See, on the one hand, Title II of the Act desegregated some otherwise intractably segregated areas of American life; but on the other, "the constant use of disparate impact tests in education, housing, and employment led to an overreach by the new civil rights establishment of today."
Previously on Richard A. Epstein Explains Racial Justice: "The Supreme Court should strike the VRA down and let Congress return to the drawing board for something better." Epstein is also the author of Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws.
Sadly, I can't find anything by Epstein on Django Unchained.
UPDATE. In comments Fats Durston applies the Epstein method to Schindler's List: "its wrong narrative of the evolution of anti-Semitism serves to strengthen a set of misguided Israeli government programs at a time when it is no longer possible to bless all actions of the Zionist movement." So that's why it won all those Oscars! Well, you know Hollyweird.
Meanwhile in rightwing world, Jim Hoft is moved to poetry, or some species of it:
Previously on Richard A. Epstein Explains Racial Justice: "The Supreme Court should strike the VRA down and let Congress return to the drawing board for something better." Epstein is also the author of Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws.
Sadly, I can't find anything by Epstein on Django Unchained.
UPDATE. In comments Fats Durston applies the Epstein method to Schindler's List: "its wrong narrative of the evolution of anti-Semitism serves to strengthen a set of misguided Israeli government programs at a time when it is no longer possible to bless all actions of the Zionist movement." So that's why it won all those Oscars! Well, you know Hollyweird.
Meanwhile in rightwing world, Jim Hoft is moved to poetry, or some species of it:
HOW AWFUL! Oprah’s “The Butler” Is Chock Full of Racist Lies (Video)
How absolutely horrible!
Oprah and Hollywood are going ga-ga over The Butler a project that is purposely filled with racist lies from beginning to end.
What horrible people.
As Eric Bolling pointed out today on The Five that the “real” Butler was born in Virginia.I find it difficult to believe he typed this; it reads as if it were taken down by a psychiatric examiner.
His mother was never raped by a white man.
His father was never killed by a white man.
That was just included as an extra jab at whitey.
May I be the first to say, "Oogah Boogah!".
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how it is always the privileged or people who benefited more under the old system who painstakingly point out how advances in civil rights are actually bad for the other guy. "Sure, you can ride anywhere on the bus, but aren't buses sort of icky?"
ReplyDeleteNo one ever thinks about how oppressed white people are by black equality. Similarly, white men are equally oppressed by the existence of women.
ReplyDeleteI mean, sure, North Carolina is now sticking it to elderly and poor black voters, but wasn't it hard for white people to actually let them vote FOR YEARS WITHOUT HARASSING THEM? What are we, made of human decency? NO. We're white people. The absolute least blacks can understand is that every right given to them is a right that we take for granted.
Same old song. For a few decades after the Civil War there were plenty of paternalistic refrains of, "You were better off as slaves. I mean, we fed and housed you and everything!"
ReplyDeleteCan you... can you include a direct quote from the author *inside* the shorter? I feel like that violates the spirit of all Internet traditions.
ReplyDeleteHe also seems to have written this: Equal Opportunity or More Opportunity?: The Good Thing About Discrimination
ReplyDeleteLibertarians are so much fun.
(If I didn't see it with my own eyes I'd swear Roy made this guy up.)
You know why they call it the Hoover Institute?
ReplyDeleteBecause it sucks real hard.
Gawd, this has been a looooong summer....
ReplyDeleteThe good and bad thing about libertarians is that often times, their
ReplyDeletearguments come from a place of deliberately contrarian,
look-at-me-aren't-I-clever, overgrown adolescent glee of simply taking
societal convention and denying it for no good reason. This tends to
amuse over-educated master bullshitters (i.e. most libertarians), who
thankfully tend to only seek the company of each other. "What if I
argued that civil rights was bad for black people?
What happens to your assumptions then?" "Oh, Richard, you're so naughty. But then, you always have been, ever since I saw you debate your
Intro to Political Philosophy T.A. for 40 minutes on
the meaning of the word 'liberty." (toke, puff)
The good thing, such as it is, it that this is harmless on its own-no one
ever got hurt by a thought experiment, no matter how stupid. Of course,
those thought experiments happen depressingly often among people in
power, who translate them into policy. Because the bad side is, once
your only measure for the worthiness of a goal is how many eyebrows you
can raise with your sharp wit, traditional morality and human decency
falls by the wayside. Who cares how many real people get hurt by your
bullshit? You managed to stay logically consistent,
in a philosophy that doesn't matter to anyone but people who already
agree with you. I have met so many libertarians like this: people who
honestly don't care what the effects of their beliefs are, and only care
about pleasing their own self-image of cleverness and wit.
Paging Megan McArdle...
ReplyDelete"the constant use of disparate impact tests in education, housing, and employment led to an overreach by the new civil rights establishment of today."
ReplyDeleteSoooooo... the issue is it turned out there were too many areas where policy had a disparate impact on people of color? Someone help me out on how this is not just, 'fuck you for pointing out that we parade our dirty laundry down Main Street every Sunday.'
But, in fact, that logical consistency is often rooted in sophistry, the original meaning of which is: proceeding logically from a beginning grounded in a logical or factual fallacy. It all sounds logical, except for the starting point, which for Epstein is: everybody was better off before The Negroes Got Uppity.
ReplyDeleteThis is the sort of debate in which the right-wingers have excelled ever since Burke. It all sound magnificently constructed, until one remembers that the starting point is, in fact, corrupt and evil.
We're gonna need our top internet lawyers to weigh in on this issue.
ReplyDeleteIf by "a few decades" you include 2013:
ReplyDeletehttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/17/cpac-racism-panel-derailed-by.html
ReplyDeleteSadly, I can't find anything by Epstein on Django Unchained.
I'm more looking forward to his review of Black, Like My Friend, The Black.
Funny... I'll bet that Epstein is all in favor of rigorous tests in the schoolroom, though. As long as it leads to defunding poor schools.
ReplyDeleteI can't get over what a waste of education this guy is--Columbia, Oxford, Yale, and yet, he ends up writing barely-disguised racist drivel for the Hoover Institution and the Heartland Institute. Of course, with a book titled Simple Rules for a Complex World, one can be fairly certain that he's not exactly a one-man brain trust.
And fairly certain that he never read Mencken: "For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong."
From the "essay":
ReplyDeleteStandard neoclassical economics predicts that some firms will cater to
African American clientele if others choose to shun them. . . .The old south was a closed society, which did not allow for the free entry of these competitive firms that would have transformed its culture.
A segregated South would have been transformed by the power of free markets! No need for protest marches, sit-ins, boycotts, voter registration drives, or even the Civil Rights Act! No bombings, beatings, lynchings, or shootings! Is there no limit to what free markets can do?
PS: Lester
Maddox's Pick Handle, among others, would like a word.
The most important part of the Civil Rights struggle was never achieved except piece meal--that was the destruction of white privilege as a cultural, generational construct. Oppression in fact oppresses the oppressor, by distorting his personality and his understanding of the world. Republican elites, by devising the Southern Strategy, insured that white privilege would still be acceptable, and also insured that eventually (as in, NOW) the Republican Party would be the party of white privilege, i.e., the upholder of American racism as a fundamental part of what it means to be American. This is where we are, gentlemen.
ReplyDelete"Standard neoclassical economics..." = shit Milton Friedman made up to move money upwards.
ReplyDeleteGood gawd, this man is just plain delusional, and stupidly ideological besides. So-called "free market" economics didn't even budge Jim Crow off the dime in a hundred years.
Maybe that means that the model is just plain fucked. A "closed society" prevented all that free-market magic? Maybe, just maybe, there's a fucking answer there about the way society really works, instead of how Milton Fucking Friedman imagined it would be if only we gave tax and regulation breaks to the wealthiest in society (including in the Old South and kindred places, where they've been using that extra cash to lobby for diminished voting rights for minorities and the poor).
Nothing pisses off a man more than to have someone take his hard-earned money and then treat him like a second-class citizen. Apparently, Mr. Epstein never had the experience.
Fuck `im.
We are aware of all internet traditions.
ReplyDelete"A dark romantic comedy..."
ReplyDelete~
My quarrel with Schindler's List is that its wrong narrative of the evolution of anti-Semitism serves to strengthen a set of misguided Israeli government programs at a time when it is no longer possible to bless all
ReplyDeleteactions of the Zionist movement.
Pretty convenient that Epstein's principled contrarianism just happens to support the status quo circa 1880. If I knew any better, I'd say that his essays weren't dispassionate rational proofs based on the geometric logic of neoclassical economics, but were in fact just loquacious rationalizations of why we should just keep ignoring black people, but when has the Hoover Institute ever led me astray?
ReplyDeleteTo a Kool-Aid libertarian like Epstein, slaves were much better off because they were members of the most sacred and protected class in the libertarian universe: property. As property, slaves enjoyed all the libertarian absolutes of the free market dictated by the tenets of the religion, e.g., owners don't mistreat their own valuable property, that would be illogical. In fact, owners would be more likely to ensure that their chattel were happier and better fed than even their own families. Thus, as property, it's reasonable to conclude that slaves enjoyed more of the privileges of liberty than their owners, with none of the responsibility. They were the most free of anyone. (If only workers today aspired to being more like property!) The libertarian brand of logic and reason is very, very special.
ReplyDeleteOppression in fact oppresses the oppressor, by distorting his personality and his understanding of the world.
ReplyDeleteCan't remember where I saw this, but: "If your foot is on my neck neither of us is going anywhere."
Not sure if what you're saying advances the argument about Epstein's idiocy, but I will say that if one adopts the Holocaust as a political brand, the lessons to be learned from it are not territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing, since those are the impulses which drove the Holocaust in the first place.
ReplyDeleteCome on - he does have a legitimate complaint. This Hollywood "history" doesn't actually hew all that closely to the real life of the person the movie is about. You know how Hollywood usually nails the history.
ReplyDeleteAll I know about WW II is what I learned from Inglorious Basterds.
Standard glibertarian conceit - "my ideas would TOTES work if the world wasn't at all like it actually is, so you should respect them even though they have no connection to reality"
ReplyDeletethe lessons to be learned from it are not territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing
ReplyDeleteThey shouldn't be, but they most definitely are. "Never again ... to us."
The desire to stay logically consistent, and the pride in doing so, are emergent properties of what you actually nailed in "naughty." I will always believe that, at bottom, these philosophers are engaged in a lifelong campaign to defy their parents.
ReplyDelete"Watch as I argue, not only against common sense and intellectual honesty, but in favor of policies and ideas that history has already proven are evil and destructive. Observe as I give the back of my hand to 'society' and promulgate abstractions that, for centuries and every day, cause suffering. Why do I do such a thing? Because you're not the boss of me."
Gawd damn, use some faux quotation marks here and there so that we have at least a hint that you're jammin' on a theme, dude.
ReplyDeleteGoddamn, this is getting too fucking complicated. Fuck Poe's Law.
Oprah’s “The Butler” Is Chock Full of Racist Lies
ReplyDeleteWhy, they even got the poor man's NAME wrong!
...and is usually full of filth.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, it's as if folks might think that a character in a film that is very loosely based on a real-life account is portraying real events even though the character has been given a different name. I do declare that I feel a bout of the vapors comin' on. *fans self dramatically, positions self near the fainting couch*
ReplyDeleteP.S. From the cast:
ReplyDeleteJohn Cusack as Richard Nixon
Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan
Jane Fonda as First Lady Nancy Reagan
I may have to go see this thing.
You guys may want to see the latest insanity from Rod Dreher. This one must be seen to be believed. Mockery of it is at LGF
ReplyDeletehttp://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/42422_Rod_Dreher_Is_Jumping_The_Shark_Again...
You mean, it wasn't "Butler"?
ReplyDeleteYou should educate yourself further about this subject. I would recommend watching Hogan's Heroes.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean to tell me that Forrest Gump wasn't really a war hero? How could that be? I've eaten at his restaurant.
ReplyDeleteRon and Rand Paul would never lie to us!
ReplyDeleteWhenever the free market favored African-Americans, the white reactionary forces would stomp down hard- the Tulsa race riots were in large part due to the fact that there was a wealthy black community there... google "Black Wall Street" and prepare to be horrified.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention how "Birth of a Nation" told the true story of the nobility of the Ku Klux Klan and the crude and rapacious nature of those black Union soldiers that looked uncannily like white men in blackface.
ReplyDeleteOprah's "Gerard Butler" the heartbreaking true story of a man born with a personality.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I definitely got some outraged e-mail forwards from my grandmother over that.
ReplyDeleteAre people really going 'ga-ga' over The Butler? I thought the reaction so far was along the lines of "it's kind of meh, but we don't really have any other prestige films to talk about yet, so let's talk about this one.'
ReplyDeleteAnd insofar as Oprah is saying positive things about it - um, yes, she has kind of a major role in it. Saying positive things about movies you have a big part in is generally considered part of the job description. Jim Hoft - earning his title yet again.
"(If I didn't see it with my own eyes I'd swear Roy made this guy up.)"
ReplyDeleteI wish! C'mon up here to the great Northwest, the libertarian paradise where everybody (who works) works for the Federal Gov or the military.
I hear this exact same shit every day. Sometimes more than once, if I come back on the ferry from Seattle.
"the lessons to be learned from it are not territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing"
ReplyDeleteHow come we Jews didn't enthusiastically adopt the ol' "strength through joy" schtick? I think it would really cut down on out-marriage.
And it's more fun than trying to punch way above your weight.
I've been telling you, over and over: Every "conservative" idea can be traced back to it's ur-movie or TV series. Every "conservative" tract should be footnoted with links to IMDB
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking we'll see a lot of this especially from Ted Cruz, who is even now being lionized in the MSM as a "standout at Harvard", and "a brilliant debater". Being "logically consistent" is a tool well known to debate team guys when they draw the assignment to argue a morally indefensible position.
ReplyDelete"I'm just following the argument to its logical conclusion. Sorry if the harsh reality offends you," is the kind of thing you hear from high school debate team members, libertarians, and MRAs (unsurprisingly, there's a lot of overlap between those last two groups).
ReplyDeleteI will go to my grave hating the right-wingers for this. I'm 60, I was around when the Civil Rights bills were passed. All they required from the great majority of whites was a bit of good-will. No sacrifice whatsoever, just a bit of good will, and the rights benefit us all. For making civil rights into a zero-sum equasion, for making the ridiculous and insidious idea that any rights "given" to minorities must be taken from the majority, I will never, ever forgive them. I've had the dubious pleasure of watching that corrupt an entire generation.
ReplyDeleteOkay, that mis-informed or preudiced people would adopt the zero-sum rights equasion was inevitable. But that a political party would lower itself to making votes out of it? And the media would help?
ReplyDeleteThat is truly inspired casting.
ReplyDeleteYeah... how fearsome could the Gestapo have been when it was filled by guys like Major Hochstetter?
ReplyDeleteWe should just give him a lifetime achievement award and be done with it.
ReplyDeleteAlong the lines of...
ReplyDeleteNow that you fags can marry, have fun with the alimony and nagging "wives."
Or
Why would women want all the stress of a high-level job? They'll just end up with ulcers and nagging wives (or alimony).
Yes, Dreher's great project in life is the total and complete repeal of the Enlightenment. Nothing short of that will ever make him happy.
ReplyDeleteProperty is only better off if one insists that the system the slaves are freed into is perpetually and unalterably racist and unfair.
ReplyDeleteOne might reasonably argue that this describes American culture pretty accurately, but fortunately human beings work to make the system equitable. Unlike libertardians, who find the present fucked up system quite to their liking.
When you're so retrograde that Voltaire would kick you in the nuts out of general principle, seek professional help.
ReplyDeleteYo, Roy: Dreher again.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, when someone says, "life isn't fair", what they usually mean is, "I'm not fair."
ReplyDeleteAgreed except he's not delusional. He knows exactly what he's peddling, and he doesn't care that it's bullshit because it earns him money and validation.
ReplyDeleteHey, you know who else was a "standout at Harvard," served less than one full term as a US senator before running for president, and was foreign-born with only one American parent? ... Me neither.
ReplyDeleteUnless you're Rod Dreher. In which case, seek Voltaire.
ReplyDeleteThe Free Market -- Almost as versatile as donuts! /Homer Simpson.
ReplyDelete"150 points from the Air Traffic Controllers' Union, Mr. Potter."
ReplyDeleteBastard sibling to the "If only everybody obeyed the 10 commandments, this would be a perfect world!"
ReplyDeleteStandard neoclassical economics
ReplyDeleteah, yes the picture accompanying the dictionary definition of sophistry
I believe the full title is Ken Burns' Hogan's Heroes. Groundbreaking stuff; changed the way historical documentaries were made.
ReplyDeleteIt was Thee Butler, not The Butler
ReplyDeletesoft focus shots of pictures of Werner Klemperer, John Banner's helmet and Robert Crane's camera tripod
ReplyDeleteJust an attempt to repurpose Epstein's words/logic in a fashion he'd absolutely never use, though I guess a better parallel would be him lamenting that a particularly downbeat Holocaust movie was misleading about how good Jews had it now, and that outlawing the Nazi party in Germany today limits choice, individual autonomy, and freedom from government restraint.
ReplyDeleteThe Reader's Digest edit of your comment - "Ted Cruz... is a tool" - actually works pretty well.
ReplyDeleteIt's exhausting making all the decisions for everyone else--don't you know that?!
ReplyDeleteThis was actually an official monarchist talking point for hundreds of years. King Henry speaking in Shakespeare's Henry V:
The slave, a member of the country's peace,
Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots
What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace,
Whose hours the peasant best advantages.
("gross"="thick", "wots"="knows", "advantages"="takes advantage of")
Yes, how corrupt of her to promote her own movie in public appearances arranged to promote the movie!
ReplyDeleteI think the Butler needs more fictional white on black rape to drive its narrative points home. Would it have killed the screenwriters to add a scene where Reagan rapes the butler's wife while saying, "How do you like my trickle down economics now?"
ReplyDeleteIn comments Fats Durston applies the Epstein method to Schindler's List:
ReplyDelete"its wrong narrative of the evolution of anti-Semitism serves to
strengthen a set of misguided Israeli government programs at a time when
it is no longer possible to bless all actions of the Zionist movement."
So that's why it won all those Oscars! Well, you know Hollyweird.
descargar spybubble gratis
Remember--there is only one letter separating wit from twit.
ReplyDeleteAmerican me was neither about Americans nor about me. Discuss.
ReplyDeleteH*ll, the number of 'Liberal Hollywood' movies that whitewash the Confederacy or simply lie like KKK propagandists is vast.
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered if Hogans Heroes was some sort of psyops intended to rehabilitate Germans in the popular imagination. Because something NATO something ... Which seems a little paranoid and improbable. But, try to visualize the elevator pitch for the show "so it's about Nazi prison camps see, only ... it's a comedy, with lovable screwball guards and ...".
ReplyDelete-dg
Also "The Birth of a Nation" was just artistic license and not a racist film at all.
ReplyDeleteSame old song repeating over and over again...
ReplyDelete__________________________________________________
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