I very much appreciate this perspective. I as well am frustrated by the lack of nuance that is expressed by most black intellectuals today. In our political climate, nuance is commonly perceived with suspicion, as it weakens the hyperbolic arguments of demagogues.
It isn’t just a black intellectual problem though; politics in general is awash with shallow analysis. For example, there is little effort by the political chatting caste to discuss or understand the political environment beyond the binary ideological model of “left” and “right.”
Without going into too much detail, I certainly see where the substance of this argument comes from. That originates from our history of black public intellectuals, almost all of which rose to public prominence by declaring what a sucky mess America had become because of the evils of white supremacy's disregard for civil rights and 'black bodies'. It is, outside of jazz, our most prominent intellectual inheritance. I suppose Cornel West would differ as he speaks quite highly of what he calls the prophetic tradition in [black American] Christianity, but much of that is also driven by opposition to a particular kind of evil.
One of the things I aim to do is to make some documentation of the library of black authors I have inherited. One only needs to think a moment to remember the parades of 'intellectuals' making the annual cover of Ebony Magazines "100 Most Influential Black Leaders". But what about Eldridge Cleaver? What kind of standard bearer was he? How many of us are quick to refer to the work of Molefi Kete Asante these days? I happen to have a copy in my hand. (Temple University Press, of course)
Check out this review on the back cover.
"In its refusal to construct explanatory or interpretive accounts that enable us to comprehend the multicultural and multiethnic character of the universe, Western inquiry is the villain of the piece... Asante's dramaturgy presents an alternative mode of inquiry. It persuasively suggests a model of rhetorical and scholarly production that fosters and accounts for the multiplicity of the human condition. What Asante achieves in his energetic analyses of such Afro-American orators as Nat Turner, Henry Highland Garnet, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X alone is worth the price of his efforts. His elaboration of symbols within Western and African-American rhetorical traditions suggests the appropriateness of an Afrocentric 'bravo'"
-- Houston Baker, American Journal of Sociology
From this, you would think people all over the world would have benefitted from such wisdom. Have we? What is Afrocentric today?
Thank you for the article. White intellectuals have been taken in by these theories as much, in my opinion. Like all ideas, there's a grain of truth in them - if you look hard enough at every human interaction, you will be able to find evidence of human frailty at work. The question is: why would you look so hard for evidence that people are bad? Power, anger, intellectual conceit.... like with every ideology since the dawn of time.
There is, rather, a conflict among black intellectuals - those thinkers who write here and elsewhere confronting the Coates and Kendi position. In fact Ithink it will be the former who save us by representing the many ordinary people who happen to be black and with whom we whites and others share workplaces, schools, recreational venues, etc. at least I hope so.
It could be interesting to have a debate on here about the extent to which we can agree with CRT advocates - on specific issues. I'm from England and I just read an article about racism in English tabloid papers e.g. Daily Mail and I would certainly agree that there is a systemic racism problem in that sleazy world. You in the US have some pretty awful media too. Any thoughts? Have a good Sunday
To quote Upton Sinclair, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it." There is a lucrative market for people who want to blame white people (or wealthy people, or immigrants, etc.) for all their present problems. Rational arguments do not work on people who have reached their conclusions irrationally. If race- blaming ever loses its ability to generate income for this who employ it, it will go away. Unfortunately, I fear that day is far off.
We here at https://enteringstageright.substack.com/ - a podcast dedicated to conservative political and cultural ideas, are thrilled to connect with Journal of Free Black Thought.
From that I perceived the author was overly rational, so likely to only pay attention where someone has an opinion DIFFERENT than his own. But I liked the pub and this particular article EXCEEDINGLY well. HOPE to prove that, like I "said," this afternoon, M. Kelley.
It would be a much stronger argument if you had taken the time to cite those of the "black intellectual elite" who are spreading conspiracy theories. Who are these people? bell hooks? Shelby Steele? Cornel West? Glenn Loury? Ibram Kendi? Thomas Sowell? Henry Louis Gates? Nikkole Hannah-Jones? John McWhorter? Ta-Nehisi Coates?
This article is a classic example of a person claiming that a specific group is engaging in a conspiratorial act but cites no evidence of the actual endeavor. Go and read Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in America Politics. He named names and showed examples.
The point was not to call out individuals, the point is to highlight the behavior and thought processes. 5 years from now could be a new lineup of people but the ideas & behavior patterns remain the same...so identifying people wouldn't matter.
If the shoe fits that particular person, then it applies to them. You don't need me to identify the people.
Thank you for your essay, Mr. Coleman. Perhaps you can revise this essay to include specifics, or you can do that in a future essay. Either way, specific examples, even one, clearly discussed, would bring a lot of force to your thinking.
It's not about "calling out"; it's about citing examples. This article is functionally meaningless since you cited no examples. The article itself is a perfect example of your complaint regarding "black intellectual elite" in "academia" spouting "white supremacy." As as matter of fact, you provided no example of "highlighting behavior and thought." You have smeared a whole class of people by not citing who is doing what. This is intellectual cowardice and Class A BULLSHIT.
If your essay was presented in a college writing course, a professor would ask you to show examples. You cited no individuals, no books or any passages or quotes. How can you talk about "highlighting behavior and thought processes" without showing examples of such? "Highlighting behavior and thought processes" --"interrogating the text," "teasing out," etc -- is class academic jargon and process. Yet you can't show one example of these so-called conspiracists?
I will give you an example since you appear to be too lazy to do so.
Michael Eric Dyson wrote the preface to the now classic text of white supremacy, White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. When I saw the book and his name on the cover, I said this is BS. A year later or so later, a small group of us read it and the book was bullshit because DiAngelo is part of academic world that has embraced the current bout of stupid ideas centered around race. She is also DEI consultant who makes money going to businesses talking about America's favorite subject, race. She has no sense of history; she contradicts herself. She herself is a racist who projects her own racism or discomfort with blacks onto all whites. It's a bullshit work endorsed by a "leading" black intellectual at a major American university, Michael Eric Dyson.
Yet you made sweeping assertions about a "black intellectual elite" and didn't have the integrity to cite one example. Not one.
You are engaging in propaganda masking itself as free black thought.
I didn't have any big issues with Adam's views though I would emphasise the cultishness more than the conspiracy theory element. I'll look for his book. Thanks for tip.
You took the wiser course, M. Coleman, I now believe. Didn't get either much reading or writing done. Busy on another forum, Glen Loury's Substack. Tried to promote Your work, prolly to limited avail.
I got to sleep at 6:00pm EDT, because I get up around 2 or 3am. Just a habit, is all.
Signed back on because I got through the first six chapters and continue to find joy and amazement. I s'pose it's natural to praise someone who thinks like You do.
Keep in mind I don't flatter. Never learned the trick. Too honest for one. For another, couldn't see any long-term value in it, nor short-term either, come to think of it. Besides that, it's just my Way to keep it Real as I can.
All that to say... G'nite, M. Adam... Enjoy rest o' Your day!
You have to back out because you can't defend it. It is lazy, it is cowardice and lacks integrity. If you write BS, you will be called out. I'm not dictating what you should write. I'm challenging the way you wrote it: a mountain of vague generalities posing as discourse.
Well, why wait until this afternoon. This should be short work. First off, M. Kelley, I don't think You've perceived the PURPOSE of the article. It's to describe a TYPE, not a particular PERSON or GROUP. Or perhaps You missed these points. Which is why I generally read something I'm gonna comment on twice.
"However, what happens if someone presents information that is flawed in a pattern format? I believe that most people will choose to believe the pattern instead of questioning the information."
YES! A pandemic of this.
"The white supremacy conspiracy theory claims that everything in American society was created for the benefit of white people, and as such, any disparity between white people and minorities is due to that racist system. This conspiracy is a catch-all for any social issue, any historical event, and any negative outcome for black Americans."
I've only recently started STUDYING current racism "discourse," but immediately noticed same.
"When you spend your entire academic career believing in one particular concept, you will fight tooth and nail to ward off common-sense arguments against it."
When people have invested their SELVES in ANY kind-a argument, they tend to fight "tooth and nail," right? But, yeah, dunno if it's POSSIBLE for someone who's invested their whole CAREER. From the sentence preceding this one:
"They have the intellect to understand the complexities of social conditioning and human behavior, but they lack the willingness to accept that they might be wrong."
Just human nature to NEVER wanna admit You're wrong, right? ;) = 😉
But here's where I disagree VEHEMENTLY with the author. Because I perceive that MOST-a the folks I've read on the subject of racism from those who believe in the conspiracy theory do NOT have the intellect to see the nuances. M. Kendi? M. Crenshaw? See, I don't even have an Associate's degree (failing the REQUIRED "Speech Communications" course).
So I just tend to look at the CONTENTS of the thoughts. Who said what? Nothing. WHAT is said? EVERYTHING.
A couple more GREAT points:
"For these black intellectuals, their race is used as a defense mechanism to protect their ego, fame, and profits."
"They are walking contradictions because their conspiracy has no teeth—certainly white supremacy isn’t biting them."
Yeah, and I expected BETTER from academics because my Dad was a Professor of Journalism. That was a different age, tho.
"Conspiracy theories overlook all the nuances of a particular situation in favor of apparent patterns. When such patterns rule, facts and nuance die."
Yah... And it's not just the conspiracy theories, but the fact that these folks buy the hype they get from mainstream and social media. Whereas to a THINKER, these are points AGAINST the people espousing the conspiracy theories.
TY (thank You), M. Coleman. There aren't a LOTTA people who will take this stand. TYTY.
"It's to describe a TYPE, not a particular PERSON or GROUP. Or perhaps You missed these points."
Yes, let's describe a "type" by presenting no examples of the "type" by which will be able to differentiate Type A from Type B. This is the "logic" of the era.
Is physics a conspiracy? Why is the Eiffel Tower shaped the way it is? It is only 10,000 tons of wrought iron and does not have to support twice its own weight in concrete, glass and plumbing.
Each of the Twin Towers had 100,000 tons of steel. The 10,000 page NCSTAR1 report by the NIST does not even specify the total amount of concrete in the towers. There are skyscrapers all over the world more than 200 meters in height. They must all deal with the same gravity. Why would anyone care about the distribution of steel as long as they don't collapse. But coming straight down in less than 30 seconds should raise eyebrows and demand data.
It is now really amusing that scientists and engineers at NASA could orchestrate an inelastic collision with an asteroid 6 million miles away but have not commented on such a collision between the top of a skyscraper and it's lower 90 stories in 21 years.
The distribution of steel in the Twin Towers did not show. Search the internet. Try finding any vaguely detailed discussion of the distribution of steel down the Twin Towers. And that steel had to hold up lots of concrete and glass. The Eiffel Tower is only 10,000 tons of iron, each tower had 100,000 tons of steel and was 35% taller than the ET.
The scientific absurdity is incredible. But we are supposed to get all emotional about the videos displaying the obvious release of a huge amount of energy. Oh, that was from the potential energy of the mass at that height. Yeah Right!
Black people get mad when people of their own racial background pose the honest truth about their situation. Glenn Loury and John McWhorter clearly point out the first thing keeping black people down from progress and success... is black people. And this article is complicit in keeping your race down.
Here is an Ice Cube song from 30 years ago c1991...
Could you tell me who released our animal instinct?
And the white man sittin' there tickled pink
Laughin' at us on the avenue
Bustin' caps at each other after havin' brew
We can't enjoy ourselves
Too busy jealous
At each other's wealth
Commin' up is just in me
But the Black community is full of envy
Too much back stabbin'
While I look up the street I see all the Japs grabbin'
Every vacant lot in my neighborhood
Build a store, and sell their goods
To the county recips
You know us po niggas, nappy hair and big lips?
Four or five babies on your crotch
And you expect Uncle Sam to help us out?
We ain't nothin' but porch monkeys
To the average bigot, redneck honky
You say comin' up is a must
But before we can come up, take a look at US
Break em off some
And all y'all dope-dealers
Your as bad as the po-lice cause ya kill us
You got rich when you started slangin' dope
But you ain't built us a supermarket
So when can spend our money with the blacks
Too busy buyin' gold an' Caddilacs
That's what ya doin' with the money that ya raisin'
Exploitin' us like the Caucasians did
For four hundred years, I got four hundred tears for four hundred peers
Died last year from gang-related crimes
That's why I got gang-related rhymes
But when I do a show ta kick some facts
Us Blacks don't know how ta act
Sometimes I believe the hype, man
We're messin' up ourselves and blame the white man
But don't point the finger you jiggaboo
Take a look at yourself ya dumb nigga you
Pretty soon hip-hop won't be so nice
No Ice Cube, just Vanilla Ice
And y'all sit and scream and cuss
But there's no one ta blame, but US
Break em off some
Us will always sing the blues
'Cause all we care about is hairstyles and tennis shoes
But if ya step on mine ya pushed a button
"Cause I'll beat you down like it ain't nothin'
Just like a beast
But I'm the first nigga ta holler out (peace, black man)
I beat my wife and children to a pulp
When I get drunk and smoke dope
Got a bad heart condition
Still eat hog-mogs an' chitlin's
Bet my money on the dice and the horses
Jobless, so I'm a hope for the armed forces
Go to church but they tease us
Wit' a picture of a blue-eyed Jesus
They used to call me Negro
After all this time I'm still bustin' up the chiffarobe
No respect and didn't know it
And I'm havin' more babies than I really can afford
9/11? Throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Since disavowal of 9/11 "conspiracy theories" sounds so intellectually dishonest, I'm concluding this essay is willfully misleading. Laying a good foundation regarding the "white supremacy rules the modern world" mentality and shoehorning in some garbage which exonerates the very real guilty parties who committed 9/11 and countless other atrocities, including deliberately sewing *this very* division among the races. In other words, limited hangout.
"Today, I don’t believe in these conspiracy theories for multiple reasons. For one, I believe that most negative actions on a grand scale are not necessarily done out of malice but out of incompetence or carelessness. Just because there is a pattern does not mean that it is intentional. Even if I have unresolved questions about the pattern, this does not mean that there aren’t legitimate answers to explain it. "
It usually goes in the reverse direction. People assume bad things happen because government is just incompetent and inefficient, but when they delve into the details they learn how implausible that is. Waving 9/11 off as a "failure of intelligence" is letting them off the hook.
Piggyback this on top of a solid assessment of the race issue is the very definition of a limited hangout.
I very much appreciate this perspective. I as well am frustrated by the lack of nuance that is expressed by most black intellectuals today. In our political climate, nuance is commonly perceived with suspicion, as it weakens the hyperbolic arguments of demagogues.
It isn’t just a black intellectual problem though; politics in general is awash with shallow analysis. For example, there is little effort by the political chatting caste to discuss or understand the political environment beyond the binary ideological model of “left” and “right.”
Without going into too much detail, I certainly see where the substance of this argument comes from. That originates from our history of black public intellectuals, almost all of which rose to public prominence by declaring what a sucky mess America had become because of the evils of white supremacy's disregard for civil rights and 'black bodies'. It is, outside of jazz, our most prominent intellectual inheritance. I suppose Cornel West would differ as he speaks quite highly of what he calls the prophetic tradition in [black American] Christianity, but much of that is also driven by opposition to a particular kind of evil.
One of the things I aim to do is to make some documentation of the library of black authors I have inherited. One only needs to think a moment to remember the parades of 'intellectuals' making the annual cover of Ebony Magazines "100 Most Influential Black Leaders". But what about Eldridge Cleaver? What kind of standard bearer was he? How many of us are quick to refer to the work of Molefi Kete Asante these days? I happen to have a copy in my hand. (Temple University Press, of course)
Check out this review on the back cover.
"In its refusal to construct explanatory or interpretive accounts that enable us to comprehend the multicultural and multiethnic character of the universe, Western inquiry is the villain of the piece... Asante's dramaturgy presents an alternative mode of inquiry. It persuasively suggests a model of rhetorical and scholarly production that fosters and accounts for the multiplicity of the human condition. What Asante achieves in his energetic analyses of such Afro-American orators as Nat Turner, Henry Highland Garnet, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X alone is worth the price of his efforts. His elaboration of symbols within Western and African-American rhetorical traditions suggests the appropriateness of an Afrocentric 'bravo'"
-- Houston Baker, American Journal of Sociology
From this, you would think people all over the world would have benefitted from such wisdom. Have we? What is Afrocentric today?
Thank you for the article. White intellectuals have been taken in by these theories as much, in my opinion. Like all ideas, there's a grain of truth in them - if you look hard enough at every human interaction, you will be able to find evidence of human frailty at work. The question is: why would you look so hard for evidence that people are bad? Power, anger, intellectual conceit.... like with every ideology since the dawn of time.
Yah, good points M. Campbell!
There is, rather, a conflict among black intellectuals - those thinkers who write here and elsewhere confronting the Coates and Kendi position. In fact Ithink it will be the former who save us by representing the many ordinary people who happen to be black and with whom we whites and others share workplaces, schools, recreational venues, etc. at least I hope so.
It could be interesting to have a debate on here about the extent to which we can agree with CRT advocates - on specific issues. I'm from England and I just read an article about racism in English tabloid papers e.g. Daily Mail and I would certainly agree that there is a systemic racism problem in that sleazy world. You in the US have some pretty awful media too. Any thoughts? Have a good Sunday
Adam Coleman's material here: https://wrongspeak.net/adam-b-coleman/ Having a look now.
PERFECTO!
To quote Upton Sinclair, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it." There is a lucrative market for people who want to blame white people (or wealthy people, or immigrants, etc.) for all their present problems. Rational arguments do not work on people who have reached their conclusions irrationally. If race- blaming ever loses its ability to generate income for this who employ it, it will go away. Unfortunately, I fear that day is far off.
We here at https://enteringstageright.substack.com/ - a podcast dedicated to conservative political and cultural ideas, are thrilled to connect with Journal of Free Black Thought.
Good to meet you (however virtually)! We've subscribed to your Substack.
I use “M.” like the French do, for Monsieur but ALSO for Mesdames and Mademoiselle EQUALLY. ALL CAPS are ITALICS. :)
I just finished reading William Zinsser's "On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition" and I despair.
I bought Your book, M. Coleman, and will start reading it, prolly later today after a short walk and some writing.
Part of the writing will necessarily hafta be a rebuttal of M. Kelley. We could not POSSIBLY disagree more. My only complaint with the author is https://wrongspeak.net/how-to-effectively-communicate-for-political-discussions/
From that I perceived the author was overly rational, so likely to only pay attention where someone has an opinion DIFFERENT than his own. But I liked the pub and this particular article EXCEEDINGLY well. HOPE to prove that, like I "said," this afternoon, M. Kelley.
It would be a much stronger argument if you had taken the time to cite those of the "black intellectual elite" who are spreading conspiracy theories. Who are these people? bell hooks? Shelby Steele? Cornel West? Glenn Loury? Ibram Kendi? Thomas Sowell? Henry Louis Gates? Nikkole Hannah-Jones? John McWhorter? Ta-Nehisi Coates?
This article is a classic example of a person claiming that a specific group is engaging in a conspiratorial act but cites no evidence of the actual endeavor. Go and read Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in America Politics. He named names and showed examples.
The point was not to call out individuals, the point is to highlight the behavior and thought processes. 5 years from now could be a new lineup of people but the ideas & behavior patterns remain the same...so identifying people wouldn't matter.
If the shoe fits that particular person, then it applies to them. You don't need me to identify the people.
Thank you for your essay, Mr. Coleman. Perhaps you can revise this essay to include specifics, or you can do that in a future essay. Either way, specific examples, even one, clearly discussed, would bring a lot of force to your thinking.
It's not about "calling out"; it's about citing examples. This article is functionally meaningless since you cited no examples. The article itself is a perfect example of your complaint regarding "black intellectual elite" in "academia" spouting "white supremacy." As as matter of fact, you provided no example of "highlighting behavior and thought." You have smeared a whole class of people by not citing who is doing what. This is intellectual cowardice and Class A BULLSHIT.
If your essay was presented in a college writing course, a professor would ask you to show examples. You cited no individuals, no books or any passages or quotes. How can you talk about "highlighting behavior and thought processes" without showing examples of such? "Highlighting behavior and thought processes" --"interrogating the text," "teasing out," etc -- is class academic jargon and process. Yet you can't show one example of these so-called conspiracists?
I will give you an example since you appear to be too lazy to do so.
Michael Eric Dyson wrote the preface to the now classic text of white supremacy, White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. When I saw the book and his name on the cover, I said this is BS. A year later or so later, a small group of us read it and the book was bullshit because DiAngelo is part of academic world that has embraced the current bout of stupid ideas centered around race. She is also DEI consultant who makes money going to businesses talking about America's favorite subject, race. She has no sense of history; she contradicts herself. She herself is a racist who projects her own racism or discomfort with blacks onto all whites. It's a bullshit work endorsed by a "leading" black intellectual at a major American university, Michael Eric Dyson.
Yet you made sweeping assertions about a "black intellectual elite" and didn't have the integrity to cite one example. Not one.
You are engaging in propaganda masking itself as free black thought.
Free black thought yet you want to dictate what I should have said and the way I should have said it.
"cowardice" "bullshit" "propaganda" "lazy"
It doesn't sound like you want a discussion, so I'm going to back out of this conversation. Have a good day.
Thanks for your article. Best wishes
Your article has spurred me to write my next substack post. https://jcampbell.substack.com/p/seeing-systemic-racism-everywhere?justPublished=true
Interesting post. I dunno I'd recommend M. Coleman's book to You though. Because his view of racism is quite a bit different than Yours is.
His views resonate with me STRONGLY, but that's just me.
I didn't have any big issues with Adam's views though I would emphasise the cultishness more than the conspiracy theory element. I'll look for his book. Thanks for tip.
You took the wiser course, M. Coleman, I now believe. Didn't get either much reading or writing done. Busy on another forum, Glen Loury's Substack. Tried to promote Your work, prolly to limited avail.
I got to sleep at 6:00pm EDT, because I get up around 2 or 3am. Just a habit, is all.
Signed back on because I got through the first six chapters and continue to find joy and amazement. I s'pose it's natural to praise someone who thinks like You do.
Keep in mind I don't flatter. Never learned the trick. Too honest for one. For another, couldn't see any long-term value in it, nor short-term either, come to think of it. Besides that, it's just my Way to keep it Real as I can.
All that to say... G'nite, M. Adam... Enjoy rest o' Your day!
💜💓❤🙏❤💓💜💓🙏💓
You have to back out because you can't defend it. It is lazy, it is cowardice and lacks integrity. If you write BS, you will be called out. I'm not dictating what you should write. I'm challenging the way you wrote it: a mountain of vague generalities posing as discourse.
Well, why wait until this afternoon. This should be short work. First off, M. Kelley, I don't think You've perceived the PURPOSE of the article. It's to describe a TYPE, not a particular PERSON or GROUP. Or perhaps You missed these points. Which is why I generally read something I'm gonna comment on twice.
"However, what happens if someone presents information that is flawed in a pattern format? I believe that most people will choose to believe the pattern instead of questioning the information."
YES! A pandemic of this.
"The white supremacy conspiracy theory claims that everything in American society was created for the benefit of white people, and as such, any disparity between white people and minorities is due to that racist system. This conspiracy is a catch-all for any social issue, any historical event, and any negative outcome for black Americans."
I've only recently started STUDYING current racism "discourse," but immediately noticed same.
"When you spend your entire academic career believing in one particular concept, you will fight tooth and nail to ward off common-sense arguments against it."
When people have invested their SELVES in ANY kind-a argument, they tend to fight "tooth and nail," right? But, yeah, dunno if it's POSSIBLE for someone who's invested their whole CAREER. From the sentence preceding this one:
"They have the intellect to understand the complexities of social conditioning and human behavior, but they lack the willingness to accept that they might be wrong."
Just human nature to NEVER wanna admit You're wrong, right? ;) = 😉
But here's where I disagree VEHEMENTLY with the author. Because I perceive that MOST-a the folks I've read on the subject of racism from those who believe in the conspiracy theory do NOT have the intellect to see the nuances. M. Kendi? M. Crenshaw? See, I don't even have an Associate's degree (failing the REQUIRED "Speech Communications" course).
So I just tend to look at the CONTENTS of the thoughts. Who said what? Nothing. WHAT is said? EVERYTHING.
A couple more GREAT points:
"For these black intellectuals, their race is used as a defense mechanism to protect their ego, fame, and profits."
"They are walking contradictions because their conspiracy has no teeth—certainly white supremacy isn’t biting them."
Yeah, and I expected BETTER from academics because my Dad was a Professor of Journalism. That was a different age, tho.
"Conspiracy theories overlook all the nuances of a particular situation in favor of apparent patterns. When such patterns rule, facts and nuance die."
Yah... And it's not just the conspiracy theories, but the fact that these folks buy the hype they get from mainstream and social media. Whereas to a THINKER, these are points AGAINST the people espousing the conspiracy theories.
TY (thank You), M. Coleman. There aren't a LOTTA people who will take this stand. TYTY.
"It's to describe a TYPE, not a particular PERSON or GROUP. Or perhaps You missed these points."
Yes, let's describe a "type" by presenting no examples of the "type" by which will be able to differentiate Type A from Type B. This is the "logic" of the era.
You're making comments in an attacking way.
Is physics a conspiracy? Why is the Eiffel Tower shaped the way it is? It is only 10,000 tons of wrought iron and does not have to support twice its own weight in concrete, glass and plumbing.
Each of the Twin Towers had 100,000 tons of steel. The 10,000 page NCSTAR1 report by the NIST does not even specify the total amount of concrete in the towers. There are skyscrapers all over the world more than 200 meters in height. They must all deal with the same gravity. Why would anyone care about the distribution of steel as long as they don't collapse. But coming straight down in less than 30 seconds should raise eyebrows and demand data.
It is now really amusing that scientists and engineers at NASA could orchestrate an inelastic collision with an asteroid 6 million miles away but have not commented on such a collision between the top of a skyscraper and it's lower 90 stories in 21 years.
Think about the shape of the Eiffel Tower.
Lots more wrought iron toward the bottom.
The distribution of steel in the Twin Towers did not show. Search the internet. Try finding any vaguely detailed discussion of the distribution of steel down the Twin Towers. And that steel had to hold up lots of concrete and glass. The Eiffel Tower is only 10,000 tons of iron, each tower had 100,000 tons of steel and was 35% taller than the ET.
The scientific absurdity is incredible. But we are supposed to get all emotional about the videos displaying the obvious release of a huge amount of energy. Oh, that was from the potential energy of the mass at that height. Yeah Right!
Black people get mad when people of their own racial background pose the honest truth about their situation. Glenn Loury and John McWhorter clearly point out the first thing keeping black people down from progress and success... is black people. And this article is complicit in keeping your race down.
Here is an Ice Cube song from 30 years ago c1991...
Could you tell me who released our animal instinct?
And the white man sittin' there tickled pink
Laughin' at us on the avenue
Bustin' caps at each other after havin' brew
We can't enjoy ourselves
Too busy jealous
At each other's wealth
Commin' up is just in me
But the Black community is full of envy
Too much back stabbin'
While I look up the street I see all the Japs grabbin'
Every vacant lot in my neighborhood
Build a store, and sell their goods
To the county recips
You know us po niggas, nappy hair and big lips?
Four or five babies on your crotch
And you expect Uncle Sam to help us out?
We ain't nothin' but porch monkeys
To the average bigot, redneck honky
You say comin' up is a must
But before we can come up, take a look at US
Break em off some
And all y'all dope-dealers
Your as bad as the po-lice cause ya kill us
You got rich when you started slangin' dope
But you ain't built us a supermarket
So when can spend our money with the blacks
Too busy buyin' gold an' Caddilacs
That's what ya doin' with the money that ya raisin'
Exploitin' us like the Caucasians did
For four hundred years, I got four hundred tears for four hundred peers
Died last year from gang-related crimes
That's why I got gang-related rhymes
But when I do a show ta kick some facts
Us Blacks don't know how ta act
Sometimes I believe the hype, man
We're messin' up ourselves and blame the white man
But don't point the finger you jiggaboo
Take a look at yourself ya dumb nigga you
Pretty soon hip-hop won't be so nice
No Ice Cube, just Vanilla Ice
And y'all sit and scream and cuss
But there's no one ta blame, but US
Break em off some
Us will always sing the blues
'Cause all we care about is hairstyles and tennis shoes
But if ya step on mine ya pushed a button
"Cause I'll beat you down like it ain't nothin'
Just like a beast
But I'm the first nigga ta holler out (peace, black man)
I beat my wife and children to a pulp
When I get drunk and smoke dope
Got a bad heart condition
Still eat hog-mogs an' chitlin's
Bet my money on the dice and the horses
Jobless, so I'm a hope for the armed forces
Go to church but they tease us
Wit' a picture of a blue-eyed Jesus
They used to call me Negro
After all this time I'm still bustin' up the chiffarobe
No respect and didn't know it
And I'm havin' more babies than I really can afford
In jail 'cause I can't pay the mother
Held back in life because of my color
Now this is just a little summary
Of US, but y'all think it's dumb of me
To hold a mirror to ya face, but trust
Nobody gives a fuck about
US
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znagQqfk1Ek
9/11? Throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Since disavowal of 9/11 "conspiracy theories" sounds so intellectually dishonest, I'm concluding this essay is willfully misleading. Laying a good foundation regarding the "white supremacy rules the modern world" mentality and shoehorning in some garbage which exonerates the very real guilty parties who committed 9/11 and countless other atrocities, including deliberately sewing *this very* division among the races. In other words, limited hangout.
Pls read the piece again.
What exactly did I miss?
"Today, I don’t believe in these conspiracy theories for multiple reasons. For one, I believe that most negative actions on a grand scale are not necessarily done out of malice but out of incompetence or carelessness. Just because there is a pattern does not mean that it is intentional. Even if I have unresolved questions about the pattern, this does not mean that there aren’t legitimate answers to explain it. "
It usually goes in the reverse direction. People assume bad things happen because government is just incompetent and inefficient, but when they delve into the details they learn how implausible that is. Waving 9/11 off as a "failure of intelligence" is letting them off the hook.
Piggyback this on top of a solid assessment of the race issue is the very definition of a limited hangout.