Save the Date
There’s a date we’ve been looking forward to for awhile, a date we might not live to see, but one that holds great significance for America: One fine day in 2044, by current projections, white people will slip below half the population.
It’s been a long time coming. When we were born, under a 49-star flag, haoles like us accounted for almost 9 in 10 Americans, a number that held steady for generations, and wouldn’t start dropping significantly until 1990, when it was 8 in 10. The 2020 Census isn’t in yet, but we’re looking at 6 in 10 now.
We’ve been looking forward to 2044 because folks like us have really screwed the pooch in the Land of the Free, and it’s about time we got outvoted on our collective idiocy.
But we’re now realizing that we’ve been a tad naive about the March of History. The next two decades are gonna be a total bitch.
The reason this comes to mind is, well, you’ve seen the news. If you’re not a comfy white dude in a comfy Denver neighborhood, there’s a chance you’ve been living it. People like us are acting out, hard. What not long ago was the nativist Pat Buchanan fringe of conservatism is running the show now. You identify a serious problem we’re facing, and it’s wypipo standing in the way of solving it, like George Wallace at the schoolhouse door.
Power corrupts, and white people have been corrupted absolutely.
Problem is, even as we lose our demographic predominance, we still have the power to set the rules, and change them at will. State-sanctioned violence remains in our hands. We run the national media, and get to dictate what qualifies as valid political conversation. We remain the measure of all things, as long as we’re wielding the ruler.
And it’s not like our demographic apocalypse will be spread evenly. Denver ain’t only 60 percent white, we’ll tell you that. (3 in 4, thanks for asking!)
This is why people facing the sharp end of the stick have given up talking about police “reform” in recent years, and moved on to “defund” or even “abolish”. However much Nice White People like us like to talk about Protect & Serve, the police have become indistinguishable from an occupying force in some areas — guess their demographics! — and the solution ain’t more bodycams and better training.
The real solution is to disband and start over from scratch, doing it right this time. But there we face a leaky boat at sea problem: There really are Bad Guys out there, some With Guns. (There’s another item for the 2044 checklist.) We can’t just abandon ship without another to pick us up.
The Defund approach tries to address this, moving nonviolent responsibilities to unarmed departments, and asking whether there’s a better way to dispose of surplus military gear. Another approach in play involves getting rid of “pretextual” traffic stops like broken taillights and rogue air freshener — laws that exist to provide an excuse for arbitrary police searches, creating situations that make it more likely for Bad Shit to go down.
Heck, a police chief in North Carolina took it upon himself to ban traffic stops for everything except actually being dangerous on the road.
So there’s that, reducing the threat surface, as we geeks say about hacking. Until we can do something more substantial, more fundamental, chip away at what we can, where we can, and count the years until 2044, when the people in charge might better reflect the communities and country they serve.
Or maybe even sooner! Not all white people are racist assholes. Just, to date, a majority of us.
At least there is some relief that the Chauvin trial went down the way it should have. Small relief considering the mountain of bullshit to climb.
@ManchuCandidate: I’m regarding anything a national politician says in favor of the verdict as thoughts&prayers unless they introduce legislation to address the problem.
It’s weird how unsatisfying the verdict is, even though it was nauseating that it could’ve gone either way.
I’ve lost count of the number of people murdered by police since George Floyd was killed, seems like it was three in just the last week, so the fact that nothing has changed is just exhausting.And then there’s the daily mass murders.
The most important lesson that we’ve learned over the last two decades is that in America there is no demarcation line between government, corporations, and organized crime. Only the titles of the kleptocratic oligarchs in charge change; the military and police are their thuggish enforcers.
It would be interesting to see how much of our perceptions are based on media coverage, rather than reality. I wonder if there’s a way to measure that.
What if the media flipped to reporting on what’s actually going well? I mean, 99% of Americans didn’t die in a mass shooting yesterday, so that’s something, right?
I seem to recall there was a happy news website, but it’s been 404ing since 2008.
In local here newz, our great premier Ford tried to tell everyone he’s in control. Lost his shit and started blubbering. Then they lost the connection.
After a great start where Ford did anti-Fordian things (aka the right things) he listened to his lessor instincts (protect $$ and gawd’s $$ first) and now has been reduced to tears.
To quote a Canada City song: Tears Are Not ENOUGH
@ManchuCandidate: Northern Tr666p always looked slightly medicated and barely holding in the KRAYZEE in those creepy press conferences.
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