is Obama, Hillary Clinton and Panetta.
barnone on August 11, 2009 at 9:58 AM
“that nearly half believed that AIDS was man-made”
In fairness, almost ALL of the AIDS virus is man-made. A little bit is woman-made. Also, some monkeys are making it.
Kevin M on August 11, 2009 at 10:29 AM
What a load of malarkey. The simple truth? Northern elitist intellectuals are frustrated because they need the southern unwashed to gain and maintain political power. They must invent explanations for southerners’ preference for a simpler, less competitive way of life and (unwarranted?!) distrust of increasing government intrusion. Only in finding a plausible, yet total BS explanation can they hope to balance their teaming with the southerners to gain power while not losing their credibility with their friends from the Ivy Leagues.
The left, however, has learned to embrace its “inferiors”, at least in public. In fact, they’ve managed to create an entire “back story” of victimization to motivate them to work for “the greater good”.
You seem like a smart cookie. Wise up!
ROCnPhilly on August 11, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Truly wasn’t trying to be offensive. Sorry if I was. I admitted to not knowing anything myself about what southern means, and have no choice but to read and ask others. Always trying to wise up.
JiangxiDad on August 11, 2009 at 1:31 PM
Oh, those dumb, preposterously rich, bleached blond RINO girls.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Allahpundit defends the likes of Meghan McCain, thrust into the spotlight, seeking the attention any of us would seek. Yet under those same conditions, attacks Sarah Palin, thrust into the spotligiht, seeking the attention any of us would seek.
Responsibly, Sarah Palin earned her own experience professionally. Allahpundit sneers.
Stupidly, Meghan McCain has none, is still NADA but a fat, spoiled tramp. Allahpundit drools.
maverick muse on August 11, 2009 at 4:43 PM
HondaV65 on August 11, 2009 at 9:25 AM
Well put.
maverick muse on August 11, 2009 at 4:49 PM
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