As a political music blogger with no political credentials and horrible musical taste, it was a huge deal when I found the very first straw-man Daily Kos rebuttal to an article of mine.  According to the author “jethrock,” I hopped on “the false narrative that reverse racism exists and scary Black people hate you (if you’re white) and are out to get you.” 

Note the progressive buzzwords:  “reverse racism,” which I never mentioned and is a silly concept (racism is racism, no matter from whom), and “scary Black people,” which I never mentioned either, yet seems to be the default spin thrown at Andrew Breitbart for pointing out racism in the NAACP.  The point of the article was that comments and actions which would have drawn the ire of the NAACP if made by white entertainers (can you imagine the response if Lady Gaga made a video where she wore a pointed hood and rallied a mob with torches and lead pipes?) were ignored when they were made by black entertainers—entertainers lauded at the Image awards. 

As some in the comments suggested, however, these entertainers cannot be racist, because racism is not about race but about power; only whites can be racist because only whites have the power to oppress.  Ridiculous as that is, let’s just assume that it’s correct for the sake of argument.  So if it’s not wrong for Ice Cube to refer to white people as his “enemy” and to rap about shooting white people– since as a black man, he cannot oppress a white man—is it wrong for Ice Cube (an Image award recipient) to rap, “Fuck and get up is how I do them stank hoes”?  Regardless of race, the Left cannot deny that men are still in a position to oppress women (just ask about Clarence Thomas), and the NAACP has been woefully silent on the open advocacy of misogyny and sexual violence amongst its Image award nominees and winners. (more…)

Lately it seems like most of what the left considers intellectualism is just condescending arrogance based mostly on talking points and ungrounded assumptions.

Take, for instance, the debate over marijuana legalization. It is always assumed that the Democrats are in favor of legalization while the Republicans want to keep it verboten. Perhaps the explanation is that there are a lot more potheads in the Democrat Party, not that they have genuine intellectual curiosity. Democrats are the political home for the chronically lazy–given enough pot, your average Democrat will go on a long extended conspiracy rant about how hemp can feed, clothe, and fuel the entire earth, how it can grow without water, pesticides or fertilizer, and how the corporations paid off Republicans to make it illegal because it’s impossible to make a profit selling it. (more…)