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.
Racists tut-tutting about how it’s the high percentage of black people “ruining” major urban centers like Detroit (84% black) and Baltimore (65% black) always seem to ignore other major urban centers such as Birmingham (74% black) which are actually doing quite well economically.
Waiting for a racist to explain why 84% is too high a percentage of blacks for the survival of “Western Civilization” (because Detroit has problems), and 65% is also too high (because Baltimore has problems), but 74% is somehow okay. Racist arithmetic is always so imaginative.
“Do you mean “welfare cheat and shoplifter” Katrina Pierson? ”
I knew she must have done something horrible to have been punished by being given the assignment of having to translate Trumpelthinskin’s drivel, but somehow “welfare cheat and shoplifter” doesn’t seem bad enough to justify THAT level of punishment.
Using black people as an excuse for the fall of American industry and the disenfranchisement of the working class is the first step towards fascism. Fascist groups recruit from the lumpen proletariat, because they are reactionary, not class conscious and easy to work up into a frenzy. The ruling classes love to play ‘divide and conquer’.
@Ohlmann whether the Druids waged war on one another or not, it’s absolutely documented that the Romans waged war on the Druids. It wasn’t *really* about religion, it was about desire for more territory, but the Druids’ religion was exaggerated and vilified to create an excuse for it.
You want some REAL IRONY? Beale is nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Editor-Short Form. Would you care to guess who was responsible for proposing the split of Editor category in 2005? That’s right, an African-American. BooM!!!!!
If ‘Western Civilization’ is so fucking weak that it collapses if exposed to diversity , and requires racism (and sexism and homophobia, of course) in order to just keep afloat, then it should crumble.
@Virgin Mary
I feel I ought to stick up for the lumpenproletariat here – I’ve known a great many extremely charming, knowledgeable and politically-engaged lumpen, who are as set against fascism as anyone. Honestly, I think Marx was far too quick to snobbishly dismiss those outside the organised ranks of the industrial working class as inherently counterrevolutionary.
@diptych
If they are knowledgable and politically engaged, they are automatically disqualified from being lumpen. Proletariat of course, lumpenproletariat, no. It’s a contradiction.
I daresay it comes down to definitions. One definition I’ve seen for the lumpen is those outside the traditional working class – folks barely getting by, by whatever means. Or we could take Marx’s definition, being basically “those members of the proletariat who don’t agree with me.” Which would make a full-time factory laborer who opposes Marxist lumpenproletarian, while someone stuck in long-term unemployment and homelessness who supports the revolution is a fully-qualified proletarian. That doesn’t seem like a very useful classification system.
(I’ll grant I’m being a bit saucy towards ol’ Karl – he can take it; he’ll have more followers than I ever will. My point is that defining a social group by their political allegiances rather than their access to wealth, power and privilege isn’t going to produce very useful analysis. “The lumpen, being defined as that group of people who support fascism, will always support fascism” is not a helpful insight.)
OMG, that picture of him. Who knew you could view a picture of a shit taking a shit?
This is truly surreal stuff, folks.
It’s an undisputed fact that some vague, hypothetical critical mass of black people way off in the future will be a Bad Thing. UNDISPUTED FACT.
Yeah, it’s Cape Town (two words), fuckwhit, and we’re doing fine.
Diptych
#notalllumpenproletariat
Virgin Mary
No true lumpenproletariat?
As the modern West is associated by many as being the bastion of liberal, progressive and democratic values, the greatest threat to its continuance in any given country would be a critical assembly of persons such as Vox Day and his ilk.
@Bina to top it off, I saw this on my phone whilst taking a shit myself… *inception bwoooong noise*
@grumpyold sjm oh my god, Trumplestiltskin, that’s hilarious. Totally using that now.
Actually didn’t the plague get started in Italy? So really just serial religious/succession wars.
I looked at the archive of Vox’s post. Some people pointed out facts, such as the collapse of the car industry in Detroit, and the response they got was more or less “no, it’s black people, you’re only fooling yourself”. Plus there were people arguing in the comments exactly what exact percentage of black people is “too many”.
Civilization indeed.
OMG, it’s like an endless hall of mirrors, innit?
Vox Day is one of the biggest pieces of shit in America. Pretty much the only good thing I can say about him is that he hasn’t killed anyone yet.
2 words for Vox…ASS…..Hat!
Vox Day? More like Vox Duh.
We were in Detroit a year ago. At one point we took a wrong turn and ended up in one of the depopulated and destroyed areas. I admit it was a bit unnerving but it was also fascinating and I’m glad we saw it because it has given me a different viewpoint on Detroit. We weren’t on any of the side streets but later I looked at some of those streets on Google Streetview and saw quite a mixture of intact and inhabited houses plus houses that were falling down. Some now have lovely, although not palatial, country properties and I know that there is a lot of market gardening going on. As a gardener myself, I would have liked to see one of those but we didn’t run across any.
I would like to point out that the auto companies certainly have a lot to answer for in Detroit but the administration does too. I didn’t check this but I think that a fairly recent former mayor ended up in jail.
Btw, I ended up on your website via Jim Wright’s page on Facebook.
I love Detroit and have deep roots there. As the city’s motto says, “Resurget cineribus”: It shall rise from the ashes.
http://michiganimmigrant.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/CityDetroitSeal-black.png
Fuck you, Theodore Beale.
Given that for practical purposes the only semantic content of the term ‘Western Civilisation’ is ‘white supremacy ‘, I suppose that technically he is correct, as any civilisation not dominated principally or entirely by white people is ‘Western’, but in that case it’s a tautology. Less pedantically, this is exactly why I give the side eye to most anyone who talks about ‘Western Civilisation’ at all, and immediately despise anyone who talks about the decline, fall, end, etc. of same. Anyone who talks like that is atmost one step removed from membership in the Kkk or local fascist party.
RE: “Roger and Me”
Holy crap, Flint just can’t catch a break, can they? I knew about the water thing but I hadn’t realized that they’ve been being shat on since the 80s.