In case you’ve forgotten just how much of a racist numpty poopgoblin Theodore Beale — aka “Vox Day” — really is, well here’s a reminder. In a post on his Vox Popoli blog today, the fantasy author and Hugo-award-wrecker asks the question “are blacks worse than atomic bombs?” and answers it with a “yes.”
Comparing the Hiroshima of today — which has been substantially rebuilt since it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in World War II — with the bankrupt, depopulated mess that is present-day Detroit, Beale concludes that Detroit’s troubles are all the fault of … black people:
The evidence is very clear that a black population in excess of an as-yet-undetermined percentage of the overall population renders the continuation of Western civilization impossible. This has been observed everywhere from Capetown to Detroit, and the comparison with Hiroshima only underlines the cultural, economic, and physical devastation that an excessively black population is likely to wreak on a society.
Yeah, not so much. As Beale is well-aware, since he mentions it, Snopes has already debunked an assortment of memes trying to make a similarly specious point — that the fall of Detroit is the fault of evil Democrats — by pointing out the rather obvious fact that the real culprit here is, you know, the shutdown of the auto plants that used to drive the city’s economy.
According to Scott Martelle, an author of a book about Detroit whom Snopes helpfully quotes,
The collapse of Detroit has roots in intentional de-industrialization by the Big Three automakers, which in the 1950s began aggressively spider-webbing operations across the nation to produce cars closer to regional markets, and to reduce labor costs by investing in less labor-friendly places than union-heavy Detroit. Their flight was augmented by government policies that, in the 1970s and 1980s particularly, forced municipalities and states to compete with each other for jobs by offering corporate tax breaks and other inducements to keep or draw business investments, a bit of whipsawing that helped companies profit at the expense of communities.
So Theodore Beale is not only racist, but a blithering idiot. Blaming black people for the bankruptcy of Detroit makes about as much sense as blaming Obama for the war in Afghanistan, as Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson did on CNN yesterday.
Western Civilization is Teh Best™. We have split the atom! Been to the moon! Conquered hunger! All other civilizations suck! Except it can be destroyed by having too many brown people around.
Your cognitives, they are dissonant.
Christ, what an asshole.
That expression looks like it should be in front of a different sort of throne.
This guy needs to go to Addis Ababa.
The filter you used looks great, it makes him look like a botched up NPC with a low color depth texture over a low poly head, a perfect fit!
GDP growth rates for a sample of countries, 2013:
Nigeria: 5.4% (>99% black, <1% white)
United States of America: 2.2% (12.6% black, 72.4% white)
Poland: 1.7% (99% white)
What’s that? It looks as if the presence of black people correlates with a fast-growing economy? Well, over to you, Mr Beale. I’m sure you have an explanation for it.
“Low poly head” is going to be my new insult of choice.
@SFHC
I’m not sure if we can distinguish between the putrid crap Beale produces and his feces, so either throne is alright.
Hiroshima was rebuilt because there was effort put into rebuilding it. With Detroit, it was decided that victim blaming and neglect would be the better approach.
Also, it’s hilarious that right wingers always pick on Detroit. Appalachia has been impoverished far longer than Detroit. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of classism directed at its (mostly white) residents. But the economic situation there just never seems to be held up as a reason why white people are inferior and incompetent. Funny how that works.
Oh, Beale. So much blithering. So little sense.
@RDL&SFHC: the comparison makes me think of Phil Sandifer’s line about Beale “saving Western Civilization from people who poop wrong.” (Apparently this is a reference to something in the Wired interview. I’m torn between asking for the exact quote and fearing that I might get it.)
What an asshole.
Regardless of what this blathering idiot say, I feel that Egyptians and Arabs have as much importance in my roots than romans and the European Renaissance. And I will believe that too many arabs or black is a problem the day someone will show a proof better documented than a bunch of caricatures and misattributed photos.
If Western Civilization can’t survive without coddling, it’s time to try something different.
Of course, if you strip off the Greek, Roman, North African and Slavic cultural elements claimed by N. Europe as theirs, you end up with serial religious wars and plague.
Did you see his recent post on white America and the various ways he justifies excluding of non-whites as Americans, claiming that diversity leads to sundry deteriorations of society, including “uglier people”? He seriously believes that the presence of non-whites and miscegenation diminishes the United States as a country because it has led to UGLIER PEOPLE.
@Robyn : well, it’s more that it’s litteraly impossible to strip off thoses elements cleanly, so you get just as artificial a construct than the dreamed super civilization thoses people think of. The level of interconnection between cultures is staggering, which is part of why the concept of race is laughable.
The contribution of the arab numeral (well, they come from india, but still), and of algebra (an arab improvement over previous works, most notably greek mathematics) to actually allowing people like Newton and Einstein to create their theory is quite big. But it’s hard to be sure nobody would have come up with a similar alternative without the arabs disseminating knowledge.
On the other hand, the religious war of Europa all come from imported religion. I don’t remember druids waging wars on each other. But no hard feeling to the middle east : spaniards and irish are *also* importations from the middle east. As are horses and chicken if I remember well.
@Sarah: Actually, in a way Day is correct. Miscegenation has led to uglier people. People who are against miscegenation tend to be rather unattractive in their approach to life, and sometimes in their looks as well, of which Day is a prime example.
So yeah, he’s only technically wrong.
Otherwise, as a WoC, I don’t need to actually weigh in on this topic. I see y’all got this.
@SFHC: Dammit, you beat me to it!
Eat more fiber, Voxy boy.
That said, I’ve run into this assclown on FSTDT (my name is the same there, but without the recent additions).
If Western civilization cannot survive because there are too many Black people, then let it fail. If its survival is dependent on racism, it deserves to collapse.
Funny, that’s the same face I make when I’m on my throne too. The porcelain one.
Voxy and his cronies always seem to have an air of constipated self-importance anyways. You know, the look of someone who thinks their farts smell like honeysuckle. That look.
Do you mean “welfare cheat and shoplifter” Katrina Pierson? Because I’m of the mind that this needs to be appended to her name whenever she comes up.
Pierson History. Everything from the past 20 years which Republicans currently don’t like, regardless of whether they were all for it at the time? Obama. Did it. Because time travel, apparently.
It appears that Betteridge’s Law of Headlines may also apply to blogs run by racist asshats.
Who knew ?
The poorest states in the union are Mississippi, Idaho, and West Virginia. Black population: 37%, .6%, and 3.4% respectively. Mayhaps there’s no connection between race and the ‘messes’ he describes? Nah, of course there is, cos lawdjick!
Tho, there is 1 connection I can find
This attitude of blaming “Black people” for the decline of Detroit was quite prevalent, even among good working class Democrats, long before 2010. I never bought into it, but I did rather wonder what happened…until I saw “Roger and Me.”
Alas Snopes was not around while my gran –a long time resident in the suburbs of Detroit– was still alive. She’d harp about “Look at what those Black people have done to Detroit!” prefaced of course by, “I’m not racist…”
(She was of German extraction)
Just pure ignorance.
(The straw that broke the camels back in our relationship was her all but blaming the Jews for the semi regular TV programs reminding us of the Holocaust. As if it was in bad taste or something…)
Western civilization cannot continue? Cool! Can we get a different civilization that doesn’t just constantly fuck everyone else over to replace it, maybe?