A Dumb Cultural Narrative

My generation was poised in an interesting spot in regards to racism. Anti-racist sentiments were focused on overt racism. While few people in my generation observed much overt racism, we were confident that it was more prevalent in the recent past.

It was very easy to take on a position against racism. All it meant was that you believed that the dignity of an individual is something we ought to offer someone. We all knew people of various races that were kind, and we were able to see high variability of individuals within that race.

Today things have changed. It has been a subtle change over the last two decades to the point that the whole discussion is different.

No longer are people concerned with overt racism nor dignity of the individual. Today we are focused on the original sin of whites, the covert racism that leads to inequality of results, victim/predator narratives, cultural appropriation, etc.

We are so much further away from the times of overt racism being a common thing, and deep in a dumb improvable cultural narrative that selfishly serves some at the expense of others, that when someone says they are against racism, you don’t know if they are just a kind individual or a tyrannical asshat.

Unfortunately, the identity politics on one side is leading to a reactionary form of identity politics. The modern understanding of “anti-racism” won’t win the cultural battle. Their narrative doesn’t escape narrow cult-like atmospheres and it is unmarketable to a wider culture. The reactionary movement is growing, but I can’t imagine that will become the new narrative.

Of course, I would love for people to go back to more individualism, but unfortunately, identity politics and collectivism is growing. I doubt one ideology will win the battle to become a prominent cultural narrative. I guess we can hope to start seeing a prominent monolithic cultural narrative fracture and disunity flourish into succession movements. Of course, it is probably more likely that disunity will cause more government violence in an effort to create unity where none is possible.