I Am an Evil White Man

[Nocturnowl]

I couldn't sleep, so I watched an HBO doc on the Anthropocene. Tears were running down my cheeks by the end of the film, but my hands were also clenched into fists, as my entire body was thrumming with rage!

Humans are the most destructive fucking species ever to exist on this planet! Male humans are the worst of the worst! And white males are the very worst of the worst of the worst!

All the blameless species we've slaughtered! All the species we will slaughter! All the poorest people who will die because of our greed, our arrogance, our unearned sense of entitlement, and our Oh-so-fucking-superior view of other humans who have the unmitigated GALL to not look like us!

I have never drilled oil, fracked ground, gone on safaris to murder endangered species, cut down and/or burned forests, but neither have I tried to stop it! Like most white men, I've been perfectly content just to, as the saying has it, "go along to get along." And of course, I've used a shit-ton of carbon-based products to achieve that "comfortable American lifestyle," rammed my throat as a child but which I was only too happy to swallow, including, of course, the four-wheel carbon-emitting FACTORY that is the Average American Automobile!

And that's not even mentioning the three carbon-consuming-and-emitting humans my wife and I added to the overpopulation of Earth while we were together!

Think I'm being overly dramatic, do you? Think I've bolded, italicized, and underlined too many times in this post? Well fuck that! The truth is that, had I written it the way I felt (and still feel) about it, THE WHOLE GODDAMN THING WOULD HAVE BEEN IN CAPS!!!

[betsuni]

1. I live in Japan and it's not only white men who are bad. It's MEN.

Example: asshole Mori the Olympic president reigned for being a typical asshole.

[oldsoftie]

6. You're right. No race has a corner on assholery. Or savagery.

We can easily point out huge mass murder & other wrongs within every race & ethnicity at some point in time. Hell, look at what the Chinese are doing TODAY. Yeah, white people have their share. I'm tired of it being portrayed as the ONLY ones

[Hortensis]

29. Yes, the human condition. nt

[Squinch]

2. Once you see it, you realize how totally pervasive it is, and you can never unsee it after that.

[My Pet Orangutan]

3. Margaret Thatcher - it's not fruitful to idealize other genders

Idi Amin - or races.

[oldsoftie]

7. Dont know HOW I forgot about Amin.

I remember the news of him when i was younger.

[intheflow]

30. There are exceptions to every rule.

Overwhelming, the problems the world faces were brought about by men, and in our country and Europe (and every place white people touched to colonize, and every place that encounter climate change) they were brought about by white men.

ALL these problems start long before women and Black men could vote. That Thatcher (and Ernst and Blackburn, etc) and Amin (and Proud Boy Tario and the late Herman Cain) were conservative are the exceptions that prove the rule. They only gained and retained power by embracing the conservative cultural paradigm established by white males.

[My Pet Orangutan]

39. What I am talking about is the danger of idealizing 'the other'.

[intheflow]

40. And what it sounds like to me is a form of colorblindness.

Or genderblindness. Criticizing dominant white male culture is not the same as idealizing other genders and races. Your argument is akin to saying All Lives Matter when someone states that Black Lives Matter.

[misanthrope]

57. So all the women I see who

insist on driving gas guzzling SUVs because it is their "right as an American," or lead lives of conspicuous consumption, they are absolved?

This is ridiculous. It is homo sapiens driving this trend. End of story.

[intheflow]

59. No one is giving any individual a free pass due to gender.

But just because all genders behave according to societal norms But collectively, white men started the ball in motion and have (as politicians and business execs) shape and continue to shape climate MUCH more than any individual Hummer driver. Who invented gas-powered engines and oil-based machinery and plastics? I can guarantee it wasn't a mass of women.

[misanthrope]

62. So now the invention of gas-powered engines is a bad thing?

What about all the lives saved by the advent of internal combustion? Ambulances and private automobiles that got people to a hospital just in time? What about the transplant organs delivered by petroleum or even dirtier airplane combustion? Do you mind that some of that same gas-powered and oil-based technology was instrumental in defeating 20th century fascism?

And as far as societal norms, the hand that rocks the cradle isn't completely powerless in shaping society. It's a burden we all share and utilizing demonization or turnabout bigotry isn't going to change it.

[Maraya1969]

5. It really helps if you study something like the Advaita beliefs where we are all

in a dream that we will eventually wake up from; just like the dreams we have at night.

Check out Ramana Maharshi. His story is amazing and he has very short instructions on his website about how to change your way of being.

Here are the instructions. https://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/teachings/instructions/


Also there are various documentaries about his life on Youtube. And there are a bunch of other teachers, some living and some dead.

[BunnyMcGee]

22. Thank you for the link

I will read later, the PDF I downloaded, after work.

[jaxexpat]

8. Yeah, it's frustrating. We need a revolution. We need SUPER CAPS!

[nam78_two]

12. I did suggest that

More caps, more emoticons, more underlining...but I was afraid that I came off as insincere so I self-deleted. I would not want anyone as sensitive, concerned and creative as the op obviously is to be further traumatized.

[jaxexpat]

26. And so we try to manifest self-expression amongst the punctuation. (and prepositional phraseology)

[Skittles]

9. ALRIGHTY THEN

[nam78_two]

10. ...

Hi Skittles.

[LittleGirl]

11. I truly believe that we would have a better world

overall if women were Allowed to lead. That word Allowed means that men would have to step aside and let us take the reigns. Not fight us but concede that they have freaking Failed miserably!
Failed!

Just one example is this pandemic. Countries with women leaders have kept more people alive than the male leaders. Think NZ.

Thanks for your post.

[BComplex]

19. But look at the republican women governors....Iowa? South Dakota?

They allowed the pandemic to RAGE in their states....it's still raging. I believe it's also some females who are despots.

[LittleGirl]

48. They are just as bad as bad males

I didn’t say all women.

[nam78_two]

67. I have seen your posts

And you are an actually nice person. You seem to be one of the few people responding sincerely in this mostly idiotic thread. I posted too but mostly because it is such a trollish and aggravating caricature on such a serious issue.

[BComplex]

68. I think I've been very fortunate to know some truly good and outstanding men in my life...

Men I wholeheartedly respect. In fact, I married one. I've known some truly awesome and outstanding women, as well.

I really don't think decency or despotic behavior has anything to do with whether you sit down or stand up to pee. And, even though nobody is perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and even though I don't know him personally, Joe Biden appears to be a truly decent and outstanding man. Jamie Raskin? What's not to respect?

Good people of all sexes, races, shapes and sizes can become good leaders. Bad apples, likewise, come in all forms. That little girl that stole Nancy Pelosi's computer looks like she's on a serious path to be a really bad person, if she doesn't turn herself around. Qanon Marjorie Taylor Green? I would not like to see her as president.

[nam78_two]

69. I agree

I meant it when I said I like your posts. I would be surprised if you were not a real person. I never rule that possibility out these days but I respond only to people who are probably normal liberals.

But I was saying that op was flamebait. It starts off with a hyperbolic and lunatic tone. And never gets better. Impassioned liberals can be ott but not quite like this.

I don't know if it is old-school Freeping. You know - trying to see how many of the "Democrat-communists" take the bait and apparently a bunch of us did.

Or it could be something newer and creepier like assessing the "neuroticism" of people posting on liberal boards:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/01/how-algorithms-rule-our-working-lives

[BComplex]

70. Thanks, Nam78.

That article you linked to is really scary. I hope that class action lawsuit against employers or the Kronos test is successful. They really are creating an entire class of people who are unemployable for no reason that makes sense in an imperfect world.

[jaxexpat]

27. Agree, but we'd need to be patient when they are momentarily distracted having the children.

[North Shore Chicago]

28. I'll drink to that! n/t

[cwydro]

37. No one needs to "allow" women to do anything. Good grief.

And it's "reins."

[LittleGirl]

47. Well shut my mouth! Sorry for the typos. nt

[LittleGirl]

49. No man allows me but they sure make the point of it. nt

[Skittles]

51. I disagree

the world would be better if women and men had equal opportunity to lead, and worked together

[LittleGirl]

53. Good point!

I hope that happens but I’m too old to see it in my lifetime.

[treestar]

58. When some man would tell me "it's a man's world"

I used to answer that with "you better turn it over to women before you completely destroy it."

[LittleGirl]

60. Ding ding ding! nt

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. No you're not being overly dramatic. Adding to the population is about the worst thing we can do.

I never did, I knew when I was a kid that I didn’t want to be a part of human overpopulation.

[Duppers]

52. +100

[raccoon]

15. All I have to say is

[lambchopp59]

17. Albeit the worst offenders, not only white pretentious fools...

I cannot talk sense into one of my past friend and neighbor, full blood Cherokee, that driving that huge gashog pickup truck everywhere is so environmentally irresponsible. He regularly gave me a hard time about driving my little Smart car to work. I have a truck too, but it's a 6 cylinder that I drive when I need to haul stuff.
HOWEVER... I did get some mileage out of turning him onto this website, and it's pretty astonishing:
https://www.overshootday.org/home/

[WhiskeyGrinder]

18. So now what?

[Captain Stern]

20. You can't stop being white.

But, you can stop being evil.

Do that.

I'm pulling for you.

[tavernier]

21. Most of the people I'll have been privileged to know

in my fairly long life have been decent and caring folks. I had wonderful parents who taught me kindness and generosity. My family and friends have been a life raft in the best and worst of times. I’ve needed and received the generosity and kindness of strangers at some of the lowest points in my life.

Sorry, but I like the human race, especially you guys here at DU.

[barbtries]

23. i feel you.

white men have literally changed the face of the earth.

if it's any comfort at all, as a white woman I'm none too comfortable in my skin these days either.

[samnsara]

24. my husband has had the white male guilts for some time.....

[FakeNoose]

25. Women are greedy too, it's not just the men

Greed is the problem, wanting too much, wanting more than one person (or family) is entitled to. It's the American sin, even worse than racism. One can argue that racism was borne from greed, in that slavery existed to prop the white race's greed by depriving the other races.

[dware]

31. ...

This ought to be good.

[dware]

32. Oh great,

another I hate white people thread.

[superpatriotman]

33. Nice low post rager

Wtf is this, a therapy session?

[Hortensis]

34. Lol, Nocturnowl, blatant racism and bigotry should make everyone angry.

Sorry, though, that you watched long enough to get really upset. Turning it off would have been socially responsible.

Whatever. Since you did, good that you're enraged instead of warped into racist self-hate. There's no virtue in being a good little victim -- no matter how much that gratifies all the closet racists pretending/imagining themselves to be virtuously anti-.

There is no good or enlightened bigotry, and we won't have won the battle until no one can get away with indulging their personal ugliness against any other group.

[Ligyron]

35. I wonder if Testosterone isn't the real problem.

A little is needed by us all but I've noticed that as I age and my levels declined, I became a lot mellower and developed much more empathy for living creatures, which I used to hunt. Now the thought of any living creature suffering saddens me greatly and I feel more and more guilt buying meat. I was a soldier and much more violent in the past. In fact I only vaguely resemble what I once was.

I don't think we would have gotten where we are without a certain level of the stuff being present in men but we just outran our biology I guess.

[Nocturnowl]

46. Excellent Point!

Testosterone is definitely a factor! Just look at what young men pay for car insurance.

[SlogginThroughIt]

36. I do not believe you.

I do not believe that you have just gone along to get along. I do not believe that you haven’t spoken out. And I don’t believe that you haven’t supported people that have the power to make the changes that you seek. Because you, yourself cannot make it all stop personally doesn’t mean that you aren’t trying. Maybe you could do more. Maybe not. You do have a life to lead as well and I believe you are a good person who strives to bring about the best.

We could all do more. We can all always do more. Do what you can do and you are part of something good.

[cwydro]

38. ...

[harumph]

43. Hmmm... yeah

I'm white and middle aged and don't feel guilty at all. That doesn't mean that I don't realize what damages human
beings of European extraction have done. A happenstance of history and the way things fell out. Yes, let's work to
correct it (individually and collectively) - European technological ascendance in the 16th - 20th centuries led to the (current)
shit show. However, if you think an ascendant PRC will be any better "stewards" of the environment - I think you have a
screw loose. Irrespective of ethic background - we are mere humans, prone to the same avarice, envy and hates - and we ALL have to find in ourselves a better way of responding to power along that includes a healthy reluctance to use it as a first resort.
Your histrionics fall flat with me.

[nam78_two]

45. Good post

Last edited Thu Feb 11, 2021, 12:32 PM - Edit history (1)

I do feel guilty off and on, but I am numbed to most things most of the time. As for the op, normal people are often confused, logically inconsistent, irrational or hyperbolic.

But with endearing people like the op, the point is possibly to post so much confusing shit that it would be impossible to tell what they sincerely believe. Assuming they believe anything.

Histrionics and theatre invariably disgust me. Especially on important stuff. I cannot always behave like a pr bot when I post on green issues (which probably net hurts issues one cares about), but blatant trolling and insincere dreck are just lame. It is that lame alt right/Borat tactic and I thought that was pretty stale by now-whatever the pitch.

And buried in there is at least one talking point from an old Exxon ad so whether it is alt right theatre, actual satire, legitimate lunacy or merely poor self-expression skills (this would be me), there are usually giveaways and I highly doubt that trolls, bots or pseudoscientists (in the behavioral sciences) can get sophisticated beyond a point.

[ibegurpard]

63. Thank you

Post was an over the top fishing expedition

[nam78_two]

44. Well ok so there is such a movie

https://www.sundance.org/projects/anthropocene-the-human-epoch

I thought the whole thing was purely imaginary. But while the faux self-flaggellation thing is probably the op's own invention, at least one such actual documentary does exist. There is nothing about white men or even men in the snippets I saw.

There there op...it will get better. Or not...

[sarisataka]

50. So what are you going to do about it?

Get rid of your car? Stop using carbon based products?

[Nocturnowl]

55. The Car's Gone

Since retirement, I really didn't need it that much. I have also given up beef, and cut down on meat in general. Sadly, however, if you're Probing for Purity, I have to disappoint you.

[sarisataka]

64. Defensive much?

I didn't ask for purity, just a simple inquiry.

Profiles are interesting, welcome to DU

[nam78_two]

66. No

Last edited Mon Feb 15, 2021, 06:50 AM - Edit history (1)

I think the correct answer is that his (imaginary) family must be taken to communist re-education camps where they will be forcibly sterilized and taught to hate god.

Of course no one who seriously thinks human population explosion is a problem, while having thoroughly democratic views would ever endorse force soft or hard. No one sane thinks that some mild rhetorical questioning of anthropocentric views that discount the destruction of the natural world, except where it directly concerns humans, is advocating forcible sterilization, behavior modification etc. Nor are they attacking people with large families at the personal level.

But that we cannot even question views based in religion and moronic corporate propaganda aimed at cheap labor and mindless consumption, without being the ott caricature depicted in the op is just lame.

Sure the green revolution made it possible for us to feed more people. But the absurdity of that argument lies in the notion that a complex life-form navigating an extremely complex world needs food alone. Education and healthcare are not cheap anywhere and anyone who seriously and earnestly tackles these issues has to know how hard it is to get a truly functioning society with even a moderately large population.

A crappy little app a surveillance capitalist peddles is just one more "magical" solution.

That many sane views on these issues are neither truly misanthropic, cruelly fascistic or authoritarian, moronic, rigidly inflexible, "communist" or unscientific must not get in the way of these flights of fantasy. And it does the job of confusing people about who the true misanthropes are.

Hint: There are people who say that there should be no discussion of the topic at all while simultaneously believing that the children of the poor should get no support whatsoever.

There are people otoh who recognize how much effort goes into raising healthy and aware kids. Who therefore think that generic, untargeted blah PSAs that people should think hard before having kids are not fascistic.

Such people would also believe that once they are born into a society, that society has an absolute obligation to keep them out of the poorhouse, educate them (no reeducation camp-just plain education-math, science, language, history, geography etc) and so on. Not teaching them to be communists or libertarians-just whatever the hell they choose to be. But the history would be based on reality not Trumpianity or Xi Pingianity or any other nutbaganity.

You can decide who the real misanthropes are once the bullshit arguments are cleared out of the way.

I should trim this but I have other stuff to do. I am not paid for this and 10 years ago I would not say any of this. But increasing intrusions in an overcrowded hellscape make me frustrated enough to do what I never did-speak plainly and sloganeering is not my thing. Apparently verbal incontinence is....

Edit: I am shocked that the author of this insightful post is no longer with us.
Sarcasm aside, thanks admins!

[Duppers]

54. This one? Or another related one?

"The Anthropocene: The age of Mankind" - 2017 Documentary...

There were no surprises here for me, perhaps because I have been paying attention to these issues since the 1970's, since reading Dr. Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb.

Practically no one wants to learn how very destructive we humans have been. While killing off 100,000's of species, we're ensuring our own will die too. I suppose all of this comes as a horrible shock to folks who are just now learning of the devastation.

I'm certainly not going to bludgeon you for your "histrionics" as others call it and are doing. I appreciate your emotional response and welcome you to the ever painful "environmental awoke mode."

Keep preaching but, as you're learning, you must tone it down some or suffer the wrath you're getting.

Take care.

[ProfessorGAC]

56. I Am Only 2 Of Those 3

Evil, I'm not.
We are all prisoners of our time. 120 years ago, I'd have no car. My carbon footprint would be reduced.
I haven't had a car that didn't average 30mpg since 1980, excepting a 3rd car used a few winter months a year.
One can be enlightened, for one's time, without measuring to the standards of what we've all learned in the passing years.
40 years ago, there were 10 or 20 people on earth who were speculating on climate change. We couldn't take enlightened action toward a phenomenon we didn't know about. As I stated above, I worried about mileage because of concerns over finite supply & the pollution we KNEW about.
Ignorance of what we would learn in future decades is not evil. To suggest otherwise makes for an impossible goal. A goal that can't be achieved is not a goal. It's a fantasy.
Being open minded, but not engaging in ideal behaviors in each moment, is not an evil. It's just life.

[Silent3]

61. The first cyanobacteria have us beat

Poisoned the entire planet with this deadly chemical called "free oxygen". Nasty stuff. It built up in the atmosphere and killed off most of the other life, utterly transforming the chemistry of the oceans and the land. It took a long time and a lot of dying-off for life adapted to the presence of free oxygen to emerge.