Some Short Items

Ferguson: The Unseen Winners

The unseen winners in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown, and now of the refusal to indict his shooter, are those middle-class and upper-class people who approve of the riots but who of course are not affected adversely by them. It is not their neighborhoods that are being trashed. It is not their neighborhoods that will go into decline as businesses leave. No, but they believe that they are doing the right thing in supporting the rioters. Maybe they even have a nice job in the media or as a professor in which they can propound their views for all the world to hear while calling anyone who disagrees a racist.

But there’s a nasty little joke about stock brokers who lose their client’s money that can be adapted here: the broker made money, and the firm made money, and two out of three ain’t bad. So, how about this? The media representatives didn’t have their neighborhoods trashed, and the ivory-tower theorists didn’t have their neighborhoods trashed, and two out of three ain’t bad.


Feminists: Some Are Still Clinging to This?

According to this Huffington Post article, there are still feminists who believe that women never lie about rape. Incredible. Anyone who regularly reads Instapundit will hear about such lying several times a year, for Glenn Reynolds frequently mentions such cases.


Right-Wing Debating Tactics

By now people on the right should have figured out what is the first thing they should say when they hear about the “war on women” or when a debate about gay marriage comes up. They should immediately bring up Muslims. Just say that the real war against women is being waged in the Middle East by those friends of the left, the Muslims. And should any leftist call one a homophobe for not being in favor of gay marriage, just respond, “And what do you call those Muslim friends of yours who want to execute gays?” Why waste your time trying to get through to liberals and leftists about the rightness of your position when you can win the debate simply by tying them in knots with their own stupidity? I bring this up because the other day some student somewhere was angry that his professor didn’t allow anyone to bring up their opposition to gay marriage in her classroom. Yet, at the particular site where this was being discussed (and I can’t remember where I saw it), no one was saying the obvious. No one was saying that he should have brought up Muslims. Why let progressives off the hook?

I also think that when confronted with an older progressive about how you hate Latinos because you are against illegal immigration, you should ask them who Chicharito is, and then snicker when they flounder. That, of course, works only if you yourself know who he is.


The Way to Help the Poor

I’m in Minnesota for Thanksgiving, and a friend here talked about the good employment statistics for the state. Why is that when elsewhere they are so miserable? It's because lots of people have been drawn to North Dakota for employment, and that entails more jobs for those who remain. What I have been calling Rich People’s Leftism (here) insists on helping the poor by trying to tax the rich, raise the minimum wage, nationalize industries, and so on, but none of these work very well. Poor People’s Leftism is different because it recommends simply creating jobs for the poor. Work with capitalism and not against it.

Comments

[J. Reed Anderson]

Ferguson: Exactly, John. It happened somewhere else.

Minnesota unemployment: There aren't the jobs there, which is why so many left for the Dakotas, but the number is absent of how many quit looking; that is, no longer receive unemployment benefits.

[Mark Spahn]

Okay, you made me look up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Hern%C3%A1ndez_Balc%C3%A1zar
From his photo there, he's a white Hispanic, like George Zimmerman. Gutmenschen don't like white Mexicans, only mestizo and black Mexicans.

[John Pepple]

Mark: It doesn't matter what his ethnicity is. What matters is that so many (American) leftists my age have never heard of him because they are too prejudiced against soccer to pay attention to a sport that Mexicans love. If you claim to respect a group of people, then it would help if you actually knew something about them.