"No, Ann Coulter, I Am Not Responsible for the 'Great Replacement' Theory"

[Nevilledog]

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Mike Madrid
@madrid_mike
I’ve been talking to @RonBrownstein for years about a changing America.

This piece is powerful

Documenting demographic change isn’t the same as using it to incite those fearful of it, It’s like the difference between reporting a fire & setting one.

theatlantic.com
No, Ann Coulter, I Am Not Responsible for the ‘Great Replacement’ Theory
Documenting how a diversifying electorate might help Democrats is not the same as inciting fears about “replacement.”
1:47 PM · Jun 2, 2022

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/06/great-replacement-theory-demographic-change-remaking-america/661168/

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https://archive.ph/EoPir

Ann coulter, in so many words, thinks that I am responsible for the mass shooting in Buffalo in mid-May.

Not me alone. After the shooting, Coulter wrote a column dismissing the idea that Republican politicians and commentators had popularized the “Great Replacement” theory, a conspiracy theory that the young, white Buffalo shooter cited as a motivation before killing 10 people at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Instead, Coulter argued that the theory had been popularized by political analysts and Democratic operatives who have predicted that the nation’s changing demographics will benefit Democrats over time.

In particular, Coulter, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and others on the right have cited the work of journalists like me, the Brookings Institution demographer William Frey, and the electoral analysts John Judis and Ruy Teixeira, authors of The Emerging Democratic Majority, claiming that, by writing about demographic change and its electoral impact, we are responsible for seeding the idea that white Americans are being displaced. “If you don’t want people to be paranoid and angry, maybe you don’t write pieces like that and rub it right in their face,” Carlson, who has relentlessly touted replacement theory on his show, declared in a recent monologue.

It might go without saying that documenting demographic change is not the same as using it to incite and politically mobilize those who are fearful of it. It’s something like the difference between reporting a fire and setting one. But given how many right-wing racial provocateurs are trying to disavow the consequences of their “replacement” rhetoric, it apparently bears explaining how their incendiary language differs from the arguments of mainstream demographic and electoral analysts.

Let’s start with defining replacement theory. It’s a racist formulation that has migrated from France to far-right American circles to some officials and candidates in the GOP mainstream. In its purest version, the theory maintains that shadowy, left-wing elites—often identified as Jews—are deliberately working to undermine the political influence of native-born white citizens by promoting immigration and other policies that increase racial diversity. This conspiracy theory was the inspiration, if that’s the right word, for the neo-Nazis who chanted during their 2017 march in Charlottesville, Virginia, that “Jews will not replace us.”

*snip*

[gratuitous]

1. Speaking something calls it into existence in Republican land

See Genesis chapter 1 for an example of the creator calling the known universe into existence through speech alone. It's just that way with Republicans: If you say something, it becomes A Thing. Early on in the former guy's first run for president, one of his smitten followers claimed that he was going to make America great again because it was written on his cap. That was all that was needed! Niggling details like how and what shortcomings were going to be fixed were more annoyance than anything. Why do you hate the hat?

So, by noticing that the population of non-White people in the United States was increasing at a rate greater than that of White people, the journalists and researchers were actually calling a White minority into existence. That's just science for the audience that Ann "In Trump We Trust" Coulter is talking to.

[Caliman73]

2. Conservatives have to lie to have any kind of coherent ideas.

The reason why Democrats have been positing that a changing demographic in the US, and more diversity, would benefit from the changes regarding voting, is that Conservatives are so racist, anti-immigrant, etc... that most people of color and immigrants (of color) would naturally align themselves with the Democratic Party.

As it stands, that is not as sure a thing as some immigrant groups are pretty conservative and may line up with Republicans.


The Great Replacement however, as stated is a racist idea that countries in Europe and the United States are based in "White" culture and that culture is being replaced by being "Browned" out by immigration or by non-White people in the country having higher birth rates. It banks upon the idea that "White" is even a culture or homogenous group of people and uses scary language without saying directly that Black and Brown people are inferior. And, yes it is also at its core, and anti-Semitic idea as the article implies that Jews are often the ones calling for or pulling the strings on this "Browning" of the pure White race.