”What is happening to white men right now is exactly what was done to black folks for years.” - Pat Buchanan
Pat Buchanan hasn't held a real job since the Nixon administration. He's made a fortune by being on the wrong side of history and being vocal about it.
And Pat's feeling oppressed, disenfranchised, enslaved even.
Sweet Jesus on a Vespa.
What is it with all the angry old white men? Speaking as an old white man, I've had it pretty damn sweet. I've never been denied a loan, a job, or an opportunity because I was y-chromosomed and white. And I'm far from being privileged and rich like the white guys who are howling outrage over the airwaves.
Last fall one of my readers asked me what, in my opinion, qualified Obama to be president. I took the time to answer, as thoroughly and as honestly as I could.
He responded with an email that, among other grievances, included his assertion that white men were being repressed in the US and that Obama's campaign was just reverse racism.
Holy cow, I thought, this guy is angry.
I've known angry white men all my life. My brother is an angry white man. He's smart, he's informed, and he helped raise three really good kids, but there's something in him that's unfulfilled, and he blames someone else for that.
He's an angry white man.
I had dinner with Ed a few months ago, and he brought a friend of his, an old pal from high school. This friend complained about the spicy Cajun food, the existence of oysters, his ex-wife's bitchery and his children's ingratitude. His shoes were too tight, the waitress too slow, and he'd forgotten to bring his guitar which, for some reason, was Ed's fault. I couldn't wait for dinner to be over.
He was an angry white man.
They seem to grow well in the small confines of small towns with their small opportunities, but I'm sure cities have their share too.
Rush, Bill, Sean, Glen, Pat, Lou and Ann, all rich, privileged and pampered white men. None of them has ever known a really hard day. No one is shooting at them. They probably won't be beaten and jailed any time soon (and more's the pity). They're all enormously fortunate to have been born white, male and American in the late 20th century and yet they squeal like oppressed piggies. Why?
Angry white men. I don't get it.
But I am grateful they gave me a reason to post one of my favorite Monty Python bits ever. Enjoy.
14 comments:
I have a cousin who can't keep a job for anything. He gets fired for calling in too often or he quits for some perceived slight. He's forty-eight years old and has nothing waiting to provide for a retirement. His own son doesn't expect him to remember his birthday. My cousin will be that seventy year old guy working at WalMart wondering why the world hasn't provided for him, all because he didn't take advantage of all the opportunities that were waiting for him.
He's been complaining for the past twenty years, I've been tuning him out for fifteen.
"Sweet Jesus on a Vespa."
GREAT, GREAT line.
That said, I was a victim of racial bias twice on jobs and I was angry about it. I found other jobs fairly quickly, but I did not like getting the shaft. I left both jobs voluntarily rather than play human resource games.
Sometimes such is life.
I enjoyed the inclusion of Ann.
”What is happening to white men right now is exactly what was done to black folks for years.”
It's true. Why, just yesterday, I was almost lynched for whistling at a white woman.
Of course, that was by my wife.
Ba-DUM.
Thanks for a great post, David, and for showing the classic Python piece.
While I have recently began to qualify as an angry, old white man, I am only pissed at having to listen to these big freaking babies bawl over the loss of some imagined right that they alone were entitled to.
I saw a report on the surge in white supremacist groups spurred on by these turds. Angry, young white men with so little self-awareness that they have no idea how idiotic they sound and appear in their faux Nazi get-ups. The perfect constituency for the old bastards.
That's the world they want back...
I forgot to mention that this anger (or rather, insanity) they have is beginning to manifest itself in things like the shooting yesterday at the Holocaust Museum and even in the Tiller shooting. It doesn't take much to incite the nutjobs.
Even Sheperd Smith at Fox can see this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxvunbIWNyI
Just curious here. Is "Angry Muslim" politically correct when applied to the likes of the clown who shot the soldier outside a recruiting station? He (the Muslim) seemed (with conviction) to believe he was doing Allah's work.
Personally I'd like to know he (the killer) will be put through a meat grinder down the road ... but then again, I might qualify as an angry white man.
Charlie,
What we're talking about here is angry white, mostly Christian men who make up, and have made up the power structure in America since its founding. The irony springs from their whining from the heights of that power.
To conflate the angry Muslim with the men we're talking about is irrelevant as Muslims have never been part of our ruling class, but it has proven to be a handy distraction for wingers to bring up when someone notices that we have a bunch of crazy fucks with guns believing the inflammatory rhetoric of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Buchanan, Beck, Savage (Weiner), Levine, Coulter, etc. and, as in the Kansas and Holocaust Museum shootings, acting on that rhetoric.
But the rest of your post, about the desire to see this asshole pay for his crime earns a big hoo-uh here at the Planet.
I guess I don’t have as much of a problem with the original founders (since they were doing what was deemed appropriate at the time—no matter how inappropriate it might be by today’s standards), but I do have a problem with the angry white men running the government today (and perhaps since, say, the civil war) … but that might put you in a “oh, no, not another Charlie rant again” coma (my beef against how much this government represents Wall Street to the direct detriment of the vast majority of most of its citizens (of all color/temperament).
But I did get your original point. I did want to point out that although I’m not religious (not sure if that qualifies as unchristian), I was an angry (and white by birth) man regarding being the victim of racial bias at two jobs. I don’t for a second propose that it’s anywhere near as bad as what most minorities have gone through in this country over time, but it was unfair and it was based on race.
David, I think the angry Muslim men and the angry white US men are very related, though I'm not sure can really explain why.
There is a genuine phenomenon here, of angry white men who feel unfulfilled. "Why?" is the right question. Talking about power and privilege is a distraction - that's *our* awareness, and we're asking about *their* awareness.
And we aren't talking about the white men in power either - they are just exploiting something deeper that is felt my the formerly middle class who feel their opportunities and status under siege. Is that all it is? A felt sense of ebbing privilege or status?
David, your article is highly amusing and ignorant to the fact you igorne future generations of white males. What do you want to do with us? First, you want to oppress us and make us pay for the fact that previous white males were in power? Second, take us out to the field and have us shot?
You were lucky enough to benefit from being a white male and now, feel that no future generation of white males should have any sort of power, jobs, voice, or piece of the economic pie. Where in the world do you get these views? How much longer are we going to pay for being white?
Its nice that you are old now and do not have to worry about life as a young white male living with the hatred surrounding our success in this country's heritage.
Yes, whites can never be discriminated against, especially from the likes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Now, we are dealing with hatred from the hispanic community. White guilt has consumed America, perpetrated by the hard left and news media. Its ashame that as a white male I must pay for everything that happened in history, even though I was born decades after the Civil Rights Movement and nearly 120 years after slavery. Please leave your racist opinions of whites at the door.
I think its disgusting whites, like yourself, have such anger towards their own race, but yet reap the benefits.
Just like Harry Reid comparing the health care debate to slavery. Never ends. AND you have the audacity to question the anger of white men. I think all whites for that matter are now being discriminated against.
Keep voting away whites rights and future generations of whites will suffer. Thank you.
For several days I have been reading and looking for Angry white men and is amazing and disturbing how many blogs related to generic viagra are in the web. But anyways, thanks for sharing your inputs, they are really helpful.
Have a nice day
David,
Just wanted to say that I really enjoyed all of your post, especially the inclusion of the Monty Python skit and the part about calling Ann a white male (she really is, in all but gender...)
And this from an "Angry White Man" of 47. But I'm angry over how blind ideology is trumping pragmatic reason as we fight each other over conflicting "values" while the Titanic sinks...
-Mike
P.S. A great book that explains in depth what's happened today and helps one make sense of it all is entitled "The True Believer"; it's worth a read. Of course, it was first published in 1951...
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