I’ve been pondering what an anti-racist society would look like. This is a society that has determined that the worst thing a person can possibly be is a racist. Further, it would codify anti-racism in the society and enact laws to criminalize racism.
What a Racist Society Looks Like
I think there are a lot of clear examples of what a society inherently looks like when it decides to take precepts of racial hatred to its extreme. We think of Nazi Germany in the most extreme case. We can think of the collapse of the Zimbabwe economy in a lesser case.
If the primary thing you think about first is race, the answers you get will suck. Every instance where someone has asked the question about race before merit or something else that is relevant has sucked. It will always suck. That is the nature of using a stupid criteria for answering questions.
The government of Zimbabwe was faced with a question of how to empower the population they represented. One of their major considerations was the race of the population they represented. Because of this, the government decided to remove white farmers from the land they were using.
This resulted in people not familiar with farming taking over these farms. It had a major impact on the economy of Zimbabwe. A further impact of this same line of reasoning was continued blame on a minority of the population for the struggle of the majority. With a leader of the country stating that striking fear in the white man is what they should do politically, you might not be making the best decisions for your country going forward.
Anti-Racist Society
The question here comes down to how we determine that someone will be made into a pariah. What other costs will come with this? Obviously, we will need to get rid of the first amendment. If people have free speech, being a racist is protected.
Would we make “hate speech” the only exception to the first amendment? What penalty would we have for hate speech? Is this as far as things will go?
Based on the current trends of where the conversation is going and being unable to tell if something is satire or serious, I suspect that things would get weird.
It is pretty easy to see why people are lining up with their racial groups if people are openly talking about the end of their race. It is a logical response.
Would the anti-racist society make it so that penalties exist equally for racism? Would the argument be you cannot be racist against a white person?
Fear
To me, it seems like fear is what drives people’s political actions today. You vote against someone instead of for someone. The issues that most people care about are ones that involve fear of a group. So much focus is on police violence, Islamic terror, and racists today.
This political culture of fear almost makes me wish for the simple days of abortion and guns being the only things we seemed to care about as a country.
An anti-racist society driven by fear won’t stop at making speech illegal. The steps would have to go further. I feel like it may have to either involve “white genocide” or informers to ensure that people stay in line.
My Fears
I have a pretty good feeling for my life not going to shit under Democrats or Republicans. Their economic policies are very near each other and the social policies that change don’t impact me in any particular way.
I do have a fear of these new political movements getting into power. The Alt-Right has stated some pretty horrifying things that they want to do that I think will result in society falling apart. A majority of my friends fit into categories of people that the Alt-Right won’t particularly like. I believe I also fit firmly into that category.
For the new breed of progressive activist, I know that my unwillingness to not question everything will make me an outsider. I further fear what would happen once they articulate what their actual views are on what government should be. Is there a cogent plan from the illiberal social justice crowd? I would love to know what that would look like.
I am not a huge fan of experiments on a societal level. There are too many things that can kill us or result in extreme risk. I want nothing to do with any of it.