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[THREAD]
1/ Ah, faux wokeness.
I saw this photo, and naturally I thought of my own neighborhood.
I can give you a pretty good example of how things in these kinds of neighborhoods work. https://twitter.com/profmusgrave/status/1284613668689387522
1/ Ah, faux wokeness.
I saw this photo, and naturally I thought of my own neighborhood.
I can give you a pretty good example of how things in these kinds of neighborhoods work. https://twitter.com/profmusgrave/status/1284613668689387522
2/ Those of you who have followed me for a while know that I live in a left-wing college town, in a mostly upper-middle class (and 99% white) neighborhood filled with academics, and that my house is near a lower-income black neighborhood.
3/ Despite (or maybe because of) the wealth in my neighborhood the great majority of my neighbors are left-wing, and the few who aren't know that it's necessary to signal liberal values in order to be invited to the right dinner parties.
4/ I'm non-social by nature, so I don't bother to hide what my politics are. Those people who know about me are probably aware that I'm a non-voting centrist.
5/ Side Note: I once looked through the online voter registration records for the people living in my neighborhood. There was only one registered Republican. She was in her 90s.
6/ Anyway, about three years ago, shortly after Trump's election, when all those stupid pro-illegal immigrant signs starting sprouting up all over my neighborhood, we faced a threat — a developer proposing a higher-density development in my historic neighborhood.
7/ I helped start an organization to oppose it. Once I did, the hypocrisy of my neighbors, who had just overwhelmingly helped elect a radical-left city council that was *aggressively* pro-density and pro-affordable housing, became apparent.
8/ Of course my neighbors voted for density because it made them feel good about themselves — supporting higher-density means supporting affordable housing! Which helps black people! Which increases DIVERSITY! Everyone loves diversity!
9/ Well, as it turns out, not necessarily, not once it shows up at your doorstep, in your own neighborhood, in the form of higher-density housing. More on that in a second.
10/ I didn't grow up rich. I grew up in small houses and small apartments, and the fact that I now lived in a house on a large and leafy lot in a nice historic neighborhood was not something I had the least bit difficulty publicly defending.
11/ While everyone else was quiet or evasive about their NIMBY-ism, I had no problem being explicit and loud and proud about my mine.
12/ So, we organized, and all my nice liberal neighbors had this serene certainty that we would prevail against the development — the kind of confidence that only people who have grown up in *actual* privilege possess. After all, we were protecting trees and wild bunnies!
13/ But it only took me a few weeks of research to determine that we didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of winning. All anyone needed to know was that ultimately it was going to be a political decision, and the political writing was all over the wall.
14/ That writing (which was rapidly appearing on the wall of every deep-blue city in the US) was:
Weaken or eliminate zoning.
Promote high-density housing.
Encourage lower-income housing in higher-income areas.
Eliminate all loopholes used to protect historic neighborhoods.
Weaken or eliminate zoning.
Promote high-density housing.
Encourage lower-income housing in higher-income areas.
Eliminate all loopholes used to protect historic neighborhoods.
15/ There's more, but those are the main points.
Oh, and this, too: F*** environmental protections because they only impede development of high-density housing and promotion of diversity.
Oh, and this, too: F*** environmental protections because they only impede development of high-density housing and promotion of diversity.
16/ So, I wrote all this up and sent an email to other members of the neighborhood group.
It was not well-received.
Three people read it, and immediately quit the group, one of them bizarrely accusing me of being “Trump.” (Doing anything someone doesn't like makes you “Trump.”)
It was not well-received.
Three people read it, and immediately quit the group, one of them bizarrely accusing me of being “Trump.” (Doing anything someone doesn't like makes you “Trump.”)
17/ What I observed in the ensuing discussion were leftists — all *publicly* and righteously committed to high-density affordable housing — furious at me because I had told them that higher density was ultimately going to come to our neighborhood.
18/ Bottom line: They still supported higher-density housing, as long as it wasn't directly located in their neighborhood.
19/ The overload of cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy was something I'll never forget.
It became apparent to me that, whatever these people publicly signaled, all they really cared about was their own property and privilege.
It became apparent to me that, whatever these people publicly signaled, all they really cared about was their own property and privilege.
20/ The only difference between me and them was that at least I was *honest* that that's all I cared about, too — I didn't try to hide my selfishness with strategically-placed BLM and pro-illegal-immigration signs in my front lawn.
21/ I turned out to be right, of course. The development ultimately ended up being approved on a unanimous vote about a year later, after the neighborhood had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to stop it.
I watched it all from the sidelines.
I watched it all from the sidelines.
22/ So all of this brings me around to something that happened recently, during that period in which all the pro-BLM rioting was going on in cities across America.
23/ During my brief time organizing against the development, I had become acquainted with an academic and his wife. Despite the fact they took care to say the “correct” things, I sensed a faux-liberalism.
24/ I had become familiar enough to them that the wife felt sufficiently confident one day to ask me about a matter she described as “delicate.”
25/ Even though our conversation was on the phone, she started to whisper, “Please don't take this the wrong way. Because, you know, I'm not a racist.”
In my experience, when someone whispers in your ear, “I'm not racist,” they're usually a racist.
In my experience, when someone whispers in your ear, “I'm not racist,” they're usually a racist.
26/ Not that it would have mattered to me. In fact, if she had been a racist, I would have found it an almost refreshing respite from the ostentatious virtue-signaling in my town.
27/ She told me that she had recently become concerned about two black men walking a dog down her street in the afternoon, adding, ”There have been some break-ins in other neighborhoods. Maybe it's these guys doing it.” I expressed great doubt about her theory.
28/ A few weeks ago, during the height of the riots, I was driving by their one million dollar house, and I couldn't help but notice a massive “Black Lives Matters” banner (I'd estimate the size at 10 feet by five feet) hanging from their front windows.
29/ Overkill? Sure. Conspicuous? Absolutely. Sincere? Doubtful.
And, given that their house is located three blocks from the ghetto, likely one of the most transparently overcompensating advertisements for “please don't burn and loot our house” that I'll ever see.
And, given that their house is located three blocks from the ghetto, likely one of the most transparently overcompensating advertisements for “please don't burn and loot our house” that I'll ever see.