The Last Gasp of the Angry White Man - by Cenk Uygur

[kpete]

The Last Gasp of the Angry White Man
by Cenk Uygur
Mon Aug 10, 2009 at 09:12:45 AM PDT

What we're seeing in these angry town halls these days is the last gasp of the angry white man. He's not quite sure what he's angry about, but he knows he's angry. It's not the world he used to know. He gets the disquieting feeling that he doesn't rule the roost anymore. And it's driving him crazy.

One of the chants at the town hall events was, "No national health care!" Okay, mission accomplished. No one has proposed such a thing. So, I guess they can go home now, befuddled at what they were yelling about.

The reality is that what they have been manipulated into arguing against is a public option that would give them more choices, not less in health insurance. It wouldn't nationalize health insurance at all, let alone any part of the rest of the health care industry.

But this isn't about health insurance. It isn't even about health care. You think those people are really this animated about having less health care options and making sure it costs more for them and their family? No, this is visceral for them. And it has nothing to do with their perceived choices on health care. This is about the sinking feeling in their stomach that they are losing power in this country -- losing control. That the reigns of power are slipping out of their hands and they don't know what to do about it, except yell, really loud.

.................

more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/10/764553/-The...

[havocmom]

1. Sad part is, unless they are in the top 1% economic bracket, they were never in power to begin with.

We pay a steep price for not dealing with reality in America.

[Caliman73]

11. I agree with you to a point...

They are just pawns in the schemes of the richest, we all seem to be, but there is a pecking order and White men have been at the top. Cenk is right. Those conservative White men are angry. They can't call Black people "nigger" anymore without some consequence. They can't sexually harass women and just have it be "boys being boys". They are having to share their spot on the rung now and they don't like it. The often say, "I want my country back" which is basically saying, "I want to be able to shit on every one else without consequence because it is my birthright as a White male". They are mad because things will never be that way again.

[BlooInBloo]

16. Yep.

[Tsar_Bomba]

43. Co-sign

[Demeter]

19. Ah! But these Are the Hired Troops of That Top 1%

Who are ALSO finding that they are losing control, through their own incompetence, I might add!

[davidwparker]

2. 100% Right - 0% Wrong

... as usual

[goclark]

3. May I be the first to K and R

[MorningGlow]

4. Equality is for suckers...

Nice piece. I enjoyed that. And you know what? They have every reason to be afraid--but not yet. I was flying cross country last week and got seriously irked when I had to walk through first class and see it filled with 50-something, overweight, self-satisfied WHITE MEN.

A little bit of "sharing the wealth" couldn't come any too soon, as far as I'm concerned.

[vincna]

6. Don't get so wound up about it...

It's not really that big a deal. By the way, most of the people up there fly a lot - maybe 100,000 miles a year. I did that for about 10 years and it's no picnic. People who fly that much deserve to be up there. Try flying that much and then tell us what you think.

[Wednesdays]

24. Really!

[vincna]

25. Care to elaborate? - nt

[Wednesdays]

26. Nah. My previous post says it all

Enjoy your stay. You're one I'm going to remember for a long, long time.

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. they see the power slipping out of their hands

with a black President and a Latina Supreme Court judge, and they have seen it coming for a long time. They are afraid. They know where the bodies are buried.

I remember when a black or brown face was very noticable in a crowd , and a woman was never even considered in the corridors of power. Eleanor Roosevelt was only powerful because of who she married ( not to take anything away from her as a powerful woman)

Now we don't even notice.


But white men do!

[Old Codger]

7. I have

That sinking feeling in my stomach too, it is brought on by the realization that we will not get any "health care" reform but instead will hand the insurance companies a large bonus with a mandatory insurance, they get what they want by scaring the democratic "leadership" (LOL) into submission with phony near riots. One of my concerns at this point it that the frightened masses you speak of don't really know that they are being led around by the nose and will end up being dropped like a hot rock as soon as a bill is passed. They may then come to realize that they were led down the garden path by their so called "leaders" in their beloved party of (the party of ME me me me me and only me).

[Barack_America]

8. Aren't they supposedly arming themselves to the teeth?

And isn't a "revolution" close at hand?

I agree with most of what Cenk says here, but I wouldn't dismiss the danger these people pose as saying they're just yelling about it. There are many dead cops and citizens that argue otherwise.

[Romulox]

9. I think it's a mistake to view everything through the prism of our own biases.

I find weak support in that article for the generalized "angry white man" slur--polls show a majority of Americans (which presumably include white men) want healthcare reform.

[ihavenobias]

27. Cenk addressed this topic at TYT.com in a comment

It's a turn of phrase (none / 0)
It's not meant to be literally descriptive. For example, there are many, many women in these town hall mobs/chanters/screamers.

Side note, I'm going to start calling them screamers from now on.

Anyway, I would venture to guess that the largest block of our viewers are white males. Of course, what I say doesn't apply to them. I'm talking about the angry white men. As Bob Cesca has pointed out they are largely older, but more importantly from a different era in mindset.

by Cenk on 08/10/2009 03:19:39 PM EST

http://www.theyoungturks.com/comments/2009/8/10/52011/3...

[Romulox]

42. Reminds of the racist justification: "I wasn't talking about ALL black people..."

...I was talking about <racial epithet>."

"It's not meant to be literally descriptive."

The use of inflammatory racial epithets that are "not meant to be literally descriptive" is more or the less the definition of racist speech, no?

[ihavenobias]

44. I understand your point but it glosses over the racism against the president.

To deny its existence does more damage than good. But if you want to say that the phrase "angry white men" is an unnecessarily inflammatory way of saying it, fair enough.

[Romulox]

45. So a little (admittedly inaccurate) hate to combat hate?

Count me out.

[ihavenobias]

46. Don't dismiss an entire really well written piece because of one phrase.

Do what Jefferson did with The Bible and remove all of the parts you find distasteful (in his case it was correctly the supernatural stuff) and enjoy the rest.

The End

[progressoid]

10. Cenk is wrong - this isn't their last gasp.

There is enough anger and enough white men to keep this going for quite a long time yet.

[Caliman73]

18. I don't think that Cenk means the gasp will be over soon.

Societal paradigm shifts take a long time to happen. This will take awhile but I think he is right that things are a changing.

[Matariki]

12. I would argue that in nearly most cases it was only 'perceived power'

an illusion they bought into. They identified with the rich and powerful only because they sort of looked like them. If they are angry about anything it's that their illusion is crumbling.

[Matariki]

13. I like this article, but I wish we could avoid using the broad brush term 'white men'

to describe ugly behavior. There are many, many 'white men' in my life who I love, who are decent people who don't behave that way. Obviously. There are 'white men' on this board who are decent people, I'm certain. I think it's a sad mistake to make the term 'white men' stand in for 'ugly, racist, selfish bahavior'. Funny thing is that I see many white men using it in that way also. I know that it's 'okay' because you can't hurt a privileged group with words. But you can hurt individuals. Perhaps I'll start calling the 'white men' I like 'caucasian' or something else.

[dustbunnie]

21. Yes, well you know, countries that are ruled by men of other cultures and races --

are so very, very different.

[me b zola]

14. Yup, I've seen video of these types of mobs before

Go back and look at video clips of the angry white mobs during desegregation and the fight for civil rights during the sixties. Today's mobs are no more rational or moral than the mobs from 40+ years ago. Members of the media who give these mobs legitimacy should be called out for it.

Here's a thread that I began last night on this topic:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[scheming daemons]

15. Hey...most of the video clips of "yelling" are of angry white WOMEN...

let's not completely broad-brush.


Should be titled "the Last Gasp of the Angry White *PERSON*"

[DCKit]

20. Women live longer, so there are more angry old white women than men to recruit.

"Keep your damned, filthy government hands off my Medicare!"

They're retired and bored and, unlike the majority of those of us following behind them, many also have pension money in addition to their S.S. payments, so they've got more disposable income than many of us can comprehend. It's all "Me, me, me, me, me." It's up to their kids to talk to them about this and to make the emotional connection between the generations.

If the minority is going to dictate the policies of health care, I say we propose canceling Medicare and Medicaid and allow them to enter the private pool with the rest of U.S.. Getting rid of S.S. would also increase (potentially) most of our incomes by 15% and I'm sure that would be a hit with most working people. The majority of the under 45 crowd doesn't believe they'll ever receive the benefits of S.S., so why not do away with it NOW and allow us to invest for our own retirement?

Medicare for all, or Medicare for none.

[anonymous171]

17. The question is why aren't more angry white males on our side? nt

[DCKit]

22. (D)s are more intelligent, and don't need Rush to tell them how and what to think.

The FReepers revel in willful ignorance - the schoolyard bullies, all growed up and willing to be led by the head bullies.

They are also the minority - but a well organized and efficiently used minority.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

35. Dupe(n/m)

Dupe

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

36. I'm a white guy, but I'm not angry

I'm going to let Congress and the President do what's right on this. These pathetic blowhards are shitting their pants right now, watching their rich buddies about to take a hit.

[WillyT]

23. Big K & R !!!

[dem629]

28. "Cenk Uygur" sounds like a character from Star Wars.

[ihavenobias]

30. That's funny...

He makes fun of his name from time to time and he gives people a pass when they mispronounce it (David Shuster did the other day to start off a segment).

Also, the current TYT clip featured on the homepage includes audio from Yoda.

[Cha]

29. Yeah, Cenk, they're so

rabid about cutting off their collective nose to spite the face of the gopers.

[ejbr]

31. k & r n/t

[JimWis]

32. K&R

[ncteechur]

33. K & R Goddamn Right! I'm so ashamed of these dumbass racist

white folks. It is embarassing for me as a white person. It is embarrassing to me as a human being. I feel like i need to apologize for their stupid behavior.

[ihavenobias]

41. Ditto. n/t

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

34. "Angry White Guys"

Okay.......so explain Kenneth Gladney to me.

[ihavenobias]

37. ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[jgraz]

38. K&R

[ihavenobias]

39. Kick n/t

[moondust]

40. ...and that Sotomayor woman thinks she's better than them.

Said it right out loud!

Grrrrrrrr!

[aidawedo]

47. That fowl smell? It's not bananas

Fear Obama? No need. Obama isn't change. It's a political slogan. US should be the best democracy? What of US' interventions in Haiti? The violence of 2 bloody DC backed & financed coups? When did the US ever defend freedom for Haitians, Latin Americans, Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghanis, Africans, or for that matter Uyhurs? Saved the Europeans? Not material. Fear of the other is endemic. Euros are not the other. Holland is not fearful of invasion by the US for its cheese . European bailout did not have structural adjustment measures. Even Russia is in the fold. Cold War posturing aside, Russia always had more in common with the US then differences.

"We're America. We're supposed to be better than this."
You sure about that?

"We're supposed to have the best democracy in the world. As it stands, we're one burning tire away from Haiti.
No, just one lynch mob away from America.

Haitians want their country back! Down with the UN occupation. Justice for the 1000s who've been killed or disappeared in Haiti and Latin America in US interventions to oust elected leaders.

That fowl smell- it's not bananas.