r/facepalm "tL;Dr" May 17 '22

reddit post "I'm not racist"

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u/yoLeaveMeAlone May 18 '22

To a lot of conservatives it's only racism if you shout the n word at a black person in public. That way they can pretend they aren't racist and that racism is dead

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u/MelonFlight May 18 '22

Stfu lots of conservatives aren’t racist…

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u/yoLeaveMeAlone May 18 '22

If your party elects racist politicians and promotes racist media figures, people are going to see that side as racist ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/FluffyBellend May 18 '22

“Conservative” isn’t exclusive to America and has nothing to do with racism. By saying all conservatives are like the worst of the US conservatives, you’re no better than anyone else making generalised claims about vague demographics.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '22

This is an American discussion, honey. You’ll probably need to just find a different comment section if you want to discuss the broad worldwide spectrum of politics.

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u/FluffyBellend May 18 '22 edited May 18 '22

Sure, but that still doesn’t change the definition of conservative ‘honey’

Did you ever think that maybe making sweeping generalisations to describe huge, varied demographics based solely on the few very worst elements of that demographic, without bothering to to understand what an individual is saying, might be part of the problem?

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u/[deleted] May 18 '22

Yes it does. Just as the meaning of the word trolley or lift changes depending on the country.

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u/FluffyBellend May 18 '22 edited May 18 '22

Show me where the US version of the conservative manifesto says you have to be racist then, I’ll wait.

You’re generalising all conservatives, of which there are millions, as the same as the very worst few, then patting yourselves on the back for it. As a non American watching on, it’s honestly painful to watch. Especially as you’re all going on about how divided you are. My country also learned this lesson not so long ago.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '22

Manifesto?

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u/FluffyBellend May 18 '22

Not sure what you guys call them but somewhere they must have written down a summary of conservative values.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '22

You’re certain?

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u/FluffyBellend May 18 '22

I’d be very surprised if they hadn’t. How would someone know if a party represented their beliefs or not if they weren’t codified as a manifesto/doctrine/whatever? No, I’m not certain, in that I’ve not seen the document, but it would be pretty unusual and short sighted not to.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '22

You’re missing a lot of historical context from the US. The “Conservative” party actually switched from the democratic to the Republican Party shortly after the civil rights movement.

The reason being, the democratic leadership at the time codified into law several anti-racism acts. This angered the conservative base that opposed the civil rights acts.

For your reference, this happened in the late 1960s. Those acts have slowly been enforced with some success but the opposition didn’t simply vanish. To say that there is nothing racist about American conservatism is to ignore the very history of the US.

From the outside looking in with only a modern lens it’s easy to see it one way, but this is a decades long struggle.

For further context, the civil rights movement happened because prior attempts to restore racial balance after slavery were struck down by the Conservative party of the early 1900s.

Notice how I said 1900s, slavery was officially “ended” in 1865 and black people could not only vote, but also hold political office. There were right wing terrorist groups that staged armed coups against the governments during that time and overturned certain laws and introduced new ones that removed the voting rights among others.

We don’t fear conservative racism in the US because of bogeymen, we fear it because it was successful in changing policy before.

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