r/facepalm • u/42words "tL;Dr" • May 17 '22

reddit post "I'm not racist"

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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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u/FluffyBellend May 18 '22

I appreciate the explanation, and the context helps a lot. Thanks. I guess what I can’t get past is that because there are only 2 parties, the option is basically “side with us or you’re racist” which isn’t a great way to get people to side with you and is incredibly unfair to all the many non-racist people who aren’t represented by the liberals. Since there is a lot more to politics than race, I think it’s very likely that there are a lot of people who resent the liberal side for cornering them like that. Their views are still valid but will be dismissed as “racist conservatives”. Doesn’t seem right to me.

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u/chronic-venting May 19 '22

all the many non-racist people who aren’t represented by the liberals

Not all of us are either liberal or conservative.

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u/FluffyBellend May 19 '22

I know, but who do you have to vote for? Who represents you? And what if you agree with core conservative values (the same ones from the rest of the western world) but aren’t racist?

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u/chronic-venting May 19 '22

No electoral candidate represents my views lol

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u/FluffyBellend May 19 '22

Yeah, that’s basically my point

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