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Apparently, the reason so many black people are getting murdered by police officers is that black people believe police officers are murdering black people.
At least that’s what Twitter activist, “Gorilla mindset” guru and all-around Internet embarrassment Mike Cernovich seems to suggest in a recent blog post.
A couple of months ago, you may recall, Cernovich suggested that he and his Twitter followers had “manifested” Hillary Clinton’s illness with their minds. Call it the power of negative thinking: by imagining Hillary having coughing fits, they literally gave her pneumonia.
Now Cerno is offering a similar explanation for the police shootings of black men that have roiled the nation over the last several years. As Cerno sees it, black men are “summoning the demon” and bringing murder on themselves by believing the media accounts of black men getting killed by police officers.
You may object that the media only writes about black men getting killed by police officers because, you know, black men are getting killed by police officers. But Cerno apparently lives in a world beyond mere facts.
“I look at issues from a branding and marketing perspective,” Cernovich explains.
Brand value is subjective. Statistics about race and crime matter far less than the subjective feelings people have towards one another.
So forget the actual facts of police officers killing black people. In Cerno’s reality, the key problem is that
[t]he brand of police (and whites) has suffered a lot of damage due to fake news media propaganda.
As a result, he argues, “millions of blacks believe police are out to kill them,” which makes
every interaction [between blacks and police] more toxic for both parties.
In mindset we call this Summoning the Demon. Your subjective beliefs create the very monster your fear.
Hey Rocky, watch me pull a racist police officer with an itchy trigger finger out of my hat!
“Consider this,” Cerno continues,
A black man is pulled over. He believes (rightly or wrongly, as your opinion doesn’t matter for this example) that the police officer poses a threat to his life. The black man is going to be tense. Sensing the driver’s tension, the police officer is going to view the black man as a threat. They will feed off of one another’s energy until something bad happens.
Nothin’ up my sleeve! PRESTO!
The belief manifested the reality.
Really, dude?
Again, I do not live in the world of “absolute truth.” It doesn’t matter if racism in policing is real or not if millions of people believe it’s real.
What about gravity? If millions of people convinced themselves that gravity was fake, would they and all their belongings just float away into the sky?
My personal belief is that police are not actively discriminating against blacks. If millions of other people feel differently, then we have a branding problem.
Mike, maybe gravity is just a “branding problem.” Why not test this proposition by convincing yourself that gravity is an illusion, then walking off the nearest skyscraper?
I’ll just be waiting here for you to report back to me on the results of this experiment.
Somehow I doubt Cerno will try this little trick. Because in his mind some facts — like gravity — actually matter, while other facts — like black people getting shot by cops — are just a “branding problem.”
Cerno’s solution to this little “branding problem?” He thinks the incoming President Trump should “hire Kanye West as sort of a ‘brand ambassador'” who could, I guess, convince black people that police are the friendliest, least racist people on planet earth. Through the magical power of his rapping, I guess.
That’s his actual “solution.”
I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
@Bina: I was actually thinking that the only banks he could get a loan from anymore are in Russia and China, and for some reason Deutsche Bank.
Uh, what? No no, Mikey, you got all the right words, but in the wrong order. You must have meant to say “If racism in policing is real it doesn’t matter if millions of people believe it or not.”
If a non-racist cop pulls a black guy over and the black guy is nervous, then maybe that could escalate the tension in an unexpected way? If the cop is bad at their job?
But if a racist cop pulls a black guy over it doesn’t matter if he’s tense or calm because the racist cop is still a fucking racist and is going to be just as likely to pull out his gun either way.
You know, I saw the title and immediately began forming a snarky post about how police officers sense your feelings like some sort of animal but I was beaten to the punch.
And the “mindset” thing–I think that actually would be more appropriate to say that the cops come in with a certain “mindset” when it comes to black people, you know, racism.
Ah, yes, branding problem. Like how cigarettes have a branding problem. If you don’t believe cigarettes will give you cancer or heart disease, you won’t get cancer or heart disease from cigerettes. How you got that cancer and heart disease, who knows, but it’s not from cigerettes! 😀
pahahahahaha
“Reality is subjective! Nothing’s really real! Everything is perception!”
rewind-scrub to a different track
“Conservatives live in the real world! Abstract art is stupid! Postmodernism is nothing more than the triumph of the leftist failure-state!”
Sweet sassy Sif, Cernie! Try to be just a little bit internally consistent! Just a smidge!
How is it easier to believe in actual fucking magic than to come to grips with the fundamentally unjust nature of capitalist society?
I mean, I know how, it’s a good excuse to feel smug about your own good luck while doing fuck all for anyone else but sweet baby cheesehorse.
This is genuinely disturbing.
I used to believe that the majority of people were rational, and that if their beliefs and values differed from mine, they could at least point to some logical argument that supported them.
Not now.
These people think that right and wrong, fact and fiction are indistinguishable.
In other words the people that shout the loudest and believe the hardest are the correctest!
Scary.
Why would Kanye West want a Trump administration job convincing black people that police are awesome? Isn’t being richer than Trump already enough for Kanye to keep his current job?
Millions of whites have no idea what’s actually going on, or what black people actually believe is going on. (by the way : it’s the same thing)
No one thinks the police are “out to kill” them. But only whites assume that no cop is ever gonna use violence on them.
I am an old white man. What scares me are rich old white men. They have done the most damage to my life.
Or you could call it ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ like everyone else. The idea has been around for rather a long time.
Cernovich reminds me of Scott Adams – they both take concepts or terms that have been around for decades if not longer, re-name them, and take credit for an ‘original’ idea.
And yes, as already noted up-thread, why the switch from ‘liberal leftie postmodern relativity = BAD’ to ‘facts don’t matter it’s all subjective’ ??
@NicolaLuna, is that your dog in the pic? It’s even more adorbs now 🙂
@Mish
You too ? Seriously. When I think of Tcherno, I always picture Adams’ face first. They’ve both got this super annoying tendency to spout pseudo-intellectual drivel from a position of authority, and similar writing styles when doing that very thing, down to starting every sentence by exposing their “credentials” as master persuader or… whatever the hell it is that Tcherno is supposed to be.
Has anyone ever seen them both in the same room ?
Spot the logical inconsistency :
African Americans are at relatively high risk of being killed by cops because they believe, falsely, that they are at relatively high risk of being killed by cops.
@Sinkable John,
ohmygodIjustwatchedsomeofthis…thing that I found on Twitter. It’s Cernovich discussing #dumpStarWars. He says (eventually, cos my god he can ramble) that he regrets being forced to deal with all this stuff that’s beneath him – ‘beneath me!’ he says, several times. But someone has to do it, apparently. Not sure why.
He seems unable to stop fiddling with his hair. He then eventually realises that the backlighting is a problem, so he moves. Behind him is a couple of shelves with books – I mention this because he takes care to point out the books, three or more times. “See how smart I am? See how smart I am?” “Look at all that book-learnin'”. Sure, if said once, I could accept it as self-deprecating, or satire, but he’s quite overcome by the fact that he has a rather small number of books in his possession.
I’m going to try to watch the whole thing. Unless someone else wants to, and then provide a rundown? Ease my pain? 🙂
@Mish
I watched the first 20 seconds and I think something in my head exploded. I’ll get to the next 20 seconds eventually, just gimme a minute to catch my breath.
Also I was watching a “debate” between two of France’s national embarassments, white supremacists who disagree on… I dunno what, really. I kinda skipped straight to the part where one assaults the other and has his bodyguards walk him off the set in a headlock.
Well, not half an hour into dinner with my siblings and mother and Mom starts yammering about “liberal news media.” I try to stop her, she shouts me down and says she’s entitled to her opinion. I tell her I’m entitled to mine, she says I’m 16 and need to grow up.
This fucking break can’t go by fast enough can it.
@John,
Oooooh, that ‘debate’ sounds fun. I wouldn’t even need subtitles, by the sound of it 😀
Also, how’s stuff going for you atm? How are awesome mum and niece?
@ Troubelle:
*sigh* I lost my parents when I was 17, lived with my very conservative grandparents and extended family. I had spent much of my upbringing with my grandfolx, (weekends and a couple summers) so I knew… but being raised by parents who were really leftist, it was… well, it sucked. Like being tossed in a shark tank for a sensitive left-leaning kid. That was a long time ago, but I remember. And I empathize.
ETA: to make it worse, the music went instantly from Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger to Merle Haggard and Frank Sinatra 🙁 🙁 🙁
What the hell is Cernovich’s problem? We know he’s an asshole, but he seems obsessed with “magical thinking.”
This seems like another iteration of the ‘just world’ fallacy, on top of the bullshit Secret thinking.
If black people get shot, it’s because they aren’t thinking the right way. They brought it upon themselves. If they were doing everything right then this wouldn’t happen to them.
White people don’t have to be afraid of the police because they DO think the right way. Since nothing bad happens to them or the (white) people they know, they must be doing the right thing!
Ugh.
I’m going to train black people to stop bullets with their minds Matrix style.
@Troubelle
Ouch. Being told I was too young to form legit opinions was one of the most hurtful things when I was 16 (but hey, now I’m told that I’m too old to have feelings, or something along those lines – funny what a small 8 years can do). It’s even worse when it’s a parent.
Hey, for what it’s worth, I’m glad for your opinions and the notions that come with them. And if age really has to have anything to do with that, then growing up is the last thing you need. Parents should be proud when their kids rise above expectations, even if it ends up making them uncomfortable.
@Mish
Overall I’m not complaining :p how about you ?
I’m out of The Stuff, again, so the sleepsies elude me for the time being. Moar time to play Skyri… I mean write. Yeah. Totally write.
Matter of fact we’re babysitting the kid again and she got here today, so the shenanigans haven’t fully started yet. So far she’s figured that since falling is pretty fun, but getting hurt is not quite as fun, falling without getting hurt is the way to do it. So she’s been practicing her falling. Much laughter and screams of joy.
As for da mutha, she’s pissed at the election last month, and pissed at the election next year. So she’s been spending all her time in her workshop back behind the house, painting. From what I’ve seen, the point of the two pieces she’s working on right now is not to make peace with the kind of people who got Trump elected over there, and who’re trying to get Le Pen elected here.
I’m hoping the situation doesn’t get any worse, because you can’t imagine how many different kinds of sharp implements a painter has access to. And we live pretty close to Vichy. I foresee the dark ahead.
@Sinkable John
Thanks. It’s good to know I’m not the first kid to put up with this kind of bullshit. My mom has a few redeeming qualities (being for marijuana legalization, at least somewhat grasping the concept of a person being transgender, and probably not going to boot me out on the street if I start dating a chick), but to be honest, I think she may be too far gone.
At the same time, I have the not-unreasonable belief that she expects me to create revenue for her when she’s older. I don’t believe that that’s how you should treat people if you want them to give you money once they live far away from you. (….Okay, unless America starts going right down the drain, I’m probably going to remain in the tri-state. But I doubt she’ll drive to my house and demand cash in 15 years or so. [If the proposed condition becomes true, John, one of your countrymen told me that Sweden might be recommended. Could I get your word on this?])
Alrght I’m summoned. What the fuck do you want?
Fake news like cameras that record actual real life?
Racists keep saying that we’re “only hearing about these issues now”, implying this never happened until recently. But we’re only hearing about these issues now because recording software exists on every cell phone. LA Riot occurred because footage of racist police was captured by sheer chance.
Well of fucking course he would suggest Kanye West, the same pro-Trump Kanye who walked out on his own concert to the displeasure of so many fans while ranting about politics.
A ‘brand ambassador’ in his ‘magical’ mind just means “you must act the way I want you to act”.
I didn’t think I could dislike this man more or respect him less.
I was wrong.