Will Stancil Profile picture
Apr 23, 2021 13 tweets 3 min read Read on X
basically what's happening is that you have a bunch of ideas that have always appealed to comfortable people at the top of society - mostly white dudes - about how you should be allowed to be a little racist and homophobic and political correctness is out of control and whatnot
but over the last few years the people who became most associated with those ideas became intrinsically rather toxic among the educated set. like you can't admit to listening to ben shapiro and jordan peterson and expect to be taken seriously
so what's happening is that a bunch of moderates and liberals - who just so happen to be white dudes themselves - have started advancing suspiciously similar arguments with a liberal gloss. "this is just an argument about politics, it's not like I don't believe in racism"
and what do you know! turns out there's a big audience for this stuff. which totally probably reflects the quality of the underlying thinking, and definitely not that there's a lot of reactionary sentiment out there looking for a socially acceptable way to express itself
like let's just be blunt: what yglesias et al are doing is using their reputations as liberals to launder right-wing thinking about race and gender to a primarily white, primarily male audience who both subscribes to that thinking but wants to continue seeing itself as liberal
and, this is important: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SURPRISING ABOUT THE FACT THAT IT WORKS. it is not surprising that many people like this stuff and will gobble it up! but spoon-feeding it to them doesn't make you a brilliant contrarian thinker, it makes you Fancy Rush Limbaugh
this is america, you're allowed to be rush limbaugh or bill o'reilly or bill maher if you want. but it's gross, it's bad for the rest of the country, you're hurting people and making the world worse to get rich
possibly some of these guys don't even quite recognize what they're doing. after all, being white guys, the ideas probably have some intrinsic appeal to them, and they get a lot of reinforcement from similarly-situated guys they respect, so why interrogate their own success?
but in terms of scenarios in which you should feel wary of your own success, "I am a prominent proponent of ideas that are disproportionately represented among society's most powerful segments" pretty much tops the list
people will rarely be penalized, and often rewarded, for thinking up clever arguments that indulge the prejudices of the power caste.

it's still awful to do it, though
I'm sure people will say this is ironic or he's not endorsing the daily caller, but when the premise of your joke is "look at me chortle along with white nationalists," you can hardly be surprised when white guys like yourself are the only people laughing Image
again the connective tissue between all these takes is that it's white people giving other white people permission to believe things that white people have wanted to believe since time immemorial
you can try to understand anti-PC stuff as an extension of some kind of ideology but you're really going to have to contort yourself to explain why it comes from left, right, and center

or you can just look at the race of the writers and audience and it makes perfect sense

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Will Stancil

Will Stancil Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @whstancil

Jun 23
I am increasingly convinced that the thing that has driven politics insane is the growing ability of people to find ways to validate their beliefs, no matter how incorrect and irrational. It started in right-wing media but has become central to all political discussion.
Anyone can believe whatever they like and for the most part will never be confronted or challenged. Instead they’re likely to be funneled into or self-select into a social environment where those views are supported, treated as obvious, new facts are invented to support them.
You are encouraged to lie to yourself and endless resources will be provided to ensure that you can. Challenging other people’s false beliefs is deemed elitist. As a result everyone’s politics ends up mirroring whatever assumptions or resentments are lurking in their heart.
Read 6 tweets
Jun 1
It’s clear that if the Holocaust happened today in America huge swaths of MAGA would describe it as “based,” say “this is what we voted for,” and do the “oh are you gonna cry, lib?” routine.
There’s zero reason their gleeful celebration of brutal deportations wouldn’t extend to actual extermination. The psychological mechanism is identical: they tell themselves morals are for suckers and empathy is for losers, so immortality and cruelty become a proactive good.
It’s the politics of sadism - hurting people for pleasure. Do we truly believe that they’d draw the line at killing? Frankly they’ve ALREADY killed and didn’t care at all.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 20
The craziest thing that is actually true is that a relatively small group of very literal Nazis has completely seized control of the US government
They have accomplished by building a tight-knit community in the dark corners of the internet, then establishing a lot of influence over the inner circle of MAGA, especially Musk and Vance
Musk empowered them massively by taking over Twitter and then removing almost all restrictions on them, while promoting many of their most notable figures. Musk seems extremely taken with them personally and spends a lot of time trying to impress them
Read 12 tweets
Feb 18
"I wonder what this relatively small account that Elon Musk follows is?"

"Oh I see, it just posts porn and Nazism only." Image
Image
Image
Image
It's not subtle. This account tweets and retweets constantly about things like "not wanting to hear retarded blacks and their retarded opinions," the need to "make America blonde again," how America should be a "white nation," and celebrates Trump as the second coming of Hitler. Image
Image
Image
Image
This account is followed by the most powerful man in America, who is running the government, who spends all of his time on Twitter, who gave a Nazi salute at the inauguration and who has espoused anti-Jewish replacement theory, whose underlings keep getting outed as Nazis.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 9
People are delusional about what happens if Musk and Trump ignore the law, the Constitution, and court orders. Everyone is acting like this is a standoff over USAID and a few other programs, and then we'll go back to politics as normal.
But THERE CAN BE NO POLITICS AS NORMAL IF THERE IS NO LAW. Musk can cut anything. He can eliminate any part of the government. He can punish anyone. Who could stop him? Congress will be pointless theater. Why do laws matter if they can be ignored?
Your vote won't matter. You can elect someone to Congress, but he or she will be powerless. Trump can simply ignore what they say.

Your rights won't matter. The courts can say they've been violated, but the president can ignore them.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 8
You need to take a step back, take stock of what's happening.
Trump took office and abruptly gave the richest guy on earth free rein to unmake the US government without any White House oversight or coordination. That guy has been publicly radicalized into an increasingly open white supremacist and conspiracy theorist.
Trump's plan here was concealed during his campaign and is historically unprecedented. No president has ever handed the US government over to his richest supporter before. It is also extremely far removed from the constitutional system: there's no role for someone like Musk.
Read 16 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(