If you ever find yourself using that line, thinking it excuses you from accusations of racism, stop. Just stop. Think about what you are doing: you are taking a diverse group of people, categorizing them by the color of their skin, and are about to make a sweeping generalization about all of them.
You know what that is? It’s racism.
But let’s make a sweeping generalization of my own. I’ve noticed that there is an entire syndrome of associated problematic attitudes: creationists who are global climate change denialists as well. Crystal healing wackaloons will tell you that GMOs are bad and vaccination is dangerous. It’s as if people can’t have just one fallacy to call their own, they have to adopt a whole library of bizarre beliefs. If your understanding of the world is so inadequate that Dunning-Krueger is triggered, you don’t stop with just one error — you go all out looney-tunes on a whole host of issues.
For example, Dave Futrelle has been posting lately about this pair of pompous vloggers, jordanowen42 and Davis Aurini, who are proposing to make a feature length film exposing Anita Sarkeesian, called The Sarkeesian Effect. Never mind that their introductory videos are laughably bad and show no skill at movie making at all, or that the two come off as insufferably pretentious; their views are simply odious. They’re just a couple more demented gamers/misogynists who hate “social justice warriors”.
But I was talking about this weird phenomenon of people exhibiting clusters of fallacious reasoning. These guys are sexist, misogynistic, PUA-types, but guess what else? Racists. That quote in the title is straight from Davis Aurini’s video in which he lectures “black folk” about what’s wrong with them.
Dear god. So oblivious. I didn’t know whether to cringe or laugh.
Hey, guy, also…the affected display with the cigarettes and the alcohol? It doesn’t make you look cool. It makes you look sleazy.
Aurini is not only an MRA and a racist, but a neoreactionary. His blog is a very special place!
Also, talking through your cigarette didn’t work in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, and it doesn’t work here.
Man. Anton LaVey was a bit of an asshole, but he still doesn’t deserve fans like this.
Yet another prayer for ridiculous enemies granted!
Over at the “Respectful Insolence” blog, Orac uses the term “crank magnetism” for this phenomenon, the tendancy that people who believe in one kind of nonsense often also believe in all other kinds of pseudo-sciences.
Davis Aurini:
I did a full court cringe just reading that title. I don’t think I can manage watching that video right now.
To be fair, MRA, racism and neoreaction cluster pretty closely.
One thing, though: if he ever gets anywhere with this – and it doesn’t look good judging from his complaints – it’ll be one of the few times a neoreactionary has actually done anything, apart from blogging.
Note also his use of the tone argument in that blog post. “I’m doing jawdroppingly sexist and racist things … but he used a swear word!!!”
Jordan Owen has been commenting at We Hunted the Mammoth:
I didn’t get past 30 seconds in watching this video. And though what he said was simply awful, I also couldn’t take the hectoring, let-me-hip-you-to-my-personal-wisdom tone. What a dreadful person.
Iyéska, that’s possibly the most ridiculous use of “we the people” I’ve ever seen – and that’s a pretty crowded field.
Moggie:
Agreed. It’s even worse when you see it plopped on top of “we are the largest silent majority evar! and we are being oppressed!” crap. Y’know, if these guys have ever been silent, I’d love evidence of that. Seems to me they never shut up.
Yeah, not even going to try watching the video. I’m already severely annoyed just from the line quoted in the title. I’d watch the video…and then I’d scroll down to comments despite myself…and then my brain would ooze out my ears.
I’m really trying to fish through what are the affectations and what aren’t. The smoking and drinking is an obvious affectation. The racism is obviously all him.
But he kind of sounds like John Waters. I think that’s the product of his voice doing something weird when he tries to be throatier and thus “more masculine” but I can’t be sure.
Oh god. There’s so many things that are wrong with that video.
1. He looks downright evil. Is he trying to look like a supervillain? I feel like he’s going to suddenly do a cheesy manaical laugh at any moment.
2. The human races are more diverse than Star Trek? They’re more diverse within the race certainly than Star Trek portrays. People in races disagree with each other about everything. I’m sorry, but this is a frankly bizarre comparison, and I don’t understand it.
3. Rap is not about random observations. Wtf? How do you pontificate like this without mentioning rhythm?
4. Improvisation is not exclusive to “black culture” nor to jazz. Classical and European folk music have a long tradition of improvisation, for example. The fact that we associate improvisation specifically with jazz is a recent phenomenon.
5. Did you just condense races into basic emotions? How is that not blatantly racist? Status, guilt, and shame? Wtf?
6. Status? Are you for real? That’s offensive in of itself, frankly. It’s not even an emotion like the other two. Apple, Orange, and Fuzzy!
7. He accuses blacks of a strong Halo Effect (and seems to be stretching Kanye West’s egocentric personality onto all blacks), which is ironic because he’s exhibiting the exact same behavior. He thinks he has brilliant ideas in all these random areas. He’s blatantly displaying a far worse example of egoism than his own example.
8. I can only assume he came up with this philosophy by assuming that Kanye West is the epitome of ‘blackness’ or something.
9. Or maybe he was snubbed by a far more talented black man and is jealous of such success?
10. Which is his crappy origin story for his supervillian-hood? Seriously, he looks like he wants to kill me and my family. This guy is fucking terrifying. Turn on some lights!
I rarely listen to videos, but I’m listening to this. Oh my fucking Jebus-this guy is a pretentious asshole!
I really don’t think I can sit through this whole thing. “What I really admire about you black folk…” ARGH!!!!!
Ummm, since when is “status” an emotion?
@Iyéska:
I have vast double standards in things like this. To understand that, you have to understand that I fully believe the internet is a big enough place that super-horrible shit is happening literally every hour of every day. Slightly less horrible shit is happening every second.
Still, I react differently, or at least, potentially differently, depending on the bigot’s/s’ target. If the headline was “what I really admire about you trannies,” I would have checked my spoons, potentially cringing and bashing my head over and over into my channa masala.
This headline? This headline I have the privilege of not checking my spoons: I can simply give the tooth sharpener a quick spin on the canines and get to work.
So staggeringly stupid:
Not only does he seem to think that this sort of mindset is unique to people of color, that tripe was immediately followed by this little quip.
That’s right, the DeLorean, which was designed by multiple white people, was about the same quality that one black person could make.
@doublereed:
Bite your tongue! I bet you’re the kind of racist that thinks these two folk, Bele and Lokai, look just like each other!
Checkmate, misStarTrekists!
@some bastard on the internet:
You try designing a car with some scary, dark foreigner shoving cocaine up your nose at gunpoint while the FBI tapes it for your future trial. It’s the car a bunch of white guys deranged by cocaine and fear of violent, drug-trafficking latinos are able to design. It’s NOT the car DeLorean would have designed had Reagan not been prevented by the anti-pollution-even-though-it-comes-from-trees liberals from constructing a border-fence of laser-tipped ketchup plants!
Checkmate, hypoGigawattists!
doublereed:
Did you notice he only mentions black guys?
What kinda checkmate do you have for *that* (my #21) Crip Dyke? :)
Nothing constructive to add that others haven’t said. I want want want a laser-tipped ketchup plant though.
Ah Ha! by the use of a cars it all becomes clear crank magnetism indeed. this guy is a snob motorhead who thinks because he knows about cars ( in his own mind at least) he is qualified to make valid comments on everything.
he can probably drive OK but thinking well …….
uncle frogy
This is oh my god what the hell I don’t even…
I mean, he’s not trying to do a “bit” or be funny, or anything, he actually appears to think what he’s saying is coherent and sensible. (Not that he would be funny if he was trying to do a bit, but at least it would make some kind of motivational sense.)
I especially like how in his analysis of what makes black people inferior (because that’s what it’s about, despite his protestations to the contrary), he doesn’t mention any black person other than Kanye West, nor a single thing that a black person has ever done, except jazz and rap. He doesn’t appear to know anything about rap or jazz, or musical history in general, as doublereed @13 points out, Western (i.e. white) classical music has a long history of improvisation.
But his use of Kanye as a rhetorical point is where it gets really weird. I’m not a huge fan of Kanye, but one thing he has clearly done is put out a wide variety of different musical styles for well over a decade now, and been phenomenally successful with each of them, not to mention a huge amount of success at marketing his “brand” in non-musical ventures. I mean, in terms of leveraging his personality and considerable talent, the guy is on a level that very few other people in pop music history have ever approached – Madonna comes to mind as an appropriate comparison. But douchebro uses him as an example of how black people only have one idea, and how this is then exploited by white/Asian managers who then abandon the black artist as soon as their idea gets stale, and they move on to the next guy. Aside from what I’ve already mentioned about Kanye clearly having a lot of good ideas (where “good” = profitable), his managers have always been black, including his mother for a lengthy period. So… what the hell? Is he just free-associating over stuff he doesn’t understand the depths of at all? Can’t be, that’s a black attribute.
– Couldn’t get past 0:30. Could easily be the last title in a series of training videos on how to be obliviously, blatantly pretentious: “Puttin’ It All Together.”
– Also, his comment on “you black folks” could have be truthfully replaced by Thor’s “You people are so petty… and tiny.”
I don’t want this guy to be real. It’s an act, right?
@21 Tony
Yea, I did also notice he doesn’t mention anything about black women. It’s as if culture is a purely masculine thing. It’s a bizarre way to talk.
I also couldn’t tell if he was talking about specifically African-Americans or not. I can only assume he is. I have no idea if he thinks this also applies to Africans or this is purely an American phenomenon. Like Jazz and Kanye West are African-American, not African, and the term ‘black’ is rather ambiguous in this context.
Not that I really expect racists to make such distinctions.
Wow. I don’t feel so bad about being corrected about the use of “folks” now. I have the tools to avoid being this guy…
I’m so glad I have the people here for other perspectives.
This guy is oblivious to his own “baser nature” taking control of him as an individual. The idea that a society taking advantage of creative black people using privilege just does not even enter into his mind. Not good at directing or special effects? Maybe it’s a matter of different standards and preferences? Why the fuck should this guy’s be the “human standard”? “They” can apparently get their own culture and preferences as long as it’s approved by the status quo.
My overall impression of this video is just of a guy being totally dishonest. He’s just making it up
woops, didn’t mean to post that yet.
My overall impression of this video is just of a guy being totally dishonest. He’s just making it up as he goes along. He wouldn’t recognize an honest thought if he saw one. Wouldn’t begin to know how to have an honest discussion about race or similar topics. And on top of that he isn’t even earnest, doesn’t really mean what he says.
Well, I guess the same oblivious mental attitude can be successfully applied to an array of different stupid ideas.
Yet, I am finding the overlap of anti-religion, libertarians and MRAs worrisome.
This is for realsies? I’ve heard his name before, but never watched one of his videos. Wowza, the Poe’s Law is strong in this one.
I wonder if he wakes up every morning and says to himself in the mirror, “Everyday in every way I am getting smarmier and smarmier”.
I can’t listen to the whole thing. His voice makes me want to take and Andromeda Strain style shower.
Reading the comments. The best answer to this guy is a total non sequitur, equally vapid and prejudiced: “italians communicate with their hands more than the deaf.” Yeah, sure.
This guy is good! And something you missed, PZ, was that like the black kid with a new pair of sneakers, the drink and the cigarette make him look COOL. I used to think that it was only Catholics who felt shame, but now I understand that it’s completely an oriental thing. He’s nailed what all blacks are like and how they think and how they can only have one good idea. But how did he leave out natural rhythm? How can anyone be so free of stereotypes?
Tony! The Queer Shoop
I can’t find the exact quote, which is such a shame so I’m paraphrasing what someone said in the Beyonce thread:
“Say blacks and people imagine men. Say women and people imagine white.”
^This was said to illustrate why black women are fighting a different paradigm. So, even though he sounds bizarre and really obvious for only speaking of black men, it’s not a rare thing.
Monsanto @ 37, you might want to add a sarc tag to that, because some people will take that seriously…
Let’s see. I got to the 0.35 mark before I could stand no more. What’s with the high school drama club red/blue lighting?
Everybody back off. The Fcker is clearly drunk.
[shudder] Don’t ever put me in a room with that guy. I think I would die when my raised eyebrows traveled all the way to the top of my head.
It is possible to cringe so hard that you can’t stand up straight?
That guy was talking to himself. He may have had a clever idea at sometime (who knows), but finds himself going nowhere, so he projects his rage onto mythical persons of color. He says he’s helping (he thinks) but criticism isn’t help when you don’t include some “should s”, i.e. advice about what to do, instead a list of what one did wrong. During his spheel about “you may be good at ONE thing, but you gotta cooperate with others”, Michael Jordan sprang to mind; brilliant at basketball, and a brilliant team player (AND a POC!). To think this is cogent advice to ALL Blacks, is more racist than the N word.
I wonder (not really) if Davis will make other videos to explain the problems of other racial groups…
When I saw the trailer for the “documentary” this guy and his partner were making, which apparently disputes that modern gaming culture isn’t the most welcoming to women and minorities, I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be best to interview actual women and minorities about their experiences with gaming culture to see if they really do feel alienated?” Now after seeing this, I am convinced beyond doubt that these douches don’t give two shits whatsoever about anyone outside their bubble of privilege. Their “documentary”, if they ever get around to making the damn thing to begin with, will be nothing but an exemplar of the (reactionary) white male victim mentality.
this guy’s clearly got “syndrome” syndrome: being rejected as a sidekick’s bad enough … but getting rejected by frozone? something is very wrong on the internets!
Do any of these guys have day jobs?
Gawd I hope they make their target, any one that funds them deserves to lose their money not have it refunded or never extracted by a failed project. Also they are likely to make an epically bad “movie” should they get the cash!
Brandon @45,
But who better to interview about racism and misogyny than white men, who aren’t distracted from their rationality by emotions or offense after being effectively shat on? /s
Watched 30 seconds then turned the sound off – too much this early in the morn and I want to keep my breakfast down.
And what’s with the cigarette? – he doesn’t smoke!
Crip Dyke
You owe me a new brain. You broke this one.
Honestly, that guys needs a Nehru suit, and a Siamese, and he’s all set to be a Bond villain.
By new gods and old, may all your enemies parody themselves.
– ancient saying I just made up.
From his blog post linked above:
I’ll grant Aurini this guy’s twitter handle is vulgar and reflects very poorly on him. (Though Aurini gives the impression that he thinks there are circumstances where the using the word ‘faggot’ would be appropriate social commentary…?) But I note that vulgarity wasn’t actually contained in the message directed at him. The message itself is plainly stated.
And that message wasn’t even vaguely addressed. No, instead we are told how Greg is apparently a soulless, addiction-prone monster. But about his point:
Anita Sarkeesian asked for $6000 to make her videos. She was given $159,000 by supporters. For this, she has been called a scam artist.
These guys are currently up pledges of $3,400 per month for updates on production. They won’t even start filming the main project until pledges reach $15,000. Per month. And as far as I can tell, they don’t even have a plan or schedule as to how long production is expected to take before the project is completed, so that’s $15K/month… indefinitely.
Patreon isn’t really the right funding tool for a one-off film; it’s for regularly released content. (But it does mean for every bit of content they do release, they can claim their monthly payment… so they can grab as much cash as they can early on before giving up, if they were so inclined…)
So yes, given how scammy their funding campaign looks, this is pretty fucking hypocritical.
Aurini: “On paper, I have nothing against white nationalism.”
This guy is attempting to be a white TJ Sotomayor.
@54 Kagato
I… you… he…
Well there you go. He’s a white nationalist. He clarifies it even.
I guess that’s the end of the conversation.
Wasn’t there some other Kickstarter or Indiegogo funded video started when Anita Sarkeesian started making these videos that was supposed to counter her arguments? Or am I just imagining that? If not, what ever happened to it?
Hank@52: I see what you did there.
Matt Lees tweeted another video from Davis Aurini that highlights his horribleness. It’s been reposted by someone else, so I’m guessing he’s taken down the original; which means it’s probably pretty awful.
I have not and will not be watching it myself — I’m forwarding it without comment. I tried skipping through to find something specific, but I just couldn’t sit through it. Enough with the fucking scotch swilling, you pretentious clownshoe!
Kagato, that link, at least for me, just points back to this page
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2014/09/01/what-i-really-admire-about-you-black-folk/comment-page-1/
Whoops, screwed it up. Let’s try again:
Matt Lee’s tweet
The video
30 Brony
.
Ahhhhh… and by this combination of apparent and extremely likely lack of awareness and the all too palpable action of the “baser nature” we find the psychological root and branch of both exorcism and “relaxation to the secular arm.”
@32 chimera
– Don’t bet on it. He may have to weak a belly to act on it as an independent agent, and he may have doubts buried in some atrophied crack near his amygdala, but I’ve been fooled before, and I’m here to tell you…
– I’ve had two acquaintances over time (one was actually a friend) who occasionally went into a similar pattern of weird pacing, overly conscious mannerisms, profound pauses and incongrous expressions when in pontifical mode. In both instances I initially thought they were feigning the stated beliefs and investment in what they were saying… due partly to the subject matter but mostly (mostly by far) due to the bizarre presentation.
– After some time, thought and additional exposure I ended up believing strongly (by which I mean it REALLY seemed to me) that in both cases this was actually the way they spoke when they felt insecure in their “natural” modes of expression, felt a need to impress for some reason, were expressing something they wanted wanted to believe, were attempting a confident expression of something they hadn’t actually thought through, were attempting to impress someone of their desired “complementary gender,” were a bit drunk, or were experiencing some undiscernable combination of the above.
– And I don’t say this as a judgement, because I’ve been meek as well, but both of them had a pretty consistent aura of meekness when unguarded.
– But even if it’s true that the fire in the belly is missing I believe – again strongly – that it is not safe to bet that this kind of peculiar statement of beliefs is an indication that there will be a subsequent failure to act on those beliefs, especially with a little support.
– And, sadly, there seem to be a many who will see and hear nothing but conviction and justification in this sort of behavior (or at least justification).
Oh… and you do realize this man is going after Anita Sarkeesian, and the nature and history of the actions against her, yes? Because even if this man isn’t a spearhead, he is at least aware of the vileness and abuse directed toward her and has failed to address it in any meaningful way… while simultaneously making public statements against her, as well as a public commitment to continue striking her heel. If that doesn’t speak, nothing does.
Oh… and if you’re wanting extra fun, check for his video on “The Jewish Question.”
Or don’t. Because it is that question, laced with TONS of incisive reason. /s
/s
/s
(breath)
/s /s /s /s /s /s /s/s /s /s/s /s /s/s /s /s
@33 F.O.
The number of possible interpretations here are staggering, to a degree I can’t quite express.
Clarification?
Oh, hell, knowknot #63, now I kinda hafta.
Is this the baby-eating question? The pope should-or-shouldn’t steal our kids question? The is-they-or-isn’t-they cockroaches question? The “which 12 jews are the 12 specific jews that control Hollywood, which 12 jews are the 12 specific jews that control world banking and monetary policy, and is it possible that Jon Stewart is in *both* groups” question?
Holy cannibal crackers, batman: I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but can you give me a link to put me out of my misery…please?
knowknot @62:
In Aurini’s case, of course he’s putting up a strangely affected front in these videos. His public appearance, mannerisms and other affectations are all explicitly deliberate (which I guess is why they come across so ridiculous).
He has Game, you see.
He may claim to not be an MRA, but he sure as hell is a PUA.
@65 Crip Dyke
– I didn’t include the link because I don’t know how to “do not link,” or if that matters re YouTube, or if it was just too freaking offensive, or how to tie my shoes, or where the oatmeal goes, or anything. But… Mr. Aurini has his very own personal YouTube playground, and therein total Jewish questions = 1.
– My very own personal understanding of the exact nature of the question is “exactly how rid of them can we possibly be, and by what means,” often with subtext ≥ “but I’m not really saying this, quite,” with all other approximate formulations being codes or corollaries.
– Please don’t misery. I sadness because.
@knowknot #67:
I eventually found it.
BTW: I knew “which Jewish question”, I was just being snide.
The tell I was being sarcastic, just repeating random, bullshit fear-myths of Christians who know nothing about Judaism, Jews, or Jewery? The 12 Jews of hollywood/banking thing.
Every Jew knows that if you’re going to gather together to crash an economy the minyan is 10, not 12. Duh.
@68 Crip Dyke
ohyoubigsilly. I knew. But I wasn’t sure the kids were really in bed…
I am seriously struggling to accept that this is real and that’s a personality.
I hope never to meet anyone like that….i’m afraid i might do something less than pacifist to his gonads.
Repeteadly.
With a big smile on my face.
@70 azhael
You are; me too.
You (almost certainly) will.
Don’t be, you won’t.
Repeatedly.
Instead, you will know one very distinct type of pain that comes with doing the right thing.
Christ, what a babbling moron: human races are more diverse than Star Trek races, and rap is full of inspirational brilliant insights? You could get as much wisdom from a rambling drunk at a bus stop, which I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover is what this guy does during the day.
scienceavenger,
Allowing for Sturgeon’s Law, there is still the 10% that is pretty damned good. Of course you have to actually listen to it, and you don’t do that, do you?
And rambling drunks at the bus stop may have a few insights too, if you bothered to listen to them. But that would be treating them like a human being. We can’t have that. Not when we are so superior to them and all.
Still, the Star Trek thing is pretty fucking stupid. I’ll give you that.
@ knowknot
I am honestly starting to believe that this sort of thing is a matter of someone operating under implicit social rules (the person making the video being controlled by their own “baser nature”), and projection is a natural bit of fallacious logic when one is acting without awareness of how they are conceptually storing people in categories.
From his perspective people like him can’t possibly be the problem (he is unconsciously assuming that everyone in his group is like him without justification) because he is not a bad person (few people really think they are bad), therefore it must be that black people are all acting by feeling and without any ability to appreciate a larger social context.
The real tragedy here is that minorities of all sorts may be much better as a group at considering a larger social context given that they have to navagate an often hostile society. Deep down (implicitly and unconsciously) people higher up the social ladder know this and actively try to counter that in social conflicts. The rot is deep with this one.
I finally went to watch the video and it has now been removed as a violation of YouTube’s policy on hate speech.
Re: the problematic attitudes constellation syndrome, could it be that once you’ve bought into one non-scientific attitude for whatever reason (autistic child, suspicion of medical personnel, creationism), in order to maintain consistency in one’s mind, because you’ve already committed to fighting the “status quo” medicine/science in that area, you buy into other anti-science attitudes as a result?
@cjhk
I think that this happens because of at lest two things.
Fallacious reasoning comes in many many forms because of the specific details, but they all have similar root purposes and forms that satisfy the persons emotions and work in terms of social conflict and “winning” as a goal. Think about it in “fight/flight/freeze” terms relative to the substance and associated persons, groups, or symbols.
If they don’t like what a person is saying in the immediate moment, but can’t or won’t deal with the substance, they do what they can to minimize their opponents effectiveness while squirming around the substance. I consider a persons emotional reality substance as well, for example the lived experience of racial minorities. That can be tricky when it comes to explaining how the emotions of the person being fallacious are not relevant to reality.
So while the details change you see the same minimization of harm (retreat from substance), attacking of credibility (attack the person and retreat from substance), changing of subjects (retreat from substance), implicit dishonesty about substance, and many other common behaviors.
The second one is that a person running off of these “primate chess” rules and engaging in these behaviors unconsciously (best case) assumes that their opponents are doing the same so they also engage in projection. We all self-reference by nature and it takes deliberate effort to create methods of understanding what is really going on with one’s opponent. The best way to hide one’s own tactics is to (often preemptively) paint the tactics on your opponent, and it’s natural to think that if one can do a particular thing than others can too.
So you see racists giving in to their base nature pretending the other races are doing the same. You see right-wing terrorists who hate the government and want to destroy it become convinced that the government wants to destroy them double down and try to start the war themselves. You see misogynists that act like “all women do X” pretend that all women act in a similar ways as them.
It’s a problem with thinking in categories and being unable or unwilling to account for the actual diversity of people. One of the best things I ever did was to work on being able to talk about both characteristics of broad groups, and treat individual members of those groups as if they don’t fit any larger patterns.